The pair of Order adepts were gentle and considerate. They made sure she had lix paks and food ration bars handy, and tucked her into her small nanobed within her cool, darkened cabin. But as soon as they had her comfortable and settled, they told her goodbye and promptly went back out to return to their own regimens and duties.
She wished she had Jett, but Naero drank a standard lix pak and then drifted off.
At some point she started dreaming, and in the haze of her dreams, she saw herself naked and floating helplessly, spinning around, perhaps in the Astral Plane?
Then she saw the strange alien obelisk again, the artifact that somehow defied description. It seemed to be drawing her in toward it like a magnet. Then she even accelerated, racing toward the thing through the sky at impossible, hypersonic speed, as if from thousands of kilometers away. If she slammed into it at this velocity, she’d be impaled upon it.
Or worse.
She got the sense that it would explode, in a detonation unlike any that had ever been witnessed. But she could not prevent herself from being drawn toward it. And anything this powerful, was like the most addictive substance in the universe to Naero and her mind. She craved and hungered for power just like this, deep within herself.
Somehow, she knew she couldn’t allow herself to touch the artifact–not even in a dream, or on the Astral Plane, or wherever the hell she was.
She forced herself awake in sudden terror.
Naero snapped up in her small nanobed, sweating and gasping, just before impact.
Whatever the hell this damn thing was, it was very scary–powerful scary.
It had a will of its own, and it was somehow starting to focus more and more, directly on her.
And Naero had no idea why, or how it was able to do so.
Not good. Not good at all.
5
The High Masters kept her up late again, asking her questions until her head was whirling like a spinning top. Naero told them everything she could explain about her Dark Beast, and her perceptions of Cosmic Energy, Chaos energy, and Darkforce energy.
Naero feigned exhaustion and begged off to go rest some more.
But, actually, she wasn’t that tired at all, not after resting and recovering most of the day before.
Naero stayed up all that night, preparing the sparring arena for her session with the Change adepts the next day.
She showed at the appointed time. Iselle and Makita introduced the others–also in female-male pairs:
Oshara Wallace and Timan Ramsey–distant cousins!
Ilura Romanov and Danikan Konrad
Perra Valmont and Hanta Cheyenne
Linden Apache and Symon Patton
Zelana Bucci and Vaeshon Taylor
Master Jo’s prime adepts, Tess and Den, watched over the session.
Iselle smiled happily, almost eagerly. “Makita and I have been waiting for this day, Naero. Now that we’re all friends, here–are you ready for your initiation match?”
Om…we ready?
Yep.
Naero smiled back at her new friends. “Are you?” Naero looked around. “All of you?” She transported and cloaked, just as they swarmed at her.
Immediately, thousands of Naero holoclones appeared, moving and babbling all over the sparring arena. The general murmur grew maddening.
“Stay together, and locate her. Now.” Makita commanded. “She’s just using basic tricks; she still can’t defeat all twelve of us. Maybe five or six–but not a full dozen.”
Naero went after her distant cousins first.
A remote Chaos energy construct erupted beneath the feet of Oshara Wallace, ensnaring her in hundreds of stinging, stun-energy tendrils and yanking her fifteen meters underground.
She disappeared, screaming and struggling.
Timan Ramsey attempted to pursue, and endured several shock charges that left him convulsing on the ground. Iselle checked him and turned to Makita.
“He’s going to be out of action, for at least several minutes to an hour.”
Makita nodded. “Maeris is a worthy opponent; she’s an experienced warrior, as well as being a strategy savant. I’m guessing she’s layered the sparring field with her various traps and surprises. Stay together. Be careful. Sense and scan for any energy signatures. Remember, she has only fully trained in Chaos Wisdom and energy–not Order or Change. Those are two major weaknesses. The rest of us have fully trained in all three–
As they proceeded with their search, a huge amoeba of Chaos energy sucked Makita down into it and tried to pull him underground, as well.
Nine Change adepts attacked with shimmering, blazing, golden energy attacks.
The Chaos amoeba winked out.
Every one of those nine attacks struck Makita, and took out their leader…by their own hands.
“She’s toying with us!” Iselle said.
“Put Mak with Tim. They’re just stunned. They’ll come to…eventually, and find us.
Ilura looked back the way they came. “Tim’s body’s gone. He’s gone, just like Osha. She’s taken them somewhere.”
Danikan Konrad stated the obvious. “She’s taking us out, one by one. We have to locate her, and end this charade.”
“Maybe we should split up–”
Iselle rolled her eyes. “No, Perra. That’s exactly what she wants us to do–divide our numbers even further. Everyone in close, and listen up.” For a few moments they whispered together and argued a bit more.
“What do we do with Mak?” Perra finally asked.
“He’s no good to us now,” Iselle said. “Leave him behind. Let’s move out–just like we planned.”
All nine of them cloaked, without warning, disappearing from view.
Several minutes passed.
A slight shimmering in the air swept over Makita’s still form.
Then he vanished as well.
Several attacks struck that precise area, as the other nine Change adepts closed back in.
