On the second pass, they knocked out four hundred and eighty-one bigs, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers.
No military force could withstand such horrendous losses.
The enemy began to form up and attempted to escape in all directions. In their panic, some even collided with each other and were mutually vaporized.
“Press all attacks with extreme prejudice,” Naero commanded. “Send the foe down in flames.” The death strike kept twisting around the enemy fleets like a razor chain of flaming destruction.”
Naero drew her sword and clenched her fists, hurling defiance at the foe and broadcasting her holo and its message to every ship in the Alliance.
“Drive on, valiant warriors! Destroy these scum to the last,” Naero yelled, and then snarled behind clenched teeth. “We’re sending a warning to these filth who think that they can take our worlds and massacre our children! These are Alliance systems and Alliance stars, and they will shine free in the black once more. Let the destroyers send their numbers, and their cowards, and their slaves to fall before the might of our will and the ferocity of our guns! Those who know freedom shall always rise up against vermin such as these. Death to the invaders! This is our galaxy!”
Cheering erupted and roared out from the Alliance fleets at their first major victory against the ruthless foe, shouted by countless voices in all of their languages.
“Death. Death. Death!”
“Death to the invaders!”
Naero lifted her head as her fleets swept forward on the attack. Nothing lived upon Brattemul-7. All was flame and wrath and death.
“So be it,” she whispered, sheathing her sword at last.
This was the war that these invaders had forced upon them all.
Liberty, or Death.
23
Naero and her crews did not celebrate. They knew better. One battle did not win any war, and these were canny, unrelenting foes who thought and fought for the long term. They were beyond fanatical, and never gave up, and they always found a way to keep coming at their targets.
The vile spirits of the long dead G’lothc had perished eons before, in a terrible war spread over numerous galaxies. They followed a sick, twisted dream of destroying all life in the universe. So strong, in fact, that even after death these fell beings still would not let go of the universe they infected. They clung to the very edge of oblivion itself, yearning and scheming only to infest the universe with their lethal disease once more.
They sought host bodies to possess, both temporary and permanent, in order through which to work their dark will.
The Alliance shifted into a heavy defensive mode for the time being, alert for any new or old tricks their enemies might try. Naero warned all of the other sentient leaders.
“Every time we have defeated them, they have come back even stronger, and with something more destructive. We must remain vigilant and continue to advance and push forward with all of our plans. We won’t be able to surprise them in the same way twice. They would counter our efforts and our new strategies and be ready for us next time. We must continue to adapt and change as well.”
Still no word on the location of poor Naero-3, since the enemy landed with her on Naggoth. The energy levels on that Dakkur homeworld were so messed up, that nothing could be detected or tracked near the surface.
Although, if she left Naggoth, Naero, Jia, Alala, and Ty had conspired to devise a way to track her now. Or at least the energies of Naero’s child.
If the enemy tried to take Naero-3 somewhere else, now they could follow that very unique Cosmic energy signature, unlike anything in the known universe.
The other sentient leaders still wished to thank Naero and her officers. At an alliance unity banquet, held with an immense WebBall arena, their new allies had a gift for the Spacers.
Hundreds of orphaned children from the four races: Mechan, Lish, Sa-shom, and Amavar, formed a choir and sang for the evening’s entertainment. The soloists of the four races sang with voices that were heartstoppingly lovely. Even the spider-like Lish were accomplished singers.
Then Naero was forced to rise and draw her sword, and salute at attention, and every officer with her.
When the children sang the first verse of The Ballad of the Omaria, and the rousing chorus.
Janner suddenly cut in with a telepathic high alert.
“Naero, prepare for an enemy phaze attack. Three hundred Ejjai suicide strikers. They slipped through somehow and are penetrating the hull of the arena even now. We’re intercepting as many as we can.”
Naero sent out her own telepathic call, phazed, and shot up into the air to do battle as the enemy strikers came into view.
Strike force Shetanna–phaze and neutralize these murderous assholes!
Threescore Shetannas, in full combat gear, rose up with her in formation and transfixed the Ejjai on twisting, slicing, exploding blades of scarlet Cosmic energy. Just as the enemy was trying to phaze in and attack. Shetanna Force incinerated the attackers in mid-air, and shielded the crowd below in layered spheres of protective energy.
The children mistook it all for fireworks and a pretty light show display. They laughed and clapped.
The adults all knew better–that a concerted attempt on their lives had just been thwarted, by Admiral Naero and those amazing, deadly clones of hers with the twin red swords.
And they had all done so in the space of a single breath.
Naero ordered the evening’s diversions to continue, while extra care was taken to adjust their systems to prevent such and attack from getting that close to them again.
She gave all of the details they had thus far to the Alliance leaders.
“I told you that we would not have long to wait,” Naero reminded them all. “This is a foe who will keep searching for ways to strike at us and take us down, any way that they can. The only way to stop them is to destroy them. And that is exactly what we are going to do. World by world. Fleet by fleet. And one by one.”
From that day forward, Naero and her leaders continued to have multiple planning and training sessions with all Alliance troops. From her initial strategic analysis, some of their ways of operating and fighting complimented each other, while others conflicted and caused problems in communications, operations, logistics, and execution of tactical efforts.
