Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit by Mason Elliott Page A

hours.
    “A ll ships. Good work. We’ll jump toward Chosin-9 on the border as planned. While I see to my testing, the fleet can trade at will among the nearby Mining and Joshua Tech systems. You’ll stay in contact with The Dark Star and her new crew as they patrol the border. My testing could take days, weeks, or months. I’m not certain how long. I’ll contact you as I can. The Fleet Council has agreed to manage our trade affairs in my absence. Captain Max Lii will work closely in conjunction with Captains Chaela and Saemar. Respect and obey them as you would myself. That is all.”
    Well- wishing messages flooded the com from all the fleet captains, officers, and crews.
    Good luck, Captain Maeris.
    Safe journey to you.
    May good fortune follow the bold!
    Naero smiled.
    She graciously declined yet another private dinner with Captain Max that evening–just the two of them–in his opulent quarters on his flagship, complete with a short, private concert in her honor.
    Max was smooth, and a great guy in every way. It became increasingly difficult for her to keep turning him down , and his romantic gestures.
    Chosin-9 was a forward, Joshua Tech mining and trade-supply world on the border with the rapidly expanding Mining Consortium systems.
    While the rest of the trade fleet sped off in several directions to go make credits, Naero received a secret set of coordinates to meet Admiral Klyne, and dock with his Intel ship, The Kathmandu.
    There he would pers onally conduct her preliminary Mystic testing.
    Naero and twenty-two of her crew on board The Flying Dagger –minus Tyber–proceeded on in stealth mode, making as certain as possible that they were neither followed nor tracked in any way.
    En route, Naero made another attempt t o contact Baeven on their hyper-secure channel.
    Nothing. No reply. She had not heard anything from the outlaw in a long while on that matter. No leads. Not a single word on the whereabouts of Janner or Danner.
    Where w ere they? Who held them prisoner and what were they doing with them and to them?
    Another pain attack struck her without warning. They seemed to grow increasingly worse.
    Naero staggered to her private quarters to lie down, resisting the urge to dope up with pain meds that would either impair her, or do nothing.
    Zhentisa came by to check on her and keep her company , giving her a quick once over with her healing sight.
    “C aptain, as usual, your neuromedical scans are extremely weird and off the charts.”
    “A nother article for the neuromedical journals?”
    Zhen shrugged. “They could devote an entire clinic to study your strangeness. Frankly, I never know what’s going on up there. But I’m sorry it’s causing these terrible attacks, En.”
    Naero grimaced, trying to hold her head together. As if it might rupture in several places from the miniature plasma borers trying to cut and roast their way out of her brain.
    She tried to laugh. “Worthless quack. Can’t even cure a simple headache.”
    “N othing’s ever simple with you, En.”
    Naero gasped and sent a call out into her own mind.
    Om, if you are doing this, please, give it a rest. You are murdering me.
    Whether he could hear or not, the pain did not let up.
    Zhen took her hand and applied a cold compress, adjusting the temperature until finally it eased some of the pain.
    Naero started breathing a bit easier. But she still sweated heavily and sucked in air wide-eyed at times.
    She desperately needed to think about something else.
    “Talk to me, Zee. How are the wedding plans going?”
    Her friend smiled , a happy, far-off look in her large, hazel eyes. “We’re thinking a mountain waterfall valley on Gairos-3. The rainbows there are so spectacular. Natural rainforest flowers everywhere.”
    “N ice. But what about all the dangerous dinosaurs? And poisonous insects almost as big as us?”
    Zhen laughed , waving away other bothersome concerns. “Details. So we’ll shield the area against wedding crashers