Hidden Empire (34 page)
An EDF geological specialist looked up from his technical station. “The first scans have given us some information, sir. All
the rubble displays the same degree of cooling. Therefore, the destruction occurred over a very short period of time—inconceivably
short, in fact. My guess is that the four moons and our station were destroyed within hours of each other.”
“Hours!” The General felt a sinking sensation. “What could possibly demolish four whole moons in mere hours?”
What are we up against?
The pilot looked over at Lanyan. “There’s no way any help could have arrived in time, General, even if Dr. Serizawa had access
to telink. Top speed with the stardrive from the nearest EDF deployment would still require the better part of a week. Just
no way we could have helped.”
“And then we would have lost a green priest, too,” Lanyan admitted.
But still, dammit, we could have known what was happening!
He hated having his hands tied by the arrogance of treetalkers on one hand and the speed of light on the other.
Right now, though, the very slowness and plodding predictability of standard EM transmissions gave him an opportunity. Serizawa’s
emergency broadcast would have been beamed out in all directions, but it could only go so far—a very precise distance, in
fact. Lanyan could get there in time to meet it head-on.
The reconnaissance outrigger whipped around Oncier, stealing a parade of images along the way. Then, like a hapless child
at the end of a game of crack-the-whip, the vessel shot outward again, away from the newborn star.
“I need a fast analysis, Lieutenant,” the General said, narrowing his ice-blue eyes. “We’ve made our estimates of the precise
time of the attack. Now calculate exactly how far an omnidirectional signal would travel in the time since. I want to grab
that wave front before it can deteriorate further.”
At his technical station, the lieutenant crunched numbers through the fast computers until he had his answer. The General
ordered his navigator-pilot to set their course. “Engage the stardrive.” Though he felt no dramatic acceleration, the outrigger
rushed forward, blurring out of the regular space-time continuum, racing to catch up with electromagnetic waves that were
already many weeks old.
Because the Ildiran stardrive allowed them to travel much faster than the speed of light, General Lanyan had a unique opportunity
to leapfrog reality and overtake any desperate transmissions Dr. Serizawa might have sent during the mysterious attack.
Based on the reports of the terraforming survey team, as well as the new readings his experts had compiled, they had determined
with a fair amount of accuracy when the disaster had taken place. With a precise time coordinate, Lanyan’s fast recon ship
could race ahead of the pulsing band of signals and intercept the message as it swept past.
Back home, using King Frederick as his diplomatic mouthpiece, Chairman Wenceslas had issued an official and flowery request
to the Ildirans, as one great sovereign to another, asking for help, or at least information about this mysterious new threat.
The Adar of the Solar Navy had carried the King’s message with all diplomatic formality to his Mage-Imperator in Mijistra.
But though the alien emperor had expressed surprise and dismay at the terrible attack, he claimed no knowledge about the matter.
Although General Lanyan doubted that even the pompous Ildiran Solar Navy commanded enough firepower to destroy worlds, neither
did he believe in the total ignorance of the Mage-Imperator. Not for a minute.
“Arriving at position, sir,” said the navigator-pilot.
“Good. Cut the stardrive and turn about. We’ll park here and wait.”
The starfield shifted back to normal, and Lanyan stared into an empty wasteland of space, far from any systems. If they had
simply allowed for routine transmission time from Oncier, it might have been a decade before anyone picked up Serizawa’s last
transmission.
“We’ll know soon enough,” he said, mostly to himself.
“Assuming Dr. Serizawa sent a signal at all, General,” said the technical lieutenant.
“He would have sent a signal,” Lanyan said. “Unless they vaporized his station first.”
The reconnaissance outrigger hung motionless as the galaxy rotated around them. The faint wisps of a bright nebula filled
the foreground far away.
After fifteen minutes, his jaw sore from clenching his teeth so hard, Lanyan grew impatient. “Ease forward at half-
c
. Let’s do our best to catch up with it.”
The outrigger moved ahead, wide-band receivers primed and hungry for the electromagnetic burst that had been sent out weeks
before.
