Naero's War: The Citation Series 3: Naero's Trial (10 page)

“Admiral Maeris. You have your orders. The details will unfold. Serve the Clans and the Alliance of the Alpha Quadrant with honor and distinction. Defend our freedoms. Death to those who would bring harm to us.”

“What is my command, sir?”

“We asked for one hundred fleets to follow Naero Amashin Maeris into battle in the Gamma Quadrant,” Admiral Allen noted.

“An impressive battle group to be sure, sir,” Naero said. “I am honored. Clan Maeris is honored.”

“You should be, Maeris. We asked for a hundred fleet captains to go into the unknown. Ten thousand responded–almost the entire Spacer Naval leadership–and fought for the honor and the right to serve under your blade. Do not let them down.”

Naero saluted. “Death shall take me first, sir.”

Grand Admiral Micah Allen shook her hand once more and saluted her back. “Dismissed. See to your command. The fleets have assembled and went through the refit first. When will you depart?”

“Tomorrow, sir.”

“Fight well, Admiral Maeris.”

“They shall sing songs of our deeds across the stars, sir.”

As if her life was not complicated enough.

Now she even had more to do.

She returned to her flagship to inform her people of the news and say her goodbyes.

Her entire crew offered to serve with her on her flagship crew and staff. Naero accepted.
The Flying Dagger
would become her transport shuttle, as needed, as would
The Black Spot. The Dark Star
would serve with her scouting and Intel contingent.

Baeven and
The Shadow Fox
were already waiting for them.

Jan would serve with her as part of her command staff. Naero wasted no time recruiting old friends and former allies. She would inform Jan during dinner. Let him bring his wives if they all wished.

The next thing she did was create six, near-perfect replicants, Naero-4 through Naero-9. Six such full-size replicants was all that she could manage each day without exhausting herself.

Then she reached into a shielded chest that Khai had brought to her from his father’s people, the Oden.

Inside were hundreds of astral crystals, so that she and her replicants could all stay in contact with each other. She gave them all one. Naero wished now that she had had them to give to Naero-2 and Naero-3, but that was hindsight.

She sent Naero-4 to serve and advise her trade fleet with Admiral–and traveling throckstar–Max Lii and his young family. Naero-5 would be her tactical and strategic double on her flagship. Naero-6 would serve with Baeven on
The Star Fox
. Naero-7 would serve with Jan on
The Black Spot
, once Naero made him the captain. Naero-8 would serve with Klyne at Intel and the Navy, and Naero-9 would stay behind, and serve with the Mystics as both a Prime adept and an instructor.

Naero did not give her replicants much choice in these matters. She pweaked and conditioned their minds to eagerly want to serve in these capacities. But otherwise, they were free to seek out their own happiness and their own lives if they wanted them badly enough. She did not stand in the way of that.

Since the original Naero could not be everywhere at once, her replicants could serve with distinction in her place, doing many of the things that she was capable of.

It might be a bit unnerving, but they were basically her, and part of her, and if Naero shared their thoughts together, they would share all of their experiences as well, and remain a close part of each other.

If any of her replicants were destroyed, their essences, their part of her Lifespark that she shared with them, would return to her, and she would know what had happened to them.

Yet another surprise awaited her with High Master Tree and High Master Jo, when she arrived to present Naero-9 to assist them.

12

Master Tree announced, “Welcome the new High Master of the Chaos Order, Gaviok of the Shai!”

Everyone applauded, even Naero. High Master Gaviok came forward, and High Master Tree and High Master Jo parted to either side of him. Gaviok maintained his normal form, a rather short mantid about 1.42 meters tall, but he pulsed scarlet with Chaos energy.

Master Jo continued. “Now that the crisis is over, any of the civilians who wish to leave Kalathar and relocate to other nearby systems will be paid to do so, and quite handsomely. We believe that most will choose to do so. Those who do stubbornly refuse to leave must accept living under the Time dilation effects that will take place on the planet, as it is transformed into the new Chaos Order training world. They will naturally age faster at periodic times. Further incentive to relocate.”

High Master Gaviok spoke for the first time that day. “Kalathar has naturally higher levels of Chaos force energy in the Cosmic spectrum range. Once we unleash those levels further, we will sync the planet’s flows with its star, and use those Cosmic flows to implement the Time Dilation Cycles, as the Mystics have done on Taeha and Oorrii. Once Kalathar is up and running, the stepped up programs to train and produce more Mystics will continue, on schedule. Within a decade, we will have more High Masters, more masters, and many more adepts–and not only from Spacers–but from every sentient race in the Alpha Quadrant willing to join the Alliance and train adepts.”

Much cheering and applause followed that.

Master Tree and Master Jo called for another welcoming round of applause for Master Gaviok.

A celebration began thereafter, and everyone began to mingle.

Naero gasped for joy, spotting her good friends, the Changs: Chang Fu-han and Chang Lijuan. She shouted out to them, running straight at them with Naero-9 in tow, still hooded and cloaked. “Fu! Li!”

