The sight of the platform as they approached was awe inspiring. A towering mass of concrete, glimmering steel, and glass. Four pylons stood proud at each corner, and above them enough drones to cast shade on the area hovered, soaking in sunlight. As he watched one would occasionally descend to a pylon presumably to dock and deliver it’s payload of solar energy. As they got closer Elijah immediately however noticed a problem. He had been to plenty of bases like this before but had always arrived via air, the platform loomed high above the water line and he could see no place to safely dock and unload their cargo. Delivery was normally handled by crane but the hovercraft they brought along weren’t in the usual shipping containers necessary to bring cargo aboard.
“How do we get up? Are they going to lower a cage?” He asked aloud.
Nadia turned to him with an amused expression, “grew up all your life around places like this and you’ve never had to take the front door? What, means of travel that aren’t VTOL aren’t good enough for you?”
“Well excuse me for disliking the yoke of gravity tugging me down.”
“You’re in for a treat. Just sit tight.” She said.
As the ship passed beneath the center of the base a platform began to descend, landing with minimal fuss Elijah could only stare.
“That’s it?”
“Kids are so jaded these days.” Nadia lamented. “You’re on a moving boat rocking in the water and a platform just descended from a structure larger than some cities and landed with pinpoint precision in the center of that boat.”
“I mean it’s better than being craned up in a cage I guess.”
“Just get in the hovercraft already.”
Saying goodbye to the Captain and crew that came to see them off they loaded into the hovercraft and maneuvered carefully to the directions of the person in the high visibility vest that had descended with the platform. With little warning or fanfare they were soon all aboard and ascending into the Brumal Bastion.
“The Captain and his crew aren’t coming aboard for some shore leave?” Elijah asked.
“Nope. After all of our luggage is dropped off, the hovercraft and two whole battalions are getting loaded up to head right back to the palace. After what’s been going on lately your mom’s not taking any chances.”
“Can the base afford to send that many people?”
“Oh for sure, SSS will only be onsite for another few days then your girlfriend will have a small escort to the Academy while everyone else will ship back here and get shuffled around based on what area needs what. It also helps that The Frostbite and all of their personnel will be here soon.”
Elijah pointedly ignored the girlfriend comment and looked out the window.
“It really is much more stable than I thought it would be.” Elijah said, face pressed up against the glass.
“Why wouldn’t it be? Ancient Greeks cracked the code for elevators and Otis invented the safety break and we’ve been abusing them ever since. I see that look, sure this thing probably has gyroscopes and stabilizers and all manner of thrusters but the basic concept is unchanged. A bit of floor carrying a heavy weight from point a to point b.”
“What should we expect once we stop?”
“We’re being scanned as we head topside but we’ll still be looked over, poked and prodded before they cut us loose. Did you remember your ID?” Nadia asked as she pulled hers from a pocket and clipped it to her belt.
“Yeah, made the mistake of not having it out during the flight to Az Zaiqraa got hassled by the security staff at our hanger there.”
“Oh, how’d you feel about that?”
“Not too much honestly. They were just doing their jobs.”
“And when they found out you were a Winter?”
“Yeah, I didn’t so much like that part. It was like they were afraid I was going to fire them over the insult or something.”
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“Start getting used to it champ. I kept my family name but when your uncle and I got hitched a lot of attitudes towards me changed almost overnight. I went from being Doctor Chase to The Winter Bride.” She said with an amused huff. “I swear this business can be ridiculous sometimes. I know that the nature of the job attracts all kinds of characters, mad men and desperately lonely romantics looking for something greater than themselves but not everyone and everything needs a trumped up nickname.”
“That’s wild. Who even comes up with these kind of things?” Elijah asked.
“It depends, but do anything particularly brave or stupid and be prepared to be reminded of it for a long long time.”
“And how do I deal with people’s reaction to my family?”
The best advice I can give you is to remember that there will always be ass kissers but there are also people out there who’ll speak their mind regardless of your status. The latter is what you want to surround yourself with.”
They reached topside after what felt like ages and true to Nadia’s statement they were all carefully frisked and scanned and poked and prodded before they were allowed to move on. They also received confirmation that The Frostbite would be delayed. Elijah noted that he and Nadia were released substantially sooner than any of their escorts but decided not to comment on it. The general hive of activity was comforting and Elijah noted that several air craft and even a few VGs had taken off in the short amount of time it took for them to make their way to Medical, Their entourage reduced from six to one in the safety of the base.
“This isn’t at all the norm you know?” Nadia mentioned.
“What isn’t?”
“All this open space.” She said, stretching out both arms to the sides and not coming close to touching the walls.
“Yeah, it seems roomier than some of the other facilities I’ve been to.”
