Go deactivated the suit while half a meter above the floor. A hard drop sent him off balance, crashing into a chair and falling over it.
Garrett laughed. "Now that was an elegant entrance!"
Go got to his feet. "Hey, I'm learning. You have to crawl before you can walk."
"What does it feel like?"
Go replied, "It's not a comfortable suit at all. I'm wondering if we need to have the Talisan scientists create a batch of that bio-gel for us. It looked like the ingredients were fairly common. As far as feeling goes, it's just like being weightless, only your eyes are playing tricks on you. Anything you try to touch or grab, your hand goes right through. It's very strange, but at the same time really cool."
I gestured toward the far wall. "How was the energy use going through there? What level is the power cell at?"
Go checked. "It didn't move. Hold on. Just one more screen ... it says the current level should last for about three weeks if left on with normal non-combat use."
Garrett nodded. "That should give us more than enough time for him to practice."
I nodded. "I think we give him three days and then reevaluate. If he has at least a modest mastery of it, we leave for the portal gate. If not, we give it another three days. In the meantime, take that list of ingredients for the bio-gel over to the Talisans and see if they can produce it. I'll work with Go to keep him focused. We'll keep a comm channel open in case you want to watch or listen."
Garrett stood with a sarcastic grin. "So you get to stay here with all the fun while I go run errands?"
I looked in his direction. "I'm sorry, Garrett, but that's what sidekicks do."
Go laughed just before he disappeared, continuing to laugh over the comm afterward.
Garrett shook his head as he walked toward the door to the room. "OK, I'll have to give you credit for that one. Good slam. I'll be back as soon as I know something on the bio-gel."
As Garrett left, I pulled up Go's video feed on my holo-display. "Drifting through these walls is so cool. You can see every bit of construction material, the metal studs in the wall and the wall panels. It's the same with going up through the ceiling and down through the floor. You know what, it would be incredibly cool if I could look inside an ion generator or a gravity engine while it was in operation."
Go went silent for several seconds as his video view came back through the wall. He deactivated the suit, stepping down lightly onto the floor. "You know what this suit will allow us to do? This scares me to just think about it. With this suit, I could drift inside the rooms that power and run the portals. I could see ... we could see what was in there for the very first time!"
I nodded as I pointed back at the wall. "All in due time. Right now we need to stay focused on you being able to make full use of that suit. We can't afford to spend time speculating. We will have weeks to do that while on our way to the gate."
Every few minutes Go would return to the room I occupied. His landings on deactivation slowly turned from awkward drops to smooth transitions. I tired of watching the video feed as he moved through the material world, and instead returned to browsing through the helmet's tutorial screens. After a period of several minutes away from the room, the building shook with a tremendous thunder.
I yelled out. "What was that? What happened?"
Go apologized. "Sorry, that would be my fault. Come out into the hallway and turn right."
Garrett came over the comm. "What happened? Is everything OK? I'm looking out a window at a huge dust cloud coming up from your location!"
I replied, "I'm about to find out."
As I stepped into the hall, Go stood looking out into the cloud of dust through a massive opening in the side of our building.
I stood with my jaw open. "What happened?"
Go again apologized. "Sorry. I decided to mess around with the other glove. I fired off one of the tungsten rounds before I realized what I was doing. The force took out a good section of this end of the building, and the debris from that ... collapsed the building next door."
The dust billowed down the hall as the wind outside shifted in our direction. I retreated to the room I had previously occupied and closed the door. Several seconds later, Go appeared in the middle of the room. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."
I held up my hand. "Doesn't matter now."
Go replied, "It does at least tell us what this glove is capable of. I had the power dialed up fully when it went off. It was like a giant hole opened in front of me, and that other building just fell apart. The weird part was that it had absolutely no effect on me. It was like watching a video feed from somewhere else. Have I said how excited I am to be wearing this thing?"
"Focus your energies on maneuvering for now."
Go nodded. "I will, but after looking at what that did, you might want to consider changing buildings now. The blast took out nearly one whole side of this building. It might not be so stable anymore."
I sat back in my chair. "Tell me when the dust out there has cleared enough for me to leave. There's a three-story just north of here that we can use. Take your time drifting around until you can see if it's clear to go."
In an instant, Go was no longer within my view.
I said, "Garrett, any reaction from the Talisans on that gel?"
Garrett replied, "They are digging into it now. One of the ingredients, a highly refined magnesium, they definitely don't have, but they think they could produce the quantity needed in a couple days’ time. I told them to make it a priority. Do you think you'll live long enough over there to make use of it?"
I half smiled. "We'll survive. If you have the time, see if you can get a team working on how to recharge the power cell. The full specs for that should be available in the tutorials. All I ask is that you be judicious with what you reveal to them. The fact that it's a power cell will be obvious. They don't need to know what it belongs to."
Garrett nodded. "Got it. Should I have someone look into the tungsten rounds that glove uses?"
