Chapter 10 – ArthrosPsyatic Output: 10,000 Bio-units

  Synaptik: Unbound

  Arthros sat in silence, watg Jericho’s unmoving body. It had only been ten minutes, but it felt like years. He couldn’t help but feel a little nervous; not for Jericho’s sake, but for the fact that he might have been wrong. He didn’t want to add to the list of pointless Kleth’altho trips.

  Arthros’ lip curled slightly as his thoughts went back to his owhe excruciating pain Zero had inflicted on him as she was settling into his brain tissue. That pain was the first thing he ever remembered.

  He had no recolle of his life before taking the test, those damned stists.

  “Friends,” Jeribled, in a quiet, somewhat slurred voibsp;

  Arthros shot forward—Jericho was waking up! His eyes were closed and his face looked pale, but his breath was getting quicker. He was ing out of his deep state.

  Arthros pced a hand on Jericho’s heart. The length of his hand easily spahe width of Jericho’s chest. His heartbeat had picked up in speed as well. It felt strong ahy.

  “He’s ing out of his deep state,” he murmured to Zero, who had been strangely quiet since he brought Jericho on board.

  “That was fast.”

  “It’s almost unbelievable.”

  Only Arthros had passed his test faster. Every other pilot that he knew had taken at least three times as long. How could it even be possible?

  The others were going to be upset. He would have to keep a for that.

  He left Jericho ao the cockpit. The pale globe floating in front of him shifted to a crude map of the star system, or rather a single quadrant of the star system.

  The image of Kleth’altho shrunk until three ps could be seen. A p of simir size was less than a parsec away, and approximately 2.6 parsecs away was a much rger world.

  Arthros curled his fingers around the rgest world and flicked his wrist, “Plot a course for Hokku.”

  “With pleasure.”

  Arthros rolled his eyes. She didn’t even try to hide her excitement at returning. “Maybe ime I’ll leave you there.”

  “That’s impossible and cruel. I would never leave you.”

  “Obviously I was joking.”

  “Arthros the stoic, joking? The twins are rubbing off on you.”

  Arthros scoffed, “No one influences me.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  He took a moment to pohat question and thought of the twins. He was surprised to discover that he was eager to return home.

  He missed them, and not just the two brothers, but his entire division.

  They had no real pce of fort in Hokku. They had no family or friends outside of the Navy. They were outcasts and it wasn’t fair. They were pilots, and they wielded a power far greater than any Hokkonian civilian.

  Yet, they were outcasts all the same.

  “He’s awake.” Zero’s voiterrupted his thoughts.

  “Already?”

  Arthros stood out of his chair and headed for the back of the ship. He could hear movement from ihe b, and wheered, Jericho was fiddling with his restraints.

  Jericho gnced up when Arthros stepped in the room, “I passed.”

  “Zero, s his vitals.”

  “They’re fine, great even.”

  Arthros frowned, “That’s impossible.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Jericho asked in a chipper tone.

  Arthros ignored him, “I’m going to remove the spike now.”

  “You didn’t tell me it was going to be so painful,” Jericho said with a cheerful bob of his head.

  Arthros froze, “You remember?”

  “Bits and pieces, but for the most part, yeah.”

  Almost no one had memories of the iion, though most didn’t wake up for a few days. With a swift pluck he removed the spike from the base of Jericho’s skull and put it on the tertop behind him.

  “How do you feel?” he watched the human carefully.

  Jericho stretched his shoulders and grimaced, “My muscles feel sore, but my mind feels weightless, like nothing could ever bother me again.”

  The human’s grimace shifted to his uny smile. For a moment, Arthros was too stuo reply. Who in Tril’s name had he found? Where was the residual nausea and itive dysfun? Where was the grief of his lost love?

  “And your head, any pain?”

  Jericho pursed his lips, “It hurts a little, but nothing crazy. Sort of like a pressure behind my eyes.”

  “That’s just the AI settling, it’s normal,” Arthros murmured.

  What wasn’t normal was how quickly it was happening. This rocess that should have taken a long time.

  “So does this mean I’m going to bee a pilot?”

  Arthros gave himself a mental shake. He had been too stuo aowledge the fact that Jericho really did pass the test. It was a moal moment, years in the making. He really did find a human patible.

  He allowed himself the tiwinge of a smile, “gratutions, Jericho. You’re the first human in history to pass an iio.”

  Jericho’s smile widened.

  “Wele to the HWND program.”