Saga of Shadows 1: The Dark Between the Stars (74 page)

He pulled the tube out. His fingers were covered with blood—Orli’s spilled blood, and his own from a small cut. With a detached analysis that was parsecs away from panic, he realized he was also infected now.

He was going to have much less time to get back to Zoe Alakis than he had expected.

O
NE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN

E
XXOS

Exxos relished the fact that humans and Ildirans knew they would soon become an extinct species. Impatient, he wished the Shana Rei would simply unfold and strike huge population centers, destroy Ildira and the traitorous Mage-Imperator, crush the human capital, and then methodically wipe out one settlement after another. For the creatures of darkness, it should be as simple as snuffing out candle flames. Extinguishing the clamorous disruption of intelligent life bit by bit would ease their pain.

But the chaotic inkblot creatures chose their own targets and rarely listened to Exxos. The Shana Rei refused to explain why they had chosen to manifest a shadow cloud out here, so far from any known inhabited system. Why worry about a minor industrial outpost, when they could be destroying Ildira instead? What could be interesting about this place?

But when he objected, the pulsing inkblots turned their singular, glowing eyes toward him. “It calls us.”

“What calls you?” Exxos asked. “What is here? I demand to know.” The Shana Rei did not answer for a long moment, then the voices echoed around him in the entropy bubble, a thrumming cacophony.“We do not know.”

The creatures of darkness had their own goals. They were uncontrollable, unpredictable. Exxos knew that would be problematic once they finished the extended plan to exterminate all intelligent life. What if they reneged on their promise to create a pocket universe for the robots to inhabit and rule? Would the Shana Rei turn against the black robots?

Of course they would.

Exxos and his comrades had already pooled their calculating power. Planning, always planning, they began to consider alternatives for how they might defeat the creatures of darkness. Fortunately, they would have plenty of time. The annihilation of all other life would take time.

As they emerged into the normal universe again, the Shana Rei pulled matter out of nothingness in order to create their hex battleships. The effort caused them enormous agony, as if they were flagellating themselves by creating matter—yet they endured, so they could continue to destroy. A paradox.

When the shadow cloud began its attack on the ekti-extraction field, Exxos and his companions experienced a wrench of disorientation. Then they found themselves on the control decks of their recreated fighting ships. Several of their enhanced war vessels had been destroyed at Plumas, but the Shana Rei simply remade them now, as if nothing had happened.

Individual robots could not be replaced. The memories of those unmade by the Shana Rei were already lost, but the stored experiences of the remaining ones could be duplicated and shared. As their numbers dwindled, Exxos commanded that all of his companions act as backup for one another, with himself as a primary repository of their existence. He designated himself as the baseline entity.

Now the gigantic hex ships emerged from the cloud. Even Exxos did not know what sort of weapons the ebony vessels possessed. They projected an entropic field that disrupted or destroyed technological systems, but that was a passive weapon. He hoped the Shana Rei would cease to be passive.

When the attack began, Exxos commanded the newly manifested robot ships to launch out and destroy, but he was curious to discover what had drawn the Shana Rei to this particular place. He had to understand, had to stay one step ahead of the creatures of darkness, if he intended to continue his bluff.

He observed the island of strange nodules, the flurry of human activity, bright facilities and equipment that drifted among the cluster. Not impressive. The human population here would be small, and Exxos would annihilate them easily—another wasteful exercise, not sufficiently important, in his opinion, to merit the effort. If the Shana Rei suffered so to create their ships for this particular attack, why would they consider the tiny outpost a worthwhile target?

What was here?

He had never seen anything like the strange nodules, an odd anomaly, and the humans were exploiting them somehow. The operations had drained and discarded hundreds of the sacks, while continuing to work on the hundreds that remained.

The ebony Shana Rei ships hung over the largest complex, but did not move, as if something caused them to hesitate. The creatures of darkness didn’t attack, even though the human ships flurried in a seemingly disorganized evacuation. Many were escaping, but the Shana Rei did not seem concerned.

