The Star 7

"I'm telling you. She's so shameless, I can't help but admire her a little. That space station chief not only shafted us all with a salvage charge, in the form of a suit percentage, she charged Eclipse a long term storage fee before she returned the ship to them...

"It's a perfectly functioning ship! I wouldn't be surprised if she charged them fake repair fees too. I mean, it's not like anyone but us actually knows what state the ship was in."

Grant stoically endured the nearly half day long vent session Sonny unleashed on him. Possessing a physical and spiritual pattern based off of Grit, the aura of violence and murder the sensitive could feel past the icy and dismissive demeanor kept people well away. Sonny was probably one of the rare few people who would risk approaching him without good reason, much less annoying him.

After dinner and back in their room, Sonny dropped his angsty and chatterbox persona. "Don't show anything you don't have to. We leave first thing in the morning."

Grant said, "How many and how much?"

"I'm assuming twice what I can see, around thirty. Being high profile barely kept us from being snatched up already. Having to keep it low-key means psychic attacks are the primary mode with concealed weapons as auxiliary. I'm fairly sure it's a capture not a kill order. Doesn't mean it couldn't change to one," Sonny made his best guess.

Grant said, "I'll take first watch."

Sonny pointed at the cat shaped shadow detaching from his own. "Put up your mental shielding to its strongest passive and try to get as much sleep as you can."

Once Grant was settled in, he tried to enter the trance state he saw in the Orison memories. It was useless for essence channeling in the large and fully complete universe he was in but he hoped it would reduce needed sleep time. Sadly, he just fell asleep sitting up. Just shy of six hours later, he woke up with an aching back from leaning on a metal headboard but otherwise refreshed. It hadn't been a complete failure and it gave him hope that a little more practice would see it working.

For giggles, he closed his eyes and started drawing the beginning of the spiral pattern in his memories. It only felt like a few seconds but he nearly lost a quarter hour. No fewer than six subtle influences attempting to exert will over him were broken. At the pace they were escalating, it would have taken days to reach a buzz strong enough to compromise him but it was spooky regardless. He was glad that he had the manifested impression of Cole's cat form actively guarding against such a thing for his intimidating and slightly older friend.

When he looked over, he saw that the shadowy cat had laid itself over Grant's face. It wasn't in a creatively comfortable way but more of a 'I wish I was real so I could smother you' kind of way. Whatever rivalry that had sparked in the feline guy over their time in this strange new universe, echoes of it still remained in the impression left behind.

An hour before dawn, Sonny woke the sleeping guy up. Grant's tuning had been roughly handled. And even though his mind was surprisingly resilient, it had still left him fatigued and disoriented. He could have done with a couple days down time but that was an unaffordable luxury.

"Get up. The situation's took a turn for the annoying. We've got about fifteen minutes to enjoy what may be the last shower and bathroom time we have in civilization for awhile," Sonny said, as he took Cole's impression back in.

"Did the capture order change to kill?" Grant asked while beating feet to the bathroom.

"Worse. There's a children's services representative and a clinical psychologist waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel. They have the hotel exits guarded too. I think they plan on stripping our autonomy long enough to make some choices for us." he replied.

As Grant took a lightning fast shower, he said, "So, no hyper pad escape. Is there a plan B?"

"It's a bit of a wild card. If it wasn't for the stuff in my head space, getting out of Eclipse's clutches by forced conscription into the DSU military wouldn't be much worse of an option. That's on an average. With a bit of bad luck, military service would be much safer. But... I'll take a dangerous choice I can make myself over having amoral d*cks controlling my life," Sonny spat through gritted teeth while Grant nodded subconsciously in agreement.

A few minutes later, they walked down to the hotel lobby.

Before the Union social worker addressed them, Sonny said emotionlessly, "No need for introductions or escort. As of five minutes ago, my friend and I are Blue Zone volunteers."

The social worker looked at the two sadly. "Why would you do that?"

"With Eclipse as a rock behind us, why would you be a hard place in front? At least WE got to choose. As a famous fallen angel once said... I will not serve!" Sonny made a 'drop the mic' motion and started walking out of the hotel.

The psychologist took off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "And like the allegorical figure, you are stripped of grace and fall to perdition."

In an uncharacteristic moment, Grant looked at the man and said, "No. We're leaving it."

Near the mass transit hyper pad, another man waited. This one wore an Eclipse senior officer badge.

"Do you know how much was paid to safely escort you to Terra Ninkasi? We put your brother in charge of it. You would have worked with your own family." he said.

Sonny was stunned for a moment before he laughed angrily. "What does that change? You think I want to watch my little brother make one soul and heart destroying decision after another? How long do you think it'll take before he becomes another Glenn? If your upper management had the capacity to feel anything at all, I'd accuse them of doing it for spite."

The man sighed regretfully. "We're not what you think we are, Sonny. What happened to you... and you as well, uh, Grant is what you insist on being called?... It's not what we're about. We're trying to help the rest of humanity and its cousin races awaken to psionic gifts so we can be closer to an even playing field. That takes time and resources."

Sonny shook his head. "It takes incorruptible leaders. You don't have enough of those and we'd never make it that high up without becoming corrupt ourselves. It might have started that way but... It's pointless to have this talk now. We have a long day ahead of us."

The man shot off as they walked past, "Don't expect to be treated any different than the criminals who escape death row by choosing the route you just took."

Sonny smiled and said, "If you want to see something interesting, stick around for a little bit longer."

Intrigued, the man did just that.

As they stepped up to the operator and told her the destination, her eyes shook a little and there was a slight tremble in her hand as she dialed up the connection.

