Blood of the Cosmos (77 page)

“The Shana Rei wanted to seize all the halfbreeds—Tamo'l, too. And me,” Osira'h said. “We are different from humans and Ildirans. We think that is also the reason they wanted to wipe out all the misbreeds from the sanctuary domes.”

Adar Zan'nh said, “The new sun bombs were remarkable, as General Keah promised. The Solar Navy can fight the Shana Rei with those weapons, but our greatest vulnerability may be elsewhere. What if they can strike us from within the
thism
?”

“We have no defenses against that kind of attack,” Jora'h said.

“
Not yet
,” said a loud voice. Designate Rusa'h pushed his way into the skysphere audience chamber. “But only because you will not make the necessary choice.” He was steely and determined.

Guard kithmen blocked the mad Designate with their crystal katanas, but Rusa'h pressed up against the unwavering crossed blades. “Brother, you saw what they did to the Onthos home system, what they did to the planet Kuivahr. The Shana Rei cannot be defeated with mere weapons. Sun bombs! Laser cannons! This battle goes far beyond
us
—the very cosmos is at stake! To fight an enemy of such impossible powers, we need allies that are far beyond us as well.”

Prime Designate Daro'h swallowed hard. “You mean the faeros?”

“They helped to destroy the nightshade,” Rusa'h pointed out. “But they are afraid to continue the fight. We must draw their attention. We must
command
them.”

“Rod'h and I tried that,” Osira'h said. “They would not listen to us.”

“You did not call them in the proper way,” Rusa'h said. “That is for Jora'h to do.” He seemed to leave off the title on purpose.

Offended by how the disgraced Designate spoke to the Mage-Imperator, the guards continued to block him, and Rusa'h left the skysphere in disgust.

Prince Reynald said in a quiet voice, “When I was just a baby the faeros attacked the worldforest, set the trees on fire. I barely escaped alive.”

Daro'h touched the scar on his face. “They burned many of us, caused incalculable damage. I would hate to bring them back. Are we that desperate yet?”

Jora'h's voice was hard. “I will not be forced into that unholy bargain.” As the attendees settled in for a longer discussion, the Mage-Imperator called for a report from the human historian. “Rememberer Anton, have you or the other rememberers found any further hope among the ancient records?”

Anton Colicos bowed. “The Shana Rei seem to resent
life itself
, which, uh, doesn't give us much common ground. In the previous war, though, the lldirans and faeros did manage to push them back. The Shana Rei withdrew outside of the universe, but now something has provoked them, brought them back.”

Jora'h could not guess what had disturbed the Shana Rei from their black isolation.

A bureaucrat kithman rushed into the audience chamber, terrified and confused. “Liege, Designate Rusa'h has gone to the top platform of the Prism Palace.”

Jora'h felt a whiplash of dread. “What is he doing there?”

“He barricaded himself inside the greenhouse terrarium. Guards tried to stop him, but he escaped. He says … he says he will call the faeros.”

Patrick Fitzpatrick frowned. “And how in the world does he intend to do that?”

Jora'h knew. “We must stop him. Hurry!” Led by the armor-clad guard kithmen, they all raced up to the high towers.

Nira sprinted alongside him and Prime Designate Daro'h. Muree'n and Yazra'h pushed their way to the front of the guards, weapons drawn.

When the group reached the highest level, they saw that Rusa'h had taken over Nira's special greenhouse, her own private worldforest grove where she could stand among her trees and communicate through telink.

When Jora'h saw the drums of concentrated fuel gel placed around the interior of the greenhouse and up against the tall saplings, he realized that his mad brother had been planning this for some time. Rusa'h insisted on doing what he believed was necessary. He was either insane … or correct.

Jora'h commanded, “I forbid this! I am your Mage-Imperator, Rusa'h, and I am your brother. We have not yet reached this point of urgency.”

Nira cried, “We can't let him. He's got to stop—”

Rusa'h stood motionless in the center of the greenhouse. In his hands he held an ignitor. “Someone has to do what is necessary. The agony of the verdani along with my own will be a summons that the faeros cannot deny.”

