Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury (24 page)

“
Agreed, High Master Jo,” the serene silver man added. “She might yet be another Trickster from what I can tell.”

“
Yes. Quite possible, High Master Tree.”

The old man in the blood red sphere blustered impatiently. “Fools! Always conspiring against me. Taking positions opposite of mine for no reason but to anger me. I’ve been telling you all along, this child is clearly the Great Destroyer–long foretold. Our duty is clear. She is a threat to all existence. To multiple dimensions. She must be eliminated, at once, before she can grow even more powerful.
”

“
High Master Vane,” Tree said. “None of us can be sure of that fact. Including you.”

“
I am.”

“
You are always certain when it comes to destroying someone,” Jo added. “Your pure Chaos answer to everything. Destruction or Creation.”

“
It works.”

“
No. It doesn’t. It only delays and worsens the inevitable,” Tree said. “The Universe shall have its way. We all know this. You were mistaken with the last savant when he appeared, and now he remains at large–a renegade beyond even our control.”

Baeven? We’re they referring to her uncle
?

Vane rolled his eyes. “Idiots! The Renegade is the Trickster, I say. This child must in fact be the Great Destroyer. Just look at the powers roiling within her. They will surely corrupt and overwhelm her entirely and drive her mad in the end. She will go berserk on a scale that makes her recent outbursts feeble and puny by comparison. She must perish now, while we have a chance to put an end to her. While the only crime she has committed is destroying a single planet!
”

“
We’ve repeatedly studied the mysterious disappearance of Janosha,” Master Jo said, “and we still cannot be certain that she had anything to do with it.”

“
Really? Who else could it be then? Planets like Janosha aren’t in the habit of just obliterating themselves suddenly for no reason at all!”

I cannot allow this
.

Quiet, Om. Do
n’t do anything. I’m trying to listen.

Naero…they’re discussing our destruction. The Chaos Master means to destroy us
.

Master Jo continued to protest. “You ca
n’t just kill off every entity that manifests Cosmic Abilities such as these. Our universe is peppered with them. We must continue to locate and guide them–not find excuses to execute them. Like the Others have told us. Tricksters often appear to oppose Great Destroyers. Without the former, final victory is never possible. “

“
High Masters,” Tree said. “This young woman also possesses the Kexxian Data Matrix. We cannot destroy her without destroying it. Intel and The Spacer Council value our wisdom, but even they would not agree to such action.”

“
Regrettable,” Vane said. “Yet I cannot take the risk. I have decided this matter on my own.”

“
You have no such authority on your own,” Tree insisted.

“
I cannot stand by and allow our galaxy–perhaps our entire universe to be destroyed–just to satisfy your foolish, philosophical, and theoretical whims.”

Master Vane turned to his adepts. “My finest students, obey me. Delay these fools. Keep them occupied whilst I act for the good of all existence.
”

More rapid than thought, the male ensnared the blue sphere and its satellites in coils and tendrils of darkness. While the female enveloped the golden sphere and its companions in waves of of pure light
.

Naero tried to pull away, but in her panic she did not know where to go
.

High Master Vane sped straight at her with impossible speed
.

I must act, Naero.

No, Om. Please, this is already bad enough. Don’t do anything.

I cannot comply. I must defend us!

Naero went down on her hands and knees before Master Vane. She called out, her voice projecting.

“
Please, do not attack me. I only wish to be trained to control my abilities. I have struggled hard to do so.”

Vane bore down on her, arcs of pure scarlet energy bristling around him.

“Far too late for that, monster. You must perish for the good of all. I told you this hour would come.”

Instinctively, Naero drew back again, trying to evade his attack. She rose up within her receding sphere
.

Vane closed in once more
, gathering his powers.

“
Don’t do this,” Naero begged. “Please. Help me. I know I can’t fully control all of my abilities yet. I’m trying as hard as I can.”

“
Yes, and look at the results? Countless lives crushed and eradicated. Janosha vaporized–an entire planet. You must never be allowed to reach your full potential. Now hold still and embrace your fate.”

Naero put her hands out before her, holding her palms out defensively
–pleading.

“
No. Don’t. I can’t be responsible for what–”

“
I know. You can’t help yourself. You are an abomination!”

