Om fed her information continually, even as she transported them out into the continent of Thanarra’s unexplored interior, hundreds of kilometers away, on a fresh desert plane she had selected from the orbital mapping scans.
There was nothing around them that could be harmed, and late at night till dawn, the desert itself was still quite cold. Only the sand under the stars was still warm and glowed light blue.
All things in the universe possess a degree of Cosmic energy all their own. Tapping into a star is in some ways similar to tapping into a planet, but the distances are of course, far greater in certain ways, and yet solar radiation on a planet in a system is constant, and everywhere all at once. The rates of collection and the flow rate of intake are all on different scales entirely, and there are countless variables that must be experienced first hand, and gotten used to.
Naero took a few deep breaths, watching her footprints fill in with shifting sand behind her as she walked. She found a dark, outcropping of volcanic bedrock to stand upon for their first attempt.
All right, Om. I think I’m ready for our little test run.
Remember. It’s only for an instant. Take in the smallest amount of Cosmic energy from the star possible, and then shut the process down. It doesn’t matter how little you take in. The idea is to connect, and then disconnect. We can experiment with gradually expanding the length of the tapping connection and the amount of energy collected, as we go along.
Naero still shook her head in disbelief.
I can’t believe the mightiest of the Kexx could do this sort of thing, Om. It even sounds crazy, just in concept. The power seems like it could be limitless to me. No wonder they could accomplish so much.
They lived and breathed not only the powers of the stars–but of the infinite universe itself, Naero, and of all possibility. Such energies were like their life force–like their very air, and the blood coursing in their veins to them. They became true Cosmic beings, at one with the universe and all its powers and potentials. Yet they also respected and explored all of the inherent perils and dangers at each step along their journey. They made their mistakes, too, and grew in true wisdom with the exponential powers they gained.
So, what happened to them, Om? If they were so all powerful, after they had defeated this great threat to the universe, where did they go and why?
No one knows. Perhaps that is another mystery that we shall unravel one day, as we grow in wisdom, and perceive the secrets of the KDM. Perhaps when we are truly ready for that knowledge, it shall be revealed to us.
Maybe you’re right Om. I don’t even fully know myself or what I’m capable of yet. And I’ve sure messed things up, over and over again. Sometimes I feel like a walking, talking disaster, just waiting to happen. There’s so much I don’t know yet.
Then let’s try to learn a little bit more, while we still have the chance, Naero. To learn, we must dare every possible mistake and failure there is, and learn and grow from it.
I’m with you, Om. Here we go. Startapping experiment number one!
Naero closed her eyes, reach up to the heavens with her yearning fingers, and even father out with her mind and all of her Cosmic awareness and abilities open. She did everything as they had thought it out and planned.
So much happened within the flash–within the space of that single instant.
It happened so fast, she did not even have a chance to blink or gasp for air.
The sensation was both exhilarating and completely frightening.
For the barest fraction of a thought…she joined with the power of a star. There was a bright flash of light and energy.
Naero woke gasping and smoking the next instant, in pain.
She lay within a crater of hot, instantly fused black glass, thirty meters deep and a hundred meters wide, steaming up into the night air. Smoke and vapor roiled off of her.
Her hands tingled, and they were still glowing from within when she looked at them, but they faded even as she looked on.
By all the signs, they should be dead. They should have been vaporized, but they had survived the brief fusing or whatever it was.
Om. Talk to me. What happened?
We did it, Naero. For a fraction of an instant, it worked. But we couldn’t sustain or control it. The flash effects of just the residual energies caused this crater to form in the local strata. We should locate somewhere else. Intel noticed the energy spike and is sending a team this way to investigate.
We shouldn’t tell them?
What are we going to tell them, Naero? We don’t even know anything, yet.
I guess you’re right, Om. They transported far away from that location, into a lowland meadow. Tiny insects began biting her exposed flesh, leaving small red bumps that itched. Naero pweaked her nanosuit to exude a working insect repellent. She spread it over her exposed areas.
What next, Om?
Replication. First, study something simple, like one of those insects, with biomancy.
Naero remembered her biomancy lessons with Master Vane back on Janosha. A sharp twinge of pain in her heart still stabbed her when she thought of her family, the gentle Tua.
She focused, and read everything about the small insect. She understood its basic form, function, and composition, it’s life cycle, why it behaved the way it did. She understood it completely. How it was born, lived, and died, and broke down back into raw components of energy and matter.
She perceived the tiny spark of the life force that existed in all things that were alive, whether plant or animal. Some called it the Lifespark. Others called it the soul. It was the essence of living energy, without which, nothing could be said to be alive. A powerful form of Cosmic energy in itself, with a specialized purpose and function.
And in studying that tiny insect, Naero suddenly had an important insight, an illuminating epiphany.
Lifespark energy was the exact, polar opposite of the Darkforce, in almost every way–like matter and anti-matter. The Lifespark burned fiercely with the yearning purpose that all things should live and thrive, and seek to be alive and pursue their functions and designs.
