Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury (23 page)

We took away all of their objectives. What about the locals, Om? Are the natives all right?

Damage is minimal in their isolated area, although they probably witnessed a very frightening light show in the sky, and the ground shaking at times. Without any tek or Cosmic energy to speak of, the Kahn-Dar ignored them completely–as if they were insects.

Great. We could
n’t hope for much better than that. Now, we wait, Om.

For what?

To face the music, for what we’ve done.

26

Jan and Aunt Sleak were still weak from their ordeal, but recovering. She briefly told them what she could about what
had happened between her and the artifact statue–and the serious trouble she was in with the High Masters for disobeying them.

Within the hour, Aunt Sleak delivered her twins, as expected, two healthy girls with red hair
and gray eyes. Anyazhel Shiina Maeris, and Nuviarra Lythe Maeris.

Her tough-as-nails aunt was up and around shortly
after giving birth, laughing and smiling. Naero got to hold both babies and smile at the pretty little things–hands and feet so delightfully tiny. She gave each of them a token of a small, ceremonial Maeris fighting knife.

She could tell them apart by their ears. Anya’s were slightly more pointed
than Nuvi’s.

Naero warned Jan and Aunt Sleak about the last alien obelisk still out there, on a lost, ancient world of the Kexx called Xanathar. Most likely, either one of them, or one of the twins would turn out to be the Order Guardian
, for all that meant to them today.

She did not
bring up Danner, for now.

Naero waited nervously on edge, half that
same day, for word from the High Masters to present herself to them for their evaluation and judgment.

The Changs contacted her
instead.

“
We wanted to warn you,” Chang Fu-han said. “The High Masters are discussing your situation at this very moment.”

Naero was startled. “Why was
n’t I informed? Why was I not summoned?”

“
The three of them are still recovering from their injuries,” Chang Lijuan added. “They and their prime adepts are discussing the matter on the Astral Plane, while their bodies continue to heal on their medbeds.”

“
Thank you, both of you. I appreciate you guys telling me this.”

Fu-han added. “Good luck, Naero. Many of the other adepts were also gravely injured during the battle with the invaders, but most
still remain on your side. They want things to work out for the best for you.”

“
Yes, good luck, Naero.”

“
You two will continue to take care of the Thanorans, right?”

Both of the bowed their heads, looking very sad.

“No,” Fu-han sobbed. “With Thanor-4’s heightened energy levels gone, the Mystics are abandoning the planet entirely. The natives will be left entirely to their own fates. After all that has happened, perhaps that is for the best.”

“
You two don’t really believe that, do you?”

Lijuan had tear
s in her eyes. “We must. We have no choice. The decision has been made, and remains final. We can do nothing.”

Naero signed off and informed Jan, Aunt Sleak, Tarim, Zhen,
Shalaen, and her crew about what was going on.

Tarim
would stand guard, while Zhen and Shalaen monitored her body on a medbed in the infirmary. She would take a short nap, drift off into the Astral Plane and find the High Masters, in an attempt to defend herself and her actions.

Naero had
n’t done it much, but going into a trance to enter the Astral Plane shouldn’t be all that difficult, from what she recalled. Master Vane had specifically shown her how once. And she had gone there lots of times in her sleep, in her mind, to speak with Khai, using their astral crystals. But that was on their own little private wavelength.

Back t
hen, her friend Khai had also vanished without a trace, while she was still training on Janosha. Now he turned up again as the Mystic Enforcer, and wielded one of the Cosmic blades. And it sounded like he was quite the badass.

Naero herself
had never been completely trained in astral travel, and didn’t know much about exploring or moving around. Master Vane had taken her there once, just to teach her the basics and give her his marker, and many other times later to spar with her in areas he isolated for them. She never went there on her own.

If all
else failed, she could probably focus on Vane’s marker to locate him.

Zhen and Shalaen
smiled and tried to be re-assuring, standing by her side while she relaxed and went into the astral trance.

Naero focused her mind and abilities, controlling her breathing.
She struggled to recall the little she had learned.

Within several minutes of focused meditation, she open
ed her eyes and found herself floating in the Astral Miasma, the nebulae of energy. Naero hugged her knees to her chest.

Om spoke to her, even more easily here than in her own mind before
.

I have accessed some of the Kexxian Matrix’s data files on The
Astral Plane. Like everything else, they explored it quite extensively.

Om, I’m naked here. I’m not complaining, But how do I put astral clothing on again?

You control everything here by imagination, and force of will, Naero. Concentrate on your favorite clothing and gear, and they should appear.

That
was easy enough.

She looked down and saw her favorite Nytex flight togs
and gear, programmed just the way she liked them.

Naero blinked, spinning and twirling in one spot
in the aether, turning upside down. But she was still stuck in one spot.

Why ca
n’t I move more than a meter at a time in front of us?

You’re not used to this reality. So it’s not clear to you
.

The
aether around her looked opaque. Not mist. Not smoke or vapor. And it glowed slightly with its own bluish-gray light.

In the twilight she glowed softly blue-
violet-white with her own light, from within.

