Blood of the Cosmos (73 page)

The forest remained silent as they moved from one section of the trees to another. They still noticed signs of habitation, but the green priests were all gone, leaving only a primeval emptiness.

Collin looked confused, his eyes wide with lack of understanding. “I'm afraid of this, Arita.”

She answered quietly, “We should be afraid.” Arita had lived in the worldforest, felt a kinship with it, even though she wasn't an actual green priest. For the first time in her life, the dense trees seemed claustrophobic, sinister. She felt as if she didn't belong here.

Collin's eyes snapped open and he withdrew from telink, looking around in alarm. “Kennebar is coming.”

Making virtually no sound as he slid through a wall of fronds, the leader of the separate green priests stood before them like a human-shaped void in the air. Arita gasped as a cold hand closed around her heart.

Kennebar had always been a tall and powerful man with a hard personality, a determination that gave him the strength of his convictions. Collin, like all green priests, had shed his hair, and his pale skin was filled with chlorophyll, turning him the rich, healthy green of the forest.

But Kennebar had undergone yet another transformation. He was no longer a
green
priest—instead he had been tainted by an inky blight. His face, bare chest, arms, legs, eyes, even his mouth and teeth were
entirely black
, as if all color had been leached out and replaced with the deepest night.

Collin backed away to stand next to Arita, and they faced the ebony priest. Arita said, “What happened to you?” But she received no answer.

Collin found his voice. “Kennebar, do you know me? Where are the others?”

The ebony priest's eyes blazed bright. “There are no others,” he said in a frigid, hollow voice. “There will be no others.”

 

CHAPTER

125

KOTTO OKIAH

A remarkable career.
Yes, Kotto liked the sound of that. Biographers could have said that about him twenty years ago, and he could have rested on his laurels after the end of the Elemental War. Why would anybody need to accomplish more than he already had?

He was far too restless for that, though. He wasn't done. In fact, he felt as ambitious as ever.

Seventeen years ago back at Newstation, Speaker Del Kellum had given him a lifetime achievement award.
Lifetime
achievement? Kotto had only been fifty at the time! Why would anyone imagine that he was finished? In the reception after the awards ceremony, Kotto had heard someone remark that his best work was behind him. What a terrible thing to say!

Now, suspended in the nebula, the Big Ring gleamed, surrounded by ionized gases; the searing furnace of the newborn keystone stars drowned out all other illumination. Words failed him, and Kotto balked at the thoughts running through his mind. Of course it would work! It had to.

He felt butterflies in his stomach as he watched all the inspectors gathering for the Big Ring demonstration. Crowds of scientists, engineers, and workers were curious to see the giant experiment activated.

Station Chief Alu paced the deck inside the admin observation station, where the VIP visitors would watch the test. He seemed even more anxious than Kotto, since the reputation of Fireheart Station was at stake. “I can't wait to see this, Kotto. You promise it'll be a spectacular show?”

“I believe so—after everything we've invested in it.” He drew a deep breath and pressed his hands together in front of him. “The Guiding Star is bright.”

Alu peered out at the huge structure. “And this will pave the way for giant new transgates big enough to take whole ships from system to system in an instant?”

“We'll see for ourselves in a few minutes.” Kotto tried to sound coy, but he felt embarrassed when he couldn't convey even general concepts that seemed so obvious to him. Several times, Howard Rohandas had saved him by explaining the steps that Kotto had glossed over. Shareen Fitzkellum also tried to help, but she was too impatient.

When it came to details of what would happen with the flux folding and the power the Ring would generate, his two lab assistants had been cowed since he had snapped at them. Kotto was still upset that Shareen and Howard had dampened his triumph, but he was more troubled that they had fostered doubts in his own mind. Kotto could not have doubts. He pushed those away, straightened his back and lifted his chin. “Let's get started. Station Chief, are we ready to commence?”

“You tell me, Kotto—you're in charge.” Alu flung his long hair behind his back as if he were posing for a photo.

From the greenhouse terrarium, Celli and Solimar responded over the comm. “We will pass along reports through the trees. We are watching eagerly, and the rest of the green priests are watching us.”

