Spacer Clans Adventure 3: Naero's Fury Read online

  NAERO’S

  FURY

  Mason Elliott

  High Mark Publishing

  www.highmarkpublishing.com

  Seattle & Portland, Chicago, London

  NAERO’S

  FURY

  by

  Mason Elliott

  Kindle Edition

  © 2014 by Mason Elliott. All rights reserved.

  Published by High Mark Publishing

  ISBN 978-1-930451-09-4

  Watch for other titles by this author in the future.

  Cover Art by

  Frank Miller

  frankmillerdesign.com

  License Notes:

  This book or ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This work in any format may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Titles by Mason Elliott

  The Spacer Clans Adventures

  Naero’s Run

  Naero’s Gambit

  Naero’s Fury

  The Citation Series

  Naero’s War, Book One: THE ANNEXATION WAR

  Naero’s War, Book Two: THE HIGH CRUSADE*

  Short Fiction in Ebook Format

  The Permit

  (*Forthcoming)

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Titles by Mason Elliott

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  2

  3

  4

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  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  Teaser…and excerpt

  Call for Book Reviews

  About the Author

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  NAERO’S RUN

  NAERO’S GAMBIT

  1

  They danced upon the edge of oblivion, all three crippled starships docked together, lost in the unexplored Gamma Quadrant and spinning dangerously close to the nearest sun.

  In Naero’s current condition, startapping might yet prove fatal. And the additional distraction of a sudden flare up of her Cosmic sickness did not help matters, either. Pulsating sores of disrupting, infected Cosmic energy, fed by the Darkforce, erupted all over her flesh, causing her intense pain.

  The air was suddenly rank with psyonic ichor, fetid ozone, and putrification.

  Naero attempted to use her weakened abilities to lick at the star as if it were an immense lollipop of Cosmic energy. Power–both she and their ships all needed power to restart their cores and save themselves.

  To pull that off they had to get in dangerously close to the star.

  Too close and they’d all be reduced to a puff of atoms on the solar winds.

  If she were in better shape the process might prove easier, and safer. Yet she and Baeven were both still drained and beaten up from getting them there–spending all of their Cosmic energies to power the unstable wormhole that brought them out that way, on their dire mission.

  Naero reached out tentatively with another, tiny feeder ribbon, struggling not to open herself up to too much power. She and Om both knew what would happen then. A runaway out of control power surge, building to a huge gigablast.

  She struggled to avoid such a fate, almost too late.

  Even the small feedback rush that shot into her smallest feeder tendril was nearly overwhelming in her reduced state.

  The rush of pure Cosmic force raced through her sick, and damaged body, transfixing her, consuming her last defenses.

  Such power. Raw Cosmic energy beyond description. Naero gasped and tried to swallow.

  That power nearly destroyed and incinerated her.

  If she allowed it to suck them in, they would all be disintegrated.

  Instant flaming death.

  Om screamed in her head, but she could not make out his words.

  Waves of Kexxian defensive protocols lashed out and melted and vaporized in the face of such naked might.

  They struggled against a star itself–to war with and absorb those destructive energies and make use of them.

  Om attempted to save them. More Kexxian defenses erupted and ramped up exponentially in expanding bubbles and spheres.

  Naero screamed. Her veins, her heart, her brain. Every atom of her brimming with Cosmic force. Her Cosmic disease was both fed by such energies, and destroyed by them.

  Even her Dark Beast fell back in sudden shock, bloated and blitzed on energy in a sudden, besotted coma like a drunkard.

  Her friends and crew…her family.

  They were all that Naero could think of and recall.

  With one wave of her hand she spent most of her power to fling their ships back from the impending destruction, restarting all three fusion cores at the last instant–even The Star Fox.

  Naero finally understood too late, as she barely managed to transform into an energy being.

  She had managed to save the others even as the star pulled her into its gravity vortex.

  Yet somehow, for the moment, the Kexxian fields around her stabilized.

  She swam or soared through the intensely hot, expanding energies of the star’s surface, as if it were an immense sea of energy.

  Then she caught sight of Khai, the Mystic Enforcer, moving under his own power and force of will.

  Bright green and glowing in his own energy form, he swung himself around, far outside the fierce core of the star, recharging his sword Yii within the might of the sun itself. Just as it had been created, in similar fashion.

  Naero struggled to move toward him, still unable to keep herself from slowly being drawn in further, in her weakened state.

  He looked her way, sensing her approach. Khai called out to her telepathically.

  You’re moving too fast, Naero. You’ll be drawn into the core. You won’t survive there long. I know that fact, better than anyone.

  I can’t stop myself; I’m sick and damaged. Please, catch me. Help me, Khai. I’m dying!

  Khai strained and strove for her, the look on his face suddenly frantic.

