by Aer-ki Jyr
“Which one?” Wilson demanded.
The Mastertech turned away from the data for a moment with slightly wide eyes, as if he still couldn’t believe what he was saying. “The dragons.”
“I thought we removed the genetic trigger and the imbedded transitional code,” Davis asked angrily from his office as Wilson and Gerald were sitting across his clear desk giving him the latest news on Jason and Vitor…and their concerns.
“We did,” Gerald said firmly. “This is not coming from a buried trigger of any kind. Zak’de’ron medical science isn’t that far ahead of us now, and I’d be able to detect it if it was still there. It’s not something they did, but his genome is rewriting itself along similar lines.”
“He’s not turning into one of them,” Wilson added. “I think it’s an upgrade along a similar path.”
Davis scoffed. “They always claimed they were superior. Are you saying that genetically they were correct?”
“Are Zen’zat superior to Ter’nat?” Wilson replied pithily. “It’s more about the pilot inside the body, but the body does matter. Adaptation of it always implied a pathway to improvement, and in retrospect it makes sense that there would be another mechanism of advancement when physical adaptation reached the limits the genome could allow.”
“I thought the Zak’de’ron only recently discovered Essence?” Davis demanded. “Is that another lie?”
“I have no way of knowing that,” Gerald apologized.
“No,” Wilson said firmly. “I don’t think they were playing dumb. It may be that the Life Springs create races on a wide range of levels. If Ter’nat were a level 3, and they got upgraded by the Zak’de’ron into a level 4, the Zak’de’ron may have been spawned a level 6 and upgraded themselves into a level 7 or 8 the same way we created the Saiyan upgrade.”
“A head start?”
“It’s beginning to look that way.”
Davis sighed. “Assuming this all works out, are we looking at the birth of a new race?”
“Yes,” Gerald said reluctantly, “I think so. Jason and Vitor are already beyond what our technology recognizes as Human. I don’t know how far it will go, but while visually they look like us, at a cellular level they’re changing. Superhuman might be a better description.”
“Can they breed other Superhumans?” Davis asked ominously.
Wilson blew out a long breath. “Damn, I hadn’t even thought about that.”
“Gerald?”
“In theory, but without seeing the final product I don’t know. Their reproductive systems are still deactivated. That hasn’t changed yet. I checked that and every other alteration we’ve made to them. Their Saiyan upgrades aren’t being erased, they’re being incorporated into the new genome, and while I don’t know how, Jason and Vitor’s metabolism has gone very low with the normal high spikes. That’s the only way they could be asleep for as long as they are. Somehow the lower limit that we created is gone. They have the option to slow down and rest, though at the moment it seems to be forced upon them. We wanted to give them that option, but we didn’t know how. That alone is a huge upgrade, from a cellular perspective. I’m not sure how it will affect their training,” he said, glancing at Wilson.
“They’ll be able to advance again. Beyond that I’ll figure it out, but I don’t think this is a new phenomenon. There are stories, legends, myths, from a handful of other races about an individual that goes out into the forest, desert, deep space, etc and comes back changed. Not visibly, but their power level is significantly greater. Some have new abilities, and their history after that usually ends up badly. Some are killed by their people, others become tyrants, one even killed himself because she was too unlike the others. Some were said to be sterile, while others reproduced offspring that had some of their power, creating splinter races greater than the ones they came from.”
“Did any of those races possess Essence knowledge?” Davis asked.
“Not a one of them, as far as I can tell.”
“You looked into this previously?”
“I have looked everywhere I can regarding physical and mental development, including legends and lore. I didn’t put it together until now, but there seems to be a common thread.”
“So, maybe this can happen even if you don’t have Essence powers?”
“Jason didn’t consciously trigger it, and it’s not an Essence Rush. But the bigger point is, if you do have Essence powers, can you manually trigger it?”
“The Neofan?” Gerald asked.
Davis glanced at him. “Do you know something?”
“The samples we’ve been able to collect from them have indicated different strains of genetic code, almost as if there were different versions of their race, and we’ve only encountered one of their Houses. If they exclusively reproduce with their own House…”
“They do,” Davis confirmed.
“Then why would there be such wildly different strains of genetics within their House? I’m not talking mild stuff, but different cellular structures.”
“Holy shit,” Wilson said, putting his head in his hands.
“Ditto,” Davis agreed. “And I think we may have solved the riddle of the Spice Lords as well.”
It took a moment for Wilson to process, then it clicked. “How could they produce other forms if their natural state is one that can’t survive the void or produce technology? You think they can use Essence to do ‘Force Adapt?’”
“I’d bet you a planet it’s somewhat related to that concept.”
“I have no knowledge of anything related to this,” the Mastertech said.
“Why would you?” Wilson scoffed. “Those races that have it aren’t likely to want to share, and those like the Hadarak seem to be more hive mind or instinct driven then others. I’m still not sure what to classify them as, or the Uriti. Their intelligence level is so low for such large minds, yet they have another type of intelligence that I can’t identify. Even the Wranglers have a hard time explaining it, other than saying they’re ‘bigger’ than us. And if this Essence upgrade runs itself, then the intelligence of the individual is irrelevant.”
