Naero's War: The Citation Series 3: Naero's Trial (9 page)

“Which are only going to get worse if we keep suffering attack after attack, and invasion after invasion. I say, take the fight to these bastards.”

“But Naero, you also have to understand the valid points that the other sides are going to bring up, if you are going to find a way to persuade them to see things your way.”

Naero shook her head. “That’s why I’m a better warrior than a diplomat,” she said. “I trust you, Klyne. I know you always have the best interests and the greater good of our people in mind–even when I disagree with you.”

Klyne patted her on the shoulder. “Let me deal with the elders and the factions,” he said. “You go do what you alone can do. Save Kalathar and its people. Just be careful, Naero. Just as you said, everything you’re ever involved in always ends up far more difficult that anyone could imagine that it would be.”

Naero grinned again. “I’ve got the Mystic Enforcer to back me up. “What the hell can go wrong?”

10

Naero hovered over the first infested gigacity from a few kilometers up. She and Khai and the six Prime adepts guarding her from behind were all still cloaked.

She prepared herself, as best as she could.

The gigacity of Shandoora wasn’t that huge. Only a hundred kilometers in diameter, approximately.

Only.

She had never unleashed the Kexxian purge on an area this large before. Millions of infested hosts, the vast majority of them now dormant.

Naero didn’t quite know what was going to happen.

She startapped as much as she could and then opened the floodgates.

This was different.

Unleashing the Kexxian purge on Shandoora–on the planet of Kalathar–was like being impaled on a molten hot pillar of Cosmic agony, shoved all the way up through her and out of her shattered face.

There was no gasping or crying out. There was only being transfixed–crucified on raw pain and suffering itself. There was indeed a high price to be paid.

Purging the planet focused massive quantities of Cosmic energy through her physical form, which could not withstand such naked might.

She struggle to save herself from being consumed.

She tried to stop it. Tried to turn it off.

Yet once it was unleashed, the Kexxian purge had a will of its own, and hunted down the possessed in the largest numbers it could find, stepping up its efforts.

From several kilometers up in the sky, the ribbons and tendrils of light and darkness ripped through the gigacity and penetrated the population below, blasting and incinerating the G’lothc possession wyrms from out of their bodies, leaving them spent and unconscious, but alive.

“Something’s wrong,” Naero barely heard Khai tell the other Mystics. “She’s transforming into an energy being form. The process is going out of control. Naero’s in trouble!”

The Kexxian purge wiped out thousands of possession wyrms and sent their fell spirits shrieking back into the Void.

The purge did all this, in mere seconds.

But it was killing Naero. She could feel it.

Even in her energy being form she was slowly destroyed and consumed by the process, and Naero did not know how to fight it.

Khai and the Mystics tried to lay hands upon her and contain her.

The very air detonated around Naero, shooting them away in all directions.

The purge continued on its mission with a will of its own, gaining speed and only stepping up its power. It swept her off toward the next gigacity, destroying each of the possessed that it could find along the way.

The only problem was that Naero was slowly being used up and consumed. It was like burning up in slow motion and being reduced to ash.

And she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The resonance of the KDM was all around her. It was like roaring voices. A raging thunder of voices, deafening, consuming–raging in Kexxian. No, somehow that wasn’t right.

The words the thundering voices spoke had raw power to them, and even the G’lothc could neither resist nor endure that power.

If Naero hadn’t been so busy trying not to die, she might have been able to focus and make out what the thundering voices were saying.

But she had too much to live for.

Naero was still out of tune with them, out of sync somehow.

The word came back to her.

Unbalanced
.

She was out of balance, and that was just one of her flaws. Yet it was the one that was currently destroying her.

Her own imperfections.

Yes, and as usual, her own ignorance was working against her as well.

Khai caught up to her again, trying to siphon off some of the Cosmic energy that was consuming her, funneling it back to the stars, through Yii.

Nice idea. A good try.

A flare of power slapped the Enforcer away again.

The Kexxian purge had been unleashed upon Kalathar.

And it had work to do.

She continued to pick up speed, until the very air burst into flame about her. She was like a small, white-hot comet, streaking through the atmosphere, bathing the planet’s surface in its cleansing energies.

Naero cried out to the KDM.

Orean…help…help me…

Why must you make everything as difficult as possible, Naero?

Tell me…what…to do.

Didn’t you say that you’d be willing to give your life to save these others?

I don’t want to die.

Did I say that? Who said anything about actually dying? Didn’t I merely say that you had to be willing to die to save others? Can’t you see the difference?

Why do you only speak…in questions?

Why can’t you save yourself, Naero?

I don’t know.

