Citation Series 1: Naero's War: The Annexation War (9 page)

11

Just thinking about Max Lii made Naero go through her music feeds back in her private quarters
.

She played several of his hits:

Fire In Her Eyes
.

One Touch…One Kiss…One Night.

My One And Ever.

To the Stars.

Hearts Afire.

Throw Down
.

Vortex
.

As she listened to each song in turn, as she had done so many times, she finally noticed something.

Max Lii used the latest Tek and Throck music gimmicks and tricks
.

Yet he also used traditional riffs, pipers, even the traditional
Spacer tharp and thiolin–to heart-pounding or heart-rending effect.

Like her parents, Naero secretly loved the sweet lilting strains and tunes of the traditional Spacer tharp and thiolin. Most Spacers grew up hearing them on
the merchant ships of their Clans, playing the old songs, Spacer shanties and lullaby’s.

Just as Naero had. Like a soundtrack to the Spacer life itself
.

Her parents
had played stirring thiolin songs, solos, and concertos piped throughout all of their ships.

They called up holo images and performances of famous thiolinists–past and present–when they dined, had meetings, or they were just on their own, together or alone. And like Naero at their memory, the old tunes often brought her and her parents to reflection, and tears
.

Yet they loved those tunes all the more, for they were laden with memory. Naero
now understood why.

When she was a teen, naturally she rebelled, and refused to listen to her parents’ ‘old-fashioned-crap.’

She made numerous complaints, but they simply ignored her.

But now with them lost to her
, and her at war, those old songs and tunes seemed to have even deeper meaning and significance.

They were the memories, the history in songs, of a fierce and brave people.
Their people. Their blood. Many of whom had given their lives for the sake of freedom.

As interstellar c
elebrities themselves from the Galactic Fight Circuit, her parents brushed shoulders with other famous figures, thinkers, and musicians. That included the greatest thiolinists of their age.

Mitsubishi Yuzuki, Grandon
Kowalski, Rhiannon Fae, Seamus Flynn–and the Maestro, the old grand master himself–Ezekiel Luna Alexander.

The
latter, the living legend and treasure of the Forty-Nine Clans. He insisted that everyone simply call him Zeke.

At one hundred and thirty-seven years, it was said that finally, the effects of old age had begun to slow him down.

And it was widely known that when he played now, he did so in great pain. Yet play he did, regardless, and vowed that he would do so, for as long as he drew breath.

Not many Spacers lived to such an age. Except for a few other elders, all of
Zeke’s friends, and most of his close kin were long gone.

He had been a teen
at the time of The Third Spacer War, and it was also said that the pain and sorrow of that great conflict, and those of the even mightier Fourth Spacer War after that were what gave his music the raw feel of depth and subtle power.

He had lived and survived through almost one quarter of
total Spacer History. When he did go out in public or to perform, he wore long elder robes of jet black, which set off his long white beard down to his knees, and his trademark, platinum white shock of hair that either cascaded down his back, or was plaited into a simple Spacer braid.

In truth, to Naero he always loo
ked like a fanciful character–some noble wizard of old, or a myth out of one of Ty’s fantasy vid games.

Yet when the grandmaster lifted his exquisite thiolin and played…hearts broke, and many fell to their knees in high honor of the
privilege–of experiencing his great art–perforce.

So great
and mighty was his skill with a thiolin.

And Zeke played the most perfect, the most beautiful thiolins known to exist, touched and maintained by his expert hands alone
.

In fact, Zeke had p
layed at her parents’ wedding–his priceless gift to them. He was said to be a huge fan of the galactic fights, and loved them and their grand love story very dearly.

All that night–the very night that Naero herself was conceived–the grandmaster serenaded her mother and father in high honor, until the bells of the late watches waxed
.

After her parents
perished, she heard later that the grandmaster refused to play any music at all, for weeks on end.

Naero sighed, truly glad and excited that
Max Lii might join them at some point. That would be thrilling.

But she gave the order for Zeke’s traditional Spacer music to be piped throughout her fleet
.

Let them feel what she felt
.

What all Spacers felt when they heard
an important part of their history.

Naero
hoped that it would help guide and inspire her people, just as it did her.

*

They set up one of the smaller, box-like, nanopractice rooms for combat targeting and blade throwing.

Naero whirled and threw
one of Tyber’s latest, charged throwing blades. She hit the next gravtarget dead center at fifteen paces, when it popped up behind her.

A small
, muffled blast burped, and the target dropped.

Another shot up right next to her at random
.

If she didn’t nail it, the damn thing would nail her with a painful shock charge
.

Yet even as she cut at it with another charged blade…

One of Zhen’s energy spikes–pierced and disrupted it before it could zap her.

Naero grinned and nodded at her friend
.

“Thanks,
Z. For a quack, you’ve always been a pretty good blade thrower.”

Zhen grimaced. “Nothing like you, of course. Someone who just naturally excels at anything…destructive. But I stay in practice. I
’m no brawler, like the rest of our gang, but throwing blades remains a hobby of mine since you and I could float. When Tyber told me you two had cooked up a way to pweak the energization in order to make our throwing weapons perform better, and in various modes, naturally, I had to tag along.”

