I want them to track me, Om. Let’s draw them away.
Oh, I understand, now.
Naero shot away at top speed, blazing a trail across the darkening sky as a massive series of thunderheads blew up across the savannah. They must be in a rainy season.
Below, a myriad of animals unique to that region stampeded, hid, or otherwise took shelter from both the growing storm, and the rumblings of the mysterious, advancing army.
Just as Naero hoped, the strange force tracked her with ease and moved to intercept.
She’d have less than an hour to prepare to make her stand.
She did not move any further, and focused all of her efforts on preparing herself for combat, but she had at least succeeded in selecting the site of the battle on her terms. And she also drew them away from her helpless friends.
Now the real contest could begin.
9
Naero stood calmly in the middle of a cracked, dried lake bed, with the storm winds rippling past her.
Dimensional vespers, and enemy cyphers flashed and flickered around her like lost, taunting souls. They could not touch her. She could not touch them.
Yet the hi-tek army the enemy brought against her was real enough.
One psyonic voice attempted to penetrate her defenses. It was not an attack. She let it through.
It was the fell voice of a G’lothc spirit.
We come for you, insect. You who think yourself so mighty.
The voice broke off.
Naero scanned the host closing in to encircle her.
Time to show off some of her new and improved powers.
She and Om scanned the enemy forces one last time: ten thousand strong, mostly second generation Ejjai troops, but a mix of the enemy’s slave races, including the Dakkur. And three hundred possessed for good measure, already beginning to transform.
Naero encased herself in a cocoon of layered, protective energies.
Within a kilometer, the forward elements unleashed torrents of interlocking fire that ravaged the entire area all about Naero.
They sustained their fire and swept in to overrun her position from several directions.
The storm of ordnance, artillery, and direct fire were so great that the position was reduced and enveloped in a cloud of smoke and burning destruction. The enemy elements even began to inflict damage on one another as they bunched together, but they kept up their attacks.
A rapidly spreading disk of blue and scarlet force detonated out from Naero up to two kilometers in every direction.
Anything those energies came into contact with was reduced to blasted, burning, glowing chunks. She took down one quarter of the army, and the majority of the battle armor infantry in one stroke.
Naero rose up, towering over them fifteen meters high, in her partial Dark beast form, with Heartcleaver resting on her shoulder, the Cosmic weapon stood taller than she was.
Two of her eyes blazed scarlet, he third eye flared blue.
Three beams from her eyes raked entire battalions of hypertanks, causing them to cook off and disrupt.
She ignored concentrated fire that would have vaporized an entire naval fleet of warships.
Even as the enemy swept around her, Naero sprung her own trap.
Forces made up completely of replicants, two thousand strong, exploded out of the ground and took the remaining foes unaware, complete with Allied advance hypertanks, meks, min-gunships, and close assault starfighters.
Within five minutes, the enemy’s second-generation army was reduced to burning slag.
Yet Naero knew that all of this was but a test, perhaps one of many.
Then the fell voices came back–like droning insects in her mind, like invisible hornets swarming all about her–and their sting was in their words, whispering, threatening, predicting doom for her and all of her allies.
We’re coming for you, Naero.
Coming for you and all that you know and love.
You can’t stop us, Naero. You’ll never be able to stop us.
Not if you were ten times stronger–a hundredfold stronger than what you are now.
You had but a glimpse of what we are.
But a taste of the horror we will unleash.
Entire galaxies have fallen before our might.
Who are you? What can you do?
You cannot hope to stop us.
Did you know that we were behind your parents’ deaths, Naero?
Yes…we were there when they died.
We watched them and all that they loved perish and burn before their eyes.
One day, we will show it all to you.
As we shall be there when you fail.
And when you fall, you shall join them in the great wheel.
Yet another trophy. Another prize, put on display.
As all who oppose us are destined to fail.
What will you do, Naero?
What will you do?
Against that which cannot die?
Against that which knows not defeat?
“I will find a way!” Naero shouted back at the fell voices, shaking her upraised fist. “You have been defeated before. One day, I will find the way to destroy you all!”
Om, have you figured out how they are doing this? It should take massive amounts of Cosmic energy to do what they are doing. Where the hell are they getting it?
Keep them busy a while longer, N. I’m very close to pinning it down. It’s all around us. I need a little more time. Behind you. Look out!
Naero sprang away and summoned her swords.
The fell voices laughed and chortled.
How will you fight them, Naero?
When we take them over and send even them against you?
Naero continued to slowly retreat.
They had control of little Jonny Fox, age five.
He held a knife in his tiny hand and lurched forward at her like a drunken puppet. His eyes stared forward like one drugged, head slumped to one side. He shambled at her, swinging and swiping at her with the blade.
Their control over the captives isn’t so good, Om. Clumsy, pitiful, really.
Watch out, N. There are many others.
