Star Force: Sav (SF51) by Aer-ki Jyr Read Free Book Online Page A

fried.”
    “So we shouldn’t be trying to press?” Bo asked,
knowing that flew in the face of everything they’d been working on to this
point.
    “Oh we’ll press,” Jason confirmed. “There’s just an
added bonus if we fail a few times first.”
    “Some reward,” Bo said, still in agony.
    “Worth it in the long run,” Jason said from his perch
atop the pain pedestal…except maybe for Morgan, but hers was a special case.
Either way, Archons weren’t going to let a pain barrier stand in their way to
accessing the additional psionics…and given how impatient they were, they
probably wouldn’t back off much, if any, in probing instabilities when they
arose in the future. At least he knew he wouldn’t.
    “At least you did this to yourself,” Paul commented,
“and there appears to be no structural problems.”
    “Good…can I get stunned now?”
    “Fastest way to recover is Sesspik,” Vortison
commented from a few meters away.
    “And you need to be conscious for that,” Jason
reminded him unnecessarily.
    “Wonderful,” Bo said, moving the scanning equipment
aside and slowly standing up. “Sounds like it’s back
to my quarters for a nap. Escorts, if you please,” he said, holding up a hand
for balance.
    Jason took him by the elbow and began to lead him out.
“You’re such a wuss .”

 
 
    5

 
 
    July 13, 2546
    Solar System
    Earth

 
    Bo woke up to a jabbing finger in his ribcage,
blinking his eyes open mid-dream and coming back to reality in a hazy flash. He
sat up in bed, shaking his head out as Jason retracted his arm.
    “Ah,” he sighed. “Not again.”
    “Afraid so,” Jason said, referencing the fact that Bo
had slept through his alarm. Ever since the Sav ascension his sleep patterns
had been deeper than normal…so deep in fact he’d arranged it with his fellow
trailblazers to come and wake him up if he didn’t signal them over the comms
that he was up within 10 minutes of his alarm going off.
    Which it now did, on repeat. Bo glanced at the control console on the wall and telekinetically flipped it
off, wondering again how he could have slept through the screeching wail…the
most annoying sound he could get his hands on, trying to find something that
would pierce his doped up state. He put his hands on his head, massaging his
forehead that was still carrying a lingering bit of discomfort but the outright
pain was gone.
    “Meet you in the cafeteria in 20?” Jason asked,
heading for the door.
    “I’ll be there in 15,” Bo said, heading for the
shower.
    The warm water nearly made him doze off again, but he
focused on flexing his muscles every now and then to get some tension in his
body as he cleaned up. Fortunately shaving was a thing of the past with his now
deactivated hair follicles, so after a moderately long shower he pulled on a
fresh training uniform and headed out, meeting Jason, Paul, Emily, and Greg at
one of the tables for a not so early breakfast. Apparently the others were
already out and about, for no Archon ever slept in late… save for losers like him that couldn’t keep it together.
    He had thought he was getting better, but it seemed
his head was craving sleep. Probably some type of recalibration going on but it
was starting to look like this was going to be a normal thing. He told himself
that so long as his head hurt a little then he wasn’t done recovering and so
not to worry, but very many more of these inadvertent comas and he was going to
start to wonder.
    He piled up a full plate of carb and sugar-laced
foodstuffs and headed over to their table amongst over 300 other people at
various stages of breakfast. Most weren’t Archons, but regular Atlantis staff,
though they were quite well acquainted to seeing the living legends walking
around so not too many people stared.
    Bo grabbed a bottle of green on his way and sat down
next to Emily, immediately drinking half of the vitamin-laced liquid before
tearing into one of several pastries. She glanced