Naero and her people could only retreat, fight to get away, and hide once again. Each time they fought, the enemy wore them down and they lost more people doing so.
Just in the past two weeks they lost all of their transports but one, and The Black Spot. They hid those ships in desperation and left them behind, concealed underground for a last ditch attempt to escape once Naggoth came back in sync with the galaxy’s main Time flow. They had also lost forty-one other troops, dragged down and slain by the millions of enemies who dogged their steps.
The enemy confounded the Allies by possessing some new, infernal way to track and ferret their exact location out. Naero tried to figure out just what it was. At first, when they still had their few ships, Naero worried that they were tracking them by the residual powercore signature echoes.
That was how the Alliance was able to still track enemy cloaked and phazed ships, vehicles, and troops. But that wasn’t it this time. The enemy was using something completely different to discover their locations, even without the ships. And it seemed to be taking about half a day for them to pinpoint Naero and company’s whereabouts.
Both Naero and Jan tried to briefly go into the Astral Plane to see if perhaps somehow the enemy had placed an astral marker on one or both of them. But they were still blocked from entering the Astral Plane. They could not learn anything.
Naero wished that she had placed such a marker in Naero-3, but there hadn’t been time during her trial and the aftermath. And for some reason, this time dilation field the enemy was using also messed up her use of the astral mind crystals from Khai’s father’s people, the Oden.
So, how did the enemy keep finding them?
Nothing else was suspect. They checked for and found no evidence of traitors in their midst. It was something the enemy was capable of that they were not. No one was possessed, even without their knowledge. Perhaps it was something new.
She feared that it had to be something with her and Jan, and possibly Ra. They were the only beings on the planet who could use Cosmic energy. Perhaps that was how the enemy tracked them.
Janner said that Danner wasn’t on world with them; he would know if their insane brother was anywhere near them. At least they caught a break there.
Yet Naero had a general sense of several other powerful sources of Cosmic energy on Naggoth. After a while, Jan could sense them too. But neither she nor Jan could pinpoint where or determine just what they were.
When there was time, Naero made certain that all of her troops knew what they were up against. She described what the Dakkur and their minions were like and how they fought.
But they had yet to encounter the Dakkur queens, who were said to me huge, much larger than the Dakkur Champions–that could be up to fifteen meters in length. And a king Dakkur was rumored to be even larger yet. Both the queen and king Dakkur were also said to be able to use both psyonics and Cosmic energy attacks.
Those creatures might have innate abilities allowing them to track down and pinpoint other beings like herself, Jan, and Ra who also used Cosmic powers. But to Naero’s knowledge, only her Uncle Baeven and Ra’s father, Prince Gaviok, had ever fought and vanquished Dakkur queens or a king.
And Baeven said that that had been the hardest, closest battle he had ever fought single-handed in his entire life.
But at least Naero knew that such could be done. The enemy were fierce, but not invincible. She tried to encourage her people with the valiant story of how Baeven and the new High Mystic Master Gaviok had once been stranded on just such a Dakkur Homeworld, and vanquished the enemy all by themselves.
“It may come to that,” Ra said.
“I hope it doesn’t,” Naero told him. “All we have to do is stay one step ahead of them. If we can survive a year, I’m sure we’ll be able to escape, either in our ships, or by capturing one from the enemy. And I’m guessing that the rest of the Alliance isn’t going to sit on their hands during that month. They’ll be ready to come help us when the time comes.”
“Naero,” Jan said. “I think Ra is right. I don’t think we can make it just by constantly hiding out and staying on the run. They’ll bottle us all up at some point. We’ll make a mistake and we won’t be able to get away.”
Ra smiled wide as only a mantid could. “If we are going to die any way, I think we should stop focus on running and hiding. We should take the fight to our foes. At least we can take down large numbers of them with us along the way.”
Naero chuckled. “Haisha…1,378 troops, against a planet of millions?”
Jan grinned. “Sounds like good odds to me. What do we have to lose, N? If we go on the offensive, we can disrupt and upset them, keep them guessing, and even deplete and wear them down. And just think, every day you can make more Shetannas. How many can you make a day now?”
“Nine, on a good day.”
Jan jumped to his feet, tossing his hands in the air. “Do the math. That’s over 3,000 deadly replicants with your Cosmic abilities within a year’s time. More than twice our forces now. We can be getting stronger each day, while the enemy will be getting weaker.”
Naero seriously began to consider that option. In a way, Jan and Ra were right. She had just been focusing on keeping them all alive for an entire year, by avoiding combat whenever they could.
And that did not seem to be working very well.
“All right,” Naero said. “But we still can’t decide this matter on our own, just the three of us. We should put it to the troops. And in either case, we need to find out how the enemy keeps finding us and if there is a way to prevent that.”
Jan put his hands on his hips. “Leave it to me and Ra. We’ll speak to the officers and the troops and see what they want to do. You need to get some rest, Naero. Every time you transport us away from another enemy attack, I know it takes a lot out of you. You can’t afford to get run down. We’ll speak with our forces and decide the matter together, after you have slept.”