Vane smashed into her, piercing all of her defenses as if they were shattering glass.
Here in the Astral Plane, he had the mastery.

In the distance, she sensed that Master Jo and Master Tree finally broke free
.

Too late
.

Master Vane attacked, trying to overwhelm her with raw power
.

He pummeled her with impossible blows
.

In the end, he beat her up badly, but only succeeded in knocking her around once more
.

Om roared in their mind
.

Kexxian defense protocols unlocked and on line
.

Energized glowing armor of some advanced origin formed around her like a hi-tek battle suit
.

Naero saw out of her third eye as it awoke and burst into radiance like a blue-
violet-white star.

Master Vane came at her once more, all of his powers focused through his primary scarlet, burning eye centered in his forehead
.

All of his other flaming eyes closed as he concentrate
d, his skull wreathed in weird Cosmic flames like a mane of Cosmic fire.

“
See how powerful you have already become? No adept could have withstood those lethal attacks. We must finish this now, before the others can interfere.”

“
Please, Master Vane. Please, don’t do this.”

“
You will fall before the greatest of all Cosmic attack techniques. I am one of the few who have ever learned to master it–The Eye of Annihilation!”

The same Chaos technique that had destroyed Hashiko. Even she could
n’t control it properly.

A massive blood red beam of destroying Cosmic force shot straight at her
.

It all happened so fast. Naero heard Om screaming.

Reflection defense. Analyze incoming Cosmic assault. Duplicate and reflect attack tenfold!

Just before the incoming blast vaporized her, a blue-
violet beam shot out of her own third eye to war against Master Vane’s powers.

The Cosmic flows flared intensely
.

Naero screamed as if her body and soul were being sucked through the eye of a black hole’s needle
.

The wide
, violet-blue beam quickly drove back the red beam to its source.

At the last instant, High Master Vane cried out in terror
.

“
Impossible! There can be no such–”

The destroying energies
ignited on contact.

A massive detonation on the
Astral Plane blinded the area within a few light years.

High Masters Jo and Tree barely managed to withdraw and shield the others. All of their spheres shattered
.

Pure
Cosmic energy punched into High Master Vane right before Naero’s eyes.

Driving him back like a white hot comet.

He struggled against it with all his might, obliterated to glowing ash and dust, screaming in the wake of his own annihilation.

High Master Vane’s dying force of will echoed off into the universe.

Naero would have caught her breath if she had any.

The outcome left her completely stunned for a shuddering instant
.

Om…what did we just do?

We had no choice. My sole purpose is to defend our current form.

Naero stared down at her hands in terror. Tendrils of Cosmic energy rippled and still curled off of her body and her sphere like smoke
.

Om…Haisha
!

We just killed a High Master of the Spacer Mystics!

27

Naero did not have much time before the Mystics and Spacer Intel came to apprehend her.

The first person she called was Baeven
. No answer.

She left a desperate
, secret distress call for him.

Then
another for Captain Tyber and
The Darkstar
.

Next Jan, Aunt Sleak, and her crew.
She made it quick. As of this moment, she was a criminal, and outlaw–a wanted murderer. She didn’t exactly see a way around or out of that fact, but she needed to get some time to sort it all out, and consider just what were her options.

Her head was already spinning and aching.

Her life–the life she knew and loved–was over. Naero was still in shock and had not yet begun to mourn that loss.

She could speak with her family, friends, and crew more later, through covert means. But right now, she needed to escape and find a place to hide and regroup.

The galaxy was a very big place.

Baeven had eluded capture
and execution for years.

That thought suddenly staggered
Naero in her tracks. She nearly went into convulsions.

Was she only repeating the mistakes of the past?

Would she be made an outcast, losing her name and identity, completely dishonored–just like him? Would they order her terminated on sight?

She knew her
own people wanted to help her. She couldn’t allow that. She couldn’t implicate them in her crimes.

Naero gathered some gear she needed, launched in her private, sup
er-modified, Ghost Dragon F59L…and vanished.

Her last order to her fleet spread them out, in a wide-dispers
ed search pattern, as if they were looking for her.

If the authorities wanted to
take the time to board and search each of her ships–that was going to take them a while.

Meanwhile, Naero made five rapid jumps over the ne
xt multiple hours. She could not sleep, and spent a good deal of her time covering her tracks and passively monitoring the spyfixer network through Om, so as to be untraceable. When she wasn’t glued to that, she was checking Baeven’s secret channels.