An older and cruel sounding man on the other end said, "As volunteers, you have the choice of donating your assets prior to jump. The more donated, the more you'll be... appreciated when you get here."

Sonny asked, "How much appreciation do we need to skip basic drill and orientation to get direct dropped in your newest acquisition site?"

"All you possibly ever have and a little more," the man said jokingly.

Playing along, Sonny said, "So the toll for that kind of path is a 110%, huh?"

The man on the other end said, "That sounds about right."

Under the Eclipse officer's disbelieving gaze, the operator's eyes glazed over as her psionic connection to the pad opened wide. In a strangely powerful pulse of light, the two young men were gone. Snapping to, the operator slumped in her booth and started crying.

In her daze, she had seen a shadowy figure of such immense power that the only word she had for it was god. But if it was, then that god wasn't a loving or particularly kind one. And the only revelation it had for the poor mortal that had been temporarily seized by its power, was simple. The one who held Their regard couldn't be denied entry to where they desired to go if the reason was extortion and what blocked their path was a supernatural exercise of law.

She wanted to tell everyone what she had just experienced but she was afraid. She was afraid people would think she was crazy. She was also afraid of angering that great being whose echo of power had briefly touched her soul. So, when the Eclipse officer asked her what happened, she claimed to not know and it wasn't a lie.

In that moment, a life had been changed. A tier seven void walker paused one of its hundreds of simultaneous strings of thoughts to examine the awe filled soul They had indirectly touched. In a flash of inspiration, They crafted a particularly durable avatar and began forming a rather novel and mutually beneficial play to act out with the woman.

***

From an exceptionally long beam of light shot from space, Sonny and Grant appeared on a world that would be better classified as planar rather than planetary. The first thing both of them noted was the intense gravity, nearly three times the ideal standard for a mundane human. The carefully prepared landing spot was inside a cracked, short and fat inactive volcanic crater.

Nearby, there were sturdy crates filled with the basic survival needs of around 100 people for a year. From what little Sonny knew of what he had just gotten him and his friend into, that was around a third of what was sent to a single prepped starting point on average. It was a brutal jump start on adjusting to what it took to survive in such a place.

There were massive advantages on being in the first round sent and the delay between each additional sending was delayed by nearly two days. Judging by the newness of the crates, it could have been weeks before they were ready to send the first five. But now that they had crashed the party, the next batch could be expected as soon as the transport pulse satellite was recharged.

Looking over, Sonny realized that his buddy wasn't faring so well. He wasn't doing grand himself but he had expected Grant to be able to start moving almost immediately. With labored effort, he made his way to Grant and figured out what the problem was.

When a person passed through a signal booster station, the only thing preserved was an object's identified components from the initial departing hyper pad. The people responsible for tuning Grant had deactivated but hadn't removed the control coupler. Those came with a weak jamming device to keep them from being hacked. The hyper pad hadn't identified it as a part of the young man. Because of that, the signal boosting station hadn't preserved it.

The way Grant was clutching his chest and gasping, there must have been something there too. Whatever it had been, Sonny doubted its sudden disappearance was a good thing. Eclipse was thorough and detailed. If they didn't want something taken out, it would usually kill someone to remove it without taking proper steps.

With no time to waste, Sonny fumbled around trying to access the space in his head for the first time. Whipping out two strange books with five gems on the cover, he quickly opened and shoved one in Grant's face while looking within the other. There was a collection of other random stuff that came out with them as well but Sonny was lost in the sensation of bolstering the book gave him.

His mind became sharper. He felt stronger and healthier. The tendons of his body vibrated with tensile strength yet he felt loose and flexible. While reveling in the sensation of being able to breath a little easier, he looked around to see a veritable trove of minor magical items turning to dust all around him. Aside from making a note of where the released essence soaked into the ground, he focused on Grant.

The young man was pale and sweating profusely but he was no longer clutching his chest with bulging eyes. Once the short term danger had been dealt with, it was time to deal with the long term one, gravity. Sonny sent out the cat impression to start digging around for the invoice. Over the next agonizing hour, he collected the supplements and enhancer injections that would aid in adjusting to their new, brutally oppressive environment.

All of them were bad in one way or another. Some shortened life expectancy while some caused dangerous instability in genetic factors. All of it amounted to burning long term potential in exchange for short term survival. Even the supplied food was focused on quick adaptation at the cost of long term health. Considering that they had volunteered to go to a place for the desperate and the damned, it was the very height of generosity that disposable trash should expect.

After a tormenting weighing of pros and cons, Sonny applied and consumed the ones he thought of as absolutely necessary. Ignoring the nausea and wrongness that emanated from every cell of his body, he loaded Grant onto a resource collection cart with some essential supplies. Once he felt like he had taken what they needed, he began the trek across the shallow caldera.

"Me too," Grant protested with a sweaty grim face.

Between labored pants, Sonny wheezed, "I think... your heart is still damaged. Just rest... You know there's a way... to fix me. I'm not so sure about you, though.

"In a way... taking them could be a good thing for me. I'm learning new limitations... of the human body. But... It feels terrible. My skin is crawling... literally."

Half the day out, even long breaks no longer helped him recover enough to press on. Sonny collapsed in a heap of heaving, sweaty exhaustion less than an hour's walk from the drop site. In fact, he could still see the primary sun's glint off a cargo box. Seeing the Cole impression trotting up with little colored stones rolling around in its shadowy body without a hint of fatigue didn't help his mood at all.

"F*** gravity!" he whimpered into the ground.