“We should take heart. Each one of us that accepts the merge and survives, makes all of us both smarter and stronger…eventually. And you joined in the knowledge of all of this willingly, so it should go much easier for you in the long run, than it did for our uncle. You know what to expect now, so you won’t be trying to fight it or resist it, and you also know what you can expect and do to help yourself.”
“Great. If I survive all of this crap, everything’s going to be all orgasms and rainbows.”
“That’s the spirit…although we didn’t use those words, exactly.”
“I was being sarcastic. All right, get me back. I’m so pissed off now, I can’t wait to fight something. Those damn dragons better watch out!”
“Huzzah, we all say to us. Fortune favors the bold!”
“Is there any way to shut ourselves up? Haisha! I can’t take this much more of us. Get me the hell out of this crazy-ass place!”
25
After the flash of her return from the Cosmic Nexus, Naero stood in the black glass crater back on the planet. The artifact statue was gone, and at the exact center of the crater, the only thing that remained of it was a small, round puddle of flat, gray Ur-metal. So odd and dull that it made lead somehow look shiny.
The air seemed to pop or implode all around her. Waves of Cosmic force rippled out from her and seemed to sweep over the planet at impossible speeds, flattening trees and any structures at random, flipping entire starships nearby over on top of each other.
Next thing she knew, Naero lay flat on her back with an aching head, staring up at a swirling, cloudy, Thanoran sky.
She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, and sensed the first rumors of her own Cosmic sickness, the backlash of her merging with all of her possible selves, scattered throughout all the known possibilities and universes.
Yet, as imperceptible as it almost was, she did in fact feel slightly stronger, slightly smarter, slightly better and more secure than her former self had been, all on her own. And she had been right. Now she knew many things, and had answers to questions that she hadn’t known or understood before.
She flipped Om back on like hitting a switch. She never knew that she could do that before, or how. Now she did it without hesitation.
I wasn’t inert, Naero. I experienced everything you did in the Null regions. Our communication link was simply interrupted. You couldn’t hear me.
She’d definitely need to remember that trick.
Naero shot to her feet, looking around urgently. A large swath of thunderstorms was about to cut loose. “Om, contact the spyfixer network and tell our people to get ready for a fight.”
Done.
She closed her eyes and pictured her new Ur-blades.
It took a few moments, but at last, she felt the blades form in her hands. The metal was strange and unearthly, unnatural to the touch, flat gray. Even light did not seem to fall upon them properly. Very weird. But they were also a part of her and her abilities now.
She did not dispel them, under the circumstances, in order to test her theory, but she felt certain that she could summon them at will, just like her Chaos energy katanas.
Just thinking about her Chaos swords brought them blazing to life in her hands like torches in the gloom, forming over and channeling energy right through her Ur-blades.
Haisha! She could feel the energies pulsing through her entire body. Channeling her abilities through her new Ur-blades increased their effectiveness by several orders of magnitude from the sensation of it. And when she startapped even slightly, she could barely hold onto them.
The skies split and the first of the Kahn-Dar penetrated the dimensional veil. A blue dragon-like creature, seventy meters in length, and wreathed in azure lightning and energy came forth.
Naero guessed that she was going to need all the extra might and help that she could muster, in the fight coming her way.
Then she gasped, noticing something else, strange.
The Cosmic power levels of Thanor-4 were way down, almost completely reduced. Now, the planet was just like any other.
When the artifact statue vanished, apparently, so had all the planet’s hyped up Cosmic energy levels.
In some ways that might be good. At least her enemies would not be able to feed on either one and grow stronger. The Kahn-Dar were energy-absorbers. Let them try their tricks now.
Three more dragons gated through the dimensional rent in the sky. A larger green, a shorter but thicker red, and another blue. Then four more of various colors. Then a dozen.
For their size, the Kahn-Dar zipped through the sky at incredible speeds. All of them turned and focused their blazing eyes on Naero, and dove down for the kill.