Naero nodded in agreement. Everything Jan said was correct. If she had to be stranded on a deathtrap world, at least she had her brothers Jan and Ra with her.
She could die happily fighting side-by-side with them, if it came down to that.
But she still wished to save as many of her people as she could.
It wasn’t their fault that they were trapped here. They had followed her lead without question and they still had faith in her, even with all that had happened.
It was still up to her to find a way out of all of this mess, for as many of them as she could. But she could also see the logic to Jan and Ra’s plan. They were all warriors, and even though the odds were beyond counting, fighting was better than slinking, hiding, and constantly running.
Naero had learned that she could rest, regenerate, and even sleep while she also meditated, and in her dream state she walked the labyrinth of the KDM, with Orean, her Kexxian sister and constant guide.
When she was deeply immersed within the dream state she could push her way, with effort, into the nodes or storehouses of Kexxian knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes she would simply thrust her head in, up to her neck, into the confusing, swirling maelstrom of raw data. Ocean after ocean of intense, concentrated knowledge, concepts, and ideas.
She always started with the smallest, but most potent and dangerous Kexxian obelisk of knowledge–the one she had originally chosen and been drawn to from the very first–the node of music.
As she had once discovered from her time among the Tua, so many of the sentient races had been children nurtured by the Kexx in their formative beginnings.
The songs the gentle Tua had sung were derivative or even exact copies of Kexxian songs, passed on with little variation.
Naero recalled those tunes and their Mystical words from happier days upon lost Janosha, when her adoptive family had still lived and breathed, sustaining and passing on their simple ways.
When she was in the labyrinth now she found that it helped her to hum or even mouth those old tunes and songs. And wh
en she did so, she felt and became more at one with the wisdom and power of the ancient Kexx. And her sister Orean would sing beside her as they went about.
Just as the Tua began each day, Naero started each session with the song of greeting–of welcoming and beginning.
Sha nii hah, ahluu-nii-ha-ah! Mah nah-hii, jah ah-loh, ah-dii!
And at their voices, all of the vast nodes of the KDM would glow with might and enlightenment, and thrum with the resonance of the Cosmic Harmony.
They came full circle, back to the node of music, and Orean held out her hand. “Come with me, into the source of music once again.”
Naero shook her head. “We can’t bother with that again, sister. Come, you must help me gain understanding. Show me where to look. I need to learn more about the Dakkur and how they keep locating and attacking us. That is the knowledge that I really need to find this day.”
Orean stopped and held out her hand. “Come with me, Naero. I will teach you a new song this day. It is simple enough, but yet it can be one of the most difficult of them all to perceive and use properly.”
A new song? The Tua had only taught her nine songs in all, the nine songs of the day, and for all life. A tenth song? What was this song and what would it impart?
“Tell me the name of this new song, sister,” Naero said, taking Orean’s hand.
“It is called The Song of Knowing. And as I told you, and you seldom listen hard enough–it is easy to learn, and yet extremely difficult to master.”
Naero shrugged. “Why should that be any different than the rest of all of this?”
Orean stopped, clapped her hands, and burst out laughing. “See, you are learning so much, even if you do not know it yet.”
As usual, when Orean said stuff like that it simply made Naero feel like a complete moron. “What did I say? What have I learned? You know you drive me crazy when you do that.”
Orean smiled and took her hand once more. “Come, I will teach you the song’s words within.”
They walked into the small node with much less effort this time, through the walls and into the expanse within. None of the nodes had windows or doors of any kind. One had to pass inside of them by force of will, but yet without effort.
Suddenly Naero gasped, noticing for the first time that outside the node had been the size of a closet. While within it was nearly limitless in its expanse.
Even her first experience with the Astral Plane had not struck her so.
Orean began to sing, and Naero tried to commit the words to her memory.
Ansha dii, karandu hali, ahlago shantadu vellah, janastu lanado shanatu!
Orean sang it thrice–three times while they were immersed in the ocean of the knowledge of songs and all music.
Naero felt as if she were in some kind of trance. She spoke, but with great effort.
“Why is it called the song of knowing?” she asked.
Orean did not answer her. Instead, she walked around and passed through Naero like a ghost and kept walking a few steps. She kept her her back turned to Naero and looked straight ahead, holding up both of her arms. “Now you sing the words. Sing them three times as did I, and this time–close your eyes and pass through me.”
Naero did not question any longer. She closed her eyes, and sang the words three times, taking a step forward each time as she did.
Ansha dii, karandu hali, ahlago shantadu vellah, janastu lanado shanatu!
As she sang the words the third time she stepped through Orean. It was as if she felt something close around her.
She waited, eyes still closed, holding out her arms, despite how very odd and strange she felt.
“What do I do now, sister?”
Then she clasped her hands over her mouth and felt her face.
Naero spoke with Orean’s voice.
And moved within the body of her Kexxian sister.
Naero became a Kexx, and only in that form was she able to begin to perceive who and what the Kexx were–and what their vast knowledge was.
