Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury (55 page)

Naero shook her head again.
“I can’t see one. I don’t think I have anyone who will take my side. Who will see me as anything but a murderer in this matter? A monster. No one will believe in me.”

“
You are wrong,” Khai said.

He knelt down and drew his sword. Yii blazed to life with all of its fierce energies, nearly blinding.

Khai placed the Cosmic blade at her feet.

“
I have come to know you, Naero Amashin Maeris. I believe in and respect you. You have my allegiance and more, such as I have never offered to any other in all the known worlds. You have stood by me, even when it was my duty to kill you. You kept my life safe, when it was in your best interest to let it end–or finish the deed by your own hands. With none to stay you or be the wiser.”

She lifted his sword, rose to her feet, and handed Yii back to him.

“You honor me, Khai. I fully understand just how noble you truly are. Much like Prince Gaviok, honor, truth, and steadfast, faithful service to others are everything to you.” She hung her head.

“
But I am…not worthy of such loyalty.”

“
Others shall be the judge of that. Do not mistake me, Naero. I have pledged myself to you, and not lightly. I will stand beside you until the end. I will speak on your behalf of your many brave deeds, and in your defense, doing all that I can.”

Naero chuckled and shook her head.

“I am your prisoner, Khai. By rights you should have me shackled in restraints, or put in stasis for secure shipment to my trial.”

“
Who is whose prisoner?” Khai chuckled. “And here I thought I was dense.”

She glanced at him, feeling puzzled.

“There shall be no chains between us Naero. Only those bonds that we have already forged–some within the heat of a star.”

He suddenly took both of her hands in his.

“By my heart and all that I will ever be, by the Powers, we shall find a way for you to live–and fully know what it is that you can be.”

He kissed both her hands, still upon his knee.

Bolts of what felt like lightning shot up her arms. Naero gasped.

Khai rose up and touched her face with one gentle hand, thrilling her again with the jolt of energy at his very touch.
How she had secretly longed for his hands upon her again–star or no star. She gasped for air.

She stared up into his shining face and could not look away.

His golden eyes looked deep into hers. She suddenly felt as if all gravity ceased and the universe itself stood still. She could not breathe.

“
I love you, Naero,” Khai told her. “I can’t help it anymore. I have never felt this way for another. Can you feel the same for me?”

In answer
, Naero sprang into the mighty arms of the Champion of the Oden. She knocked him flat back upon the nanofloor in another instant of ecstatic surprise.

Her hands knitted into his golden hair and brought their eager, gaspin
g mouths together in searing ecstasy.

Together their mutual passions flared like twin blinding quasars of coruscating desire.

Whether she faced death or no would not matter for a time.

And
maybe…just maybe…their current journey to far off Kalathar might just prove infinitely more pleasant and intriguing–than Naero had originally assumed.

50

Naero plotted a course for Gairos-3, summoned her fleet and many others, and set all the proper plans into motion.

She found
the right time.

After Ty broke down again when she told him
about what was possible–and what was not–he immediately agreed to the process, just as Jia had proposed.

Just like
Naero knew he would.

Like
her he had a lot of questions.
The Star Fox
still shadowed them. Naero just didn’t let Khai in on that little fact.

Withhold
ing information wasn’t lying. Not exactly.

Ji
a crossed over.

“How should we work this?”
Ty asked, getting very serious. “Do we tell Tisa what happened straight up? Do we let her know she’s going to die again, in less than a day?”

“You tell us, Ty. How do you want to play this? We can explain the whole thing to her up front. Or you can just enjoy the time you have with her and then let her drift off
, without her ever knowing. You tell me what you think is best.”

“Will she…be in a lot of pain at the end?”

“No,” Jia reassured him. “She’ll just start to get tired, and drift off.”

“It’s my decision then?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if it was up to me, I’d just pretend
the entire time and not upset her. Just enjoy my last moments with her.” Ty’s voice cracked and he came near to sobbing again.

He sniffed and wiped his face.

“But that’s not what she would want. My Tisa was always about the truth. She’d hate my guts if I lied to her about something like this–if I just pretended that everything was okay. I have to tell her. But actually, I don’t think I’ll be able to get it out. It would be better if I took some time and wrote it all out. I could explain it to her in a letter without breaking down and getting all emotional. She can read it quickly, and grasp what’s going on. Then she’ll probably want to just spend time together…before the end.”

