Time Unknown. Alpha Centauri. Valhalla Station

“Where are we going sister?” Lex looked uncomfortable in the station.

“We have an errand to run. Then we’ll go to the private hangar to head to Earth.” Lisa replied confidently.

“And what is this errand that you must run?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

That answer wasn’t good enough for Lex, but his continued questions did not result in any additional information being given. They walked through the commercial district and eventually walked into an office building. They went to the sixth floor and walked into the waiting room for Psychic Diagnosis.

“Good morning. We’re here for Dr. Amir Ahmad.” Lisa smiled as she said to the receptionist.

“Good morning. Please take a seat, I believe he’s expecting you. I’ll see if he’s available.” The receptionist smiled and gestured to the seats behind them.

“I don’t like this sister.” Lex whispered as he sat down.

“It’ll be fine, they work for us.” Lisa smiled.

“He’s finishing up a call, it’ll be five minutes.”

“Thank you.” Lisa said calmly.

Lex continued to work himself up while Lisa sat there calmly. The receptionist paid no heed to the pair, she was diligently working on the paperwork she was asked to finish and answer the calls to the office. The time seemed to move forward at an infinitesimally small pace.

“Good morning, apologies for the delay. Please follow me.” Dr. Ahmad smiled and gestured for the twins to follow him.

The twins followed the doctor through the corridors of the office building. They passed through several rooms that appeared to be research and development centric, a couple conference rooms, and eventually got to the part of the office that contained individual offices. The doctor walked into his room and then was digging in a cabinet trying to find something.

Dr. Ahmad took two small boxes and pushed them forward to the two twins. “We believe these bracelets will help focus your powers slightly.”

“Slightly? We were expecting much more.” Lex spat the words like venom at the doctor.

“Technologically amplifying or enhancing psychic abilities is an entirely new field of work. Additionally, we need to be especially careful in our research.”

“We appreciate both your assistance and discretion in this matter. I don’t suppose we could convince you to move to the Union?”

“I’m happy to be of assistance. For now, I don’t see the need to move, but if the military focuses on me I would welcome such an opportunity to move.”

“Once again, thank you doctor.”

The twins bowed and then headed out of the office. The twins had put the bracelets on, but only Lisa could feel what it was doing. It wasn’t going to be a major help, but any edge they had against their target was going to be useful.

Friday. 16:00 Nationals Park, Executive Suite 5

“Unmarked right?” Alice squinted at John.

“Still paid for though.” John shrugged.

“Nice digs, got here a bit early though.” Nathan was looking around the suite. “Open bar though, very nice.”

“Good food, drink, baseball game and bullshit among friends. Should be a good evening.” John smiled.

“When’s the chef show up?” Brian asked.

Jessica pulled out a bottle of wine and was pouring for the girls. “He gets here in an hour, says so on the menu.”

John walked over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of Eagle Rare Single Barrel and poured himself a drink. He walked out to the seating area and sat down.

“What a beautiful day.” John was smiling.

Andern sat across the aisle from him. “Not going to be long till the wedding.”

“Five weeks and a day my man. Can’t wait.”

“That is going to be the longest day of your life.” Nathan said as he opened the can of beer.

“If I’m honest I find weddings too damn long and boring. Like an hour of fun after ten hours of ‘what the hell just happened.’ Or something like that.” Andern shook his head.

“You got a PG rated speech ready?” Kevin asked.

“PG you said?” Andern pulled up his tablet and looked at his speech. “Edits will need to be made.”

“I’m impressed he even wrote a speech already.” Thomas laughed.

“Right? I figured he’d remember that morning and then get into a rush to write it.” Brian smiled.

“Hey, did y’all read the room on Wednesday? Good or bad?” John took a sniff of his bourbon before taking a sip.

“Sato doesn’t show emotions at all, like even more so than you John, but he’s excited.” Thomas said.

“Yeah, the others I’d say are a little apprehensive at being on such an old and small ship, but generally I’d say there’s excitement.” Kevin added.

“Except for the three classes bit. That was a dick punch any which way you look at it. Not your fault though.” Andern said as he was editing the speech.

“Can’t blame him for that. I’d say the ops cadets are similar to what Kevin said. Excited to be on a ship but not necessarily that ship.”

“I’m really hoping the cargo room isn’t stacked full of shit like I fear it will be.” John shrugged. “Cornhole in the hallways is a no go.”

“I knew you were going to say that.” Nathan shrugged. “But I get it.”

“I wasn’t joking about it being cramped.” John shook his head.

“You get the captain’s quarters?” Thomas asked.

“Negative, the lieutenant that’s our advisor gets it. The captain’s office got converted into a little studio.” John didn’t sound enthused. “And no Andern, my wife cannot sleep in my room per navy regs. In fact, she’s not even supposed to serve with me.”

“Yeah, I meant to ask you about that. You must’ve got a couples exemption?” Kristin asked as she sat down next to Andern.

“You got it. Which means when we’re seniors this merry little group is going to be split up.”

“Funsuckers.” Theresa said.

The group laughed while John had the biggest grin on his face. “I got a plan about that though.”

Kristin smiled. “Wolfpack?”

