Only in part. It’s not perfect.
Yes, the combined positive force of the Harmony and the Lifespark–the Cosmic polar opposite of the Darkforce
Naero pictured her efforts in her imagination in order to shape them.
Jia was still in her mind. All of this was taking place in her mind.
Her mind.
Naero remembered something both Jia and Baeven had told her.
In your mind–you are god. Your imagination and your force of will is absolute. You control everything. Anything there, is at your mercy.
The energies sparked and spluttered in her hands at first, but after several attempts, at last she drew Jia’s soul out of her open mouth, just as she pictured it.
She could see that Jia was still under assault by the hideous, Darkforce poison, designed specifically to obliterate her kind.
Jia’s soul tried to escape, but Naero’s protective Cosmic sphere contained it.
Actually, it was exactly like the glowing soul orbs she had witnessed after the Tua burials back on Janosha.
Were all souls the same?
No time. Use the Lifespark.
Bright flashes of harmless, harmonious Cosmic energy blasted the shadowy amoeba within, burning it away from Jia’s soul, which fortunately did not seem to sustain any permanent harm.
In fact, the harmonious energy healed and regenerated several slight burns on Naero’s hands.
Naero was the absolute master of her own mind.
Very good, Naero. She’s stopped dying at least. Now, implant Jia’s soul within Baeven, in order to renew their special, symbiotic link and re-stabilize his…unique condition.
Naero rushed over and shoved Jia’s essence into Baeven’s bizarre and dangerous new shifting form while he still wrestled with it.
He whirled and raised one of his bladed hands to lash out at her.
No, Bae. Stop! She is your blood, the daughter of your beloved sister. You will not harm her!
Baeven hesitated and strained at the last second, shuddering where he stood. He blinked, his eyes shifting back and forth from red flame and their normal, dark, steel-gray color.
He staggered back upon his heels and shook himself, shrinking back down to his normal form.
Jia and he were one again.
33
Baeven pitched forward onto his face.
Naero rushed forward and barely caught him.
He and Jia were both drained and barely conscious.
Naero even sensed the trapped spirit of the G’lothc called Ullogk. It cowered in the recesses of Baeven’s mind, torn to shreds and barely existing. The thing was terrified, and frozen in stunned stasis, blind and dumb, stripped of nearly all its senses and energies.
Baeven had nearly destroyed it, yet it still clung to its un-life–just barely.
They’d definitely need to figure out what to do with that vile thing later, once Baeven and Jia fully recovered.
Naero barely had the strength to haul Baeven out of the facility, but his huge size also made doing so awkward for her small frame.
She didn’t want to risk trying to either startap or transport in her own weakened state. No exploding, please.
Finally, once they were clear of the facility, there was still the contamination all around the area to guard against. She shielded Baeven and used some of their spyfixers to teknomance a cloaked and shielded medbed. Then she used that to tow Baeven back to the ship with her gravwing.
Baeven and Jia were barely coming to outside of the hidden Intel base by the time they reached their ships. Their cloaked crews stood guard on their perimeter
Warning. Massive enemy assault preparing to strike this area in less than two standard minutes.
Naero called over her com to their ships and the guards outside.
“Bring it in people. Prepare to launch. We need to bug out of here.”
She thought of the words the G’lothc entities had exchanged.
Ty called back. “What’s up, N?”
“We’ve got what we came for. I’m guessing that several Ejjai strike forces are going to pulverize this area any minute.”
The enemy would eventually discover that their secrets on this world had been compromised. But to what degree, they still would not know.
She strode forward a few more steps before the poisoned ground itself, back around the base, erupted and opened up.
Wave upon wave of thousands upon thousands of jump drones shot into the sky and beyond, leaving the planet in sheets of launching fire.
Naero gasped.
A massive assault on humanity and all sentient life had just been launched.
Even at jump-7, the bio-weapon drones would take many weeks and possibly months to reach their coordinated targeting positions among the Corps, the Alliance, and the Spacer Extents. But eventually, they would take up their coordinated positions, and launch their lethal payloads
The Spacer spyfixers were now part of them. The question remained. Would the fixers be able to complete their vital mission? Only time would tell.
Either way, there now existed no other way of preventing the attacks from taking place.
Their only hope was to neutralize and or modifying the fast acting alien bi-toxins, waiting to be dispensed on board.
A blazing green sphere like a comet zipped down through the atmosphere and hovered just above the ground, opposite of their combined starships.
Danjen and S’krin rushed up to Naero, armed for battle, but looking very worried.
“It’s him.” Danjen said. “The new Mystic Enforcer. I don’t know how he’s tracked us down, but he’s here.”
He’s come after us, Naero.
I know that, Om.
“From everything that we’ve heard–Baeven’s the only one who could possibly stand up to him,” S’krin added, looking over at Baeven lying on the medbed. “And he sure isn’t in any condition now for that kind of fight.”
“Split the ships up. Load him and Jia in and get away. We’ll signal you and meet back up at one of the rendezvous points.”
Danjen’s eyes widened. “Naero. You can’t face this guy. We can’t let him near Baeven, or you.”
