Naero's Mastery Read online

  It defied her, it eluded her, and several times it nearly broke free.

  Yet she failed in every single attempt.

  Still she kept trying.

  As darkness fell, Master Tree ordered her to stop, return to her nanohut, and rest and regenerate.

  Naero could not walk. She was too spent even to recharge her energies.

  Von and Ray had to carry her back to her quarters. Von fed Naero by hand and even gave her some healing that night.

  Finally Naero recovered enough to be able to take in some energy from the planet, and then put herself to sleep so that she might regenerate the rest of the way, all that night.

  She could startap in the morning and try again another day.

  That night while her physical body rested, Naero took council with Om, going over everything they knew. Then she spoke with Khai, and explained to him what she was up against.

  She thought about contacting Baeven.

  Her outcast uncle was the only other Spacer, besides herself, who possessed or was possessed by a Dark beast such as hers.

  The only thing that they could think of trying was to confront the Dark beast within herself, within her own mind.

  In theory, it could work. Inside of one’s mind, a person’s own imagination and force of will was supreme and godlike. If properly trained, inside of the mind, an individual could accomplish anything in the controlled reality of the mind.

  Yet the primary problem that Naero discovered very quickly the next day, was that her Dark beast remained a part of herself. Her Dark beast was her. It was not some outside force or being attempting to invade or take her over.

  And because it was part of her, Naero’s Dark beast had a will of its own, that was apparently just as strong as she was. It was less imaginative, but also more simplistic, motivated, and driven in order to compensate.

  All her Dark beast wanted was to break free and destroy everything around it. All of its energies were devoted to that need.

  In the end, Naero controlled it most of the time by limiting its access to energy, and keeping that side of herself in more or less, a lethargic, dormant state.

  Even when she assumed her partial Dark beast, she had to carefully control how much energy passed through that form.

  Master Tree was right in many ways. Order Wisdom and its powers should aid her greatly in such attempts. Yet it could not do it all, in a similar way that Chaos Wisdom and energy could not accomplish such a goal, all on its own.

  The fact that Naero was more adept at manipulating Order energy along with Chaos energy together brought her closer. That much was logical. Yet her Dark beast did not function on anything akin to the basis of logic. It defied description and analysis, and fought directly against any attempt to limit or control it, whatsoever.”

  Naero spent that entire day wrestling with her Dark beast and fighting it back down again and again from deep within.

  It could not be controlled.

  It could not be reasoned with in any way.

  Naero ended another day under Master Tree’s silent, sober observation as she exhausted herself mentally, psyonically, and physically.

  That night, she shut down her mind, and all that she could do was rest and recover.

  With yet another day ahead of her, Naero received permission to take a different approach.

  She spent the day in meditation, going over things with Om.

  Then she joined with her Kexxian alter ego, Orean, and sought wisdom and possible answers from the Kexxian Data Matrix.

  Amazingly enough, she discovered that even some of the ancient Kexx had also been plagued by such inner, Darkforce entities.

  Each case was different. Some managed to destroy their entities, but tragically, doing so left them all but crippled and horribly damaged and fragile for the remainder of their broken lives.

  The Highly advanced Kexx discovered that not only were these entities a unique and crucial part of these individuals, but they could not be removed or destroyed without doing great, irreparable harm to those persons.

  The Dark beasts, as it turned out, were vital to those who had them, whether those people ever learned to fully control them or not.

  Among all of the mighty, godlike Kexx–only seven of their advanced species ever succeeded in fully gaining control over their Darkforce entities.

  They were the seven Dreamers who defeated the six Champions of the elusive and horrific G’lothc at the very end of their long, and bitter war. They sacrificed themselves doing so, and they did so willingly without question when their moment of truth came. They did so without hesitation or lament, for the sake of the universe, and all that they loved.

  The Dreamers were capable of miracles, unique and astonishing even among the Kexx, the closest thing to gods the universe had ever seen. According to the lore of the Kexx, the Dreamers could will things into being with but a thought. They could alter reality itself. They controlled the very laws of Creation and Destruction.

  Whereas the G’lothc seemed only to have mastered the power to destroy.

  In the end, the Kexx defeated the mighty G’lothc by overwhelming them with imagination and creativity.

  Each of the seven could create entire armies and navies, complete with amazing ships, crews, and advanced weapons that made the current tek level of Naero’s universe look feeble by comparison.

  Together they could move entire worlds, even stars, and control their energies and existence.

  Each time the mighty G’lothc thought themselves invincible, the Kexx and their allies the Drians would rise up and crush them.

  Naero searched and searched, in the endless sea of knowledge that was the KDM.

  Nowhere did it say how the Seven Dreamers learned how to fully gain control of their Darkforce entities, only that they had.

  All that was said, was that each case was unique, and that each Dreamer found their own personal path of enlightenment in order do so.

  It was something each of them had to discover within themselves, on their own.

  One, the mightiest of the seven, even managed to do so as a mere child. But the other six did so in various time frames, some over the course of many years.

