Authors: Kevin J. Anderson
Terry sensed something was off, but did not press Xander for details, letting him take his time. Xander had never known Terry when the other man could use his legs; the degeneration had set in while he was only a teenager. By now, Terry was so accustomed to his life that he didn't bother with wisftul dreams of running across green fields. But if Xander could give him that â¦
The
Verne
returned to the asteroid complex, and when they arrived, Xander was pleased to see the traffic. At least five more ships had joined the work of Handon Station.
“We're on our way to become the new go-to supply station and repair yard,” Xander said brightly.
Rajesh Clinton responded as soon as they arrived. “I'm glad to see you two! I agreed to take over when Garrison had to leave, but I never meant to run the show. Do I at least get a raise? Or maybe profit-sharing?”
“A raise,” Xander said. “We'll discuss terms later.” The money meant little to them, considering Terry's fortune, but Xander was reluctant to squander it, even so. He had to keep watch on his partner's business interests.
Above the main Rendezvous cluster, the
Verne
detached the towed salvage hulls and components, and Xander called out for clan teams to suit up and help separate, clean up, and inventory the wrecks. Terry was already in the back compartment prepping his exosuit. “I'm going out to monitor operations. I can make sure all the pieces are distributed and get work crews started on them right away. We've got a reputation to build.”
Xander said, “I'll dock the
Verne
and head inside the main asteroid for admin work.”
Terry chuckled. “You've never volunteered for paperwork before!”
Xander forced a smile. “I can see how much you want to go outside. You know what you're doing.”
Suited up, the other man cycled through the airlock, skimming out into space where his useless legs were no hindrance at all. Terry jetted around like a silver fish, moving from wrecked hulk to engine component, nudging them, using heavy impellers to shove the massive objects into place.
Xander watched him, saw how easily he moved, the grace he demonstrated in zero gravity, and he wished he had half as much finesse working out in space. Once again, he tried to convince himself that Terry would really want the risky proposed cure.
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CELLI
From within the stressed terrarium dome, the two green priests had a perfect vantage to watch the CDF and Solar Navy strike force rush back out of the void. Wide-eyed, Celli whispered to Solimar, “Did they just lead the shadows back to us?”
Solimar stepped closer to the crystalline plates of the greenhouse dome, pressing a hand against his back, which ached due to sympathetic pain from the agonized trees. The long hairline crack had been sealed and reinforced, but other weaknesses would surely manifest soon; even the original girders were at the limits of their material strength. The new arcs of the expanded dome had been completed, but the Fireheart factories could not produce sheets of reinforced crystal quickly enough. Only one wedge of the larger dome had been completed.
When General Keah detonated the sun bombs on the threshold, the flare of light at the boundary somehow cauterized the wound in the universe. Inside the terrarium, the bent worldtrees shuddered, and the pain of their existence resonated through telink and into the verdani mind. Celli felt the hurt in all her bones and muscles.
The Roamer work crews on the new dome framework raced away, evacuating to the main admin station. Celli watched them go, wishing they would come back. “Keep working,” she whispered. “Don't leave us.” At a minimum, they still had a week of work to complete the project and let the trapped trees have a little more room.
Meanwhile, the battered
Kutuzov, Okrun,
and the Mantas headed toward Fireheart's main admin hub. Solar Navy ships swooped around the heart of the nebula, extending their solar-sail fins. The supergiant core stars seemed intensely bright, as if defying the shadows.
Inside the terrarium, the two worldtrees strained and groaned, and Celli gasped as she heard a loud creaking, splitting sound up above. Another lightning-bolt crack extended across the main crystalline dome.
Solimar said in a deep and concerned voice, “The new dome may not be finished soon enough. Someone will force us to leaveâvery soon, Celli.”
“No! The trees are part of us, and we're part of them.”
“But I won't let you die for them. The dome is going to fail.”
The trees shuddered again, and Celli wrapped her arms around the nearest trunk, as if to extend comfort while drawing support from the worldforest mind. For the next few hours, she lost herself, just existing there as she saw through millions of leaves on dozens of planets.â¦
Then a dark, cold ricochet passed through Celli's thoughts. Suddenly more alarms shot across the Fireheart comm systems. She groaned with dread.