Still nothing.

When it became clear that the search for her expanded outward in all directions–finally–she circled back and returned to Thanor-4, early the next day.

True to their word, the Mystics and Intel had completely abandoned the undeveloped world
–now that it was no longer of any further use to them. All of the fleets and starships were completely gone, as if they had never been there at all.

She had several hours before her rendezvous with
The Darkstar
, and hopefully
The Star Fox
, as well
.
Naero programmed her nano-suit to mimic her native, Thanoran clothing, and transported down to the surface to have a final word with the leaders of the Thanes.

Overall, t
he natives were clearly terrified by the little they had seen of the Kahn-Dar attack. Naero went to Thanarra. King Arrok and Queen Liita were ecstatic to receive her, and brought her before them.

They
sprang from their thrones and embraced her in the throne room, before the entire court.

“
Holy sister,” Queen Liita said, with tears in her eyes. “We feared that you and so many of the other holy ones had abandoned us in our hour of need. What has happened? Tell us this is not so?”

Even the Changs had not been allowed to explain anything.

Naero already knew what she was going to tell them. She had it all prepared.

She might not ever make i
t back to their world, let alone any of the other adepts. She knew the Changs would, if they were ever given the freedom to do so.

“
I’m sorry
,” she announced, using the voice, so that all could hear her. Her words echoed throughout the chamber.

“
The gods have summoned many of the holy ones to join them in the High Heavens. We have no choice. We must obey. Those who have been chosen are already gone
.”

“
But why?” the king asked. “And what were these fearful portents in the sky? And why did all of creation rumble beneath our feet? The people are terrified, and rightly so.”

“
Your Majesties, there is little time, and I must also leave soon. Please, let me explain as best I can
.”

“
Leave?” Queen Liita said, looking stricken. “You’ve only just come back to us, and you already speak of leaving?”

“
I’m sorry, but I must. There is no other way. The truth is always hard to hear. The age of Legends has returned. Now we all have our battles to fight. Just as your world prepares for war, so do the High Heavens. Dangerous demons and monsters from the Beyond, from the Dark Abyss and the Void themselves–threaten to break free and destroy all of Creation. Their numbers are like the stars in the sky–so great in fact–that even the gods cannot fight them alone
.

“
Hear me. We have all been called to battle. We have been chosen to fight beside the gods, to do our utmost to drive our terrible foes back into the Abyss. The messengers of the gods, the holy ones whom you know as gentle mortals and healers among you, are in fact warriors and soldiers of great renown in the Realms of the Spirits, upon the other side of the veil.

“
There they take up their secret names and titles, and draw their shining weapons of light to defeat the all-consuming darkness. Without such efforts, the enemies of Light would quickly reduce mortal worlds such as yours to nothing but lifeless rock. This battle must be fought in the Spirit Realms. Mortal worlds would have no defense against such terrible foes. That is why we must go when we are summoned, and it may be that we shall never return to this world, ever again.
”

The king drew his sword and saluted her.

“Then go, good friend and sister. Fight for the light in the Spirit Realms, and we shall do the same in the mortal climes. As you have said, we all have our battles to wage. And ours will most assuredly be here. This much we do understand.”

Naero returned his salute
and ceased using the voice. “You have all grown so much. Yet my heart foretells that you will need to grow even further, and become even wiser. Do not let your wars change or destroy what is best in you–honor, freedom, justice. These and your children are those things that are truly worth fighting, and if need be, dying for. Yet it is even harder to find a way to live for them, and bring them into a better age for all.”

“
We shall fight to the last sword, the last breath,” the queen said. “Yet before we part, is there nothing you can do to aid us?”

“
I can only give you this.” Naero brought out a scroll she had the fixers prepare. She handed it to the king and queen. She knew they could read and make use of it.

Their
Majesties opened it up and began to peruse it. Their eyes went wide.

“
How…how could you gather such information?”

Naero smiled and shook her head. “That is unimportant. Make good use of it while you can. Emperor Vauk’s forces are detailed there, but they are already moving, and will not remain in their current locations for long.”

“What is the purpose of this great and terrible war he plans against us all?” Queen Liita asked.