She turned to see Chime, and Peter, Greatgran, the two authors, and the rest of the crew staggering out at her from all sides, faces slack, knives moving in their hands.
Naero rose up into the air on her gravwing to avoid their attacks. The enemy knew that she would never harm them.
What about possession wyrms? She scanned them all quickly, knowing how to detect and deal with their presence.
If they had been infected, she would need to act fast.
Yet none of them had been infected. Not a single control wyrm.
You have done this, Naero.
You have made all of this possible.
Om, what are they talking about?
I don’t know, N.
Naero circled about in the air.
The controlled captives started flinging their knives at her. She brought up shields to deflect them.
See how utterly helpless you are before our powers?
What will you do when we take control of your allies?
When we send your own family against you?
What will you do then Naero?
You can protect yourself.
How will you protect all of them?
We will send you friends to destroy you.
The Oden half-breed…we will take him over and have him kill you.
How will you sleep?
Whom shall you trust?
We will send your own children to kill you.
Your crews will willingly drive their fleets into the nearest stars.
How will you stop us, Naero?
Om, get ready. I’m going to startap more and take the hostages back by force. If this is some kind of mindlink, I’ll go person to person and–
Stop, N! Wait a moment. Don’t do anything just yet. I think I’ve got a handle on what they are doing, and how.
But Om, we have to–
Listen, damn it. Every time that you grow stronger, they grow stronger as well. There’s some kind of connection. Think about it, N. Your Cosmic energy levels shoot off every known scale every time you startap. You and your firstborn are walking Cosmic Phenomena. Look at the energy flows all around you.
Yes…yes, very strange. Am I their power source, Om? Is it me? Have they found a way to turn my own energies against me?
It would seem so, Naero. Energy floods out of you at immense levels. It emanates all around you, and yet you maintain control of it so that it does not harm you or others around you. Just how is that accomplished? That is a major feat on its own.
Hmmm…Cosmic energy by its very natures exists in two places at once. Yet like an iceberg in an ocean, it has natural outlets in stars, or in the user, and only reveals part of itself in the Prime Material Plane until more is called upon. Most of it exists in the Astral Plane, which is the dimension of pure Cosmic energy in all of its possibilities, feeding into the other planes and dimensions.
Can you sense where these Cosmic attacks are coming from, N?
Naero rose up higher for a moment and concentrated with the sight of her enlightened third eye.
She almost gasped. How had she not seen it before?
Om, the enemy is attacking from the Astral Plane somehow. They’re breaking through enough even to affect things here. That is where they are latching onto my Cosmic forces at the source, like so many leeches. They’re using my own powers and energies against me to fuel their efforts and commit these things in our reality. They’re using me.
Good. Now, how can we cut them off and stop them?
I–I don’t know. I can drain myself down to a level where they could not sustain their efforts, but how will I ever startap again without them feeding off of me and doing things like this, or even worse? You heard their threats.
Naero, let’s stop them now and end this before another enemy army or fleet shows up. We’ll figure the rest out later.
Right. Save the others and make it to Oorrii. That’s more than enough to achieve at the present.
One of the vespers came at her again. So, Naero. You’ll risk your lives for these useless ones? They are so weak. They are nothing. Forget them.
I will die defending them.
Yes, you probably would at that.
Naero quickly shunted the bulk of her energies into the nearest star. She cut off all Cosmic access to the Astral Plane.
All signs of the enemy voices and vespers fell away. Good. She had cut them off from controlling her friends and their crew, who tumbled to the ground, stunned.
Originally she had intended to transport them all back to The Bookwyrm. Yet to do that she would have to startap again.
She settled for summoning The Bookwyrm and her reps, who had kept busy with the fixer cloud, teknomancing a troop transport out of the wreckage of the enemy hi-tek army.
As soon as her reps finished loading Chime’s crew in, they all said goodbye and good riddance to Mikril-6. And none too soon. Several enemy fleets quickly converged on the system, jumping in just as Naero and her group was jumping out.
Naero reported the enemy fleet positions and data as they fled, and then went about with her reps to revive the captives and explain things.
But the major problem still stared Naero in the face like a dark reflection in a mirror.
How was she going to be able to fight the enemy face to face without them using her and her energies against her allies and loved ones at the same time?
How was the enemy escaping into the Astral Plane from their own dimensional prison that had held them for so long? Once more, her unrelenting and opportunistic foes had effectively devised a way to defeat her, and she had no idea how to stop them.
10
Naero said farewell to her friends with great affection and sorrow after they reached Oorrii. She would miss them, but she also regretted placing them in danger at the forefront of her cunning battle with her vicious, ruthless foes.
She hugged and kissed pretty Chime, and Peter, and their three little ones–and even loopy old Greatgran. The authors and the entire crew thanked her for saving them and all bade her safe journey.
The ship would be fully shielded now.
She left one of her replicants to join Chime’s crew and help protect them, as much as possible in a dangerous universe. Let them return to their simple lives and raise their children. They had done enough, and already lost far more than they should.