Three Roamer scout ships raced in through the boundary of the nebula, transmitting urgent signals. Far outside in space, two new shadow clouds had unfolded from the emptiness, enormous black blots that converged on their target from a different direction. Even though the Big Ring's gap into the void was sealed, the Shana Rei created their own access point. The ominous black nebulas expanded into realspaceâand then poured toward the Fireheart nebula like a thunderhead composed of the darkest smoke.
Station Chief Alu sounded a preemptive evacuation order for all personnel. “Fireheart is not a place you'll want to be in the next few hoursâfollow your Guiding Star and get out of here. We can't fight the Shana Rei or their robots.”
The ships and industrial operations became a storm of activity; workers and transport pods began to move, abandoning the energy-film farms and the isotope-gathering scoops. Solimar grabbed Celli's thin arm. “This is itâwe can't stay. The trees can't be moved, and the shadows are coming. You know what the Shana Rei will do here.”
“I know,” Celli said, “but we can't just abandon them!”
“We have to,” Solimar said.
She knew he was right. For so long she had held out hope of finding some kind of desperate solution, and the new dome was being built. She clung to every last moment.
“If we stay here, then we die with them,” Solimar said.
Green priests could pour themselves into the worldtrees, link their thoughts and souls with the interconnected verdani mind. At the moment of death, they could flood into the stored thoughts and experiences and achieve a sort of immortality. Celli's green priest brother Beneto had done it.
But she was still young, as was Solimar. They had so much of their life ahead of them. “Even if we wanted to leave, we wouldn't make it out in time,” Celli said in a dull whisper. “We have to stay here.”
“We have our shuttle,” Solimar said. “If we get to the admin hub or one of the CDF warships, they'll take us with them.” He swallowed hard again. “If you want to go?”
“If I want to go⦔ Celli repeated. “It doesn't seem right. The trees are trapped here, even if we're not.”
As the two shadow clouds bled into the blazing lagoon of Fireheart gases, the worldtrees shuddered again and flexed their bent trunks as if preparing for one last battle.
Two more of the crystal panes overhead split as cracks formed across them.
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GENERAL NALANI KEAH
After all the destruction they had just heaped on the Shana Rei inside the void, General Keah should have been dancing in triumph. She had seen hex cylinders crumbling under the barrage of sun bomb after sun bomb, and they had even sealed shut the dimensional doorway so the shadows couldn't come after themâat least, not from that direction.
The Solar Navy and CDF ships were out in the Fireheart nebula now, temporarily safe, but Keah didn't feel good about this. She knew it wasn't over yet ⦠not even for today.
Shareen Fitzkellum and Howard Rohandas both seemed stunned after their narrow escape from the Shana Rei. They tried to cover it with excitement, but Keah could see their battle shock, the realization that they had both nearly died in space. Those kids didn't belong on the bridge of a battleship in a war zone. At Keah's direction, the
Kutuzov
flew directly toward the Fireheart admin hub. “Let's off-load the civilians and continue our patrol.”
“But we should stay with you,” Shareen insisted. “We want to fight the shadows.”
Keah wouldn't hear of it. “I'm responsible for enough people. I'm at my limit. I can't handle two more.” As the
Kutuzov
docked at the Fireheart admin hub, she urged them to the disembarkation deck and escorted them aboard the admin station personally.
Less than an hour after the
Kutuzov
returned to patrol with the other CDF and Solar Navy ships, new shadow clouds appeared outside of the nebula. The pair of amoeba-like masses threatened the Fireheart nebula from a different direction, now that the main doorway into the void had been sealed again.
She had barely had a chance to get to her quarters, longing for a shower and a change of uniform, when her first officer shouted on her personal comm, “General,
two
incoming Shana Rei clouds! We need you on the bridge.”
“Oh shit,” Keah said, then she began to run. “Battle stations! Contact the Solar Navy to coordinate our defense of the station.”
