Naero knitted her hands together and stared at him. “The very reasons that the Spacer Mystics exist: to study and gain mastery and understanding over all of these forces–for the good of all.”
Khai chuckled. “Chaos is indeed vital. Yet it must be properly understood and kept in constant balance by the forces of Order and Change. The Harmony of the Universe is sustained by the balance of the Three Powers.”
“And the three acts of wisdom,” Naero added, thinking suddenly of Shalaen. “Compassion, Justice, and Mercy.”
“They comprise what we know and think of…as Love,” Khai said.
The Enforcer gazed into her eyes a little too long, then turned away.
Naero smiled. Let him fall for her a little bit. What if he did?
She could do worse than a thick-headed champion like Khai.
And a little affection for her on his part just might help her cause, if push came to shove.
Haisha, was she turning into Hashiko, now?
In the days that followed, they continued to hunt for and pursue the enemy. But the trail went cold.
No one knew what the enemy’s next move was, and in any case, they were all stuck out in the middle of nowhere still, until they could get the leap drives operating properly.
Generating another unstable, Cosmic wormhole would be a last resort, considering the first attempt that nearly killed them all.
And the potential for popping back in to their space completely disrupted and dead in the water, among potential enemies would leave them desperate, and far too vulnerable.
Not a good plan at all.
All of them healed up from their injuries. Zhen and Ty seemed about as happy as Jia and Baeven, getting sufficiently besotted with themselves.
Naero and Baeven continued to train every day together, both as individuals and in teams with other members of all three crews, exploring all of their strengths and weaknesses.
Baeven and Khai avoided each other, for the most part, and with good reason. They were like oil and water and did not mix, did not get along. They remained complete opposites. Baeven was Chaos, whether he liked it or admitted it, or not. Khai, of course, was Order.
But Naero went back and forth between the two of them, training with both and learning as much as she could. Each of them had vital insights and knowledge to share that the other did not. And that was incredibly useful to Naero, who always felt torn and stuck in the middle of everything anyway.
Khai seemed to have his act together and never needed much help. Hell, the guy was pretty much just a step below being a High Master himself, without the title. That was why he held the position as the Mystic Enforcer.
But much of what Naero learned from Khai on several important levels was very vital to her in many other ways, and she passed on as much of that wisdom as she could, back to Baeven. She did so in ways that he could grasp and make use of it for himself. Whether he admitted it or not, her uncle needed to learn many of those things himself–some of them even more than her.
Running with Khai during their truce turned out to be very valuable for both of the renegades. Naero and Baeven achieved several breakthroughs, and gained greater control over themselves, and further understanding of their abilities and powers, almost daily.
They still couldn’t enter their full, Dark Beast modes without losing all sanity and self-control, but they could keep them on better leashes and begin to understand them further. And their partial Beast modes grew more and more powerful.
Perhaps that would lead to greater, overall control at some point in the future.
Naero herself seemed driven beyond obsession, to one day gain total mastery of herself and all of her abilities.
It frustrated herself to no end that she could not grasp or attain such control, simply by force of will alone.
Khai shook his head and tried to counsel her during one of their sparring sessions. The guy was a brick–as bad as Baeven. They beat on each other relentlessly and he never seemed to take a scratch. While she felt battered and sore and secretly had to heal herself and regenerate, every chance she got.
“Do you always try to force your way through everything?” Khai asked her.
“Works for me.”
“You’re too hard-headed and straight forward, Naero. You’re never going to balance everything out that way.”
“Never’s a long time. Who said I have to get it right? It just has to work.”
Khai laughed. “Too bad you never got the chance to finish training with the other High Masters. They could have really helped you, I think.”
“You trained with them. And you’re helping me. You’re passing their wisdom on to me. I say it does help.”
Khai shook his head. “But I’m a better warrior than I am a teacher. They are the true experts at teaching their Wisdoms, and have done so for many years. I could never match them.”
“You might one day, Khai. You might have to. No one lives forever–not even the High Masters.”
He smirked at her. “Like you, I still have a lot to learn.”
He suddenly pulled out a frosty borbble of Jett and held it out to her.
Naero’s eyes widened.
“Where in the hell did you–”
“Jia said Baeven still had a few of these hidden somewhere…for special occasions. I asked her for one. I hear it’s your favorite lix.”
“What’s the special occasion?”
He shrugged and looked away. “We’ve been training hard. I thought you deserved a reward. I wanted to do something nice, while our truce still holds. I don’t really enjoy being your enemy very much, Naero. I can’t do anything about that, but I just wanted you to know how I felt.”
“Thanks, Khai. Now give me that.” She snatched the Jett out of his hands and started chugging it.
“None for you, buddy.”
“That’s all right. As a true Mystic, all I drink is rain water. I only eat nuts and twigs.”
Naero almost snorted Jett out her nose. “Huh?”
He grinned. “I’m kidding, of course.”
