Point Zero by Aer-ki Jyr (christmas read aloud TXT) 📕

of your miles. You must be within the atmosphere to locate it if you do not otherwise have the coordinates.”

“Thank you, Muen-ti. I will arrange a special indoctrination slot for you. One away from the other Chixzon who surrendered.”

That brought a visible shiver. “There were others?”

“Three more, who I am to speak with shortly. It seems you were not the only one dissatisfied with their former path. Do not worry, I will not tell them your name nor will you ever see them again. Your path forward will be a solitary one where you can leave the Chixzon behind.”

“May I make a request?”

“You may ask.”

“You have many Protovic in your empire. They are Chixzon who were not allowed to become Chixzon again. If I prove myself worthy, will you change me back into their form?”

Tyver raised an eyebrow. “You wish the downgrade?”

“I wish to be free of the Chixzon oppression, and the controls they set into our minds. It took a great deal of effort to crack them previously, but much remains. I would give up my enhanced abilities to be a free-minded Protovic gladly.”

“I will remember that request. I am not sure how easy such a transformation is to do, but since you are the same race in different forms, it should be possible…if you earn it.”

“I will.”

“I will speak to you once more before you leave the ship,” Tyver said as he spun about and left the chamber, but he didn’t go directly to the next one. Instead he went to review the ship’s navigational database and see what information there was on Shi go Zu Mata’ki. That place, nor that name, hadn’t come up in any of the Saiyan reports as yet, though at the moment Tyver’s task and theirs was the same.

As soon as they got position data for other Chixzon locations he would be taking his personal warfleet out after them, on Kara’s orders. Nobody knew deep space better than Clan Ghostblade, and if the informant’s information proved true about the roaming ships, they would have to be hunted down quickly before word could leak out that their anonymity had been compromised.

So as soon as the Saiyans dug out enough information, Tyver would be off hunting, but this secret facility that even the Chixzon could not access was intriguing, and perhaps more important. He wanted to go after it himself, but knew he would be occupied in the coming years with the Chixzon hunt, so after finding nothing to back it up in the ship’s database he transferred the information to a small courier ship and tasked it with immediately returning to the Star Force comm grid so the data could be sent to Kara-317, and from there she’d know how best to deal with it…

“And then what?” Paul asked as he sat on the foot of his bed, soaked head to toe in sweat from a recent run that Kara had done with him, and beat him in, despite his own Saiyan burst at the end, though she had also cheated and Essence-enhanced her body to do it.

“And then she said you looked like an Avatar reject,” Kara said, no longer dripping herself as her Vorch’nas had already soaked up all the excess sweat and recycled it.

Paul glanced down at the faint hint of blue in his skin that was currently streaked with red from the stress of their workout. “She’s not totally wrong,” he admitted as Kara’s face suddenly went blank, with her staring at his knees…but he knew she wasn’t really looking at him, rather processing something mentally.

It only lasted a moment, then she glanced up at him. “News from the Chixzon front,” she said, having gotten the update on her Vorch’nas. “Prisoners taken, other locations discovered and the fleet is dispatched. Four Chixzon surrendered, and one of them provided something a bit scary.”

“What?” Paul asked as she raised her arm and produced a hologram of a particular star system.

“A location the Chixzon were tasked to go to retrieve something after they were reborn. They tried and failed multiple times, with all who entered being killed. No one ever returned. They were all cut into four precise sections, and even the drones who viewed their bodies laid out on the arrival platform of a station buried inside a gas giant…”

“Do not go there,” Azoro said, appearing beside Kara, though only in Paul’s mind. “You are not ready. It is a remnant of far greater power.”

Paul held up a hand to stop Kara. “Is it from their ancestors?”

“No. This is something far more dangerous. When the time comes you will go there, and you alone. But that is not now nor in the near future. Do not send your people. They will not be able to gain access, and that place has the ability to kill starships if need be. Do not approach, do not monitor. Stay away from it for now.”

Paul’s head hurt from the forced conversation, but Azoro didn’t linger after delivering the warning, and this time it was Kara’s turn to look at him oddly, for he’d been speaking aloud.

The trailblazer touched his fingers to his forehead, trying to massage the hurt away and failing. He’d had a long conversation with Azoro three days ago, and was still burnt out from it, now add this.

“Yoda says don’t go into the dark cave until later when I’m ready.”

“He knows what it is?”

“Seems to, and he’s adamant that none of us go there. Says even starships are at risk of being destroyed. He says later, when I’m ready, I’m to go alone…presumably with him tagging along Yuumi style.”

“So there’s stuff in our galaxy like this that we could trip over at any moment?” she asked incredulously. “Why not draw us a map of everything he knows to be safe?”

“Probably because we have plenty