Maty by Aer-ki Jyr (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“Or maybe your attack was just so paltry it didn’t matter.”

“Alright then,” Paul said, getting back into another combat stance. “I’ll just beat it out of you.”

“Do try,” Morgan said, going on the offensive with a Jumat blast straight off from her cupped hands Goku style, then when Paul braced against it she darted forward, faking a chest high punch, then dipped down and kicked into Paul’s right leg.

The impact hit, but didn’t do as much damage as she was used to given his larger body. Still it knocked his balance out from him and he had to roll to the right, otherwise her foot would have dragged his leg further away from where it was meant to be. Morgan expected that and launched herself upwards into his abdomen, wrapping her arms around his waist and pushing him over in a cartwheel as she flung/flew her body around his making half a circle, then when she got her feet back on the ground she lifted him and continued the twirl twice more before finally releasing him at an angle into the air.

He didn’t go far, for suddenly both were caught in an Ubven field that stopped his momentum flat, then he dropped it before Morgan could use her own to cut through it and punched her in the face with his left hand as she dodged an attack from his right, knocking her back a step.

“There,” she said, standing and not counterattacking. “How the hell did you move like that?”

“Currents,” he said, launching at her again and this time using a Lachka grasp on her ankles to yank her feet out of her before she countered with her Yen’mer and flew up and away from him while washing her feet with Rentar to break his invisible grasp. As she did she used her Si’mosa and hurled a pair of fist sized solid Jumat ‘stones’ towards him, with one hitting him in the nose so hard it broke it.

“Ow,” Paul said, breaking off his attack and cupping his two nostrils with his fingers as at least one of them started to bleed.

“Sorry. Reflex,” she said honestly. “You’re too good to hold back on.”

Paul concentrated for a moment and she heard a light ‘click’ as his nose snapped back into place, then a few seconds later he let go of his momentary healing surge and sniffed to ensure the blood flow had been stopped as well.

“How did you reflect the Jumat?”

“A little Essence alteration I developed a while ago,” she admitted.

“And you didn’t feel like sharing?”

“No,” she admitted. “Not until I got better at it.”

“Seems to work fine now.”

“What did you mean by currents?”

“The Saiolum isn’t still. It’s like an atmosphere with currents and eddies everywhere. If I catch one at the right direction, my movement speed can be enhanced by it. If I catch an opposite one, my movement speed is diminished.”

“It’s never constant?”

“Afraid not. Kind of like rolling dice. You never know what you’re going to end up with until you try, though I am getting better at reading it right before I try to do something.”

“But you still can’t move other things with it?”

“Not unless I connect them to myself, and I don’t know how to do that yet.”

“Yoda holding you back?”

“I don’t have the prerequisites yet,” he said as the distant doorway to their sparring chamber opened and Jason walked in unannounced.

“Who invited you?” Morgan asked.

“Got something for Azoro,” he said, palming a holocube which he activated only once he got to the center of the ring where his slightly taller co-captain and the mini-me version of Morgan stood. Paul extended a battlemeld to both of them, and soon Morgan could sense Paul’s mind and his connection to Azoro, who was in fact here and monitoring, and when he spoke to Paul’s mind he could speak to them as well through the link.

“Do you recognize this?” Jason said, producing a hologram of a symbol he had never seen before.

I do not, Azoro said in Paul’s mind.

“What about this?” Jason asked, switching to a diagram of the Maty.

It is unfamiliar.

“What about the name Gahana?”

A legend we heard in passing when we occupied this galaxy. Gods of all knowledge, I believe they were called by several races. I remember because we were mistaken for them upon arrival.

“You were there at the onset?” Paul asked.

I said ‘we’. I was not part of this galaxy’s colonial team, but I saw reports from it. I remember the name because of the comparison.

“Well, we have more than a name now. The Hadarak found this structure buried on one of their planets and have been using its high tech cloaking surveillance drones to monitor a portion of the Grand Border and organize their attacks more effectively. Nothing has gotten through, but the PanNari detected the mathematical anomaly and tracked it back to its source.”

“Then sent that huge armada after it,” Paul said, connecting the two. “Why is it so valuable to them?”

“Mak’to’ran went after them to find out. We just got word back from him that he’s made a pact with the PanNari for a knowledge share of the facility he has granted them possession of if we can mutually hold it. The Hadarak have been holding back on the Grand Border and playing us for fools. They’re going all in for this complex, which is called ‘Maty.’ Mak’to’ran says he has never seen this level of combat, and estimates their combined forces can hold out no longer than two years. He is requesting a massive reinforcement to hold the location.”

What is it? Azoro asked before Paul could.

“A machine race built it as sort of an embassy to the galaxy long ago, then some cataclysm made this galaxy uninhabitable