Spacer Clans Adventure 1: Naero's Run, Page 2

  Saemar looked for an opening, using her passive telepathy to gauge when Naero would make a move.

  A defensive technique Naero always found incredibly annoying.

  No matter how Naero attacked, Saemar read Naero’s mind an instant before and countered every technique thrown at her almost before they began.

  Squaring off, they were almost the same height, with Saemar being only slightly heavier and somewhat more voluptuous. Curly, shoulder length auburn hair, big blue eyes, and a somewhat sharp face. A decent fighter in her own right, but Naero far outclassed her in speed, strength, skill, and natural ability.

  Only Saemar’s psy talent for reading her opponent’s moves leveled the field. From experience, Naero could wear her down and eventually win, but it took longer and longer to do so.

  Naero heard, or felt, Saemar’s voice in her mind.

  You’re straining, sweetie. I can sense it. You know you can’t force a talent.

  But Psy abilities usually came out during the intense focus of physical sparring, especially in the face of other psy abilities.

  Almost every Spacer was a trained martial artist, practicing and conditioning and sparring with others on a regular basis.

  Saemar attacked with a weird mix of seemingly clumsy and then efficient combinations. Baiting her. Off-speed and tricky.

  Naero barely blocked a knifehand to the throat, a scrape kick down her shin, and then a spin elbow to her back ribs.

  Naero held up her hands, backing away. “Hold. You’re right, Saemar. Let’s try something else. I’m not feeling anything.”

  She glanced at Zhen, who monitored the psy meter. The pretty olive-skinned medtek wore her brown hair long and wavy. A bit taller than Naero and skinny, she studied and observed everything intensely with her intelligent hazel eyes.

  With her psy ability, Zhen could touch people and see into their bodies and their functions directly.

  Healer’s sight, perfect for the medical professions. She wasn’t much of fighter herself overall, but she could use her gift to spot weaknesses. She was very adept at throwing knives, spikes, and shaken stars–some of them poisoned, drugged, or stun-charged. Sort of a hobby of hers. One that she shared with Naero.

  Zhen shook her head and looked down slightly.

  “Sorry. Nothing from you, Naero. No triggers. No readings. I clearly picked up Saemar’s latent telepathy.”

  Naero frowned, went to her bag of illicit tricks, and popped some fast acting psy-tabs.

  Within seconds her head buzzed with a dull ache as the psychotronic chemicals flooded her bloodstream, rushed through her brain, and affected her mind. Or at least tried to.

  Naero motioned to Gallan. “You and me this time, big guy. Let’s go.”

  Gallan rose up, two heads taller than her and almost three times as broad. Yet despite their size disparity, Naero was actually the stronger of the two and much faster, inheriting both enhanced physical abilities from her champion parents.

  But Gallan was never a pushover. He knew how to fight, and he could take a lot of punishment and keep coming. His psy talent was similar to one of her father’s: an ability to psyonically increase his density and physical toughness.

  No big surprise, with Gallan being a distant cousin on her father’s side of the family, where such abilities weren’t all that uncommon.

  Naero darted in, attacking again and again. She landed nearly two blows for every one of Gallan’s, but he covered his vital areas and sought to get a hold on her and grapple.

  Trying to go strength-to-strength and eliminate her natural speed advantage.

  Sometimes the psy ability of an opponent triggered a reaction out of sheer defensive response.

  Naero turned briefly to Zhen.

  “Anything yet?”

  A massive sweeping back kick from Gallan caught her in the midsection, surprisingly fast.

  Naero flew back into the wall with the force of the blow, back-flipped off the wall, and re-directed off the ceiling to a crouching position on the floor.

  “Not a thing,” Zhen noted. “Just Gallan adjusting his density during the match.”

  Naero clenched her fists, gritting her teeth, groaning in frustration. “Damn it. Why can’t I do this?”

  She stomped back to her bag. She swallowed a different group of psy-stims, twice the recommended dosage.

