Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury (50 page)

“
You’re too hard-headed and straight forward, Naero. You’re never going to balance everything out that way.”

“
Never’s a long time. Who said I have to get it right? It just has to work.”

Khai laughed.
“Too bad you never got the chance to finish training with the other High Masters. They could have really helped you, I think.”

“
You trained with them. And you’re helping me. You’re passing their wisdom on to me. I say it does help.”

Khai
shook his head. “But I’m a better warrior than I am a teacher. They are the true experts at
teaching
their Wisdoms, and have done so for many years. I could never match them.”

“
You might one day, Khai. You might have to. No one lives forever–not even the High Masters.”

He smirked at her.
“Like you, I still have a lot to learn.”

He suddenly pulled out a frosty bor
bble of Jett and held it out to her.

Naero
’s eyes widened.

“
Where in the hell did you–”

“
Jia said Baeven still had a few of these hidden somewhere…for special occasions. I asked her for one. I hear it’s your favorite lix.”

“
What’s the special occasion?”

He shrugged and looked away.
“We’ve been training hard. I thought you deserved a reward. I wanted to do something nice, while our truce still holds. I don’t really enjoy being your enemy very much, Naero. I can’t do anything about that, but I just wanted you to know how I felt.”

“
Thanks, Khai. Now give me that.” She snatched the Jett out of his hands and started chugging it.

“
None for you, buddy.”

“
That’s all right. As a true Mystic, all I drink is rain water. I only eat nuts and twigs.”

Naero almost snorted Jett out her nose.
“Huh?”

He grinned.
“I’m kidding, of course.”

“
Oh…okay. You’re so serious all the time. I’m not used to you attempting to have…a sense of humor.”

Khai took offense.
“What do you mean attempting? I do happen to have one, you know.”

“
Okay. I’m sure you’re great at parties–a laugh riot. But you still ain’t getting any of my Jett.”

“
No loss. I’ve never really had any, before. I don’t usually imbibe soft drinks of any kind.”

Her eyes widened.
“Really? Seriously? You’re not kidding this time, right? Well hey, then you just gotta try this stuff.”

“
No. I got it for you. Please enjoy.”

“
No, I insist. You have to taste this stuff. It’s the best lix in all the universe. Just a sip, though.”

Khai
hesitated. Then he took a small sip.

Then he blinked.

“See?” Naero said. “What’d I tell you. Great, huh? Am I right?”

She’d never seen Khai astonished before. He was kinda cute, flabbergasted
.

“
Amazing,” he said. “I’ve never tasted anything that good.”

Naero had an idea.

She guzzled half of the borbble and smacked her lips.

Then she pla
ced the rest of her Jett safely off to one side.

“
There’s half of it left…how about I fight you for it?”

He shot to his feet.
“You’re on. Let’s go. You’re going down!”

Naero grinned.

This time, just for once, she’d let him win.

But at least she had to make it look good.

The next day, they finally had the leap drives up and running again. With all three ships docked together, there wouldn’t be a chance of losing each other.

But if they cooked off or imploded, they
’d all die together as well.

Tyber and Rendar engaged the device while their crews stood by their stations.

In the flash of an instant, they went from the middle of the unknown Gamma Quadrant, to within .0032 light years of their target coordinates. They were back on the edge of known space near the Alpha quadrant, on the border with the expansion of the Alliance Systems and the Gigacorps.

They
finally made it back.

But they still had no way to
fully locate their enemies, or discern what their foes were going to do next.

For the time being, it seemed that the
enemy had given up on trying to locate other Driathan sentinels and their hidden homeworld.

But they still had Dan
ner, and they were still invading the galaxy. Naero wasn’t about to let any of that stand.

Strangely enough, it was Khai who picked up the traces of the enemy.

As part Oden, he seemed to have an uncanny knack for tracking Cosmic signatures that no one else possessed. Not Om. Not even Jia.

“
That Darkforce energy of theirs is faint,” he said, using their sensor arrays to ferret it out. “But there’s not much else that is like it. From everything I can see, they’re somewhere in the Corps colony extents around the Hezzen System.”

