Eternity's Mind (43 page)

The boy grimaced. “That's not what I meant.”

Orli smiled and leaned back against Garrison. The bay was filled with noises of ship engines being tested, cargo unloaded, workers using tools to batter uncooperative systems into submission. But she was distracted from those sounds by a louder hum and whisper inside her head.

She had never been able to understand the faint mental undertone, which she had heard ever since her immersion in the bloater sack. It was like a ringing in her ears, sometimes easily ignored, sometimes bothersome. The hum often fell silent to the point where she thought she might be imagining it after all, but at other times the distraction came to her in dreams.

Now, in the main Handon Station bay, the distant sentience inside her mind suddenly swelled to a crescendo, louder than she had ever experienced before. Orli gasped, and her knees buckled. Garrison caught her, held her up. She squeezed her eyes shut against the throbbing call behind her temples, and the ghostly presence now seized her, as if shaking her awake.

Garrison asked her repeatedly what was wrong, and Orli tried to understand the commotion in her mind, but she heard only bright colors, saw clashing, painful sounds. “I don't know!” She shook her head, tried to get the confusion under control.

That was when she realized there was another person out there just like her, a human who also heard the voice … someone whose mind was likewise open to the bloater sentience.

Seth was frantic and DD called for medical attention as Garrison half carried her to the side of the landing bay. Orli could barely see anything around her because incongruous visions of scent and touch crowded behind her eyes. The awakening presence was bright, sharp, painfully clear … and exhilarating. Even though she was frightened, she felt more energized and alive than she had ever been.

“I'm fine,” she gasped, holding Garrison's arm. “More than fine. This is … amazing. I understand now, but I don't understand.” She was talking so rapidly that her words jumbled out. “Please Garrison—there's someone I need to find. A call went out across the Spiral Arm, and I felt someone else like me listening. Another human. We're connected.”

She struggled to grasp what that strange presence was trying to tell her, and she envisioned the towering worldtrees of Theroc, saw an image of someone whom she instinctively knew as Arita, the daughter of King Peter and Queen Estarra.

And strangely that thrumming, surging voice in her mind impressed on her that it was connected in some way to the bloaters scattered across the Spiral Arm. The bloaters were calling her somehow.

Garrison's expression was full of urgent concern, but Orli knew there was nothing medically wrong with her. Nevertheless, she realized there was something she had to do. “I see it now, Garrison. It's the
bloaters
—I have to go to them. But first, we need to go to Theroc and contact Arita. You and I need to do this together.”

“Theroc?” Garrison said, baffled. “Are you sure? Have you ever met this princess? Why in the world—”

“It's my Guiding Star,” she insisted. “I see it as bright as a beacon. Will you take me there? This is important.”

He didn't hesitate, and she loved him for it. “Of course. I'll get the
Prodigal Son
ready and find someone to take over here while we send a message to Terry and Xander. We can get going right away.”

 

CHAPTER

77

TAMO'L

Sheltered and alone in her research dome, Tamo'l studied myriad forms of death. Examining the genetic synergy in the misbreeds had been her primary interest, but since the poisonous shadows infiltrated her, Tamo'l had also been driven to find any weakness within her own halfbreed genetics.

Plenty of Pergamus scientists performed research that was more interesting to Zoe Alakis, so Tamo'l spent her days alone and unnoticed. Much of the time, she existed in a shadow fugue, engulfed in mysteries and questions. If anyone were to track the files she used or the specimens she reviewed, they might be curious to know why an Ildiran genetics researcher was so fascinated with deadly human diseases.

Tamo'l shuddered and blanked her screens, then forced herself to call up her original studies of the maps of her siblings' DNA and her own. Why did she alone of all her brothers and sisters have a chink in her armor? Why was she vulnerable?

Her father was a lens kithman who devoted his mind to philosophical pursuits and the study of the Lightsource. Had the Shana Rei been able to crack through the barrier and infect her via that higher plane? Or, was Tamo'l just weaker than the others?

With a gasp, she realized that she had unconsciously called up more records of the Onthos plague, had even flagged where the samples were stored on Pergamus. She hadn't even known she was doing it, and during that fugue she had unwittingly begun to plan how she might acquire some of those specimens.

Tamo'l deleted all her work and shut down her systems, helpless and terrified. “Leave me!” she shouted. “I will not help you.”

The shadows within seemed to be laughing.

Unexpectedly, the mocking, looming presence recoiled inside her mind, and she felt a fundamental change. The lurking shadows were like a chill poison within her, but this change was something bright, new, and aware—and it intimidated the Shana Rei. She felt a loud presence tearing its way into the universe like a child desperate to be born. It was not part of the
thism,
not connected to the link she shared with her siblings … it was something different.

Tamo'l reached out, eager to embrace the new titanic presence, seeing it as a hope for rescue. But that other great sentience now sensed the taint of the Shana Rei inside her, and she suddenly became as deeply afraid of this mind as she was of the shadows. She was caught between the two immense forces, unable to escape. Still, she held on and cried out until the awakening presence noticed her and responded.

And it was agony!

 

CHAPTER

78

JESS TAMBLYN

At Academ, the comet was restless and uneasy. The wental energy that permeated its ices flared with a brightening new glow, as if it had received an infusion of fresh fuel. The Roamer students were anxious, and even Jess grew increasingly concerned about what was happening to the elementals that had been been quiescent for so long.

Their energy had once been an integral part of him, when he and the wentals had soared across the Spiral Arm, fighting the hydrogues and the faeros. The water elementals had sung through him and Cesca, liberating them, making them more than human. He felt his skin tingle now.

He didn't believe the wentals would harm Academ, but not everyone could trust such powerful and exotic beings.

