“You don’t sound all that happy. What is it?” Iris asked.
“It’s nothing,” he started. “I just thought that by now we would have had more people with the psionics. We have only just started to trigger the change in embryos.”
“You planned on having people who could teach others how to use them before you started doing that,” Iris pointed out.
“It took me too long to learn, and it took longer than I anticipated to teach others,” he said regretfully. “Perhaps I’m not a good teacher. Clara and Mei are doing well, and I taught them all that I know, but they are still not on the level where I want them. They are ready to teach others, but they are not really at the level that I wanted them to be in terms of skill and power.”
“It will happen on its own terms, Adrian, you can’t force the issue. And Clara and Mei will be ready by the time that the next generations grow up. And they will improve as they teach others, much like how you did.”
“Right. Well, at least we are finally ready to leave and start looking for the Ra’a’zani,” he said.
“Fifteen years of peace, and already you are looking to start another war,” Iris said disappointedly.
“They took human slaves with them when they left. We cannot leave those people in their hands; too much time has already passed,” Adrian told her. “And we have a promise to keep. The Ra’a’zani will pay for what they had done to our birthplace.”
“They haven’t come back to Sol in fifty years, Adrian,” Iris argued. “And you have no idea where their territory is. For all you know, it could be on the other side of the galaxy.”
“That is why we will go out and explore, seek out other races, and find information about them,” Adrian said.
Iris rolled her eyes and disappeared. “Fine. I know that I can’t change your mind, but don’t come running to me to save you when we run into another race like the Sowir, only with bigger guns,” she added in his head through his imp.
“We can’t keep to ourselves forever, Iris,” Adrian told her aloud, but she didn’t respond. She no longer inhabited the wrist unit that Seo-yun built for her. Adrian had thought that it was too vulnerable, so during the procedure that had upgraded his body, her core and holographic projector had been implanted inside his arm, with only a small one-centimeter orb outside of his skin acting as the projector.
They spent the next ten minutes in silence as they neared Olympus Mon, the home of the Sentinels and what they called the Sentinel Fortress. The large complex was finished, although a great majority of it was empty. In time, as more Sentinels were trained, it would be filled up. For now, there were only people from Warpath that worked here. At some point, they would become the support staff for the Sentinels.
The shuttle lowered slowly down to the massive platform that opened and allowed the shuttle into the hangar. Adrian took his helmet in hand and walked out of the shuttle. He nodded to people working around the hangar, and started walking deeper inside the base. He rounded a few corners and finally reached the practice hall.
He opened the doors and entered. Immediately, he felt something speeding towards his head. He moved a step back and used his power to telekinetically deflect the heavy rubber ball upwards. Then in one smooth move, he pivoted around his right leg and threw his helmet towards his attacker, pushing it faster with the telekinesis. The helmet struck his attacker in the shoulder, making her spin as she dropped to the floor, where she rolled from side to side, groaning.
“Oh, that’s so not fair,” whined Clara Bengtsdotter, a two-meter-tall blonde Amazon woman, one of the best Sentinels in Warpath, as she rolled on the floor.
“How did you know that I was coming through this door?” Adrian asked curiously as he started walking towards her. The practice hall had many entrances, and she had attacked the moment he’d entered.
“We bribed the hangar workers to let us know when you arrived,” she groaned out with her eyes still closed.
Adrian grinned, and then as he almost reached her, he froze. “Wait… we?” he asked just as he felt someone move behind him. He quickly turned and saw Meifeng Zhao jumping towards him through the air from one of the wall platforms. He grabbed her telekinetically and was about to throw her aside when he felt Clara jump back up and move to attack him. She released a kinetic blast from her hand, and Adrian allowed it to hit him. He let it pick him up from the floor, and as he twisted in the air, he swiped his arm towards Clara, sending Mei’s petite form crashing into her. Then, with a well-placed kinetic blast to the floor from both his hands, he straightened and landed on his feet.
He looked at the two sprawled on the floor, Mei on top of Clara, and laughed out loud.
“Nice try,” he said as he walked towards them.
Mei looked up and glared at him. “How did you know where I was?”
“Echolocation,” he said. “And you make sounds as you move through the air.”
Meifeng Zhao grimaced. “Urgh… you couldn’t have had more than a moment’s notice.”
“One moment is all that I needed,” Adrian said.
Clara pushed Mei off her and jumped back to her feet, far more springily than someone who was in a great amount of pain would have.
“Shoulder is fine already, I see,” Adrian commented.
Clara gave grinned at him. “I twisted my shoulder as the helmet hit, cushioning the attack.”
“Impressive reaction,” Adrian said. “Now if only you worked more on your acting…”
Clara grabbed Adrian’s helmet from the floor telekinetically and threw it at his head. Adrian froze it mid-air effortlessly and started walking towards the exit, with the helmet floating behind him. “Well, I just wanted to check up on you and let you know that the new Sentinel should arrive later today.”
“We’ll be ready to welcome her,” Clara said mischievously.
Adrian chuckled and left the hall.
The cargo ship dropped out of trans-space and into the Sol system. The incoming trans-station was between the orbits of Earth and Mars, and nearby was a big defense station surrounded by defense platforms, protecting the incoming trans-station. In its current orbit, Aileen’s destination—Mars—was on the other side of the system. She glanced at the holo in the observation deck, and looked at Earth—the birthplace of humanity. Massive storms still ravaged its surface. It was gray and red, as volcanos still erupted across her surface, the last Ra’a’zani crime against humanity. It would be hundreds of years before the storms waned and the volcanos went silent again, and thousands more before it became what it once was.
She watched from the observation deck as the ship moved away from the trans-station and the defense station positioned to be pointed at Mars on a clear line and skimmed to her destination in almost two full minutes. It was unadvisable for ships to use skimming close to other constructs, as a skim created a kind of a ripple in the space around it for a few minutes. Not something that could destroy a station, but enough to wreck computer-based systems.
The ship moved towards one of the dozens of stations in Mars orbit. All the way, Aileen looked at the holo in front of her, at the amount of traffic in system. It surprised her, actually; the traffic wasn’t as dense as in Sanctuary or Waypoint, but it was close. There were thousands of ships here, moving between planets, from Mars to Jupiter and Saturn, where massive gathering facilities orbited the gas giants. There were also large shipyards in orbit around Jupiter’s moons. And then in the asteroid field, a fleet of mining and cargo ships moved about the mining facilities that had been constructed on the bones of those built by the Ra’a’zani. But what surprised her were a few massive constructs close to the Sun. She couldn’t guess at their purpose, but the information on the holo told her that they were massive. The system had much more traffic now than what it had had when the Ra’a’zani were here. It seemed like the Emperor had made this system a priority.