“There’s a reason for that. We don’t actually give a shit about the oil here. So we don’t need to waste any space on storage or pipes or a drill or anything like that. All our power comes from the pylons and drones up top. In fact Brumal Bastion was the first purpose built facility of it’s kind for us rather than some preexisting oil rig we converted. Each ‘leg’ houses hydroponics for our food needs, and the core of the facility is a desalination plant. If it weren’t for needing pesky things like bullets and various raw materials we’d be a hundred percent self sufficient.”
“I thought something like that takes up obscene amounts of power?”
“Normally you’d be right but we in fact harvest an obscene amount of power. The plant gets extra power from our sewage treatment, the purified water is used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells. There’s some extra stuff though that I’m not supposed to know and so won’t talk about.”
As they arrived at the medical facilities a vacant room was waiting for them. They went through the standard battery of tests and blood work before they made it into a private office a short walk away from their quarters. It seemed that the time had come for his power testing to begin.
“I guess we’re not going to wait for Adam then?” Elijah asked.
Nadia just smiled and gestured to the guard that had followed them as they had made their way around base.
“Your situational awareness is poor cousin.” The man said, tapping the name tag on his vest. Much to Elijah’s embarrassment it clearly said ADAM with a bright yellow smiley face next to it.
“Sorry, I just assumed you were arriving with The Frostbite?”
“Normally I would, but your mother said this was important. So what is it you can do or have done that has needed my intervention?” He asked.
“One sec.” Elijah pulled the black box from his pocket and coaxed his power into it. The familiar words came to his mind and to his surprise the room was clean.
“Ah good of you to consider security but you need to actually use the device, not just pull it out.”
“That actually ties into why we’re here. Machines listen to what I have to say, as of a few hours ago that seems to include Vain Glories.”
Adam blinked slowly before nodding. “This would be something to concern myself with. Before we see what you can do with machines we need to see if you can defend from arts similar to yours.”
“Sure, that makes sense to me.”
“This will feel strange, try to resist.” Without preamble Adam’s eyes glowed a bright green and he touched his thumb to Elijah’s forehead.
At first nothing rose to the surface of Elijah’s mind for Adam to glean, either his mind was completely blank at the moment or his mother had taught him some of the more simple mental defenses. So Adam pushed with his power and said “Pink elephants!” A brief flash of color came to Elijah’s thoughts but was quickly banished. Very good Adam thought. He forced more power into their link and just as he thought he was getting somewhere a phrase entered his thoughts.
[Hello World.]
A shame, he thought. Though he wasn’t surprised, not many in his experience could resist him. He pushed again with his power searching for something benign to use as an example later but much to his surprise only a single phrase was planted firmly.
[Hello World.]
“Very interesting.” Adam murmured aloud. “What is your name? Favorite color? Shame, Rage, Bliss, Love.” Regardless of what words Adam said out loud He could not bring up any associated thoughts or memories, just the single phrase.
[Hello World.]
“Very refreshing.” With a smile he pulled a revolver from the holster at his waist and pressed it to the side of Elijah’s head. There was no response. With a sigh Adam had his power recede and removed his thumb from Elijah’s forehead. A few seconds later Elijah began to stir.
“How was that?” He asked with a smile.
“Mostly excellent.” Adam replied with a smile of his own. “You’re pretty good, but Shit situational awareness.” He said, tapping the revolver to Elijah’s temple.
With a shout Elijah dove to the side and sprawled across the floor. When the expected shots didn’t come he slowly sat up and scowled.
“Damn, I haven’t zoned out that bad in a while.”
“This was something you used to do often?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, it’s how mom found out I could do anything at all. I was just standing in the kitchen, phone in hand dead to the world.”
“But no longer?”
“It’s something I’ve worked hard to control to keep the collar off. Doesn’t matter if I can tell the scanners to display a negative result if I have to be a drooling idiot to do it.”
"This is a good thing.” Adam said, preparing to give a brief lecture. “Not all psychics were created equal, if you ask one hundred different telepaths how their power works you are likely to get one hundred different answers. The same seems to hold true for telekinesis, precognition and the myriad of other documented abilities. To make matter worse you and I cousin, are unique so far as I know. So it’s not as if we could compare notes or find some helpful manual describing ways for us to effectively learn and grow.”
“So how are we gonna go about training?” Elijah asked.
“A good work ethic and discipline are things which will help a man go far in life, it will help here as well.”
“Even just having a few people you trust to bounce theories and ideas off of is invaluable I’ve found.” Nadia chimed in. “Now, this has been great entertainment but I’d like to get something warm to eat and call it day. We can get started in earnest bright and early tomorrow.”
Everyone agreed and so on a high note the day came to an end.