“That reminds me
, Z. Tarim’s most recent evaluation says your raw marksmanship scores are currently too low. Please schedule some combat training with him to bring them back up.”

Zhen gave her the look. “Naero…I a
m busy with my patients and so many other issues. You of all people know what a terrible shot I am. I’m not a warrior.”

“
All Spacers are warriors; you’ve just never allowed yourself to fully embrace that, Z. But regs demand that I can’t excuse you, just because we’re friends. Simply bring your scores up a little. I’m not asking you to outshoot Tarim. Regs are regs.”

Zee smirked.
“I’ll remember that…the next time it’s time for one of your check-ups, and you put me off again. What good is combat training going to do me in my line of work?”

“Plenty—i
f the ship is boarded and infiltrators attack your sickbay.”

Zhen rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’ll take them all out with our new little throwing doo-dads
.”

“Just report to Tarim for training
, Z. Bring your no-good boyfriend along with you, if you must.”

Zhen giggled. “
Ty, are you going to let her talk about you like that?”

“Uh…huh…”
he mumbled absently.

“
Ty…are you even listening to me?”

“
Of course I am…hmm…almost got it here.”

They glanced over at him
.

Tyber shook his head, frowning
, completely oblivious to them. He tinkered with the nanonodes on a low-profile throwing blade, like the one Naero just threw. With the help of three of his specialized tinkering fixers, that hovered around him and his work.

He started humming absently
again.

He
manipulated the nanolevel circuitry for a few minutes longer.

“Watch this,” Naero
finally whispered to Zhen.

“Hey,
Ty; how about the two of us strip doe-naked, and do you in tandem? Right here on the nanofloor?”

Zhen’s jaw dropped. She slapped Naero’s arm and whispered emphatically. “Are you crazy
?”

Tyber
kept humming and droned on. “Yeah…whatever…just stop buggin’ me. Can you just give me a couple of minutes, here?”

Naero grinned, staring forward, waving her hand in front of her face
.

“See
?”

Zhen and Naero snickered together
.

He stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth like he
always did, when he was really focused on something.

“Nuts, we still don’t have it right. That energized blade should have exploded with the same force as an HE microgrenade. Instead
, it just popped and fizzled.”

He and his fixers pweaked two more blades, two throwing stars, and two spikes
.

Then he handed one of each to Naero and Zhen
.

“Okay. Try these. Let’s see how they perform
this time.”

Ty
stepped back, Naero and Z stepped up, back onto the grid, activating the combat program.

The throwing weapons energized
.

Multiple gravtargets hurtled at them
.

Naero struck all three of hers
.

Zhen barely missed one of her targets and got zapped
in the butt.

“Ahhhgg!”

Naero swatted the straggler out of the air with a wheel kick.

“Damn it…”
Ty fumed. “Why aren’t they–”

All six devices went off at once
.

The resulting detonation knocked
the three of them off their feet, slamming them winded and breathless into the far wall. They were a bit scorched too, but otherwise unhurt.

Naero laughed
and gave a thumbs up.

“Perfect!
”

“Hilarious,”
Ty said. “All right, give us a few more minutes to make further adjustments…and we’ll try it yet again.”

Naero and Zhen stretched to stay limber, and practiced with some normal throwing blades against stationary targets in the back, off the grid
.

Within
the course of another standard hour of tinkering, they finally perfected four modes: Explosive, Shock-Stun, Flash, and Shield Negation.

Shield negation took the longest to get right
.

“What about obscurement?” Naero asked
.

Ty
paused, wheels turning in his noggin’. “Hmmm, a smoke screen—interesting. Concentrated obscurement agents. There are a few to choose from that will create the right volume. Enough to fill a large room. To stand up to breezes. I’ll have to think about that. Check back with me.”

Zhen chimed in. “If you can do smoke, what about skin or eye irritants? Enemies can’t fight if they are choking or blinded.”

Tyber grinned and nodded. “Another good idea. Thanks, ‘Tisa.”

Naero looked at the small, concealable throwing blades. You could carry strips of them, layered down arms or legs
or in bandoliers or arm and leg guards.

“What about a larger shield negation effect
, T? Like a wave pulse or a negation grenade, or full a charge?”

Ty
shook his head. “Not with these dinky throwers. Not enough mass to hold such a large energizing charge for heavy blasting, or unit shield negation.”

Naero instantly drew out two of her long, wicked-looking Spacer battle blades, from behind her hips and
upon her back.

Each of them
was deadly and well-balanced for fighting or throwing. Some versions of them were even designed to fold up or collapse for greater concealability, and then snap back out with a flick.

Ty
’s eyes widened. He held out both hands.

“May I?”

She handed him one. “Of course.”

He hefted it and especially focused on the handle. “Oh, yeah. Mama
. We can install anything we want in these. We can make them do whatever we want–almost as much damage as we want. You’ll be able to set the levels of shock, stun, explosion, and negation, within a wide range of effects. Just let me go to work.”