Naero's Valor

by Mason Elliott

  Naero and the GSA knew very well, however, that if the Great Adversary crushed and defeated everyone, that would be it. Not much else would matter.

  But with Spacers currently in charge, most of the lander worlds would still be wary about putting their systems and their massive populations in the Alpha Quadrant under the command of their former enemies. Hatred and mistrust died off hard and slow.

  In truth, the landers were bursting at the seams to explode forth into all three of the other galactic quadrants, in a massive rush of exploration and colonization. Only laziness held them back.

  The HFM simply tried to jump the game.

  What was happening on the borders of the Beta, Delta, and Gamma Quadrants was just the beginning. Yes, there was growing fear and concern about any number of well publicized threats. More and more unaligned worlds took a second look at matters. But the floodgates of expansion could not remain shut for very much longer, no matter how many real and looming threats remained out there.

  The HFM was a perfect example of what not to do.

  The GSA wanted to prevent a great deal of unnecessary loss of life that would clearly occur if far more humans rushed out into those regions prematurely.

  The fact remained that these ways were not safe yet for many reasons, as the HFM had proven in such a spectacularly bumbling fashion.

  Finally Naero and Khai and their people arrived at the secret location near the star in the system that contained Geddett-5.

  Naero could not fully comprehend what they all witnessed.

  She was one of the few people in the universe who knew what it was.

  They all stared at a radiant glowing partial sphere of hyper infused Ultrium that slowly dissolved before their eyes each second.

  That was astounding enough.

  But the fact that the sphere registered at a diameter of 250,000 kilometers made it almost an impossible event. That was nearly twice the size of the largest gas giant planets, larger than some failed stars, up there in size with certain low mass stars.

  No existing culture had the tek to create such a structure or object such as this.

  Not even the G’lothc.

  Klyne rushed up to them “Glad you’re here, N. Whatever this thing is, its energies knock out anything we try to send near it, including our latest spyfixers. It appeared out of nowhere a few standard days ago, and it’s been deteriorating at a slow rate ever since. We have all of our fleets in this area keeping any traffic away from this sector. There’s a complete quarantine and blockade up and running. Nothing but our fleets and ships get in or out.”

  “No Darkforce signatures or Cosmic flows at all,” Khai noted. He turned to Naero. “I’ve never seen anything like this; do you know what this damn thing is?”

  The strange phenomena had everyone perplexed and scared, and with good reason.

  Naero sucked in a deep breath before she spoke. “We’re looking at the partial outer shell of a Kexxian Starkiller, the most devastating weapon ever created in the entire universe. When fully functional, they possessed power enough to destroy an entire star. During the final Cosmic battles of the Ancient War with the Great Adversary, the Kexx sent not just fleets of Starkillers—but waves of fleets of Starkillers against the dark galaxy of the G’lothc. They fought that rapacious foe, who were themselves armed with hyper advanced tek of their own, and all of the ferocity of their corrupted Darkforce stars and innumerable homeworlds crammed with slave troops.

  “The Starkillers were almost completely invincible. They nearly destroyed all life in the entire enemy galaxy, and exterminated every G’lothc that existed.”

  “How did such a thing as this, even the shell of one, appear in this place?” Klyne asked.

  Naero shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I have no idea. Starkillers could only be made by the most powerful Kexxian Songs of Making. Only the most Amazing Kexxian Dreamers could sing such huge warships and their replicant crews into existence, for like gods, they had achieved the might of pure Creation itself. Nothing to their force of will was too big, or too small and intricate. If the Seven Dreamers wished a thing into being, it became as real as you or me and functioned perfectly.”

  “What do we do with this thing?” Klyne said.

  Naero stared at the stark miracle before her in wonder.

  She could still hear the echoes of the song that made it ringing out in the black.

  And the voice.

  She knew that voice.

  What new power was this at work?

  “What is the rate of Cosmic energy decay?” Naero inquired. “How long before it goes away on its own?”

  “Seventeen standard days,” Klyne said.

  Naero grinned slightly. “Then I suggest we all keep our distance and study the shit out of this thing while you have access to one of the seven wonders of this or any universe. That’s what I intend to do.”

  Khai laughed. “My love, why is there only part of it? Why wasn’t it completed?”

  Naero sighed again. “The Dreamer who created it stopped singing. I think that she must have done this by accident, without thinking about it. Her…her Song of Making was never finished.”

  22

  More and more of the secret wyrmhole relays came on line across all four of the galactic quadrants. Naero made that one of the GSA’s priorities. These expanding lanes of rapid travel over incredible distances would make it far more possible to rapidly transport fleets, fixer nebulae, and large quantities of supplies across the galaxy.

  The relay points would be hidden, and protected by a system akin to the planetary defense shields. Not even the GSA could access them without the proper codes and clearances. They could not be destroyed, because normally they could not be located while they were phazed out. And in the future, their locations would have further defenses as progress expanded the reach of the GSA.

  Yet another major problem arose, in the Beta Quadrant this time.

