Slowly but surely, he learned how to feint and how to use his feet to strike at the Dreth while staying out of range. He even learned how to keep an eye on all three of them. Despite this, he simply couldn’t win.
Finally, he put Frog on the mat. Next, he felled Vishlog. Lars ended his run with a fist to the side of the head and hauled him to his feet.
“Tomorrow, we’ll do something different,” the security head said. “You’re getting better.”
“Another pirate ship?” he asked, but his instructor faded into the system and a mysterious smile played over his lips.
John was covered in sweat when Remy opened the pod.
“You need to clean up,” the AI told him, “and I need to fumigate your pod.”
He stared at the nearest camera. “You what?”
“You heard me, John Dunn. Now go. Clean up. Supper is on the table.”
It was, was it? He turned to the door, only to hear the locks grinding into place.
A second one opened and he gave the camera a wry grin. “You can’t blame a guy for trying,” he told it.
“Yes, but I can keep a guy locked in his room until he complies with the basic laws of hygiene,” Remy snapped in response.
The boy rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to argue, however, and soon emerged from the shower station washed, dried, and in a freshly fabricated ship suit.
The AI made no comment but let him out for his meal. “You’ll sleep in the medical pod, tonight,” he informed him when he’d eaten.
John groaned. “More training?”
“You respond well to subliminal training. I have estimated your skill acquisition to be months ahead of what we could expect from physical training alone.”
“Even with the pod?”
“Yes,” Remy confirmed. “Even with it.”
“I feel stronger,” he told him, “and I’m starting to get my head around this fighting thing.”
“I have observed your tactics,” the AI told him. “You are progressing well. Lars says you are ready for something new tomorrow.”
“That’s what he told me,” he replied. “Do you know what it is?”
“It’s not my place to reveal what your trainers wish to keep a secret,” Remy informed him. “All I can say is you need to eat and rest well.”
“In the med pod?” he asked. “While my body’s learning instead of resting?”
“It rests.” The AI’s tone suggested he was making more of it than he needed to.
John sighed and headed to the med pod. The sooner he slept, the sooner he’d get to see exactly what Lars had cooked up. He only hoped it wasn’t a ship full of pirates.
He frowned when he slid into the clean VR pod the next morning.
“Wish me luck,” he muttered gloomily and Remy chuckled.
“You will make your own luck,” the AI informed him, and he wished he could find the same amount of faith.
Seconds later, he gasped when he stood on the edge of a small mountain plateau. In truth, “plateau” was too big a word for it. It was more like a pocket than a valley.
His heart sank when he saw his three trainers lined up against the cliff on the other side.
“Stephanie could levitate,” their leader declared, “and you said you tried it in your last battle. We thought we’d combine sparring practice with that.”
Cautiously, he took a step away from the cliff edge and they took a step toward him. When he stopped moving, so did they.
“So,” he asked, “how does this work?”
Lars grinned and his two teammates started to smirk.
The head guard stepped forward and John stepped back.
Ignoring the question, the man glanced at his two teammates on either side of him and they started to advance.
John’s uneasiness increased as he slid a foot back but stopped when it encountered the edge of the cliff. He tried not to think of the drop and looked up to see that the other three had covered half the distance between them at a slow walk.
It still took a moment for the penny to drop.
“You’re going to throw me off?”
Three grins answered him as they charged.
The young Talent elevated sharply and twisted as he drew on his Talent to give himself a boost. He arced over their heads and landed on the other side.
They turned.
“Because there’s a white room. Right?”
The guards fanned out. Vishlog shifted to take him head-on, while his teammates stalked to either side. The Dreth bared his teeth.
Anger rolled through the trainee. “You know that’s not fair, right?”
“Very good,” Frog snarked from his right. “Now ask us if we care.”
He jerked a hand toward him and blasted him into a cliff. “Do you care now?”
Movement snagged his attention on the right and he launched upward.
“You’re using considerable energy,” Lars observed as John hovered just out of reach above him.
For some reason, the comment rankled.
“Your point?” he all but snarled.
Without warning, Vishlog drew a blaster and shot him but he somehow managed to raise a shield in time. The energy bolt ricocheted in a flare of blue and forced the Dreth to leap to one side.
“Do you ever wonder where you’ll get more?”
“I’ll simply pull it in from the outside,” he told him. “Like I always do.”
“Not when you’re on Dreth, you won’t,” Lars contradicted and smiled.
It was not a nice smile.
“What do you mean?” John frowned but he began to descend and used a little more Talent to keep himself aloft.
Vishlog’s lips curled as he aimed a second time. “There’s no eMU on Dreth,” he rumbled.
Dreth? He scowled. His gaze swept over the vista of viciously jagged peaks and his body registered the tug of an icy breeze. A chill ran through him that had nothing to do with the mountain air.
“Fine, I’ll pull in some nMU then,” he snapped and reached for the elusive dark energy.
“Did anyone bring popcorn?” Frog asked, his voice amused despite being gravelly with pain.
John wondered what he’d forgotten—apart from the fact he didn’t know what nMU felt like. He remembered how it felt to draw eMU and sought a similar power but different. Impatience surged through him and he tried to make himself think carefully.
What was it that made Dreth’s energy unique?
He knew there was something, but he couldn’t remember what it was. With a huff of impatience, he focused on finding the energy instead.
It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t hard either. John registered a sensation of darkness—almost a presence touched with anger, sadness, and fear. As his body started to sink lower, he drew on the energy, pulled it in, and fed it to the Talent already keeping him aloft.
The effect was instantaneous. Pain ripped through him in a blinding flare of white and his world exploded.
When awareness returned, he opened his eyes to the familiar emptiness of the white room.
“Oh, man, Remy.” He groaned. “Remind me not to do that again.”
“I do not think I will need to.”
John managed to stand and patted himself all over to make sure he truly was there. Being ripped apart by two opposing energies was not pleasant.