“All right, Baeven. I want to hear your whole story. What happened to you. What your training was like with the Mystics. Why they banished and tried to kill you. How you became an outcast. I want to know everything.”
“That’s going to be a very long story, and it’s all in the past,” he said, looking away. “Perhaps some day. Not now.”
Naero sulked.
Then he grinned.
“How about I tell you something better. How about I tell you all about your mom?”
Naero perked up at that.
She felt as if beams of light began shining out of her face. It suddenly made her want to cry.
Baeven smiled sadly.
“Train hard with me, and after each session, I’ll tell you a story, or something interesting about your mother. She was really something. And you’re a lot like her. Your dad too. The best of both of them lives on in you. I see it all the time.”
“You honor them and me. I’d hug you, but I’m still really sore from you beating me up.”
Both of them laughed.
Naero cast down her eyes suddenly as several other worries and stray thoughts crossed her mind.
“What do you think these aliens are after? Besides wanting to cram us all into those Darkforce generators?”
Baeven shook his head. “That’s bad enough. But I think their plans go a lot deeper I fear. The Dakkur don’t do anything half-way. They’re fanatics bent on the dominion of others. And they’re not the only new players on the board. I think more are going to pile on in the years to come.”
“The big black ship with the tentacles? Do you know who they are?”
“I don’t know who’s using it, but Jia is certain that black alien vessel with the tentacles is in fact a G’lothc ship. Those Darkforce generators are G’lothc tek also.”
Naero shivered all of the sudden, feeling her blood retreat into her core.
If it were possible, Om had a similar reaction.
That confirms my worst fears, Naero.
“I…I thought the G’lothc were all dead? The Kexx and the Drians exterminated them all.”
Baeven raised one eyebrow. “And it took both advanced races to barely accomplish that. We’d better hope they did. But I think someone else is attempting to use and replicate G’lothc tek. Just like Spacers are trying to understand and use the KDM. Minions like the Dakkur. They’re further along than we are, but I’m guessing they don’t have much of that Tek up and running right now. Maybe just those two ships we’ve seen, the ion guns, and those Darkforce generators.”
Om jumped in with a sudden announcement.
Naero, I’ve just learned from the KDM that most G’lothc tek used and was built almost exclusively around Darkforce energy. That was what made them and their tek and weapons so formidable and destructive. On a level with the KDM itself.
Naero gasped suddenly. “I bet that’s why they’re so desperate to capture as many hosts as they can and create all of the Darkforce energy they can produce. They can’t replicate any of the G’lothc tek without it. If they could have done so on their own, they would have used it to overpower everyone by now.”
Baeven knitted his brows at her. “You’re very insightful, Naero. Jia and I think so too. I’m guessing the enemy is focusing all of their efforts on producing those Darkforce generators. Next they’ll need hosts to power them all. People like you and I, like Hashiko and Shalaen. Anyone who can channel any form of Cosmic energy.”
Baeven hesitated. “Don’t forget Jan and Dan either.”
Naero gritted her teeth. “Believe me, I haven’t. They weigh heavily on my mind all the time.”
Om put forth another observation. This time hesitantly.
Naero, I’ve discovered something else. What you call your Dark Beast inside you is comprised of Darkforce energy also. Corrupted and twisted Cosmic energy that you carry within yourself. It is part of you.
I know Om. I’ve sensed and feared that truth for a long time. But I just haven’t had the courage to tell anyone.
Perhaps Baeven would understand, if anyone could.
“Baeven, I’ve learned that my Dark Beast with me is comprised of Darkforce energy also. I’ve been afraid to admit that, and what that might mean.”
He sighed.
“Trust me. I’m well aware of that fact also. We carry the same curse, along with your two siblings.”
“So, you do you think we’re all monsters then, like Master Vane says? Monsters that will need to be destroyed some day?”
Baeven shook his head in denial. “We all have the potential to become monsters if we let ourselves. But to answer your question. No, Naero. Vane is wise in his own limited ways, but he’s wrong about you. Just like he was wrong about me and a lot of things, the rigid, myopic bastard.”
They both got a chuckle out of that.
“You’re no more monster than I am. And even if we are Cosmic Destroyers and Tricksters–there are things far worse than us out there. Trust me.”
“I do. I’ve seen some of them.”
Baeven laughed. “Who knows, when all is said and done, the universe might just need a couple of monsters like you and I.”
Naero worried about all that. A lot.
The fear of those dark potentials and possibilities all weighed very heavily on her overtaxed mind.
She looked up at Baeven.
“If I don’t ever get a chance to say this, I want to say it now. I love you…Uncle Kean.”
He shook his head violently and his countenance darkened. He rose up and flung his chair behind him. It clattered and bounced across the sand.
“You cannot call me by that name, Naero! Please, you must stop doing so.
“Why? Why not?”
He actually snapped at her. “You joke lightly about deep things you know nothing about. Don’t be a stupid child!”
