They spoke of many things long into the evening.
Finally Ty caught her eye, and for once she saw his weariness.
“Any luck yet?” he asked her. It was a simple question, without pressure or demand. Ty remained grateful for what she had given them. He simply wanted to know.
Naero smiled and then sighed. “Not yet,” she told him. “Sorry.”
Ty would always drop the subject and then quickly move on to something else.
They spent five happy days together. Naero even took time to work out and spar with Ty, Jynel, and little Gallan, who loved all of the attention. Then he would go spiraling for hours with his little friends on board. What fun they had.
Even with their enhanced speed, they would reach Tae’ha on the sixth day. That was fine with Naero. She remained torn. Part of her wanted to get her Mystic training over and done with. Part of her still wanted to avoid it for some reason she could not fathom.
5
Tae’ha possessed two main continents, much like the hemispheres of the human brain. The slightly smaller continent, Nama was hi-tek and perfectly designed and organized. The slightly larger continent, Aman, was kept wild, natural, and untamed.
As a Mystic Homeworld, subject to the protections of the Time dilation Phazes, the planet had a small, highly advanced human and sentient population of only a hundred thousand.
As anyone might have guessed, the teks and mathematicians chose to reside on Nama, while the artists and other thinkers thrived living on Eden-like coasts of Aman. The vast, wild interior was kept pristine and uninhabited for Mystic training.
Naero would spend time finishing up her Order Wisdom training on both major land masses.
She was met at the Mystic starport on Nama by no one less that High Master Tree himself, a silver being in elegant blue robes, who seemed neither young nor old, stoic and wise.
Naero kept the anal tool bag thing to herself.
Yet Naero could also never forget that an enemy shapechanger symbiot had taken High Master Tree’s place in the past, and nearly tricked her into allowing herself to be tried and executed by her own people.
Such things made a big impression Naero, and it was hard for her to forget.
Whenever she saw Master Tree again, she naturally scanned him with all of her abilities, to make certain that he was the real one.
“Yes, Prime Adept Maeris. I am the real Master Tree. Welcome. It is good that you have returned to us to complete your Mystic Training. Welcome. After you rest tonight, we can pick up right where we left off.”
Naero forced a smile. “Grreat…”
“We’ve timed things so that you won’t even have take part in the next Time Displacement cycle here on Tae’ha.”
Naero blinked. “That was thoughtful. So how is this going to work?”
“Well, the training will be intensified, but you had all but completed the regimen as it was. With a few days of re-orientation, you’ll spend one week on Nama, and then a final week on Aman. That should do it for Order Wisdom training. Then you’re off to Master Jo on Oorrii. You’ll be his problem then.”
“I guess so.”
“But on Oorrii,” Master Tree said, “the Time Displacement will be unavoidable. To the outside universe, you will spend three months there, and yet within, three years will have passed by the time you depart.”
“I understand, High Master.”
Tree was accompanied by his two Prime Adepts, who acted as his bodyguards and aides. With Khai now busy serving as the Mystic Enforcer, Von Ramirez was still acting in the Prime Adept capacity, the young woman who literally glowed with intense blue energy in the Order Wisdom spectrum. They knew each other well enough to embrace and greet each other pleasantly. The second Prime Adept she knew somewhat–Raymon Cherokee.
Ray was one of the strongest Mystic telepaths ever known, who could use various mind tricks, psy-blasts, and sonic attacks in sparring and combat.
But they weren’t friends yet, so Naero simply smiled at him, shook his hand, and made Mystic small talk.
Like all of the Mystic adepts of her age, she knew the best of the best, and had even used her quickening abilities to ramp up their powers, and even give some of them new abilities.
What made the Mystics stronger made the Free Spacer Clans stronger. Several of the adepts that she had originally trained with were now masters already themselves, and worked hard to help educate and train the next generation of Mystics. That also began to include other sentients, thanks to Master Jo, and no species objections from the Gaviok of the Shai, the new Chaos High Master.
Naero didn’t have anything to do with any of that. Not yet at least. She had enough on her own plate to deal with as it was.
She was actually giving up time away from her young family as it was. And three years within the Time Displacement was still going to be three years to her, cut off from those she loved most. It was a definite sacrifice.
She had hoped to see her good friends, the twin sisters Chang Fu-han and Chang-Lijuan, but they were Mystic Masters in their own right now, in charge of the Mystics’ Lo-Tek World Observation programs, providing adepts with experience dealing with more primitive cultures. From the papers and announcements Naero had read, which the twins sent her way on a regular basis, the entire program was evolving and continually trying to learn from its mistakes and triumphs.
Von and Ray brought Naero to a similar adept cubicle that she had used before. It was little more than a pop-up nanohut, linked together in the Prime Adept training center.
It made Naero recall her days as crew in Aunt Sleak’s merchant fleet, and the small quarters she had been forced to make do with back then.
She spent that evening after dinner meditating and stretching, striving to stay in tune with her energies and abilities.