Is it not too late already? Won’t others need to save you now?

I’m on fire. I’m burning up!

How then are fires extinguished?

Questions. Why all of these questions?

Don’t you already know the answers? Why can’t you remember them, Naero? Is that not what true ignorance is?

Burning. Burning. She was gaining speed, burning up as the purge grew only stronger.

Khai enveloped her in his green shield sphere and sought to contain her blazing form and snuff out the fire, siphoning off the cosmic energies consuming her.

She linked with his mind briefly. Khai, the Kexxian purge is channeling, startapping Cosmic energy straight through me. I can’t handle this much power. It’s burning me up.

Naero, the Mystics and I are trying stop it, bleed its power away from you, but each time we slow it down, it only gets stronger, and shakes us off.

Case in point. The purge blasted Khai off her again as she passed over another gigacity, and then another.

Then Naero heard a familiar voice, and felt strong arms around her.

You’re in trouble, sib. Good thing I just got here. Let me help.

Jan! Save me. I’m burning!

Then let us burn together.

Jan’s Cosmic fire was about her. He had almost always been a pyrokinetic. By their very nature they could shunt heat away so that they were not hurt by it. And now his fire and his energies only added to that of the Purge, speeding it up even faster.

No, Jan. We have to slow it down. Stop it.

We can’t. Yet if we speed it up, it will finish its task before you and I are destroyed. Just hang on, Naero!

Jan suffered the agony with her, sharing her pain and destruction.

Her younger brother did all of this, to save her and himself.

Janner had grown in power and wisdom. Naero could sense it.

He had managed to complete his Mystic training.

Jan was a full-fledged Mystic.

But at that moment, they were both burning to death, trapped within a Cosmic maelstrom.

They picked up speed, streaking across the surface of Kalathar, until the entire planet had been purged.

Just as suddenly, the flames snuffed out and were gone.

The Purge halted on its own accord.

Because there was nothing left to be consumed.

They crashed onto a sandy beach at the edge of one of the continents.

Jan did his best to shield them as they tumbled down.

Naero came to with her brother’s arms still locked around her protectively.

It was Jan who had save her, and himself.

Naero staggered to her feet, and reached out with her mind to contact Khai, the High Masters, anyone she could reach.

Kalathar and its people had been purged of the enemy plague. It was now free.

11

Naero spent nearly an entire day in her medical bay on her flagship, regenerating and healing herself from within.

Khai and Jan took turns sitting with her, speaking with her through mindlinks. But she had to get back up on her feet. That was a priority.

She heard updates about Kalathar. A huge relief effort was underway to try to help the stricken population. Clouds of medical fixers were being used. Dehydration was becoming a critical problem by the hour.

Spacer Intel, the Spacer Navy, and the Alliance were assembling an expeditionary task force to be sent out to make contact with the Gamma Quadrant and begin confronting the enemy there.

Khai, you must speak with Klyne. One or both of us must be part of that expedition. We have to track down our daughter before it’s too late. Baeven is already tracing the foes who have her. I can bring my own ships, my own fleet if need be.

Khai smiled down at her and brushed his hand over her face as she looked up at him.
Get better, Naero. Keep healing yourself. We will find her. We shall bring her back to us. There is much that is going on. Much that will change. We shall both play major roles in the changes that are still to come, my heart.

As soon as she could walk and maintain herself, Naero got up off her medbed, checked herself out of medical with Trudi, and reported for duty on board
The Kathmandu
. Khai, Jan, Tarim, and Tyber were already there with the High Mystics and many others.

She ran into Jan first, who brought her to his personal quarters.

She couldn’t resist hugging him and holding him close to her for a bit.

It was so great to have him beside her once again; she couldn’t put it into words. It had been so long since they had stood together. It did her heart good to see Jan, now so strong and fully developed.

“So, you’ve chosen Order, Jan? I still can’t believe it. You? And you’ve completed your Mystic training in record time I hear. How long did it really take, with the Mystic Time dilation?”

Jan grinned, tall, lanky, and handsome. He seemed very sure of himself.

“It took me almost six more years of real time, N, compressed into over six months. The High Mystics have stolen a page from your book, Naero. Did you know that Master Tree and Master Jo have both used replicants of themselves to help train other Mystics?”

“I didn’t know that. But I have been rather busy of late, these past several months. Interesting, since I taught them the ability to replicate.”

Jan smiled. “In the light of the threats that we face, the Mystics are expanding. The number of masters and adepts will continue to grow rapidly. Now that it has been purged, I’ve heard that Kalathar will now indeed serve as the Chaos Homeworld of the newly appointed Mystic High Master.”