Naero sighed and rest
ed her hand on Ty’s arm. “A lot of people don’t get even this much, Ty. My parents never did. Neither did Gallan and so many others during the wars.”

Ty pursed his lips and nodded.
“No, I understand that and so will she. I’m grateful for this much. I really am. Thank you both for this chance. It’s…just a lot to deal with, and I know up front that I’m going to have to lose her all over again. But it will still be worth it, and she’ll think so, too.”

It took them a
nother day to actually reach Gairos-3 and get everything organized, set up, and ready.

At the beginning of the next day
during the early bells, they started the procedure.

Jia,
Baeven, Trudi, and a newly arrived Shalaen all assisted, preparing everything for the process.

Naero
cupped her friend’s face in her hands and breathed Zhen’s soul back in her thawed, repaired body, while Trudi and Shalaen got her heart pumping and lungs breathing again.

The
Lifespark from Zhen’s soul filled her brain and mind, and at last her pretty hazel eyes fluttered open.

She looked
up at her friends standing about her and at first, she was scared and confused.

“What happened?
Where am I?”

“You were badly wounded,
Z.” Naero said.

“Am I going to be okay? Where’s Ty?”

Ty took her hands in his. “Hey, Tisa. I’m right here.”

“You’re scaring me, Ty.” She sat up and felt herself.

“I’m not trying to scare you. But I do have something you need to read.”

“Huh?
…Read?”

Ty put his arms around her
and placed a reading pad in her hands.

“This’ll save us
lots of time.”

Zhen read it a
ll the way through.

She swallowed hard a couple of times.

Then she let the pad slip to the floor of the medical bay.

The rest of the
ir friends and crew came in.

“Okay, so I don’t have much time. So
, we’ll just have to make the most of things. I hope you will all understand that I want to spend every second that I can with Ty. Please, help me do that.”

“We can put you on a medbed toward the end as you start t
o weaken,” Jia said. “That will…give you a little more time.”

Zhen hugged Naero. “Thanks for giving me
this much, N. All of you. I might not have even had all of this, without you all. I know you, N. Don’t blame yourself for what happened to me. You’ve been a good friend, even if you are a jerk sometimes.”

“Oh, Z
. I’m so sorry.”

“I
still don’t want you to let me go,” Zhen said, shaking her hard. “I want to live. When I drift off this time, take my soul again. Promise me. Naero Amashin Maeris, you promise me–right here and now–on your life and your honor, on the honor of Clan Maeris. You’ll try to find a way…some way for me to come back. Just keep me inside of you for a while and try. Please, I’m begging you!”

Naero nodded.
They clung to one another and sobbed. “I will, Zee. You have my word.” She reached into an armored, shielded pouch and pulled out the small, battered cryo case that Zhen had pressed into her hand for safekeeping that fateful day.

She place it
back into Zhen’s hands. Zhen shoved it right back at her.

“
No, you keep that, N. I’ve given you my family. You must protect them and keep them safe. Help Ty find a way to have them born, and raise them all, and keep them free. They’re the only part of me that will go on. If anyone can make it happen–you can. Tell my babies about me, N. Please…Let them know what I was like.”

Naero stammered. “I…I don’t know what to say. I will, Zhen. I’ll see it
all done. You…you could still be a part of all that, you know. There is a small way.”

Zhen’s mouth fell open. “I don’t…how?
What do you mean?”

“Well, after the wedding, and you an
d Ty have your brief little honeymoon, how would you like to give birth…to your son, Gallan?”

Z stared at her in wonder. “N, you can do that for me? How is that
even possible?”

“It’s your choice. Shalaen and I talked it over. We can use biomancy to speed up the development process. You can
safely give birth to your firstborn, and you and Ty can hold him together in your arms, before…before the end. But if you think it’s all too much–”

“No, no, I want to. Oh, N, yes, let’s make it happen. I don’t want to waste any time.”

They re-implanted the child in Zhen’s womb and made sure everything was ready…for later. Chaela and Saemar arrived just in time for the wedding.

