Om spoke to her, even more easily here than in her own mind before.
I have accessed some of the Kexxian Matrix’s data files on The Astral Plane. Like everything else, they explored it quite extensively.
Om, I’m naked here. I’m not complaining, But how do I put astral clothing on again?
You control everything here by imagination, and force of will, Naero. Concentrate on your favorite clothing and gear, and they should appear.
That was easy enough.
She looked down and saw her favorite Nytex flight togs and gear, programmed just the way she liked them.
Naero blinked, spinning and twirling in one spot in the aether, turning upside down. But she was still stuck in one spot.
Why can’t I move more than a meter at a time in front of us?
You’re not used to this reality. So it’s not clear to you.
The aether around her looked opaque. Not mist. Not smoke or vapor. And it glowed slightly with its own bluish-gray light.
In the twilight she glowed softly blue-violet-white with her own light, from within.
“I once heard rumors that the Mystics could travel and send messages this way, but I thought it was all just a myth.”
Since the other planes are entire universes within themselves, it is said, they are all nearly infinite. Thus it is difficult to pinpoint any kind of location or person unless you already know them.
Naero instinctively tried to stand up, but there was nothing to stand on.
Then she recalled Master Vane’s Marker, and Bingo! There it was; it appeared right before her.
Where she found him, she would find the other High Masters.
At least she deserved a chance to be heard by them all. To try to explain herself and her actions.
Naero could not simply stand by and let them decide her fate without being present.
She focused on the crimson and black star more and swept forward, seemingly at great speed.
She came to an abrupt halt, like a starship coming out of jump at its destination.
The opacity around them partially melted back. They proceeded forward, opening her visual field far wider. She made out the area around them as the miasma peeled back.
Slightly below them she saw spheres within glowing spheres, all spinning within greater spheres.
Her own sphere, glowing white-blue, suddenly surrounded her like a glittering soap bubble.
Yet it did not pop when she poked at it.
One sphere in particular, the largest, glowed and pulsed blood red, containing a withered old man with a long beard, pacing and fidgeting impatiently.
Burning eyes vanished and re-appeared at random all over his bald head. The red sphere absorbed Master Vane’s marker.
Was this Vane’s true form? What he really looked like?
His scarlet sphere was also flanked by two smaller spheres with figures inside them.
Om made a calculated guess.
His current guardian adepts, no doubt. The ones you rescued from the enemy Darkforce generators”
I think so Om. So, this was what Zhii and Fel looked like on the Astral Plane.
She suddenly wondered what she looked like.
At most times, every High Master had at least two champion adepts protecting him or her, each of them very close to mastery themselves. Like Hashiko had been.
Naero studied Vane’s new guardians for the very first time, and tried to see into their spheres.
Something about them did seem strangely familiar.
One of Vane’s prime adepts, the swirling, smoky male, appeared to be so deep dark black, he could be a singularity. This adept’s sphere was flat black on the surface and barely transparent. She could barely make Zhii out inside of it.
If Naero had been able to breathe, she would have gasped.
Instead she simply raised her hand to her mouth.
She recalled now that she had seen many of these adepts long before–in her dreams, nightmares, and crazed visions. That was how they appeared to her. Perhaps she had even been on the Astral Plane somehow when she saw them in these forms.
Fel, Vane’s other prime adept was obviously the blazing white, feathery female, the exact opposite of the other. So brilliant and blindingly radiant, she could be a pulsar. Her orb was like a high intensity bulb, blinding and almost completely crystal clear–with her lighting it from within.
It occurred to Naero that during her initial testing, Klyne had had male and female assistants as well.
She still couldn’t guess what the significance of that pattern was all about. Perhaps just some weird Mystic, egalitarian tradition.
Why, then, weren’t any of the High Masters female?
Everyone seemed to ignore her where she floated.
The next larger sphere, farther away, glowed silver-blue.
If she focused intently on it, she discovered she could zoom in with her third eye–her mind’s eye.
Within a silver man sat serenely, neither young nor old. Master Tree, in his purest form of Order.
Two smaller guardian spheres flanked him.
Master Tree’s wispy, female adept glowed with intense blue energy in a deep blue sphere.
The male likewise glowed with vibrant green force within a green sphere, a shining sword sheathed down his broad athletic back. He seemed very familiar somehow.
She did a double-take. Long blond hair. Green skin. Big glowing sword.
Yep. In the flesh. Or…his astral form at least.
It was Khai! She was sure of it. He was alive and well.
Had he actually succeeded in his great task of forging the first mystic sword in the heart of a gigantic pulsar? Was that it on his back?
Naero gasped again. Now that she knew what he sort of looked like, Khai was also the dreamy green hunk from many past, pent up nightmares. The one who kept sticking his sword through her head.
What did it all mean? She wasn’t nuts enough yet?
Now she knew for certain she needed serious help.
And to do some actual dating at some point, once-and-for-all.
If the Mystics continued to let her live.