  He just missed her fingertips as she continued to spiral in.

  I can’t reach you in time! he said.

  Naero smiled sadly, as an extreme calmness and serenity washed over her.

  Like all Spacers, Naero knew that one day she would return to the stars.

  She just did not expect it to be this soon–not while she still had so much to do. So much she still yearned to accomplish.

  Naero took no further thought to herself. Her worries and fears were all for those she loved–for those who would remain without her.

  A scant few months before, through all the many perils that she had faced, up to thi
s critical moment, no one could have told her that she would stare such a stark fate as this directly in the eye. The most recent events of her life flashed rapidly through her mind as if they were vids.

  *

  Merchant Fleet Captain Naero Amashin Maeris wondered if she was headed for further training with the Spacer Mystics–or execution.

  She stood upon her bridge with her feet planted firmly to either side, her hands crossed slightly behind the small of her slender waist, resting on her energy cutlass, sheathed on its belt swivel on her athletic hips. Her plain, Nytex flight suit and uniform hugged her small, agile form tightly, just the way she liked.

  Her eyes were pointed up at the stars above her, as they often were, when she was deep in thought or worry. The stars belonged to all.

  Naero led her people from the deck of her small, merchant flagship, The Flying Dagger. Her refitted bridge was leaf-shaped, like a battle blade itself. Pilot and co-pilot stations up front, crewed by her Second, Commander Enel Maeris and Ensign Sying Lii. Then her Captain’s chair, raised up behind them, which could rotate 360 degrees beneath the bridge blast screens, which were currently down. She and her bridge crew could see all around them through the clear bubble pod of the normal glasteel canopy.

  To her starboard sat Leftenant Commander Surina Marshall, third in command, at her communications station. On her port, Ensign Piper Fae at her scanning station. Next behind them–filling out the last quad of the bridge crew–Ensigns Kimbel Allen and Passaendra Wilde at shields and weapons on the left, and Ensigns Keldo Ramsey and Tarim Martan at jump drives and security on the right.

  She and her trade fleet of sixty odd vessels followed their current orders from the Spacer authorities, proceeding in the direction of Thanor-4–another super-secret world, known only to the Mystics and Spacer Intel. A journey of about one standard week.

  After the recent, tumultuous events on Janosha–and her part in them–Naero had agreed to surrender herself to the judgment of the Spacer Mystics and their three High Masters. Thank goodness it would be all three of them this time, and not just High Master Vane, of Chaos Wisdom.

  Naero had a pretty good idea what his vote would be.

  Still, she had given her word, upon her honor–even if doing so did in fact–lead to her execution.

  When they drew closer to Thanor-4, the rest of her fleet was ordered to peel off and trade in the nearby vicinity, waiting anxiously to hear from Naero about how her case turned out.

  Naero said farewell to her many friends among the other captains and their crews, including best friends Saemar and Chaela. Many of them had served together during the Annexation War and all of the battles and skirmishes since that time.

  Her outcast uncle would continue to shadow them in his own unique, alien ship, The Shadow Fox, along with his strange alien crew. His ship could vanish at will and remain undetected. Like Naero, Baeven did not entirely trust to the tender mercies of either Spacer Intel or the High Masters.

  But she didn’t have much choice.

  One fact remained clear. Naero’s growing Cosmic powers continued to spiral out of control, becoming a danger to all. Either she found a way to learn to control them, with the help of the Mystics…or she would eventually have to be put down, like a dangerous monstrosity. Even she more or less agreed to that now–if things got bad.

  If, it got to the point where she started killing people and couldn’t stop herself–as in her repeated nightmares.

  The real truth was probably even much scarier.

  Neither Intel nor the High Masters knew what to do with her. At least not yet.

  Naero took an emergency call from her ship’s doctor in sickbay. That was the place they brought her younger brother Jan to, for the trip, over from The Shadow Fox. He’d been delirious and traumatized, ever since Naero rescued him from a long capture and the horrible torments of their enemies.

  “Zhen, what is–”

  Naero heard sounds of a harsh struggle over the link.

  “N, get down here. Jan’s out of control. He’s tearing the place apart. Ugh! And us with it!”

  “I’m there, Z. Subdue him if you have to.”

  “We can’t. Our stunners won’t even touch him. Help! He’s trying to burn us!” Zhen screamed.”

  Jan had recovered well enough to use his psyonics; Jan was a pyrokinetic.

  She suddenly had an even worse thought.

  What if it wasn’t even Jan? What if their insane brother Danner had taken Jan’s mind and body over again?

  And if she had gotten her Cosmic powers back by now–what if Danner had found a way to do the same thing?

  Dan had been more powerful than her and Jan put together. In raw destructive strength–he rivalled the Mystic High Masters.

  Naero knew this for a fact, from their last encounter.