“You’re suggesting the Neofan and others are triggering unknown upgrades and, perhaps, generating biological knowledge by using their Essence to give them a gift, then analyzing it?” Gerald postulated.
“Which means they don’t really earn it,” Wilson said with a cringe. “I think there would have to be some prerequisites, otherwise they’d just hit the ‘evolve’ button over and over until they exhausted it. But you may be right. Their attitude is one of inheritance rather than merit.”
“Is this Life Spring related?” Davis asked.
“There’s no Essence rush, but then again there’s no molecular creation either, so it’s possible,” Gerald offered. “Anything going into Essence is ambiguous for me since I can’t analyze it or use it.”
“If there’s an order to how the Life Springs create different level races,” Wilson suggested, “then this very well may be a smaller utilization of it manifesting.”
“Manifesting is the best word I’ve heard used thus far,” Davis said as he got a message pinging urgent. He mentally swiped it open and read it in the blink of an eye, then put it up on hologram for the others to see.
“Morgan’s down too, and not from contact. Is this going to happen to all of them over the coming weeks?”
“If no Essence use is the relief value allowing it, then I’d say yes,” Wilson said frowning as he read the details visually. “Same course. I’d guess she was trying to replicate what Jason was doing and succeeded.”
“Why would she do that?” Gerald asked, drawing mildly hilarious looks from the other two men.
“Archons value upgrades more than anything,” Wilson said vaguely. “Beyond that it’s hard to explain, but let’s just say it’s their typical nature to dive into the unknown head first when they see a benefit.”
“I would have thought they’d be wise enough to wait until Jason and V
itor’s fate was determined. We’re only guessing this will have a beneficial outcome. It’s possible they could die if the changes don’t occur correctly, or many other possibilities that I can’t even name because I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Archons are only patient by choice, not by nature,” Davis explained. “It’s one of the attributes in the psychological makeup we look for in recruitment. Curiosity isn’t something that can be taught, though it can be drawn out and trained if already there. In order to do what they need to do, they have to push themselves rather than wait for others to instruct them to act. This borders on recklessness without becoming stupidity…usually. You never know for sure, so there’s always a risk, and risk is our business more than anyone’s.”
“Well said,” Wilson agreed, knowing Davis was speaking as both observer and observee now that he had belatedly become an Archon.
“Do I need to get an entire wing set up?” Gerald asked.
“Yes,” Wilson said, “except…” he said, glancing dangerously at Davis.
He saw it too. “Tell Kara to start using Essence again, now, and keep her away from the others. All of them, until this is over. Go.”
Wilson jumped out of his chair and ran from the office, not knowing what would happen if she also started to transform...and her Vorch’nas’ fought it.
10
September 23, 154930
Solar System (Home One Kingdom)
Earth
Jason rolled out of bed after another 12 hour nap, then groggily walked over to his quarter’s interface terminal as he brought up the recent biomonitor data to see what he’d gained. Turned out there wasn’t much change this time, but a continuing of previous changes as they morphed a bit more. The medtechs said it was not uploading a new genetic code into him, but rather crafting one to his personal status.
That meant all of the trailblazers would end up with a different genetic code, and so far they’d already seen a few considerable differences. All 99 of them here were now going through the process, some ahead of others, with Devan-000 ironically being the last to naturally catch ‘the bug’ that had them all blacking out.
Thankfully Jason was past that point, and as long as he didn’t try to overtax himself he could actually find his way to his quarters and his bed once he began to feel the deep fatigue creeping in on him. Sleeping this much was unnatural, and his Saiyan genetics had gone through several alterations early to allow it. It looked like they’d been tweaked again this time, though how he couldn’t be sure. His body couldn’t be tested like he wanted without doing heavy training, and that was the biggest thing after Essence use that Wilson had told them to avoid.
It was time to rest, he’d told them, and the more they did the more they changed, with several new powers popping up in others, though Jason had yet to have one of his own. His body was reworking itself into a more powerful form, that was obvious, but Roger-009 had already grown two inches and increased his inner skull volume by a whopping 38%...along with a new piece of his brain that contained neurons so dense they didn’t look like they belonged there.
The rest of his brain…and Jason’s…was upgrading and getting more complex, but for some reason Roger had grown this new addition, and it was suspected the body size increase had been to accommodate it. His head was also shaped slightly different now, a touch wider and a little peaked on top like a stunted Mohawk, but not outside the range of skull shapes the Human population currently had.
Nobody had grown a tail…yet…but Morgan’s Jumat tissue had spread even further throughout her body, though it had actually shrunk in size. Apparently version two didn’t require as much mass, but she could control it like Lachka within a certain radius of her body without transforming it into the ‘hard’ version and throwing it at opponents.
