“Look, I hadn’t gotten around to Astral training, all right? Then all of this crap exploded in my face. After I blew away one of the three High Mystic Masters–I don’t think they’re going to give me a refresher!”
“All right…don’t get mad, N. If you haven’t been trained yet, you haven’t been trained. That’s not your fault.”
“I didn’t say it was. You’re the one who made an issue out of it, you little goofball!”
“Issue? What issue? Hey, stick with me, my sweet. You wanna know stuff about dimensional travel? I know stuff that would curl your so-called Mystic Masters’ ears and light their bums on fire.”
“If you know so much, then why don’t you train me?”
“Well, get me back up to snuff and I just might…if you’re nice to me.”
“Okay, deal. Take us to the Astral Plane and removed my tracker, and I’ll give your healing a shot there.”
“Good. I think we’re onto something here. Hold onto me, and don’t let go, Naero.”
She gasped, as they flashed into the aether of the Astral Plane miasma, racing through it at impossible speeds.
This time, Womi was as big as a naval battleship, but still as crippled as he was. Naero barely clung to Womi’s horns on his head.
Naero tried to picture something that would help her hold on–a saddle of some kind, with reins and stirrups.
She felt like a total idiot doing so, but imagination and force of will were everything on the Astral Plane. The items actually appeared in an instant from her imagination, under her and in both hands and feet.
They really did help.
“Okay, N,” Womi’s voice boomed and echoed. “Get with the healing. Make it quick, before one of my kind senses us and comes to much on us.”
When Naero got down to it, it was actually easier. She was already linked with Womi, and could see the parts of him that were damaged.
All she had to do was heal and regenerate those portions of him.
She startapped and focused positive, healing energy on them.
At the same time, she instinctively learned something vitally important about Kahn-Dar.
They were indeed interdimensional creatures by their very nature. The reason they could flow and gate into all the other dimensions at will–was because a small portion of their existence seemed to exist in many of those dimensions–all at the same time.
Thus–they could really only be slain in the Prime Material Plane.
If they perished there, every part of them perished in all of the others.
Womi let out a resplendent cry, feeling even more of his range of function returning to him.
“Yesss!”
His long body waved a little more, undulating and whipping back and forth in his speed. His front and rear, big hand-like claws opened and closed slowly, instead of sagging limp. His head twisted around more.
“Naero, do you know what this means?”
“Not a clue, so tell me flat out.”
“You just have to heal me in each of the nexus anchor dimensions, and I can finish regenerating from that point on. We’ve done it!”
“We have?”
“I mean…you will finish healing me, right?”
“Sure,” Naero said. “We had a deal, correct?”
“We sure did. Let’s go.”
“Hey, Womi. Why don’t you take care of my little Cosmic marker situation, if you can?”
“Sure thing. Hold out your right forearm. That’s where it is.”
“How can you tell?”
“I can smell it. I can see it. Here let me show you how.”
In a flash, they came to a complete stop, floating in the aether. Womi was tiny again, and wrapped himself around Naero’s head like a small, glowing blue circlet.
“Open your mind’s eye–your third eye. I’m going to show you how to look into things the way the Kahn-Dar are able to do. You can see right into anything that exists, and see its essence–as well as any flaws, weaknesses, illnesses, or imperfections in its structures and flows.”
Naero focused through Womi, and looked at things the way the Kahn-Dar could see them.
She saw it immediately. The Cosmic marker, what looked like a small pulsing orb of swirling, red, blue, and gold energy, pulsating and flashing within her transparent right forearm.
Their bodies were both clear like crystal, with an aura of flickering, Cosmic energy on the outside–as if the outer surface of their bodies hardly existed.
“Hold still,” Womi said. “Let me take care of that annoying marker.”
She winced as he used his tiny, sharp teeth to gnaw and burrow into her clear, astral forearm.
She blinked and gaped. She almost grabbed him by the tail and yanked him out, it hurt that bad.
He wiggled his way into her forearm and wrapped his jaws around the marker. Then he gobbled it down, and absorbed its energies.
After Womi wiggled his way back out–Naero wincing all the while–he bent around in the aether and patted his swollen tummy. He actually licked his chops.
“Mmm…very tasty.”
Naero studied herself, seeing the twisted, sickening energies coursing through herself. Her Cosmic disease–and the tainted threat of the Darkforce.
Powers that were slowly destroying her each day–each second.
“How do I make my own marker, again? How can I track things, like what was done to me?”
Womi bobbed and nodded. “Simple, especially here. Your marker is part of you. Picture what you want it to be. Picture where you want it to be. You can place it inside of something, or someone, as long as they don’t resist, or guard against it. If they can sense it, like we can, it can be destroyed. For example, place a marker inside of me, Naero. Go ahead. I will allow it.”
Naero closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.
“No, no,” Womi said. “Keep all of your eyes open when you focus your power here on the Astral Plane. Things you create and cause to appear will do so, where you imagine them.”
She formed her marker–a small, brilliant pinpoint of intense, blue-violet light. Then she pictured it inside of Womi, just behind his head.
