Naero's Mastery Read online

  Naero’s

  Mastery

  Mason Elliott

  High Mark Publishing

  www.highmarkpublishing.com

  Seattle & Portland, Los Angeles Chicago, London

  Naero’s

  Mastery

  by

  Mason Elliott

  Kindle Edition

  © 2015 by Mason Elliott. All rights reserved.

  Published by High Mark Publishing

  ISBN 978-1-930451-17-9

  Watch for other titles by this author in the future.

  Cover Art by

  Mike Leonard

  madmanmike.deviantart.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.

  Edition Notes

  If you do not see this edition note here in this spot on the copyright page and on the very last page of your ebook or print version of this title, then you are not getting the final, polished version of this novel that the publisher, editors, and author intended for you to receive. Please contact either the publisher or the author via their emails or websites if you do not see the following update code:

  High Mark Publishing Update Code F0215A

  Titles by Mason Elliott

  The Spacer Clans Adventures, First Cycle

  Naero’s Run

  Naero’s Gambit

  Naero’s Fury

  The Spacer Clans Adventures, Second Cycle

  Naero’s Mastery

  The Citation Series, First Cycle

  Naero’s War, Book One: THE ANNEXATION WAR

  Naero’s War, Book Two: THE HIGH CRUSADE

  Naero’s War, Book Three: NAERO’S TRIAL

  The Citation Series, Second Cycle

  The Gamma Quadrant

  Short Fiction in Ebook Format

  The Permit

  Fantasy with Author Garan R. R. Faraday

  Mergeworld, Book 1

  Mergeworld, Book 2

  Mergeworld, Book 3

  Mergeworld, Book 4*

  (*Forthcoming)

  1

  If they got past her…

  Naero woke up softly in the night watches, unable to get certain fears out of her head. She slipped out of their oval nanobed from beside Khai, in their private quarters. What was she so worried about? Her family was relatively safe on board The Holy Ghost, Admiral Naero’s flagship of Fleet-1, of the One Hundred Fleets.

  But for how long would her family remain safe?

  “I’ll be here when you return,” Khai whispered. “I know how you like to pace sometimes, my heart. Get it out of your system and come back to us.”

  “Go back to sleep,” she whispered to him with her half-smile.

  Naero transported directly to the large, empty observation deck.

  Then she recalled that she was still quite naked.

  There wasn’t much chance that anyone would come by at that time of the watches, but she clothed herself in Nytex flight togs with barely a thought.

  The primary observation deck was an elongated, almost rectangular oval, three hundred meters long and thirty meters wide. With the blast shields withdrawn, it provided onlookers with an unparalleled vista of the Alpha Quadrant stars up in space, like bright jewels.

  Spacers belonged to the stars.

  Naero did pace back and forth down the middle of that long, open chamber. She glanced up into the Unknown Sectors where she had lost her parents.

  She and Khai were back once more in the Alpha Quadrant, sliding peacefully beneath more familiar stars, on their way to an important conference between the Alliance and the Gigacorps.

  The war in the Gamma Quadrant had finally backed off considerably, after more setbacks for the enemy.

  The enemy retreat and cessation of hostilities gave many a chance to make the return trip. They had arrived none too soon.

  Back home, trouble was brewing big time in the Gigacorps Sectors. The Corps were making a concerted attempt to re-instate their dominance once more over lander humanity. The landers resisted bitterly, especially after what happened to many of them during the Ejjai Invasion and the High Crusade.

  It had been the Spacer Alliance, not the Corps, who had saved them from the vile Ejjai invaders. While the Corps had unwittingly invited the rapacious Ejjai and their alien overlords among their worlds in the first place. So many trillions paid the price for that stupid miscalculation.

  Yet in the present, the Corps were not yet ready or willing to be diminished and surrender all of their power.

  High tensions could very well lead to countless, intense civil wars in many regions that might cripple lander humanity for decades, if not centuries to come.

  For all of humanity, it would be a self-inflicted disaster that they could ill-afford.

  There were far greater problems looming large out there on their galaxy’s horizon, and very few persons besides Naero knew exactly what they were, and had stared them in the face.

  In the next galaxy over, their advanced alien enemies had already amassed an Armada, an enormous invasion fleet. They lacked only a way to cross over the vast distance between the two galaxies.

  One attempt to do so had already been foiled.

  There would no doubt be others. The enemy would eventually find another way. They always did.

  Even more frightening than that, Naero had literally gazed into the Abyss of Desolation, and issued her challenge. And the Abyss had answered that challenge and swarmed straight back, nearly destroying her.

  She had witnessed firsthand many fell things that were as yet, much stronger and more powerful than herself. She had barely been saved from their clutches, and the gateway to that grim prison dimension was destroyed and sealed shut.

  But for how long?

  For the first time in her young life, Naero questioned her own strength, and wasn’t quite sure what she might do next.