Naero hugged her two friends, nearly knocking them on their backs. They hugged her closely, and soon all three of them were laughing and talking all at once.

“Wait, wait,” Naero said. “I must ask. Have you made it back to Thanor-4? How are our good friends there?”

The Changs both nodded sadly.

Then they smiled at each other slyly.

“My younger sister and I have a long overdue leave coming up very soon,” Chang Fu-han said.

“Six months,” Chang Li-Juan noted. “Guess where we intend to go?”

Naero scrambled to pull Oden astral crystals out of her pouch and spread them around. “Please, track down Naero-2 somehow and give her one of these astral crystals. Both of you take one as well. We can stay in touch on the Astral Plane with them when we sleep.”

Both of the sisters stared at Naero. “Sure thing, N,” Chang Fu-han said, tucking the devices away.

“Naero,” Chang Lijuan asked. “You speak as if you were going away. What is happening?”

The announcement was already spreading. Naero told them about her promotion to Strike Force Admiral, to command the Navy’s new Battle Group Expedition to the Gamma Quadrant.

They congratulated her, even as the three High Masters came over to them.

Chang Fu-han pointed to the mysterious cloaked figure following behind Naero. “Who’s your secretive friend, N?”

The three High Masters stood before them. Naero and the Changs bowed their heads, leading with their eyes, in deference and respect.

Naero announced, “This is Naero-9, my replicant who will work with the Mystics to help train. I assign her to Master Jo.”

Naero-9 removed her hood and stepped forward, smiling.

She looked just like Naero, except for a much shorter hairstyle; in this case, a bob of sleek black hair up off the shoulders.

“To help tell us all apart,” Naero said, “all of my replicants have chosen a different hairstyle on their own.”

Naero-9 held out her right hand. “Call me Naero, Maeris, N., or just 9. I’m extremely happy to be working with the Mystic Training Program.”

Master Tree’s mouth fell open. “Pardon. I just can’t get over the fact of there being more than one Naero Maeris. I think the galaxy, nay, the entire universe must be groaning under the strain.”

“Well get used to it,” Naero said. “I’m spreading the love around.”

“I think it’s a superb idea,” Master Jo said. “This is definitely going to shake things up–for us–and our enemies.”

“And don’t worry,” Naero told them. “None of them have my Dark Beast…just my sparkling personality.”

Master Tree groaned. “Now I shall truly live in fear.”

Everyone laughed, even Naero-9.

She and Naero embraced, and then 9 went off with Master Jo, already getting into a heated discussion.

“Master Tree could be right,” Gaviok said, laughing. “This could lead to Chaos.”

“Well, at the very least, I’d say Jett sales are definitely bound to increase,” Naero noted.

Finally, as the afternoon went on, High Master Gaviok pulled her aside, even taking her to a cargo hold.

Where all of Gaviok’s odd luggage was stored.

“I stepped down as the High Prince of the Shai to become a Mystic High Master, Naero,” Gaviok told her. “Baeven and I spoke with Jia and his crew a long time concerning my decision.”

“Who leads your people now, Gaviok?”

“My oldest son, Kahvan-Uris, is now High Prince of the Shai, with the backing his mother, and the other twelve ruling aunts. They are all my queens, each on their own homeworld with our sisters and brothers of the Ku.”

Naero smiled. “Gaviok. You have thirteen wives?” That certainly made Jan look tame. “At one time that might have been considered unlucky.”

Gaviok smiled and sighed as only a former mantid prince could. “Each more beautiful than the last. Unlike humans, the prime number thirteen is sacred to my people because of the lunar cycle of our homeworld. When and where possible, a Shai prince will eventually have thirteen princesses. Did you know that Baeven helped me pick out the thirteen new homeworlds for my people?”

Also good to know. “Did you know that Old Earth humans had such a lunar cycle as well?”

Gaviok snorted, “For all the good it did them.”

“Hey, they did produce Spacers.”

“Yes, despite the Gigacorps. But I will allow them that much at least. Without Spacers, I would not have you and Baeven in my family.”

“Gaviok, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it like having so many wives?”

“For me? Wonderful. Do you know that a Shai courtship lasts for an entire standard year? An entire year of pleasure and making love, while courtiers, courtesans, and drones stand ready with food and drink, cleanse our bodies, and see to all of our needs. The courtship does not even halt for the annual shedding of our carapaces. They are simply peeled away from us, leaving our bodies so sensitive that we shudder in ecstasy for an entire lunar cycle as the mating continues. Once the courtship is over, my princess is ready to lay our eggs and produce various offspring for the rest of her long life.”

“Well, that’s stamina for you. And why not get it all done at once?”

“When we meet again and I visit the worlds of my wives–one each month–we sometimes join together for a few days or weeks in honor of our love, but it is strictly for pleasure and nostalgia. All of the real work for reproducing our species has already been done.”

“So what the hell does that all have to do with all of this weird luggage?” Naero asked.