While the Darkforce only sought to destroy…everything. Its driving purpose was to cause everything to cease to exist and stop living or doing anything. The static nothing of non-functioning matter. A simple, grim purpose: destroy all that is. The final death, from which nothing could return.
The goal of the Lifespark was everything. The goal of the Darkforce, was nothing.
In both forces, she suddenly saw the three wisdoms: Chaos, Order, and Change. And between the ever shifting balance between the two forces–she beheld the Great Mystery of the Harmony. The Harmony was not in fact a goal–it was a force, and a power, and a purpose within itself, in its own right.
It included and accepted the Lifespark and the Darkforce together, all that they were, and everything in between.
The Harmony would not be denied, and balanced the two forces of life and anti-life–so that all things could have their chance to strive and be, to change and grow, and fulfill their potential. It was neither black nor white, or right or wrong, or good or evil.
It was the universe. It was everything that was possible. It was everything that could and should be, all at the same time. It was the time given to everything. It was both the beginning, and the end, and the way that all things continued on.
Having fused with the power of a star. Having gained these Cosmic insights, Naero Amashin Maeris gave the matter no further, direct thought for the moment.
She lifted her hand and formed one of the tiny insects into being by thought–by force of will alone.
She wished it into being.
The raw components fused together in an instant before her very eyes. One instant it was not there. The next instant it was.
Naero. We’ve done it! You replicated a lifeform out of nothing but the building blocks of matter and energy all around us. You’ve replicated a living thing!
Not quite yet, Om.
/> She sensed something was still wrong. Her tiny creation did not move or function. It was like an automaton. A golem. It still lacked the Lifespark that would truly make it alive, and go forth with its function and purpose.
Then she knew.
She was the creator.
The Lifespark must come from her.
The gift of life…was hers to bestow.
Without another thought, Naero bent her lips, and breathed softly upon the small thing.
She could feel the Lifespark flow and pass from out of her and into the tiny insect, by just a fraction. It quivered, thrummed its small wings, and took off.
Naero swooned and fainted, as the ramifications of such power staggered her, just as tapping into the star had stunned her, and left her prone and helpless on the ground.
In her mind she gasped. She curled up in a knot and shuddered, convulsing with terror.
Om, I ask again. Should I…should we…should anyone have such power? How could the Kexx live with the weight of it? I’ve only created an insect, and yet I’m nearly being crushed by it. What right do we have to do such things?
Think of it as a gift, Naero. As blessing that must not be allowed to become a curse. A responsibility that must be tempered and used with wisdom.
Naero wept, wiping the burning tears from her eyes.
And love, Om. Shalaen once told me that all power, of any kind, is best managed and tempered through love. Love is like the Harmony. Oh my gosh, Om. Love is the Harmony. And the Harmony is Love. True balance is the Three Wisdoms combined, and the result…is Love.
The crux, the balance point of Harmony between the Lifespark and the Darkforce…is Love! Holy blinking crap! I understand now. That’s how Baeven is able to control part of his Dark Beast and make it work for him. He joked with me and said that he learned how to do so by accident–through love. I thought he was kidding me, just putting me off! Damn it, he was absolutely right!
Excellent, Naero! We’ve replicated an insect.
Okay. What next?
Now we work on reversing the process. You can replicate something, and you can negate it, or re-absorb it if it was once part of yourself.
Hmm…I can sense the insect some how…about ten meters over there.
We can sense it because the Lifespark came from us, it is part of us as well.
Naero attempted to cup it in her hands. But the insect moved around, trying to get away, making it difficult to capture it.
I got it! Oh, no, Om. I smashed it. I didn’t mean to.
Yep. It’s dead all right. The Lifespark you put into it has fled.
Can I make it alive again? Breath more of the Lifespark into it?
I don’t think so. There’s nothing in the replication process that describes anything like that. It appears that once something is dead, death is not reversible. You could repair this insect’s physical form, but once its Lifespark has become part of it, and then left it, it will not return, nor will it accept another. Each lifeform–even replicants, apparently–are in some way unique therefore, and can only exist under certain parameters. It appears that death is in fact, final.
I’m going to try anyway. Just to see what happens.
Naero did so.
Nothing.
She made the attempt several times. Each time, nothing happened.
See? Life is finite, somehow. Absorb or disperse the raw components and then try to make another replicant.
Naero took a breath and did so. She hadn’t taken the raw components from herself, so she merely dispersed them.
Next, she concentrated, and formed another new replicant, just as she did before. She breathed a new portion of the Lifespark from herself into the tine creature.
And like before, it buzzed its wings, and flew off.
This time, she caught it and reversed the process quickly, feeling the tiny slice of the Lifespark return to her, and the raw components disperse.
Congratulations! Now we can replicate. We can’t bring anything dead back to life, but we can quicken a replicant, and cause it to function. In the days ahead, we will replicate larger and more complex lifeforms as we go along. The final test–will be to replicate yourself, Naero.
Sheesh, Om. The universe can barely handle one of me. What would it do with two or more?
