Star Force: Essence (Star Force Universe Book 51)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “Quenar,” Virokor said, a mix of curiosity and disgust in his voice.

  “Life creates Essence. All life. You have Essence binding your Core to your body. If your Essence becomes depleted you die, but you do not know how to use it so it does not become depleted except in times of extreme stress. Some people die even though others live with identical injuries, and those people die because their Essence was diminished. This is why regenerators cannot revive all those who are recently dead. When the Core leaves, the body becomes a simple machine. And a Core cannot inhabit a body without Essence.”

  “And you are using this Essence to lift the stone?”

  “I am. It is like a Lachka tendril and extending out from me, at some effort, but what Essence I lose I will regenerate with rest. I can do a great many things with it. Things I will not reveal. But let me be clear that Essence is an order of power higher than the V’kit’no’sat have ever achieved. Perhaps higher than the Zak’de’ron. And the Hadarak fear it.”

  Virokor flinched. “I did not believe the Hadarak fear anything. Did the Uriti tell you this?”

  “Yes, and they nearly killed an Archon who used their Essence within proximity of one. We had to use the override to stop the attack. It seems they are hard wired to purge any Essence use. Passive Essence is immaterial. All living beings, including the Hadarak and Uriti have it, but the active use of it, which we call a ‘Rush,’ is like lighting a flare that attracts them into a rage. Ours is so small it got their attention more than enraging them, but we learned not to light even a spark in a system with them.”

  “Very interesting. I thank you for sharing it with me, but what does this have to do with planetary damage?”

  “The Uriti call the Essence use the ‘glowing ones.’ They say they cannot defeat the glowing ones. They are to slow them down, dying in the process, but they insisted they could not win. And we just found an Essence residue in one of those planetary claw marks.”

  That sent a shiver down Virokor’s spine, but at the same time it explained a great deal.

  “Their patrols and their ignoring the V’kit’no’sat are now laid bare. So there truly is an enemy that supersedes them? That is both encouraging and frightening. And only one who can use Essence can see it?”

  “Yes, though it seems the Hadarak have been programmed to sense it. Have you ever encountered anything that might be responsible for this? Something the size of a Hadarak?”

  Virokor huffed as he recalled distant memories. “Nothing that strong, but I remember that there were once other races that roamed the stars. They could not be influenced by Ikrid, and they interfered with transit as well as eating chunks of planets. A few still remained when I was hatched. The V’kit’no’sat were tasked with hunting them down and destroying any that crossed into our spacelanes. I do not think any have been seen since.”

  “Why is that not in the database?”

  “It wasn’t a secret. They were simply vermin that had to be eradicated…or so we thought back then,” he added, now having rethought many such assumptions after joining Star Force. “Their only effective attack was collision, but they were no threat to our warships. Were these claw marks you speak of smooth or ridged?”

  “They are so old it is hard to tell, but I would guess smooth.”

  “The feeding of planets by these beasts made ridges when they chose to skim the surface. That much I remember. They would push, collect, digest, then push again and not always in the same direction.”

  “Nothing else of that size?”

  “Not that I am aware of, and those older than me I would not trust with this knowledge. I am grateful you have entrusted me with it.”

  “I haven’t told you everything,” Paul said grimly. “Essence disappears when a Core does. It cannot linger for long without the Core and seems to be sucked down the same ‘hole’ the Core goes through afterwards, metaphorically speaking. The Essence we found may be over a million years old, which is impossible based on what we knew of Essence. There was also a repository of it, beyond our understanding, and when one picks up traces of Essence from someone who has recently died, sometimes memories come with it. There were memories in this ancient Essence, and they involved a harvest of the planet. The rock, water, and people all scooped up and devoured with a giant tool of some sort. And the Essence of the people drained from them in a way we do not understand.”

  “A Hadarak-sized creature that feeds on Essence?” Virokor asked. “And this Essence allows you to do combat oriented things?”

  “Very much so.”

  “Things that could kill a Hadarak?”

  “It’s hard to say for a being of that size, but I would guess yes, and I would even go as far to say that they might have abilities that we haven’t even discovered yet. If the Uriti fear them so, I would expect them to be able to slaughter the Hadarak…and if they can harvest their Essence, we’re looking at a nightmare situation. Are you familiar with Materia weaponry?”

  “You used one during the Dkan mission that I led. It pulled their ships together into a ball with no gravity or grapple fields detected.”

  “Materia weapons are charged with Essence that Archons slowly fill them with. It takes a long time, but for a few select uses it gives us a huge advantage. Now imagine a Hadarak that can do the same with its own Essence, or by sucking up the Essence of others to use as fuel for its weaponry.”

  Virokor stared at the rock Paul was continuing to levitate as his mind began to imagine the horrors of a type of warfare that could not be seen or defended against. At least the V’kit’no’sat knew how to kill Hadarak, as difficult as it was, but to fight an enemy with invisible weapons…

  “Can it bypass all shields and armor?”

  “Only Essence-laced technology can prevent it.”