  How could she combat all of these multiple threats, these legendary beings, monsters, and powers–Destroyers who stood greater than herself?

  Naero needed to get stronger, but how?

  The faces of her family, her husband, her beloved children, Jan and his two wives, Baeven and Jia and their crew, Aunt Sleak, Zalvano, and the their kids, her friends, her Clans flashed before her.

  If she fell. If she perished…it was certain that most, if not all of them would die next, defending themselves and the same things they all loved as best they could.

  From what Naero foresaw in her dreams and visions, eventually she was going to come up against one of these super lethal threats on her own, unprepared, and she was going to die.

  She had been plagued by strange dreams and nightmares for a long while. Most recently, almost every one of her dreams was about her fighting in various places, always against sinister and considerable threats.

  In almost all of these dark dreams, she went down fighting to the end, but that did not matter.

  She perished, nonetheless. Dead was dead. And her death doomed all of the people she loved and fought to protect to face destruction without her thereafter.

  A few of dreams still remained where she became a monster herself, just another of the deadly threats her friends and allies would face. She couldn’t handle watching herself spin out of control, and murder those she loved with her own hands.

  That dire possibility remained as well. A part of her was still potentially her own worst enemy. She must also stay
on guard against that.

  Thus, what could be done in the end? What could she do?

  Om finally commented, the Kexxian Data Matrix entity embedded deep within her own mind.

  Naero, some have long suggested that you take time to finish your Spacer Mystic training. You have never finished exploring the full range of your abilities, or the extent of your sources of power. Perhaps that is a proper place to begin.

  Thanks, Om. I’ve thought about that too. Perhaps it is time for me to do just that. The High Masters and even Baeven and Jan finished their training. They both have told me that I remain out of balance, not in harmony with myself or my abilities–or the universe for that matter. But this isn’t the best of times to do so.

  There is never a good time to pull back and train, or meditate and seek enlightenment. Yet doing so has always benefitted you immensely. You have always emerged far stronger, wiser, and self-aware.

  Om, the dangers remain all around me, circling like baevens to pick my bones clean. And there are also many dangers in training as well. What if I don’t make it back?

  You face dangers whatever you choose to do, N. You might as well pick which dangers, threats, and challenges you will confront first.

  That sounds right, but how can I leave my children? Khai?

  Even if you choose to do nothing, eventually, you will be forced to leave them one way or another, and by death for certain. You and Khai have taken time to start your family. Next, your primary goal is to grow stronger and more skilled, so that you can defend them and yourself better. At least Mystic training offers you that possibility. Strive to become whatever it is that you can be.

  You’re right, Om. I think that is the path I need to follow. I’ll talk it over with Khai ASAP. Spacer Intel and the Mystics have hinted that they have many missions that the Mystic Enforcer must see to. We can stand to be apart for a time.

  Naero, do not forget. We still have much work to do with deciphering and mastering the Kexxian Data Matrix. Those efforts must continue also.

  I agree, Om. But no one can help us with that. We’ll have to tackle all of the KDM as we go along.

  Our enemies are never going to wait for us, in any case, N.

  I know that very well, Om. We can only do what we can, and that will have to be enough.

  Naero was definitely more focused and determined now that she had hashed things out; she was going to find a way to keep pushing forward.

  Even if there was no guarantee that she would ever make it back to hold her children in her arms again.

  Everything in life entailed some degree of risk.

  Doing nothing would solve and prevent nothing.

  *

  The large nanosparring room was like a small arena and rang with the sounds of fighting and laughter.

  A two-year-old Spacer child all but flew and zipped and wheeled through the air as if she were made of white flame.

  Her long, blazing white-gold hair was pulled up in a high ponytail with an antique, golden hair clip, Spacer battle style. Her radiant hair matched her ivory skin and set off her dazzling blue eyes–as blue as pulsars.

  She punched and kicked and snapped combinations lightning fast, driving back even the large green Mystic Enforcer who was her father. Her tiny blows from her small fists and feet cracked and struck with force. She flattened Khai and put him on his back.

  Shetharra Lythe Maeris planted one small foot on his large green chest, clenched her little fists, threw back her head and shouted her cry of victory.

  Then her father scooped her up and they wrestled together, as he tickled her into submission, made raspberries on her little belly, and they continue to laugh. The tiny spacechild squealed with joy.

  Naero could not resist, and came down to wrap her arms around both of them on the practice floor. She kissed her daughter, and then her husband, looking into his golden eyes as they all smiled together.

  Their small daughter kissed Khai, and then her mother.

  “Mommy, I beat Daddy again. I want to fight you again now. Please, please?”

  Naero hugged her and patted her on the back, regaining her feet and holding her close. “No, practice is way over for today, my little duck. It’s way past time for your nap. Come on, Shetharra.”

  Shetharra rubbed her eyes with a tiny fist. “Don’t need a nap,” she protested. Then she yawned.