The General made it up to the bridge in record time and dropped into her command chair. The Roamers were already evacuating. “While we give these people time to get away, we're going to confront the shadows head-on.” She drew a deep cold breath. “Mr. Patton, I hope you found a few more sun bombs for us to use.”
“Only a few, General ⦠only a few.”
Admiral Haroun contacted her, wearing a grim expression. “The situation looks dire, General. Thank you for the many opportunities you've given me. If this doesn't turn out well, it's been a pleasure serving under you.”
“Stop jumping to conclusions, Admiral. We've still got some fight left in us.”
“Yesâas do the Shana Rei.”
When Keah looked at the screen, her throat went dry. “And so, obviously, do the bugbots.” As the two shadow clouds encroached into the nebula, tens of thousands of robot attack ships also poured in.
She raised her voice. “All right people, we know what to do. We've had a hell of a lot of practice at this.” She glanced at the tactical screen, contacted the Solar Navy warliners. “I don't think the shadows learned their lesson, Z.”
The
Kutuzov
left Fireheart's main station behind as evacuating Roamer ships scattered across the nebula, flying as far from the Shana Rei as they could.
Keah settled into her chair, wove her fingers together into a tense knot. “No sense waiting, Mr. Patton. Launch our first volley of sun bombs.”
The Juggernauts and Mantas spat blazing fireballs toward the oncoming shadow clouds. The Solar Navy warliners spread out in formation.
Fireheart's central cluster of hot stars blazed intensely, but the shadow clouds were impenetrable. Even the detonation of the sun bombs did not wash away the darkness.
Robot marrauders swarmed in and destroyed the power-film farms, but workers had already abandoned the operations. Another volley of blasts detonated the isotope storage tanks.
“I think we pissed them off,” Keah said.
“We're down to our last twenty sun bombs in the whole battle group, General.”
Keah stared at the thousands of robot ships and the enormous hex vessels that protruded from the shadow clouds. “Then let's make those last ones count.” The words sounded flat even to her own ears, but her crew muttered a dutiful cheer.
Firing laser cannons, the Solar Navy warliners drove forward in perfect formation, as usualâthen suddenly the Ildiran ships scrambled about in disarray as if they had all been jolted. They broke formation, which Keah had never seen them do. The warliners flew erratically, out of control, and all their weapons fire ceased.
She hit the comm. “Z! What the hell's going on? I need you at my side. It's the only way we'll survive another ten minutes.”
On screen, though, she saw Adar Zan'nh. His face looked drawn, his lips pulled back into a rictus, his eyes wide. In his command nucleus, the Ildiran crew began to shout and moan, frantic. Several collapsed to the deck, as if they had received mortal wounds.
Zan'nh yelled, “Not the Mage-Imperator!” His hand was spasming and his entire body twisted as he collapsed. On the screen, Anton Colicos looked astonished; his face had gone white. The Adar barely managed to reach up and terminate the communication, and the Solar Navy maniple fell apart.
Keah felt sick with dismay, and she slumped back in her chair. “We're on our own.”
Fighting to the last, her surviving ships plunged into the oncoming wave of robot ships.
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MAGE-IMPERATOR JORA'H
The darkness within choked him like a black poison. If it could hide inside the Mage-Imperator, then that same deadly toxin could seep into all Ildiransâmanifesting in violence, hatred, and death. Jora'h was supposed to be the strongest of his race, and if the creatures of darkness had managed to possess and corrupt him, then the rest of the Ildirans had no hope.
Strong. He had to be strong. For himself, for his people, for Nira. But how? There was a way.â¦
Shuddering as he staggered into his quarters in the Prism Palace, Jora'h felt violently ill, but he forced control on himself. His hands ached, and he could feel his fingers tremblingâfingers that had recently been wrapped around the throat of his beloved Nira, and the Shana Rei had possessed him so thoroughly that he couldn't even remember doing it. Jora'h had been deaf to her screams, her pleas. He hadn't been aware of himself as he murdered the other noble kithmen at what should have been a quiet meal in the banquet hall.