I winced as I thought about Go firing off another shot, possibly bringing the building down around me. "I would make that a low priority. If you can strip the specs for that down to where it isn't recognized as a weapon in any way, you can proceed. What we don't want to have happen is for all of this to fail, and the suit to fall into the Saltons’ hands. They would extract the information they needed from the Talisans. The fewer that know anything about this the better."
The dust cleared, and I moved to the new building. I found a room on the third floor that looked out toward the rest of the city. The capital would at one time have been bustling with people conducting their daily lives and business. As it stood now, it was largely abandoned. We occupied a small sector on the other side, which made up less than 10 percent of the total metropolitan area. As more Talisans and Feldons arrived on Effica, our sector would grow.
I split my time between watching Go and looking over the tutorials. It wasn't long before Go had command of the black-hole glove.
As he zipped back and forth through the walls of our new building, he said, "I feel like some kind of superhero or something. I've been up in the air as much as a hundred meters above this building. It's both scary and exhilarating to look down from there with no visible means of support."
I replied, "I see a half dozen holes in the walls where you traveled through them with that glove-drive active. Just keep in mind that when that drive is on, anything it comes in contact with will be no more. That includes me."
Go nodded. "Yeah, you’re lucky I figured that out earlier. I drifted through your position about a half dozen times before it hit me that it was a bad idea. I can see where it would be an effective weapon, though. So far, nothing has offered any resistance."
The rest of the Effica afternoon was spent in training. Once Go had become somewhat comfortable with accelerating, turning, and stopping, we changed our efforts toward learning how to use the suit to dissolve objects.
I stood ne
xt to Go. "Activate, drift toward that wall, and then deactivate when you are passing through it. It should leave a hole the size of your body."
Go nodded, disappeared from my view, and then reappeared just as he impacted the wall. A thud was heard, followed by Go falling backwards to the floor.
Go stood with a red face. "I guess I deactivated too soon. I can't say that felt all that good either. I mashed my chin and nose on the face shield."
A second attempt was completed with a near perfect cutout of Go's silhouette left in the wall. A third try was made with his hands on his hips, leaving a cutout wide enough for me to step through. We continued our training late into the night before returning to the others.
Chapter 6
* * *
As we continued our practice the following day, Garrett came over the comm. "I have some great news on the power cell. The Talisans think it’s just a matter of packing sodium into a disk shape that can be shoved down into that slot. One disk would keep it charged for weeks. Next they'll see if it can be packaged or coated so that it can be easily handled. Raw sodium can be volatile if it comes into contact with moisture. I can have a disk ready to bring over in a few hours. How goes the maneuvers?"
I replied, "I think we may have created a monster. This morning he’s spent more time outside the building than in. The only problem he is having is with chafing. How are the Talisans coming with the bio-gel?"
Garrett looked over his shoulder. "They have the ingredients. They are trying to figure out how to best combine them. I was reading up on the bio-gel, and it seems Go will need to strip down naked before getting into the suit. On a positive note, once the gel is added and the suit sealed, he won't have to take it off for quite some time. We are talking months, if not years.
"I briefly read about that before. It provides nutrients and removes waste products. It makes for an almost perfect self-sustaining environment. With the filter pack, he will no longer need to eat or drink every day, either. Everything is recycled. What he will need, however, is more power cells and filters. There is also a third pack, a food pack, which we do not have. It says the bio-gel will have to be refreshed every few weeks without it. Otherwise, he will have to consume foods that provide the proper nutrition.
"It has some great medicinal features as well: stimulants that can keep you awake for days, and a sleep aid that can knock you out for whatever length of time you want. Need a two hour power nap? Bam! You're asleep, and then fully awake two hours later. It also does wonders for cuts, scrapes, or other dermal injuries. The tutorial says it adds years to the wearer's life."
I shook my head. "It also says it will make you sterile. An issue that is reversible for the first few years, but it then becomes permanent."
Go said, "What? What was that last one?"
Garrett laughed. "He said there won't be any little Go’s running around."
Go huffed. "Well, not right now, but someday I wouldn't mind. If it says I have to wear this for years for it to become permanent, well, I'm willing to risk that. The makers of this suit haven't steered us wrong on anything yet."
Garrett held up his hand as he continued to read. "Wait, it says something about genetic enhancements. Wow. It seems there were some Humans who had their DNA altered. Lifetime expectancy was three to four times that of a normal Human for them when wearing the suit.
"You know, I've heard of some people living close to two hundred standard years of age due to having what they called 'longevity genes.' If both of your parents had the genes, you would have them, too. If either one didn't, the standard Human DNA was dominant. I remember reading an article once that predicted that particular gene mutation would be gone from the Human populace in the next few hundred years. The last estimate I saw put the current number of individuals with it at fewer than five thousand."
Go replied, "I guess that means they would have to marry their cousins if they wanted to keep it going."
Garrett laughed. "Sounds like something that might be popular in Omega!"
Go stopped his forward motion to form a proper response. "Har, Har. Just get me that gel or this chafing will put an end to any potential future children anyway."