Fleet
Captain Naero Amashin Maeris performed the brief ceremony for Tyber and Zhen beneath the mountain waterfall valley of Gairos-3. The spectacular rainforest and the iridescent rainbows made for a perfect setting, just as Zhen had planned.

Zhen made for a beautiful bride
in her spring ivory dress, beaming in happiness next to her beloved Ty in his matching sea foam tux. Everyone present wept for joy.

After the short ceremony and a brief reception, Zhen and Ty launched back up into orbi
t for a honeymoon on a small yacht that lasted only a handful of hours.

Then it was back to the medical bay on board
The Dagger
. Trudi was so emotional, she could hardly assist, but with Naero and Shalaen and Jia present, there wasn’t that much to do.

Naero carefully
progressed little Gallan through his gestation, while Zhen watch him grow with her healing sight, tears racing down her face as he did so. The birth was made quick and relatively painless–as much as any live birth could be.

In less than a standard hour, Ty and Z sat together holding each other and their new son, beneath the vista of the stars overhead through the wide, open viewport on board
The Darkstar
.

Friends and crew filed past to greet the little newcomer and congratulate the parents.

Just after dinner, Zhen’s head sagged and her strength began to leave her.

M
y friends,” Z called out, with effort. “It appears…that I don’t have much time, now. Thank you all…so much…for what you have given to me this day. It’s been an honor serving with you all and getting to know you. I love you all. But now…if you don’t mind, I want to spend every second I have left with my Ty and my little Gallan–alone–if you can forgive me. Thank you all once again. If I do not see you again, farewell. Safe journey, my Clan, my friends.”

They
put her on a medbed and returned her to Tyber’s private quarters immediately.

Everyone waited
, somber and still, as the minutes ticked by.

Two
hours later, they got the call.

Less than a half hour after that, with Ty cradling her
and their son in his loving arms, a smiling, Dr. Zhentisa Maeris gently drifted away again.

And
true to her word and promise, Naero took her abani’s soul back into her gentle keeping.

51

Days later, Naero transported alone, down to the surface of lo-tek, backwater Thanor-4, overlooking the Bay of Thanarra.

It was late at night, and even
from up in the sky on her gravwing, the four city states all seemed to be on fire.

She teknomanced and gathered data feeds from the spyfixer network she had left behind.

The city states had prosecuted their war against each other ruthlessly and with great cunning on all sides.

The massive armies of the Vaedo began it. It
started with them. Months of grinding battle swept over the lands, destroying towns, burning crops.

But starti
ng a war was not the same thing as sustaining a war or finishing one.

The Thanes, the Kall, and the Maedo joined together, fighting their enemies on land, on sea, in the desert, the forests, and the mountains. The allies
brilliantly ground the Vaedo down hard, over weapons of iron and steel and wooden ships, and drove them back over their own high walls. Then the allies broke through those walls and tore them down.

Yet as the city
state of the Vaedo burned–raised to the ground and their people set free–the allies were yet in danger of losing the brutal war.

For Emperor Vauk, the golden dragon godking, had still managed to outmaneuver them all in the end. While the allies
liberated his slaves and burned his golden city, putting it to torch and flame, Emperor Vauk and another army of five thousand elite warriors stormed the mountain fastness of the Maedo.

This fortress
overlooked the great desert on the opposite side of the high passes.

Vauk
lost over three thousand troops reducing the mountain fortress, yet in the end, the stubborn Maedo defenses fell.

Naero went down to that area, cloaked
and prepared to observe whatever she found.

The Vaedo had indeed broken through and slain the defenders–a mix of Thanes, Kall, and Maedo
–all who fought bravely.

They gave their charges precious hours to escape down into the desert and flee toward the coast of the bay.

Emperor Vauk and his sixteen hundred soldiers left even their wounded behind and now raced to overtake the nearly five thousand children from all the allies–between the ages of six and sixteen–fleeing in terror before them.

Naero infiltrated the Vaedo
host, to spy upon Emperor Vauk.

Surrounded by his bloodguard of hundreds, the godking was being raced along in a great golden wagon with six gilded wheels, pulled by a dozen, sweating, foaming draft gult in their glittering harnesses. Each of the wagon’s wheels and their spinning, anti-personnel blades were already stained with
human blood.

