Tan reached out from the shelter of a doorway and pulled the boys off the sidewalk, they had been lagging behind during the entire run from hurricane shelter where Tan had knocked out the Sherata tiger. He pushed them flat against the wall, then chanced a look around the corner. The rain made it nearly impossible to see to the end of the street, but the Sheratas’ white fur was giving Tan a slight advantage in seeing them in time to hide. Two of the massive white-furred beasts had stopped in the middle of the street and were sniffing at the air. Tan was fairly certain the animals couldn’t smell them through the raw sewage that was flooding onto the street from the sewers. The beasts must have heard something and spun around to stare down another street. They listened for a moment before leaping into a run after whatever they had heard. Tan turned back to the boys, they were both breathing heavily. “Are you two alright?” asked Tan. “I’ve seen you both run at superhuman speeds, why are you lagging behind now?” Jack replied. “We can’t do that in the rain.” The equation came unbidden to Tan’s mind in a golden flash of light. He could see the equation hanging in the air above Jack’s head. Tan blinked, but the equation was still there. W=PE=Fd=mgh⟹F=dmgh F=0.02(1)(9.8)(2)=980 N W=KE=Fd=21mv2⟹F=d1/2mv2 F=0.751/2(2,200)(20)2=586,667 N It took only a moment longer before the contextual understanding arrived. The equation he was seeing was only part of the full equation. He blinked again and the equation changed. The meaning of the equations flooded his awareness: When solid objects transit from one fluid region to another, such as air to water, the impact forces and flow of mass to energy transfers from the moving mass to the water surface. It was the same as when a jet passed over a body of water at supersonic speeds. The kinetic energy of the mass in motion was transferred to the body of water in a spectacular but harmless explosion of water behind the jet, but if the jet were to enter the body of water, the damage would be devastating to the jet. Hence, the laws of physics had a built-in safety break. A biological being could not accelerate to supersonic speeds from a resting position while standing in a fluid substance, such as rain. But, there was no safety break once a person was at supersonic speed. They would fall under the same fate as a jet slamming into the ocean. Tan took a breath as the knowledge flooded from somewhere deep in his mind. So, that’s why Luca had to stop at the beach when he was being chased by the Eroden Battle Drones. Luca could have escaped, if the ocean hadn’t been in his way, but if he’d entered the water, the resulting explosion would have killed him along with anything nearby. Tan thought of another question, and again the answer appeared to him. Superhuman speed is the easiest attainable superhuman power to obtain. Even a lesser human could achieve such abilities with a minor genetic modification to allow the digestion and metabolism of the massive caloric intake required. The realization of what this meant struck Tan like a train had just run him over. The Aedens ability to move at such speeds wasn’t an evolutionary ability, it was a genetic modification. Tan’s world had outlawed genetic experimentation, but that wasn’t the case on Jack’s world. The Aedens had created the Dragons from living metal fused at a genetic level with a serpent. And, they had genetically created the Sherata from a primordial beast that had escaped extinction, only to fall to the Aedens pursuit of science. This was the reason the Aedens wouldn’t allow lesser humans to advance past a specific level of technology. If the lesser humans were to acquire the science, the Aedens dominance in the Universe could be challenged. “Tan, are you okay?” asked Jack. Tan glanced down at the boy. It was Jack’s A.I., it had to be. Maybe Tan’s species was close enough to Aeden biology that the A.I.’s deep learning mode had been feeding him forbidden technology by accident. Jack had already said he wouldn’t tell anyone about Tan’s superhuman strength, but would the boy’s loyalty to his species drawn the line if he knew Tan was inadvertently being taught Aeden science. “I’m just thinking about what we need to do next,” replied Tan, deciding to keep the information about his ability to absorb knowledge from the A.I. to himself, for now. “We need to steal a boat and get off the island,” said Jack. “Yes, of course, let’s go. The road is clear now.” Tan led the boys through the flooded streets, twice more avoiding the Sherata searching for them. He had to keep stopping to let the boys catch-up. The thought came to him to wonder how the Aeden invaded world’s that were prone to heavy rainfall, or even how they invaded worlds that were mostly ocean. He heard a voice in his head: ‘Downloading tactical database’. So, all he had to do was think what he wanted to learn? He would have to find a way to slow the data feed, it was starting to give him a headache now that he was aware of it. They reached the docks and Tan stopped to let the boys catch-up. “Where’s all the boats?” asked Luca. “Evacuated, or taken out of the water for the hurricane,” replied Jack. “There’s still a fishing trawler here,” said Tan. “But that ship takes a crew to operate it.” Jack pointed. “Hey, there’s a boat.” Tan peered through the rain and could just see a yacht at the end of the dock. The owners were probably not on the island, so nobody had been here to get it out of the water. “We’ll take it,” said Tan, glancing at Jack. The boy had a grin on his face. “What?” “Honest Tan is going to steal something?” said Jack. “I knew you’d make a good Aeden, eventually.” Tan’s eye twitched and his headache grew worse. Jack had no idea how true that statement was turning out to be. *** Don’t bother googling the equation, it’s the equation for force of impact to a solid object. I know, I know, totally lame on my part, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the symbols for the equation of force of impact to a fluid object. I’ve used force of impact on fluids before. If there is anyone left that remembers the story when Zam was left behind on the primordial Daemea world. Zam teleported into a lake by accident. The resulting explosion destroyed the lake. Now, Zam isn’t an Aeden, he’s a Kesune. The Kesune are the descendants of the long extinct Aedens (about 4 billion years after Jack lived). And while the Aedens never solved the science of stand-alone teleportation, the Kesune did. But then, they had the advantage of the Fox Emperor, the most intelligent mind ever born in the Darai universe. Yes, every story I write, every character, every planet, is all in the Darai universe somewhere on a 14.5 billion year time-line. All the stories weave together. I started on a 300 year time-line, but I kept having to adjust it, so I threw my hands up and said, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’, let’s just claim the whole time-line of existence. There is even a story about before time began.