"Back to our problem at hand," I said. "I want to do a new test. Take the suit up to five kilometers altitude. If all goes well, take it up to ten. If that looks good, then make it two hundred."
"That's low orbit," said Garrett. "You think that's a good idea?"
I nodded. "I do. With that suit, he should be impervious to cold or radiation. His oxygen is regulated, although not very well without that gel. He should be capable of that trip, and it should only take him a few minutes. I would prefer to do this here rather than trying it once we are out in deep space. He can stop at any time and return if any sensor data looks off."
Go replied, "I'm up for it. I've been wanting to see what this city looks like from up high. I mean, I've seen it coming in on a ship via a video sensor feed. I want to see what it looks like in person."
Garrett raised a finger as he swiped at his holo-display. "Hang on, I think what you are looking at with that helmet shield is a video feed. Yep. You are looking at a hi-res image that's just the same as on a view-screen on the Jess."
Go snarked as he powered his way up to five kilometers. "Ah, well, thanks for ruining that for me. If this is a video feed as you say, it's flawless. Everything is crisp and clear. It's as if I don't have a face shield in front of me at all. The level of this technology just continues to amaze me."
A Talisan scientist tapped Garrett on the shoulder. "Sir, we have a container of the bio-gel you requested ready. Our mechanical team supplied the pump container and hose attachments built to the desired specifications."
Garrett smiled. "Excellent! How much of the gel do we have in the container?"
The scientist replied, "The container holds three litres of the gel. We have another twenty litres at the ready. If desired, we can produce another fifty litres daily."
I held up my hand. "Whoa. That won't be necessary. Could you construct a holding container for the twenty litres you have that will keep the gel in good standing for, let's say, a couple years?"
The scientist looked at the gel container and replied, "We could provide a cryo-unit that would accomplish that task. It would require constant power."
Garrett nodded. "Please have that put together for us as soon as possible. And I have a further question: how long will the gel keep in its current state?"
The Talisan thought for a moment. "I would place its efficacy at no more than two to three weeks at room temperature. Less time as temperature rises. The gel contains living bacteria that will overgrow and contaminate the gel the longer it remains unfiltered. It contains a growth regulator that requires refreshment."
Garrett looked directly at the comm. "Go, when you get back, we have the gel ready for a test."
Go replied, "I just hit ten kilometers and the sensor data all looks good. I'm going up to twenty before heading for low orbit."
I directed my response at Go: "Twenty is good. If anything even looks remotely suspicious, come back. We don't have to accomplish this today."
The video feed from Go's comm was looking down at the former capitol of Effica. "Garrett, have that gel ready when I get back. I'm in need of a break from this suit, if you know what I mean."
"I'm on my way over there right now. We'll be waiting for you when you get back. And I just want to add that I'm a bit jealous of you testing that suit. From what I've seen and what you've said, that has to be a fantastic feeling, flying around like that. I’m sure we all dream of flying at some point in our lives, and you are now living it."
Two minutes later Go responded. "Two hundred kilometers! And the view from up here is spectacular! Limits all look good. I'm reading about minus two hundred for temperature, as I expected. I still have a hard time believing that with as thin as this suit is, I can't feel the outside temp. It defies physics as we know it."
Garrett arrived on a helocycle
as Go began his descent. The bio-gel pump container was set on the floor of the room as Go deactivated the sodium skin of his Human battle-suit.
Before I had a chance to speak, Go removed the helmet and dropped the suit down around his ankles. "Excuse me for a few minutes please, I have business to take care of. And when I get back I wouldn't mind having some lunch. All this buzzing around has me hungry."
Several minutes later Go reentered the room.
I pointed toward the suit. "Put on the suit and you won't need to eat. You will get all your nutrients from the bio-gel."
Go walked over, disrobed, and stepped back into the suit.
Garrett smirked. "I would have taken him for being a bit more modest."
Go replied, "Hey, we all have the same parts. At least us Humans do. I'm not competing with either of you two for anything, so why do I care?"
The suit was soon over his shoulders and the helmet snapped in place. The hoses to the bio-gel pump container were attached. Garrett began pulling the pump lever up and down.
Go screeched, "Wow! That is cold! You couldn't warm it up some first?"
I replied, "The Talisans indicated it was temperature sensitive."
Garrett mused: "You not man enough for a little cold?"
Go looked back with a scowl. "It has nothing to do with being man enough. The temperature of that stuff can't be much above freezing and it's going directly against my skin. It's like an ice bath."
As the gel reached the level of the filter pack, the suit began to pump it around, warming it to the ideal Human temperature.
Go squirmed. "It's warming now, thank goodness, but it feels kind of strange. Kind of like the suit is filling up with grease."
At just over two litres, Go held up a hand. "Hold on. I think it's full. I have green indicators on the environmentals. And that cold is already gone. It's really not that bad."
I said, "The tutorial spoke of a short acclimation period."
Go flexed his long skinny arms. "It feels pretty good, really. I feel like this suit will just slip off of me, but it's not. If anything, it's a better fit now. And that chafing … I almost can't tell it was there."
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