Khai must have sensed her inner turmoil, or thoughts, or maybe just her concentration on him.
Mr. Green god even glanced her way for a second, looking just as confused and puzzled by her sudden appearance.
Neither of them had ever met the other in person.
Naero covered her face with one hand and looked aside, withdrawing her sphere suddenly further away.
How fricking embarrassing.
She crept forward again…slowly.
The third and final sphere glowed golden, and contained an equally golden child within, energetic and bristling with lightning. He bounced back and forth inside like a gigantic electron.
Master Jo of course.
Two flanking spheres.
One of his adepts had no clear form, eyes gleaming within a shifting, flickering miasma like the Astral Plane itself–Den. His female counterpart shifted shape from one fantastic creature to another–Tess.
When Naero made out their voices, she could sense that an intense debate had been going on. One that still continued.
“We cannot be certain in this matter,” the golden child insisted. “We do not dare act in any rash way.”
“Agreed, High Master Jo,” the serene silver man added. “She might yet be another Trickster from what I can tell.”
“Yes. Quite possible, High Master Tree.”
The old man in the blood red sphere blustered impatiently. “Fools! Always conspiring against me. Taking positions opposite of mine for no reason but to anger me. I’ve been telling you all along, this child is clearly the Great Destroyer–long foretold. Our duty is clear. She is a threat to all existence. To multiple dimensions. She must be eliminated, at once, before she can grow even more powerful.”
“High Master Vane,” Tree said. “None of us can be sure of that fact. Including you.”
“I am.”<
br />
“You are always certain when it comes to destroying someone,” Jo added. “Your pure Chaos answer to everything. Destruction or Creation.”
“It works.”
“No. It doesn’t. It only delays and worsens the inevitable,” Tree said. “The Universe shall have its way. We all know this. You were mistaken with the last savant when he appeared, and now he remains at large–a renegade beyond even our control.”
Baeven? We’re they referring to her uncle?
Vane rolled his eyes. “Idiots! The Renegade is the Trickster, I say. This child must in fact be the Great Destroyer. Just look at the powers roiling within her. They will surely corrupt and overwhelm her entirely and drive her mad in the end. She will go berserk on a scale that makes her recent outbursts feeble and puny by comparison. She must perish now, while we have a chance to put an end to her. While the only crime she has committed is destroying a single planet!”
“We’ve repeatedly studied the mysterious disappearance of Janosha,” Master Jo said, “and we still cannot be certain that she had anything to do with it.”
“Really? Who else could it be then? Planets like Janosha aren’t in the habit of just obliterating themselves suddenly for no reason at all!”
I cannot allow this.
Quiet, Om. Don’t do anything. I’m trying to listen.
Naero…they’re discussing our destruction. The Chaos Master means to destroy us.
Master Jo continued to protest. “You can’t just kill off every entity that manifests Cosmic Abilities such as these. Our universe is peppered with them. We must continue to locate and guide them–not find excuses to execute them. Like the Others have told us. Tricksters often appear to oppose Great Destroyers. Without the former, final victory is never possible. “
“High Masters,” Tree said. “This young woman also possesses the Kexxian Data Matrix. We cannot destroy her without destroying it. Intel and The Spacer Council value our wisdom, but even they would not agree to such action.”
“Regrettable,” Vane said. “Yet I cannot take the risk. I have decided this matter on my own.”
“You have no such authority on your own,” Tree insisted.
“I cannot stand by and allow our galaxy–perhaps our entire universe to be destroyed–just to satisfy your foolish, philosophical, and theoretical whims.”
Master Vane turned to his adepts. “My finest students, obey me. Delay these fools. Keep them occupied whilst I act for the good of all existence.”
More rapid than thought, the male ensnared the blue sphere and its satellites in coils and tendrils of darkness. While the female enveloped the golden sphere and its companions in waves of of pure light.
Naero tried to pull away, but in her panic she did not know where to go.
High Master Vane sped straight at her with impossible speed.
I must act, Naero.
No, Om. Please, this is already bad enough. Don’t do anything.
I cannot comply. I must defend us!
Naero went down on her hands and knees before Master Vane. She called out, her voice projecting.
“Please, do not attack me. I only wish to be trained to control my abilities. I have struggled hard to do so.”
Vane bore down on her, arcs of pure scarlet energy bristling around him.
“Far too late for that, monster. You must perish for the good of all. I told you this hour would come.”
Instinctively, Naero drew back again, trying to evade his attack. She rose up within her receding sphere.
Vane closed in once more, gathering his powers.
“Don’t do this,” Naero begged. “Please. Help me. I know I can’t fully control all of my abilities yet. I’m trying as hard as I can.”
“Yes, and look at the results? Countless lives crushed and eradicated. Janosha vaporized–an entire planet. You must never be allowed to reach your full potential. Now hold still and embrace your fate.”
Naero put her hands out before her, holding her palms out defensively–pleading.
