Star Force: Trials (SF68) (3 page)

Wilson knew better, and even with Jason’s psionics
this was crossing a line. Even if there were hidden safety teams nearby it
didn’t matter. You did not mess with water in the lungs…period.

With that realization slapping him in the face Jason
picked a direction and started swimming, his soaked uniform dragging him down
as he moved. He wanted to peel it and his shoes off to make himself more agile,
not knowing what was coming his way, but he relented for the same reason. He
didn’t want to lose his clothes and then need them going forward.

Jason swam a good ways before he finally saw something
in his Pefbar, coming up on a containment wall that he then followed to the
left. It arced on a predictable curve, but there were no handholds or entrances
within sight. Expecting it to be the edge of a circular chamber he knew to just
follow the perimeter around until he did find an exit.

Jason spent the next half hour swimming, finding the
‘predictable’ curve to disappear within 100 meters and transition into a twisty
curvy nightmare. He held to his plan and followed the outline, but without a
battlemap he had no way of knowing where he was and the other side of the water
was outside his Pefbar range, so all he could see was the nearest piece of the
wavy wall that had several inlets, all without exits, ladders, or even a dot of
texture. They were sheer and unclimbable without his armor tech, not to mention
blocking his Pefbar…and Ikrid. If there were minds on the other side he
couldn’t sense them, and his Ikrid range was much larger than his
Pefbar’s
.

Trying to measure his distance and location by mental
plotting, Jason figured he went all the way around the water at least twice
before the undulations in the wall became familiar. That frustrated him to no
end, having spent the past half hour swimming around in a lumpy circle, but he
knew it was probably part of the test. He’d looked everywhere he could swim, so
what the hell was he…

Then he realized he hadn’t looked everywhere. Taking a
deep breath he sunk himself below the surface and swam down following the wall
and searching out the bottom of the tank, for there was no way this was ocean.
Too warm and not salty.

His lungs began to burn mildly before his Hanme kicked
in, and would remain that way letting him know he was on the clock. A second
sensation accompanied them, as if it was a mental progress bar that was slowly
diminishing, which to his point of view felt like a metallic bar that was being
consumed. He could ‘taste’ how much of it was there, which was how he knew how
much reserve oxygen he had. It was the biological equivalent of a status bar on
a helmet’s HUD, and Jason knew he had a few minutes to work with while he was
actively swimming.

That bar got below half before he finally found the
bottom. As soon as he did he used his telekinesis to push the water around him
out in such a way that a little bit of it vaporized and created an unbreathable
atmosphere around him that he then sealed inside a bioshield. Releasing the
Lachka and holding the shape with the shield only, his buoyancy pulled him up
quickly, enhanced as he changed the shape of a shield into a cone to give him
less drag.

When he got back to the surface he let go the shield
and began to breathe in healthy gulps of air to recycle what was in his lungs
as well as to start refilling his Hanme reserves, now even more frustrated,
knowing that searching the bottom of the large pool was going to take forever.

3

As soon as he recovered enough he headed back down
again, this time pushing his pace with the technique Paul had taught him using
bioshield ‘tractor treads’ to provide propulsion along the outside of his legs.
He hadn’t practiced it much and it was very tricky to pull off due to the
control factors, but he managed to goose his speed in spurts, unable to hold
the effort for more than a couple of seconds. He did manage to reach the bottom
with some time to spare, then he began swimming laterally and scanning the
bottom with his Pefbar.

He couldn’t stay down there long and found nothing in
his limited search area before he had to come back up…then wait through another
Hanme recharge period. If this really was Wilson’s doing then he guessed this
was going to be a grinding process, with Jason setting his mind to the task of
multiple dives with tiny search areas below in order to map out the base of the
artificial pond. In the meantime he had to tread water one way or another, for
there was nowhere to get a handhold.

He flipped over on his back and floated there with a
slight leg kick to keep from sinking as he breathed in and recharged, keeping
his Pefbar locked on the nearby wall to keep from drifting and losing his
position. He had to be meticulous in his search else he could miss something on
the floor. Without a map or light to see by
he
had to
be very careful in this else he could be looking for something forever…and to
make it worse he didn’t even know what he was looking for.

When Jason was on his 18th dive the silence of the dark
chamber was broken by an impact overhead. It was too far up for him to see with
his Pefbar, but the sound waves traveled down to him none the less. He jerked
with surprise and lost an air bubble from his mouth, then abandoned the search
and created another mist void bubble around him to bring him up to the surface
as quickly as possible, for while his Pefbar couldn’t reach up that high his
Ikrid could and he sensed a familiar mind.

When Jason reached the surface he took a couple of
deep breaths then began swimming across the chamber for a few strokes before
thinking better of it and holding position.

Over here
,
Jason said telepathically, not wanting to lose his orientation in the pond and
waste all the mapping runs he’d already made.

