Eternity's Mind (2 page)

Kotto gives them busywork projects of half-developed ideas or designs that he never completed. Thinking it's a test, Shareen and Howard work on the problems and find innovative solutions. Kotto compliments them, but is secretly disturbed, since he himself was never able to finish those problems. In fact, though he used to be a great genius, he hasn't produced anything significant in many years and fears he no longer has the talent. He is constructing a gigantic high-energy experiment, the Big Ring, in the middle of a blazing nebula, banking his entire reputation on this concept, and he secretly fears it might not work. He won't show Shareen and Howard the detailed plans, worried that they would find something wrong with it, and he doesn't want to know.

At the isolated Hiltos Lightsource shrine, Tal Gale'nh and Adar Zan'nh meet the lens kithmen who have devoted their lives to developing their mental abilities and studying philosophy. There, they are alarmed to discover Rusa'h, the mad Designate who nearly brought down the Ildiran Empire with his destructive alliance with the faeros and his civil war against Mage-Imperator Jora'h. After his defeat, Rusa'h was exiled to Hiltos and has caused no trouble for twenty years. Now, knowing the incredible threat of the Shana Rei, Rusa'h insists that the only way to fight the creatures of darkness is to renew the alliance with the fiery elementals—a shocking proposal, considering how much destruction the faeros caused before. Zan'nh and Gale'nh refuse to consider the suggestion.

Then the Shana Rei and their swarms of black robot battleships strike Hiltos, drawn by all the lens kithmen's connection to the Lightsource. Led by the black robot Exxos, the ships devastate the shrine as Adar Zan'nh evacuates as many of the lens kithmen as possible, as well as the disgraced Rusa'h. The Solar Navy battles the Shana Rei in orbit, and the Ildiran warliners barely escape, suffering great damage. Rusa'h insists on going back to Ildira and presenting his plan to the Mage-Imperator.

As their diplomatic mission to Theroc finishes, Mage-Imperator Jora'h and Nira join a meeting in which General Keah debriefs the King and Queen about CDF military preparations against the Shana Rei. Ohro surprises them by revealing the location of the lost Onthos star system, which shows up on no star charts. The leader of the Gardener refugees explains that the Shana Rei swallowed up their sun and all its planets. Eager to learn anything about the shadows, General Keah proposes a mission to the dead star system, and Jora'h agrees to let Adar Zan'nh and a group of Solar Navy warliners join the expedition.

Ohro and the Onthos refugees do not want to go along, though; they are too frightened of the creatures of darkness. Instead, the aliens ask permission to settle on the isolated continent of the Wild, where they can live in peace. The only others in the Wild are a group of isolationist green priests (including Arita's friend Collin) and Queen Estarra's estranged sister Sarein, who lives as a hermit. King Peter lets the Gardeners pack up and go.

Before he can depart for home, the Mage-Imperator suddenly senses catastrophe in the Ildiran Empire: the Shana Rei attack on the Hiltos shrine, and the mob assassination attempt on Prime Designate Daro'h. He and Nira rush back to Mijistra, bringing their daughter Osira'h. There, they learn that Rod'h saved the Prime Designate from the possessed mob, and they meet the ragtag Solar Navy returning from Hiltos with mad Designate Rusa'h, who is very unwelcome after his crimes against the Empire. When Jora'h expresses grave reservations about joining forces with the faeros, Rusa'h claims that the Mage-Imperator is too weak to do what is necessary to save his people. As a contingency, Osira'h and Rod'h—the most talented of Nira's halfbreed children—seek out contact with the fiery elementals. The two encounter the faeros, but the sentient fireballs flee, refusing to communicate. Osira'h and Rod'h realize the faeros are
afraid
of the Shana Rei.

Back at his bloater-extraction facility, the powerful Lee Iswander feels snubbed and disrespected by the Roamer clans. He discusses with Elisa Enturi how to restore his reputation. Loyal and defensive, she agrees to do what she can when she delivers a large shipment of ekti-X to the trading hub of Ulio Station, where she will meet with Xander Brindle and Terry Handon.

The desperate green priest Aelin escapes from the Iswander facility by hiding in Elisa's ekti shipment. At Ulio Station he slips away to spread a warning about the bloaters. When he sees the ambitious Roamer traders, though, he fears they won't heed his warning, but might instead rush off to begin extraction operations of their own and cause even more damage to the bloaters! He inadvertently blurts the information to clan Duquesne and hunkers down at Ulio Station, not sure what to do.