  All of that knowledge and wisdom and lore turned out to be a mixed bag for Naero. True, at least now she knew for a fact that such could be done. Yet it still did not help her much in her current predicament.

  Or perhaps it could.

  She had in fact gained several valuable insights into herself and her Dark beast. Both Master Tree and Om were correct.

  Enlightenment was always useful, and brought her closer to greater understanding.

  The only problem now was in applying them in some way that was useful to her dilemma within her current time frame of need.

  Naero still did not know if she could accomplish such a great task, in the space of only a few days.

  She gathered all of her strength once more.

  The next day, after explaining her intentions, she started with her partial Dark beast form.

  From there she incrementally attempted to unleash a little more, and then a little more, and still retain control of herself and the Dark beast as she went along.

  At first her efforts seemed to work, and showed promise.

  Yet at a certain point, her Dark beast simply awoke and did what it always did.

  Twice she tamped, and rammed it back down into submission and dormancy.

  On the third attempt, Naero let her guard down barely for a split second.

  Disaster.

  Her Dark beast finally broke out and seized control.

  For the next two days, she fought with it nonstop, trying to regain control.

  For two standard days, her Dark beast ran amuck and laid waste to half of the continent of Aman, deep within the interior.

  The damage and the paths of destruction could be seen glowing from orbit.

  There was even talk of evacuating the costal cities, if she came too close to them.

 
; But Naero and Om were able to study and observe her Dark beast and its mindless actions from within, also gaining valuable insights.

  Master Tree, the Mystics, and their military and naval forces bombarded Naero’s Dark beast from orbit, only enraging it and making it bigger and stronger. It fed off of destruction and conflict and absorbed energy.

  In the end, it was Naero and Om who discovered how to gradually siphon off her Dark beast’s energies over time, and cause it to grow tired and then slip back into dormancy.

  They could outwit it slowly, over time.

  Then Naero could take control again, and contain it within herself once more.

  Naero proved that the Dark beast could not be unleashed or controlled gradually over time. At a certain point, it simply broke loose and had its way.

  The exercise was both terrifying in scope, and very costly to the continent as a whole. She and the Mystics regretted that.

  Yet Naero did come to understand her Dark beast more.

  But that didn’t mean that she was any closer to controlling the damn thing. It was just as wild and destructive as it always was. That much seemed to be the undeniable norm.

  Naero ended her experiment completely exhausted, and no closer to her original goal than she had been before.

  She reported her failure to Khai that night.

  Naero felt as if the fates were trying to tell her something.

  Perhaps they were.

  She went straight to High Master Tree the next day with the only plan she could go with.

  He smiled at her, as stoic and maddening as always. “So, Prime Adept Maeris. What scheme do we have in mind today?”

  “Nothing. I’m done. There’s nothing left to try.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Surely you can’t mean that.”

  “I am. Right now, there is no answer, no solution to this problem. For the time being at least, there is no way to completely control my Dark beast. The best that can be achieved is what I’m already doing. I’m containing it as best I may.”

  He huffed indignantly. “And you think this is acceptable?”

  Naero put her hands on her hips. “For right now? Yes. It may not be the answer you want to hear. But it is an answer, logical enough. Not all things have an answer or solution at a given time. Perhaps some will never have one. We both must accept that fact that I can’t be forced to produce a solution, just because you want me to.”

  High Master Tree laughed for joy and clapped his hands together.

  “Haisha! You finally got it right!”

  Naero gaped. “What? That’s it? You gave me an impossible task, an unsolvable problem from the very start?”

  “And you figured it out right, just like a true follower of Order Wisdom, even though it took you a while. Not all things can be ordered or resolved, and must be accepted as they exist. Bravo. Well done, Maeris!”

  Tool bag! Naero was so pissed, she wanted to kick him in the balls with one kick and then stove his head it with another.

  And she was just the gal to do it.

  Om jumped in. Better just smile and nod, N. Take the win while you can. Grit your teeth and be gracious. No testicle kicking or head stoving.

  “So, you just let me bash my head against a rock all week for no reason. How enlightening.”

  Tree clapped her on the shoulder. “I had to. You should have seen yourself struggling. But you had to come to the proper conclusion on your own, and you especially are so driven to win, to succeed, to do what has not been done. It was so hard to keep a straight face most of the time.

  “Of course, it would never occur to you that failure was also an option, that sometimes, nothing can be done. A solution cannot always be found, and you cannot always succeed or win. Well done! You pass Order Wisdom training. You even have an extra day before you need to depart for Oorrii. I suggest that you and your friends celebrate your accomplishments somehow before then.”

  “Thank you, High Master Tree,” Naero said behind set teeth. She bowed slightly.

  It took all of her strength to walk away with her hands clenched into fists, and not kick Master Tree’s silver butt and his biscuits, right then and there.

  7

  One slight problem arose, even with the extra day on Tae’ha.

  For once, none of Naero’s ships were close by or available. The Dark Star had been called away on a mission a week before. There were strange signs of enemy movement along the borders of known space in both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants.

  The Alliance was spread thin.

  Even Fleet-1 was ordered back on patrol with the rest. None of the scans and sightings made any sense.

