Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (18 page)

Naero clapped her hands and laughed
.

“Oh, I need to see this play out. Somebody take those hangers and give him a matching set of practice blades. We are so doing this
.”

Once the switch was made, Naero charged in
.

Only the best swordmasters fought with two blades. She kept that in mind
.

Within seconds, Naero could tell
that Max knew his way around swords.

He defended against her almost effortlessly, using the advantages that his two weapons gave him
.

Then he pressed his own attack and drove her back
.

The fight was on
.

Then to her surprise, he kept taking the fighting in close
.

And
when they were close–he sang to her.

Even as they fought fiercely
.

Max
sang to her. And it was one of her favorite love songs of his–
Hearts Afire
.

Max’s words and his
sultry voice pierced her heart and distracted her–more than his blades ever could.

The biggest threat wasn’t his blades or his skill with
them.

Max was
clearly a consummate seducer. He made his living at it. That was the real danger.

Raw seduction and magnetism were
clearly among his best weapons.

He leaned in quickly
at one point, and brushed his lips against hers.

Naero felt herself
shudder and gasp.

She
lifted her parting lips back up toward him for but an instant.

No one had ever seduced her like this
.

Max smiled and stepped back
.

Everyone gasped and grew silent once more
.

The point o
f Max’s right sword poised above her heaving left breast.

The blade of his left sword horizontal before her uplifted
, alabaster throat.

Naero gulped in air, still feeling overheated
with an incredible surge of desire.

Max
shook his head slightly, and smiled sadly.

“Love conquers all, honey. Just like the song says. Do you yield
?”

Naero glared at him without blinking. She let her
practice swords fall.

They clattered to the ground beside her
.

“Never
.”

“I’ve beaten you
.”

She grinned back at him with her own wicked smile
.

Time for her to go after him on his terms
.

“You’ve won a single match. If you know anything about me, you would know that you will never
defeat me. I say let’s go again–another pass.”

He leaned in. “What’s in it for me?” he whispered playfully.

“A prize…” she whispered back, eyes askance.

He snorted slightly.
“What prize could you offer me to continue?”

Naero giggled
and spoke softly for his ears along. “To be yours. Tonight. All yours. In every way, Max. And here’s my secret. Forget anything else you’ve heard—I’ve never been with another. You…would be my first.”

She felt him shudder again, right up against her.
And he whispered back.

“I can’t believe this
, honey. Sure, I’ll fight for you, with everything I have. To tell you true—you’re all I’ve been dreaming about, honey. Just you.”

She kissed his ear. “Then it’s a deal
.”

She pulled away
.

Max nodded
to her.

“Choose your weapons,
N. I already have mine. I’ve never been more ready.”

He saluted her. “
And I’ve trained cutlass since they could place them in my hands as a young boy.”

Naero
smiled playfully this time. “Well then, if you use two swords, then it’s only fair that I use two as well.”

Max
grinned eagerly. “Use whatever you like. I don’t care.”

Naero went over to the practice wall and picked out her favorite pair of holoflex practice katanas.
She stroked them with affection.

“
Let me tell you a story, Max. My father and my grandfather both practiced with twin katanas. My father was so huge, he had to use specially forged tachis and nodachis for a warrior of his size. They both passed the swordarts on to me. Both of them used swordart as deep forms of meditation. Yet several times, they were each challenged to sword duels. Sometimes…to the death.”

She paused for dramatic effect
, eyeing him intently without blinking as she moved like a young female panther–all liquid muscle in tight black Nytex.

Max couldn’t take his eyes off her
.

“Neither of them ever knew defeat by another wielding swords. And though I never knew him very long, on the day I was born, my grandfather Amashin placed two small swords in my tiny hands to
grasp. And growing up, each year thereafter–even after he was gone–I received a gift of a pair of twin swords, of the finest craftsmanship.

“
Each set was a work of art, perfectly measured and balanced for my size, weight, and strength. You speak of being raised with swords? I too, have grown up with the surety of live blades in my hands–since before I could float.”

