The dull ache continued to grow.
“You should be feeling the initial discomfort. Hold still. Keep focusing. Almost there. Almost...”
A spike of pure agony exploded within her skull.
Naero screamed, transfixed as if by lightning.
Through the torment, a voice awoke in her mind full-force.
Protocols unlocked and engaged. We...are.
Interface...partial.
Om awoke, reacting instinctively with fear and vast power.
Threat detected...Protect all access.
Neural net...INTRUSION. UNWARRANTED.
LEVEL 1.359 DEFENSIVE RESPONSE.
An intense blast wave of white-hot psyonic energy fanned out rapidly from the epicenter of her immolated mind.
Naero continued to scream.
As if far away in the distance, Klyne and his two adepts also shrieked.
*
Naero blinked, her eyes and mouth frozen open.
She lay with her head to one side, in a puddle of her own mixed blood and spittle.
More pain when she attempted to move.
Blood continued to stream from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth–a bloody mess.
Something as if a fusion grenade blew her head open.
She reached up with her hands to make sure her skull was still intact.
Some kind of noise.
Warning alarms sounded.
A ship. Yes. they were on a ship. The Spacer Intel Ship The Kathmandu. She was...being tested, for the Mystics.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
Naero focused, getting to her hands and knees.
She heard other voices, groaning and whimpering.
Makita lay sprawled in a broken tangle, blasted across the room. His gray clothing had been shredded and scorched into tatters. He choked and coughed.
To the other side, Iselle fared little better. She lay convulsing, blasted, scorched, a yellow-white bone of her forearm sticking out of her wrenched flesh. One side of her face was blistered, her red hair burned, some of it still smoking. She trembled and shuddered in pain and terror.
Naero looked around for Klyne, finding the instructor in a burned, bloody heap, lying beneath a dark red smear on the far wall. His hands were charred black, and he was missing fingers.
Naero could not walk. She couldn’t even stand.
She crawled to Klyne as quickly as she could.
He still lived, just barely.
Then she noticed the intense effects of the blast. All around the room, less than a meter up.
A massive expanding ring of Cosmic force had sliced into the duranadium hull of the smartwalls, punching a deep crease right through them where they buckled, all along its full diameter.
The force of the strike disrupted all systems. The entire training room compacted, crushed, and heavily damaged.
Rescuers struggled to force their way through the various ruined doors and access panels.
Spacer Clans Adventure 1: Naero's Run Page 41