“Dammit!” Iselle said. “She must have transported, and taken Mak with her.”
“Translocation uses a lot of energy,” Ilura noted. “Even if she taps into the planet’s flows, she drains herself a great deal, every time she does so–especially when carrying someone else with her.”
Danikan chuckled. “She can wait and re-charge. She’s playing a stealth game. She won’t attack us directly; there are still nine of us. She’ll just keep trying to pick us off–one at a time. Isn’t that clear by now?”
“We have to find her. Everyone. Use every gift and ability you have, and locate her. Now. We take the fight directly to her.”
Hundreds of wire-like, Chaos filaments shot up from the ground and speared through Danikan. He gasped, as the shock-charges disrupted his faculties and dropped him.
Naero appeared, balancing seventy meters up on top of a high tree. She used the voice.
“You guys looking for me?”
“Is it another holo?” Iselle asked.
“No,” Ilura said. “It’s really her.”
“Attack!”
Naero laughed at them, encasing herself in a large Chaos mek. She rose up into the air, smacking one large fist into her other hand. “Bring it, morons.”
She unleashed a torrent of Chaos energy blasts and scarlet lightning bolts straight at them.
The remaining eight Change adepts flashed into attack mode, weaving their way through to pounce on the mek, taking it apart and draining it in seconds. Energies flashed and several explosions detonated as they took the construct down.
It dissolved and faded.
Iselle looked around. “Where is she, Ilura? Where’s Maeris? Don’t let her escape!”
Then Iselle looked around for Ilura.
Then she looked back for Danikan’s stunned body.
Nothing.
They were down to seven.
For the next half a standard hour, the remaining Change adepts proceeded with their search throughout the sparring arena. With each trap they t
riggered, they grew jumpier, more paranoid. They began snapping at each other more and more.
Hanta Cheyenne had to take a leak. They hadn’t expected the initiation battle to last so long.
Six of them formed a protective circle around him as he did his business. They weren’t taking any chances.
Naero–the real one–appeared among her holos, here and there. She taunted and teased them, luring them into further traps, drawing them into the deep woods.
Iselle turned to Hanta…three minutes later, just as his holo winked out.
They raced back to the sounds of a brief struggle behind them.
“Crap!” Iselle said. “She figured it out.”
Now they were six.
A swarm of hundreds of glowing red Chaos hornets–each the size of a fist–exploded out of the tree canopy and swarmed on them, buzzing and droning.
The six adepts attempted to stand their ground, using wave attacks and shield waves to take out many of the bugs.
Yet dozens snuck in to sting them and explode with stunning energy attacks, as they burst and released their power on contact through their painful stingers and jaws.
Perra shrieked and passed out, twitching, covered with bursting Chaos bugs zapping her.
Linden Apache led them to the nearby lake. They leaped into the deep water to escape. The remaining Chaos insect swarm disrupted on the lake’s surface.
Iselle, Symon, Zelana, and Vaeshen swam to shore or rose up out of the lake.
Linden did not.
Perra’s body had already vanished behind them.
They were down to four.
A number Naero could deal with.
She charged into them directly.
A scarlet beam from her third eye punched into Symon Patton, and drove him back through several splintering trees.
A sonic blast from her screaming mouth sent Iselle skipping and bouncing across the surface of the lake, before she could use her formidable telekinetic abilities.
Zelana and Vaeshen engaged her up close, energized punches, strikes, and kicks. Naero wheeled and fought as the three of them became a blur of punches, elbows, knees, and kick combinations.
She broke through Vaeshen’s defenses and staggered him with a hurricane of whirling, whipping kicks, driving and battering him among the large rocky outcroppings nearby, deflecting or enduring Zelana’s attacks. Rock and stone splintered and shattered, a cloud of dust choked and obscured the air around them.
Vaeshen went down hard, but he still went down.
Zelana shot up into the air and blasted the dust cloud with ranged energy attacks–golden bolts and blasts of golden Cosmic energy. She waited intently, scanning the area with her heightened senses, waiting for anything to move or show itself.
When the dust cleared, Vaeshen was gone.
In midair, Naero suddenly grappled with her from behind.
Then she…exploded.
Zelana crashed into the ground, smoking and unconscious.
When Iselle crawled out of the lake again, Naero stepped up to the water’s edge, a ball of scarlet Chaos lightning around her other raised hand.
She offered Iselle her free hand, all three of Naero’s eyes glowing with blood-red Chaos energy.
“Are we done here, Iselle?”
Iselle bit her lip and nodded. “For now.” She took Naero’s hand, and rose up out of the water.
“Let’s collect the others,” Naero said. “I just had them tied up and stunned. Some of them are probably getting free on their own by now.”
Ten minutes later, they had everyone gathered together again by the waterfall. Naero dragged up a netbag from the ice-cold stream, filled with borbbles of Jett and pods of juicy Spum, just waiting to be cracked open. She made sure to bring enough for all.
A few moments later, they were slugging down Jett and gorging themselves on the only blue mystery meat, gobbling it down in chunky bites, with the sweet, tangy blue sauce running over their sticky fingers.
