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you wish ,”
the Preema said passively. “ I apologize
for the intrusion, but we had to be sure before committing our fleet regardless
of the alacrity needed .”
    “ Summon your
ships and build your staging base ,” Cal-com said, only allowing a few more
seconds before forcing himself to leave. “ And
while you are doing so we will compare lists of potential allies. ”
    “ Agreed ,”
the Preema said, standing up and backing into the erect, plied armor that
quickly concealed its glowing visage. “ Thank
you for your understanding .”
    “ If I had the
ability I would have done the same .”
    “ And if I
didn’t, I would have been perturbed. We will take ourselves out of range and
meet only again in person at times of your request. And should we be on the
same battlefield simultaneously, we will not pry without just cause ,” it
said as the two escorts took flight first, then the Preema ambassador followed
with a hefty flap of its long wings that sent it shooting up high into the
atmosphere, ostensibly with an anti- grav component in
the armor.
    Cal-com kept his mind frozen as if it were ice until
the Preema were out of sight, then he exchanged glances with his honor guard.
    “ That I did not
expect ,” he admitted. “ We are going
to hold them to their word. They don’t come within physical proximity to me
again unless I invite them to do so .”
    “ What range do
you want? ” the Voku standing next to him asked.
    “ Out of
sight…out of mind ,” he said, throwing one last glance into the sky before
walking off the platform and heading back to his transport.

 
 
    4

 
 
    August 2, 2825
    Irten System (Gamma
Region)
    Ior

 
    “Alright, ready for a headache,” Tom-008 said from the
back seat in a Morpheus -class mech as
it walked across the frozen tundra of Ior’s southern
ice cap.
    “I’ll have to take your word for it,” Victoria Jenson
said, not having a lick of psionic ability nor the full understanding of what
the trailblazer was about to do. She was a mechwarrior Regular and had been assigned to this research project along with her Clan leader for
reasons she didn’t entirely fathom, but he’d said it was important to both Clan
Skystrike and Star Force on the whole, so she’d eagerly accepted the mission
despite the live fire nature.
    She was piloting the two seat mech from the front in
one of the manual control harnesses rather than using the mental interface,
which had her standing in front of Tom half naked and strapped into the rig but
just out of arms reach so she couldn’t clobber him in the head accidentally as
she swung her arms about. A lot of the regulars still weren’t as efficient with
the mind reading tech though most of the Archons now used the interface. Theirs
was more advanced because they could speak to the computer directly, whereas
everyone else simply had it monitoring their thoughts and reading impulses. The
system worked, but it wasn’t quite refined enough for Victoria’s tastes, so she
was going with the manual controls for this challenge in order to be in top
form.
    They’d been working together in this tandem system for
months now but this was the first real test of Tom’s tech, whereas everything
else had been in computer simulation…and this time the danger was actual, with
the weapons they would be firing and being fired at with being the genuine deal
in order to gain an accurate analysis of effectiveness. Her job was to protect
Tom and do a little damage of her own when practical, making her big mech
essentially a football offensive lineman protecting their quarterback in this
upcoming game, though she and Tom were the only living players on the field.
    “You’ll have to, because there’s no way I’m trusting
anyone else with this,” the trailblazer said, readying himself for the mental
overload to come. “Even with Sav , I’m going to barely
be able to keep up. Hit the ‘wake up’ button if you have to, because I’m
probably not going