Naero’s mouth fell open.
Baeven clenched both fists and struggled to calm himself.
She never intended to upset him.
“That name was taken from me. Stripped from me by my own people, by my own Clan, along with my honor and everything I was. I have yet to earn the right to bear the honor of that name again. To be proven worthy of it once more. That is an old promise I have yet to fulfill.”
“What promise? To whom?”
Baeven looked up from his clenched hands deep into her eyes.
With great sadness and inner pain.
She could sense how much it tormented him.
“A promise to your beautiful mother, Naero. My beloved little sister, Lythe. Perhaps the only one besides–”
He stopped himself from saying too much.
Baeven retrieved his chair, sat back down, and knitted his hands in front of his face.
“She loved me as her older brother, fiercely and honestly. And she did so at a very dark time of my life, when all the universe turned against me it seemed. She did so as she always did everything, with great passion and defiance, at great risk to herself. She took my side, defending me even with her own life.”
Baeven sighed, recalling his ordeal.
“She was training on Janosha when Master Vane sentenced me to death. She stood up to a High Master and defied him, when she was barely an adept herself. Lythe threw herself before me. Utterly fearless as she always was.”
He hung his head. “She would have died for me. She would have died defending me, against Vane–against all comers. Even him.”
Baeven sighed heavily. “I could not have endured that. Yet even worse than death, I knew that Lythe would have even gone with me into exile. Become dishonored herself, a hated outcast like I was. She could not see that the die was cast for me. By my own choices, I was already wholly ruined. She could not save me.
“But to save her, I made her this promise: if she would forsake me and live her life, the life that I never could, filled with honor, love, and glory for herself and our Clan, then I would always strive to serve our people in whatever way that I could. And s
ome day, win back the honor of my once given name.”
Naero drew in a deep breath and shuddered.
No outcast in the history of all the Clans had ever managed to do so.
Not a single one.
Naero got out of her chair and knelt at Baeven’s feet, as if he were a great and noble prince in exile.
To her he was.
She reached out, and kissed his hard right hand. She let her tears fall upon it and dot the sand before his feet. She looked up at him with a smile.
“Whatever you say, Baeven. Whatever you call yourself. I am proud that you are my blood. I say that you will regain your name and your place among us in honor one day, and I will help you and be there to see it. I believe in you. I will stand and fight beside you just as she would. For you have my love, just as you had my mother’s.”
Baeven smiled sadly, but he seemed to be a man incapable of tears or great emotion. Yet he did reach out and touch her long dark hair and smooth it slightly. His fingertips barely trembled.
“You honor me Naero. So deeply you cannot know. You are indeed my beloved sister’s daughter. Lythe was always so beautiful, from girl to woman. I see so much of her in you. She still lives and breathes in you, and for that–I am very glad indeed.”
Naero rose up and smiled, placing her hands on her hips.
“Well, I guess we’d better get started then. If we’re going to live up to all that. We’ve got a lot of training to do.”
Baeven lowered his gaze. “Understand, Naero. We’re going to train very hard together, to both of our limits in every way. I’m not going to cut you any slack.”
Naero grinned her half-smile. Klyne was right. She had found the exact therapy she needed to pull herself together again.
A challenge, and a way to keep improving herself.
A way forward.
Naero set her hands on her hips defiantly.
“Bring it, outcast. Don’t expect any from me either.”
48
A few weeks passed into a few months on the island sanctuary on Miretta-1.
Both Naero and Baeven sat down after another painful sparring match. Naero always had to regenerate more than he did.
She also had speed training with Danjen, and strength training with Gaviok.
But under Baeven’s rough hand, she steadily improved and increased her stamina and endurance. And that was key. Even with her growing prowess and abilities, she could not sustain them for more than a day without exhausting herself.
Baeven helped her build up her reserves.
Naero even started to get a few licks of her own in here and there.
Against him.
That much alone encouraged her.
They spoke about the Mystics at times, but other than general stuff, Baeven didn’t seem to enjoy talking about anything personal. Especially his own experiences among them.
He told her lots of great stories about her mom that she never heard before. Mostly about what her mom was like as a child growing up. Then as a teenager and a young woman.
Yet Baeven was adamant about one thing.
“I can help prepare you, but you must find a way to complete your training with the Mystics. You will never achieve your full potential as an adept if you don’t.”
“I’ll find a way.”
“And don’t give Vane an excuse to destroy you. Don’t let him bait you into anything…like he did me.”
“I’ll do my best. Hey, there’s something else I wanted to ask you about. Danjen and S’krin keep alluding to how the Dakkur live in total fear of you and Gaviok. What’s up with all that?”
“Hmmm…that’s a long story. First you have to know a great deal more about the Dakkur. They are a vile, opportunistic race.”
“Okay. Enlighten me.”
Baeven quickly explained the Dakkur and their culture to her. They weren’t even from the Spacer Galaxy, but the next one over. They had been servants of the G’lothc in the war with the Kexx and the Drians.