She
gripped her favorite set of twin practice katanas, held up her proud face, and saluted.

“
This is the blood I come from
.”

She sighed and strode back into the fencing ring
–utterly fearless. Her face was set, her violet eyes fierce and merry.

Naero undid her dark pony tail and let her waves of black
, shimmering geisha hair flow free.

She
loved doing battle with everything on the line.

She loved it more than she craved the breath of life
.

And she would keep her word
.

If Max beat her
fairly, she would do everything in her power to please him–all night long.

She almost giggled
.

Losing wouldn’t be
so bad either.

They fought together for over an hour, while all the other captains looked on in stunned silence at the amazing match
unfolding before them.

Until at last, Naero held both points of her blades hov
ering over Max Lii’s heaving heart.

He looked at her with heartbreak and
very real sorrow in his eyes.

He took a step forward
.

Naero inched back quickly, to spare him the intense pain of the shock charges
.

“I’ve won,” she spoke softly
, her breast heaving heavily also.

“Have you?” Max
caught his breath and swallowed hard again. “To me, honey…it seems…as if we’ve both lost.”

Naero looked down and nodded slightly. “Perhaps you are right. But for now, this is the way things
stand between us. I’m sorry, Max.”

He nodded sadly and dropped his swords
. “Day will come, Naero—even if it is not me—that a man of honor shall win past all of your defenses, and love you, and pierce your heart, the way it should be taken.”

Max thrust himself forward onto her practice blades, ignoring the pain, and pulled her
close to him.

“…as you have pierced mine
.”

He held her
close to him for a moment.

Naero gasped
.

Haisha
, how could anyone smell that good?

Then he kissed her brow
, caressed her porcelain face once, and pulled back away, acknowledging her victory.

Their comrades applauded and cheered their amazing contest
.

And that was how Naero Amashin Maeris met and
exchanged defeats with Throckstar Max Lii.

23

On her next little disguise run, Naero uncovered quite a little s
ecret of her own.

She went on board the heavy destroyer,
The
Jack
of
Spades
, posing as Jooli Logan, a replacement gunner sent there for secondary battery training.

She played the role of a spunky
, carefree redhead this time, with multiple hair tassels and braids, and again, lots of teen makeup.

In a day’s time she was getting along famously with her new mat
es–a little too much actually–and had to turn down ready offers of high-octane sex with five different males on board, and two females.

One of the guys was, in fact,
completely gorgeous, a dreamy fighter jock one deck above them. Saemar would have been so jealous.

Naero
was sorely tempted, but held fast to her plan. If she could resist the charms of a super-hot throckstar, she could hold out against this guy.

Then
some of the the crew absently showed her the black market, digital porn sites that sprang up, as fast as they were shut down on the galaxy webnets.

Vid stars,
galactic athletes, famous people–Spacers, landers...even aliens. She scanned her parent’s names on some of those lists as well.

They had been famous too
, so that made them fair game on the black market porn sites.

The various porn systems could generate any type of sexual paring that could be conceived, between any public person or entity that was ever scanned into the system
.

And then use those life-like,
3D skins to produce porn romps and fantasies for any taste, or lack thereof. Instant erotic fantasies that looked incredibly life-like. Embarrassingly so.

The detail was so real
, it was scary.

She found them
silly and humorous at first, if not sordid and outright weird. Naero had seen porn before and knew what it was.

Then she saw the list of
current Alliance officers and personnel.

For example:
There was a long running, highly rated vid of a threesome between Admiral Sleak Maeris, Admiral Nathan Joshua and Fleet Captain Zalvano.

She had to
cover her eyes and look away when someone pulled a preview up.

Strangely enough, there wasn’t
one for Fighter Squadron Commander Saemar Maeris. She wasn’t on any of the lists.

Saemar
–the one person who would have been perfect for this kind of thing.

She
probably would have felt flattered.

