by Lori Beery
“What’s next?” interjected KwinJai.
“The next challenge is to shoot targets while you are flying,” I answered. I placed shelves at random places all over the common area. “Lucera, would you populate the shelves with small vertical targets?”
She built an image in her mind. “Like this?” she asked. Her targets were small disks on edge that were colored with concentric circles of alternating red and white.
“Yes,” I assured her. “When you are ready, execute the make-it-real process.” She complied without comment.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“I’m fine,” she replied with a big smile. I nodded and looked at my Hexacle.
“There are thirty five targets,” I informed them. “Each of us gets five of them. They are arranged closer to the perimeter of the room while the center is free of them. I would like us to stand in a circle with our backs to the center. Try to shoot your targets from near to far. The slugs propelled from the rail guns will penetrate your skin. It is most unpleasant to be shot.” I gave them a moment to let my words sink in. “Use your first target to figure out the firing mechanism,” I suggested. “Is everyone ready to begin?”
My Hexacle responded with nods and murmurs of affirmation. I put my back towards the center, as did my companions. Then, I activated my toy and flew it toward the first target. It took me a short moment to learn the weapon system. Presently, I aimed and took out my first target. The others were flying. I heard random bursts of rail gun fire. I moved on to the second one, aimed and fired on it without hovering. By the time I got to my last target, I could aim and fire in a fluid motion. I finished the exercise by landing the fighter on the floor below my last target. When I surveyed my team, Jacarr and KwinJai had completed their runs. The rest were working on it. Soon Beltrain and Dulain completed the assignment. Marleah and Lucera were on the third target. Before too long, they finished as well.
“Comments?” I requested.
“I struggled with the aiming,” confessed Marleah. “I sure am glad we were firing toward the perimeter. I’m sure I missed a lot.”
“You obviously didn’t miss too many times,” I commented. When she looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face, I added, “You still have ammo.”
“That’s true,” she said with a smile.
“Anyone else?” I asked.
“I need a lot more practice,” replied Lucera. “My coordination of multiple tasks isn’t so good.”
“You finished the exercise not that long after the rest of us,” pointed out Dulain.
“Shall we try it again?” I inquired.
“Yes, please,” answered Lucera. She was not the only one to reply.
“First, let’s pick up the slugs we used and reload our vessels,” I suggested. We each walked through our target range lifting the slugs using the same technic KwinJai used to lift the water molecules the previous day. Once we had them, we reloaded our fighters. “Alright, reset your targets,” I directed. “When everything is in place, begin.”
We ran through the course again. It went much smoother with all of us finishing about the same time. Even Marleah and Lucera were happy with their performance. And, we fired fewer slugs with better effectiveness. Just for fun, we executed the exercise a third time, with even better results.
“That was my best run ever!” exclaimed KwinJai excited. “I even beat you, Jacarr.”
“Yes you did,” Jacarr agreed. “But not by much.”
“I think you are all ready for the next step,” I announced.
“And that would be?” asked Beltrain guardedly.
“We make the run in formation,” I replied. “We will start in the triangular formation here,” I added, pointing to the area right in front of the settee. “We will fly midway to the perimeter and see how many of the targets we can hit. For safety reasons, we will erect a second ward around us. – Oh and when we are in flight, the formation should shift so that you are in a vertical hexagonal shape behind me. You will need to move out far enough so you don’t take me out. Please, fire on targets that don’t make you aim toward anyone else. In short, no friendly fire. Any questions?” There were none.
Dulain built our second ward. After we landed in formation at the designated spot, we lifted off about a meter from the floor. My Hexacle shifted their positions as I had described. We began the run. I was very glad we established the second ward. If we hadn’t, I think we all would have been riddled with the slugs. We held our formation pretty well; though, we had spacing issues when it came time to fire on a target, and we were not very effective in our ability to aim. We left more than we hit untouched. “Who’s up for another attempt?” I asked. There were no dissenting voices. We improved, but not by much. It took us seven more tries before we were able to hit all the targets. We practiced that exercise two more times before I changed our flight path. Our targeting effectiveness suffered. But still, it was not as bad as our very first flight. We spent the rest of the morning trying to improve our ability to hit our targets while flying a changing flight path. We did improve with the practice.
Chapter 13
After lunch, we returned to our suite. Since we still hadn’t received a response from the captain, our afternoon practice session would remain here.
“Let’s establish wards like yesterday and practice the ‘catch and release’ technic,” I suggested.
“I’ll set the ward,” volunteered Marleah. In an instant, the ward flowed along the interior of the common room and over all its furnishings.
“Thank you, Marleah,” I said. She nodded, accepting my gratitude with a big smile. The others moved into a circle so they could all see me.
“Today’s lesson is going to be dangerous,” I began gravely. “I am going to be shooting short low energy light beams at you. As you know, such a beam can cause very bad burns. To keep you safe, you will use a ward to create a second skin. Wait! Let me finish!” I shouted, stopping them in their tracks. “It is imperative that you do not cover your nostrils, your mouth or your ears. Once you have created your armor, let me know. I want to verify it.”