“Oh…okay. You’re so serious all the time. I’m not used to you attempting to have…a sense of humor.”
Khai took offense. “What do you mean attempting? I do happen to have one, you know.”
“Okay. I’m sure you’re great at parties–a laugh riot. But you still ain’t getting any of my Jett.”
“No loss. I’ve never really had any, before. I don’t usually imbibe soft drinks of any kind.”
Her eyes widened. “Really? Seriously? You’re not kidding this time, right? Well hey, then you just gotta try this stuff.”
“No. I got it for you. Please enjoy.”
“No, I insist. You have to taste this stuff. It’s the best lix in all the universe. Just a sip, though.”
Khai hesitated. Then he took a small sip.
Then he blinked.
“See?” Naero said. “What’d I tell you. Great, huh? Am I right?”
She’d never seen Khai astonished before. He was kinda cute, flabbergasted.
“Amazing,” he said. “I’ve never tasted anything that good.”
Naero had an idea.
She guzzled half of the borbble and smacked her lips.
Then she placed the rest of her Jett safely off to one side.
“There’s half of it left…how about I fight you for it?”
He shot to his feet. “You’re on. Let’s go. You’re going down!”
Naero grinned.
This time, just for once, she’d let him win.
But at least she had to make it look good.
The next day, they finally had the leap drives up and running again. With all three ships docked together, there wouldn’t be a chance of losing each other.
But if they cooked off or imploded, they’d all die together as well.
Tyber and Rendar engaged the device while their crews stood by their stations.
In the flash of an instant, they went from the middle of th
e unknown Gamma Quadrant, to within .0032 light years of their target coordinates. They were back on the edge of known space near the Alpha quadrant, on the border with the expansion of the Alliance Systems and the Gigacorps.
They finally made it back.
But they still had no way to fully locate their enemies, or discern what their foes were going to do next.
For the time being, it seemed that the enemy had given up on trying to locate other Driathan sentinels and their hidden homeworld.
But they still had Danner, and they were still invading the galaxy. Naero wasn’t about to let any of that stand.
Strangely enough, it was Khai who picked up the traces of the enemy.
As part Oden, he seemed to have an uncanny knack for tracking Cosmic signatures that no one else possessed. Not Om. Not even Jia.
“That Darkforce energy of theirs is faint,” he said, using their sensor arrays to ferret it out. “But there’s not much else that is like it. From everything I can see, they’re somewhere in the Corps colony extents around the Hezzen System.”
“That’s right on the border with the Alliance colonies, in the areas everyone’s scrambling to explore.”
“Only a few mining probes have gone out that far,” Ty said. “A quiet area without many dangers, from what is known.”
Naero raised an eyebrow.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Baeven said. “We’d better get out there to check it out. After we re-supply at Takeda-3, it’ll be a short hop. Then it’s off to find our new friends and put an end to whatever it is they’re planning now–and them. Permanently.”
He suddenly looked directly at Naero.
“What about your Enforcer boy friend? Have you convinced him to join our cause?”
She lowered her eyes and shook her head.
“I thought not.” Baeven sighed. “He’s a stubborn one. We’ll have to rid ourselves of him, if he’s going to try to take you in again–one way or another.”
“He’s helped us immensely. Khai’s given us both valuable insights into our…situations, that we never had before. He’s made us stronger. Not to mention he fought beside us on Zoa-4–with great skill and courage.”
“Because he had to in order to survive,” Baeven said. “Not because he wanted to.”
“I think he wanted to. None of us would have made it out of that complex without his valor. I could not betray him like that.”
“Naero, you’re starting to like that stiff too much. He remains a serious threat to everything we’re trying to accomplish. The truce you have with him is ending. He remains sworn to bring you back to face the tender justice of the Mystics–and myself included, if he can manage that as well. What if he kills one of us in the attempt? Either you do something to resolve this–or I will”
“No, Uncle. Don’t do anything. Please. Don’t make all of this worse. Let me try once more to persuade him. We have today. I’ll speak to him again. Khai’s reasonable, given the chance.”
Baeven narrowed his eyes. “That time is passing all too quickly. We launch at dawn, if not sooner. You know we’ve spoken about this matter before.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Baeven glared at her. “You’d better.”
45
Naero, Khai, Zhen, Tyber, Enel and Passaendra went to the open market at the Takeda-3 starport to purchase goods and supplies.
Several fixers bobbed along with them.
The new slap-together colonial starport was modular in nature, and could flex and change each day with the merchants at hand.
Naero bartered quickly and efficiently for what they needed, getting the best prices she could manage, almost without effort.
She’d been cutting deals since she could float and talk.
Naero loved being a Spacer.
She grew so quiet and so pre-occupied, that after a while, she even lost track of Khai and her friends, as they all wandered off on their own through the open market.