  “A Hadarak with a new type of psionics…and the Hadarak are meant to fight them, knowing they’ll lose, but delaying them from what? What are the Hadarak protecting?”

  “My more immediate question is where are these things? I know the galaxy is vast, but if they’re scooping chunks out of planets that’s not going to go unnoticed. If our guess is correct, and it may be way off, there was one roaming the Chexva Kingdom around a million years ago. Did you hear nothing of this at the time?”

  “We did not explore beyond our borders, but if the planets you mentioned were attacked in such a manner, then they are either far older or we should have noticed something of that size within our dominion. Would examining the site be of use to you?”

  “The Essence we found was luck. The container is almost invisible to us, and the other bits of Essence are at the bottom of a mostly uninhabited ocean. If a living being brushes near them, their Core will attract the Essence and it will meld with them. So on inhabited worlds the traces would have been absorbed by the denizens long ago.”

  “Can we feel this happen?”

  Paul dropped the stone to the ground, then looked at Virokor silently for a few seconds. “Well?”

  “I feel nothing.”

  “Then no, you can’t. I just threw some of my Essence on you. You’re absorbing it,” Paul said, telepathically transmitting his sense of it so the Hjar’at could see through his ‘eyes’ what was happening. “It still has my pattern to it, and it’s altering yours with the contact, but since my Core is no longer connected to it yours will win out eventually and it will become assimilated.”

  “You can give other Archons a power boost in this way?”

  “Yes, when needed. We can also use it to heal in a way the regenerator cannot…and then some,” Paul said, kneeling down in the grass and grabbing a clump of it, but not pulling it out of the ground. Virokor watched closely with his own eyes and Pefbar now that Paul cut the telepathic feed, and almost magically the grass grew taller and thicker at a rate only a regenerator could have managed.

  It was three times as tall by the time Paul finished, then he released it to sway gently in the wind above all the rest.

  “How did you add mas
s?”

  “I didn’t. It was pulled from the air and ground. My Essence allowed me to accelerate the growth, and in a similar way I can help others heal injuries lightning fast, so long as necessary mass is available.”

  “Did you also use Haemra?”

  “No, this was all Essence, and I don’t have much direction with it. I just deliver the Essence and it does the work on its own.”

  “Residual damage?”

  “It leaves you stronger than before, unlike a regenerator.”

  “Amazing. And in theory this super Hadarak could do the same?”

  “Honestly I hadn’t considered that.”

  “Could this be a seeder of planets?”

  “If there’s a way to attract a Core into a new body, I don’t know what it is, but we’re in over our heads here so I’m not ruling anything out. But something that harvests planets doesn’t strike me as the builder type.”

  “All possibilities need to be explored, but your initial worry concerns me as well. Where are these beasts? Or are we talking of a single one?”

  “The Uriti referred to them as plural, but it also seemed to include anyone who learns to use Essence. I think it could be standing orders to destroy anything that delves into that combat realm, because they probably have no defense against it. Well, no effective defense. If they can see them and slow them down, I doubt they’re totally helpless.”

  “Does Essence allow you to survive without food for extended periods of time?”

  “It will allow you to cling to a body that should be dead for longer, but it doesn’t cheat physics as far as the body is concerned. You still need fuel.”

  “So what is this super Hadarak eating in present times?”

  “I don’t know. We’ve just tripped into a massive mystery and I’m trying to piece together as much as I can. I’m still young compared to you, so I wanted to see if I could glean anything from your experience and wisdom. These spacefaring beasts are one such thing.”

  “Have you not encountered any others in the Rim?”

  “No, we haven’t. And my gut says they’re local to the Core.”

  “Perhaps. Or perhaps the Vexifad enslaved them into their biological warships?”

  Paul frowned darkly. “If that’s the case we’re going to have another war to fight.”

  “I cite it as a possibility, because my sense was these beasts were quite numerous in ancient times, and their lack in the Rim is disturbing. Could this super Hadarak be feeding on them?”

  “Ugh,” Paul groaned. “I guess it could be. We’ve got so little data that it’s just guesswork at this point. We don’t even know what it looks like, just that it’s big.”

  “Your memories didn’t see it?”

  “No, just the tsunami of rock and water when the surface was gouged out.”

  “Have you discussed this with the Zak’de’ron?”

  “No and I don’t plan to. We haven’t had reason to talk to them in a long time and they don’t seem to want to have anything to do with us.”

  “But you could if you wanted?”

  “I know how to get a message to them through their servant races, and if they intended to play nice they’d have established diplomatic contact by now. I think they’re just waiting to find an opportunity to do something clever. I don’t think they’ll hit us with a brute force attack until they have an advantage.”

  “I agree. Do not underestimate their patience.”

  “I’m not. But if we’re got some super Hadarak out there lurking to strike, I’m not sure if the Uriti can defeat it.”

  “Can you not craft large materia weapons?”

  “We have to fill them from our own bodies, and we’re a lot smaller than you. But even if Hjar’at had Essence skills, filling a weapon to take down a small planet would take forever.”

  “But it’s not impossible?”

