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, Naero. 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!
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NAERO’S
TRIAL
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NAERO’S
WAR:
NAERO’S
TRIAL
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by Mason Elliott
On the third day of Naero’s trial, the Prosecution and the Defense made their final, closing statements.
Master Jo spoke first, for the Defense.
“In the final analysis, I would both conclude and insist that Naero Amashin Maeris has proven herself time and time again to be an honorable Spacer, and that her word is without question. She is also vital to the survival of her people in many important ways. Naero Amashin Maeris is a noble, invaluable warrior and a proven leader who has served the Clans and the Alliance well, in both peacetime and war. A Mystic Champion who is now part of the great and mysterious Cosmic Prophecy, long foretold. There is still so little that we do not know about those prophecies; who can say what her role will be in the end?”
Master Jo paced a bit. “And on a very basic level, she is a Spacer. As such, she has the right of all Spacers and all sentients to defend herself, to the death, against anyone who attempts to kill her. Reluctantly, she only resorted to lethal force when High Master Vane attacked her with the intent to destroy her, and take her life. Even after she had tried to get away from him, and begged him repeatedly not to attack her.
“She cannot not be convicted of murder for defending her own life against someone trying to kill her. Those are all many good reasons why you must see fit to exonerate her of these erroneous charges. We cannot take the life of this hero.”
The Defense finally rested.
Master Tree was given the final word in the trial for the prosecution.
“Hero? First, let me also revisit the reckless side of this renegade, outlaw Spacer, who fled from justice and had to be brought back by force to face her crimes in shackles, in order to keep her from getting away once again. On several occasions, Naero Amashin Maeris has proven herself to be dangerous, unpredictable, and out of control. By her own words, she has more than once declared that if she ever lost control and became a threat to any of her people, that she herself agreed that she should be put down–and destroyed.
“The cold blooded murder of a High Mystic Master has not demonstrated this fact readily enough? Beyond all doubt? If she can slay a High Master of the Mystics so easily, how much more is she a danger to all? And she even admits that she cannot control her abilities. Her very existence has become such a clear and present threat that it cannot be ignored and must be dealt with. I repeat, she has admitted on several occasions that her powers can go out of control and be very dangerous.
“Next, she also clearly admits that she killed Master Vane. Now, of her own accord, she claims that she killed him in self defense. But she has thus far presented no single shred of proof of that. She claims that Master Vane attacked her, attempted to kill her, and that she killed him, as she now conveniently claims–in so-called self defense. And I remind everyone in this court, once again. It does not matter who she is, what she is, or whatever else she has done. No one is above Spacer Law.
“Not even the infamous, Naero Amashin Maeris.”
Tree took in a breath and clasped his hands behind his back. “What are the facts, therefore? A High Mystic Master lies dead, murdered by his own student, who openly stated that she could not stand him. Who openly admitted that she killed him. Nothing else can be proven, beyond those facts. Nothing else exists as fact. And this case must only be decided, based solely upon the facts. Nothing else.
“A Spacer on trial for her life could readily claim and say anything. Merely stating something does not make it true. That does not prove it to be fact. According to the facts of what is known, Naero Amashin Maeris is clearly guilty of murder, and will undoubtedly say and do anything possible in order to get away with her crime. As anyone logically would, in order to escape punishment, justice, and execution.”
Naero fumed. Haisha! What the hell did they expect her to say? Yes, I offed the asshole, I loved it, and I’m a fricking monster. Go ahead and kill me?
I wish that weren’t so painfully funny, Naero.
Me too, Om.
Master Tree went on to demand that the jury uphold one of the key tenets of Spacer Law and Spacer society:
“Spacers do not murder other Spacers and take their lives! Naero Amashin Maeris is not above that law. Naero Amashin Maeris broke that solemn law. And like it or not, the law demands justice. There is no way around that law and no way to escape it. That law demands that she face the ultimate punishment for her being guilty of committing the ultimate crime!”
Tree emphasized his final point with a single, upraised index finger. “That punishment is immediate Death, by execution. To be carried out by beheading, at the hands and the blade of the Mystic Enforcer!”
The Prosecution rested its case.
Admiral Klyne looked slightly pale as he instructed the jury of Mystic Elders to decide the case and announce their decision after their period of deliberation.