Funny. She was still such a dopey mess inside, but she always did a good job of keeping herself together and putting on a good front. Perhaps Tree was right. Perhaps she could use a little bit of order wisdom within.
Om chimed in. I’ve been telling you that for years, you goofy, whacked out loon!
Oh, shut up, Om, she told him with a laugh. I’ve seen you when you cut loose. You’re even crazier than I am, you looney bastard.
I doubt that. And I’ve seen the proof firsthand. And, as you well know, I am quite parentless.
Really, Om? It’s going to be a sad, sick day when you get loose and go off on the universe. I shudder to think.”
I couldn’t do any worse, or more damage than you have on the run.
Well, Om, I’m still just getting started. To my mind, I have a long way to go yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Now you’re scaring me, N.
She laughed.
When she went to sleep, she placed one of the mind crystals over her forehead, just as she had during her Chaos Wisdom training.
After she drifted off, she linked with Khai, and told him where she was and what was about to happen.
For his part, Khai was searching for both traces of the enemy, and for his own people, his father’s people, the Oden. Many of them went into hiding on their own, before Intel could reach them. They still might be in danger.
Since the many open enemy attacks on the Alpha Quadrant, the advanced race of the Oden was now on the run. It was well-known to them that the enemy hunted them for use as hosts in the diabolical Darkforce generators.
Naero and her allies had run across several such vile devices, with Oden trapped inside of them, and even some Yattai. Naero had given a full account of those cases to Shalaen, who was herself a Yattai.
Once their business was done, she and Khai spoke about how much they already missed each other and their children. They spoke about having even more kids, and how much fun it was actually making them. That was one of the best parts of the process.
But watching them grow was pretty sweet and wonderful as well.
Both of them had always wanted a big family. For the time being they had three. Nae
ro sighed and still could not believe that once she went into Change Wisdom training, she wasn’t going to see Khai or her family for three years.
For her, that was going to be the worst sacrifice of all. Yet she knew that it had to be done. She was committed now, and there was no going back.
Khai tried to comfort her with words, but that did not work very well.
6
On Aman, waves of Mystic adepts on gravwings relentlessly tracked and hunted Naero as their quarry in the jungle, firing at her with live weapons. And not just any tropical rainforest jungle, but also a hi-tek jungle of highly sophisticated fixers, drones, scanners and detection tek that made it a gauntlet of deadly threats.
All the while, Master Tree used his symbiotic union with the entire planet to stay in her head telepathically, evaluating her performance and spouting philosophy.
Naero, you still need to embrace the power of Order Wisdom. You always seem to be resisting or somehow fighting it. Why can’t you simply accept it? Some part of you always seems to waste time attempting to refute or deny it.
Part of her defense was to keep moving. That worked best. Whenever she tried to hole up somewhere, they always located her in the end and found a way to drive her out.
She even wondered if Master Tree was ratting her out to the others.
She wouldn’t put that past the old tool bag.
Master Tree, I don’t know if I will ever be able to embrace Order Wisdom entirely. It’s far too rigid and black and white for me. I’m not merely resisting it; I’m actually disagreeing with it. That is not denial. I accept the power and value of Order Wisdom for what it is and what it does, but just like Chaos Wisdom, it is not the be all and end all. There are other ways of seeing and doing things than simply imposing a rigid, limited thought process around it, in order to control things. There is more than one way. More than one right answer.
Three attackers, swooping in on her right flank, weapons blazing.
How did they–?
No time. She banked back down into the thick jungle canopy, keeping herself phazed and shielded.
Maybe that was it. Perhaps they had a new way to track her Cosmic shielding.
She took a chance and dropped her shields, cloaking all of her power sources.
But if they hit her now, they could do damage, possibly even kill her in such a vulnerable state.
The attackers shot past her and came back, performing a zig-zag search.
That was it. They lost her.
Naero carefully slunk away.
Master Tree began again. In a round about way, you’re starting to make the usual standard arguments that the Three Wisdoms maintain against each other, Naero. It’s simply the Great Debate all over again, same as it was three centuries ago. Chaos sees Order as too rigid, slow, and contemplatively pedantic. While Change is too flighty, manic, and cerebral after its own fashion.
Naero joined in. Change sees Chaos as too superior, brutally simplistic, and coldly amoral and abusive. While Order is usually too slow and hesitant, actually resistant to any kind of change.
Naero slipped into a deep tropical lagoon, regenerating, processing oxygen, and drawing in energies from both the planet and its sun. She did her best to cloak them.
And as for Order, Tree continued, Chaos is simply too indifferent and oppositional, even rude. While Change is by its own nature too impulsive, unpredictable, mercurial, and outright dangerous.
Naero thought about her objective, to reach a certain place in an accepted amount of time, without simply fighting her way through. She was to utilize stealth, and not brute force. She could not replicate, nor could she simply transport herself there. She had to use her other skills.
But with the time limit, she also only had a quarter of a standard hour in which to reach the objective.
She transported herself high up in the atmosphere, forming an EV suit around her.
Isn’t this cheating, Naero? Master Tree asked her. You weren’t supposed to transport.”