“
That’s right on the border with the Alliance colonies, in the areas everyone’s scrambling to explore.”

“
Only a few mining probes have gone out that far,” Ty said. “A quiet area without many dangers, from what is known.”

Naero raised an eyebrow.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Baeven said. “We’d better get out there to check it out. After we re-supply at Takeda-3, it’ll be a short hop. Then it’s off to find our new friends and put an end to whatever it is they’re planning now–and them. Permanently.”

He suddenly looked directly at Naero.

“What about your Enforcer boy friend? Have you convinced him to join our cause?”

She lowered her eyes and shook her head.

“I thought not.” Baeven sighed. “He’s a stubborn one. We’ll have to rid ourselves of him, if he’s going to try to take you in again–one way or another.”

“
He’s helped us immensely. Khai’s given us both valuable insights into our…situations, that we never had before. He’s made us stronger. Not to mention he fought beside us on Zoa-4–with great skill and courage.”

“
Because he had to in order to survive,” Baeven said. “Not because he wanted to.”

“
I think he wanted to. None of us would have made it out of that complex without his valor. I could not betray him like that.”

“
Naero, you’re starting to like that stiff too much. He remains a serious threat to everything we’re trying to accomplish. The truce you have with him is ending. He remains sworn to bring you back to face the tender justice of the Mystics–and myself included, if he can manage that as well. What if he kills one of us in the attempt? Either you do something to resolve this–or I will”

“
No, Uncle. Don’t do anything. Please. Don’t make all of this worse. Let me try once more to persuade him. We have today. I’ll speak to him again. Khai’s reasonable, given the chance.”

Baeven narrowed his eyes.
“That time is passing all too quickly. We launch at dawn, if not sooner. You know we’ve spoken about this matter before.”

“
I’ll handle it.”

Baeven glared at her.
“You’d better.”

45

Naero, Khai, Zhen, Tyber, Enel and
Passaendra went to the open market at the Takeda-3 starport to purchase goods and supplies.

Several fixers bobbed along with them.

The new slap-together colonial starport was modular in nature, and could flex and change each day with the merchants at hand.

Naero bartered quickly and efficiently for what they needed, getting the best prices she could manage, almost without effort.

She’d been cutting deals since she could float and talk.

Naero loved being a Spacer.

She grew so quiet and so pre-occupied, that after a while, she even lost track of Khai and her friends, as they all wandered off on their own through the open market.

On a whim, Naero saw a blurt board ad and even went over to a local Galactic Zoo franchise
, to see a certain rare creature that was being advertised:

THE UNICORNS OF LARELLON-7

Naero thought of Princess Iiden and Thanor-4.

At the zoo,
Crowds of landers flocked around a shielded, circular, shining silver pen, filled with a herd of actual unicorns.

There were about three dozen of them, somewhere between the size of a pony and a deer, and a little like both of those creatures as well. But there they were, pretty and delicate, and most of them even had blue eyes. They were pure white, with silken manes and tails, and ivory horns
set in the middle of their foreheads. They ate special feed out of peoples’ hands that was for sale, and people could even pet the skittish, hungry things and marvel at them.

And yes, they pooped unicorn turds at will. Naero laughed with joy.

Naero took her turn and even went back through the line again, studying the physiology and genetics of the creatures expertly with her biomancy. They were in fact, a true wonder.

She thought
again of her friends back on Thanor-4 and the bloody, brutal war they were all probably up to their necks in by this time.

She thought of young Princess Iiden and her innocent wish on the brink of that bloody conflict, and hoped that her friends were all still alive.

If she ever survived her own ordeal, Naero would return to Thanor-4 one day, and do her best to grant the young princess her wish.

Suddenly
Naero felt very homesick for her trade fleet, traveling from stop to stop in the new expansion booms, trading, negotiating, making money for her and her people–the people she loved. Her goofy, talented, quirky trading partners from all the Clans.

What a trade team they made.

If only.

What she would
n’t give to go back to what she could not.