We each set to work shaping the ward into a body suit. I finished first. Dulain finished next. I inspected his work. He had done it perfectly.
“I’m finished,” called Lucera. I checked her suit. It was a little thick along her back. When I pointed it out, she thinned it.
As the rest of them finished, I examined their handiwork. They all observed my initial warning, which was a great relief to me. There were only a few, tiny adjustments that needed to be made. In any case, it didn’t take long for them to get it right.
“Excellent!” I praised them. “Now, form your hand wards.” They all complied. “Good,” I commented, pleased. “Remember the water stream exercise. Your task is to convert the light beam into a ball. After you have your ball, you are to play catch with one other person. Make sure the person is aware you are playing catch with them. Questions? Comments?”
“I’m scared,” confessed Lucera.
“You have reason to be,” I said. “Please don’t let your fear cripple you.” After a pause I asked, “Who would like to be first?”
“I will,” replied Beltrain. As he moved to stand before the table, I moved to the opposite side of the room.
“Who are you going to play catch with?” I inquired.
“Jacarr,” Beltrain answered. I and Jacarr acknowledged his selection.
I took two crystals out of my pockets. One was that from the shelf, the one we were trying to recharge via the ceiling light. It was starting to regain some of its sparkle. However, it would take a long time for it to recharge by that method. I planned to speed it up a little. The other crystal was one of the spares we had been using. It had lots of sparkle yet. I set them both on the floor before me.
“Ready?” I asked Beltrain. He nodded.
I activated the spare crystal with a nudge to a bond. It began to glow. When the light spread throughout the crystal, I star
ted to draw a cord of energy straight up. After it reached chest high, I struck it with a perpendicular blow with my ward. A cylinder of light sped toward Beltrain’s chest. He caught it in his ward and successfully converted it into a light ball. He passed it to Jacarr. They played catch almost seventy deci before the light energy dissipated.
Jacarr replaced Beltrain. He selected Marleah to play catch with him. I sent a column of light toward his chest. He deftly received it, and changed it into the globe. He threw it to Marleah. She snatched it and returned it. They exchanged throws about sixty-five deci when the light energy faded away.
Marleah took Jacarr’s place. She picked KwinJai to exchange throws with her. Again, I pushed a light cylinder toward her at chest level. She controlled it and transformed it into an orb. She pitched it to KwinJai. He caught it. They continued tossing the light ball between them until KwinJai lobed it over her head. She had no physical way to get to it. The light sphere impacted the wall behind her. It spread out across the ward and vanished.
Marleah turned from the wall to glare at KwinJai. She put her hands on her hips. But before she could say a word KwinJai said meekly, “Sorry. I got a little carried away… Are you okay?”
“Yes, thank you,” she replied, her anger melting away.
“Good thing we have wards in place,” commented Beltrain.
“Indeed,” I agreed. “KwinJai, you’re up.”
“Oh. Okay,” he said hesitantly. He moved across from me to where Marleah had been.
“Who are you going to play catch with?” I asked.
“I better choose Dulain,” he replied softly.
I brought the light cord back up. I had released it when Marleah missed KwinJai’s toss. When the cord reached chest high, I knocked a light column to impact with his chest. He did catch and convert the cylinder into a sphere. He threw it to Dulain who returned it. They exchanged throws for eighty deci before the light energy dissipated.
It was Dulain’s turn. Lucera would play catch with him. All proceeded well. They passed the glowing orb between them for almost seventy deci before the ball faded away.
Now it was Lucera’s turn. I volunteered to exchange throws with her. Once I sent the cylinder on its way, I could drop the light cord and be ready to accept her pitch. I set the light beam into motion. She controlled it and converted the cylinder into a sphere. She threw it to me. I pitched it back to her. We kept it moving between us until it faded some seventy deci later.
“Good job everybody,” I told them. “What did you notice about today’s session?”
“It’s good to use wards,” stated KwinJai soberly.
“True,” I commented. “Anything else?”
“The light energy doesn’t last very long,” observed Beltrain.
“If we wanted to target something, we would need to act quickly,” supplied Dulain.
“Very true,” I agreed. “Let me demonstrate something.” They formed a loose circle around me. I drew a cord of light energy up from the crystal. I pulled it up until it was again at chest high. Then, I cut the cord with my ward allowing the cord below the cut to drop back to the crystal. The upward moving beam I caught and transformed into a ball. I pushed the orb upward until it was just under the ceiling. While I kept it up there, I shot a small continuous beam down at the barely sparkling crystal at my feet. I let all the light energy stream into the crystal. It looked better; it had definitely increased its twinkling.
“Wait, does that mean I could have controlled the orb that went over my head?” Marleah asked.
“It is possible,” I confirmed. “It does take a bit of practice.”
“Cool!” exclaimed KwinJai.
I smiled at KwinJai. Then, including all of my Hexacle, I said, “You have all worked very hard. I am going to call a halt to this session.” My words were met with a mixture of relieved and disappointed murmurings. “Please release your personal wards. KwinJai, take down the room ward.” They complied with my requests.
“It is early afternoon, why are we stopping now?” asked Jacarr.