Vauk shouted, jostled around among his servants and concubines.

“Run the vermin down. How can they be so far ahead of us, still? We’ve only been able to bloody my wheels with stragglers–the weak and the crippled left scattered behind. Catch them all out in the open. I want to slice through hundreds of them and mow them down! Leave a gory trail of the little wretches chopped to pieces and screaming behind us!”

His troops fanned out to either side, forming two wings or arcs out on the edges. Hundreds of Vaedo light skirmishers and cavalry spearheaded the charge.

The fleeing children were burdened by having the older kids forced to carry the younger ones, all of them exhausted. Their faces strained in terror. They struggled to reach a dried up river canyon gorge that would lead them down to the delta salt marshes of the bay.

The children might reach it before the enemy overtook and encircled them.

Vauk stood up and gripped his golden railing, continuing to rave.

“After we capture the bulk of them, we will drive them to the beaches. I will reward my valiant troops
by allowing them to ravage the spawn of our foes all night long in a great, drunken, bloody orgy. Do as you will with them! Then in the morning we shall impale all the brats–living and dead–all along the shore and leave them rotting in the sun for their parents to find. Then our triumph shall be complete, and the final destiny of our world decided. There shall be no further generations of our enemies–no more fools who dare to challenge a god!”

Even more important
from what Naero saw, the rocky gorge was very narrow in several places, and would greatly delay troops, giving the children–at least some of them–the best chance at getting away.

The
deadly race continued along the ridges and up and down the dunes.

Naero blipped over to check on the children.

They weren’t going to make it.

They were being led by Princess Laikalla of the Maedo, age fifteen, and Prince Shondar of the Thanes, age fourteen. They were backed up by Maedo Prince Tavul, thirteen, Kall Princess Vaxxalla, also thirteen, and finally, Thane Princess Iiden, age twelve.

Laikalla called out to all the others. “We need to hold them off. Five hundred of us–the biggest and best fighters, ages fourteen to sixteen–will hold the narrows for as long as we can last. That will allow the others to make it through and look for the ships. Tavul, Vaxxalla, and Iiden will lead the retreat from this point on. The rest of us, take up your position in the rear guard. We must hold with whatever weapons we have. Pick up every rock and stone that you can gather. We fight to the last the breath!”

Prince Shondar hugged his weeping sister goodbye. Then he drew his sword. “Go, Iiden! Y
ou and the others must lead the little ones to safety as best you can. Come, my friends. Prepare for battle!”

Naero had seen
more than enough.

She took up a position on the top of the last dune crest leading down into the gorge that the children just started to rush through.

Naero clenched her fists and her teeth.

To hell with non-intervention.
No one gave a damn what happened here any longer. These brave kids weren’t going to be cut to pieces and the others weren’t going to be butchered, raped, and mutilated that night.

Not under her watch.

The Spacer Mystics had abandoned Thanor-4 to its fate.

Naero no longer agreed with that
premise. In that case, she was now free to act.

The Vaedo swept up the rise to run down their quarry.

Time for some theatrics.

Every second would buy the kids time.

A scarlet bolt of lightning crashed down, and Naero uncloaked in full-on Shetanna mode. Her violet eyes blazed, and the winds of night from the mountains swept through her dark hair and cloak.

The Vaedo halted for a moment, staring up at her
in fear and wonder. From her vantage point, she could hear their words.

Emperor Vauk’s golden wagon trundled up. “Why have you stopped? Forward. In and
take them! Run them down!”

“But Emperor,” one of
his captains said, pointing up at Naero. “That woman appeared in a flash of blood-red lightning. She is either a goddess, or perhaps even–a demon!”

Vauk went into a rage. He flung his
full golden wine cup and smashed the captain in the face with it, the red liquid splashing everywhere. “A woman? You halted my advance for a single bitch? I don’t care who or what that whore is. You are led by a god! Attack, my champions. On to victory! We are thousands! What can one woman do?”

Naero smiled and used
the voice
.

“
Shetanna, the Dark Angel of Death, is upon you all. Not one of you shall escape.
”

She formed her Ur-metal blades
in her hands and the earth split around her. Then she summoned her scarlet katanas over them.

Naero startapped all the Cosmic energy that she could muster.