  Naero held her close and kissed her daughter’s head. Khai followed after them.

  “Will you sing to me, Mommy?” Shetharra asked.

  “I always do, don’t I? I will always sing to you, my sweet girl.”

  “Yes. But sometimes Daddy sings to me, and sometimes Aunt Sharrah, when you aren’t there. She sounds a lot like you.”

  “They like to sing to you, too, Little Duck.”

  “Quack-quack!” she said, followed by giggles. “I know…I want you all to sing to me.”

  “Sometimes we can,” Naero said.

  Khai and Naero brought Shetharra back to their quarters to put her down for her nap.

  Naero made the mistake of putting her child on her feet. Shetharra squealed and ran up to the secured statue of the knife fighting girl.

  “Hello, sister!” Shetharra jumped up and planted a kiss on the statue’s face. Then she ran giggling from her father, who chased her around the room.

  “Shetharra, quit running around and come take your mist shower,” Naero said.

  The child peeled out of her togs and came running to her mother naked and laughing, and leaped into Naero’s arms.

  Naero bathed her child quickly and then combed and brushed her long, glittering white hair.

  Khai assisted where he could.

  Naero teknomanced little togs back on her daughter and pweaked the presets to soft, white pajamas with twinkling holographic pink stars and the Maeris Clan logo on them. The stars faded on their own.

  “I wanna sleep naked like you and Daddy, Mommy. I don’t like to wear clothes.”

  Mommy and Daddy smirked at each other and rolled their eyes.

  “Mommy and Daddy wear clothes now, Little Duck. So you need to wear clothes too.”

  “Aww…”

  She laid down beside her daughter on the big nanobed, with the little nanobed right next to it. Khai got in on the other side, smiling at them.

  “What shall we sing today, Shetharra?”

  The little girl giggled, wiggled, whispered, and turned over on her belly, kicking her little feet. “The one little duck.”

  Naero rubbed her tiny back and began to sing softly. Then she made her first three fingers walk slowly up Shetharra’s spine.

  One after another, the little ducks went out to play, over the hills and far away.

  When Mother Duck quacked, fewer and fewer ducks came back

  Shetharra began to laugh and scream in anticipation.

  Then Mother Duck quacked really loud, and all of the little ducks hurried back.

  Naero used three fingers walking across, “The third little duck…”

  Then two fingers walking, “The second little duck…”

  Shetharra howled, “No, no! Not the one little duck!”

  And finally one finger walked, and poked, and tickled unmercifully. “And the one little duck!”

  A few short minutes later, Shetharra breathed easily, deep in sleep.

  Naero brushed her daughter’s glowing white hair from her angelic face, just enjoying gazing at her little star. Then she glanced at Khai who watched both of them very intently. “Go ahead and move her to her bed, sweetie,’ she told him. “You never seem to wake her.”

  Khai scooped his daughter up in his big hands. He carried her over as gently as could be, and tucked her into the child’s small nanobed. He and Naero both kissed their first child.

  Four small female guardian Shai softly approached, and took up their positions around the bed, glowing pink and almost white with the deep love they felt for their Spacer family. The mantid warriors looked small, not much bigger than the child h
erself.

  But woe unto anyone or anything outside the family who approached their little girl without permission.

  Khai called to them. “Krin, Mizha, Jintil, Ethra–you’re on duty.”

  They all nodded their mantid heads. Sometimes Shetharra slept with her parents in their quarters, on other nights she stayed in the nursery, the next room across the corridor.

  Naero sighed and leaned her head against Khai. He wrapped a big green arm around her.

  “Now let’s go check on the twins,” Naero said.

  They crossed over through the corridor, leading to the quarters across the way. There in the nursery was their nanny, Naero-3. She had now taken the name Sharrah, had long, dark brown hair and lavender eyes. She also nursed the oldest of the twins, Daeyen Wallace Williams, who was three months old, only a few hours older than Kathron Zhentisa Maeris, his sister.

  They talked about the kids for a bit. Everyone seemed to be doing fine.

  Sharrah had an assistant nanny, Kyra Apache, plus another set of four Shai guards, stationed in the four corners.

  When Naero and Khai hesitated and looked at the floor, Sharrah came out and asked them straight. “All right, just come out and say it. Are both of you leaving this time, or just one? I don’t mind. I just want to know. And while you’re at it, please tell me how soon you need to leave, and how long you’ll be away this time.”

  Naero sighed heavily and a sick look washed over her face. “That’s the problem, Sharrah…we don’t know if we’ll be coming back this time.”

  Sharrah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you guys always get misty and say some crap like that. But then you sneak back for a while and the whole process begins all over again. Eventually, one or both of you is needed somewhere. I’m surprised you were able to stay away on leave this long.”

  Khai hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “You are the very best, Sharrah. We couldn’t do anything without knowing that you have everything well in hand back here at home.”