“Oh, shit!” Naero yelled. The enemy ate Cosmic energy, and she was filled with it.
Numerous Cosmic attacks rained down from the shattered sky, and fell ruinous upon the land all about her position. The black glass crater erupted and dissolved in a whirlwind of glass shards and fire, lightning, and destructive energies of every color and hue.
Naero transported up into the air, using her gravwing, and slashed with her energy swords at the throat of the first blue.
Cutting into the Kahn-Dar was like slashing through metal, or the armored hull of a starship. Even with all of her enhanced strength, it was that tough.
The creature shrieked in pain, its voice piercing and painful like a psyonic or sonic attack. The cry rattled Naero’s skull. Blood trickled from her ears and nose.
At first she thought blood streamed from the creature’s wounds–then some kind of aether, or energized ichor. But finally Naero realized. The Kahn-Dar were at the very least, partial Cosmic energy beings, with not exactly physical bodies.
When injured, Kahn-Dar leaked or bled pure Cosmic power.
The monster whipped around so fast and attacked. Naero barely had time to transport out of the path of its blinding blue lightning assault, shooting out from its jaws.
She transfixed the creature on scores of thick spears of Chaos energy. Then she exploded them.
The detonation triggered an even larger, secondary Cosmic explosion.
Naero instinctively curled up and shielded herself in overlapping spheres of dense, defensive force.
The blast tore through them like they were paper, and Naero plummeted out of the sky, scorched and smoking like a burning stone.
She blinked and gasped, struggling to breathe. She had even blacked out for a few seconds. Now she fell with the charred, burning pieces of the Kahn-Dar that she had just slain.
The head of the creature seemed to be at least partially alive, and still spat lightning. The dismembered thing slowly dissolved.
Other Kahn-Dar–those not stunned or flung back by the massive explosion–dove straight for them at top speed.
Naero was forced to transport again to another part of the sky.
The Kahn-Dar devoured and absorbed the pieces of the dying one, cannibalizing it right before her eyes. She recalled that it was normally very natural for these creatures to kill and devour each other.
More of the Kahn-Dar continued to pour through the rent in the dimensional veil.
How could they fight so many of the things? There were dozens of them already, and more slipping through each second.
Torrents of heavy artillery from the Marine batteries and warships ripped up into the invaders.
Cosmic fire from the latter slashed into the warships, disrupting shields and doing heavy damage. Other attacks cut through the unit shielding and blasted glowing gouts through the Marine positions.
The fight was going to quickly turn into a blood bath.
Om, I’ve seen glimpses of this battle. We need to plug that hole. That’s the only way we can win; otherwise, they’ll pour through and overwhelm us. I’m going to close that dimensional gate.
How? From the energy levels, it will take a gigablast to disrupt it. That could possibly wipe out everything within sixty to a hundred kilometers!
Not if I pinpoint the center of the blast in the upper atmosphere, so that the blast range envelopes only the dimensional rent. Damage on the ground will be greatly reduced. We ignited such a blast once before, Om. Back on Janosha.
Yes, and we destroyed a third of a continent. And how do you know the Kahn-Dar can’t just open it again, or another one in a another place?
We don’t, Om. But I have a strategy in mind.”
Now I’m really scared. Incoming!
Naero cloaked and transported. Several Kahn-Dar crashed into each other over her former position.
She discovered that cloaking didn’t keep them from eventually locating her, but it did confuse and slow them down.
Here we go, Om. Tell our people to button up and keep their heads down. Retreat or flee, any way they can.
Naero, the High Masters are demanding that you to stand down. They want you to turn yourself over to them…immediately.
I can’t, Om. Not in the middle of a battle of this magnitude. Ignore that order like we never heard it. Now let’s fight!
I’m with you, Naero. I’ll help you direct the blast away from the ground, but our forces are still going to take a pounding.