“No. Don’t. I can’t be responsible for what–”
“I know. You can’t help yourself. You are an abomination!”
Vane smashed into her, piercing all of her defenses as if they were shattering glass. Here in the Astral Plane, he had the mastery.
In the distance, she sensed that Master Jo and Master Tree finally broke free.
Too late.
Master Vane attacked, trying to overwhelm her with raw power.
He pummeled her with impossible blows.
In the end, he beat her up badly, but only succeeded in knocking her around once more.
Om roared in their mind.
Kexxian defense protocols unlocked and on line.
Energized glowing armor of some advanced origin formed around her like a hi-tek battle suit.
Naero saw out of her third eye as it awoke and burst into radiance like a blue-violet-white star.
Master Vane came at her once more, all of his powers focused through his primary scarlet, burning eye centered in his forehead.
All of his other flaming eyes closed as he concentrated, his skull wreathed in weird Cosmic flames like a mane of Cosmic fire.
“See how powerful you have already become? No adept could have withstood those lethal attacks. We must finish this now, before the others can interfere.”
“Please, Master Vane. Please, don’t do this.”
“You will fall before the greatest of all Cosmic attack techniques. I am one of the few who have ever learned to master it–The Eye of Annihilation!”
The same Chaos technique that had destroyed Hashiko. Even she couldn’t control it properly.
A massive blood red beam of destroying Cosmic force shot straight at her.
It all happened so fast. Naero heard Om screaming.
Reflection defense. Analyze incoming Cosmic assault. Duplicate and reflect attack tenfold!
Just before the incoming blast vaporized her, a blue-violet beam shot out of her own third eye to war against Master Vane’s powers.
The Cosmic flows flared intensely.
Naero screamed as if her body and soul were being sucked through the eye of a black hole’s needle.
The wide, violet-blue beam quickly drove back the red beam to its source.
At the last instant, High Master Vane cried out in terror.
“Impossible! There can be no such–”
The destroying energies ignited on contact.
A massive detonation on the Astral Plane blinded the area within a few light years.
High Masters Jo and Tree barely managed to withdraw and shield the others. All of their spheres shattered.
Pure Cosmic energy punched into High Master Vane right before Naero’s eyes.
Driving him back like a white hot comet.
He struggled against it with all his might, obliterated to glowing ash and dust, screaming in the wake of his own annihilation.
High Master Vane’s dying force of will echoed off into the universe.
Naero would have caught her breath if she had any.
The outcome left her completely stunned for a shuddering instant.
Om…what did we just do?
We had no choice. My sole purpose is to defend our current form.
Naero stared down at her hands in terror. Tendrils of Cosmic energy rippled and still curled off of her body and her sphere like smoke.
Om…Haisha!
We just killed a High Master of the Spacer Mystics!
27
Naero did not have much time before the Mystics and Spacer Intel came to apprehend her.
The first person she called was Baeven. No answer.
She left a desperate, secret distress call for him.
Then another for Captain Tyber and The Darkstar.
Next Jan, Aunt Sleak, and her crew. She made it quick. As of this moment, she was a criminal, and outlaw–a wanted murderer. She didn’t exactly see a way around or out of that fact, but she needed to get s
ome time to sort it all out, and consider just what were her options.
Her head was already spinning and aching.
Her life–the life she knew and loved–was over. Naero was still in shock and had not yet begun to mourn that loss.
She could speak with her family, friends, and crew more later, through covert means. But right now, she needed to escape and find a place to hide and regroup.
The galaxy was a very big place.
Baeven had eluded capture and execution for years.
That thought suddenly staggered Naero in her tracks. She nearly went into convulsions.
Was she only repeating the mistakes of the past?
Would she be made an outcast, losing her name and identity, completely dishonored–just like him? Would they order her terminated on sight?
She knew her own people wanted to help her. She couldn’t allow that. She couldn’t implicate them in her crimes.
Naero gathered some gear she needed, launched in her private, super-modified, Ghost Dragon F59L…and vanished.
Her last order to her fleet spread them out, in a wide-dispersed search pattern, as if they were looking for her.
If the authorities wanted to take the time to board and search each of her ships–that was going to take them a while.
Meanwhile, Naero made five rapid jumps over the next multiple hours. She could not sleep, and spent a good deal of her time covering her tracks and passively monitoring the spyfixer network through Om, so as to be untraceable. When she wasn’t glued to that, she was checking Baeven’s secret channels.
Still nothing.
When it became clear that the search for her expanded outward in all directions–finally–she circled back and returned to Thanor-4, early the next day.
True to their word, the Mystics and Intel had completely abandoned the undeveloped world–now that it was no longer of any further use to them. All of the fleets and starships were completely gone, as if they had never been there at all.
She had several hours before her rendezvous with The Darkstar, and hopefully The Star Fox, as well. Naero programmed her nano-suit to mimic her native, Thanoran clothing, and transported down to the surface to have a final word with the leaders of the Thanes.
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 23