Truth be told, Naero hated being an outlaw
.

Naero
returned to the market and finished shipping the last of their supplies back to the three ships. Then she called Zhen.

“
This is N. Shopping for supplies is completed. We have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Where are you guys?”

Zhen laughed, goofing off with
Ty as they bantered back and forth. “Clothing store, N. Here’s the coordinates. Come over and join us. Once we’re done here, we’ll get some chow somewhere local.”

“
Clothing? You don’t wear lander stuff, Z. And we can program any clothing or food we want on board the ships, any time we want.”

Zhen rolled her eyes.
“Live a little, get over here and figure it out. You’re not saving up for your first ship anymore, cheapskate. Splurge for once.”

“
Okay. I’m coming. Khai with you guys?”

“
Nope. Call him if you want.”

“
I’ll catch up to you guys first.”

She walked into the shop, quite an upscale
local place really. She asked about her friends, and the clerks led her to where else–the bridal area.

Zhentisa stood up on a 3-D holo pedestal in a sheer slip over her slender form.

She tried on holographic designs for wedding dresses.

Tyber drool
ed and cooed over each one.

Naero was somewhat stunned. Not really a slave to any kind of fashion herself, stepping out in any way was
n’t really her thing. Not very often at least. Nytex togs were fine for her.

As far as she was concerned, she could live and die in her togs.
And, maybe her dress uniform, once in a while.

The clerks waved their glowing design gloves over Zhen
’s delicate body, switching and swapping holo pieces and patterns.

Naero laughed.

“White, Zhen? You’re wearing white?”

Zhen stuck her tongue out at her.
“It is tradition.”

“
Which one?”

“
Off white,” she admitted.

“
Spring Ivory,” the smiling clerk said. The lander woman actually never really stopped smiling ear-to-ear. It was kinda creepy.

“
Oooh…ooh. I like that one,” Ty said.

“
Better than the first thirty?” Zhen asked.

They quickly flipped back through their first three saves.

“You know,” Khai said suddenly, making Naero jump. He was right next to her as if by magic.

She punched him lightly. He was carrying a big trunk of something on his back. It
looked very odd, even for him, but the guy was a hoss. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. You know, you can have that stuff delivered to the ship. You don’t have to lug it around.”

Khai laughed, s
etting his heavy shipping trunk down. Khai was incredibly strong, like Baeven and her.

“
Sorry. I was just going to say, if I recall what my mother told me once, a long time ago it was considered bad luck for the groom to see the bride in her wedding dress–before their wedding day.”

Ty and Z knitted their brows.
“That sounds really dumb,” Ty said.

“
Yeah,” Zhen added. “I want him here with me to help pick out our outfits.”

Ty suddenly paled.
“Outfits? I was just going to wear my dress blacks.”

Zhen gaped.
“No, no–you have to match me. We’re a pair. A couple.”

Ty
laughed. “A couple of what? Lander fools? Oh, sorry ladies. No offense.”

“None taken, sir.” Same creepy smile.

“I’m just wearing my blacks,” Ty insisted with a lazy sigh.

Zhen pursed her lips and glared.
“Only if you want me to shoot you in them. Tell him, N. The entire wedding party is going to be color-coordinated. It’ll be glacier.”

“You’d better listen to the doctor, T.”

“All right.” Ty kissed her cheek. “For you, we’ll wear any kind of stupid crap you want us to.”

Naero shielded her eyes.

Oh, Ty. You’re such, an idiot. Maybe Khai was right. Maybe it was bad luck. Or just maybe, Ty was a stupid goof.

Furious. Zhen pulled away and stormed out
in tears.

Even the still smiling clerks looked unsure about what to do.

Ty chased after her. “Hey. Sweetness? Come back. I said we’d wear whatever you want?”

Naero turned and stare
d uncomfortably at Khai. What to talk about?

“Khai–there’s something I want to know–did you really take on all thirty-six High Adepts and beat them?”

“No…”

Naero breathed a sigh of relief.