What the hell is
going on?
Blade-097 asked as Jason felt his mental dot start to move
towards him.

One of Wilson’s
surprises, I’d wager. I’ve been around the entire perimeter and there is
nothing on the walls to use. The bottom is deep and I’ve started mapping it
out, which is why I don’t want to move or I’ll lose my orientation and have to
start over.

How long have
you been here?

I’d guess at
least an hour, but I have no clue. And the walls are Pefbar and probably Ikrid
blocked.

Noticed that,
Blade said as he finally popped up on the edge of Jason’s Pefbar as he swam
towards him with decent speed. More than decent, actually.

Do you have
bioshield augmented swimming?

Yeah. I thought
we all did?

Mine sucks, and
the slower I go the less time I have to explore the bottom. It’s the only place
I can think of to look for an exit.

What about up?

Can’t climb the
walls.

Don’t need to
now,
Blade pointed out.

I’ve looked with
Pefbar, but unless there’s some tiny switch I’ve missed there’s nothing up
there. My money is on down.

Have you seen
any of the others?

No. I walked
into this trap as soon as I got into the city and I can’t sense beyond the
walls or floor.

Well, if we’re
going down let’s do this the fast way,
Blade said, sending Jason a
battlemeld prompt. As soon as the trailblazer accepted it he knew what his
fellow Archon had in mind. Reaching out with his Lachka, Jason lifted Blade out
of the water when he was still some 20 meters off and sent him towards the
ceiling, tipping him upside down. As he did that Blade used his telekinesis to split
the water below him, forming as long of a tunnel down as he could before Jason
released him and he picked up speed from the gravity drop, sliding into the
hole in the water and continuing down until he hit the bottom of the air
column.

He split the water with a bioshield needle and covered
distance quickly until the drag finally slowed him, then Blade transitioned to
the leg augments and motored his way straight down to the bottom, barely
hanging onto his battlemeld link with Jason due to the distance. Once down there
he was able to see the flat bottom of the pond, then began moving around in a
search grid using Jason as a navigational point. Eventually he came back up
when his air ran out, helped by a telekinetic tug that pulled him up out of the
water a meter, then Blade dropped down into a bioshield bowl that floated him
like a boat.

“That is a long way down,” he said, sinking himself
back into the water gently before fully releasing the bioshield as he lifted
Jason up into the air and positioned him to the next search point on their
little grid. When he shot him down in the same manner Blade stayed on the
surface sucking air as he watched the results through their battlemeld link.

When Jason came back up he went again, with the pair
alternating too many times to count before Jason finally found something. It
was barely a finger-sized depression in the floor, but it held a button that he
did not press immediately, choosing instead to come back up and recharge his
air supply. Blade went down as he did, heading straight to that spot and
finding the button again. He didn’t waste air and pressed it immediately…with a
blinding flash of light shocking him as the bottom of the pond lit up in a
variety of concealed lights.

Seeing through Jason’s senses more than his own, Blade
saw the entire floor of the pool for the first time, for the water was crystal
clear, though the outer lights began to wink off, shrinking the pattern until
it reduced down to a spiral that eventually disappeared at the center…which was
not where the button was.

What the hell
was that?

I don’t know
,
Jason answered.
Try again.

Blade hit the button a second time and the light show
returned, diminishing down to the same spot on the floor before disappearing.
Jason sensed that Blade was going to need air soon and felt him start to come
back up to the surface while he mentally kept a plot on the spiral midpoint.
Blade knew what he was doing, so when he got topside he swam over to where
Jason guided him and sucked air for a bit as his counterpart swam over to the
button location. When both were ready Blade picked Jason up at the edge of his
telekinetic range and gave him the accelerated head start before heading down
the old fashioned way himself.

Jason reached bottom a few seconds ahead of the faster
Blade and pushed the button. The lights came on same as before, but as Blade
followed the diminishing spiral down to its finishing point he found…absolutely
nothing.

Not giving up he ran his hands over the smooth floor,
hoping to find something his Pefbar was missing, but eventually he ran out of
air and had to go back up top again after three more light cycles.

“I don’t get it,” he said across the gap to where
Jason was treading water.

“We have to be missing something.”

“Yeah, what?”

“Maybe it’s a countdown rather than an arrow.”

“Could be,” Blade agreed. “But to what?”

Jason kicked himself around in a circle, extending his
Pefbar out in spotlight mode to get more distance. “Go tap it again.”

Blade swam over to his position, knowing what he was
thinking thanks to the battlemeld. Jason picked him up in a Lachka grip and
sent him down torpedo style again, but instead of looking down at the lights he
focused his Pefbar up and laterally. He still couldn’t see the whole chamber in
spotlight mode, but the extra range he gained he used to make a quick sweep
that he repeated through a regular oscillation.

