by Aer-ki Jyr
“And then what?” Paul asked as he sat on the foot of his bed, soaked head to toe in sweat from a recent run that Kara had done with him, and beat him in, despite his own Saiyan burst at the end, though she had also cheated and Essence-enhanced her body to do it.
“And then she said you looked like an Avatar reject,” Kara said, no longer dripping herself as her Vorch’nas had already soaked up all the excess sweat and recycled it.
Paul glanced down at the faint hint of blue in his skin that was currently streaked with red from the stress of their workout. “She’s not totally wrong,” he admitted as Kara’s face suddenly went blank, with her staring at his knees…but he knew she wasn’t really looking at him, rather processing something mentally.
It only lasted a moment, then she glanced up at him. “News from the Chixzon front,” she said, having gotten the update on her Vorch’nas. “Prisoners taken, other locations discovered and the fleet is dispatched. Four Chixzon surrendered, and one of them provided something a bit scary.”
“What?” Paul asked as she raised her arm and produced a hologram of a particular star system.
“A location the Chixzon were tasked to go to retrieve something after they were reborn. They tried and failed multiple times, with all who entered being killed. No one ever returned. They were all cut into four precise sections, and even the drones who viewed their bodies laid out on the arrival platform of a station buried inside a gas giant…”
“Do not go there,” Azoro said, appearing beside Kara, though only in Paul’s mind. “You are not ready. It is a remnant of far greater power.”
Paul held up a hand to stop Kara. “Is it from their ancestors?”
“No. This is something far more dangerous. When the time comes you will go there, and you alone. But that is not now nor in the near future. Do not send your people. They will not be able to gain access, and that place has the ability to kill starships if need be. Do not approach, do not monitor. Stay away from it for now.”
Paul’s head hurt from the forced conversation, but Azoro didn’t linger after delivering the warning, and this time it was Kara’s turn to look at him oddly, for he’d been speaking aloud.
The trailblazer touched his fingers to his forehead, trying to massage the hurt away and failing. He’d had a long conversation with Azoro three days ago, and was still burnt out from it, now add this.
“Yoda says don’t go into the dark cave until later when I’m ready.”
“He knows what it is?”
“Seems to, and he’s adamant that none of us go there. Says even starships are at risk of being destroyed. He says later, when I’m ready, I’m to go alone…presumably with him tagging along Yuumi style.”
“So there’s stuff in our galaxy like this that we could trip over at any moment?” she asked incredulously. “Why not draw us a map of everything he knows to be safe?”
“Probably because we have plenty to do already, and there’s no need to scare us with the monsters next door,” Paul said, giving up on the head massage that never seemed to work. “But it seems I’ve got a long term date in the future. Hide that information until later. Don’t need curious people poking around and getting killed.”
“What if people find it anyway, who aren’t looking for it?”
“Fine, put a deep patrol in the system, but stay away from that gas giant. And if anyone does go there, use drones to shoo them off, but don’t attract attention to it with your presence.”
“I’ll have Ghostblade take care of it. We’re discrete.”
“No sneaking in,” Paul said, pointing a finger at her.
Kara raised her hands in a symbol of sincerity. “I promise. No games.”
“Take care of it,” he said, standing up and heading for his shower booth.
“Want some company?” Kara asked.
“With Azoro watching?” Paul shot back.
“Didn’t ask to screw you. Just asked if you wanted some company. Bet I can massage that headache out with some telepathy if you let me, and that waterfall you call a shower is big enough for 4 people.”
“I don’t think it works that way, but you’re welcome to try. Why didn’t you ask before…” he said, realizing the reason.
Kara shrugged innocently.
“Come on. Just don’t tell the others. I get enough jokes from them as it is.”
The Jinx smiled and followed him into the rear compartment of his quarters, stripping her clothes off as she went, then Kara followed Paul inside the now larger shower compartment meant for his bigger body, except it wasn’t a tube as much as it was a room of its own that would fill up into a swimming pool when needed, but usually Paul just used the waterfall feature and sat down on the bench underneath it…or so Kara had seen watching him from the outside on occasion when he took too long in there and missed one of their scheduled meetings. He’d developed a bad habit of losing track of time ever since his Saiolum breakthrough.
Paul turned on the waterfall and sat down underneath it while Kara triggered the rain function for the ceiling that added a light sprinkle to the rest of the room that slowly slicked down her hair as she leaned against the wall a few feet away from him. He opened up his now well-shielded Furyan mind and let her in, with Kara trying to work out the knots in his head that came from his contact with Azoro in addition to the actual damage, which she couldn’t heal but she could distract him from and get him to relax enough to stoke his own healing…but since the damage wasn’t totally physical, it didn’t always obey normal rules and was a constant, but light nuisance to him.
And while Kara was in his head giving him a telepathic massage, she also poked around into the memories of his conversation with Azoro to see exactly what he’d told Paul…
www.aerkijyr.com
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