It was a precious gift to all of the universe and beyond.
It was knowing. And the simple words of the song were indeed profoundly true.
In an instant, she saw the Dakkur in all their terrible power and fury. Like their dread, dark masters, they had chosen the path of destruction. They had indeed grown very great and terrible.
As Naero feared, there was no way to escape from the keen perceptions of her foes.
The Dakkur would continue to pursue and hunt down the Allies to the death.
Yet she did discover a way to confound them.
Then Naero and her people could go on the offensive, and take the fight to their enemies.
Whether they would prevail or not against so many powerful foes was not certain. Yet if they were trapped on the planet with the enemy, the reverse was also true.
27
Naero opened her eyes and immediately stared at her arms and rubbed them with her hands.
Part of her thought to see green scales and lizard flesh, and dexterous clawed hands, delicate and yet strong. But she was only Orean inside the KDM itself, in her mind. Outside of that experience, she still retained her own form.
Yet another key, another secret that unlocked her advancing understanding.
Only a Kexx could even begin to perceive their intricate and expansive body of knowledge. To learn anything further from them, she needed to become one of them.
Naero sighed. So much knowledge. So very much. It always seemed as if she were stuck in beginnings–going from one to the next. Always beginning, never ending. But perhaps that was best. Beginnings went on. Beginnings started something and kept going.
An Old Earth saying once said to count your blessings.
Endings did not go on. They just ended.
Jan came to her. She heard alarm in his voice. “Naero, I’m sorry to bother you, but the enemy has discovered our hiding place once more. And they’re getting better and faster at finding it each time that they do.”
Naero nodded. “I understand, Jan. We can’t stop them, but I think there is a way that we can confuse them and throw them off.”
Jan blinked and raised both eyebrows. “That’s great, sib. Let’s try it. They’ll break through and attack us again in less than two hours.”
“Get everyone ready to bug out. Here’s what we do.” Jan leaned in to listen, right as Naero remembered something else.
“Wait. Jan, what did the troops decide?”
Her brother grinned. “What do you think? If they’re all going to die anyway, at least they want to go out fighting!”
She nodded again. “Good. I feel the same way now.”
They fled once more, within the hour, before the foe could fall upon them again.
The tyrants of the Dakkur were tracking them by their Cosmic signatures. There was no way to conceal that.
Yet those same signatures could mimicked, and duplicated many times over.
Naero sent out her replicants, over a hundred of them now, each one following her instructions.
She and Jan also went out.
Each of them found a pocket beneath the hardest bedrock of the planet’s crust, kilometers thick. There they left behind a flux wave of Cosmic energy, trapped within an infinite, self-replicating loop.
Each decoy would last for several weeks. And each day, or every few days as needed, the Allies could make a hundred more decoys. They would make whatever number it took to keep the foe confused as to their real whereabouts.
Within a week the enemy would be on a wild goose chase, pursuing hundreds of decoy signatures, never knowing which one was real.
Let them bore holes into the planet until it resembled a ball of spotted cheese.
And if they ever did get too close, the Allies could still flee to another. Sometimes the Allies even set traps of water, gas, magma pockets, or even explosives.
Naero could create more replicants each day.
Now they had a chance.
Now they
had a way to outlast and avoid the foe. And that gave Naero and the Allies the power to pick and choose when and where they would engage the enemy.
They began to make plans. They analyzed the fixernets to determine where they should strike at the enemy first. Much of the enemy’s defenses were still shielded and jammed on all four continents: Shurog, Kolf, Gronet, and Uldrun.
As the data continued to pour in and they actually had a chance to analyze it, several things became very clear.
The enemy had many more forces on world that even Naero and their original intelligence had expected. The rulers of Naggoth had packed it full of armies.
“I’m having second thoughts about all of this,” Naero said. “We would need several hi-tek armies just to begin to take all of these forces on.”
Unexpectedly, Ra spoke up. “Naero. I have waited to say this, now that we know more about what we’re up against. If you recall, long ago, Naggoth was once one of the primary homeworlds of the Ku-Shai. Our people here were wiped out and supplanted by these foes. We have never forgotten that loss; Allondatharru lives in our legends and our memories.
“My father wanted me to eventually take this world back for our people, once it could be liberated by the Alliance Navies. But now that we are trapped here on this planet, and we have no choice, why don’t we go for it?”
Naero blinked at and then stared at the mantid prince. What was he yammering about? “Ra, I don’t understand. Go for what?”
“Taking over the planet. The enemy is limited to the forces they have on this world. For the next year, they can’t call in any help, either.”
Naero looked around. “And neither can we, Ra. Look, our current estimates are that the enemy have twelve billion forces on this planet: not population–that’s troops. And that number keeps growing. How can we possibly match that?”
Ra grinned. “I admit it’s not optimum, but I still have have an entire Shai colony in stasis with me, ready take back our lost homeworld.”
Naero blinked again. “Say what?”
Naero's War: The Citation Series 3: Naero's Trial Page 23
