“Any ideas on how we can confirm it?”
“Stop using Essence and see if something changes.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“Nope. I’ve got work to do. You?”
“I’ve been trying to feel any draining effect while using it, but I got nada. And Wilson didn’t suggest we stop using it. I wonder why?”
“Holding back isn’t how we figure things out,” Taryn said, firing another two shots before turning back to face Wes. “When in doubt, shoot about.”
“If there was a problem with Essence, Kara should have it more than us.”
“Yeah, and she’s still strong. I don’t get what he’s getting at, but it’s bugging me too. He doesn’t pull practical jokes…though this would actually be a good one.”
“I don’t find it funny.”
“It’s not. But as an idiot check, it has some merit.”
“You think he’s wrong?”
“I think I’m going to keep an open mind. If Wilson can’t pinpoint it, then it might not exist, but something is off with us. I think it’s more boredom than anything waiting on the fleet to build up before we can take it to the Hadarak. I hate waiting.”
“Paul didn’t come back, so I’m guessing he isn’t having much success self-analyzing either.”
“He’s not. He has Cal-com to help him analyze.”
“Even worse.”
Taryn sighed, then threw her hands wide in surrender. “We’re all missing something. We don’t know where to go from here other than to repeat the past. Either there is nothing else or it’s well hidden.”
“Or we’re all stupid and missing the obvious.”
“How could we be at this point?”
“We’ve had to deal with plateaus before. Now all we do is throw Essence at it. Maybe Wilson has a point in that.”
“That it’s messing with our perspective? Ok. For the next week no more Essence use. We’ll play old school rules.”
“No psionics either?”
“Not what I meant, but maybe that’s not a bad idea. We’ll need to use inhibitors or it just won’t feel right holding back.”
“We don’t have inhibitors for Essence...at least not any that I’m using.”
“True, but there’s a difference between not choosing to fly and not being able to. Psionic inhibitors while we promise not to use Essence. We can let Wilson figure up some special challenges for us on those parameters.”
“Put up your pistols then,” Wes said, looking at her hands.
Taryn fake twirled her ‘pistols’ and put them into nonexistent hip holsters. “Done. We’re going to have a lot more free time without psionics and Essence to work on.”
“When’s the last time you did a long run?”
“I did 40 miles last week.”
“I said long. Like 20 hours.”
“I haven’t done anything that long in…well, actually I can’t remember.”
“Up for a group run? Then communal nap time?”
“Sure. Are we racing this or just running?”
“Just running. Maybe we’ll knock someone’s brain loose enough to get an epiphany.”
“So we are going to run each other into the ground,” Taryn predicted.
“Not at first,” Wes said, shrugging. “You know how it works.”
“No turning blonde then. We make this legitimately old school.”
“Good idea. How soon?”
“Couple hours. See how many of the others you can grab.”
“On it,” Wes said, turning and walking out of the room as the doorway melted back into a wall as Taryn was about to command the pillar to retract…then stopped herself before using her telepathy. Instead she walked over and hit the physical button, then walked over to the wall and found the tiny icon there and opened the door with a finger press as the pillar sank into the floor and disappeared, as did she, walking out and leaving the chamber in powered down mode.
Paul and Cal-com were spending another day walking around a different city on Turron and just practicing being ‘small’ when they tired of the subterfuge and instead set out for the primitive regions of the planet beyond the cities.
They purchased supplies from the locals, with both of them hefting large backpacks over their robes as they walked out the city gates into the desert beyond. There was nothing to see except sand dunes and a few towers in the distance. Those were visual markers for the people out here to use, as well as comm towers to link the few mining sites, reclusive resorts, and other spots of civilization out here, but most of it was just empty wasteland to explore…and apparently many people did, for the line going out the gate was long and delayed, with both outgoing groups and incoming ones.
Some had more gear, some less, and from the look of it a few of the groups were set up for multiple weeks in the wilderness, though Paul and Cal-com only had provisions for 8 days…and with Paul’s advanced metabolism that really meant 3.
After passing through the gate and logging their credentials…which they’d also had to acquire with fake IDs to avoid attention…they began walking side by side in the sand as the sun baked down on top of their hooded heads.
“Are these supposed to be heavy?” Paul asked after they were out of earshot of the wall gate and the ingoing crowd assembled there.
“After a while it probably will be. Are you finding it too light?” the Voku asked.
“Just wondering how much my perspective has changed training in the High G chamber.”
“With this dry air I’m wondering if we packed enough water. Do you consume extra amounts as well as food?”
“Unfortunately yes. I’d wanted to take off where the others weren’t going, but we should probably hit one of the oases to top off before heading further out.”
“Where exactly do you want to go?”
“Somewhere we can be conspicuous and anonymous at the same time.”
“Then I recommend we head southeast, across that low ridgeline, and strike out from the New Luminance outpost. The Sand Sea is beyond that, and it has as
