Saga of Shadows 1: The Dark Between the Stars (66 page)

Seth placed it in his palm, looking with wonder. “What is it?”

“Wental water, just like what you played in. It’s special.”

Cesca shot Jess a quick glance; she knew what he was doing, but didn’t say anything.

“As long as it’s not harmful,” Elisa said, then hurried through the rest of the paperwork. Before she took the boy with her, she remembered to thank Jess and Cesca for their efforts. “I’m sorry to put you in the middle of this.”

After they departed, Jess felt very uneasy. Cesca’s eyes shone with unshed tears, and he hugged her. “We should send a message through the green priest at Newstation. We’ve got to let Garrison know what happened.”

O
NE HUNDRED AND ONE

K
ING
P
ETER

Unannounced, the
Kutuzov
and part of the CDF battle group careened into the Theroc system so swiftly that the verdani battleships prepared to defend against an attack.

General Keah broadcast on the emergency frequency, requesting an immediate meeting with King Peter. “This can’t wait, Sire. It seems we’re at war, and we didn’t even know it. Wait until you see these images.”

CDF warships filled the skies above the worldforest, many of them battered and damaged. Her flagship Juggernaut and fifteen Manta cruisers had managed to limp back from the disastrous confrontation at Plumas that should have been a simple war game with the Solar Navy.

King Peter was deeply disturbed to see the wounded battle group. “General, what happened to the rest of your ships?”

On the screen, Keah wiped a hand across her brow. “I sent many of them directly to Earth for full refit and repairs, Sire. Admirals Handies, Harvard, and Haroun escorted the ships to the LOC, but I won’t lie to you—we lost a hell of a lot of ships in that mess.”

His brow furrowed. “We’ll need your report, General, as soon as you can get down here.”

Queen Estarra contacted governmental staff throughout the fungus-reef complex, calling Roamer clan representatives, Confederation delegates, and any planetary ambassadors who happened to be on Theroc. Inside the throne-room chamber, technical officers scurried to rig the image-relay screens, unrolling and applying them to the soft fungus walls. Everyone was still abuzz with questions when General Keah’s shuttle arrived. A Roamer man in a clean, but well-worn jumpsuit accompanied her: Ron Tamblyn, who had escaped from the Plumas water mines with nothing more than the clothes on his back.

Keah spoke without being introduced, without calling the meeting to order. “We were attacked, Sire. For the test exercises, I had three full battle groups, plus the
Kutuzov
—and we still barely made it out alive.” She shook her head as the techs powered up the relay screen. “Without Adar Zan’nh, I wouldn’t be making this report—you’d be wondering why you lost fifty of your best ships.”

The wallscreens displayed images of the attacking black robot ships, and Peter felt a chill to see them again. “Those are more black robots than you chased at Dhula.”

“Worse than that,” General Keah said. “The bugbots have allied themselves with the Shana Rei. Creatures of darkness straight out of Ildiran legend.” The dramatic images showed the boiling shadow cloud that opened up like a stain in empty space, disgorging first the robot ships and then enormous hexagonal cylinders.

Keah looked uncharacteristically agitated. “We didn’t know how to fight them. Our weapons did nothing.”

Estarra asked, “We understand that the Klikiss robots have a grudge against us, but we’ve never encountered the Shana Rei. How did we become their enemies?”

“I don’t have a molecule of an idea. One of the robots communicated with us, said that their combined goal was to exterminate all intelligent life, all vestiges of civilization.” The listeners in the room fell into a stunned silence. “In my opinion, your Majesties, that doesn’t leave much room for negotiation.” Keah switched to another file. “Watch these images of Plumas. The Shana Rei just
crushed
the whole ice moon!”

Ron Tamblyn stepped forward. “My clan lost everything—the Plumas water mines, our trading operations, fifteen tankers. We’re still counting the number of casualties.”

Sheri Sandoval, the Confederation’s representative from the Roamers, looked shell-shocked at the task before her. “How many survivors do you have, Mr. Tamblyn? Our ships can take you to Newstation.”

“That’s exactly where I want to go,” Tamblyn said. “I’ve got family there. My cousin Jess is at Academ.”