A nervous Arden Iswander came to see Jess and Cesca, escorted into the school admin offices by KA. The young man looked so much like his industrialist father. “I volunteered to come speak with you,” Arden said. “The students are worried. That glow seeps into everything. What does it mean? What if there are side effects?”

“The wentals have always been benevolent,” Cesca said, trying to reassure him. “I have no reason to believe they would cause us any harm. After they helped the human race survive the Elemental War, some of them went dormant here.”

Arden nodded slowly, clearly unconvinced. “
Mostly
dormant, but something is obviously triggering them. And wentals have been deadly in the past—you're both aware of that more than anyone else. When they were inside you,
your
touch was enough to kill people. What if the wentals are losing control again?” He raised his hands to indicate the glowing ice walls.

Jess knew that Arden Iswander had been standing up for himself and fighting back against bullies, even when other Roamer students blamed him for his father's mistakes. Arden seemed to be a born leader, and now he was speaking for other uneasy students.

“I wish I had a better answer for you,” Jess said. “The truth is that neither Cesca nor I can understand exactly what's happening with the wentals inside the comet.”

The ubiquitous glow in the ice shimmered, but the wentals had not communicated directly. Jess wasn't even sure whether the elementals still knew how to communicate, if they remembered the fragility of human life.

When Cesca touched the wall, some of the ice melted, but her fingertips seemed to be wet with nothing more than water. “Sometimes we hear words and grasp clear concepts, but at other times it's just a sense of excitement or unease.”

“You can see with your own eyes how much the comet is changing,” Arden said.

“Yes, it's changing,” Jess replied. “And considering the destruction caused by the Shana Rei, we may need the wentals as allies.”

“Even after what they did to you?” Arden asked.

“And what they did
for
us.” Cesca's voice grew stern.

The boy was far too young to remember the awful attacks of the hydrogues and faeros, so he could not understand the cost that Jess and Cesca had been willing to pay. At the time, the human race had been caught in a galactic clash against vastly superior foes. The wentals had helped humanity survive.

“What do you suggest, Arden?” Jess asked.

The young man lifted his chin. “For the time being, as a precaution, the students should move back to Newstation. At least until this settles.” Arden lowered his voice. “I think it's a reasonable suggestion.”

Jess and Cesca had always hoped to have children of their own, but exposure to the wentals had irrevocably altered their biology, and they were never able to build the family they wanted. Instead, they had established Academ so they could always be around Roamer children, to guide them and teach them.

Jess trusted the wentals, but he also felt protective of the children. The clan members had given these boys and girls into their care, and he and Cesca had to protect them. He looked at Arden and nodded. “I understand your worries. Cesca and I will stay here, but anyone who wishes to transfer from Academ to Newstation is welcome to do so. Although we're convinced the wentals won't harm us, we shouldn't take any risks.”

“I'll tell the rest,” Arden said. “Some students want to go right away, but I'll stay here. Others will, too, if you really think it's safe.”

The covered walls began to crackle, and fresh light streamed through the unmasked ices. The lambent light suddenly became intense, searing. Cesca cried out, and Jess felt his heart leap. It was as if the water elementals had just let out an exuberant flash of communication that sparked through.

A profound change out in the universe had just made them stir, and the water elementals were building their energy and signaling … to something. Jess had not felt a sensation like this before.

Around them, the whole Academ comet began to shine like a newly lit star. Shouts of alarm came from students and faculty in the corridors. The intercom system crackled with static and frantic questions.

“You're right, Arden,” Jess said to the suddenly uneasy young man. “We should send the students away. The wentals are preparing for something.”

 

CHAPTER

79

EXXOS

The black robots were reeling from the panicked reaction of the Shana Rei.
Eternity's Mind?
The creatures of darkness could not coherently describe what exactly they feared.

Inexplicably, several of the marrauding shadow clouds in interstellar space began to collapse, crushed by some outside force, and the Shana Rei could not prevent it. Across the Spiral Arm, as the ominous force achieved a sort of consciousness, the black nebulas were converted into cold basic matter, reversing the flow of chaos.

The trapped Shana Rei wailed into the void, expressing far more agony than they had ever shown over the pain of sentient thought.

Although Exxos was pleased to witness their suffering—as far as he was concerned, the creatures of darkness deserved every modicum of misery they endured—the idea of a force awesome enough to terrify the Shana Rei was unsettling to the black robots as well. He and his myriad counterparts could not defend against something like that, could not prepare, nor could they flee.

The huge fleet of resurrected robot ships accelerated through the roiling shadow cloud, separating themselves from the chaotic nebula as swiftly as they could. While the robots watched from an increasing distance, the enormous Shana Rei cylinders crumbled, their obsidian surfaces spiderwebbed with cracks.

Frantic inkblot creatures manifested around the robot ships, appearing and disappearing at random, their voices jibbering. “The dark matter is coalescing!”

“Eternity's Mind drives it!”

The black shapes stretched and distorted, their central eyes blazed as if in terror, then the eyes flickered and grew red.

Exxos savored their panic, but it was also dangerous. Robot warships raced beyond the envelope of the shadow cloud, which had emerged in space near a bloater cluster, and the nuclei of the drifting nodules flashed and sparkled, as if activating in response to the proximity.

The bloaters?

Exxos remembered when the Shana Rei had first threatened the Iswander industrial operations. It should have been a devastating massacre, but when the shadows saw that the human workers were draining and killing bloaters, they simply withdrew without attacking, leaving the industrial operations intact. Exxos and his robots had wanted to annihilate the Iswander outpost, but the Shana Rei refused. It had been a capricious and inexplicable decision.

Now, new shadow clouds emerged into realspace at random points, without any sort of strategy. The Shana Rei simply wanted to fill the cosmos with their smothering darkness, but this time, some force pushed back against the nebula.