The Lish and the Sa’shom could make better use of advanced gravitics.
They needed to sort these issues out and continue to find the most efficient and effective ways to work and fight together.
Surprisingly, it was the Lish and the Sa’shom who were more flexible in trying new things. While the Mechans and especially the blockheaded Amavar–as Naero referred to them–who needed to be convinced that there was more than one way to do things. Such had to be proven to them, over and over again, before they would agree to try out new procedures.
That continued to be a hold up.
After several such instances, Naero and her officers held a frank meeting with the Mechan and Amavar leaderships. Naero framed it all under the umbrella of efficiency and unacceptable and dangerous, as well as needless–delay.
Efficiency was like a magical and holy word to the Mechans and the workaholic Amavar. Finally she was able to get them to accept the wisdom of implementing new ways of doing things much faster.
They held war games up in the black, and down on planetary surfaces in multiple environments.
The Lish had a problem with the concept of a practice conflict, without causing injury. But their fierceness in battle was unmatched and unquestioned. All of the races had their strengths and weaknesses.
The Amavar were–surprise–too unyielding and unwilling to adjust their battle plans on the fly, according to the shift and flow of actual combat and events. And as the records of their actions revealed, if a battle did not go exactly their way or conform to what they expected–they were quickly in trouble.
As Naero put it, in the old vernacular–they needed to learn to wing it–to make it u
p as they went along.
Mechans had similar problems involving logic. They were fierce and coldly mathematical in their operations. Anything that was illogical or counter-intuitive, or simply strange, confused them. And similar to the Amavar in some ways, they did not deal well with surprise attacks and tricks.
First, the Spacers had to help the Mechans not only to simply respond to surprises, but to do so without stopping to try to understand them. That was irrelevant and wasted time. And then beyond mere responding to surprises, the next phaze involved even anticipating such events and learning to expect or even predict the possibility of their occurrence.
In essence, they had to learn to adapt and be ready to respond to various possibilities–no matter what happened. To be prepared for the unknown and the unexpected in general.
The Sa’shom could be overly emotional and sometimes charged in all at once, when they should remain more disciplined and tactical.
And the Spacers were getting far too overconfident. This was an enemy that still had serious tek advantages on them and eventually, that was going to bite them in the ass, and hard.
She needed to try to make progress with the KDM, but she was, frankly, too tired and to torn in several directions to try to find her harmonious, Cosmic center.
Khai and her officers, and even Trudi Cheyenne, her personal physician finally agreed on one thing.
Admiral Naero Amashin Maeris needed a break, some time to relax, and a good night’s sleep. Perhaps even two or three. She had been driving herself hard, ever since they arrived in the Gamma Quadrant.
Unofficially, Khai assumed control of the situation. They took The Flying Dagger out for spin, only protected by several hundred Alliance fleets within a moment’s notice, and secretly accompanied by The Dark Star and The Black Spot.
Baeven and Crew were still on the hunt, trying to devise a way to crack fortress Naggoth.
Khai insisted that they sleep in the next day. For once, Naero did not argue.
Sleeping in meant that they were up by seven bells.
Naero awoke smelling fragrant, floral-scented steam in the air.
Khai surprised her by programming the nanofloor into a shallow, lighted hot spa. He was already in it, dozing himself, watching her sleep and just waiting for her to awaken.
When they were together, their general rule was that neither of them wore anything. They both enjoyed it that way. Naero sometimes clothed herself–barely–in filmy little things to tease Khai with. But he ended up stripping them off of her anyway. He always followed her intently with his eyes and he smiled at her when they were alone, taking great pleasure in everything she did, every move that she made.
“Why do you look at me the way you do?” She asked him, more than once.
He would always grin and say something like, “Because I like the way you look back at me with those killer violet eyes of yours. It all makes both of us happy.”
He was right. She would always smile. Sometimes she just moved around the room for him, stretching and flexing, going about her business, doing the simplest of things. Khai would always sigh and continue to smile and watch like a predator.
In the end, he always came to her.
Unless she grew tired of their little game and went to him first, all breathless and ready to feel his hands upon her. Khai against her body was an extremely good and luscious thing indeed.
Sometimes it was just nice to be a couple.
Naero brushed her long black hair back and wiped the drool from her face, and the crystalized sleepies out of her eyes.
“Join me in the water,” Khai said with a deep, tempting sigh, closing his eyes for a few moments more. “The warm water is heavenly…magical. And…I have a surprise for you.”
Naero snorted, but with a wide grin. “Haisha…I’ve heard that one before. Promises, promises, my love.”
Khai chuckled. “Suit yourself.”
Naero almost raced from their nanobed and dove at him with a giant splash to startle him.
“I just had it installed for you,” Khai added.
Now she was curious. “Installed?” Not what she had been thinking about at all. “What are you up to, my beloved one?”
“I know your wants and your needs, my heart.”
“Oh, do you?” she said. She came straight at him, flinging her long, glistening hair back behind her like a cape, stepping slowly into the steaming, lighted water, and eventually stretching out and placing her head on Khai’s broad chest as she slid in close up against him.