  “Uh, Naero,” Zhen objected. “Loading up on those on top of what you already have in you might not be such a good–”

  Naero lashed out at her. “I gotta try something. Even you said these alien lander drugs might not have any affect at all on a Spacer mind and metabolism. With our genetically enhanced healing ability and our ability to neutralize toxins and disease, they might not affect me at all. The buzz I got from those other stim-tabs is already fading. Let’s see what happens now. Is my heart going to explode or something?”

  “No, not yet, at least. Your pulse is racing, but nothing critical. Your neuro-chemical scans are very weird, but I guess under these circumstances, that’s understandable. But we’re getting into unknown territory here. I just don’t know–”

  “Good enough. Let’s keep going. Chaela, you’re up.”

  Chaela was the next tallest among her friends, but still a head shorter than Gallan. Athletic, quick, and powerful, she was a true brawler, a real Amazon, her blond hair in a long braid down her broad back. She had fierce, steel-blue eyes

  They teased her about being a Valkyrie from Old Terran myth. Or at the very least, a Viking berserker. Her fighting style pretty similar.

  Pysonically, Chae was a cryokinetic, just the opposite of Naero’s brother.

  Plus, she was an accomplished fighter. Not as strong as Naero, but pretty fast, and with a lot of fighting skill and experience. She spent a good chunk of her free time sparring against other fighting styles.

  They closed and broke, neither of them landing any clean hits.

  Naero shivered, feeling a chill creep over her muscles, slowing her down slightly.

  Naero saw her breath in front of her.

  “Come on, Chae. You know you don’t have the chops to freeze me solid.”

  Chaela grinned. “Nope, just have ta slow your speedy little ass down a bit so that I can nail you.”

  Naero laughed with her and then stopped short.

  Her back foot was frozen to the floor in a chunk of ice. That was new.

  A gigaton freight hauler named Chaela careened straight at her on a collision course.

  Naero dropped under a heavy punch, dodged a knee to her face and flipped Chaela’s bulk to one side. The move twisted her leg painfully, but she had time to free it and stomp the ice block off her numb foot before Chae rolled free and charged back in.

  “Hold,” Naero shouted, lifting her hands. She turned to Zhen.

  “Now there had to be some kind of reaction during all that. My head feels really weird.”

  “I don’t doubt that, but still nothing from you on any of the psyonic wave lengths. Not a thing.”

  “Damn it all to hell and back!”

  Naero stomped back over to her bag.

  Zhen made an attempt to intervene once more.

  “Naero, I know how bad you want this.”

  “No. You don’t. None of you do.”

  “We do. We get it,” Gallan said.

  Naero exploded. “None of you get it. Haisha!”

  She pulled a nanoinjector out of the bag and punched yet another psy-stimulant into her arm.

  She grunted and dropped to her knees.

  The rapid rush of stims punched into her brain.

  “Naero!” Tyber yelled. They all rushed toward her.

  Naero groaned again, fighting against the blinding pain and rapid disorientation. She forced herself back to her feet and shoved them away as they all closed in.

  “Get off me. I’m all right.”

  “No, you’re not,” Zhen said. “You’re all doped up on who knows what. Your readings are all over the place. I can’t tell what thos
e drugs are doing to you.”

  “But nothing psyonic?”

  Zhen checked the reads again on the meter.

  “No. Not a blip.”

  Naero steeled herself. “Then let’s keep going. Tyber. Saemar. Both of you fight me at once. I mean really fight. And both of you use your psy abilities against me full on, as much as you can.”

  They squared off.

  Tyber liked to spar with a Spacer jo staff made of duranadium. The same stuff as the ship’s hull, about a meter and a half long.

  He was a so-so fighter on his own, but a good match for Zhen as a mate. Medium height and build, fit, dark hair and eyes, brown skin–Tyber had a round, friendly face. A very accomplished tek, he worked as an engineer, mechanic, and systems specialist all rolled up in one.

  He and Zhen were both so different that their personalities meshed almost completely.

  Pysonically, Tyber could translocate himself over short distances by line of sight. If he did it too much, it exhausted him. But in a short fight it could be decisive. He could vanish and reappear behind his opponents when they least expected it.

  When he teamed up with Saemar and her telepathic reading ability, Naero quickly found herself in a spot of trouble.