He went over to the pile of containers. “Naero, this isn’t luggage. It’s an entire Shai colony in stasis. I want you to find a place for it deeper into the Gamma Quadrant. That is where the Ku-Shai originally came from. We should go back there. Hundreds of millions of years ago, at the time of the last Great Dying, my people were all but wiped out, along with most of the other sentient species in the Gamma Quadrant.”

That would roughly place them around the time of the G’lothc War with the Kexx and the Drians.

Gaviok placed one of his manipulators on the slightly largest and most heavily shielded of the cases.

“Those times could be upon us once more, Naero. We must defend against that. The great destroying darkness could be unleashed again, and we must stand ready. One of our mightiest homeworlds was taken from us, long, long ago, and defiled. A world we knew as fabled
Allondatharru
. Yet now it is called Naggoth by our enemies, the Dakkur!”

Naero started a bit. “One of the new Dakkur stronghold worlds, infested by the enemy. One of the seven seats of their power that we know of in the Gamma Quadrant.”

Gaviok shook with rage. “It must be re-taken, at all costs, and returned to my people. My son will assist you, and come into his birthright. Teach him, help him grow as you helped me, and he shall be among your mightiest of allies.” He pressed a release sequence.

The stasis case sprang open, and a young mantid, all shiny-black with a scarlet aura of Chaos force then pulsed around him awoke.

“Father,” the young prince called out, going to his knee before his great sire. “Command your son. Command your children.”

Gaviok introduced them. “Naero Amashin Maeris. Meet your new brother, as your uncle is mine. This is Prince Ra-Naveth. Be bound together in fate and deed.”

Ra-Naveth turned pale pink, and embraced Naero. “If you share love with my beloved father, you have mine tenfold. My life is yours, and I will give if for you, gladly. We are now bound, for all the extent of our days.”

Naero embraced Gaviok’s young son, and kissed his head. “We are indeed bound. And you are my brother, my family, my
abani
. Let us honor each other and serve one another well. We shall protect one another in all that is to come.”

Ra-Naveth rose up and turned more reddish again, even slightly shorter in his normal form than his father.

“This bodes well,” Gaviok told her. “For when Ra-Naveth comes into his full powers, he is destined to wield ten times the might of his sire. Guard him until that day comes, and he and the others of my children shall guard you and yours.”

They said their farewells, and Ra-Naveth stayed at Naero’s side from that instant on. Naero accepted his presence.

The rest of the Shai nest was kept in stasis, and loaded into the cargo bay of Naero’s flagship.

They met with Khai for dinner with Jan, his wives, Aunt Sleak, Zalvano, and their infant twin girls, Anya and Nuvi.

The little ones climbed all over everyone.

Naero loved the twins with all of her heart. She could not hug and kiss them enough. Seeing them nearly brought her to tears.

Aunt Sleak was still pale from meeting Calyxo and Vejjah, and having everything explained to her in much more detail than was wanted. Yet overall, she seemed to be accepting the situation.

“Anyone in my family is now at risk,” Naero told Aunt Sleak. “Before I depart tomorrow, I’m making some more replicants. I want to send Naero-10 with you and Zalvano and the girls, to act as a bodyguard. I don’t want any argument.”

“I’m not arguing,” Aunt Sleak said. “I could use a bodyguard who was even one tenth of what you’ve become.”

“She’ll be a lot more than one tenth. Trust me. Anyone comes after you and Zalavano and the kids, and she’ll put them down. Hard.”

“Sounds good, Naero. Thanks. So, I guess we’re both admirals now. Congrats.”

They drank a toast of delicious Spacer poteen.

“Another high honor for Clan Maeris, making you the youngest admiral ever appointed to a full battle group. Cheers.”

Naero smiled her half-smile and lifted her glass. “I was trained by the best.”

Aunt Sleak called up top secret holodata screens for Spacer Intel and the Navy, while Zalvano kept the others busy playing with the energetic little girls. Naero resisted the urge to hug them and simply gobble them up; they were so sweet, and so amazing.

“I’ve sent all of this data to your flagship, Naero. Want to see the heart of your command?” aunt Sleak asked. “Another fleet of hyper-dense, planetoid super-warships–greater than the Titans. More firepower than the Thirty Amazon Sisters,
combined
.

“They call them
The Gods of War
. A class of warships with all of the latest tek, including hulls constructed of hyperdense planetoid nanoalloy, combined with fixer tek. Do you realize what a breakthrough this is, Naero? These are the next generation of advanced Spacer warships, and you are going to lead them into battle.”

Naero read the top secret data flows with teknomancy. “Nanoships. Warships that can construct themselves, adapt, and regenerate–all on their own. They can refit and adapt new tek in seconds.”

“Your flagship dreadnaught was named,
The Holy Ghost.
Backed up by the super-battleships
The Shiva, The Thor, The Athena,
and
The Ares.
’

The data on her bigs alone were astonishing. “Aunt Sleak….are these specs right? Can these new hypervelocity cannons really fire this fast without blowing up or burning out?”