Can’t be helped at this point. Roughed up is better than dead.
She selected the safest vantage point she could find. Air-Zero, directly behind the dimensional rent, with dragons still pouring through it on the other side.
Naero startapped until she transformed, then she bloated herself, until she nearly blacked out, and her Dark Beast threatened to break free.
Naero formed a cloud of hundreds of floating Cosmic energy bubbles around the rent, each the size of a bowling ball.
Then she transfixed the three Kahn-Dar slipping through, exploding them at the same time she set off the bubble cloud.
Om transported them thirty kilometers away.
Still not far enough.
The blast wave hit them seconds later, and drilled them into some forested hills. Naero barely buttoned up.
She quickly startapped, ignoring their pain, and transported them back to the High Masters.
Up in the sky, the dimensional rent was gone–completely disrupted. The remaining Kahn-Dar were still alive, but stunned and floating in the sky. Dead Kahn-Dar couldn’t remain airborne and would dissolve, unable to sustain their Cosmic energy forms. Or their fellow dragons would feast upon their energies.
On the ground, things weren’t much better for the defenders.
Order a full retreat, Om. On my direct authority. Abandon equipment and weapons. The enemy has no use for them. Get everyone out, on anything that can fly.
On it. It won’t take much. Most of our forces have already withdrawn, and are already reeling in full retreat.
Naero found the High Masters, battered and bloody, being healed and tended to by their prime adepts.
“You are under arrest,” High Master Tree said.
Naero nodded. “I am. When all are safe after this battle, I will confine myself to my quarters on my flagship and await your investigation and judgment. But not until then.”
“Destroy her!” Vane shouted, his face and head bandaged and bloody, where he lay on a medbed. “She’s even more than a threat to us all, now, than ever before!”
Naero shouted to the other adepts. “Get everyone out. Transport the High Masters to the safety of their ships in orbit. The invaders can’t fight us if there’s no one on the planet to fight.”
“Naero,” Master Jo muttered, half his body still badly scorched. “What are you doing?”
“The artifact is gone. So are the planetary energy levels. If the Mystics leave this world, there is no reason for the remaining Kahn-Dar to be here. Nothing left for them to fight, no Cosmic energy for them to devour or absorb. They came here expecting an easy feast. I’m guessing they were lied to.”
Master Jo grinned. “Brilliant. I agree. Get the others out. Get everyone out. I support your denial strategy, but you are still in serious trouble.”
“When am I not? Everyone hear that?” Naero shouted. “Master Jo agrees with me. Let’s move.”
“What do we hear from the east coast and Thanarra?”
The Mystic Enforcer is helping the east coast base hold their own. He has slain thirty to forty of the Kahn-Dar–
Naero spluttered, choking on her own breath in startled awe. He’s killed thirty or forty of those things, Om? By himself?
It appears so. He closed off the dimensional gate as well…in a similar fashion to our own. He is currently leading our forces in a fighting retreat out of the atmosphere.
Admiral Klyne suddenly cut in over the spyfixer link. “All units, all units, continue retreat from the planet surface behind the defensive grids set up around the planet. If the invaders attack us up in the black, we stand more than ready for them, this time.
Dozens of Spacer and Alliance naval fleets surrounded the planet in interlocking firing profiles from many heavy warships.
Naero smiled and transported up to her own private quarters. She’d check on Jan and Aunt Sleek in a minute. The cavalry arrived quickly. Even the Kahn-Dar would be fools to attack straight into the teeth of such massed firepower.
You were correct, Naero. With nothing left to fight or absorb, the Kahn-Dar are gating out, leaving this world and dimension completely. They can sense the forces arrayed against them out in space. Their surprise attack has collapsed, and failed completely.
We took away all of their objectives. What about the locals, Om? Are the natives all right?
Damage is minimal in their isolated area, although they probably witnessed a very frightening light show in the sky, and the ground shaking at times. Without any tek or Cosmic energy to speak of, the Kahn-Dar ignored them completely–as if they were insects.