Nothing showed up, so he swam as fast as he could over
to another section of the pond and had Blade hit the button again before he ran
out of air. Jason scanned that section of the wall and ceiling, still getting
nothing. Blade came up and launched Jason down and the two switched roles, with
two more section scans before they spotted a small anomaly on the wall just
above the waterline.

“Got it,” Blade said enthusiastically as the lights
disappeared and the small blip with them. Jason was still battlemeld linked
with him and knew to press it again one last time before he ran out of air and
came back up to the top. As he rose up he saw through Blade’s senses as he swam
frantically to that side of the pond, then managed to shoot himself up out of
the water and over to the wall the last few meters.

He smacked the wall and slid down, his hand running
across a depression that vanished just as he got to it. He felt a handle
disappear underneath his touch, then he slid back into the water and was out of
reach of it by half a meter. Blade locked that spot firmly in his mind and
waited out Jason’s recharge period, intending to get it the next time.

“How did you do that frog jump?”

“You saw it. Do you really have to ask,” Blade
answered, referencing their still active battlemeld.

“I felt a shield and a reverse crash bag.”

“I didn’t use Lachka.”

“What then?”

“I jumped with a Yetu burst.”

“Off your own bioshield?”

“Sure.”

“How the hell did you do that?”

“I linked it to the water like an overlay. It helps
get around the projector difficulty.”

“So you’re close to creating stair steps in the air?”

“Might look like it, but no. Unfortunately.”

“Funny, I don’t recall you mentioning anything about
that in your training logs.”

“Really? Must have slipped my mind,” he said, giving
Jason enough surface thoughts to read to know that he’d been working extra hard
on aquatics for both himself and his Clan Cortana. “Now would you please press
that button one more time?”

Jason sucked in a deep breath, mentally letting him know
he and Blade were going to have a long chat on his little technique later.
Being too far away for a telekinetic assist, Jason made his own conduit in the
water beside him then ducked head first into it, not getting half as far as
their original torpedo but still managing a bit of a head start. He wasn’t
fully recovered yet, but he didn’t need to be to just get to that one spot and
back again so he swam hard until he saw the blip on his Pefbar, then eased down
to it and pressed the button after giving Blade an unnecessary heads up.

Up
top
the other trailblazer
waited, ignoring the lights as they snapped on and focusing on the patch of
wall above him. Like clockwork, as soon as the water lit up the depression
formed, sinking into the wall to reveal a T-shaped handle inset into the hole.

Blade used his bioshield tractor treads to raise him
up until his torso was even with the calm water. From there he reached up to
grab the handle and felt for how it worked with a probing yank. When it didn’t
move he experimented, finding that it did pull out laterally like a drawer.
Using it as a handhold he pressed a foot against the wall to get some leverage
and yanked it out a good foot before he heard a click to his right and a short
doorway formed inches above the waterline.

Got it Jason.
Get your ass up here
, Blade told him as he swam over and climbed up inside
the meter high tube. When the lights disappeared the hatch over the opening
began to close, but Blade wedged himself into it and was ready to use both
bioshields and Lachka to keep it open if necessary, though there was hardly any
resistance in the mechanism aside from a gentle push.

Blade reached a hand towards the water and created a Bataf
repulsor conduit down to Jason then retracted it rapidly, pulling him up
through the water at an angle and over to his wedged position. When his head
broke the surface Blade let go of the Bataf and the battlemeld.

“That bastard made it a binary,” Blade complained as
Jason swam the last few meters up to him. “There’s no way one person could make
it on their own.”

“Let’s leave it open just in case one of the others
gets dunked in here.”

“Good idea,” Blade said as he slid in a bit further to
give Jason room to climb in while holding the two halves of the hatch apart
with his arm and foot. The other trailblazer climbed inside and Blade let go,
sliding down the dark tunnel a bit more and unable to see anything beyond the
straight tube.

“This would be easier if I could see inside the wall,”
Jason said as he tried to bend the door segments.

“Just melt it.”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed, concentrating and summoning up a
heat surge into his right index finger…then suddenly he and Blade were yanked
down the tube. Jason’s hand caught him on the edge of the hatch as it moved to
close with his fellow trailblazer disappearing into the distance. His grip
didn’t last long, for the hatch reversed direction and fully retracted into the
tube wall giving him nothing to grip. He felt a force field activate on the
outside of the wall so he couldn’t slide his fingers over the edge and latch
on, then the last bit of hatch disappeared and he got sucked down after Blade.

The tube made a tight turn after a few seconds, then
he was dropped into a larger one and got dunked into water again, this time the
moving variety as he slid down what was essentially a pitch black waterslide
with his Pefbar again not penetrating the walls. Blade’s mental signature
returned for a split second before disappearing a second time as Jason entered
a long straight section that had him falling at a steep angle before dragging
him around a spiral that eventually ended with a bright light…