Naero went back to her cell in silence feeling sick, unable to meet Khai’s utterly heartbroken glance. She felt stunned and numb. She didn’t know what to think. All that she could do was await the jury’s decision, along with everyone else.
Yet it was her fate alone that was being decided.
But when she thought about it further it wasn’t just her fate.
Everyone waited for eight long hours.
Naero could neither rest nor sleep.
Then everyone was summoned back to the court room.
A decision had been made. The jury had arrived at a verdict in her case.
Admiral Klyne announced, “All rise for the verdict to be read.”
They did so.
The jury leader stood up and read their decision.
“According to Spacer Law, and based upon all of the facts and evidence presented, we the jury find the defendant, Naero Amashin Maeris, of Clan Maeris…guilty of murder in the death of another Spacer.”
Naero gasped, nailed to the bedrock of the planet itself in almost complete shock.
Guilty meant…
Master Tree rose up. “This Mystic trial has ended; it is over. A verdict has been reached. Without question, this grim crime is punishable among our people by death. Under the circumstances, the sentence is to be carried out immediately and without delay.”
Naero, I can–
Shut up, Om.
Naero gasped and covered her mouth with both hands as she sobbed and went down on one knee.
Then she dropped her hands to her abdomen and her eyes met Khai’s in explosive waves of desperate horror and regret.
Their child from their love within that distant star barely grew within her. Now, no time remained to tell Khai all
that she needed to before he performed his duty as the Mystic Enforcer.
Before he took her head…ended her life, and the lives of his own family.
Naero Amashin Maeris clenched her fists, and rose up with her head held high to meet her fate with her eyes clear and wide open, if that was what must be.
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ENJOY THIS TEASER FROM: A SPACER CLANS ADVENTURE: BOOK 3:
NAERO’S
MASTERY
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A SPACER CLANS ADVENTURE: BOOK 4
NAERO’S
MASTERY
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by Mason Elliott
1
If they got past her…
Naero woke up softly in the night watches, unable to get certain fears out of her head. She slipped out of their oval nanobed from beside Khai, in their private quarters. What was she so worried about? Her family was relatively safe on board The Holy Ghost, Admiral Naero’s flagship of Fleet-1, of the One Hundred Fleets.
But for how long would her family remain safe?
“I’ll be here when you return,” Khai whispered. “I know how you like to pace sometimes, my heart. Get it out of your system and come back to us.”
“Go back to sleep,” she whispered to him with her half-smile.
Naero transported directly to the large, empty observation deck.
Then she recalled that she was still quite naked.
There wasn’t much chance that anyone would come by at that time of the watches, but she clothed herself in Nytex flight togs with barely a thought.
The primary observation deck was an elongated, almost rectangular oval, three hundred meters long and thirty meters wide. With the blast shields withdrawn, it provided onlookers with an unparalleled vista of the Alpha Quadrant stars up in space, like bright jewels.
Spacers belonged to the stars.
Naero did pace back and forth down the middle of that long, open chamber. She glanced up into the Unknown Sectors where she had lost her parents.
She and Khai were back once more in the Alpha Quadrant, sliding peacefully beneath more familiar stars, on their way to an important conference between the Alliance and the Gigacorps.
The war in the Gamma Quadrant had finally backed off considerably, after more setbacks for the enemy.
The enemy retreat and cessation of hostilities gave many a chance to make the return trip. They had arrived none too soon.
Back home, trouble was brewing big time in the Gigacorps Sectors. The Corps were making a concerted attempt to re-instate their dominance once more over lander humanity. The landers resisted bitterly, especially after what happened to many of them during the Ejjai Invasion and the High Crusade.
It had been the Spacer Alliance, not the Corps, who had saved them from the vile Ejjai invaders. While the Corps had unwittingly invited the rapacious Ejjai and their alien overlords among their worlds in the first place. So many trillions paid the price for that stupid miscalculation.
Yet in the present, the Corps were not yet ready or willing to be diminished and surrender all of their power.
High tensions could very well lead to countless, intense civil wars in many regions that might cripple lander humanity for decades, if not centuries to come.
For all of humanity, it would be a self-inflicted disaster that they could ill-afford.
There were far greater problems looming large out there on their galaxy’s horizon, and very few persons besides Naero knew exactly what they were, and had stared them in the face.
