Star Force: Retribution (SF60) by Aer-ki Jyr Read Free Book Online Page A

stellar
orbit.

 
    Taryn stood in the V’kit’no’sat pyramid watching as
the medtech took several of her Clan Croft adepts through the ‘genetic carwash’
and unlocked their 7 basic psionics from the ‘rust’ that had rendered them
dormant from so many generations of illicit Zen’zat breeding. Normally Taryn
wouldn’t have brought them here herself, but today was a special case.
    As a brand new acolyte stepped out of the chamber
Ginsi stepped in, taking his place with Taryn throwing her a wink when their eyelines crossed. It had only been some 14 years ago when
the trainee had graduated from basic training and the trailblazer had luckily
been able to bring her into her Clan. Her scores had been impressive but not
groundbreaking going through basic and she’d been highly sought after, but even
Taryn had no idea what a monster she’d become after being ‘released’ from the
group training and allowed to fly free as all adepts did, more or less.
    Previously Morgan had held the record of the quickest
elevation to acolyte, both in age and in years training. She’d been 74 at the
time and had spent 49 years after graduating from basic training, from which
Archons emerged at a variety of ages. That record had been eclipsed a few
decades ago by an Archon named Mathias-489220 who’d squeaked in at 48 years
training and an age of 110, with him being one of the ‘slower starters’ who
didn’t pass Archon testing during the last phases of the maturia training but
had volunteered to give it another go years later after some further
development (often along with a host of other tests) and found that he’d
improved to the point of trainee candidacy.
    Some of his physical skills were head of his
classmates, which some had argued gave him a head start, but Taryn had looked
up his scores at the time and while they were strong they weren’t record
setting. She and the others, Morgan not included, had pretty much agreed it was
time that someone had reached acolyte faster than the slow troll that most
Archons progressed through simply because the process had been so polished
since Taryn and the others had literally been making it up as they went along
the first time.
    The Archon trials were a huge boost, as were the
various training methods and equipment that had been established, not to
mention the peerdom available within the Clans that gave you stronger trainer
partners to work with…all of which the trailblazers never had. That said, even
the ‘inferior’ Archons should have been reaching acolyte faster than they had
been, and when one finally beat Morgan’s training years mark it had generally
been accepted as something that had been very long overdue.
    But Ginsi was totally different. She’d accomplished in
14 years what had taken Morgan 48, and she was only 41 years old. Her rapid rise
had caught the trailblazers’ attention, and even Davis was keeping a close
watch on her, prompting the discussion as to how fast Taryn and her classmates
would have leveled up if they’d been born into this generation and had all the
advantages afforded to trainees and adepts today.
    Even when they had that discussion there was a lot of
doubt as to if they could have achieved what Ginsi had, so as Taryn watched her
get her psionics the trailblazer wondered what was laying in store for her in
the future…and knowing that nothing was automatic. Ginsi had been busting her
butt in training ever since graduation, but 14 years was a far cry from 600,
and there were some side bets going as to how long she could keep this up. Many
thought she’d plateau eventually, as many other Archons had, but so far Taryn
didn’t see it happening, though with the inclusion of psionics into the level
requirements there was no knowing how she’d progress.
    On one level Taryn did resent her a bit, though that
was little more than competitive envy. She could snap her like a twig if she
needed to, but the look in Morgan’s eye whenever her name was