“Now that he has that damn sword, even Gaviok and Baeven couldn’t take him down,” S’krin said. “He’s indestructible. The best they might be able to do is fight the Enforcer to a draw.”
“The Mystics still have a standing order to capture or kill Baeven,” Danjen said.
“I’ll slow him down at least,” Naero told her friends. “You guys get away. I want to have little talk with the Enforcer, and then we’ll bug out afterwards.”
Danjen stared at S’krin for a moment. They both broke and fled back toward The Star Fox, with Baeven and Jia in tow.
The bright green sphere shrank down and then dissolved, leaving a tall, powerful looking green-skinned warrior standing on the ground. He rippled with athletic muscle, his chiseled face set. Stern golden eyes. Long flowing golden hair.
A shining sword slung over one shoulder.
Khai towered over Naero as he strode toward her–like a fierce, angry green god of vengeance.
He kept his arms moving easily at his sides, and merely glared at her.
Naero grinned her best, characteristic half-smile, and placed her hands on her slender hips defiantly.
“Good to finally meet you in person, Khai. I still need to thank you for the friendship we shared, back while I was on Janosha.”
Khai nodded stoically. Naero took in a breath. He was definitely an impressive specimen. Tall, of course–about 1.98 meters. Almost the same height as Baeven.
“I thank you for yours, as well, Naero. I would not be here today without the assistance and insight you gave me, and your comradery. Yet, unfortunately, that is all behind us, now.”
Khai’s face remained impassive.
“Before we do this, tell me one thing, Khai. What happened? I tried reaching you for months–every night. I missed you. I was worried about you. What t
he heck happened?”
Khai did look away slightly at that. “My apologies for that, Naero. It was but a stupid accident on my part. While recovering from some injuries, at one point, I broke my mind crystal–crushed it to dust and fragments. The Oden create and grow them out of the same master crystals. Once one of the mind crystals is broken, the link cannot be reformed. I greatly regretted that as well.”
“Oh…okay.”
He looked at her sternly. “Come. Enough chatter. You know very well why I am here. Why the Mystics watched the Astral Plane and traced you through it, and sent me here in direct pursuit. My business is with you this day.” He fixed his eyes solely upon her.
Naero lifted her head high and steeled herself. “Say what you have come to say to me, then.”
“Very well. High Adept Naero Amashin Maeris, of Clan Maeris. For your crimes against the Spacer Mystics, you are to be brought to justice to stand trial and judgment for the crime of murder–the murder of a High Master. Please come along quietly, with what honor you have left, and face the fate you have brought down upon yourself. From our past association, I bear you no ill-will. I have no wish to harm you, so I warn you. Do not attempt to resist.”
Naero struggled to grin weakly. “And if I do…what then, big guy?”
Khai spoke plainly, showing no emotion or reaction.
“Then I shall use force to return you to justice. Naero, I warn you again. Do not provoke my hand. You will regret it.”
Naero chuckled. “What…you’re gonna beat up on a poor little helpless girl like me?”
“You are far from helpless, Naero. Just like your outcast uncle, you disobeyed your superiors and absorbed part of that alien artifact. Then you used the powers you gained from it to murder a High Master. You were unstable and dangerous even before all that.”
Naero lost her composure for moment and looked down in shame.
“I–I didn’t mean to, Khai. You need to understand that. Vane was trying to destroy me. I acted instinctively, only trying to defend myself. I did not mean to kill him. I merely reflected his own attack back at him. I didn’t want that to happen. He left me no choice. All of the High Masters knew that I couldn’t control my abilities yet.”
“All the more reason to return. You were thought to be very honorable once, Naero. Return with me now, and prove it to be so. Face justice for your actions. Nor do all hold Master Vane blameless in this affair. Yet the life of a High Master was taken–by you. A very grave crime that must be answered for. Return with me and make your defense; your case is not beyond hope.”
“I can’t, Khai. I can’t go back right now. I have pending threats from our enemies to pursue that will not wait.”
Naero plucked a spyfixer out of the air and tossed it to Khai, who deftly caught it.
“Relay the data in that spyfixer to Intel and the Mystics. The proof of what I say is contained therein. Renegade or not, I still pursue the foes of our people. There are grave new enemy threats out there and on this world and others, that we’re only just learning about. I can’t go back with you, Khai. Not now, not yet.”
Khai sighed heavily and looked down.
“I regret this, Naero. You are forcing my hand against you.”
She chuckled a little. “So, what are you going to do, Khai? Kill me right here in cold blood?”
He shuddered slightly. “Only if I must. You are wanted to face justice. I am the Mystic Enforcer. All use of force–including and up to lethal force in apprehending you–has been granted.”
Several ion cannon attacks from The Darkstar struck Khai all at once, driving him back.
Naero’s people poured it at him with the ion guns.
“Don’t kill him!” Naero shrieked.
She could not be the cause of another Mystic’s death–not even to save herself.
Tarim shouted over their open link. “Don’t worry about that, En. We’ve hit him with everything we’ve got. Nothing’s touching him!”
It was true. Khai regained his feet, his green shield around him once more. He walked through their intense barrage as if it were but wind. Beams and blasts glanced off of him.
