Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury (31 page)

Naero did not really have much of a concept of what a
real god must be like, but she knew that her friend Tarim still worshipped one with great reverence. Some remnants of the Old Earth religions survived among the miners and others who were once downtrodden in various corners of the known systems. But just from sensing Jia’s deep, heart-wracking emotions, Naero had a new insight into what having and believing in gods and creators had to be like.

She thought of the
poor Thanes on Thanor-4 with renewed respect.

She felt great remorse and sorrow for Jia and her people. To have had such
very real entities be an every day part of life–whom all had loved and adored–and then to lose them. Nay, even worse, to suddenly be abandoned by them–had to be a very terrible ordeal indeed.

Within moments Jia
’s strong emotions had Naero sobbing and weeping even harder.

Naero struggled to regain control over herself and wiped her eyes.

Hey. Jia. Om. I’m sorry I distracted us. We can talk ancient history and compare notes a lot later. Right now, we have a job to do. Let’s get to it. Jia. Do what you need to do and go where you need to go to find Baeven.

Jia
agreed, and concentrated her force of will and her considerable psyonic abilities through both Naero and Om.

Within seconds Jia
in fact located Baeven somewhat, as if zeroing in on a part of herself that had been torn away from her and was missing.

And in that instant of relief and joy, Naero sensed the furious and passionate love and longing
that existed between Jia and the mysterious outcast who called himself Baeven.

Jia was right.
The two of them were one with each other in many intimate ways, that Naero could only in part sense, glimpse, and still feel slightly embarrassed about. Such feelings were far too strong–and intimate.

Somehow, Jia and Baeven were in fact, two halves of the same
actual coin. They had become one together.

He
’s alive, Naero, but he’s growing weaker. I don’t understand this. He’s trapped within the actual Intel base somehow. He merged with it, while trying to phaze through its walls to investigate. Some kind of strange feedback energy trapped him within those walls. He can’t get out on his own, and if he doesn’t, his physical form will eventually perish. We must get inside to free him.

Naero activated her gravwing, still in stealth mode.

Lead on, Jia. Take us to him. We’ll get him out, somehow. But we can’t allow ourselves to get trapped in the same way he did. Then we’ll be stuck, too.

They approached the
enemy base from within a series of ancient volcanic lava tubes and caves, some of them now submerged by dangerously contaminated mountain streams and aquifers that pooled and then ran off from within to the lower elevations below.

With her gravwing Naero flitted above the
toxic pools and past a few underground security check points, guarded by heavily armored Ejjai and Dakkur troops, either in sealed armor or lab suits.

At last they reached a hidden landing and loading bay, filled with several
factory and processing ships, humming along and working at full capacity production mode.

They passed further within several separate, sealed areas.
Naero took a moment to have her fixer cloud decontaminate her, to help avoid detection.

As a bio-weapons facility, Naero worried about what kind of
lethal military grade agents their enemies could be producing, in such vast quantities. And to what end?

Clearly their foes were
preparing to wage a large scale biological war. Against Spacers? The Gigacorps? All of humanity?

Loaders and movers sent guards, teks, and researchers into and out of the main facility. Hundreds of
Ejjai worked like fiends just within this one area. To Naero, it looked more like a hive of very determined, industrious insects.

Panels and doors opened and closed routinely, admitting and taking in
the flowing traffic of more personnel.

Naero zipped into a big
storage area or warehouse with plenty of maneuver room. She didn’t want to bump into anyone. To be even safer, she hovered above and moved about up in the air, virtually invisible, but not quite immaterial.

She was
n’t about to attempt to phaze through any of the strange walls yet.

Especially no
t after whatever had happened to Baeven.

They followed several
section leaders around, trying to learn the layout of the facility, until they managed to secrete themselves into some kind of immense launching bay.

No
starships, however. Just thousands more of those mobile launching tubes for some kind of missile, probe, or strike drone. Very similar to, but slightly more advanced than the enemy batteries they had located in that immense planetoid field.

Then Naero noted that there
were in fact starships. These launchers were packed in cluster units, and were definitely mobile. They had AI’s of their own, and could even jump and operate independently.

I
’m registering that these dispersal drones can perform jump-7, Naero.

Equal to our best warships, Om. Not good.

Hundreds and thousands of these compact launcher vessels, each launching tube in each cluster about the size of a normal person. Each delivery vessel bristled with almost a hundred such launch tubes.

The enemy was mass-producing these weapons and delivery systems on a daily basis.

Jia and Om spoke up at the same time.

This is a
massive bio-weapons program,
Jia observed.

Analysis:
These drones will deliver replicating bio-toxins over a wide interstellar area, N. They are designed for planet-wide assaults–to destroy entire populations quickly, with fast acting biowar agents.

Even Naero was aghast
at the scope of it all.

The enemy never did anything in a small way.

Om went on.
No mistake Naero. Most of these devices are already filled with the actual toxins. Only a small percentage remain empty. Estimate project completion in less than one standard week.