In habitation spheres, admin complexes, and single ships around the nebula, other Fireheart workers were all intent. Normal operations had been shut down in honor of the big event.

Garrison Reeves, one of the team leaders of a construction crew, transmitted a message, surrounded by men and women in serviceable Roamer jumpsuits. “Six years of work from start to finish. Let's see what we accomplished. I have to admit, we're very curious.”

Kotto was curious as well. Calculations and theoretical concepts only went so far, and these would be real tangible results for everyone to see. He swallowed hard, but tried not to show his uneasiness. He had so much riding on the next few minutes.

Station Chief Alu smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

Kotto opened the comm to the engineers and their control ships. “Uh, this is Kotto Okiah. Engage the power blocks and spin up the current flow in the torus. Let's start building the field.”

“Check, Kotto,” said the team head.

Tracking lights lit along the Ring like lightning bugs in a racetrack as each bank in the chain of power blocks illuminated. The Big Ring awakened, and he was grinning like a fool, breathing hard.

The Ring remained edge-on to the firestorm of hot central stars, so the stellar flux would not pour through the center of the Ring. Not yet. The current had to build to maximum first, generating a wraparound magnetic field.

Over the years, Kotto had launched so many important experiments and gambled so many resources on brainstorms he'd had. As the son of the revered Speaker Jhy Okiah, Kotto had been given opportunities that many other Roamer scientists didn't receive, but that only accounted for the beginning of his career. Since then, he had proved himself again and again, and skepticism turned to cheers.

He remembered when he had launched the metals-processing operations on fiery Isperos and the deep-frozen settlement of Jonah 12 for hydrogen extraction. And there were numerous new weapons, skymine redesigns, countless prototypes. Sometimes his schemes failed due to circumstances beyond his control, but the Roamers always gave him another chance.

Like now. He had rarely felt so excited … or so nervous.

When the Big Ring was glowing and the engineering team leader reported that the current flow was at its maximum, the magnetic field was like a constricting vise around the whole torus.

“We're spun up to full strength, Kotto. Power block output is at capacity, and the discharge at this level will last for no more than ten minutes. That magnetic field is damned impressive.”

Inside the VIP chamber, observers were applauding, talking among themselves.

“Rotate the Ring on its axis,” Kotto forced himself to say. “Turn it so that the full stellar flux goes right through the center of the hole.”

Hundreds of small technical satellites were scattered all around the Ring, taking measurements. Raw data poured across the screens. Kotto held his breath as opposite equatorial thrusters turned the torus like a rotating planet. The Ring's lights glowed bright as power blocks continued to discharge, creating a cross-magnetic field that made a furious loop in space.

Kotto mopped his forehead. With shining eyes, he turned to look at the excited observers—and caught a glimpse of Shareen and Howard. The two assistants looked troubled, but held their silence. Shareen fidgeted and leaned over to whisper to Howard. The young man shook his head.

Feeling a heavy weight in his stomach, Kotto turned away, trying to convince himself that he shouldn't worry about the concerns of two mere assistants.

The Ring slowly rotated, giving a sense of sheer massiveness. As if a window had been opened, they could see the lighthouse beacon of Fireheart's central star cluster through the middle of the torus. The blazing young stars were blue-white, their radiation incredibly intense, and now the full flux streamed like a fire hose through the center of the Ring, which itself was wrapped with an intense magnetic field. The field built on the new flux, increasing the energy level, sucking more power out of the blocks.

—which made the current increase through the Ring. In turn, the magnetic field grew more and more powerful.

—feeding the stellar flux that increased it still more, in a runaway cascade.

Kotto couldn't breathe. The Ring shuddered with such power that it looked like a Samson straining at the shackles of space-time.

The team leader shouted over the comm, “Kotto, everything's off the scales. It's a
self-accelerating
feedback loop!”

Several of the telemetry satellites closest to the Big Ring sparked, shorted, and went offline.

Shareen made her way to his side. “Where is all that power going to go?”