Peter said, “We’ll make sure your refugees get the help they need.”

Estarra sat straight in her ornate chair. “General Keah, we’ll want a full report on the damage to your ships and which weapons were most effective. How do we fight these things that have declared war on us?”

“In my professional assessment, Queen Estarra, our jazers and relativistic projectiles did
squat.
We destroyed quite a few bugbot ships, but no matter how evil the robots are, I believe the Shana Rei are far worse. They consider the robots nothing more than cannon fodder. Whenever our ships got close to those giant Shana Rei hexagon vessels, our systems started to malfunction and break down. Adar Zan’nh sent me information the Ildiran rememberers retrieved from their old historical records. Apparently, the Shana Rei are composed of entropy itself, chaos. Even physics doesn’t work right in their vicinity.”

The dour representative from the planet Ramah said, “Then what hope do we have of fighting them?”

A small smile curved the edges of Keah’s lips. “There is a bit of a silver lining. The Solar Navy found some ancient weapons designs and tested out their prototypes. Laser missiles and sun bombs—they both showed some promise. The Solar Navy will share the designs with us, and we’d better get them into production yesterday.” Keah crossed her arms.

King Peter rose from his chair, and Estarra stood beside him. “Now, more than ever before, the Ildiran Empire and the Confederation need to work together as allies. Prince Reynald is currently a guest in Mijistra, but it’s time that the Queen and I go there to meet with the Mage-Imperator. This is a crisis.” He glanced at Estarra. “We’ll depart for Ildira as soon as possible.”

O
NE HUNDRED AND TWO

S
HAREEN
F
ITZKELLUM

Shareen’s brother liked to get muddy, so he volunteered to work with the crews in the plankton skimming operations on Kuivahr. Most distillery laborers wore full-body films and goggles to protect themselves from the splashing muck. Toff liked to strap on a life-preserver bladder belt and wade right into the slurry with his buckets and skimmers, tracking down colorful blooms of plankton. He would return to the distillery, oozing and dripping and smelling like rotted vegetation, and he laughed as the other workers hosed him off.

At least it distracted Shareen’s brother from bothering her and Howard, so they had time alone. As soon as Toff had detected that she liked Howard, he became a curious pest, as only a younger brother could be. He hovered nearby until he saw them snatching a private moment, then he made certain to interrupt their conversation. Howard, already quiet and shy, seemed embarrassed, and Shareen would chase Toff away, overreacting with enough defensiveness that she often felt embarrassed, too.

Howard surprised her with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it, Shareen. He’s not so bad. My own brothers used to set up practical jokes and damaged some of my school projects because they were jealous. It’s rough to be the studious, practical one in a rambunctious family.”

“Tell me about it!” She laughed. “Not that I’m really studious.” “Toff is just teasing,” Howard said. “I doubt he’s ever seen you with a boyfriend before.”

Shareen’s heart skipped a beat, but she clumsily deflated the situation with her automatic reply. “Oh, so you’re my boyfriend?”
Wrong tone!
She felt like kicking herself.

Howard flushed. “Maybe it was just a hypothetical comment.”

“Or maybe not.” Feeling as if gravity had just decreased, she nudged him with her elbow. Maybe she
would
have to pay more attention to her appearance, as her grandfather had suggested, at least give her hair another look.

Shareen signed out a mudskimmer, marking on the log that the two of them were on a “kelp bed mapping and assessment expedition.” In truth, she wanted to get Howard away from the refinery and out onto the open water for a change. It was going to be a fun day.

With the tide at midlevel, most of the dangerous reefs would be submerged, and the larger ones were clearly marked on the charts so she could avoid them. Howard was content to sit beside her as she piloted the mudskimmer. She wasn’t shy about using the accelerator as they bounded away from the distillery tower, sending up spray behind them. Even Howard started laughing as the wind picked up, and she enjoyed showing off for him.

Shareen swung the skimmer past the outcropping where the ancient Klikiss transportal sat up out of the water. After anchoring the craft against the rocks, they picked their way up the moss-slick black stones to stand before the transportal wall. The alien transportation network had always fascinated her, all those gateways to other planets. Though Roamers traveled widely, and Shareen had seen many places, there was something amazing about the flat trapezoidal wall with its coordinate tiles that offered the prospect of stepping through and instantaneously appearing parsecs away.

