Astral Legacy Book 1

25

Kale held the scanner in his hand. The device was quite familiar to him as he had seen it used a couple of times and after spending the last eight hours with Lenari and Elara trying to teach him how to use it he was at least familiar with basic function. The device itself was about six inches long with the five-and-a-half-inch screen making up most of it. It was fairly lightweight but heavier than you'd expect most likely because it was meant for a Daoran not a human. It only had a button on the side and one on the bottom. Kale laughed a bit when he first held it thinking it reminded him of the latest smartphone that had launched this year back on earth. It was definitely much more powerful though, the processors used in it were microscopic in nature but there were more than two hundred of them present in the device. It gathered information several ways, a large sensor lens that ran across the top of it that would emit different wave types able to penetrate most materials, on the back just below that a rectangular space that resembled a speaker would take information from the air and relay it back through the processors and it could hold up to an exabyte of information if disconnected from the ships computer for an extended period. Elara had left some time ago to get something to eat and to rest a bit as she had been up late with Sashir's doctors back on the Typhonus but he and Lenari had been hard at work.

"So just so that I'm clear, when this turns green and these figures line up it means it's found a life sign?" Kale held the device toward Lenari and pointed to a line of symbols and code. Kale was pretty sure he had gotten a good understanding of the device considering it wasn't in a language he could read; but the most important function he figured he'd be using the scanner for was life signs on this mission as he knew Lenari and Omall would handle anything more complicated than that.

"Yes exactly," said Lenari smiling. "You know Kale I'm surprised you picked this up so quick. When I was learning this, it took me a couple days to be able scan for life signs."

"Well, honestly it's probably because this is super exciting for me. To you it's probably like homework or a job you do because you have to. For me..." said Kale thinking once again about how this was still all beyond his wildest imagination, "It's hard to put into words what it's like." Kale paused in thought briefly. "Think of the craziest thing you would want to do that's outside the realm of what you consider to be possible and then imagine doing it. And that's all this for me."

"I guess I still do not think of the fact that all of this is brand new and so out of the ordinary for you," said Lenari. Kale sat the scanner on the nearby table feeling good about his ability to work the device. He wanted to be as useful as he could be when they boarded the Shironian facility, something he couldn't help but be nervous about.

"The combat drill will now begin." A voice sounded over the communication system and suddenly the lights went down to emergency lighting. Kale and Lenari stood up and Lenari passed Kale the designated weapons they would use for the drill before taking one for himself. This was Kershala's drill and they had no idea what he would have in store for them. Kales eyes were slowly adjusting to the low light when a light flashed behind them. Kale turned and didn't hesitate to fire the weapon twice a beam of light fired from the weapon hitting what turned out to be a Shironian soldier and missing the second shot, there were two of them. Lenari turned to fire his weapon but was disarmed by what they knew was a hologram. Kale watched as Lenari ducked a shot from the soldier's weapon which in reality was harmless but couldn't get a clear shot. They both knew they had to act like this was a real combat situation, Lenari tripped the hologram and as it hit the ground brought his two fists down on its chest. The creature vanished.

"Lucky it was just the little ones," said Kale. "Come on we have to secure the command center." They headed out of the lab and into the main corridor to find Ralu grappling with one of the larger soldiers and Zaree on the ground incapacitated. As they left the lab three more soldiers were teleported in. Kale fired twice once hitting the soldier Ralu grappled with and once hitting one of the new soldiers. Lenari fired at the others as they both dived for cover.