“We are going to the Erasi,” Anessa said.
“Why go to them?” Arisak asked, taken aback.
“Because they might give us a lead as to where the remaining Ra’a’zani worlds are,” Anessa answered.
“But Dai Sha,” he said slowly, respectfully, “didn’t we encounter the Ra’a’zani first? Didn’t the Erasi learn about them from us?”
Anessa snorted. “That is what they made us believe when we told them about the Ra’a’zani. But the Erasi are schemers and hoarders. Even if they learned about them from us, they would have sent their exploration fleets to find, learn, and record everything about the Ra’a’zani. Information is a resource, and the Erasi rule through trade of everything that can be bought or sold. But the more likely thing is that they knew about the Ra’a’zani all along.” She gazed at the holographic map in front of her. “They probably found them before the Ra’a’zani even left their homeworld. The Erasi have thrived for a long time.”
“Why wouldn’t they say anything, then?” Arisak asked.
“There was no profit in it for them,” Anessa answered.
“Where are we going? Their information brokers are only on their major worlds, and those are not close.”
Anessa pointed at the star system on the map. “Their hub for this sector, Tarabat,” she said resolutely.
“We can’t take the entire Legion; the Erasi would see it as an act of war. Ever since the incident, and under our new agreement, we can have only three military vessels in their major systems at a time. We can send word back home, have them send a few civilian ships,” Arisak suggested.
“We are not going to wait, we are going there on the Bloodbringer. The rest of the Legion can keep looking,” Anessa said.
“There is no need for you to go, Dai Sha; we can send another smaller and faster ship.”
“No. The Elders gave me a task, and in order to complete it, I need to find the Ra’a’zani. It is my duty to see it through. It is my blood call,” Anessa said calmly.
“As you wish, Dai Sha,” Arisak said. “Will we have enough to trade with? This is not a merchant vessel; we have very little in the way of things that they would want.”
“I have a bit of wealth set aside. And I want us to set up supply convoys from the Erasi for the Legion. Our own supply lines are too slow, and once we know where the Ra’a’zani are, I intend on ending them swiftly.”
“Very well, Dai Sha. I’ll instruct the crew and have them chart a course,” Arisak said, and left the chamber.
Anessa turned her attention to the map again. Tarabat was three hundred and sixty light years away from her Legion’s position, but her people had a route already explored close by. It wouldn’t take them long to get there.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
May; Year 54 of the Empire – Veritas; hyperspace on route to Tarabat
Aileen stood in the practice room with Adrian.
“Are we not going to start the practice?” Aileen asked.
“No, today I want to show you something,” Adrian said seriously. Both of them were dressed in their Sentinel suits, and were standing in front of the pillars that Aileen often used for balance and telekinesis training.
“Show me what?” Aileen asked curiously.
“A new psionic,” he said.
“One that you haven’t shown me already?” Aileen asked excitedly. There were many psionics in the People’s database, but so far they had managed to use only a few, and those that were connected to those few.
“Yes. I haven’t mastered it yet—in fact, I’m not even close. But I need another mind, as I have hit a wall. I can use it, but not to the full extent of what was described in the sphere. And I think that I am doing something wrong. That is why I need you to see and think about it. I don’t want you to try it; it is too dangerous, and you don’t know how to use all the other psionics required to pull this one off.”
“So what is it?”
“Just watch. I’ll explain later.”
Adrian raised his left arm and pointed it at the pillar. She knew by his concentration that he was doing something. Then, a few seconds later, she started seeing red steam coming through his glove and stopping in front of his palm as if it was being held there by something. The red steam was strange, too; it wiped around in circles, and then Aileen felt heat coming off from it. Then the steam changed and turned into a red ball.
A moment later, it fired off from his hand and into the pillar, hitting it in the center and burning a good halfway through. Aileen just stared, amazed, at the hole in the pillar. She turned back to gaze at Adrian, just as he dropped down to his knee. She rushed over and grabbed him.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said slowly, and then got up with Aileen’s help. She guided him to the bench at the side of the room. Once seated, he retracted his helmet, and Aileen did the same. He turned to look at her with a pale face and a weak smile on his lips.
“Do you know what that was?” he asked.
Aileen looked back at the pillar and then at Adrian. “Plasma?”
Adrian gave her a smile. “Yes. Now how do you think I did that?”
“I don’t know, you somehow converted energy from the organ – Nursha – into gas… But I don’t know how.”
Adrian shook his head. “No, think about what you saw.”
Aileen started playing the entire thing back in her head. Then something struck her. “The steam. It was gas that you turned into plasma. But it was red. Why red?”
“Why red indeed,” Adrian said.
Aileen thought about it a bit more, and then she frowned. “Blood?”
Adrian nodded grimly. “Blood. I vaporized a part of my blood and pushed it through the emitters and skin on my palm. I held the gas with energy in my palm, and I expended a big chunk of my energy in a burst move in order to flash heat it. Then I fired a kinetic blast at it while I kept it contained with telekinesis.”
Concerned, Aileen started looking him over. “Are you really alright? You are pale. How much did you use?”
“Not much,” Adrian said, his voice a bit stronger. “It is just the shock to the system, and I am already using my healing to recover. Soon I will be fine, although I will have drained almost all my energy,” he said jokingly.
“So what is the problem with the psionic? It seems to work perfectly. And what is its name?” Aileen asked.
“It doesn’t have a name, really. To the People it was simply one ability of the Sha. I think that we made a mistake in insisting on calling these abilities by our names for them. Half of them we haven’t even conceived of. I think that we should just start calling all abilities the Sha; most of them are intertwined anyway. I had to use three different abilities in order to do this,” Adrian said.
“Yes, I agree. It never clicked well with me, giving names to every ability.”
Adrian turned his palms sideways and back. “I should send a message to Clara and Meifeng; they will be the ones teaching others,” he said thoughtfully. “Now, back to the matter at hand. The problem is that according to the sphere, the People could fire off a lot more of these in succession, and I can’t figure out how they did that. At first I thought that they could recover their blood at an incredible rate, but that is impossible. They must’ve found a way to convert something else into gas or plasma, or I might be missing something. Maybe I need some more abilities that I haven’t discovered yet.”