The
n the atomic bomb hit.

They
flashed over the special ‘Captain Naero Amashin Maeris,’ porn generation page.

O
ne of the most popular pages on all of the porn sites.

Right up there with Max Lii and other top celebs
.

There was even a new porn vid of her and Max fencing, cu
tting each other’s clothes off–and then getting bizzy in zero-G. Complete with fireworks going off all around them.

Haisha!

News apparently traveled quickly in every circle of the webnets.

She resisted the urge to check out that particular vid for herself
.

But the eye-popping fact still staggered her
.

Without even realizing such things existed
—she had been transformed into a top flight—digital porn star.

She read some of the onsite reviews
and just could not believe them.

Captain Maeris is soooo...hot!

I want to show her how its done...
all night long...

Please tell me they have a sexbot based on her
. I’ll pay anything!

I love the one where she’s directing the battle completely naked!

Haisha!
All this, and here she was still technically a virgin in real life. Damn it!

It just wasn’t fair
at all.

Even h
er digital avatars were getting more action than she was.

Haisha
; how pitiful. She still slept alone each night, by conscious choice!

How
utterly embarrassing. Anyone could buy these and watch these damn vids.

That fact made
her blood turn to icy slag and puddle down in her boots.

There had to be a way to put a stop to this
madness.

But
she knew very well that the various black market sites were insidious, and extremely difficult to combat.

Several people told her that
Colby O’Brien, a veteran gunner, actually had pics and vids of Captain Naero–real and digital–plastered all over his vidwalls like pinups, like some creepy shrine.

Stalk much?

She still had to see it for herself.

She
contacted him, and he openly invited her into his small crew quarters to have a looksee.

The guy was in his fifties. Creepy
.

Colby bragged about
his obsession. He even started watching a new, top porn vid, with ‘Captain Naero’ rewarding her bridge crew with a swinging orgy–right after a decisive naval victory.

Haisha, again
. This was just too much!

Thank the Powers they did not bother to have the real faces and scans of her
actual subordinates. And, good, they got the classified layout of her bridge totally wrong, as well. Not that anyone would care about or notice anything like that.

But still, h
ow would she ever be able to set foot on her bridge again without seeing those vile images as it was?

She winced several times and then had to look away
.

“How can you
watch this crap?” she asked Colby.

The guy was nearly drooling, his eyes riveted on the
holoscreen.

With the real thing standing right next to him, and
the moron didn’t even know, or care.

He shook his head. “Keep your opinions to yourself, kid. A goofy little inexperienced girlie like you could never compare to a smokin’ hot dish like Captain Maeris. And her aunt and her mom are almost as hot as her. But she’s the top. I can’t get her out of my head. Lots of crew can’t. That’s why her page gets so many hits,
and so much business. There’s even a new one with her and Max Lii!”

Ick.
“You’re a sick, twisted freak, Colby. You realize that, right? This isn’t real. People don’t do this kind of stuff.”

Well...Sa
emar...maybe.

Colby
grew a little irritated by her protests.

“I said mind your own business, you little twit.
You called me. You said wanted to see this–so take a good look. What the hell do you know? I bet she gets all the hot action she wants–every night–with anyone who’ll give it to her hard and fast.
Haisha!
I wish I could get transferred to her flagship, just one night. Man, all the things I could do to her to make her moan and scream my name.”

“I think you’ve lost it
, buddy. Have a real relationship, with a real woman. Get some serious help.”

This
guy was never getting anywhere near her flagship. She’d see to that. Let him live in his sick, little fantasy world–all by his lonesome.

Col
by chuckled, pweaking the controls. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I paid extra for the special, personalization package. Cost me a chunk of change, but damn–I can put a scan of myself directly in the action, right with my hot little love-bunny. I can make everyone of those guys look just like me. Just watch this.”

No thanks, mister. This was getting waaay too creepy fast
.

Jooli-Naero shot straight up to her feet
.