His powerful green arm encircled her petite form and gently drew her closer.
When he bent his head to smile at her with those golden eyes of his, Naero was lost. She surged up out of the water and kissed him, for a very long time.
Khai told her once that his wish was to have a single day to themselves to do nothing but kiss each other, in every way that he could imagine and devise. Naero sighed. What a luxury that would be.
After they broke and caught their breath, Naero took his handsome green face into her hands.
“There are no words, in all the languages ever created, to say how much I love you Khai.”
Khai chuckled slightly. “Perhaps such things cannot be proven by words alone,” he told her.
She sensed him give a teknomancy command.
Part of her inner hull wall dissolved.
Naero swallowed her own breath and was speechless.
She nearly choked.
Behind the nanoveil stood a brightly lit, hi-tek lix vending machine for Jett soda.
Naero broke down with her face buried in her hands and wept.
They made good use of that Jett machine about an hour and a half later, still breathing hard, sitting back into the hot spa and slugging down tasty, frosty cold Jett.
Naero had even tossed a couple of borbbles into the spacious bathroom for Ra. He had developed a fondness for the lix as well, and like to watch vids on a screen in there. He thought them great fun.
She returned to the spa and sat next to Khai in the fragrant warm water, enjoying herself immensely. “Well that takes care of two very human needs, and now that I’m no longer thirsty, either, I am still ravenous. How about you, Khai?
“I think I could out-eat Ra about now. What do you have in mind?”
Naero grinned. “How about a late breakfast with some of my crew?”
Khai nodded. “Excellent. And it’s not that late. What does the Admiral have in mind from the galley?”
“Hell, I was going to whip up something myself.”
“Even better. I love it when you cook. Are we talking brunch?”
“More like an old-fashioned Terran breakfast. You can eat that any time of the day. Come on, let’s get to it!”
She jumped out of the water and headed toward the door.
Khai laughed and called after her. “Uh, N… Clothes? I mean–I don’t mind, if your crew doesn’t.”
Naero laughed, teknomancing nano clothing for them both. “No, I don’t think my crew is quite ready for that. Although I’ve heard of a few merchant ships that basically do serve on board naked, with nothing but a nanobelt, just in case.”
Ra followed them out to the galley, where Eugene Blooding now ran the kitchen. His former boss, Culinary Chief Specialist First Class Tolen Kothari was now Master Chef on board The Holy Ghost, her flagship.
Eugene and his assistant, Ketumi Negawa from Clan Kothari, kept their small staff busy.
They hugged Naero and Khai and greeted Ra warmly. Naero’s mantid bodyguard was still new to her crew and wasn’t exactly seen as huggable yet by everyone, except Naero.
The admiral took over the mess kitchen, but Eugene and his people assisted.
First she got some red yamtatoes frying, hash brown style. Then she slow cooked a big pan of Spum strips and Huradian thick bacon strips, turning them as needed until they were just the right kind of crispy. Then big Phoradi goose eggs that were as big as her fist and green inside. Khai would enjoy eating food
the same color as he was.
She fried those big, glorious eggs over easy and got the bright green yolks just right, transferring them in batches to the warmers. Eugene and Ketumi made a couple of loaves of Laraldan sourdough bread into toast, with Veluvian butter cream spread. They had Churtan blue milk and whiteberry juice from Govania-5.
The last batch of Spum and bacon were finally ready, along with the yamtatoes.
Time to eat.
They had enough for about fifteen people. Eugene and Ketumi ate with them first, and then went into the kitchen to make another larger batch of those same menu items for the rest of the crew for brunch.
Naero and Khai stuffed themselves. Ra did his best to eat as much as them and still hold back. He probably could have eaten everything edible in the galley if they let him.
Enel Maeris and Surina Marshall quickly joined them, and soon they were all feasting and laughing.
Rina was absolutely radiant, with her hyperglam, vidstar looks, her hand and arm looped in with handsome Enel’s. Enel had the look of a very satisfied and happy man.
The couple wanted to announce their engagement to Naero, before they told the rest of the crew. Everyone else probably wondered why it all took so long, since the two of them had been inseparable and so besotted with each other for so long. Congrats went back and forth, and soon everyone was in the know.
Then Rendar Nelson, and Passaendra Wild, Piper Fae, Kimbel Allen, Lakara Donovan and Trudi Cheyenne joined the brunch party. Captain Tyber arrived, and brought little Gallan with him. The dark-haired infant was just starting to be a toddler now.
Aunt Naero got him from Ty and did not let go, keeping Gallan happily on her lap while she and Khai laughed and played with him and fed him whatever he wanted. He really liked Spum and the yamtatoes. They got him a straw that he could sip whiteberry juice out of. The kid had an appetite, just like his namesake.
Naero kept feeling twinges of sadness about her and Khai’s missing child. Yet this was a happy time, even though Naero kept feeling guilty and those sad twinges of loss and uncertainty. Only Khai seemed to guess her true feelings, and gave her a comforting squeeze every now and then.
Naero's War: The Citation Series 3: Naero's Trial Page 20