Knowing he couldn’t count on the shadow creatures to do what was necessary, Exxos transmitted an order to his robots. “Commence full attack!” Like a flock of black vultures, they streaked into the industrial complex.

O
NE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN

G
ARRISON
R
EEVES

The shadow cloud swelled near the Iswander ekti-extraction complex like smoke ripping through the fabric of space. Utterly silent, the black nebula reached toward the cluster of bloaters.

Lee Iswander’s face was markedly pale when he turned to Garrison. “I didn’t listen to your warnings at Sheol—I hesitated too long before I evacuated. I won’t make that mistake again.” He turned to the frightened-looking techs at the admin stations. “Signal our operations to evacuate immediately. All ships out of there! Follow emergency procedures.”

Elisa was angry. “We can’t give up without a fight, sir. You banked everything on this. It is your chance—”

“No, Elisa. We’ll pick up the pieces later.” He raised his voice, transmitted over the open channel, “All work crews, find the nearest escape vessel and get away from that cloud.”

The intercom echoed with distress calls, confused shouts. Evacuation alarms rattled through the connected modules. Ships at docking hatches and in landing bays were quickly crowded with people and launched out into the open, heading away from the bloater-extraction fields in every direction.

Alec Pannebaker called from the industrial yards, “But, Chief, this ekti hauler is fully loaded. I’m taking it up and out of here. That way, we’ll salvage something at least.”

“Only if you can do it safely. The facilities can be replaced—and we know there are other bloater clusters.” He turned to his wife and son. “I will not lose personnel again. Fifteen forty-three . . . that was enough.”

Garrison was relieved. “Thank you, sir. Seth, come with me to the ship. We’ll get as many aboard as possible. Mr. Iswander, we have room for your wife and son. Elisa, are you coming?”

Elisa placed herself at the doorway. “You’re not taking Seth away from me again.”

“I’m not taking him away from
you.
There’s no time for your nonsense. We’re getting out of here. You’re welcome to come with us.”

Iswander surprised him by interjecting in a firm, commanding tone, “Elisa, I need you to cooperate. Go with Mr. Reeves and your son, see that my family gets to safety.”

She blinked, taken aback that he would side against her. She rallied visibly, then turned to Iswander. “Yes, sir. You need to leave, too.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m staying here to wrap up. I can get away in my own cruiser, but I don’t want to worry about you. Mr. Reeves, thank you for your offer to take a few extra passengers. I am indebted to you.”

Arden said, “No. You have to come with us!”

Iswander frowned. “I have other responsibilities first, and
your
duty is to do as you’re told.”

Nodding to the industrialist, Garrison put a hand on his son’s shoulder and said, “Come on, everyone, let’s
go
!”

Elisa hesitated. Iswander said to her, “Leave! That is an order.”

The huge refinery vessels were gathering momentum, lumbering away from the bloater cluster. One panicked cargo ship accelerated blindly, slammed into a group of deflated bloater sacks, and exploded.

Around the extraction field, ships flew about like enraged insects from a stirred-up hive. Another evacuating ekti hauler had raced off without securing its cargo, and the heavy tanks of stardrive fuel tumbled out, spoiling the vessel’s weight distribution and sending it into a spin, which ejected even more ekti canisters. They spread out like unaimed projectiles, and one struck a small ship flying away from an extraction station that was still connected to a flaccid bloater. The tank exploded, ripping open the fleeing ship.

As he ran into the landing bay where the
Prodigal Son
waited, Garrison saw the explosion and expected the shock wave to ignite the bloater, which would cause another chain-reaction explosion . . . but they got lucky. The deflated sack did not catch fire.

Elisa grabbed Seth’s hand and hurried him into the
Prodigal Son.
When Londa and Arden were also safely aboard, Garrison headed for the cockpit while the others strapped in. In less than a minute, he had primed the engines and launched from the bay into the dubious safety of open space.