  One of the many advanced fixer nebula probe units that continued to explore, map, and install the first wyrmhole generators went missing. It went missing in one of the deepest reaches of the Unknown, in a new direction that systematically branched off from the others.

  Naero had feared this might happen. There were instances in the other quadrants, but this was the first such one that had occurred here.

  Khai and her strike force went forth to investigate at full speed. The worst fear was always that the disappearance had something to do with an encounter with the Great Adversary.

  The enemy was lurking somewhere out there, in every quadrant.

  Naero and her fleets had to make use of the current wyrmhole relays to eventually reach that outbound area.

  Even using the relays, it would still be many days to get where they needed to be in order to begin their search and investigation. But if the enemy was active there, the Alliance needed to know, and in what types and strengths.

  Naero and the other GSA Champions with them spent their down time exploring the KDM, training, and venturing out into the spheres of the Expanse.

  The spheres of the universe were another infinite source of sentient mind expansion, enlightenment, and opportunities to channel and utilize Cosmic energy in new ways.

  Naero went out with Khai, Jia, and Shalaen into the highest levels of the Expanse that they could currently reach. “When we encountered the Uvxvu, our discussions with Uvx made me rethink some of our assumptions about the limits of the Expanse and the spheres. I think we need to keep trying to reach the higher spheres beyond.”

  Shalaen cautioned her. “Even the energy beings know how dangerous that is, N. Expand your being and you mind too much-”

  Naero nodded. “Yes. We all know the risks. Go too far and you can never get back. You will lose the cohesion of your mind and your very self in the depths of Infinity.”

  “We can’t afford to lose any of us,” Jia added. “We’re the only Mystic Champions that the GSA has and we’re still too few. We’ve discussed all of th
is many times before. What has changed?”

  “I spoke to Uvx, a transmogrified being from another universe who helped defeat their Great Destroyer. From the way she described their final battle, their Guardians and champions fought within a sphere so great, that the plane of all their universe was their battle ground beneath their feet.”

  “Can such a sphere even exist?” Khai asked. “Can any survive to exist within it?”

  “The Drians and Kexx knew that it does,” Jia noted. “Yet even so, they perceived of such a possibility, yet even they could never reach it.”

  “It is still impossible then,” Shalaen said.

  Naero crossed her arms in front of herself. “Impossible or no, we must strive to find a way. If the day comes when we face our Great Destroyer, we must become capable of fighting it on its ground, on its terms, and within its primary sphere of power.”

  “First let’s further explore the highest spheres that are currently safe for us,” Khai suggested. “We’ve only visited them a few times as it is. Perhaps we can reach high levels of magnitude gradually, or by increments.”

  Khai and Naero went ahead first, marking their trail behind them for the others.

  They passed into to the lowest of the four known Higher Spheres.

  Khai held Yii before him, protecting them both in one of his green energy globes. The Cosmic sword remained Khai’s best focus for his unique powers and abilities.

  They spent a good deal of time studying that sphere, its flows, and how it affected them, their energies, and their talents.

  They gave the signal, and Jia and Shalaen joined them. They shared all of their data. Om recorded everything they did for later reference.

  Naero and Khai proceeded to the next highest sphere.

  They quickly observed that when they tapped various other Cosmic power spheres and sources, those energies flooded into them at extremely high levels, like nothing else that they had experienced before.

  A strange dark beam slammed into their green protective sphere.

  The powerful shield spheres shattered and negated in an instant, as if they had been the most fragile glass.

  The next second, another such beam smashed into Yii and Khai, driving him into Naero and both of them far away into the aether.

  Khai floated unconscious, he and the Cosmic Sword badly scorched.

  Nothing that existed in the universe should be capable of doing such a thing. The Enforcer’s shielding abilities were some of the most powerful that they were aware of.

  Naero herself felt weak and confused. Om barely responded in her mind.

  Concentrated…Darkforce ray…Lethal!

  Naero flashed them out of there before anything else could attack them or go wrong.

  She quickly collected Jia and Shalaen.

  Yii and Khai were already regenerating in tow, the two of them always joined as one. They could be harmed, apparently, yet remained indestructible overall.

  What if that concentrated Darkforce beam had struck her? How would she have fared, even in one of her most powerful energy forms?

  They fled once again, out of the High Spheres entirely and then back into the black to rejoin their fleets and their entranced bodies.

  At last they were safe, relatively speaking.

  “Khai, are you all right, my love?” Naero asked, his face in her hands.

  He smiled up at her, his eyes mating with her concerned glance. “Never better, my heart. Just stunned I think, but I’ve never felt anything like that attack.”

  Without Yii, and the protections that it provides, that deadly beam would have slain you outright, Enforcer. Yes, even you, Khai. You too, N. I have never witnessed such incredible power focused into a Death Beam of that magnitude. I cannot perceive how such a ray could even exist, let alone function over such great distances!

  Where did it come from, Om?