Om laughed also. I shudder to think, Naero. But we should still find out. Remember, you will be the primary being still, the original. Any of your replicants will answer to you and you will be able to control and command them. They are still just matter and energy, filled with whatever purpose, power, thoughts, or ability you give them. Imagine being able to summon an entire army of replicants, at will. That’s the kind of thing the greatest among the Kexx could do.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do any of that, Om. I don’t know if I want to. But we’ll see where it takes us, for now.”
You will always have the power to re-absorb or negate their existence, Naero. Your replicants will not be able to do so to you.
That’s a relief.
Her wristcom chimed. Uh-oh. Gotta get back for sparring practice. Oh, crap. I still haven’t filed my report with the High Masters. They transported back to the Mystic stronghold, after a good morning’s progress.
16
Naero took on seven adepts at once in sparring and held her own against them.
She didn’t win–but neither did they.
You’re improving, Naero. Each day, your power and skills are increasing.
That’s what I’m worried about, Om. Am I growing too fast? Will I be able to control it all? That’s what the High Masters are concerned about as well.
After her workout with the Change Adepts, Naero checked on the status of the artifact statue. Still methodically searching Nashara, by all reports.
Relentlessly.
Next she filed a brief report on her first actions in Thanarra as Mediator, promising a more detailed report later. The Changs probably covered everything in minute details in their reports anyway. The twins would stay with the king and queen of the Thanes, on their own mission.
After lunch, Naero and six other adepts, a pair from all three orders, would go down into Thanarra, and take a ship out to sea for a meeting with King Haikoda of the Kall, the sea people.
Today her companions would be: Misha Aztec and Allon Nelson, from Order. Lii Yin and Trevor Elkins, from Chaos. And Ilura Romanov and Danikan Konrad, from Change.
As they traveled, Naero had Om feed her the information on the sea people and their king from the Changs’ reports.
Haikoda is in his late thirties, and a widower. His wife, Vaxxanna, was slain by an arrow from the Maedo during a raid. She died in his arms. They only had one daughter, Vaxxalla–wild, fierce and beautiful, taking after both her parents. She is only thirteen years old, but she is destined to become a mighty Sea Queen, after her father’s reign.
Interesting. More, Om.
Haikoda also has an extended family of three younger brothers: Nokarro, Yeshida, and Jigan–the latter, as we know, was recently killed by Emperor Vauk, of the Vaedo. All of Haikoda’s brothers have been loyal to him…unto death.
As is his younger sister, Kutira.
They paid a trade barge at the docks to ferry them out into the Bay of Thanarra, to meet with Kutira, the king’s sister. She would take them from there to meet with her brother. Kutira apparently enjoyed the company of holy people, unlike her brothers, who trusted no one outside of the Kall.
Princess Kutira’s cutter, The Blue Vixen, swept in quickly, a mid-sized, fast-looking ship with a blue fox painted on black sails, and a figurehead of a leaping blue fox on the prow–above a wicked-looking iron ram, used in both war and raiding.
The vessel slipped up quietly and docked with the barge.
Naero spotted archers in The Vixen’s rigging, javeliners, fighters poised to board on command. She could smell the burning braziers where crew with naphtha and pitch firebombs waited to hurl them against any sign of an attack or betrayal.
/>
The Kall lived and moved in a treacherous world.
They took no chances.
Princess Kutira appeared at the port, midship rail–keen gray eyes, olive skin, curly, shoulder-length, dark brown hair. She wore form-fitting, blue and black leather armor with, a blue scarf headwrap, and a silver filet set with black pearls. Several thin, silver rings hung in her ears, and one in her nose. Armored leather gloves and high boots completed her rakish look.
A fox-headed, silver-hilted cutlass hung on her left hip. Several matching, silver fox head daggers were sheathed all over her person.
She was short, and very pretty at twenty-one.
Naero’s exact size and build, in fact. They could probably share clothes.
She admired the princess’s style.
Kutira caught her eye. “You are the mediator?”
“I am. These are my brothers and sisters.” Naero motioned to the other adepts.
The princess kicked a rope ladder with wooden rungs down to them with one foot and smiled.
“Welcome aboard.”
Once they climbed up on deck, the Kall ship and its crew worked quickly to finish its trade with the barge. Goods in crates, barrels, and sacks were swapped in crane nets and swing winches, back and forth.
Once their deals were completed, any other terms and payment were completed. Kutira’s second, a large, dangerous-looking brute of a man, rippling with muscles, saluted the barge master and shoved off.
Kutira raised both palms and bowed her head. “May the gods favor us all, holy sister. I am Kutira Asharra Nahavanel Ta’Kall. Wellmet.”
She held out her hand. Naero took it, and matched her strength. “I am Sister Naero.”
Kutira’s eyes widened, and she grinned even wider. “Such steel in the eyes and arm of a priestess? I feel like I’m looking into a magic mirror–at an image of myself, had I joined the holy ones.”
Naero nodded. “We do seem much alike. I hope that we may be friends, Your Highness.”
Kutira flung and arm around her and laughed. “Let it be so. Call me Kutira. Come, friend Naero. Allow me to show you The Vixen–my beloved ship. I helped build her. My brother, the Sea King, had her designed especially for me.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 13