  “Not impossible, just very hard and time consuming to do. Especially if we don’t know for sure if the target can block it.”

  “Essence allows defense as well?”

  “Somewhat. It may be that we’re not advanced enough yet to fully understand our capabilities.”

  “Is it possible to teach other races this ability?”

  “Not all Archons can do it, and not because we hold it back from them. Making the first transition to gaining the ability to even feel it in the smallest amount is a significant barrier. Once you can see it you have something to work with, even if it’s tiny. To everyone else it appears not to exist. We have to go through some crazy training to just get to that point, and a lot fail for reasons we don’t understand.”

  “When you learn more, do you plan to keep it to Archons or expand to the Knight races?”

  “We’re keeping this one close for now, but there are a handful of individuals that are not Human that we’ve managed to get over the hump. Not enough to do the amount of materia charging that you’re inferring.”

  “Do you have any idea how to fight this super Hadarak?”

  “Hard to say. I have Essence skills and a body. You can still kill my body the usual ways. Why this is so dangerous to the Hadarak may be that it can affect them in a way that bypasses their armor. Long range Lachka effect maybe, but the memories suggested physical claws ripping into the planet and not an Essence effect.”

  “If they are harvesting Essence, they would not want to waste it in the process.”

  “Point.”

  “And if it is as rare as you suggest, I would expect they would hoard Essence…and in that may be the key to the Hadarak. They are so large that it would take a huge expenditure to kill. The super Hadarak would deplenish its stores as more Hadarak arrive to oppose it, even if it could siphon Essence off the dead ones. Am I right in assuming passive Essence is less than Rush Essence?”

  “It works like your spit, if that helps.”

  Virokor worked his mouth around a bit, then sent a wad of saliva out into the grass, after which his glands started to replace what his mouth lost. “So it would take more Essence to kill a Hadarak than it would gain harvesting the corpse, assuming it took Essence to make the kill.”

  “We’re branching out heavily into a weak theory, but I can’t argue that analysis.”

  “Can Essence work as a cloaking device?”

  Paul cringed. “I don’t know. We’ve been able to disrupt light, but hiding entirely…I just don’t know.”

  “Gravity silhouette cannot be hidden,” Virokor declared. “We need to set up a detection net outside inhabited systems and find this beast before it finds us.”

  “That will not be a quick process, and if it can hibernate then we’re not going to find it.”

  “We must begin to prepare regardless. If the Hadarak fear it, then it may be able to defeat the Uriti as well. We must maintain dominance, or all you have built could crumble.”

  “Are you volunteering to help?”

  “I would be honored if you allowed me to explore this threat and potential countermeasures.”

  Paul smiled. “I thought you might. I don’t think there will be anything to find on Berto’dor and Scarret, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t look.”

  “Only those two?”

  “Yes, and they’re both Hjar’at. Is there a reason for that?”

  “We took the most badly damaged worlds with potential and made them our own as an act of vengeance against the attackers. I will arrange for as in depth a search as you require.”

  “Without telling them why we’re there?”

  “They will not refuse me. They dare not.”

  “Good. How soon can you leave?”

  5

  March 17, 128440

  Megatron 429 System (Mekora Kingdom)

  Inner Zone

  Kara-317 sat attached to a bulkhead with her armored legs hanging off the metallic/stone beam as a swarm of Ghostblade techs worked to add more pieces to the warehouse station they were constructing. She wasn’t helping, just sitting and starring into the dark void o
f the black hole they were orbiting as she pondered the significance of what Paul had found. Beside her, off in the distance, there were glowing lines reaching down into the blackness and pulling material up and into the nearby Ghostblade Star Forges, and above them in higher orbits was the mass of traffic passing through the system.

  This low of orbit was banned from traffic, for they were sitting well within the murky zone where sensor signals had to fight the intense gravity to make their way out and back to the ships sending them. Those that did make it got bent and distorted, making positioning hard to fathom and even the light here was messed up. The stars were out of place and skewed into new positions as the black hole bent their visible trajectories. Even the glowing straws were bent, though in reality the shield columns were perfectly straight.

  The construction site was encased in an IDF field so the workers and Kara didn’t have to fight the gravity, but the engines on the warehouse superstructure constantly did, for they were not in orbit. Had they been, they would have been lapping the black hole rapidly in order to keep from getting sucked in, but thanks to anti-grav technology the strength of the black hole made their engines exponentially stronger and sitting in this position was rather easy from a technological standpoint…unless you had a breakdown or ran out of fuel, then you were all going to die quite fast.

  Kara wouldn’t, for her armor allowed her to fly using her own anti-grav and so did those of the workers in suits out assisting the small assembly drones being flown by nearby remote pilots. The warehouse/ship was being constructed to store more of the valuable materials that Ghostblade was getting out of the black hole, some of which the galaxy did not even know existed. There was some truly rare stuff down there that Star Force had come across accidentally and now they were sifting for it on purpose. Ghostblade more than anyone else, for they were well suited to roaming the black holes within Star Force’s domain and harvesting what they could from them, as well as hitting various planets not yet inhabited across the galaxy.