  She could hop one of the merchant traders departing before the Time Displacement took affect, but none of them were going anywhere near Oorrii.

  Even Baeven couldn’t be reached.

  Naero would have to charter a vessel, or try to borrow one from the Mystics, or perhaps a swift courier from the Spacer Marines.

  With enough fixers, she could teknomance a ship for herself in time.

  But then she studied the Intel listings of Spacer ships in the area.

  One vessel caught her immediate attention.

  Naero sent out a personal request.

  If she was being stalked and tracked, this might throw off her mysterious pursuers.

  Within a standard day, The Bookwyrm docked at the Tae’ha starport in all of her bright pink and orange glory. Naero stood ready with her duffle of gear, and entered within as the hatch opened.

  Pretty Chime Fox nearly knocked her down by surprise, wearing Nytex flight togs that were bright green.

  “Naero! It’s so good to see you. Come on in and meet everyone. Oh, crap. Should we call you admiral or something? Haisha, this is so great!”

  Chime hadn’t changed much. Short blond hair, brown eyes, spunky and cute, even if she remained a bit of kook.

  “Naero’s just fine,” she told Chime with a grin, allowing herself to be led by the hand. The outer hatch irised and sealed behind them.

  Naero scanned the ship almost instantly with teknomancy.

  Om still beat her to it.

  Stellar Industries Reliant Class, Four hundred ton merchant trade vessel. Spacer mods, Jump-5, Level 3 shields, 30 mm spinal gun, four defensive turrets. Stellar K551 engines. Crew of thirty-six. Plenty of room for guest quarters, trade goods, and the ship’s extensive library of physical books, book fabricators in most of the popular languages, and webnet download ports for ebooks and publications from throughout the Alpha Quadrant.

  After the High Crusade, Naero had personally helped Chime Fox and Peter Cooper find the soon to be christened Bookwyrm at an amazing price. It was a wedding present to the couple.

  Naero paid three-quarters of the cost for the vessel ahead of time.

  Another hatch snapped opened before them and they passed inside.

  They entered part of the ship’s quasi, bookstore, library, which took up several decks, and half of the ship itself. This looked like a meeting or event room.

  “We travel from world to world doing book events for authors and local to regional tours. It doesn’t bring in as much credits as regular trade, but we have that as well, and the book stuff is much more fun. And Pete still has his own writing under his pen name.”

  The hatch at the other end of the chamber opened, and Pete Cooper came in with two little blond girls in his arms, about three years old, and a slightly older little boy hiding and peeking out from behind his father.

  Naero flung her arms around Pete and hugged him dearly, both he and Chime from Company 36, the Marine company that she had been attached to as a Mystic Liaison, in her role as Shetanna.

  “You look good, Pete. Chime taking good care of you?”

  “Better than I deserve,” Pete said happily.

  Chime pointed a finger. “Who takes care of whom around here, mister?”

  Pete laughed. “It’s a mutual thing. And look, we keep finding these rare beasties about. They keep popp
ing up, and we don’t have the foggiest idea what they are, or where they’ve sprung up from!”

  The kids all giggled at that.

  Naero was so enchanted that she reached out and touched the girls’ faces with her hands. “Oh, Chime, Pete, they’re so beautiful. Like little fairies, I expect them to have pointed ears and shining wings.

  Pete shook and tickled the two little girls and they burst out in more explosions of giggles and laughter. “This little troublemaker is Kelsey, and this other little sprite is Violet. And the ringleader of this invasion keeps hiding behind me. Come on out Jonny.”

  The five year old boy stepped out from behind his father, wearing dark green togs and holding a book in his left hand.

  Chime came over, swooped up the boy into her arms, and kissed him on the cheek. “Naero, meet little Jonny Fox, named after my cousin Jonny, as you well know. He even looks a little like Jonny, doesn’t he? But then, you never knew him as a boy like I did.”

  “I guess not,” Naero said. The boy did have medium brown hair and bright green eyes, just like his namesake. She held her hand out to the lad, and he took it. “Hello, Jonny. I’m Naero Maeris.”

  He kept staring at her while they shook hands. He continued staring at her even after they let go. “It’s very nice to meet you. Is it true? Mummy and Daddy said so. Is it true? Is it her? I won’t tell anyone, honest.”

  Naero knitted her brows and thrust out her bottom lip slightly, scanning Jonny’s parents for a clue. “Chime, Pete?”

  Pete sighed. “We’re Sorry about this, N. We kinda, sorta told him we knew…Shetanna.”

  Oh, so that was it.

  Chime gasped, “Oh, N, you likely don’t know, you’re so busy. There are several popular new book series featuring Shetanna flourishing across numerous sectors and worlds, for all age groups, as wells as many vids, and vid shows. They range from stories for kids on up to adults. It’s quite the industry, really. Pretty amazing”

  Pete nodded. “Yeah, you really should look into getting a piece of that action.”

  Naero smiled and transformed into full on Shetanna mode, sans her blazing scarlet swords.

  She used the voice.

  “I am Shetanna, the Dark Angel of Death!”