“
I once heard rumors that the Mystics could travel and send messages this way, but I thought it was all just a myth.”

Since the other planes are entire universes within themselves, it is said, they are all nearly infinite. Thus it is difficult to pinpoint any kind of location or person unless you already know them.

Naero instinctively tried to stand up, but there was nothing to stand on.

Then she recalled Master Vane’s Marker, and
Bingo! There it was; it appeared right before her.

Where she found him, she would find the other High Masters
.

At least she deserved a chance to be heard by them all. To try to explain herself and her actions
.

Naero could not simply stand by and let them decide her fate without being present
.

She focused on the crimson and black star more and swept forward, seemingly at great speed
.

She came to an abrupt halt, like a starship coming out of jump at its destination
.

The opacity around them partially melted back. They proceeded forward, opening her visual field far wider. She made out the area around them as the miasma peeled back.

Slightly below them she saw spheres within glowing spheres, all spinning within greater spheres.

Her own sphere, glowing white-blue
, suddenly surrounded her like a glittering soap bubble.

Yet it did not pop when she poked at it
.

One sphere in particular, the largest, glowed and pulsed blood red, containing a withered old man with a long beard, pacing
and fidgeting impatiently.

Burning eyes vanished and re-appeared at random all over his bald head. The red sphere absorbed Master Vane’s marker
.

Was this
Vane’s true form? What he really looked like?

His scarlet sphere was also flanked by two smaller spheres with figures inside them
.

Om made a calculated guess
.

His current guardian adepts, no doubt. The ones you rescued from
the enemy Darkforce generators”

I think so Om.
So, this was what Zhii and Fel looked like on the Astral Plane.

She suddenly wondered what she looked like.

At most times, every High Master had at least two champion adepts protecting him or her, each of them very close to mastery themselves. Like Hashiko had been.

Naero studied Vane’s new guardians for the very first time, and tried to see into their spheres
.

Something about them did seem strangely familiar
.

One of Vane’s
prime adepts, the swirling, smoky male, appeared to be so deep dark black, he could be a singularity. This adept’s sphere was flat black on the surface and barely transparent. She could barely make Zhii out inside of it.

If Naero had been able to breathe, she would have gasped
.

Instead she simply raised her hand to her mouth
.

She recalled
now that she had seen many of these adepts long before–in her dreams, nightmares, and crazed visions. That was how they appeared to her. Perhaps she had even been on the Astral Plane somehow when she saw them in these forms.

Fel,
Vane’s other prime adept was obviously the blazing white, feathery female, the exact opposite of the other. So brilliant and blindingly radiant, she could be a pulsar. Her orb was like a high intensity bulb, blinding and almost completely crystal clear–with her lighting it from within.

It occurred to Naero that during her initial testing, Klyne had
had male and female assistants as well.

She
still couldn’t guess what the significance of that pattern was all about. Perhaps just some weird Mystic, egalitarian tradition.

W
hy, then, weren’t any of the High Masters female?

Everyone seemed to ignore her where she floated.

The next larger sphere, farther away, glowed silver-blue.

If she focused intently on it, she discovered she cou
ld zoom in with her third eye–her mind’s eye.

Within a silver man sat serenely, neither young nor old. Master Tree
, in his purest form of Order.

Two smaller guardian spheres flanked him
.

Master Tree’s
wispy, female adept glowed with intense blue energy in a deep blue sphere.

The male likewise glowed with vibrant green force within a green sphere, a shining sword sheathed down his broad athletic back. He seemed very familiar somehow
.

She did a double-take. Long blond hair. Green skin. Big glowing sword.

Yep. In the flesh. Or…his astral form at least.

It was Khai! She was sure of it. He was alive
and well.

Had he actually succeeded in his great task of forging
the first mystic sword in the heart of a gigantic pulsar? Was that it on his back?

Naero gasped again. Now that she knew what he
sort of looked like, Khai was also the dreamy green hunk from many past, pent up nightmares. The one who kept sticking his sword through her head.

What did it all mean? She was
n’t nuts enough yet?

Now she knew for certain she needed serious help
.

And to do some
actual dating at some point, once-and-for-all.

If the Mystics continued to let her live
.

Khai must have sensed her inner turmoil, or thoughts, or maybe just her concentration on him
.

Mr. Green god even glanced her way for a second, looking just as confused and puzzled by her sudden appearance
.

Neither of them had ever met the other in person
.

Naero covered her face with one hand and looked aside, withdrawing her sphere suddenly further away
.

How fricking embarrassing
.

She crept forward again
…slowly.

The third and final sphere glowed golden, and contained an equally golden child within, energetic and bristling with lightning. He bounced back and forth inside like a gigantic electron
.

Master Jo of course
.

Two flanking spheres
.

One of his adepts had no clear form, eyes gleaming within a shifting, flickering miasma like the
Astral Plane itself–Den. His female counterpart shifted shape from one fantastic creature to another–Tess.

When
Naero made out their voices, she could sense that an intense debate had been going on. One that still continued.

“
We cannot be certain in this matter,” the golden child insisted. “We do not dare act in any rash way.”