Elisa Enturi delivers her stardrive fuel; a large stockpile will remain at Ulio, and the rest is sold to Kett Shipping. Xander and Terry place a tracker on Elisa's ship, so they can follow her movements and know where the ekti-X comes from. Elisa flies off, unaware that her trading partners are spying on her.

Terry and Xander receive a mysterious message to meet a ship out in deep space and are surprised to find the wandering vessel of old Maria Ulio, founder of Ulio Station, who vanished years ago. Maria was a mentor to Terry, and she surprises Terry by transferring to him all of her wealth, which is locked in Ulio Station accounts. Stunned, Xander and Terry fly back to Earth to report to Kett Shipping.

Orli Covitz and Garrison Reeves, along with Garrison's young son Seth, travel to the Roamer capital of Newstation. On the way, Garrison stops at Rendezvous, the abandoned site of the former Roamer capital. For years, Garrison's stern father attempted to rebuild the asteroid cluster, but eventually gave up. Leaving Rendezvous, they arrive at Newstation, where Garrison learns of Kotto Okiah's Big Ring experiment, which is exactly the sort of work he wants to do. Although he and Orli are very close, both have been through difficult relationships, so they decide to spend a month apart to assess their feelings for each other. Leaving Orli, Garrison heads to Fireheart Station to join the Big Ring work crew.

At Fireheart, Shareen and Howard continue to amaze and intimidate Kotto Okiah. The two young assistants secretly get their hands on detailed plans for the Big Ring and are dismayed to see flaws in Kotto's calculations. The experiment won't work! Indignant, Kotto refuses to listen. He insists the Big Ring will be completed shortly and the experiment will proceed as planned.

As Prince Reyn's health declines further, one of Zoe Alakis's former medical researchers comes to Theroc, selling information about the secret Pergamus library to the King and Queen. With new hope, Peter and Estarra dispatch Rlinda Kett to negotiate for any relevant data Zoe might possess. But Rlinda is angrily rebuffed and chased out of the system. Tom Rom is upset to learn that one of Zoe's former researchers betrayed them, so he finds the man, incapacitates him, and sells him to be used as an experimental subject in the biomarkets of Rakkem. Knowing that Pergamus has been revealed, Tom Rom and Zoe have to decide how to proceed.

Meanwhile, in the sanctuary domes on Kuivahr, Tamo'l and her researchers develop possible treatments for Prince Reyn, based on exotic strains of kelp from the oceans. Tamo'l sends the good news to her sister Osira'h. Glad to have this chance, Reyn travels with Osira'h to Kuivahr, where Tamo'l will attempt to treat him.

Elisa Enturi learns that clan Duquesne has formed competing bloater operations, after Aelin blurted out the secret source of ekti-X to them at Ulio Station. Determined to protect the livelihood and profits of Lee Iswander, Elisa tracks down the Duquesne operations and shows no mercy: she detonates the entire cluster and wipes out every person there. Then she returns to Iswander, confident that she has done what was necessary.

Without Garrison, Orli joins Tasia and Robb on a trip to Ulio Station, accompanied by Xander and Terry to retrieve spy data from the tracker on Elisa's ship. In the
Voracious Curiosity
Orli, Tasia, and Robb track Elisa, while Xander and Terry remain on the station to retrieve the fortune that Maria left Terry.

A shadow cloud appears outside of Ulio Station, and thousands of black robot fighters emerge to attack the complex. Xander and Terry barely escape, while the green priest Aelin is killed along with thousands of others. One of the Confederation's busiest trade depots is entirely wiped out.

Following Elisa's trail, the
Voracious Curiosity
comes upon the destroyed Duquesne ekti fields. In one of the wrecks they find a log recording that clearly shows Elisa intentionally causing the destruction. Orli, Tasia, and Robb are sickened as they follow the tracker to Iswander's main industrial operations. Iswander himself has gone to Newstation to regain his reputation among the Roamers, leaving Elisa in charge. When Orli, Tasia, and Robb discover the highly secret operations, Elisa races out in her ship and blasts the
Curiosity.
Even Iswander's other employees are horrified to see this over-the-top reaction. Tasia and Robb do some fancy flying to escape, though their ship is damaged. In empty space, they make repairs before limping back toward Newstation.

