Free Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford by G. L. Argain Page B

huge
warehouse of weapons and tools within. There were several floors,
all heading downwards, with the bottom floor barely within sight.
Each floor had a specific category for weapons or tools that would
help any military out.
    Andrew wondered why an political
organization consisting of multiple species would have a place to
store lots of weapons. It would be like the United Nations having
an armory that wasn’t just for the military.
    They walked down to the second level,
which, according to Juvir, contained plasma weapons. One of these
weapons was the closest thing to a lightsaber, known to the AOIB as
a plasma blade. The hilt was just a cylinder of metal with a large,
circular cross-guard—nothing fancy like the hilt from the other
sword Andrew had. There was a big hole in the front of the hilt,
with a thin rod coming out of it where the blade ought to be. There
were support rods attaching the main rod to the inside of the hilt
at the entrance of the hole.
    “Seriously? This thing is hardly a
weapon, and nowhere near any kind of lightsaber or plasma sword or
whatever.”
    “Just grip the hilt
forcefully.”
    When Andrew firmly grasped the hilt
like Juvir said, all of sudden an enormous amount of energy
surrounded the main rod up to its tip. It appeared to be a lot like
lightning, but unlike the tree-like branches of paths that
lightning randomly goes off into, the energy surrounding the rod
seemed controlled and stable. Andrew couldn’t figure out how it was
possible.
    Revising his rating on the plasma
blade, Andrew said, “Oh, wow, that is pretty cool….um….now I know
it works, but why? How is this possible?”
    “It all involves electrons. First off,
you send electricity through your nerves that connect to the
muscles in your hands. When the electrons currently flowing through
your hand are plentiful enough, which in this case occurs when you
tighten your hand by grabbing onto the hilt, those electrons
transmit a signal that triggers on a system within the
hilt.
    “Okay, so it’s basically like a
pressure-activated system.”
    “Essentially. After that triggers on,
electrons are produced and sent out of the hilt, into the air
surrounding the rod you see here. They react violently from being
sent out with such great force, causing them to change atomic
orbitals and give off energy. Since the rod is magnetized, the
electrons are confined to an area around the rod, therefore keeping
this smooth, stable shape. If this rod were not here, you would be
projecting electricity all over the room, unbound with the power to
kill an unarmored life-form.”
    “How come I’m not affected? I mean, if
it’s so powerful, why am I not being shocked right now? Or you, for
that matter?”
    “As for me, it’s for that confined
space from the rod that I just mentioned earlier. But for you, the
entire hilt is made of a non-conductive material that keeps any
electrons from breaking through and shocking you. I could go into
detail, but it would take hours or even days to explain everything.
What I’ve said is the basics of the plasma blade.”
    Andrew pondered all of this for a few
seconds as he loosened his grip and turned the sword off. He came
up with another question to ask, but when he hardly opened his
mouth to talk, Juvir said, “I presume you want to know how this
works in battle, but it would be better for you to learn that from
experience rather than from my lectures.”
    Andrew had an epiphany after hearing
this statement. He now knew that Juvir was planning to place him in
some sort of battle or alien boot camp or something. He wasn’t
going to stay on this world just as some sort of
civilian.
    “And yes,” Juvir added, “you are going
to be a test subject. Not for anything like being a slave, though.
I want you to be a soldier. To become one, however, you’re going to
need some proper shots and tests taken.”
    Andrew wasn’t fond of fighting or wars
in general. He had never been in a fight in his whole life,