Wrong, Naero told him. The rules said I couldn’t transport directly to the objective. They did not say that I couldn’t transport somewhere else.
Trickery from a trickster, Master Tree said. Why should we be surprised?
Haisha, you old goofball. You guys wanted to see how my mind works. So go right ahead and observe. This is how. Wahoo!
If she dove down precisely, she could land right on top of the objective with a few seconds to spare.
But as she drew closer, her opponents weren’t making it easy. With minutes left in the challenge, they had all of their forces stationed in layers around the objective. They were doing everything they could to keep her from making a mad dash at the end, just like she was attempting now.
She was just taking another vector.
Another possible solution came to Naero and she grinned.
On the way down, she created a swarm of mosquitos, all of them filled with Cosmic energy. The swarm would wash out, gum up, and defeat all attempts at scanning and detection.
They wouldn’t be able to pinpoint her amid all of that Cosmic static.
She shrank down to bug size herself and plummeted down with the enveloping swarm.
The threescore or so adepts fired their weapons all around them, in hopes of hitting something, namely Naero.
She did almost get blasted to death, but she zipped down, regained her normal size, and was sitting pretty on the objective site with her legs crossed and a half-smile on her face.
Naero sipped a cold borbble of Jett and offered an ice chest of more to her comrades after their failed exertions.
“I slipped in last night and left the ice chest here, in preparation for my victory.”
The Order geeks dropped their weapons and joined the festivities.
Master Tree came to her in person.
Like the stuck up old poop that he was, he didn’t drink, not even soft drinks. Just fresh, tepid spring water.
“What is the HARM Contention, Naero?” Tree asked her.
“Chaos says: Do harm if you have to. Order says: Don’t do harm if you don’t have to. But Order still does harm if it must. Change asks: Does harm need to be done? Why, and to whom, how much, and in what way? Change also does harm. All three Wisdoms will do harm, but in different ways for different reasons.”
Tree nodded, “Simplistic, but sufficient on the main points. Next, describe the Action Contention?”
“Chaos asks if we must act; only if we must. Order states that we must fully understand the ramifications of taking or not taking action. While Change asks: What is the best way to take action?”
“Good. State the Reality Contention. What is both Real and Important?”
“Chaos says: What is and what will be? The actual. Order focuses on achieving goals. What should be and what is workable now? The imposition of structure and order upon what merely exists. Change looks to the future and asks: What can be? What can be made better and how?”
Tree nodded. “Sufficient. Now demonstrate to me how you can balance the natural energies of all Three Wisdoms into the formation of the Universal Harmony.”
Naero sat down, crossed legs, held out her hands, and opened her third eye almost without thinking.
She created a swirling orb of all three energies from the Three Wisdoms, red, blue, and yellow. They balanced out the Darkforce, the Lightforce, and the Lifespark of Creation and Destruction between them to form the Harmony which made all things possible in every dimension, in every universe, in every reality.
Such was the key to understanding all things. Yet even that was just a beginning of wisdom and further enlightenment.
Then Tree asked her point blank.
“Why do you despise Order Wisdom so much?”
His query jolted her out of her concentration.
Her small, functioning example of the Harmony disrupted in a puff, and vanished.
Naero recovered and gave his question proper thought before answering. “I don’t despise Order a
ny more than I do Chaos. It’s just, for me, that I find them both limited and insufficient in their own way. Of course I see the value and the need for both of them. I accept the existence and even the need for Chaos and the eternal impetus at work, just as I desire Order and consistency in my own personal life–whether I will ever have it or not. But that is not enough for me. For me, there must still be more. And I have a gut feeling that I’m going to find it in Change Wisdom.”
Master Tree raised his eyebrows. “High Master Jo is going to have his hands full with you, I am certain. Now, your week in Nama is finished. Tomorrow we will relocate to Aman. Once there, you will have only one more thing to accomplish.”
“What is that?” Naero asked.
“You must use what you have learned about Order Wisdom to take control of your so-called, Dark beast, the fell creature that lurks within you. That will be your final test. When you have found an answer, then you can move on.”
Naero’s heart sank. “Then I’m doomed, Master Tree. I’ve tried all of my life to control my Dark beast, and it has nearly destroyed me several times. I can barely control part of it. That is the best I can do. This is a death sentence!”
Tree looked at her impassively. “If you are meant to die, you will die.”
*
Aman was a continent of near natural forests, mountains, hills, and grasslands, serene, but perfectly controlled and and organized by Order Wisdom. If an entire continent could be structured and maintained like a huge garden, that was Aman. All was in balance. All was in harmony. No sentients were allowed on the interior of the continent beyond the coasts, only the Mystics when they trained there. There were native species of Tae-ha’s fauna in all their variety, all in perfectly calculated and balanced numbers, of course.
All that week, Naero would be alone on Aman with Master Tree and his guardian Prime Adepts, Von and Ray.
Naero had meditated and prepared herself as much as possible the night before.
On the first day out, she struggled all day long, unleashing more and more of her Dark beast and trying to master it.
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