“You will not talk him out of it, Father,” Osira'h said in a low voice.

Rusa'h's lower lip curled. “I knew you were weak and a coward, brother. That is what sparked my rebellion against you in the first place. And now I see I was right all along. Someday, after I have saved the Empire, you will understand what I have done. You will thank me.” He closed his eyes and raised his hands, shouting toward the sky, “Faeros, we need you! You must help us. I call upon you to fight the Shana Rei on our behalf—and yours. Help us save the universe.”

The guard kithmen smashed through the transparent crystal walls, pushing into the greenhouse.

“We will pay any price necessary,” Rusa'h shouted.

Jora'h knew it was too late. “Guards, pull back!” He felt a thrumming in the
thism
, a rising surge as his brother cried out with all the power in his mind, drawing on the energy wrapped in the myriad strings that bound all Ildirans together. He triggered the ignitor.

In an instantaneous succession, the containers of fuel gel erupted, sending flames high, blasting out the crystal walls of the greenhouse. A central reservoir of fuel gel sprayed up and burst into flame, engulfing the trees adjacent to Rusa'h and becoming an instant furnace. The worldtrees shuddered, withered.

Even Jora'h thought he could hear them scream.

Nira dropped to her knees, weeping, pressing her hands against her smooth head.

The flames swallowed Rusa'h, setting his garments on fire, blackening his flesh, roaring around his head until his eyes boiled. And as he screamed in utter agony, flames poured out of his throat—yet he remained alive for seconds longer.

His outcry through the
thism
was so intense that it stunned the guard kithmen and rendered the bureaucrats unconscious. Prime Designate Daro'h staggered back, unable to keep his balance. Osira'h and Gale'nh reeled. Muree'n and Yazra'h both stood like statues. Even with the strength he drew from the entire network of
thism
, Jora'h felt deafened and crippled.

The shout of agony roared across the Spiral Arm like a siren, unhindered by physical limitations of speed.

The dying worldtrees also howled their pain through telink to the rest of the worldforest. Only when Rusa'h collapsed into blackened bones and the ashes of flesh, did the call fall silent.

*   *   *

Less than six hours later, after the fire on the Prism Palace roof had been extinguished, Jora'h felt the shuddering impact in his mind, a sense of growing dread that caught fire inside him. He and Nira rushed out of the Prism Palace and stood together in the Foray Plaza. Osira'h joined them, a stricken look on her face, and turned to look up at the sky.

Out in the city of Mijistra, other Ildirans were gathering, sensing the arrival of the powerful entities.

Fireballs streaked across the sky like shooting stars, growing larger and larger until the sky was filled with ellipsoidal knots of flame, sentient infernos that hovered above.

Osira'h stared, and Prince Reynald stood beside her, pale and weak.

Rusa'h had sacrificed himself to demand that the faeros return. These fiery elementals had already torched much of Ildira as well as other worlds in the Empire. Jora'h had no idea how he could defeat them again.

Or control them.

 

CHAPTER

132

EXXOS

Trapped in the shadow cloud with the insane Shana Rei, Exxos endured a hell that was worse than the greatest torment the Klikiss race had ever devised for them.

The error was his. The failure … the devastation. He and his counterparts had designed those immense new battleships with shielding, armor, and weaponry that should have been invincible, and the Shana Rei had constructed those battleships exactly according to the plans the robots provided. Exxos had never expected the far-superior power of the new sun bombs, nor for the Solar Navy to waste such weapons against the black robots.

Even with their expanded warships, their enhanced armor, and increased weaponry, the black robots had not stood a chance.

It was extermination plain and simple, more ruthless than Exxos had ever expected. The Ildirans intended to annihilate every single black robot, just as the robots themselves meant to wipe out the Ildirans and humans. In one space battle, the Solar Navy had succeeded in making the black robots extinct. Only three remained.

Three.