“For you to gain the practice you need, we require a larger space,” I replied. “We need to be able to use weapon level beams. And to do that I need a bigger space to give you a modicum of safety.
“Ah. What shall we do in the mean time?” inquired KwinJai.
“Let’s go play Tile Ball,” suggested Dulain. The rest of us assented.
Not too long afterward, we were in the gym. It was sparsely populated this time. Two of the game courts were open, so we had access to a playing space right away. We selected Tile Ball, agreed to random tile change during game play, and a two turn game length. This time Lucera choose to be the first substitute. Marleah, KwinJai, and Jacarr faced off against Dulain, Beltrain and I. Again, my team wore a red sash.
By the end of the game, the non-sash wearing team won by three points. Because of substitution, Dulain and I wound up on the winning team. No matter. The game had been fun and challenging. We each had some new bruises and floor burns. Jacarr and Dulain knocked each other into the wall when the lighted tiles suddenly switched to ones further away. In their hurry to launch for the new tiles, they collided. Fortunately, they regained their feet almost immediately. And in the last forty-five deci of play, we had a pile up. It took us a while to untangle ourselves. When we managed it, poor KwinJai was on the bottom. It was clear he was hurting. After a quick scan, I mended two of his ribs. I had him sit out during the last moments of the game.
As we left the court, I heard someone call my title. When I turned back, a dark haired youth stood before me.
“Healer Nickoli,” he repeated.
“Yes?” I asked.
“I’m Case Frasier, one of Simone’s grandsons,” he said, identifying himself.
“Ah, it’s nice to meet you,” I responded.
“Same here,” he agreed. “Thank you so much for healing my grandmother. She is so lively and happy now. It is wonderful!”
“Are Phillip and Mary having trouble keeping up with her?” I inquired with a smile.
“Yes,” he laughed. But, we teenagers are loving it!”
“That is good news,” I told him. “And you are welcome. I’m glad I was able to help her.” We shook hands and then he departed. I watched him join some other youths getting ready to enter a court. I didn’t see Simone.
“Nickoli!” called Dulain. “Is something wrong?”
“No, one of Simone’s grandsons just thanked me for healing her,” I explained.
“Ah, okay,” he said.
“Lead on,” I suggested. Dulain turned and I followed him as he made his way out of the gym. We were not that far behind the others. It wasn’t long before we caught up to them. We returned to our suite to get cleaned up and to catch our breath. We decided to go to the dining hall for dinner. We dressed in our Hexacle garb and departed for the hall. As luck would have it, we were last in line. Chances were good we would be able to dine as a group.
We were seated together. We enjoyed our meal. As we lingered over our desert and kahvi, Captain Lawrence joined us.
“Good evening, Captain Lawrence,” I called to him, rising to my feet.
“Good evening, Lord Hexator,” he greeted taking my proffered hand in a handshake. “And Hexacle,” he added, including my companions. “I hope you all enjoyed the evening meal.”
“Yes we did,” I replied.
“The desert is very good,” commented KwinJai. The others echoed my response.
“I’m pleased to hear it,” responded the captain.
“Would you like to join us?” I asked indicating the empty place.
“I would,” he replied, taking the seat. Once we were settled, he added, “I have confirmed that cargo bay four has room in it for your training exercises.”
“That is wonderful news!” I told him. “May we start using it tomorrow?”
“You may,” he answered. “Would you elaborate on the nature of your training exercises?”
“Of course
,” I replied. “We are working on some technics that require more space than our suite will accommodate. Specifically, we are practicing imaging machines, learning to work those machines, and studying a ‘catch and release’ process.”
“Will we be able to watch?” he asked.
“You may see what we are doing from outside the bay,” I responded. “But you will not be able to monitor with your equipment or from within the space.” At his puzzled expression, I continued, “We will be shielding the interior of the bay and whatever is in the bay. The shield is to prevent damage and to keep anomalies from interfering with normal ship operations.”
“Would you be a little more specific?” he inquired with concern evident.
“It may be better if we demonstrated,” I told him. “Lucera, please take the image from me and make-it-real.” In short order, a tiny miniature fighter appeared on the table. It was half the size of the toys we had been using. “The operations are exactly like the larger toy. Go ahead and fly it around the table. When you get back to the point of origin, start a hot run using the creamers with targets on them.”
“What if I miss?” asked Lucera.
“We will shield,” I told her. She started flying the tiny craft around the table. She kept it below shoulder level so that it would not draw anyone’s attention outside of our group. When she got to her starting place, she flew the vessel down the center of the table, firing on creamer containers that we painted with targets. She hit them all! Our shielding was not needed, but we had it in place. When she finished her run, she landed her ship in front of the Captain. His face reflected his amazement.
“It is so small!” he marveled. “And… it’s functional.”
“Yes,” I commented. “We need to see if we can image the craft at full size.”
“You can do that?” he asked.
“We will soon find out,” I answered. “That is one of the reasons we need a larger space.” I nodded to Lucera. She dropped the image of the vessel. The craft and all the tiny slugs vanished. The only evidence of the little ship’s presence were the drained creamer containers and puddles of cream in the small bowls that held the containers.
