by Aer-ki Jyr
“Not like now,” she clarified. “We’re all supposed to have the basic 7 to begin with, which is why your development is causing problems. There are other abilities beyond those. Some small, some large, but they have to be earned, basically disproving the general V’kit’no’sat sentiment that Ter’nat are worthless. If and when they can do that Zen’zat are viewed with some level of respect from the others, all the way up to peers in some cases. Other rare occasions, like Ironnsey, and they’re actually superior.”
“My eyes,” Morgan reminded her.
Kara held up a finger. “I’m getting there. With the individual advancement plan in place, Zen’zat began being created and their genetics were tweaked over time giving them more and more potential. Eventually the V’kit’no’sat saw the advantage of using them and Ter’nat colonies were given to all the other races to care for and restrict, from which Zen’zat would be created to serve not just the Era’tran, but all the races. They were to be shared and serve as a commonality amongst the V’kit’no’sat, which the Zak’de’ron didn’t hold to.”
“The others did, and the mass of Zen’zat that were ‘harvested’ from the Ter’nat began taking on more and more tasks. Eventually they became present in virtually every V’kit’no’sat colony and ship, but always in the background. They are the quiet servants without a race, and because they have no race they are seen as neutral politically and therefore trustworthy.”
“There’s bickering amongst the races?” Riona asked.
“Not bickering…but while they view themselves as V’kit’no’sat first, they’re not above positioning their own race ahead of the others with regards to resources and territory. Again, the Zen’zat have none, so they’re not involved in the egotistical conflict and are often seen as a calming influence. There’s no actual fighting between the races, V’kit’no’sat society is too structured for that, but it doesn’t keep them from competing against each other in lesser forms of conflict.”
“Anyway, over time it was deemed necessary to further enhance the Zen’zat to compensate for their smaller biology. They still had to earn their advancement, but the potential was much higher. Seeing the Zen’zat as tools rather than a competing race, their potential got jacked up so much that the elite ones became capable of killing the much larger races in hand to hand combat. Rather than view this as a threat, they wanted more Zen’zat of this level and aggressively pushed the training of the ones they had, while maintaining allegiances with those already present.”
“Technically, Zen’zat serve no one race. They serve the V’kit’no’sat as a whole. But bonds are formed and, short of betraying the V’kit’no’sat, certain Zen’zat will help one race seek dominance over the others…then if they’re traded off they’ll help those they now serve. A lot of the trading happens within the Zen’zat ranks, because they control their own assignments for the most part, so establishing a relationship with them is seen as the route to power, given that they can’t technically give them orders.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Jason said, stopping her before she could go on. “You’re losing me. You’ve said Zen’zat are servants, now you’re saying they don’t take orders?”
“A Zen’zat serves where needed,” she explained, taking no visible offense at the lack of understanding. “They are assigned by the Zen’zat leadership upon request of one of the races. If the Brat’mar requests 10,000 Zen’zat for use on a particular planet, the request is reviewed by the Zen’zat leadership and if applicable the personnel are sent. Once on site they take their orders from the race or races that requested them. A lot of their planets are shared, so a contingent of Zen’zat will often serve multiple races at the same time.”
“Who tells the Zen’zat leadership what to do?” Jason asked.
“The V’kit’no’sat operate as a collective, so no one race can order them around so long as they stay in good standing with the dominant races. Many times the Zen’zat leadership will flat out refuse a request from one of the races and get into a bit of a staring match…and win, but only because the other races are silently backing them. Zen’zat are supposed to be neutral, so them putting another race in their place is generally seen as a good thing to maintain societal balance, but if any aspirations of their own manifest the Zen’zat would be quickly put into a world of hurt by the other races.”
“That never happens, because the Zen’zat are fanatically loyal to the V’kit’no’sat. They feel like they’ve been given peerdom where their race doesn’t belong, and because of that they’re committed to the cause. That commitment is seen with a measure of admiration by the other races, given that they all have secondary agendas.”
“Jedi-ish,” Jason commented. “No attachments, greater trust.”
“I said fanatical for a reason,” Kara pressed. “They’re not moral. Honorable, maybe, in a skewed way, but don’t call them Jedi. They are committed to V’kit’no’sat dominance, and they will do whatever it takes to maintain it.”
“What about you?” David asked.
Kara smiled. “Zak’de’ron Zen’zat were kept separate, on purpose. The dragons didn’t like blind obedience. They wanted submission, not ignorance, so they taught us to be superior, and in doing so we would realize just how far beyond us they were. It’s a philosophical sticking point with the V’kit’no’sat that contributed to the purge. To put it simply, the V’kit’no’sat mantra is ‘Because we say so,’ while the Zak’de’ron version would be, ‘Because we are.’”
“And you know this how?” Morgan asked.
Kara held up her forearm jewel. “Memory downloads included.”
“You still haven’t gotten to my eyes.”