Let them be.
Naero smiled as The Bookwyrm departed.
The experience had taught her a valuable lesson.
Her friends and allies would always do their duty according to their skills and abilities. Yet she would strive not to bring them further into harm’s way, against foes that were beyond them.
Foes that were still beyond her.
The deaths of so many of her friends and comrades still weighed very heavily upon her heart.
Naero kept half of her reps with her and sent the other half back to isolated Mikril-6, to perform a rare thing for any Spacer.
They reported back that the enemy had fled or been chased off.
Naero’s forces promptly claimed the planet in her name and re-named it Naero-6. All of the legal stuff could be worked out later.
Beneath a modified planetary shield, her reps and fixer clouds would construct a naval base, a shipyard, and training facilities.
A small handful of these replicants would possess the ability to replicate even more reps, to crew fleets and entire Marine Divisions.
Naero was going to spearhead the efforts to defeat the enemy. And she was going to create the elite forces to do just that. As yet, the enemy had proven incapable of taking over her mind.
In order to forge ahead, she still needed to complete her Mystic training. That was her task. Perhaps in mastering Change Wisdom, she would find some of the answers she sought.
That was why she came to this place. Naero looked across beautiful Oorrii in all of its exotic splendor. Over forty percent of its surface was land mass across seven continents and several major archipelagos.
In a way, the entire planet could be seen as one ginormous zoo. Oorrii boasted multiple major shielded habitats and protected enclaves, home to nearly every major sentient and animal species known to exist. The former agreed to live there or even contracted to do so, despite the effects of the Time Dilation. It was a very sweet arrangement. All of their needs were met, and they knew no want of any kind. Within reason, they governed their own affairs and lived on a world that was very close a well-managed paradise.
The sentient inhabitants and their offspring could leave Oorrii if they so wished, and even have visitors under certain conditions, but once they left Oorrii, they could never return. They were contracted to be sample populations of their kind and species and could not make such decisions lightly. There were plenty of sentients waiting in the wings as reserves. They knew a good thing when they saw it.
But all of the Mystic Homeworlds remained closed systems with tight security, for many good reasons. With the grim realities of the universe they all existed in, it simply couldn’t be any other way.
Naero left her other reps behind at the starport to purchase or construct another ship, maintain contact with Naero-6 for as long as possible, and to await any further instructions from her. She would work out a place for them on the planet with High Master Jo.
Never again would she travel so lightly, without a full force of her reps to back her up in a tight spot. Doing that would also reduce the risk to others.
Nothing left to do but meet up with the Spacer Mystics.
Oorrii’s greenish sun and particles in its turquoise sky lent a subtle, blue-green hue to both the air and the lush land. On the continent of Fahar, they were in a hot, humid subtropical rainforest region with both walled and domed structures and communities on the vast coast of an ocean out to the east and south.
; The wind from the sea, wafting over the mid-sized, Joshua Tech starport brought cool breezes and many scents upon the wind, from starships, people, and local plants and food. A small city of various locals lived around the starport and maintained markets there.
She noted what the locals were wearing, and programmed her Nytex togs to match the soft, comfortable jumpers of pastel white, blue, yellow, green, and orange. She did so even as she kept walking. The shorts only extended about twelve millimeters down the thigh.
Her Spacer hairstyle and her many weapons still made her stand out. And instead of the ubiquitous local sandals or even bare feet, she still preferred high, open-slitted sandal boots of soft material. She colored her pweakable attire in local pastel yellow.
She stopped at a local street vendor run by meter-high Piettos and purchased a local flatbread wrap, complete with Spum, Durro cheese sauce, and veggies, plus a four-pak of Jett to wash it all down.
The wrap was so delicious, that she hurried back to the stand and bought two more for her walk outside of the starport area.
It suddenly struck her that she was famished and tired of food bars.
She tipped the wrap stand owner big time. The Besh woman in her middle years was stunned. According to the scale of the local economy, she could probably retire and live well.
What the heck, Naero had creds to spare. And the amazing wraps were worth it.
It was a nice day for a trek, the sea breezes were cool, and she had plenty of time. She did not always have to transport or fly directly to her destinations.
She got her bearings via Om and their invisible cloud of spyfixers. The vast Mystic Compound lay off to the south and west for many kilometers into the lush, jungle interior.
Wide, white marble and plasteel roads lined with intriguing statuary marked the roads, and as she walked further away from the starport, the foot traffic faded to nothing. It was still in the morning on Oorrii, and most likely, the Mystics were busy training, as she would be the next day.
The yummy wraps were soon history, and she still had one frosty borbble of Jett left by the time she reached the nearest set of gates to the compound, guarded by Mystic Intel Marines. They saw her coming, apparently recognized her, and snapped to attention, summoning the officer on duty, a Marine captain.
Naero's Mastery Page 7