Haisha! He’s even immune to the ion cannons, Om!
Enemy assault units converging on us as well, Naero.
The Darkstar kept up its intense fire, all to no effect.
“Retreat!” Naero shouted.
They fell back out of range, just as an Ejjai battle group swept in, blasting the entire area, backed up by a Dakkur hunter-killer unit.
Dust and smoke quickly obscured the scene of the erupting battle.
“What’s happening in there, Om?
Then she felt it. An intense Cosmic energy spike–like a pillar of Cosmic flame–a beacon.
He has drawn that sword of his, Naero. Astonishing…he’s moving swiftly among them. Khai’s slaughtering them each second.
Even from a distance, obscured by the haze of battle, Naero detected the cries of the dying, the energies being unleashed, and the multiple explosions of warships and vehicles.
A slaughter took place.
Khai took on an entire army and annihilated it–in a matter of seconds.
Naero had not heard the Dakkur shriek like that since the time she saw Baeven and Gaviok fall upon them.
The Ejjai battle group has been completely wiped out, Naero. The Dakkur attempted to flee. All of them have been crushed or blasted to death. Khai just beheaded the last Dakkur Champion.
In the flash of an instant, Khai’s verdant, protective sphere shot over to where they were and faded. Khai emerged, stalking slowly toward Naero, his glowing sword in his right hand–warping the very air and every field and flow around him.
Yii, one of the fabled Cosmic swords of the Spacer Mystics, forged in the heart of a hyper-dense, massive star. It was fashioned from a great quantity of equally hyper-dense Ur-metal. Its powers? Nearly limitless, as it just demonstrated.
“So, Naero,” Khai remarked. “You have not lost all of your honor, I see. You still choose to face me alone, so that no others of your crew are needlessly injured or worse. Quite admirable; even brave–but futile.”
Naero bowed. “I retain all of my honor. And I thank you, Khai, for not taking their lives outright. I know that you could. Their allegiance and great friendship is mine; they would gladly give their lives for me. But I will not let them do so needlessly.”
“My business is not with them. You were correct to restrain them, Naero. You just witnessed a small demonstration of what I am capable of. They are no match for me. I am fully in control of all of my abilities. I neither kill nor destroy by accident or instinct, or without cause or reason. Your friends are not at fault here, Naero Maeris. You are.”
He paused and took a single breath.
“Surrender, Naero. It is over. You are no match for me, either.”
Naero smiled. “We shall see.”
She charged him, circling for an opening.
He moved his feet effortlessly. The superb footwork of a master swordsman.
When she attacked, his defense–every move–was perfect.
Khai was a consummate master with his blade.
He sliced her energy cutlass out of her hand and disrupted it.
She knew he would. That gave her time to get in closer, using all of her advanced speed.
Naero plunged her energized battle blade at his chest, with all of her weight and strength.
She would not kill him, but she fully intended to wound him badly enough so that he could not fight, or follow her for a long while.
The unbreakable metal splintered and shattered against Khai’s breast as if her battle blade were ice.
Naero blinked and staggered back from him, her hands and forearms stinging and partially numb.
Impossible. Khai wore no armor–barely a nanotunic down to his knees and high boots.
Khai was invulnerable? How was he shielded?
His spin kick swept at her so blinding fast and hit with such raw power, tha
t he knocked her off her feet and flung her away. Naero barely caught herself and flipped back up to a crouching fighting stance.
Once again, her experience sparring with Baeven had saved her.
No one but Baeven and Danner had ever struck her with such force.
Not Gaviok–not even Master Vane.
Khai was clearly in their league. Perhaps even beyond it in some ways. Nothing seemed to touch him. He was unstoppable.
Naero needed to play for time.
Just a little longer.
They circled each other.
“You’re stalling, Naero. I won’t let your friends scoop you up as you are planning. I’ll disable their ship on this enemy world, if I must. Then they won’t be able to get away. You will doom them and you will still end up my prisoner.”
She drifted back with her gravwing.
He floated up into the air at will and came at her without effort.
Naero tried taunting him. “Hah, you’re a lot of big talk, Khai. As long as you have that crazy sword of yours. Is that the source of your powers? Your focus for your Cosmic abilities? Is that what makes you so indestructible? What are you without it?”
Khai casually flung his sword into the ground, where the long gleaming blade buried itself effortlessly up to the hilt.
“My sword Yii is without equal–yet it is only part of me–not a crutch. We are one, and our powers are as one.”
Naero paused and touched down again, resuming her fighting stance.
Now at least, he fought on her level.
She hoped.
“Sword or no,” he told her. “I have never met my equal in single combat.”
Naero knew that to be true. They clashed. He struck her twice and nearly winded her. Superb technique. Fast and powerful. Baeven could not have done better.
She feinted and then surprised him with a blinding fast flip kick of her own, knocking him off his feet.
Khai flipped over and came up to a similar fighting stance.
Naero shook her hair and grinned. “Nor have I,” she told him. “But I suppose there is a first time for everything.”
Khai smiled. “I think not.”
They circled some more.
Naero led him away, always retreating.
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 31
