Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit

by Mason Elliott

  What did it all mean? She wasn’t nuts enough yet?

  Now she knew for certain she needed serious help.

  And to do some serious 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. His female counterpart shifted shape from one fantastic creature to another.

  When she suddenly made out their voices, she could sense that an intense debate had been doing 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.”

  “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 studied the mysterious disappearance of Janosha, 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.

  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-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-wh
ite 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 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 energy 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!

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  About the Author

  Mason Elliott grew up loving Science Fiction and Fantasy in all of their myriad forms. That love has transferred into his dedicated writing. Like most writers he lives a Spartan lifestyle and yearns to devote his life even more to his writing, and someday retire on the Pacific coast. So be a fan, buy his stuff and enjoy!

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First I would like to dedicate this book to all of my family, friends, and readers who have supported and believed in me for so long and into the future.

  Again, none of this would be possible without my editor Jennifer Cummings, the publishing board, and publicist Josh Marten. Special thanks to all of my Beta readers, especially Lois, my bookseller buddy and fan. And as always, constant thanks to my online writing group, my fellow toilers in the salt mines. We will always back each other up.