Womi grinned. “Now you can track me, and locate me, and come to me in an instant, anywhere on the Astral Plane.”
“Really?”
“Try it out. I’m going to flash over to the far side of the Astral Plane, the farthest point away from where we are. Focus on your marker, and come to me there.”
Womi vanished the next instant.
Naero recalled doing this same thing with Master Vane’s marker. She pictured her marker inside of Womi. Then she picture herself with her marker.
The aether shot around her in the flash of another instant.
She came face to face with Womi, looking her right in the eye.
“Excellent. For a weakling of your kind…you are a natural. Now, I’m going to try to place a marker in or on you. I want you to set your energies to not allow that.”
“How?”
“You will sense my marker. Use your force of will to destroy or absorb its energies on contact with yours. No one will ever be able to mark you again–without your direct permission.”
On the third try, she managed to get all of her defenses and energies set completely right.
“See?” Womi said. “You can do it. Now, let’s finish my healing, if you don’t mind.”
“Okay. Where to now?”
Womi grinned his toothy grin, becoming enormous once again.
Naero’s saddle, reins, and stirrups were back also. She was already using them.
“Hang on. We are going to take a little tour of all the dimensional nexes. And you are going to repeat similar healing processes in each of them. Then I will be free, and very close to whole again. I can take my convalescence over from that point on.”
Their journey turned out to be a grand tour.
“This is the Opposite Dimension,” Womi explained. “Adjust your thoughts and patterns. Eve
rything here is backwards.”
For the first time in her life, Naero felt sickened by flying, weak, frightened, and very disoriented.
Womi was flying and talking backwards. Everything took direct thought to adjust to. Why did she feel so afraid? It was mind-numbing. Naero looked at her badly shaking left hand. Everything seemed reversed. Color. Motion.
“Everything is structurally opposite here,” Womi assured her. “I know gender is important to your kind. So…don’t panic at suddenly being male.”
Naero screamed. “Get us out of here, Womi. I don’t like this. Everything feels…wrong. I’m so scared.”
“Because everywhere else, you are so brave.”
“This is really creepy. I don’t like being a guy. It’s…too weird.”
“We won’t stay long. The Null dimension is the opposite of everything you are used to. Deal with it. The faster you focus on healing me, the faster we can move on. Just remember, reverse the healing process that you used in the prime material plane. I know that doesn’t make sense, but trust me, that’s the only way that it will work here.”
“I…I don’t know if I can.”
“Naero, listen to me. You are still you. Maintain that and focus. I know this is difficult. You want to leave this place, right?”
“I sure as hell do.”
“Then do what you need to do to escape, before you think about things too much.”
Healing. Reverse the process.
Almost numb with terror, Naero did everything backwards, ending with reverse startapping, draining Cosmic energy from herself and giving it back to the universe.
She suddenly noticed–here her disease was a stabilizing force, healing and making her slowly stronger.
And her Dark Beast? It was filled with the shining, radiant light of the Lifespark and the pure Harmony…and it was sickening.
Why did that all make her so angry?
Then Naero gaped and realized.
Here, in this dimension, he was bitter, petty, cowardly–and evil.
No. It wasn’t right. He had to end this nightmare. Get out of here. Escape!
“Excellent,” Womi said. “Say, goodbye.”
Naero couldn’t take it all any longer. He started screaming.
Womi flashed into another dimension.
Naero looked at and felt herself. She gasped, still shaken. Thankfully, she seemed all back to being her normal self. Even her Cosmic disease and her Dark Beast were back to being the ominous threats that they were.
That wasn’t exactly comforting, but it was better than the disorienting madness of the Opposite dimension.
She wondered if the contraries would even be able to deal with that place. There they’d probably make sense.
“I don’t think I ever want to go there again,” Naero said. “Where are we now?” Now that she had her act back together again, she looked around.
There was aether, but everything was suffused with light. The very air seemed to glow with particles of radiance. A shining aura lit both her and Womi.
“This is the Dimension of Light. It is a glorious place.”
They soared through towering, endless clouds of light, nebulae of brilliant stars. Floating, liquid-like seas and oceans of light awaited.
After Naero healed Womi there with her glowing hands, she felt like she didn’t want to leave. But Womi told her they had to.
Next, stop: The Dark Dimension.
Here everything was shades of darkness and the power of raw unlight. Vison seemed completely reversed. It was still possible to see somewhat, and sense things, but everything was shadows.
“I thought it would be evil,” Naero said. “Why doesn’t it feel evil?”
Womi laughed. “Dark, Light–Black, White–Good and Evil. Such distinctions do exist everywhere, but not in the ways you think. Things are what you make of them. All things can exist in all dimensions. They are the myriad possibilities that do not come from a place–they come from sentient minds blessed or cursed with free will, depending on how you look at them.
“You can still commit every evil act at the zenith of the realms of light. Just as you can still do all good things in the nadir of the realms of darkness. And everything in between, Naero. The choice is always yours. Only the planes of The Lifespark and the Darkforce are absolute–positive and negative realms. Life and Death. Existence and Non-Existence.”