  From so far away that I cannot trace it back to its source, Naero. Somewhere deep from within the Beta Quadrant. Somehow that beam was focused through the higher spheres themselves, as if they were lenses for those energies. Not even the Kexx had such a weapon.

  “We need to figure out what it was, and how to defend against it in the future,” Khai said.

  I can go over the little data we have, but it’s not much to analyze. I will try to devise ways that we can study it further, should we encounter it once again.

  Naero took in a deep breath and snorted. Then she cast her eyes down.

  “What is it, my love?” Khai asked?

  “I was just thinking. What if this was somehow a calling card from Khemathrykal? We know he’s out there, waiting for us, even if we don’t know exactly what he is. What if we just got his attention?”

  “Come,” Khai told her. “We must update everyone one what we do know, and then report back to the High Command.”

  *

  They never located the missing spyfixer nebula. It had vanished without a single trace.

  Naero still suspected the enemy. Who else could manage such a feat against their best tek?

  In place of that lost advance unit, she sent out seven more mapping, probe, and wyrmhole units that came through the relays.

  They would take greater care, and record and rapidly report anything that attacked them under new defensive protocols.

  Naero and her people searched the region for several standard days.

  They found nothing, not even other sentient worlds or species. That in itself was a very bad sign.

  Whatever lifeforms had ever existed in those systems, they had been eradicated long ago.

  They ended their mission and turned back toward the Alpha Quadrant.

  On the way home, Orean, Iahk, and any others continued practicing the Kexxian Songs of Making, every chance that they could manage, with all of their hearts and soul.

  Iahk was soon up to attempting Song #7.

  Orean knew well that once he mastered that song, with her coaching, that he would be capable of creating the total mass of one of their latest starfighters.

  Had he been Orean or at her skill level with her talents, he could even create a replicant in that starfighter with the skill and knowledge to fly that craft extremely effectively.

  No one else but Naero Prime could currently create replicants at her level of complexity and in such great numbers.

  Orean focused on fully mastering Songs #14 and #15 by now, and making steady progress on all of the rest.

  Today, however, she focused intently on Song of Making #19, even though she hadn’t fully mastered the two before that one.

  She had learned the basics of that song from her oldest daughter, Shetharra long ago. Knowing the rudimentary versions of that one song had turned out to be the key to unlocking the knowledge to all of the Songs of Making, within the KDM.

  This was also the exact song of power that a certain young astonishing Dreamer had somehow used, accidentally, to partially create the Kexxian Starkiller near Geddett-5.

  How that had been accomplished was still beyond all imagining.

  Yet there was no denying that it had occurred.

  From studying that unfinished creation before it ceased to be, Orean had learned much. With that knowledge, she couldn’t wait to continue her work on #19.

  She keyed upon and studied the exact Cosmic flows of that partial creation during the time that it existed on the Prime Material Plane. Part of the knowledge she gained with her acute teknomancy led her to the precise sphere of reality that resonated with the Song of Making used to create such a miracle.

  From there it would be a matter of acquired skill and constant practice.

  She could match the resonance of her song and its frequencies to that sphere, slowly telling her when and where she was not yet correct in the song’s basic execution.

  On top of that, she could gain further help from the Dreamer in question, although that had to be done in great secret now. Orean and those close to her had gone to extraordinary lengths to manage things as they were
. They had pulled off the ultimate deception.

  She, Iahk, and Neveab were also doing their best to learn the further intricacies of the splitting technique, yet it was difficult for them. And the exploration of the SpaceTime stream in any shape or form was still quite beyond them.

  Yet Orean could not leave these secret abilities forever secret. It did no good to keep them to herself.

  Other Mystic Champions and Mystics must begin to learn and practice them. They must be passed on to others among the coming generations of new Dreamers.

  Quickening abilities on several levels had to be given to many of the others champions and fledgling Dreamers.

  Iahk finally began to progress as a Dreamer on his own, in his own ways and directions. Certain things came easier to him than to Naero or anyone else. Everyone was different.

  Yet it was obvious that the continuing enigma concerning the disappearance of the Oden still distracted Khai from other important issues, and constantly weighed heavily on his mind.

  He warned Orean that quite soon, he would need to depart, on his own if need be, to take on that search full time.

  Orean counselled him to wait, because he was so badly needed in many places. They both were. Every day they were in more demand.

  Something big was coming.

  Both of them understood that fact by now.

  When the time was right, Orean promised Iahk that they would both go off together, and give the search their full attention.

  Something had to turn up on the Oden.

  Even if clues to that enigma did arise, now was definitely not the time to pursue them.

  They also kept searching for all of the secret data they could uncover on the forging of the Second Cosmic Sword of Power, Jaa, the Sword of Darkness.

  What they continued learning was closely wrapped up in the Cosmic Prophecies. This information took a frightening turn, and was corroborated by further discussions with Uvx.

  It became increasingly clear, that in order to create Jaa, each of the three Cosmic Champions would need to surrender portions of their power—and one of the Three must do far more than that.