Now she and Howard stared at the alien wall, feeling the weight of mystery. She slipped her hand into his, and he pretended not to notice, but returned the grip. Roamers and the Confederation used the transportal walls for mundane transportation needs, but that didn’t stop her from marveling at what could be on the other side if she pushed a random coordinate tile. Not because she was dissatisfied with her life, but because she was curious. “Want to take a trip with me, Howard? Set foot on some other planet? We could go farther than a few kelp beds.”

“If we did that, we would be wise to tell someone where we’re going.” He looked surprised, but she noticed he didn’t let go of her hand. “Are you trying to run away from home?”

She chuckled. “Maybe if they tried to send me back to that academy on Earth! But no, not today. Someday. There’s so much to see.” The transportal looked like a sheet of stone, but the implanted circuits were connected to powerful engines and energy fields that could open a passageway from one planet to another. She shivered, but it was a good thrill.

Howard said, “I thought we were mapping and assessing Kuivahr kelp beds.”

“Yes, I suppose we are. Does that sound exciting to you?”

He responded with a small but intriguing smile. “If I’m doing it with you.”

She laughed. “Well then, on with the excitement!” They made their way back to the mudskimmer.

Because Kuivahr’s kelp rafts drifted, charts could not keep track of their locations, and the cloud cover made it impossible for satellites to follow the migrating islands that moved in the shallow tidal exchange zone.

Pretending to know where she was going, Shareen piloted the skimmer. The clouds parted to let sunlight play golden beams on the steel-gray water, then closed up again. Howard kept his eyes on the water ahead and pointed off to the distance. “That dark spot—it’s a kelp raft. Let’s go see.”

Shareen adjusted course toward the seaweed patch. As they drew closer, she saw olive-green fronds swirling like tongues in the sea around them.

Ildiran swimmer kithmen darted beneath the water, trying to keep up with the mudskimmer; some of them surfaced and splashed ahead. Shareen slowed the engines to give them a chance, then zoomed ahead to race them to the kelp island. The Ildirans enjoyed the game, streaking under the water, and showing off. When Shareen accelerated the skimmer, she and Howard both got drenched with spray.

A group of swimmers appeared on the kelp island, waving their webbed hands in invitation. Their large eyes were bright, their sleek skin glistened with moisture. Shareen glanced at Howard. “Looks like they’re welcoming us. Should we stay for a visit? Be good neighbors?”

“All part of the learning process.” He shaded his eyes. “I think they’re as interested in us as we are in them.”

Swimmers came alongside the mudskimmer and guided the vehicle through a cleared channel in the morass of kelp fronds; one took the guy line and tied it to a thick seaweed trunk. They looked so sleek, so comfortable in the water; even though they were from Ildira, they had entirely adapted to Kuivahr.

“Humans do not often come out to visit us,” said one of the swimmers.

“This is our first time,” Howard said. “We’d like to see how you live.”

The kelp raft had an uneven surface of woven fronds and bladder nodules. It looked wet and squishy, with uncertain footing. Confident in his balance, Howard swung out of the mudskimmer and climbed onto the kelp, arms out at his sides, wobbling and testing each step before he rested his weight.

Not to be outdone, Shareen bounded onto the kelp, and one foot promptly slid between fronds and into the water. She flailed, grabbed on to Howard’s arm, and pulled him down with her. They both fell into the water, clambering over each other, pulling themselves up through the thick weeds. Shareen tried to help him, but he sputtered and flung water from his eyes, and “accidentally” dunked her. The swimmers laughed and steadied both of them, dragging them onto the raft.

One young male swimmer came up and inspected their two dripping forms with something like satisfaction. “I am Tora’m. I met you when we delivered kelp flowers to your big structure. I was intrigued by you then.”

Shareen recognized him by the distinctive speckle pattern on his cheeks. “Oh, I remember you. We were less of a mess then.” She nudged Howard.

“Yes, my friend wasn’t so clumsy,” Howard said.

“Careful, or I’ll pull you into the water again.”