“Talked to Joeng about it too. He told me to ask him about it after the deployment.”

“So, he’s down for it if it’s not a big cock up.” Andern smiled. “Smart guy.”

“Cool, so we’d have a trio of destroyers running around together.” Kristin was smiling.

“Let’s focus first on getting through the first deployment.” Alice smiled.

The group continued to talk and enjoy the nice weather. When the chef arrived, he got busy on preparing the different meals the cadets ordered. The stadium got livelier as more fans poured in. The group continued to enjoy each other’s company and the ‘free’ drinks available in the suite. During the third inning John caught a foul ball. He tossed it over to the next suite over so the little kid that was in there could enjoy a free souvenir.

Saturday. 08:30 Cafeteria

The group of cadets were sitting quietly in the cafeteria. Everyone had hangovers of varying severity. Andern and Jessica appeared the worst off. Several complained about open bars and how they temptation they provide is too much. John just slowly ate his breakfast and didn’t say anything.

“After I eat this, I’m going back to sleep.” Kevin said quietly.

“Not so damn loud.” Andern looked like fresh roadkill.

“Good lord you look rough.” Alice said.

“I’m surprised he didn’t puke in the car during the ride back to the academy last night.” Brian said.

“He took care of that when he got back to the dorms.” Nathan shook his head. “Ask me why I know this.”

“Please stop, everything feels awful, and I need food.” Theresa said.

“You know, wine hangovers are worse than whiskey ones.” John said to spice up the conversation.

“Your right, but whiskey makes me sick immediately the moment I have one too many drinks.” Kristin had spent fifteen minutes staring at some toast and had only taken one bite.

The group continued their moping about and attempting to eat. Forty-five minutes later only John and Alice had finished their food. Everyone besides the couple decided to go back to their rooms and rest off the hangover. John and Alice decided to go to the gym and get a workout in to the horror of their friends.

John started out by stretching when they got to the weight room. After that he went straight to the squat station and began lifting. Alice started her workout with the resistance machines. John went from station to station getting reps in. John and Alice both finished their workout by a short yoga routine.

“So, what’s next honey?”

“Going downstairs to finish calibrating the new suit. Then probably do some mental practice, haven’t stretched my brain in a while.”

“Well, I have nothing better to do so I’ll join you.”

The couple headed down to the armory. Alice sat at the table and began reviewing things about their wedding. She knew John had already memorized everything on the list. John was swearing and cursing as the hardware didn’t want to behave correctly. Then as soon as the hardware problems were solved, software problems cropped up.

“Having fun?” Alice smirked.

“You like prodding me, don’t you?”

“Makes me feel better when you make me worry all the time.”

“Gonna concede this argument.”

Alice smiled. “Smart man. How much longer do you think you have left?”

John stopped and thought. “Forty or fifty minutes, which includes that practice time.”

“Hey, how’d you want to go out to eat with the other couples on Tuesday? Down near where you proposed to me?”

“Sounds good to me, there’s a restaurant that you can eat on a dock. Awesome seafood.” John stopped. “Assuming it’s not raining. If it’s raining that’s a hard pass.”

“Well duh. I’ll let them know we’re game.”

John finished updating the software on the kinetic barrier modules. The psychic amplifier was good to good and was already syncing to the armor as expected. The zero-gravity harness on the other hand was near useless. It did not want to work with the new suit of armor. John decided to cut his losses and order a new one and reassigned this one to the engineers to test and see if it would work with a normal Mark 6 suit.

John secured and stowed the gear. He walked over to the practice area and sat down. He began flexing his brain. He floated around the battle looking for things and trying to feel specific things. That’s when it happened. John pulled himself out of the memory suddenly and fell over.

“What’d you do now?” Alice asked dryly.

“Call Kevin and Thomas, apologize and tell them it’s urgent.”

Alice snorted. “Guess we’re going to stay in this dark and dank room a little longer than planned.”

John was still on his back. He shrugged and flailed his arms about. Alice got the urgency John was trying to poorly convey and called their two hungover friends. After that happened, he went back into his memories of the fight and tried to feel what he felt before. And there it was again. He had their psychic wavelength. He keyed a few things into his tablet, then drifted back into his memories.

Thirty minutes later the pair of engineers plus Sato showed up.

“Sato’s flight home isn’t until tomorrow, he was bored and insisted.” Kevin pointed at their upcoming crewmate.

“Hey, remember when we talked about that weapon to use against those two dicks?”

“I mean, it’s one dick and a pussy, but who’s keeping track.” Thomas said dryly.

Everyone just squinted at Thomas’ for his comment.

“What, I’m technically right.”

“You’ve been waiting months to do that haven’t you?” John shook his head.

“Yes, and I remember you wanted a gun.”

“Yeah, well I got it. Follow me.”

John walked over to the terminal and began showing them what the psychic wavelength looked like. The psychic energy was generally a benign energy field that radiated outward from a person. How far it did that would vary from person to person.

“Well, here’s what we came up with when you asked initially.” Kevin pulled up the schematics at the terminal.

“So, if I go check out everything you need, how long would it take to build that?”

“Assuming you have all the parts, an hour assuming we don’t have to fix or resize anything.” Thomas said.