They laughed and joked. Even somber Makita and snooty Iselle found some humor in their current situation. Everyone loosened up. Tess and Den even ceased observing and joined them.
“We’ll have a real sparring session next time,” Makita said.
“And not just a dog pile beat down at my expense,” Naero added.
Iselle grinned. “You’re going to have to take on all of us at some point,” she said.
“And the word going around,” Hanta noted, “is that the Chaos adepts have something very special of their own planned for you tomorrow, Maeris.”
“Hmm…that is a concern.”
“You’re tricky enough on your own,” Den said, absorbing another borbble of Jett and a pod of Spum. His shapeless form spit out the empty containers seconds later. “Hey, this junk food stuff is pretty good.”
Naero smiled pleasantly, with her hands on her hips.
“I think we still have some time. Anyone like to work with knives or blades?”
6
Rain came in off the ocean again for a few hours. Naero listened to its gentle patter and spray while she rested, and went off after lunch with the Change adepts.
She had been up all night. After what turned out to be a long nap in the afternoon, she felt more than ready for another pick-her-brain-clean session with the High Masters that evening.
Naero had some questions for them this time. It couldn’t remain a one-way street. More could be learned from an actual conversation or debate–not just an interrogation.
Every evening after sunset–somewhere between the ninth and tenth hour–the High Masters held their late evening dinner, by themselves, or with all or some of the adepts from all three orders. Whoever wanted to show up, showed up, including any guests that were on hand.
She was dying to know how Jan was doing. Naero thought about her friends and even Admirals Sleak and Klyne. Were they all still here, waiting to see her when she could?
Officially, she would not be given time to relax or go visit with anyone outside of the orders until the end of the first week, and the end of each week thereafter.
From what the other adepts told her, they all worked and practiced hard, six out of the seven days each week. Each day, Naero would train rigorously with one of the orders, and its High Master: Order, Change, Chaos–repeat. Two full cycles each week. Each seventh day was a free day, where the Adepts were off duty to do as they pleased.
Some adepts took it easy. Some went off on their own, wherever they wished, and others met in secret and kept training or shared knowledge between the orders.
Naero even got the very strong sense that there was some definite romance going on between several of the adepts–both within, and outside of the pairings, and among the Three Orders as well. How interesting.
The High Mystic adepts were all consenting adults, of course–but the unspoken rule was that personal affairs and relationships were to be kept strictly private, and secondary–if not tertiary–to one’s training. They could never to be allowed to interfere with the missions of the Mystics and The High Masters of the Three Orders, in any way.
If the Masters were forced to step in and comment on or take a hand in adept private matters, such an act would result in a severe loss of face for both parties.
All adepts were strongly advised about this by the orders as a whole. They were fully expected to maintain their private lives quietly on their own.
The High Masters took their meal together every evening around the same time, and usually argued and debated something vigorously long into the night, and the early bells of the morning.
The late supper itself was usually prepared and served in large quantities, most likely by an Intel chef or one from the attached Marines. Each night was a banquet style meal for anywhere from three to sixty persons. Anyone not attending dinner was expected to make that known to the mess hall staff, in order for the proper planning to be made.
The fare was excellent and varied each day, according to a menu approved in
advance by the High Masters. There was usually plenty and to spare. Naero wasn’t that picky, and never went hungry. Adepts always had their own private stores of snacks and instant meals in their quarters, if they missed a meal or needed to snack on something.
Tonight they had a poultry, pasta, and veggie dish with a rich, creamy white sauce that was spiced perfectly and incredibly tasty. Dessert was some kind of tangy, orange berries and cream on a delicious sponge cake. Naero was always pleased that she could have as much Jett as she could chug down. She never got tired of her fave.
Once she was finished eating, she watched and waited until the High Masters finished their desserts. Vane, in fact, had three huge helpings, the hog. She had never seen him eat before. He could be quite the glutton.
Naero went over to them all and did her best to direct the discussion for that evening from the very start.
“Good evening, High Masters.
“Maeris,” Vane sneered at her, with a scowl.
“High Adept,” Tree said calmly, with a slight bow of his head.
“Naero!” Jo exclaimed with excitement.
“I want to speak with you at length about something that continues to trouble me, greatly. No one has yet to make mention of it.”
All three of the High Masters stopped and looked straight at her, as if expecting something important.
“I think you know what I’m going to bring up. If I can sense it, I know all of you can. What is this frightening Cosmic power source on Thanor-4? It seems to have a will of its own, and it has been calling to me ever since I arrived. I’ve even started to see it in my nightmares. What is it, and what does it want with me?”
High Master Vane started laughing. “Ah, yes. And so the end begins once again. Did I not tell you that she would be drawn to it, and it to her? We stand even more upon the brink of total and complete disaster than ever before–just like we did years ago, back on Janosha. And, I might add, with another member of the accursed Maeris family! How fitting.”
Master Tree spoke calmly. “High Master Vane, you always say too much when you should be silent, and not enough when you should tell all.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 5