  Tyber jabbed her from behind with his staff, knocking her off her feet.

  Saemar kicked at her face. Naero twisted, rolled, and swept Saemar’s legs out from under her, then dodged Tyber’s charging attack. He did his best to keep her off balance.

  After five more minutes, it was Zhen who called hold.

  “Naero. I’m sorry. I’m just not getting anything from you. You have to face the facts. You’re a nud. You can’t do anything about it. You don’t show even the slightest sign of possessing a psyonic ability of any kind whatsoever.”

  Naero ran over and grabbed the psy-inducing helmet. She quickly shoved it over her head and flipped the switches on full power.

  The helmet lit up and hummed ominously. Everyone stepped back.

  The neural net jolts to her brain staggered her. Naero screamed, clutched the helmet, and fell against one wall.

  3

  The room kept spinning. Naero struggled to remain on her feet and not black out.

  All she could smell was ozone.

  Zhen turned her psy-scanner off.

  “I can’t be a part of this.” She turned to leave. “Don’t ask me to be here if you aren’t going to listen to me, Naero.”

  “No!” Gallan said, blocking her way. “We need you here, Z. In case something goes–”

  “Look at her,” Zhen said. “All of you. Something is going wrong.”

  “I can handle it,” Naero said, positioning herself in front of the exit. “It’s just pain. I’ll heal. All of you guys know how fast I recover. Please, just one more go, and after that I’ll stop. I promise.”

  Naero assumed her fighting stance and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Now come on. For all the creds. Everyone. Use your abilities and attack me. Just try to take me down. That will have to trigger something with this helmet on.”

  Saemar looked at her. “Z’s right, sweetie. You need to stop this before–”

  “No, dammit. Haisha! I’m not giving up yet. All of you. Please, do this for me. Because the only way you’re getting through this door is through me. Now let’s rumble.”

  Gallan looked at them all.

  Zhen sighed, shook her head and flipped her psy-scanner back on.

  Everyone attacked Naero at once without warning, startling both her and Zhen.

  “Wait!” Zhen cried. “It won’t…I need to recalibrate–”

  Naero punched Gallan right in the solar plexus and drove his bulk back several feet, winding him.

  Tyber crashed down on top of her suddenly from above, clipped her jaw with his jo staff and smashed her to the ground.

  Naero rolled and spin-flipped him hard into the floor.

  Chaela froze her left hand to the wall.

  Saemar grabbed her kicking legs, got one and then went flying from the other.

  Chaela rocked her with a heavy punch that nearly snapped her head off.

  “Got you now,” Chae said. “You’re going down.”

  Trapped against the wall, Naero endured punishing blows. Chaela pummeled her mercilessly.

  Naero slumped to her left.

  Chae prepared a finishing blow.

  “You asked for this, N.”

  Naero darted away. Chae’s spin kick shattered the ice pinning Naero’s hand to the wall.

  Naero flip-kicked Chaela under the chin, flinging her back.

  Gallan, Tyber, and Saemar rushed in again.

  Zhen’s psy-meter disrupted in her hands.

  She screamed and dropped the burning pieces to the nanofloor, letting the nanos extinguish the small fire.

  “Hold, stop, stop. Dammit,” Zhen added.

  “What happened?” Naero asked. “Did I do that? Was it me?”

  “You didn’t do shit,” Zhen yelled.

  She had to be really upset to lose her cool, and then cuss on top of that.

  “I tried to tell you idiots. I needed to reset the scanner. Everyone spiking their psy abilities all at once simply fried the meter. This is a delicate neuromedical instrument. Now look at it. Do any of you morons have any idea how expensive these are? No. Of course you don’t.”

  Naero couldn’t believe it. “So there was nothing? No reaction? Not even a hint of any psy ability?”

  Zhen glared at her. Then bit her lip and shook her head.

  “It’s always about you, isn’t it? No. There was nothing. Not a blip. You’re nud, Naero. Deal with it.”

  Naero slid slowly down the wall, ignoring the growing, throbbing pain in her skull, and the sick feeling roiling in her belly.