The combat applications of that were going to be vast, yet she wasn’t able to do much right now than get a little practice in before her body became so fatigued she’d pass out. She kept pressing it to that level, Jason had heard, rather than going easy and taking preemptive naps, and so had a few of the others, but most of them were taking a sleepfest of a vacation right now, Jason included.
Riley-038 was as well, but one day he woke up to find his skin completely albino…after which he realized he had conscious control to change the color of it. Not fast. He had to concentrate and it would take a few hours to process, but he had a wide change of color options beside the normal Human melanin pigment densities. He’d told Jason through the message board that they were communicating through since they weren’t awake long enough, or at the same times, to meet face to face, that he was trying to see if he could do patterns on different parts of his body, but he hadn’t had any success yet. He was hoping that if he tried for it now, the continual updates might add it, and many of the trailblazers were speculating that what they did between the blackouts might affect the new coding.
The bulk of it was suspected to be caused by past actions queued up over the years, but no one knew for sure what was going on and Jason didn’t know whether or not Riley and the others were correct, but he didn’t feel like pushing for anything new. What he wanted was to stabilize enough that the long sleep periods were possible afterward. His Saiyan metabolism had shown considerably lower range than had been possible before, but it wasn’t down to Human level. He was hoping it would stretch lower, and in a way him taking things easy might have been a subconscious effort to train himself to slow down more, but in truth it was just a gut feeling on his part. He needed a break, not logically or biologically, but deep down inside he recognized that this was a long time in coming and he didn’t want to delay it any further.
Jason leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling as tears burst forth. That wasn’t unusual for the past few weeks. His emotional combat blocks were all deactivated now, and it seemed some of the stuff he’d numbed his way through previously in life was being analyzed by his subconscious belatedly and he was feeling the emotional toll from it.
He just let the tears flow rather than trying to stifle them. Opening up was what he needed more of, not closing down and delaying. His instincts were blaring that much at him, and several of the others had posted similar things. Thankfully they were in the safety of Atlantis, buried in the ocean on the capitol planet in the capitol system of the Star Force empire, and arguably the safest place they could be to deal with this metamorphosis…but Paul wasn’t here, and they hadn’t had a single update from him or Cal-com since these changes began.
A pain in his back jerked him out of his lethargy, causing him to stand up and reach behind him to rub a spot around his left shoulder blade as a pinging on his monitor followed.
“What, am I going to sprout wings?” he said sarcastically as he looked at two points on his back that had spontaneously started altering their physical components. He was able to zoom in on the realtime hologram of his body…which was a little weird…and saw that two different nodules of his bioshield psionic Nakane were growing rapidly.
Which probably explained why he was suddenly so damn hungry.
Jason used his terminal to call for some food to be brought to him, and it wasn’t the first time he hadn’t the strength or courage to walk over to the nearest cafeteria. He’d puked twice during these transitions, and had been in the bathroom with the runs more times than he could remember. His body was processing a lot of material in and out, but none of it seemed too extreme. He’d figured out the puking was because he was eating the wrong mixture of foods, and it was his body’s way of telling him not to overload on protein. What he needed was a lot of trace minerals such as cobalt, gold, platinum, corovon, and others that were being added to his cells here and there, some in ways the medtechs were still scratching their heads over what they were for after crafting a ‘finder’ pill containing tiny amounts of all the elements and basic molecules they had on file, then they would track which ones would be absorbed or rejected.
Since that time and his food was altered to m
atch, the transformation had gotten a lot smoother, but there were still spikes of pain like this one that jumped on him without warning, and right now he wanted to play hermit more than anything, and hadn’t even bothered to take a short run in 3 days.
The fact that that wasn’t bothering him was scary in and of itself, but part of him was relishing the doing nothing…which meant that internally a lot was happening, otherwise it would have registered as stagnation and caused him to itch for something to do.
Jason sat back down and just stared at the walls for a while, feeling that the best thing possible was to just become a paperweight and ride this out. A tray of foodstuffs was left outside his door a few minutes later, and he got up out of his chair and walked over to retrieve it, seeing the delivery drone hovering off down the hallway as it left.
He bent over to pick it up, not having used his telekinesis in weeks, and when he did his other shoulder blade sent a spike of pain up his neck to discourage him from bending over further. He cheated and used his Lachka to lift the tray the last few inches into his hands, then retreated inside his room as he began to stuff himself with as much food as his stomach would take…and by that time he was already getting drowsy again, so he took a quick shower, browsed the message board, then laid back down in bed and let his body get back to its hyper processing as both shoulders continued to ache with pain and heat as the cells grew and mutated faster than they were built to.
Wilson was working long nights and sleeping very little as he tried to give the trailblazers whatever guidance and answers he could, but most of what was happening to them was brand new, so he was pushing himself and the medtechs hard, with many more being recruited from the rest of the system and even off planet, and told to get their asses here as fast as possible to help with the mass of analysis that was needed.