The Powers That Be by Aer-ki Jyr (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📗

their deceleration point, not prolong it. Can we build a Spaceball and inverted slip’n’slide to create a predictable capture zone?”

“With dampeners?” Tennisonne said. “Possible.”

“Then we don’t need to worry about low stellar orbit,” Davis noted. “Just high orbit on the jumpline.”

“And catch other traffic at the same time,” Daegan added. “That’s feasible since they’re not being destroyed. It would act like a gate to the system that all would have to pass through if they were using that particular jumpline.”

“Kirritimin?” Davis asked.

“What do you do with the captured Hadarak?”

“Tow it elsewhere and let it sit,” Esna said.

“And if two come in succession?”

“We build a really big and nifty capture system,” she said, undaunted.

“The power required to operate it…” Tennisonne said, cutting himself off as an idea came to him. “I wouldn’t want to try it on reactors or Essence enhancement. We’d need a siphon line out from the star itself to power it.”

“If we can eliminate certain routes the Hadarak prefer,” Grand Admiral Lucin pointed out, “we can corral them into certain areas where our Avengers will take less time to get to them.”

“And we can start controlling the galactic map a bit,” Davis said with a nod. “I’ll take it. It’s not a solution, but it’s another piece of the puzzle.”

“And if a Lurker is caught?” the Viceroy added.

“We’d need Essence technology incorporated,” Tennisonne said, souring on the idea.

“No you don’t,” Bren said. “You just need it killed quickly.”

“They can kill anything in a matter of seconds if they’re close enough,” Esna told him, “and it doesn’t have to be melee range.”

“Use a null field to blind it to the targets while IDF pins it in place while you kill it. Enough Ysalamir spaced around the perimeter can do it without Essence, correct?”

“We’ve never even simulated that because we could never get one close enough,” Tennisonne said, leaning back on the wall as he thought. “They’re too damn dangerous for anything other than a Borg vessel with Essence weaponry to take on. And what’s worse, even if we could trap one, another could take out the ‘gate’ coming in on another jumpline and attacking from the rear.”

“Label it a bad idea and see what modifications can be made,” Davis declared. “We haven’t considered this quite this way before, so at this point anything new is good, no matter how flawed. Now, what else do you have for me?”

“Flying space monkeys?” Esna suggested.

“Meaning what?”

“I don’t know. Sounded like something an Archon would say. I got nothing at the moment.”

“Now you know how I feel,” Davis said in agreement. “I need every new idea you guys can come up with, flying space monkeys included. So keep it coming…”

6

November 24, 128885

Happhetima Nebula (Zavrex Kingdom)

Gamma Tricumbda Temple

Kara had been in the same Temple for the past 31 years, but so much had happened in those years that it felt like half her lifetime.

Kara was now beyond Neo 5002, which was the highest level in the Archon ranks currently mapped out. Greg was still tops, currently at Neo 4987, and new levels were having to be designed based on how he developed, which meant they couldn’t plan out very far ahead…but Kara’s siphon ability completely cheated the power ranking system, so Wilson had been working on crafting a new Archon division based off her training while letting her freestyle with Strovok and learn as much from him as she could.

Kara’s hair was now long and double braided…blue. It had been Morgan’s suggestion, for the way she could generate Essence at will from her siphon completely changed what it meant to be a Neo, where you had to build up your personal reservoir slowly over time, and when you exhausted it you had to go on ‘rest’ period until it rebuilt before you could use your Essence abilities again.

But Kara did not have to rest…ever. The size of the siphon was not unlimited, but its duration was. She could keep pulling Essence as long as her body could handle it, and keep firing off with what was essentially ‘unlimited ammo’ in the video game sense. And now that she could turn it on and off at will, Kara was immensely enjoying the life hack and gaining so much experience from non-stop training that she was quickly passing up Vargemma who had spent many hundred millennia slowly building up their power levels to where she was now.

Morgan had said she could literally shoot everything in sight and cause unlimited havoc…so why not use ‘Jinx’ as a metaphor?

Kurt-074 had objected to that, for his Clan was named Jinx after the League of Legends character, but the other trailblazers had sided with Morgan, citing it was too good a fit and even relieving Kara of her Clan Ghostblade duties so she could focus everything on developing her new skill. They’d said it was because they needed her to cause as much ‘havoc’ as possible when the time came, and rather than be annoyed at how far she was ahead of them and them not being able to keep up, they told her to run with it as her one and only priority.

Which was exactly what she needed to hear from them.

Kara was back to being just one person now, not a fleet leader, not a civilization builder, not an explorer or the bazillion other things Archons had to be skilled at. Her job was now simple.

Blow stuff up…then blow some more stuff up, and learn to like it.

And to top it all off, the character of Jinx had the body of a 12 year old too, so it seemed to fit too well to ignore, and Kara had instead embraced the role…minus the rocket launcher.

Because she didn’t need one.

“Defend!” Strovok ordered as he jumped up into the