“They are horde and hive creatures. There are four different types of Dakkur–four distinct castes. The small gray-black soldier drones are the lowest caste. The greenish-yellow champions are twice as big. After that come the white queens. Less numerous, perhaps a score of them or two for an entire horde.
“Queens are twice the size of the champions, and lay all the eggs for the horde. They are also incredibly tenacious fighters, and will defend their nests and their king to the bitter death.
“There’s a King Dakkur?”
“They are black as the Abyss itself, and huge. Twice the size of the queens. And some can even wield Cosmic abilities. They are extremely formidable foes.”
“How do you know all of this about them?”
Baeven narrowed his eyes and smiled.
“Don’t worry; trust me. Gaviok and I have both had extensive, firsthand knowledge. You must understand, I would give my life gladly for my battle-brother, Gaviok. The Dakkur race are among our mortal enemies. And we always fight them without quarter whenever and wherever we clash.”
“Sounds like the two of you have clashed with them quite a bit.”
“At times.”
Naero waited. “That’s all you’re going to tell me for now?”
“Yes.”
“All right, then tell me about Gaviok and the rest of your motley crew. Where did you run across all of them? And where did you get your ship? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Alarms suddenly went off among Baeven’s emulators and all the fixers, popping up along the beaches.
Spacers everywhere dropped what they were doing and organized themselves to report back up to the fleet. Pronto.
Naero rode up with Baeven on board The Shadow Fox.
Any further questions would have to wait.
They heard and read the incoming reports pouring in.
The cease-fire negotiations finally collapsed.
Without any further warning, the Corps unleashed their war once again.
Much like the Spacers, the Corps modified both their tek and their tactics, and increased the capabilities of both their weapons, shields, and defenses.
They renewed their steady advance, pushing Spacers and their allies back once more with superior weapons, numbers, and new fighting methods and tactics.
No one knew how to stop them this time.
The Clans had run out of tricks and ideas.
49
While their side continued to lose the renewed war on all fronts, Naero and Baeven redoubled their efforts to track down the aliens.
And they worked with Om to try to glean any tek secrets from the KDM that might help them survive or turn the tide. But they had the same problem as Intel. Searching the KDM was like looking for needles in infinite haystacks.
And what they did find was usually so far advanced–so beyond their current tek as to be unintelligible.
Only a Kexx could fully understand it, and they weren’t around any longer.
Baeven’s stealth probe network finally managed to pull in a few leads.
Traces of the aliens traveling here and there in their Darkforce-powered ships.
But Baeven had yet to put the pieces together to track the enemy down or reveal anything coherent and useful.
There didn’t seem to be a pattern of any kind.
That was just one major problem.
The aliens simply appeared to vanish. For days at a time with no further sightings or information.
Naero held mindstorming sessions where they and the other captains and Intel people mulled things over and tried to come up with something useful.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Chaela said. “The Corps can beat us at this rate, but it will still take years for them to fight their way through our territories.”
“Right,” Naero added. “Why would the aliens hold back, now of all times, when their advanced tek could prove decisive? They could use it to crush us even faster, at every key battle. Anywhere we made a stand.”
“But they’re not doing that,” Tyber said. “Where are they and why not?”
“Maybe there’s only a few of them,” Saemar said. “Maybe they can’t risk being destroyed. They’re going to beat us at this rate any way. Why not just sit by and let the Corps take us out? Who cares how long it takes? They’ve got time.”
“It doesn’t match up with what we know of them,” Baeven said. “They’ve done things urgently in the past. They even seem desperate to locate certain things for their plans. Why suddenly take a slow approach to the war now? And why are they in such a hurry to capture more hosts behind the scenes?”
“We just don’t know,” Tarim said, looking over the reports. “Where have they gone and why? What are they doing? You can bet they’re not just sitting on their hands. They’re plotting something all right. Everything I’ve seen of them has been wheels within wheels. They always seem to have contingencies, far into the future. They’re long range planners. You can bet they’ve taken an extended view and plotted out their game many moves and strategies ahead. I think that scares me the most.”
Chaela blew out a deep breath. “Well right now, they’re off the scanners. Content to let the Corps spread chaos and confusion, and wear us down in their own sweet time.”
Something like one of her old pain attacks struck inside Naero’s head and staggered her.
She cried out, clutching her head and leaning against the bulkhead in the conference room.
Baeven and Shalaen seemed affected as well.
“What was that?” Baeven said.
Shalaen gasped. “I fear something has begun. Something terrible, on a very wide scale.”
Alala hailed them.
“Did you all sense that?” she asked
“What’s going on?” Naero demanded.
Within seconds, more dire reports poured in, from Spacers, the Alliance, and even the Corps worlds along the forward border of the war.
Multiple wormholes with the alien signature opened up.
Waves upon waves of Ejjai fleets and shock troops poured in.
A full scale invasion.
When the Clans were already fighting a harsh retreat.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 33