“And you couldn’t fully rest,” Cal-com said, seeing the connection. “You were hyped up so much that your senses got numbed without you realizing it.”
“And we advanced so much that none of our skills went backwards, they improved, so we didn’t notice the negative. We’ve been permanently in workout mode since we made the transition…and it’s gotta be worse for the others that went Saiyan 2 and 3. Ginsi went 4, so I have no idea how bad it is for her, but I bet she doesn’t even notice. We got too mission focused, and we forgot to notice our surroundings where they didn’t apply. And when we couldn’t slow down and rest, we had to have another mission or we’d go nuts. We were blocking some of our own abilities, the type that we couldn’t mechanically measure.”
“And you succeeded.”
“Which meant we forgot we’d lost anything. The zoom on my eyes just hammered that into my head.”
“When you’re focused your situational awareness diminishes, and when your situational awareness increases your focus lapses. You have to rotate between them periodically, and you inadvertently prevented yourself from doing so.”
“That’s my guess. Whatever else is happening to me undid the lock, now I’m catching up rapidly…and it hurts because of the speed of change.”
“Can you sleep before you black out?”
“Not gonna try. The more I’m aware the more my head defrags. It’s my body that needs the blackouts.”
“And the more you process the less you have remaining in queue?”
“If I’m right, these bouts will get shorter and shorter until they end. After that I may need to sleep a lot, maybe not. But I think the worst is passed.”
“But your pain is increasing.”
“Cumulative effect. I can handle it, but for the others it will be worse. A lot worse.”
“Yet these other changes may be ramping up.”
“One thing at a time,” Paul said, feeling his head start to go loopy again. “I’m fading out, but I’ve got a foothold now to work from. And once processed…these upgrades aren’t going backwards again. There is…no going back,” he said, with a hint of a smile as his new green eyes closed and Cal-com’s readings indicated that he was on the boundary of unconsciousness…but lingering there for the moment rather than the rapid crashes Paul had had earlier. Perhaps he was doing something to smooth the transition…that wouldn’t surprise Cal-com, but regardless, a few minutes later he was out again, leaving Cal-com as his bodyguard out in the middle of the Sand Sea with nobody around save for the occasional speeder in the far distance getting across the wasteland as fast as possible.
They had their privacy here to figure this out, and a few weeks of supplies to do it. But while Paul was more content, Cal-com still knew the root issue eluded them. What was causing his initial changes? Where was it coming from? And what did this vision connection have to do with it?
Cal-com wondered if they weren’t alone here, but despite his constant checks he could find no trace of anyone or anything.
“Rest, my friend. A partial answer is victory enough for now,” he said, withdrawing the Regenerator tendrils and sitting down next to the prone Human as he began inventorying their supplies and telekinetically bringing the new packs in one at a time through the open door flap that gave just a hint of a breeze in the otherwise tranquil, yet blistering conditions outside.
Fortunately Paul’s body didn’t seem to be bothered by it, nor did Cal-com’s so long as they stayed in the shade. Other than the fact they were losing water faster in this environment…but he’d accounted for that, and most of the weight he’d carried out here had been water…plus a moisture vaporator that he pulled out of one of the packs and set just outside the door to collect some of the moisture coming out of the tent so they could use it again later.
It would give them some additional time out here, and right now Cal-com had no idea how much Paul would need, but he was going to insure he could stay put as long as necessary to go through this metamorphosis and survive it, which wasn’t assured at this point, so Paul needed every advantage…or more truthfully, he needed everyone and everything out of his way while he dealt with this internally. The real story was going on inside him, and Cal-com was going to make sure nothing on the outside interfered with it...
2
April 24, 154930
Poolion System (Home Two Kingdom)
Turron
Paul had spent the next 3 days continuing to black out periodically, but the length of the blackouts decreased to only a few minutes before ending entirely. The past 2 days he’d been sleeping heavily, but at a time of his choosing. He could feel the life draining out of him and the incessant need to sleep, but it was no longer overloading him to the point he’d collapse.
The changes to his body were continuing, but slowing. He still didn’t have any answers, but the Archon was gaining a better sense of himself. His mind was continuing to clear up more with each cycle, and the great darkness of the past was diminishing in his memory, to the point it was almost a fiction that he couldn’t believe he had ever fallen for.
Paul stood outside their tent on the sands, his lengthening hair blowing in the gentle wind as another storm was approaching in the distance, with him punching the air in front of him three times so fast it looked like one blurred attack. He alternated between arm attacks and leg kicks on no enemy or object. He was just shadow boxing, loosening up after so much stagnant time and testing his new body to see what