Jia joined in.
From scanning their navigation, fleets of these droneships will be towed or transported in bulk ships to their launch areas under the cover of common mining and merchant vessels, already cleared and waiting for these false shipments. The coordinates and their dispersal patterns are already pre-programmed.

What are their
target destinations, Jia?

Mass attacks on every known populated world in the
Gigacorps Sector. Based on these estimates, over ninety-seven percent of the human race and other sentients could be wiped out within a few standard months. Spacers in a few months more.

Naero herself despised the Corps
who still clung to their empires of hundreds of systems.

Yet
all of those countless, innocent people who did not have a choice. Even the duped landers of the Gigacorps did not deserve to be slaughtered like this.

Jia gasped suddenly.

Baeven has finally sensed my presence. He’s coming to meet us at that section of wall over there.

They floated over to the spot she indicated.
Naero examined it.

I do
n’t see anything, Jia.

He
’s here, Naero. He’s trapped within the walls themselves, partially merged with their basic structure and the strange energy fields permeating this place–they are based on Darkforce energy. It’s very difficult and exhausting for him to try to move around or emerge.

Before their eyes, transparent fingertips and then a transparent portion of Baeven
’s face struggled to push out from the wall, like a tormented phantom. He looked to be in pretty bad shape.

Bae! My beloved, Bae. Stay strong
–reserve your strength. We’ll find a way to separate you again.

The urgency in Jia
’s thoughts struck Naero with how deeply Jia cared for Baeven.

Meanwhile, Om focused all of his powers on trying to analyze the walls themselves.
These walls are incredibly strange, Naero. They were fused with advanced, nano-vibronic particles that maintain an interior energized field at the particle level. This tainted field resists phazed, near-astral projected entities, and any object or person that is cloaked. It is specifically designed to block the passage of any such unknown particles or entities.

The enemy has
done their homework, Om. They were among the first to attempt to use phaze suits and phaze armor. They know that Spacer Intel captured and has been experimenting with such tek on their own for a long while. Some psyonic abilities can even phaze through normal barriers and materials. And Spacer Mystics or other psyonic users in astral form can penetrate any physical structure to spy on things visually. Baeven managed to do so for years. But at last, the enemy has developed a counter-barrier that resists such efforts, and even sets up a feedback trap for any such users. They’ll get stuck inside and slowly perish.

What do you think, Om? It seems like we
’ve come across something similar to this before, haven’t we?

Yes, when we attempted to learn the
secrets of The Darkstar’s ion cannons. The walls came to life with tentacles similar to those of the Darkforce generators. They tried to draw us into the walls an absorb us physically. Many of the energy signatures and components are very similar. But this defense is more advanced in every way–passive, active, and subtle–in order to protect the enemy secrets here. And the personnel. They couldn’t be under constant attack by the very walls themselves.

The enemy knows there’s someone like
Baeven around. I bet they fashioned this defense and this trap with him in mind. They know he’s out there searching for them.

He is unique
,
Jia said
. There are no others like him, as all shall see one day.

Copy that. Yet our current
problem remains, Naero told them. How do we extract Baeven–alive–once he has been merged with such hi-tek materials as these?

Naero and Om used teknomancy to study the wall. Nothing.

Jia was just as stumped.
He will eventually perish if we don’t find a way to extract him. In fact, he cannot survive in there for much longer–were talking hours–a day or two at most.

Om quickly noted.
And we’re under the gun in other ways, as Spacers say. A full scale biological war is about to be launched against all of humanity. It may only take several weeks or months to transport these dispersal drones from this site, and get them all into optimal position.

Perhaps even less,
Om. What if the enemy uses their wormhole tek to gate them all into position? That would get them into place even faster.

But before they could tackle the coming
biowar, they had to spring Baeven free from his current prison.

A sudden possibility occurred to her.

Om. What if we look at this like a replication problem?

Naero touched the walls and tested something.

I’m right. I know it. These walls aren’t just tek–
they’re alive–
living machines on a very basic level of raw cunning, bordering on sentience, yet still slaves to the will of their dark masters. Just like the Darkforce generators.

Jia and Om started following her train of thought.

Om hadn’t experienced or explored such replication and absorbing methods as deeply as she had. She pieced together her concepts from several ranges of experience, including fighting the actual Darkforce generators. More from Om, Alala, and even Jia, herself. Insights of combined biomancy and teknomancy origin flashed into her mind from all of her past experimentation.

And somehow, she was even pulling concepts out of the KDM.

Teknomancy concepts flowed into her mind faster than even she could follow, to the point of being painful.

See?
The principles and theories are all parallel, if not completely transferable. I think we can do this. Follow my lead. I want to try something.

Naero
fed them entire races of data even as she prepared herself.

I
’m going to treat Baeven as replicant matter and energy, emerging from these vibronically energized walls. Jia, your link with him is the strongest. I’m going to use your intimate knowledge of him to draw him out and separate him from these living machine wall particles that are holding him.

And they’re not just trapping him.

They’re slowly absorbing an devouring him. That’s just one of the reasons why he can’t get out on his own.

Link with him
, Jia. No matter what happens. Keep the link with him open, strong, and focused. You are his lifeline.

I will perish before I break it.