O
NE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN

A
ELIN

With emergency evacuation alarms hammering through the Iswander complex, the green priest prepared his escape. Aelin didn’t know what was happening out there, nor did he care. Everything else was insignificant to what he knew now.

The song of the cosmos continued to play in his head, deafening him with blinding colors, filling the backs of his eyes with incomprehensible words. He tasted music at the back of his tongue.

Ever since being exposed to the revelatory bloater flash, Aelin had felt the surreal symphony inside his mind. He never wanted it to stop, and his heart ached to know that he had dipped only a single droplet out of an infinite ocean.

How he wished he could have shared this with his poor brother. . . .

Since his rescue, he had been comatose off and on, but Aelin did not mind. While unconscious and drifting, he found that he was able to bask in all the wonders that filled his head. When he woke, though, he felt dull and stupid, his perceptions fuzzy, his vision limited. His treeling was dead—withered by the overload of the flash—but the mind that now encompassed him was orders of magnitude greater than even the verdani.

He had come back to himself in the Iswander Industries medical center, swimming up through the murk of sedatives that the doctors gave him, only to find that the modular station was in the midst of a turbulent evacuation. Frantic people rushed through the corridors. A crewman ran by, shouting into the doorway, “Another ship leaves in two minutes. Better be gone before the shadow kills us all!”

In the adjoining room, two doctors were helping an injured ekti worker who had suffered a mishap at one of the pumping stations. One of the doctors looked up at him. “Good, you’re awake—prepare to evacuate!” He quick-released the unnecessary restraints that had held Aelin down. “You’ll have to walk on your own. Hurry!”

People scurried toward evacuation hatches and landing bays. The doctors guided the other patient into the corridor, and Aelin eased himself out of his infirmary bed. He felt weak, as if his muscles had forgotten how to function.

But he didn’t want to evacuate—in fact, he had no intention of leaving the bloaters. He had a plan.

Aelin made his way to a small garment closet, unfolded the door, and slipped inside, closing it behind him. Several minutes later the doctors returned, looking for him. “Where the hell did the green priest go?”

“Everybody’s evacuating. Somebody must have taken him.” Grumbling, the doctors left.

Aelin let out a long sigh. Evacuation alarms continued, but by now most of the people had departed from the station.

He emerged from the closet and tore off his loose infirmary gown. He was a green priest; he needed no clothing other than his traditional loincloth. He worked his way through the well-lit corridors, creeping along, ready to hide if he heard someone coming. The station seemed empty.

In the loading bay, Aelin found one of the inspection pods still sitting there. The small ship was too slow for anyone to use it for escape, but it suited him just fine. He did not wish to get away. Whatever the crisis might be, it did not interest him.

With his mind so vast and open, it took him considerable effort to limit his thoughts to mundane matters, such as operating the controls of the pod. This was
important.
He felt the pull of that presence out there.

As the inspection pod drifted away from the station, he saw the ominous shadow cloud looming above the extraction operations like a cosmic thunderstorm. Iswander ships rushed everywhere, scrambling for safety. With his newfound sensitivity, Aelin could sense the angry chaos of the Shana Rei, but the bloaters beckoned him.

He flew out into the emptiness.

O
NE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

O
SIRA
’
H

After the attack in the archives, Prince Reyn and his parents were kept in secure quarters as the King and Queen prepared to depart for Theroc. Osira’h would travel with them to the supposed safety of the worldforest planet, although she suspected the Shana Rei could reach wherever they liked. She could not forget the shadowy blankness in those possessed Ildirans who had tried to kill them in the Vault of Failures. . . .

Gale’nh was also distraught about the incident. “I should have felt it,” he told her, hanging his head. “I watched the black nebula engulf the
Kolpraxa
—but this type of darkness strikes through the
thism
, as it did on our mother’s birthday. Yet I was unprepared. It can take hold of anyone, anywhere.”