Naero stopped a moment. “Where could they possibly find a new Mystic High Master? None of the Chaos Prime Adepts are ready. Perhaps as masters, but not as a High Master.”

The Mystics were still suffering from the loss of both Hashiko, and Master Vane. There was no one else to fill that role.

Who had they found?

Jan stopped in front of his personal quarters. He grinned slyly. “Prepare for a bit of a shock on the personal front, N. Enter within. I haven’t even told Aunt Sleak yet.”

What was Jan babbling about?

The panel snapped open.

Naero saw the long, lithe body of a beautiful, nude young woman sprawled across Jan’s nanobed, still asleep and partially covered up with black zilken sheets and nanoblankets. Jan’s young lady had a mass of gleaming, platinum-white-gold hair, an entire sea of that radiant hair, all the way down her snowy back.

So Jan had a girl. Big deal. What did he think was so shocking about–

Out of the shadows a feline, humanoid form slipped up to Jan and pasted her strong supple body against him, complete with a lashing, striped tail. She wrapped her arms sensually around Jan’s head and neck, closing her mouth over his in a deep, wet kiss. This girl was clearly a Mahri, with short black fur with orange and gold stripes. Only a rare few Mahri were colored in this fashion. She was clearly of one of the royal houses.

Her face was halfway between human and feline. She had long, tufted feline ears and straight black hair to her broad, athletic shoulders. She wore only a black loin cloth, some kind of utility belt, a golden, jeweled battle harness, and several gilded, hi-tek weapons.

She even began to purr as she and Jan continued to swooch. Obviously, the two of them were intimate.

“Jan, I missed you,” she chided him. “You said only a few hours. It has been several since you left us. What has happened?”

Naero’s jaw bounced around the interior of the cabin. Us? Did she say, “
us
?”

“I’m sorry, my sweet
daji
. Much has happened. There was great deal to learn. I could not get away or send a message. And my sister was also in great need of my help. How is Vejjah feeling? Better, I hope?”

The Mahri princess looked at the sleeping woman fondly. “The sickness comes and goes. I sang her to sleep, which she needs badly. I think she is well enough for now.”

Jan took one of the Mahri girl’s hands and placed it in Naero’s. “Calyxo, royal princess of the First House of the Mahri, this is my beloved older sister, Naero Amashin Maeris.”

“Ah!” Calyxo said, nodding her head in great honor. “The legend who walks among us.”

They smiled and looked into each other’s eyes. At first Naero thought that Calyxo’s eyes were black, but they were not. They were deep, midnight blue.

Naero biomanced, studying Calyxo’s species. She gasped at another surprise. “You’re a Mystic.”

Calyxo bowed her head again. “The first of my species. I completed my training with Janner, where we exchanged our hearts. The Mystics are now training non-Spacers as well. Even non-humans. Master Vane had opposed opening the training to the other races and sentients.”

“Interesting,” Naero said. “I always thought that we should include the other sentient races.”

Calyxo smiled. “And now they have.”

The other Spacer female who was sleeping suddenly turned over and groaned slightly. Jan sat down on the bed and took her hand tenderly, brushing her radiant hair back from her equally radiant face, and placing his hand over her forehead, checking for a fever. Large green eyes, flecked with golden light fluttered open.

Jan bent down to kiss her cheek.

“Oh, Jan. I don’t feel well. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right, Vejjah. Just rest.”

Naero sat down next to Jan and placed a hand on Vejjah’s bare shoulder. “I’m a biomancer and a healer, Jan. What’s wrong with her? Spacers don’t usually get sick. Haisha! She’s pregnant, Jan. This is–”

“Morning sickness,” Jan said. “Some Spacer women still get it.”

Not only was Vejjah pregnant…it was very clearly Jan’s child.

“Let me see if I can relieve that a bit,” Naero said. With biomancy, Naero modified all of the physiological factors that led to morning sickness, reducing them as much as she could without disrupting anything else.

Vejjah breathed a bit easier and stopped knitting her brow in discomfort.

“There,” Naero said. “That should be better.”

“Very much so,” Vejjah said in surprise. “Compared to what it was, I feel great!”

Janner laughed and kissed Vejjah again. Calyxo stood by happily and did not seem to mind.

What was going on here?

Jan turned to Naero, and placed Vejjah’s hand in Naero’s. “Naero Amashin Maeris. Meet Vejjah Terine Fae, a distant cousin of most of the Faes we know.”

“Also a Mystic,” Naero said.

“And now a member of Intel, also,” Vejjah said. “I completed my training with Jan and Calyxo, where we all met and became such good friends.