Great. We couldn’t hope for much better than that. Now, we wait, Om.
For what?
To face the music, for what we’ve done.
26
Jan and Aunt Sleak were still weak from their ordeal, but recovering. She briefly told them what she could about what had happened between her and the artifact statue–and the serious trouble she was in with the High Masters for disobeying them.
Within the hour, Aunt Sleak delivered her twins, as expected, two healthy girls with red hair and gray eyes. Anyazhel Shiina Maeris, and Nuviarra Lythe Maeris.
Her tough-as-nails aunt was up and around shortly after giving birth, laughing and smiling. Naero got to hold both babies and smile at the pretty little things–hands and feet so delightfully tiny. She gave each of them a token of a small, ceremonial Maeris fighting knife.
She could tell them apart by their ears. Anya’s were slightly more pointed than Nuvi’s.
Naero warned Jan and Aunt Sleak about the last alien obelisk still out there, on a lost, ancient world of the Kexx called Xanathar. Most likely, either one of them, or one of the twins would turn out to be the Order Guardian, for all that meant to them today.
She did not bring up Danner, for now.
Naero waited nervously on edge, half that same day, for word from the High Masters to present herself to them for their evaluation and judgment.
The Changs contacted her instead.
“We wanted to warn you,” Chang Fu-han said. “The High Masters are discussing your situation at this very moment.”
Naero was startled. “Why wasn’t I informed? Why was I not summoned?”
“The three of them are still recovering from their injuries,” Chang Lijuan added. “They and their prime adepts are discussing the matter on the Astral Plane, while their bodies continue to heal on their medbeds.”
“Thank you, both of you. I appreciate you guys telling me this.”
Fu-han added. “Good luck, Naero. Many of the other adepts were also gravely injured during the battle with the invaders, but most still remain on your side. They want things to work out for the best for you.”
“Yes, good luck, Naero.”
“You two will continue to t
ake care of the Thanorans, right?”
Both of the bowed their heads, looking very sad.
“No,” Fu-han sobbed. “With Thanor-4’s heightened energy levels gone, the Mystics are abandoning the planet entirely. The natives will be left entirely to their own fates. After all that has happened, perhaps that is for the best.”
“You two don’t really believe that, do you?”
Lijuan had tears in her eyes. “We must. We have no choice. The decision has been made, and remains final. We can do nothing.”
Naero signed off and informed Jan, Aunt Sleak, Tarim, Zhen, Shalaen, and her crew about what was going on.
Tarim would stand guard, while Zhen and Shalaen monitored her body on a medbed in the infirmary. She would take a short nap, drift off into the Astral Plane and find the High Masters, in an attempt to defend herself and her actions.
Naero hadn’t done it much, but going into a trance to enter the Astral Plane shouldn’t be all that difficult, from what she recalled. Master Vane had specifically shown her how once. And she had gone there lots of times in her sleep, in her mind, to speak with Khai, using their astral crystals. But that was on their own little private wavelength.
Back then, her friend Khai had also vanished without a trace, while she was still training on Janosha. Now he turned up again as the Mystic Enforcer, and wielded one of the Cosmic blades. And it sounded like he was quite the badass.
Naero herself had never been completely trained in astral travel, and didn’t know much about exploring or moving around. Master Vane had taken her there once, just to teach her the basics and give her his marker, and many other times later to spar with her in areas he isolated for them. She never went there on her own.
If all else failed, she could probably focus on Vane’s marker to locate him.
Zhen and Shalaen smiled and tried to be re-assuring, standing by her side while she relaxed and went into the astral trance.
Naero focused her mind and abilities, controlling her breathing. She struggled to recall the little she had learned.
Within several minutes of focused meditation, she opened her eyes and found herself floating in the Astral Miasma, the nebulae of energy. Naero hugged her knees to her chest.
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 22