“Okay. I’ve seen wa
aay too much. Time for me to go...” She turned to duck out the open panel of his small crew quarters.

Her chortled and shouted after her
.

“What, afraid you might learn somethin,’ you little punk? Good riddance. Get the hell outta here, and don’t come back. Who needs a chit like you...when I have my
beautiful, little warrior goddess to dream about–every night and day?”

The panel slammed shut abruptly behind her
.

Fortunately, that weirdo was the only one she met
thus far who was actually obsessed with her. Naero rubbed her arms and felt like she needed about fifty mist showers.

The rest of the crew took some degree of
fleeting interest, as a novelty, but more or less considered those porn sites little more than a glorified gag. Nobody else took them seriously.

Thank goodness
.

Naero still blinked
.

Then she raised both hands to her mouth
.

Wait until she told Aunt Sleak.
Her aunt would flip! There had to be something the Alliance could do to suppress such webnet pirate sites.

*

Naero met with Tarim at one of his ranges for a tek session, just the two of them. Neither of them needed anymore shooting practice.

Not being a Spacer or a tek, Tarim really didn’t understand how starships actually worked.
Naero quickly set the parameters on one of her portable training holocomps that she brought along, and called up the holos of two warships above them.

Tarim already raised one hand to question her
.

Naero chuckled. “We’re not in grade school, Tarim. Just ask if you have a question. But it might be better to wait until I’m done explaining a few basic concepts. Or, if I’m in the process of making a point
.”

“All right
,” he said. “I just want you to understand from the get-go, that I’m not a tek or a scientist. I don’t really have a clue about how starships or warships actually operate.”

Naero held both of her hands palm out in front of her. “Right now
, I just want you to watch and listen. Let’s go over jump drive teknology. Without jump drives, starships would not be starships.

“
N, I guess I roughly grasp the concept of jump tek from the vidgames with Ty, but I’ll never be a tek like Tyber. Is there a simple way that you can tell me how jump tek works, and what are its advantages in warfare? I know that the higher the jump rating, the better it is. But I don’t understand why.”

Naero froze the holo ships above them
.

“Jump drives allow starships to ‘jump’ from one star system to another, within range and reason. They do this by going into,
or travelling through, and coming out of a Space-Time shortcut called ‘jump space.’ Some call it hyperspace.”

Naero cleared her throat.
“Using a jump drive to pass through the shortcut of jump space, starships can cover the vast distances of Space-Time much quicker, by folding Space-Time and travelling through the shortest space of the fold. So in essence, a jump drive is kinda like a time machine too. It saves people time by covering great distances faster, and getting people to their destinations quicker. Speeding up travel, trade, and warfare between worlds.”

The way Tarim’s eyes moved and then stared, he still looked confused
.

“So, what are jump ratings on jump drives for
?”

“Jump drives currently have ratings between 1 and 8. Theoretically, those are
the only levels of jump that are currently available and possible, with all of the knowledge, tek, and construction materials at hand. The higher the jump rating, the farther and faster a starship can travel through jump space with each jump. And it’s always possible to compute a shorter, faster jump within the range of each rating.”

Tarim rubbed his face. “So, what’s the difference between all of the ratings
?”

“Usually a difference in days, hours, or minutes. That’s why speed of advance can be crucial during war time. A navy that can jump farther and faster than another has a distinct, strategic, and tactical advantage
.”

“I’ll take your word for that. Why does a starship come out of jump space, and still have to proceed to a system, planet, or starbase and such? Why can’t it just jump right to the destination and be there
?”

Naero nodded and held up one hand. “Don’t get too far ahead of me, Tarim. There’s a good reason for that, and I’ll get to it. But let’s finish discussing jump drives. You started this. I want you to understand these concepts first. Higher rated jump drives are also more accurate and precise in their jump calculations, and can bring starships out of jump space, and back into regular, or standard Space-Time, closer to the target system, planet, or destination. Yet still within a safe distance
.”