John got up and ran toward the storage area of the armory. He was gone for fifteen minutes but came back with a box full of spare parts.

“Just so you know. This gun is going to be functional; it won’t look good.” Kevin said.

“That’s fine, does this have a power setting?” John asked.

“Yes, right here.” Sato pointed at a module he was working on.

“Told you he was a whiz with the technical side of things.” Kevin smiled.

John walked back into the armory and pulled out a pair of spare psychic channelers that were stored here. He plugged it into reserve power and synched it to his wavelength. Alice put two and two together that they were going to test the gun on the amplifier.

“Just so we’re clear, that thing they are making is not shooting you. Like at all.” Alice stood up and shouted from the table.

“We might need too.”

“No, no we don’t need to shoot you.”

“Right, we’re going to shoot this first, but that won’t give us what will happen to someone if they get hit by that. We’d likely hit me with a low power shot.”

“John.” Alice crossed her arms and said sternly. “Don’t tell me that it’s like getting shot by a twenty-two. You know damn well that round has killed more people than any other.”

John was about to say something when Alice interrupted him again.

“And don’t give me the science bullshit argument.”

“She’s got a point. We don’t know what will happen.” Kevin said.

“I wouldn’t want to get hit with this.” Sato said plainly.

“Right, we’re shooting that first.” John was pointing at one of the channelers.

Kevin, Thomas and Sato ignored the couple’s argument, which continued as they worked. Thirty minutes later two things happened. The prototype anti-psychic gun was assembled. Alice got an actual pistol and told John she’d shoot him if he tried to be a human guinea pig. John relented and conceded his plan. Sato showed John how to control power. Kevin told John that he’d have three shots with that power pack.

John walked up into the practice area and prepared to shoot the first channeler. “You have the readings of it?”

“Yes, twenty feet away at twenty percent power.” Kevin said.

“Ok, firing in three… two… one…” John pulled the trigger.

“Ok, gun’s charge is at two thirds.” Sato said.

“The channeler is functioning at about thirty percent. It obviously did something.” Thomas said.

“K, let’s give it five minutes and see if it’s still acting on the…”

“Back to normal.” Kevin said ten seconds later.

“Ok, twenty percent does fuck all.” John smiled. “Shooting the other one at full output.”

John aimed the ramshackle gun at the target and pulled the trigger. This caused the channeler to short out and spit out sparks. Two seconds later it exploded.

“So not being a human guinea pig.” Alice ordered.

“Here’s the good news, it blew up like that because of the power buffer inside. That absolutely wouldn’t happen to you or anyone else. You’d definitely be hurting if you got tapped by it though.” Thomas looked shocked.

“And pulls more power than expected.” Sato said.

“Good work. I’ll get some new parts to slim it down. Not going to be sharing this tech for now.” John said.

John locked up the new gun and then the group left the armory. They headed back to the lounge. Sato broke off and wished them well as he went to his room to pack. The rest of them hung out in the lounge and relaxed. Not much would happen the rest of the day. Everyone was still nursing hangovers that still hurt. In the end not much else happened besides eating, talking and a few games of playing cornhole.

Monday. 06:30 Rockefeller Station

“Tango Alpha Six Eight Delta Bravo, you are cleared to enter space. Follow the Buzz orbital path. Your tenth in line for orbital insertion.”

“Roger that Rockefeller station. Following the Buzz orbital path.” Lex said.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but it’ll be another two hours before we get clearance.” Lisa asked.

“Yes, then another six hours or so before we actually get into the atmosphere, then landing three hours later.”

“We’re landing at Cumberland Airfield. Then it’s a two-hour drive to Annapolis.”

Lisa shook her head. “So best case scenario is to track him down tomorrow.”

“It appears so.” Lex said through clamped teeth, he wasn’t happy about that.

“I’ll begin some research and begin to put a trace on him.” Lisa said as she walked to the passenger cabin.

Lex monitored radio traffic from the cockpit. He was anxious and bored. A vexing combo for the hyperactive young man. He was so close to getting revenge he could practically taste it. Lex tried to push those thoughts aside and focused on flying the private void craft around the station without drawing an unnecessary attention. This went on for the next sixty minutes.

“Tango Alpha Six Eight Delta Bravo, are you able to receive vectors for orbital insertion?” The void traffic controller asked.

“Affirmative Rockefeller station.”

“Excellent Tango Alpha Six Eight Delta Bravo, as long as you are able to expedite your burn, you are cleared to take the Lovell insertion vector.”

“Roger station, expediting on the Lovell insertion path.” Lex smiled as he keyed into the autopilot the new vectors the computer would fly the ship.

“Tango Alpha Six Eight Delta Bravo, switch to Houston Control on 123.9.” The controller said.

“123.9, Tango Alpha Six Eight Delta Bravo out.” Lex tried but failed to push down his eagerness.

The void craft burned its engines to get descend into low Earth orbit. Lex switched over to Houston control. He got some bad news that he’d have to finish the current orbit he was on then do one more orbit until he’d be cleared to descend into the atmosphere. The upside to this is they’d be on the ground four hours earlier than expected.