Meanwhile, General Keah and Adar Zan'nh launch their expedition to the Onthos star system, carrying Nira's halfbreed sons Rod'h and Tal Gale'nh. Their ships discover that the
entire star system
is sealed inside a vast black shell composed of hexagonal plates of dark matter. The expeditionary ships break through the shell and explore inside, finding dead planets and a snuffed-out sun. On the Onthos homeworld itself, they retrieve some blackened shards of long-dead worldtrees.

Outside the black shell, their sensors detect a gigantic verdani treeship, dead and drifting. Rod'h takes a small solo craft out to investigate and learns that the dead treeship is full of dead Onthos bodies—it was an arkship trying to escape the Shana Rei. As Rod'h's craft explores, a shadow cloud appears in the Onthos system: the Shana Rei and their black robot attack fleet. General Keah, Adar Zan'nh, and Tal Gale'nh unleash their arsenal of sun bombs against the enemy, but Rod'h is stranded. Sensing another one of Nira's oddly resistant halfbreed offspring, the Shana Rei engulf Rod'h's craft and take him prisoner. The devastating space battle continues, and the human and Ildiran ships have no choice but to retreat, leaving Rod'h behind.…

Zoe Alakis and Tom Rom consider Prince Reyn's disease, and knowing that Pergamus has been discovered, they decide to negotiate on their own terms. Encased in a protective suit, Zoe leaves her sterile dome for only the second time in years. Tom Rom takes her to Theroc, where she speaks to King Peter and Queen Estarra. In exchange for their data on the Onthos plague, as well as the King's promise to destroy the vile biological black markets on Rakkem, Zoe gives them all the information she has on Reyn's illness. She also extracts a promise that the Confederation will leave Pergamus alone. Since Reyn has gone to Kuivahr to be treated by Tamo'l, Tom Rom volunteers to fly there and deliver the records personally, because he also wants to get Tamo'l's research data on the misbreeds for Zoe's collection.

Rod'h finds himself held inside an entropy bubble that isolates him deep within the shadow cloud, where he is interrogated horrifically by Exxos. The Shana Rei use the dark matter from the hex plates around the Onthos system to rebuild their own ships as well as many more robot battleships. Scheming against the Shana Rei, Exxos is using the linked processors of all his robots to run extremely complex calculations for an entropy-crystallization device that will destroy the creatures of darkness, but the calculations will take a very long time. Meanwhile, however, he is pleased to torture Rod'h to extract information. The Shana Rei demand to know why Nira's halfbreeds can somehow resist them. Under constant torture Exxos gets Rod'h to reveal that his halfbreed sisters Tamo'l and Osira'h are on Kuivahr with the misbreeds—and so the shadow clouds decide to conquer that planet.

On Theroc, after the Onthos settle in the Wild, Arita goes to visit her aunt Sarein, who lives alone there. She also finds her friend Collin, who lives among Kennebar's isolationist green priests. Distressed, Collin takes Arita to see a large swath of worldtrees that are dying from a mysterious blight. In the forest, they also come upon the alien Gardeners, but far more of them than the original hundred refugees. After Arita departs, Sarein investigates the dying trees and discovers that the blighted areas are infested with hundreds and hundreds of Onthos, which reproduce by killing the worldtrees. Before Sarein can reveal her terrible discovery, the Onthos kill her.

Later, Collin comes to see Arita in the fungus-reef city, extremely disturbed. He thinks the worldforest is losing part of its connection, and that Kennebar's isolationist priests have withdrawn. Collin asks her to come with him to investigate, but when they arrive in the Wild, they find Kennebar's entire tree settlement abandoned. Then Kennebar himself comes to confront them: he is no longer a green priest, but entirely contaminated by shadows, as black as the void. He captures Arita and Collin.…

The damaged
Voracious Curiosity
limps back to Newstation, arriving just as Lee Iswander is challenging the Speaker for his position. Iswander expects to regain his power and importance, to change the leadership of the Roamers … but Orli, Tasia, and Robb announce their dramatic news: the valuable fuel ekti-X is easily extracted from the common bloaters. They also show proof that in order to keep that secret, Iswander's deputy destroyed all of the clan Duquesne operations, killing dozens, and when the
Curiosity
discovered the Iswander extraction fields, Elisa tried to blast them out of space. The Roamers are furious to hear of Iswander's crimes. The ruined industrialist is unable to understand what has happened to him, since he didn't know what Elisa was doing in his name. More importantly, Roamers now know how to extract stardrive fuel, and they rush off in droves to form their own operations.