“What are the Kahn-Dar?”
Womi grinned. “Whatever we wish to be, when we wish to be it. We are opportunists, yet we have our own rigid code of honor. We will devour each other if we can, but at the same time, we can also be incredibly loyal and loving. Haven’t you figured us out, yet?”
Naero covered her mouth with both hands. “Haisha,” she exclaimed. “You’re pure Chaos–always as you are–as you choose to be.”
“That’s how we are always free. Ready to go?”
“Surprise me.”
“I will.”
Naero shrieked.
They passed through a dimension that was all flame and fire. Thankfully, in their energy forms, they weren’t burning up.
“We’ll pass through the elemental energy planes and their borderlands. The Plane or Dimension of Fire is actually where the borders of the dimensions of Heat and Air come together. Just as the Plane of Ice is the border between the dimensions of Cold and Water. There’s a Plane of lava between the planes of Earth and Heat. There’s even a Plane of Mud.”
Naero nodded. “Between Earth and Water–I think I see the pattern, Womi. All the elements stand on their own and interact with each other at some point. Do I have to heal you in every one of them?”
“No. Just the primary nexes: earth, air, fire, and water.”
One by one, they did so. Each time, Womi regenerated a little more, regaining a bit more of himself.
They passed into the Dimension of Dreams and Possibilities, next to the Spirit Realms, on the borders with Light and Darkness, and The Lifespark and The Darkforce.
“All of the Spirit Realms can be perilous places, even more so than the other dimensions. Each realm has its dangers. All sentients have a complex spirit or soul. Our choices cause our spirits to be drawn either toward The Harmony, or the Darkforce, and thus send our souls on a journey toward one or the other.”
“Your people knew the G’lothc and served them for a time. Where are the G’lothc souls in the Realm of the Dark Spirits?”
“So close to the border with the Darkforce that they are nearly indistinguishable. That would be a fearful place indeed. I have never been there, and have no wish to go to it. Thankfully, we do not have to. And the Spirits of Light can be just as perilous, trust me. We will remain at the borders of each plane, long enough for you to heal me. That should be enough.”
Naero continued to heal her friend at each stop they made.
Next they reached the Galactic Nexes. Here, each galaxy in their universe was like an open window, waiting for the traveler to go through it. They spread on in every direction, as if from the center of a great sphere, layered on and on into infinity.
“Do not go that way,” Womi warned. “Unless you are an experienced traveler, it is far too easy to lose your way, and never find your way back.”
Naero healed him again. “There, is that it?”
“Yes, thank you, Naero. I am nearly complete again. There’s just one more place I want to show you.”
They appeared in a realm–of nothing.
It was stifling. Petrifying.
“Womi. What is this awful place? I don’t like it.”
“This is an alternate dimension where the Darkforce has had its way and won–destroying everything–even itself in the end. Nothing remains. No possibilities whatsoever.”
“The Darkforce did all of this?”
“Not just the Darkforce. The Great Destroyer awoke in this dimension. The Great Destroyer is an entity that suffuses all existence in the power of the Darkforce, where all is annihilated, leaving nothing behind. The Cosmic
Prophecies are real, Naero. It is possible for this devastation and oblivion to occur in every universe that has existed, does exist, and will exist.”
“I don’t want to see this anymore, Womi. Please, get us out of here.”
The next instant, they were back on board The Shadow Fox, in the medical bay.
Womi seemed almost completely healed. His range of motion back to normal. He flitted about in joy and popped around at will, obviously pleased with his recovery.
“Now keep your word to us, Womi. Tell us where the Dakkur have established their new homeworlds in the Gamma Quadrant.”
“I will,” Womi said. “I can’t show you on a map, but I can take you there and show you. Once you get some bearings, I’m sure you can eventually figure it out, with all of your tek. Hold onto me again.”
Naero checked suited up her togs again, and turned to her friends. “Gotta pop out one more time. Back shortly.”
With that they were gone.
Womi was huge once more, and Naero rode on his neck, just behind his head with her saddle and reins. They were flying through space, somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant.
Om, your getting all of this, right? Can I put you in charge of recording all of the galactic navigational scans?
Doing so now. Will compute them all with the KDM once our full scans are complete.
Thanks.
“Womi, can you give us even a rough idea where we are, here?
“Somewhere near the edge of your galaxy, in an outermost spiral arm.”
“But you’re sure its in the Gamma Quadrant, right? And yet–maps and star charts mean nothing to you?”
“My mind has trouble thinking in those ways. I see energies and locations, not the greater whole.”
Naero considered the possibilities. “Hmm…two spiral arms are at the edges of the Gamma Quadrant. The Sagittarius Arm, and the Scutum-Crux Arm. We have to be in one of those. It will take time, but we’ll figure it out.”
“The new Dakkur Homeworlds are six in number.”
Womi showed her each system, flashing through the galaxy at will, gating over vast distances.
“Maggoth, Shokk, Kolothon, Xoggoth, Churrok-Kul, and Nakkra-Kron–each has been completely subjugated and taken over, with thriving, Dakkur breeding populations.”
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 35