The Ring itself shuddered and its physical structure …
blurred
.

He activated the comm to the team leaders. “Withdraw to a safer distance, just in case. We don't really know—”

Then the Ring wobbled, shuddered—and
collapsed into itself
as if all the power blocks, the torus structural supports, and the magnetic field holding it all together twisted themselves inside out like a bizarre Escher drawing.

Kotto couldn't tear his eyes away.

The Big Ring folded inside and out, twisting through fractional dimensions. The circular opening in the middle pulled from all sides and split a large, neat hole in the fabric of the universe. The gaping tear in space shifted, and the whole Ring itself vanished, sucked inside like a pebble through a hull breach. The gaping
empty
maw remained open, intensely dark, giving evidence of no stars, no gravity, no light. Wisps of the Fireheart nebula began to drift into it, a colorful waterfall swirling down a drain into infinity.

“It's like a giant doorway,” said Station Chief Alu, not sure whether to be afraid or amazed. “Is … that what you were expecting, Kotto?”

“It's not at all what anyone was expecting,” Shareen said.

Howard asked, “What if we need to close that thing?”

A hush fell in the observation chamber. As Kotto watched, unable to believe his eyes, he saw the darkness behind space shifting and changing. Something even blacker than emptiness was moving inside the tear, coming closer.

 

CHAPTER

126

ADAR ZAN'NH

Carrying the most advanced weaponry, the cohort of warliners arrived at Kuivahr. The Solar Navy wasted no time.

After they disengaged their stardrives, the deceleration was intense enough to damage some systems. Crewmembers had to strap down and endure the bone- and muscle-crushing weight, but Adar Zan'nh was desperate to arrive before it was too late. This time, he intended to deal the enemy a devastating blow, and he had the weaponry do to it.

His pulse raced, and his eyes focused to a razor-sharp intensity. He recalled how his heroic predecessor Adar Kori'nh had made the hydrogues reel at Qronha 3. Zan'nh meant to do a similar thing now: he would throw
everything
into the engagement, if that was what it took to stop further attacks. He wanted to make the Shana Rei fear them. He wanted to make the shadows
hurt
.

As the fleet hurtled toward Kuivahr, Zan'nh instantly spotted the huge shadow cloud, the terrifying black hex cylinders—and nearly a hundred robot battleships, all much larger and more fearsome than the vessels they had recently fought at the Onthos home system.

Well, he had superior weapons now, too.

“We arrived too late, Adar,” said his navigator.

Zan'nh held on to the command rail and shook his head. “No—we are exactly on time.” He transmitted to every maniple commander, every septar, every pilot of every warliner. “You have all been briefed, and you are prepared. Commence the attack without delay. Today, here, we will stop the Shana Rei.”

The main screen mapped out the positions of the hundred robot battleships, laid them out on a tactical grid, and identified targets, which were distributed among the 343 warliners. The grid also picked up an outlying blip among the enemy vessels, a smaller ship racing in an erratic course directly toward them.

A distress signal burst across the comm screen. “By the Guiding Star, are we glad to see you! This is Zhett Kellum and Patrick Fitzpatrick from the Kuivahr distillery. We're the last ship to get away from the planet, and we have Prince Reynald of Theroc with us, as well as your Mage-Imperator's daughter Osira'h. Request permission to come aboard—and you'd better make up your minds quick!”

The pursuing robot ships opened fire at the Roamer ship, but Zhett had managed to evade them, so far. Adar Zan'nh directed his warliners. “Intercept and protect that ship. Grant them sanctuary.”

Overlapping chatter appeared on adjacent screens. From the command nucleus of his own warliner, Tal Gale'nh sent an urgent message. “Adar, our sister Tamo'l is still down on the planet. Muree'n and I can sense her. And Rod'h … I don't know.” His bleached face looked distraught. “He is in the shadow cloud somewhere.”

High-resolution images showed that the ocean world was almost completely encased in an ebony shell, and he felt cold trickle through him. This englobement was smaller in scale than what they had encountered at the Onthos home system, but just as deadly. All life on Kuivahr would be snuffed out.