In the next galaxy over, their advanced alien enemies had already amassed an Armada, an enormous invasion fleet. They lacked only a way to cross over the vast distance between the two galaxies.
One attempt to do so had already been foiled.
There would no doubt be others. The enemy would eventually find another way. They always did.
Even more frightening than that, Naero had literally gazed into the Abyss of Desolation, and issued her challenge. And the Abyss had answered that challenge and swarmed straight back, nearly destroying her.
She had witnessed firsthand many fell things that were as yet, much stronger and more powerful than herself. She had barely been saved from their clutches, and the gateway to that grim prison dimension was destroyed and sealed shut.
But for how long?
For the first time in her young life, Naero questioned her own strength, and wasn’t quite sure what she might do next.
How could she combat all of these multiple threats, these legendary beings, monsters, and powers–Destroyers who stood greater than herself?
Naero needed to get stronger, but how?
The faces of her family, her husband, her beloved children, Jan and his two wives, Baeven and Jia and their crew, Aunt Sleak, Zalvano, and the their kids, her friends, her Clans flashed before her.
If she fell. If she perished…it was certain that most, if not all of them would die next, defending themselves and the same things they all loved as best they could.
From what Naero foresaw in her dreams and visions, eventually she was going to come up against one of these super lethal threats on her own, unprepared, and she was going to die.
She had been plagued by strange dreams and nightmares for a long while. Most recently, almost every one of her dreams was about her fighting in various places, always against sinister and considerable threats.
In almost all of these dark dreams, she went down fighting to the end, but that did not matter.
She perished, nonetheless. Dead was dead. And her death doomed all of the people she loved and fought to protect to face destruction without her thereafter.
A few of dreams still remained where she became a monster herself, just another of the deadly threats her friends and allies would face. She couldn’t handle watching herself spin out of control, and murder those she loved with her own hands.
That dire possibility remained as well. A part of her was still potentially her own worst enemy. She must also stay on guard against that.
Thus, what could be done in the end? What could she do?
Om finally commented, the Kexxian Data Matrix entity embedded deep within her own mind.
Naero, some have long suggested that you take time to finish your Spacer Mystic training. You have never finished exploring the full range of your abilities, or the extent of your sources of power. Perhaps that is a proper place to begin.
Thanks, Om. I’ve thought about that too. Perhaps it is time for me to do just that. The High Masters and even Baeven and Jan finished their training. They both have told me that I remain out of balance, not in harmony with myself or my abilities–or the universe for that matter. But this isn’t the best of times to do so.
There is never a good time to pull back and train, or meditate and seek enlightenment. Yet doing so has always benefitted you immensely. You have always emerged far stronger, wiser, and self-aware.
Om, the dangers remain all around me, circling like baevens to pick my bones clean. And there are also many dangers in training as well. What if I don’t make it back?
You face dangers whatever you choose to do, N. You might as well pick which dangers, threats, and challenges you will confront first.
That sounds right, but how can I leave my children? Khai?
Even if you choose to do nothing, eventually, you will be forced to leave them one way or another, and by death for certain.
You and Khai have taken time to start your family. Next, your primary goal is to grow stronger and more skilled, so that you can defend them and yourself better. At least Mystic training offers you that possibility. Strive to become whatever it is that you can be.
You’re right, Om. I think that is the path I need to follow. I’ll talk it over with Khai ASAP. Spacer Intel and the Mystics have hinted that they have many missions that the Mystic Enforcer must see to. We can stand to be apart for a time.
Naero, do not forget. We still have much work to do with deciphering and mastering the Kexxian Data Matrix. Those efforts must continue also.
I agree, Om. But no one can help us with that. We’ll have to tackle all of the KDM as we go along.
Our enemies are never going to wait for us, in any case, N.
I know that very well, Om. We can only do what we can, and that will have to be enough.
Naero was definitely more focused and determined now that she had hashed things out; she was going to find a way to keep pushing forward.
Even if there was no guarantee that she would ever make it back to hold her children in her arms again.
Everything in life entailed some degree of risk.
Doing nothing would solve and prevent nothing.
NAERO’S
MASTERY
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THE GAMMA QUADRANT
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Naero's Valor Page 44