Khai both glared and smiled at her. “I took on all thirty-six High Adepts–
and
the five other Prime Adepts, and kicked all of their butts. All at the same time.”

He
kept looking at her, completely serious. Then he pointed to the holo pedestal.

Out of the black Khai said,
“You should get up there and try one on.”

Naero scoffed.
“Yeah. Right.”

He grinned.
“I dare you.”

“
Seriously?”

“
You’d look great in one of those…things. You’re mom did when she married your dad.”

“
What do you know about my parents?”

“
I was a big fan of the galactic fights. I followed their careers like everybody else. They were celebrities.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry about their loss. They were great people, Naero. They meant a lot to everyone.”

“
I just thought about them as my parents. All that celebrity stuff was behind them after they got married. They started chasing other dreams.”

Khai nodded.
“You really do look a lot like your mom.”

“
Thanks. I always take that as a compliment. She was beautiful. And smart–and tough like you couldn’t believe. And funny. She always made people laugh.”

“
Also like you. Please. We both know that I don’t get out much. Do a little fashion show for a poor deprived Enforcer?”

“
It wasn’t enough seeing my friend Zhen in her underwear?”

Khai smiled.
“Please. Your friend’s very pretty, but she’s not exactly my type.”

“
Ooh, the Mystic Enforcer has a type, huh? Like Hashiko?”

“
Hey, I’m not a bot. I’m still a man, just like any other.”

“
I’m not so sure about that.” Naero raised an eye brow. “It’s okay if you do, but I was just hoping you didn’t have a thing for guys.”

Khai laughed out loud.
“Seriously? After everything that–No. I’m pretty sure I’ve always liked gals.”

“
Couldn’t find any of those hot green girls to keep you busy?”

Khai actually blushed a little and shook his head.

“No. To tell you the truth, training from birth with the Mystics as one of their prodigies didn’t leave much time for dating or romance. The Mystics aren’t very big on romance and that kind of stuff, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“
Master Vane didn’t seem to have much trouble sating his baser needs among the Tua females.”

Khai
’s face darkened. “Chaos masters are…notoriously amoral and unpredictable. And we all knew what an assbag he could be.”

That proved it. She was an idiot.
Probably not a good plan to mention the High Master she was forced to kill to the Enforcer who was supposed to be hunting her down for the crime. Especially now that they were on the edge of the Alpha Quadrant.

Naero wis
hed they were flirting again, if that’s what had been going on.

Sh
e sought a way to re-cover, stepped up onto the pedestal, and offered herself up to the fashion gods.

“
All right. I’ll play along. Ladies, give me the full bride treatment. Do me right.”

The clerk
s perked up and smiled even wider, lifting their glowing design gloves. Then they hesitated.

“
Pardon, miss. You’re flight togs. Your…uh…hardware.”

Naero recalled that she was still armed to the teeth.

“Oh. Sorry. I’ll set my tog’s programming to somewhere between sheer…and opaque.” She removed her pistol belt, cutlass, and pouches. Then her gravwing, battle blades, bandoliers of microgrenades, mines, microbomblets, and energized throwing knives.

Heaped all together it
actually made quite a pile.

Reduced just to her skin-tight Nytex, s
he winked at Khai and hit one of her presets. Her nanosuit shrank to more of a light gray tank suit, accentuating her superbly toned, athletic form.

The Mystic Enforcer looked appropriately enthralled.

His breath seemed to catch at her every cat-like move.

Naero was far from nude but the skimpy suit still showed off all
of her charms.

Then Naero
unclipped and let down her shining mass of blue-black geisha hair. She veiled her big, bright violet eyes at Khai and shook her hair loose.

Khai
’s face turned red. He looked transfixed.

Let
the poor sap suffer.

The clerks went to work.

“Such nice curves.”

“
Athletic toning. Perfect proportions.”

“
You’re face and hair are exquisite.”

After several attempts
and near misses, they had
the
dress.

Naero caught her own breath.

She did look pretty great. From every angle. She could suddenly see what Zhen saw in all of this.

“
What do you think?” she asked Khai.