And apparently much more that friends, Naero guessed. Just how much further did all of this love fest go?

“You will be the first in our family and our Clan to know, Naero. I’ve gotten married.”

Jan. Jan? Married?

She looked from Vejjah to Calyxo. “Oh…? To which one?”

“Both,” Jan said with a smile. “Both of them agreed to be my beloved wives. And we have been nothing but happy.”

Okay. That was, in fact, a bit of an eye-opener. Just out of curiosity, Naero wonderer if the two gals enjoyed each other’s company as well.

Vejjah turned over, still quite naked, exposing her baby bump for the first time. “Husband. Don’t let your sister wonder. Explain how things are, so that she is not shocked.”

Calyxo jumped in. “Vejjah is my sister-wife as I am hers. We share the affections of our beloved husband at alternate times, but we are not lovers with each other.”

“I’m not judgmental,” Naero said, holding both of her hands up palms out. “None of that is really any of my business. What couples…or trios…do in their beds isn’t any of my concern.”

“But sometimes we do like to watch,” Vejjah openly admitted, with a wry grin and a gleam in her eyes. “It can be very beautiful, and exciting while we wait our turn.”

Naero stood up. “Okay, Jan. Look at the time. Wow, it was really nice to meet both of your equally lovely wives. Congratulations, and again, much happiness to all three of you, especially with the little one on the way. But I am quite late for a meeting with Admiral Klyne.”

Did they want to know that it was a boy?

Vejjah sat up in bed. “Naero. Please say you’ll have dinner with us tonight,” she said.

“Why sure. I’d love that. And with Aunt Sleak and Zalvano coming in tonight, it will be a very fascinating dinner for all. Wait until you see the twins, Jan. They’re getting so big.”

She embraced them and then quickly ducked out. Naero could hear Jan and his wives laughing together behind their door panel.

She couldn’t wait to see their aunt’s reaction at dinner, especially when the Mahri princess explained the particulars about their love life with hubby Jan.

Naero still couldn’t get her head around Jan actually being married, with two wives, and child on the way.

But with the time dilation of the Mystics, Jan was now technically a bit older than her.

At some point, she needed to take some time to finish off her own Mystic training. But not just yet.

Not while the enemy had her child.

And she really was late for a meeting with Klyne and the High Mystics.

She had requested again to have
The Black Spot
returned to her for the expedition to the Gamma Quadrant. Intel had to be done with it by now. They could even have the fixers build a few of their own just like it, and had most likely done so.

Naero had her own plans for that new spyship as part of her own strike fleet, which she hoped to command.

With her extensive fleet experience during the Annexation War, clearly Naero would be an excellent choice for commanding a strike fleet once again with the expedition.

All she had to do was finish squaring it all with Klyne and the Spacer Navy.

It therefore came as a shock to Naero when Klyne announced, “Naero, after careful consideration, the Navy and I don’t think that it’s a good idea for you to go on the expedition. Not as a Strike Fleet Captain.”

Naero swallowed the urge to explode and rant. She wasn’t the hotshot green leader any more. She couldn’t get away with that kind of immaturity any longer.

But they could not be serious. She had to be given the chance to pursue the enemy. Especially those who held her unborn child prisoner.

Naero calmly threaded her hands together. “I see. Might I ask why? And will I be given some other capacity or mission to serve with the expedition?”

“That is no longer up to us to decide, Captain Maeris. That will be wholly determined by the admiral and command staff in charge of the entire expedition battle fleet group.”

Naero rose up and saluted. “Admiral Klyne. High Admirals Allen, Kessler, Romanov, and Yamamoto–I formally request that my petition to serve in any capacity in the expedition to the Gamma Quadrant be forwarded with all speed to the admiral selected.”

Grand Admiral Micah Allen rose from his seat and stepped forward. “Captain Maeris,” he said. “Your request is going to be difficult to carry out. There are multiple concerns and reasons that we have.”

Naero saluted. “I would very much like to hear and discuss them in detail, Grand Admiral, sir.”

The old star wolf rested his powerful hand on Naero’s shoulder. “Because, N. We want you to lead this expedition…Admiral Maeris. Be our sword in the deep black. Lead our battle group into the Gamma Quadrant for the first time. Take the fight to these foes who continue to threaten us and our ways of life, and strike them down!” He shook her hand all the way up to elbow.

“You know I will, Micah.” Naero released his arm, stepped back, and drew her cutlass to kneel before the High Admiral and offer him her blade. “Command, me, sir.”

The Grand Admiral of the Spacer Navy took her blade, kissed the bright steel, and handed it back to her. She sheathed it and stood back up in one fluid motion.