1
April 19, 154930
Poolion System (Home Two Kingdom)
Turron
“How long this time?” Paul asked as Cal-com helped him sit up as his entire body was even more sore this time after waking up.
“6 hours. Your lapses are getting shorter. Whatever is happening, you might be adapting to it. Can you walk?”
“I can try, but I don’t think I’ll get very far.”
“Then I must leave you to get supplies,” Cal-com said gravely.
Paul nodded, then worked his jaw around as it objected to the movement.
“What do you feel like this time?” the Voku asked his smaller friend as he sat on the floor of their partially sand-covered tent as the wind whipped at the flexible material protecting them from the outside environment.
“Painful, as if I’ve been in combat and getting my ass kicked. My body is getting worse, not better.”
“Something is happening to you. Your genetic code is altering with each blackout. Do you have any new insights…or dreams?”
“Not that I can remember. I’m sleeping deeper than I have since I was very young. My body shouldn’t require this much, even before my Saiyan upgrade.”
“And somehow you are falling further behind?”
“Funny, isn’t it?”
“At least your mood is improving.”
Paul looked down at his arms, which had gotten noticeably smaller with the muscle atrophy…and something else. “I should be freaking out about this, but it feels…necessary. I don’t know why, but I need to see it through and I don’t think it’s going to end soon. I need supplies, and I don’t want moved. Anyone near me right now is a threat, no matter how puny,” he said, looking up into his friend’s blue visor that protected his three tiny eyes.
“I understand. Do you wish me to return by vehicle for increased speed?”
“Not if it means letting someone know where I am. I know we’re not hiding from sensors, but nobody around here has really good ones and…”
“You need as few variables as possible,” Cal-com said, cutting him off. “Eat now, then I will leave.”
Paul picked up a couple of food cubes with his fingers, knowing somehow not to use his telekinesis or any of his other psionics. His jaw objected mightily the first few bites, then began to loosen up as he downed a few gulps of water out of one of their few remaining full bottles as he found he had little saliva to work with.
“I don’t want to go back,” he said abruptly after downing his 14th food cube enroute to the 15th.
“You don’t have to. I am going to get enough to last us a few weeks out here.”
“I don’t mean the settlement. I mean back to the way I was. Something in my head has cleared up, and I’m scared to look backwards. It’s like I was suppressed before and didn’t even know it. I can’t go back. I know that now. I won’t have any defense against it.”
“You operated quite well before. What scares you about it?”
Paul shook his head, despite the soreness in his neck that it elicited. “I don’t know. I’m totally in the dark here, Cal-com. But I’m open. I think I was blind before, with the illusion that I knew what was going on. I feel like a total newb now, and my body is agreeing with that sentiment. I have no control, but I can’t go back. I have to go forward and I don’t know how. I’m fumbling around, but as long as I can hang onto this clearness of mind, I’ll work it out. But I can’t go back. I can’t…”
Cal-com could sense his fear even without having to use his telepathy. His body language was screaming it.
The Voku put a hand on his small shoulder and steadied it, not wanting to use any telepathy that might disrupt whatever was happening to him. “If this is a natural upgrade and not destruction, I am confident you will find your way through it. My job is to keep exterior threats from taking advantage of your momentary weakness. I will be quick, but there will be a period of vulnerability. You need to wear your armor until then.”
Paul jerked, and Cal-com could tell he was emotionally raw beyond measure right now.
“That makes logical sense, but my gut is saying no way in hell.”
“Claustrophobia?”
“Yes.”
“Use the shields then.”
“No…I need the air. I know that makes no sense, but I need to be free and exposed. I feel like I’ll suffocate inside armor or shields.”
“Then relieve yourself now so you do not have to leave the tent later, unless you wish to use your gauntlets to draw the waste material out of you directly?”
“Can you give me a wind block?”
“Done,” Cal-com said, standing up and opening the door as the blowing sand tried to get in, but the Voku’s mass blocked most of it as he went outside…then the turbulent air disappeared over the entrance, but was still hammering the rest of the tent.
Paul crawled painfully to his feet, but found his footing to be more reliable than he expected as he stepped outside amidst a daytime storm that Cal-com was acting as a barrier against, using his own armor to produce a shield wall upwind of the entrance so it wouldn’t knock Paul over as he slowly walked out with tiny, unsure steps to a few meters away where he undid his pants and began to pee into the sand, with the dryness eating up the moisture as soon as it landed.
His bladder was full again, and just releasing it felt beyond good, almost as if it was the first time he’d ever done it…which was ridiculous…but everything seemed new now that his head was ‘unstuck,’ and he didn’t want to lose a moment of his newfound freedom, for his past was lurking like a giant monster about to