With her battle cry ringing upon her lips, she sprang down and fell upon the rampaging Vaedo in vengeance and fury.

The children of Thanarra paused and shrank in fear within the adjacent gorge, stricken with
horror by the fell blasts of scarlet lightning that erupted just over the next rise. Strange waves and bursts of light and power flared–amid the wailing and shrieking of the Vaedo army as it perished. The ground all about that area trembled and shook.

When all went deathly quiet, Princess Laikalla and Prince Shondar led a sortie back up t
hat rise to stare down at the fate of the Vaedo forces that had pursued them all with rapacious and murderous intent.

Some of the enemy had been incinerated into piles of ash where they stood or
swept forward. Yet the vast majority hung impaled, scorched to ash, and their skeletons still burning–upon glowing red, twisted blades of hot glass.

Death came
so swiftly that most perished while they still charged forward. Few had time to turn and run.

The h
ot, glowing, hissing blades of thick, jagged glass had ripped out of the sand itself, and punctured and burned most of them alive–hundreds upon hundreds.

The deep trough had been transformed into an eerie,
razor-sharp, glass orchard of red death, set within a smoldering black glass crater–a cauldron of glowing oblivion.

Naero dragged a stunned
and muttering Emperor Vauk up to the crest of the rise and flung him down at their feet.

They drew back from her in fear, as if she were some apparition.

“His power is broken forever,” Naero told them. “He meant to violate and murder you all, but now he is fallen in complete disgrace. He will not kill anyone…ever again.”

Naero pulled down her mask to show them her face.

Princess Laikalla and Prince Shondar blinked and recognized her.

“Sister Naero!”

“Shetanna!”

They
wept with great relief and joy, and rushed to embrace her.

Dammit, all of the
se kids were taller than her.

The vanguard of the ships of the Kall met them on the beaches
within hours. Princess Kutira and
The Blue Vixen
led the fleet in the twilight.

She drew her blue-steel cutlass and her eyes blazed with rage
and vengeance as she glared at Emperor Vauk, lying helpless in a filthy heap, under guard.

Her voice trembled.
“Why does that scum still live!”

Naero stepped forward and stayed her hand. “It is for the Kings and Queens
of your world to decide his fate, Kutira. He will meet his end.”

She snarled
and visibly shook with rage, barely able to restrain herself. “I must turn away then. I can not be near the Darkheart without taking his life.”

While they awaited for the arrival of the other royals, the Kall saw to the rescue of the children. Several thousand of them
in one spot quickly became increasingly messy and smelly, badly in need of aid.

The mariners dug hasty pit and trench latrines for them in the sand
along the beach, and the children washed themselves clean down in the warm surf.

Food and kegs of water were opened and doled out
.

Then
the ships with the royals pulled up.

The Sea King, Haikoda
, set foot upon the shore for the first time since he had been born, leading the others behind him to decide the fate of Emperor Vauk.

Naero
greeted them, and turned to lead them. Cries erupted just ahead.

As they rushed up, Emperor Vauk held a
little girl, threatening to cut her throat open with a small concealed blade. “I want a ship! Get away from me, all of you. Stay back!”

He looked like the madman he was.

Before even Naero could act, Kutira swooped in, swinging on a line. She sprang upon the emperor, booting him aside.

She
stabbed and slashed him with her karath and cutlass, screaming in ferocity.

Naero
lunged forward and caught the child before the little girl hit the ground.

Vauk fell onto his back
like the sniveling coward he was, whimpering and pleading, sliding down into one of the nearby catch-pit latrines on his shiny, slippery, golden silk robes.

Kutira rode him down into the pit, continuing to
ram her weapons into his face, throat, and chest until both her blades chipped, shattered, and broke.

The thing that had been Emperor Vauk, the godking, slipped head first into a pit of
human waste, gurgling, gasping, and spluttering, until the bubbles stopped, and his twisted, twitching, blood-soaked fingers and limbs froze.

Kutira
rose up and still spat on him.

“Scum! Blackheart! You who have butchered so many. You killed
my beloved brother, Jigan. For nothing! Burn in all the hells at once–and may the devils feast upon your stinking flesh and your putrid soul–if even they can choke you down their flaming gullets!”