Once, the oppressed black robots had annihilated the entire Klikiss race. Later, millions of them had been reactivated before and during the Elemental War. Exxos and his thousand companions had gone to ground, hibernating in the ice moon on Dhula, and when they reawakened, Exxos led their resurgence. A thousand robots, working together to build new plans—all of which had failed.

Of those original millions, only a thousand had escaped … and of that thousand—because of the Shana Rei, because of the Ildirans, and because of the humans—now only three remained.

Exxos experienced total despair.

He had convinced the creatures of darkness that his robots could help them achieve their goal, but the Shana Rei seemed unconcerned with the extermination of the robot army. No conceivable plan would allow him to achieve victory with only three robots. Exxos had lost everything.

His two surviving companions were identical to him and fell into the same despair. With their three minds interlinked, the intensity of the loss seemed even greater. They did not have the secret processing power to continue developing the weapon to destroy the Shana Rei. They had nothing!

The shadow cloud reemerged at the Onthos home system, hanging above the gigantic ebony sphere that enclosed the star. They would again draw upon the already-existing hex plates to replenish material their huge ships had lost in the sun-bomb explosions.

Shana Rei inkblots appeared before Exxos, pulsing with electric darkness and each anchored with a single staring eye. He was sure the creatures had come to torment him, perhaps to tear apart the last three remaining robots.

At least then it would be finished.

“My robots could have helped you achieve the extermination of all intelligent life,” Exxos said, forcing himself to sound defiant. “We could have eased your pain. But that is no longer possible.”

The Shana Rei stared with a piercing, singular gaze. “Why is it no longer possible?”

“We have no more robots,” said another Exxos beside him. “You need us to implement the plan.”

Exxos said, “We could have guided you, destroyed all life for you. But we can do nothing with only three robots.”

The shadows pulsed in silence—not taunting, but considering. “Then you must have more black robots.”

“There are no more robots!” Exxos said. “We have all been destroyed.”

The staring inkblots pulsed and pondered again. “Then you need more robots. We have studied your physical plan. We can manifest others precisely like you, identical down to the atoms in your metallic lattices.”

Exxos and his two counterparts buzzed startled questions back and forth. Previously, Klikiss robots had all been irreplaceable individuals, a unique set of experiences and histories. But as the Shana Rei destroyed random robot victims, and as casualties mounted in their battle engagements, Exxos had imposed his own will and made all of his comrades share the same mental database, to synchronize their minds with his personality as the model.

The Shana Rei had manifested material to construct complex battleships according to an established blueprint. Why was it not possible for them to rebuild a much more complicated Klikiss robot?

“You can reproduce us?” Exxos asked.

“We can copy you. Exactly as you are.” The Shana Rei seemed to indicate the enormous black sphere around the Onthos star. “You are small things, and we have infinite material.”

“Kuivahr is destroyed. We must do the same thing to other planets,” said a second inkblot.

“And others.”

“Then, yes!” Exxos cried. “I need more robots, many more. Restore our numbers.”

The Shana Rei answered without pondering. More and more sections of the gigantic black shell dropped away, dissolved, reshaped. Dark matter became real matter, atoms reassembled into new structures, infinitely detailed based upon all the knowledge the shadows had acquired from so many torturous dismantlings of robot victims.

Robots appeared, black angular specks against the vastness, a myriad of identical forms that built into a swarm that seemed as populous as the stars in a galaxy. More robots, and yet more.

All of the new robots activated simultaneously, and crimson optical sensors gleamed like a sky full of sparks.

“Will a million more robots suffice?” the Shana Rei asked.

A million more. And all of them would be Exxos.

“Yes, that will be sufficient.”

 

GLOSSARY

ACADEM
: Roamer school inside a hollowed-out comet, near the Roamer complex of Newstation. The school is run by Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni.

ADAR
: highest military rank in Ildiran Solar Navy.

AELIN
: green priest, brother of Shelud, with a special connection to the bloaters.

ALAA'KH
: one of the misbreeds in the Kuivahr sanctuary dome.

ALAKIS, ADAM
: researcher on Vaconda, father of Zoe Alakis, died of Heidegger's Syndrome.