  “Enel, Rina, take the bridge. Pass and Kel, head to sickbay and be ready for a fight. Tarim, get two of your security teams there. Shields, squad stunners, and needle guns.”

  “On the way, N,” Tarim said.

  Naero picked her best fighters she could send. “I’m going on ahead,” she told them.

  She channeled Cosmic energy and used her Mystic abilities to transport just outside of sickbay in an instant.

  Right as medtek Trudi Cheyenne came hurtling through the door panels and nearly knocked Naero down. Tru smacked into the opposite wall of the corridor and dropped to the floor in a scorched, bloody heap.

  Naero raced into sickbay. The smartroom struggled to put out several fires. Medbeds and equipment had been knocked around.

  Her brother Jan fought Zhen and several crew in the far corner.

  Then Naero read Jan’s Cosmic energy aura–nearly out of control with Chaos energy–and a growing dark haze of Darkforce power.

  Like her and Baeven, Jan had his own Dark Beast lurking deep within himself–trying to break out. Or perhaps she was sensing Danner’s malevolent presence, Jan’s insane twin, still in the hands of the enemy.

  Either way–not good.

  Jan kicked and punched, and flung three crew aside as if they were nothing. Zhen activated her personal deflector screen, just barely avoiding being encased in a gout of destroying fire from Jan’s extended hands.

  Naero shielded herself, backed up by Cosmic energy, and swept in to slam Jan against the wall. For an instant she staggered him, trying to find some way to sense exactly who or what she was dealing with.

  “Jan, stop it. It’s Naero. You’re hurting our people, our friends. Is it you, Jan? Is it you in there?”

  Jan blinked at her and then sobbed. “N? Is it really you, sib?”

  Naero wrapped her arms around him. He clung to her suddenly, gasping and desperate.

  Part of him really didn’t know.

  “It’s me, Jan. It’s really me. I’m here, and you’re safe with me, on my flagship.”

  Jan collapsed against her and wept. “Am I? I–I thought they had me again, back in their labs. They hurt me, N. The kept it up and they kept looking for new ways to keep hurting me. Unlike Danner…I had never been tortured before.”

  Naero held him tighter and clenched one fist. “I’m sorry it took me so long to find you and set you free, Jan. But you’re safe now. And when we locate those who did all of this to you and Danner, we will make them pay. I swear it.”

  Jan shuddered and shook his head. More crew charged into sickbay. Naero waved them off, for the time being.

  Jan rambled. “I couldn’t bear Danner, sib. If they had had me long enough, they might have driven me mad–just like they did to him. Sometimes I could keep him out of my mind. Other times I could not.”

  “We’re going to our Mystics, Jan. They can show you how to shield your mind. They can show both of us how to control and use our dangerous powers. There’s so much I can tell you, and show you. But right now, I just want you to relax, regain your strength, and know that you are safe and back with me, and among our people. I love you, and I’m going to protect you…with my l
ife, if need be.”

  Jan looked confused. “Your…flagship? Haisha! How long was I…out of the mix? I couldn’t judge time. Months, maybe a year passed. I’m not sure.”

  Naero made him lie back down on a medbed. “We’ll get to all of that, Jan. Too much has happened. Just take some time to relax and recover. After lunch, I’ll come by and we’ll have a long talk.”

  Jan’s eyes went wide in panic. He looked like he was going to freak out again.

  “The machine!” he shrieked. “I just remembered, N. The worst was when they stuffed me into one of those…those things. I couldn’t breathe right, and the constant waves of shifting pain, and I was trapped. I–I couldn’t get out!” He covered his eyes and whined, nearly going catatonic.

  Naero sighed, and spent the next several hours at Jan’s side, while he attempted to recover and make sense of things. Once he finally slept fitfully, she spoke quietly with Zhen, conferred with Om, and with her crew on the bridge.

  While every passing moment brought them closer and closer to Thanor-4 and the judgment of the High Mystics.

  2

  The Flying Dagger reached Thanor-4 six days later, minus Naero’s trade fleet, who parted company from them after Day 3.

  The secret planet was a blue, green, brown, and white earthlike with five main continents. Four of these were in close proximity, with one far away from all the others on the other side of the planet. Naero and her people were were on approach, heading toward a small, newly constructed, Spacer Intel starport on the isolated continent–Nashara–the only one that scans showed had any tek.

  Although the other four land masses did have small pockets of lo-tek, near-human populations concentrated around a bay, their tek level was somewhere near the Old Terran Dark Ages. Interesting.

  The continent of Maedor was particularly intriguing, far beyond its high mountains and vast deserts. The eastern half of the extended continent consisted of dense forests to the north, and equally dense jungles to the south. Gigantic land serpents, barbaric, semi-sentient goat-like, tribal humanoids. A violent place of what many would call–monsters.