On a whim, Naero saw a blurt board ad and even went over to a local Galactic Zoo franchise, to see a certain rare creature that was being advertised:
THE UNICORNS OF LARELLON-7
Naero thought of Princess Iiden and Thanor-4.
At the zoo, Crowds of landers flocked around a shielded, circular, shining silver pen, filled with a herd of actual unicorns.
There were about three dozen of them, somewhere between the size of a pony and a deer, and a little like both of those creatures as well. But there they were, pretty and delicate, and most of them even had blue eyes. They were pure white, with silken manes and tails, and ivory horns set in the middle of their foreheads. They ate special feed out of peoples’ hands that was for sale, and people could even pet the skittish, hungry things and marvel at them.
And yes, they pooped unicorn turds at will. Naero laughed with joy.
Naero took her turn and even went back through the line again, studying the physiology and genetics of the creatures expertly with her biomancy. They were in fact, a true wonder.
She thought again of her friends back on Thanor-4 and the bloody, brutal war they were all probably up to their necks in by this time.
She thought of young Princess Iiden and her innocent wish on the brink of that bloody conflict, and hoped that her friends were all still alive.
If she ever survived her own ordeal, Naero would return to Thanor-4 one day, and do her best to grant the young princess her wish.
Suddenly Naero felt very homesick for her trade fleet, traveling from stop to stop in the new expansion booms, trading, negotiating, making money for her and her people–the people she loved. Her goofy, talented, quirky trading partners from all the Clans.
What a trade team they made.
If only.
What she wouldn’t give to go back to what she could not.
Truth be told, Naero hated being an outlaw.
Naero returned to the market and finished shipping the last of their supplies back to the three ships. Then she called Zhen.
“This is N. Shopping for supplies is completed. We have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Where are you guys?”
Zhen laughed, goofing off with Ty as they bantered back and forth. “Clothing store, N. Here’s the coordinates. Come over and join us. Once we’re done here, we’ll get some chow somewhere local.”
“Clothing? You don’t wear lander stuff, Z. And we can program any clothing or food we want on board the ships, any time we want.”
Zhen rolled her eyes. “Live a little, get over here and figure it out. You’re not saving up for your first ship anymore, cheapskate. Splurge for once.”
“Okay. I’m coming. Khai with you guys?”
“Nope. Call him if you want.”
“I’ll catch up to you guys first.”
She walked into the shop, quite an upscale local place really. She asked about her friends, and the clerks led her to where else–the bridal area.
Zhentisa stood up on a 3-D holo pedestal in a sheer slip over her slender form.
She tried on holographic designs for wedding dresses.
Tyber drooled and cooed over each one.
Naero was somewhat stunned. Not really a slave to any kind of fashion herself, stepping out in any way wasn’t really her thing. Not very often at least. Nytex togs were fine for her.
As far as she was concerned, she could live and die in her togs. And, maybe her dress uniform, once in a while.
The clerks waved their glowing design gloves over Zhen’s delicate body, switching and swapping holo pieces and patterns.
Naero laughed.
“White, Zhen? You’re wearing white?”
Zhen stuck her tongue out at her. “It is tradition.”
“Which one?”
“Off white,” she admitted.
“Spring Ivory,” the smiling clerk said. The lander woman actually never really stopped smiling ear-to-ear. It was kinda creepy.
“Oooh…ooh. I like that one,” Ty said.
“Better than t
he first thirty?” Zhen asked.
They quickly flipped back through their first three saves.
“You know,” Khai said suddenly, making Naero jump. He was right next to her as if by magic.
She punched him lightly. He was carrying a big trunk of something on his back. It looked very odd, even for him, but the guy was a hoss. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. You know, you can have that stuff delivered to the ship. You don’t have to lug it around.”
Khai laughed, setting his heavy shipping trunk down. Khai was incredibly strong, like Baeven and her.
“Sorry. I was just going to say, if I recall what my mother told me once, a long time ago it was considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress–before their wedding day.”
Ty and Z knitted their brows. “That sounds really dumb,” Ty said.
“Yeah,” Zhen added. “I want him here with me to help pick out our outfits.”
Ty suddenly paled. “Outfits? I was just going to wear my dress blacks.”
Zhen gaped. “No, no–you have to match me. We’re a pair. A couple.”
Ty laughed. “A couple of what? Lander fools? Oh, sorry ladies. No offense.”
“None taken, sir.” Same creepy smile.
“I’m just wearing my blacks,” Ty insisted with a lazy sigh.
Zhen pursed her lips and glared. “Only if you want me to shoot you in them. Tell him, N. The entire wedding party is going to be color-coordinated. It’ll be glacier.”
“You’d better listen to the doctor, T.”
“All right.” Ty kissed her cheek. “For you, we’ll wear any kind of stupid crap you want us to.”
Naero shielded her eyes.
Oh, Ty. You’re such, an idiot. Maybe Khai was right. Maybe it was bad luck. Or just maybe, Ty was a stupid goof.
Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Page 45