“Still getting there…trust me, the story is worth it. Now, the Zen’zat were given potential to become very, very strong, but most did not. They rose to an appreciable level but only select individuals like Ironnsey really dug down into their genetic potential and put it to use. In order to cater to this possibility, the Zen’zat were again upgraded with greater potential so they could progress to a point where they could be used as enforcers against the other races,” she said, looking at Morgan. “So one of us could kill an Era’tran or Brat’mar…or even a Hjar’at. When a Zen’zat upgrades close to that level they undergo a physical change, developing new powers, and the eye color signifies they’ve risen to that level.”
“You obviously haven’t, which is why I don’t understand how this happened,” Kara said, frowning at Morgan.
“How do you know I haven’t?” the trailblazer asked.
“How many other abilities do you have?”
“I’ve got a touch of spherical sight.”
“Pefbar,” Kara corrected. “And that’s how I know. You’re not supposed to be able to access level 2 powers until you’ve really developed your basic 7, and you don’t even have access to 6 of them yet.”
“The eyes come at what level?” Jason asked, glancing at Morgan, then back at Kara.
“The third tier is called Mvor, as are the assassins. They’re pretty much the Super Saiyans of the Zen’zat.”
“How many tiers are there?” David asked.
Kara was about to say something, then stopped with a word half-formed in her mouth. She closed her eyes hard for a moment.
“What’s wrong?” Jason asked.
“Give me a moment,” she said, still wrestling with something internal. “This happens when something new worms its way out.”
The Archons took her at her word and remained silent for some twenty seconds before Kara opened her eyes again, then looked at David. “I don’t know. The abilities imprinted into our genetics are known because of what we’ve seen develop in other Zen’zat, the actual blueprints of which the V’kit’no’sat refuse to tell us, and the same goes for the Zak’de’ron. It’s like they’ve hidden genetic easter eggs for us to find, so we don’t know how many are actually out there. Mvor has 3 known abilities, but what else is there to discover is anyone’s guess.”
“What about
level 2?” Jason asked.
“There are 15 well documented abilities there, and it’s assumed that those are fully charted, because you can’t skip from one tier to another…yet you seem to have,” she said, looking hard at Morgan.
“Why does that bother you?” the trailblazer asked, picking up on her mood.
“Because I was ahead of everyone else,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “And I’m nowhere close to level 2.”
“What level ranger are you?” Morgan asked, noticing her uniform stripe.
“43…this thing upped my strength and speed,” Kara said, tapping her jewel, “but I didn’t use the armor in the challenges. With it I can still take you, even with your Jumat.”
“Jumat?” Morgan asked. “I assume that’s the concussive energy?”
“Yes.”
“And you think your armor can stop it?”
“It can do a lot of things,” Kara said, a bit of cockiness returning.
“Morgan,” Jason interrupted, “she can fly.”
The trailblazer frowned. “Fly?”
“Dragonball style,” Kara confirmed. “When my armor is on.”
“Before you two decide to throw down,” David said lightly, “give us the rundown on these powers.”
“We’re not going at it in armor,” Morgan said dismissively.
“The basic 7 are Rensiek, Fornax, Ikrid, Sesspik, Pefbar, Lachka, Ensek. Rensiek is an ability to generate heat. It’s not so much a combat ability as it is an environmental skill. You can walk around in a snowstorm naked and not be bothered. You can also use it to start fires, and if someone has you in a headlock you can cause them to become very uncomfortable.”
“You can throw flames?” Jason asked.
“No, but you can warm other things up,” she said, telekinetically grabbing a nearby water bottle, since hers was empty, and bringing it over to her. She undid the cap and stuck her finger inside it and concentrated. “I’m not used to doing this, but I should…there.”
A small wisp of steam puffed out the top, followed by a few more as she heated the water inside.
“I really want one of those Vorch’nas,” David said, drawing looks of agreement from the others.
“It’s not doing it,” Kara said, withdrawing her finger and sending the water bottle back down the table to where it belonged. “I am. The rest of you will be too once we find the right equipment.”
“What equipment?” Jason asked.
“The same equipment they use to make Zen’zat in the first place. With it we’ll be able to turn on your abilities without me having to sleep with all of you…though I will need to fix the damage already done.”
Jason caught Morgan’s questioning glance. “Not what you think,” he told her, then looked back at Kara. “You think this machine is here?”
“Should be.”
“Easy Santa,” Tyr said from behind Kara.
“When’d you get here?” Jason asked.
“Been in the back listening. Before we go on a scavenger hunt, finish with the basic 7 psionics. We’ve identified several already, but not all of them.”
“Fornax,” Kara continued, “is what Kian has. It acts like white noise in your nervous system in its most basic form, and can advance up into pain surges and other distracting things.”
“Can it be defended against?” Jason asked, a bit worried.
“You can learn to resist it,” Kara said with a smirk, “but the immunities come into play as level 2 abilities.”
“Good,” the trailblazer said, leaning back in his chair a bit. “I don’t like someone being able to mess with my head at will.”
“Better get used to it,” she warned. “There’s a lot more going on than Fornax. Ikrid is the largest skill, and involves telepathy, being able to sense the location of other minds, memory hacking, override control, and a bunch of others. They all have to be developed, so don’t think of level 1 abilities as simple or easy, they’re just ones that you get a foothold on initially.”