  She slumped to the floor and slowly took off the psy-helmet, dumping it on the ground. She rested her forearms on her knees and stared absently at the broken psy-meter in smoking pieces through her legs.

  Zhen went on lecturing her, her ire up.

  “And if you ask me, it serves you right, Naero. You’ve always been better at everything than the rest of us. A better pilot, better leader, better fighter, better trader. Do you know what that has been like for your friends?

  “Naero Amashin Maeris: prodigy child. The perfect Spacer born of the perfect parents. And you’ve got all the pride of your illustrious family too, along with their superior genetics. How fitting, then, that there’s at least one thing to humble you. One thing that you have no chance of ever excelling at. Psyonics. Something almost every other Spacer can do.”

  “Zhentisa,” Gallan said. “That’s enough. You’ve had your say.”

  “Maybe this will teach you some humility, Naero.”

  Even Tyber had to stand up and say something. “’Tisa. Ease up. This would be hard for any of us. You know that.”

  Now Zhen glared at him.

  Naero continued to stare at the ground. Then she convulsed and vomited all over the nano floor. She fell to one side, still gagging and dry-heaving as the floor auto-cleaned itself.

  Her friends gathered around her, doing their best to hold her still as she thrashed.

  After she stopped heaving, they rested her comfortably propped up on her back.

  Gallan sat with his legs crossed and held her head and shoulders cradled comfortably in his arms. Chaela elevated Naero’s feet while Saemar and Tyber hovered helplessly over Zhen, who placed her hands on Naero and examined her with her healer’s sight.

  “Is she okay?” Gallan asked.

  “She’s obviously not okay,” Tyber said. “Is she going to be okay?”

  Zhen regained her composure, ignoring them while she completed her examinations, looking right into Naero’s body and its functions.

  “She put a lot of junk into her system. Her body started rejecting and neutralizing it all, just as it would any toxins. I don’t see any permanent damage to any of her organs, though. Amazing. She has the fastest healing rate of anyone I’ve ever s
een. Even among Spacers.”

  Naero licked her dry lips. “Don’t worry guys. I’m going to be okay. Can you get me some water?”

  Saemar jumped up. Zhen stopped her.

  “Wait a bit. Give it to her now and she’ll just throw it back up.”

  Zhen looked a little worried and placed her hands on Naero’s head again.

  “What’s wrong?” Chaela asked.

  “Haisha…I…I don’t know. I’ve never seen energy signatures in the brain like this before. They’re fading slowly. Must be feedback from the psy-helmet, still bouncing back and forth in there. But no psyonic activity still. Sorry, Naero.

  Zhen paused a moment before going on. “Yet that’s weird as well. Even in a nud, the areas of the brain where psy activities originate aren’t usually this completely inert or inactive. Normal brain energies still flow through them. They just don’t generate psy energy.

  “But with you, it’s as if your entire brain has those areas totally blocked and shut down, using completely different parts of your brain so that you don’t need them. Kind of like a re-routed back-up system. Wow, I could do an article on this for the neuromed journals.”

  “Great,” Naero muttered. “Even my nudness is unique, and surpasses all other nuds.” She chuckled weakly.

  Her mates laughed nervously along with her.

  “Naero,” Zhen said, “I’m sorry. I apologize for going off on you like I did. It was wrong. I was upset about the scanner, which I still don’t know how I’m going to explain or pay for. But I’ll think of something.

  “Anyway. I said stuff that wasn’t right. I didn’t mean it to come out as harsh as it did.”

  Naero licked her lips again. “No, you were right. All of you guys know it. I am too proud. I can be a real pain in the ass. Stubborn. Hot tempered. Impatient. Argumentative.”

  Tyber kept going for her. “Bossy. Demanding. Inconsiderate.”

  Even Naero had to laugh along with them.

  “Not to mention all the lame, cheesy tricks and scams you’re always pulling on us,” Tyber said. “Like the time you switched my body wash with hair remover. I was bald and hairless all over. For a month.”

  They laughed harder at that.

  Zhen smiled and ran her fingers through his curly dark hair. “Aww…you were cute. Like a hairless kitty.”