“
He’s going to murder all of your children,” Naero said. “Wipe out an entire generation, so that none of your lands or people shall ever recover. The Vaedo will dominate and enslave all who remain, thereafter. That is why you must stop him.”

“
How do we fight him and protect our children at the same time?” the king asked. “Even with the other two city states, the Vaedo armies still outnumber our forces, almost two to one. We know what he will do–engage and bottle up our forces in one place–and then attack our homes.”

“
Don’t let him trap you. Fight him only where he is weak, not where his is strong, until you have worn him down. Always choose the time and place of your battles. Stay mobile. Move fast. Bleed him as he chases you. And one other thing.”

“
What is that?” the queen asked.

“
Find the safest place for your children that you can make or devise, and defend it to the last. You know he will seek to take it, at all costs.”

Naero suggested the mountain defenses of the Maedo, but left such decisions up to them. The Thanorans were all still working out their crucial alliances.

“I’m sorry,” Naero told them “I must leave you now. If it is at all possible for me to return to you all at some point in the future, I will do so. But look to yourselves, for I cannot promise it.”

Their
Majesties nodded.

“
We understand,” the king said.

Queen Liita hugged and kissed her. “May the gods watch over us all.”

“Good sister,” King Arrok asked. “Will you but grant us one boon. If we should fall, what is thy secret name in the Spirit Realms? If all are so chanced on the other side of the veil–how should we know you, if we should pass on, and look for you there?”

Prince Shondar and Princess Iiden looked at her eagerly.

Naero walked out onto the starlit balcony of the palace keep, and reached her hands to the stars.

She transformed before their eyes and took on her accustomed role of the warrior woman dressed and masked
all in black, her twin blazing scarlet katanas crackling with force and lightning in her hands, her dark psyonic wings unfurling in the mountain winds, lifting her in the air above them. She used
the voice
once more.

“
In the Spirit Realms, I am known as Shetanna, the Dark Angel of Death, and I have never known defeat in combat. Fight on for your world and your children, and fare you well. My heart is with you
.”

She slowly cloaked, and faded away into the night upon the shadowy whispers of the wind.
Iiden clung to her older brother and wept.

Naero left them
staring in awe and transported back to her small, hidden ship in the high mountains. She still had hours before
The Darkstar
would arrive.

Naero…I
wouldn’t normally bother you with something like this, but I’m detecting a rather strange anomaly.

What do you mean? What kind of an anomaly, Om?

Cosmic in nature, but very faint. I was barely able to detect it. I could only do so through our combined sensory abilities. It is that weak.

Let’s check it out.

They tracked the anomaly to the east cost of Nashara. Naero was amazed at the destruction, even in the wake of the Mystic’s departure. She had heard that the Kahn-Dar gated in there as well, and many of them had fallen. Their bodies were Cosmic in nature and dissolved upon death, leaving nothing behind.

What was this thing, then? Om was right, it was Cosmic
energy in nature, but its signature was very faint. She kept losing it, and found it difficult to pinpoint.

Finally she spotted something
.

Good thing the night was so dark.

It zipped around like a flickering lightning bug. Even using her gravwing, they couldn’t catch up to it.

Finally, Naero transported, and captured it in her cupped hands.

She tried to peer in at it.

A blinding flash and a puff of smoke. The pop of the
small explosion surprised and startled her more than it did any injury.

Whatever the hell it was, the chase was now on.

Even spot transporting, Naero couldn’t capture it again.

Naero remembered something she learned from sparring with Master Vane, of all things.

She encircled it in a net of Chaos energy and slowly closed the encapsulating sphere all around it. Then she made the sphere transparent.

The creature inside made her gasp and blink.

A tiny, blue-violet Kahn-Dar, the size of a small seahorse, like a tiny, flickering wyrm. But now she had it fairly trapped.

Then she felt it. The creature was trying to mindlink with her.

What do you think, Om? Should we try to communicate with it? It seems pretty harmless in this state.

Yes, it is near death, in fact. The Kahn-Dar can change their size at will. And when they perish, they can go in a flash, fade away, or shrink smaller and smaller as they die.

It’s dying? Should we try to help it?

It is an enemy. It came here with the rest to destroy us all. Remember that.

All right, I will. But I hate to watch anything die needlessly.

Even Ejjai?

Point taken.