“Pefbar is your third eye, which you’re already familiar with. Lachka is your telekinesis. Sesspik is a healing trance for when you don’t have a Kich’a’kat handy. Zak’de’ron Zen’zat don’t have to worry about that,” she said, tapping her Vorch’nas again, “but the others do if they’re not wearing their gear. This is a difficult one to practice, and the Zen’zat countered that by intentionally injuring each other. Not something I’d recommend.”
“How fast can you heal?” Morgan asked.
“Depends how good you’re at it. Something around 10x normal is standard. It still has to pull nutrients from your bloodstream, unlike a regenerator, but it’s good at dealing with low level damage, say, post workout.”
“Power nap?”
“Something like that.”
Jason frowned. “I’ve been doing that for years.”
“This isn’t sleeping,” Kara clarified. “You have to lockdown in order for it to initiate and then you have to keep focused on it throughout. You doze off and it’ll end. Besides, I already checked you. You don’t have the brain tissue for it.”
“How does brain tissue affect that?”
“It’s not new tissue so much as a reconfiguration of what you’ve already got, so no growths that will show up on a typical scan. You’re just lacking a bit of processing power, same thing with the Rensiek.”
“What about me?” David asked.
“Wasn’t there either,” Kara said apologetically.
“I could have sworn I was doing that,” he said, not quite believing her.
“Me too,” Jason added.
“Ensek,” Kara continued, “is an ability to function as an Ikrid relay, even if you don’t have strong Ikrid skills. It is a special growth and lets a telepathic message from a distant individual reflect off of you and transmit on to another. By reflect I mean the power level is nearly identical to the incoming signal, even though you’re producing it. The power of the signal is absorbed and released, losing some in the process. It can be enhanced with your own Ikrid power, but it will let an Era’tran relay a message over multiple miles to another command unit by positioning Zen’zat in a chain across the gap.”
“They can view some of the transmission, but if it’s above their Ikrid ability they won’t understand it. It’ll just get copied and retransmitted reflexively. This is a straight line ability…the more you use it the better it gets, but it’s essentially complete at the outset.”
“Are you finished eating?” Morgan asked when she paused.
Tyr glanced at her. “Want to find that machine?”
“Yes,” she said emphatically. “So long as it won’t interfere with my Jumat?”
“I would guess not,” Kara said, standing up. “But this is uncharted territory. Yeah, I’m done eating…mostly,” she said, telekinetically pulling a cookie off of Riona’s tray.
“Hey,” she mildly complained.
“Let’s go,” Morgan said…then another cookie floated up into the air and into Jason’s hand.
“Guys…not cool,” Riona said, grabbing the last three before they could wander off as the group of Archons broke up.
4
“Did they let Ter’nat in here,” Jason asked Kara as they walked up through the Zen’zat levels of the pyramid one stair/ramp at a time, “or just Zen’zat?”
“Depends on the planet. If there’s a local Ter’nat colony these levels would have a lot of them, call them ‘possibles’ that are being evaluated or liaisons from the colonies, because the rest of the V’kit’no’sat don’t go there. Even the Zen’zat stay away unless there’s a problem. The Ter’nat are beneath the rest of them, so facilities like this serve as an embassy for them as well.”
“Hence the restricted sections,” Jason added.
“Not just to keep the Ter’nat out, but the smaller V’kit’no’sat races as well. Those are Zen’zat only areas, while these,” she said, referring to what they were walking through, “are more communal. The Rit’ko’sor
used these passages to get to the higher exits, which they shared with the Zen’zat and others, while the larger races used the lower ones.”
“To get to the pyramid surface?”
“Landing pads,” Kara clarified, turning a corner and heading for the lower entrance into the restricted section of the Zen’zat zone. “Each ring is reserved for specific types of ships, and the smaller races tend to have smaller ships, so they use the upper ones mostly.”
“Who got the top?”
Kara glanced back at Jason, who was following off her left shoulder along with a handful of other Archons behind her. “You do know there are weapons in there, right?”
“So not a landing pad then?”
“In a pinch, sure, but you don’t want to make a habit of parking over top of the big gun…besides, there are no entrances up there.”
“How much tech in here is new, compared to your memories?” Jason asked, continuing to ply her with questions.
“Very little. These structures are built to last…forever, pretty much. I don’t know when this one was built, but it could have been before the purge. The structural materials don’t weather, so unless they’re damaged they’re going to be shiny new for a long, long, long time. Some of the equipment has been upgraded, but I haven’t seen anything brand new yet. Then again I just got here too, and I never had the chance to visit before.”
“Do you know where you’re going?”
“Yep.”
“How?”
“Standard design. When the V’kit’no’sat have something that works they don’t mess with it. They do tech research as needed, but they’ve advanced so far their knowledge is more dogma than experimentation. Show them a hole in their defenses, though, and they’ll cover it quickly. They’re counterpunchers, and they’ve had so much combat experience their tech tree and battle tactics are quite refined.”