“How big is the error bar in your calculations?” he asked the lieutenant, anxious now.
“Certainly less than a day, sir. The readings were quite—”
Suddenly a wall of static blossomed on their reception screens. The General stood up, looking at the primary display. The
transmission sharpened into a clear image of Dr. Serizawa.
“—under attack. Unidentified spherical craft, an unusual configuration. My God, they’ve already destroyed one of the moons!”
Serizawa turned. “Can you believe the firepower?” He snapped at his communications assistant, “Show the images from our external
cameras. Give them
useful
data. They don’t want to see my face.”
The view shifted, and Lanyan looked in cold amazement at the diamond-hulled warglobes and their crackling blue lightning as
they tore the second of Oncier’s moons to pieces.
Diluted from its long passage across space, the fuzzy transmission continued to ripple against their receivers like faint
stirrings against a boat on a quiet pond. Lanyan and his crew watched with bone-chilling horror as the scientists continued
to send desperate messages, pleading for mercy, trying to understand. The alien attack continued. No wonder nothing remained.
No, the General realized, this wasn’t the Ildirans at all. Something new. Something worse. These monstrous alien ships were
unlike anything he had ever seen, even in his nightmares.
When all four of Oncier’s moons had been annihilated, the alien crystalline ships converged upon the unarmed observation platform.
The electric lances arced out again, engulfing the observation platform in a single brilliant flash, and the signal finally
cut off.
By then, Lanyan had absorbed more than he had ever wanted to see.
B
ecause Cesca was not at Rendezvous where she was expected to be, the urgent message and news packet took an extra week to
reach the Speaker’s protégée. The message runner had already delivered his unsettling report to Jhy Okiah, who had dispatched
the young man and his supercharged spaceship to find Cesca beneath the ice on Plumas.
The message runner rode the passenger lift down through a pumping channel in the ice. He stepped out into the frigid cave
and called out to anyone who could hear him: “Cesca Peroni! Is she still here? I have an urgent message from Jhy Okiah.”
Though she spent most of the time indoors near heaters, Cesca had felt restless after the grim funeral for Ross. She had suited
up to pace across the ice shelf, looking up at the glittering colors embedded in the solid sky. “I’m Cesca. What is it?” she
said, putting an edge into her voice. Obviously this young man hadn’t come looking for light conversation.
Now Jess and Bram Tamblyn emerged to see the visitor. Accompanied by her silver-skinned compy EA, Tasia emerged a moment later,
as if reluctantly intrigued by the interruption.
The message runner had blond hair and brown eyes, with the square jaw and distinctive nose of the Burr clan, but the embroidered
symbols on his insulated vest showed that he also claimed blood ties with the Maylors and Petrovs. “A Goose scientific station
was destroyed at a gas giant, along with four moons!” he said, reaching into his left pocket, then finding nothing, searching
the three pouches sewn into the right side of his jacket. He finally pulled out a displayer.
“By the Guiding Star, another gas giant?” Jess said. “One of ours? Was there a skymine in place?”
“No. It was Oncier, the world they just ignited to make a sun.”
“Stupid warmonger experiments,” Bram Tamblyn grumbled. “What does that have to do with us? Did the test backfire on them?”
“No, sir. They were attacked, just like at Golgen.” The Burr boy pushed the activator button on his displayer, and the holoimage
projected a flattened picture of Dr. Serizawa’s transmission intercepted by the EDF. “One of our traders picked this up from
the emergency news releases.”
Cesca watched in horror as the spherical alien ships dismantled the moons, then obliterated the scientific research station.
“And does Jhy Okiah believe this is the same thing that happened to Ross and the Blue Sky Mine?”
“That is her guess,” said the young man.
“It’s not a guess,” Bram snapped. “It’s obvious!” Then he swayed, clutching Jess’s arm. Jess supported his father stoically
but made no comment about the old man’s wavering condition.
The message runner added, “Everyone is panicked. They don’t know what these things are, or how to react. Remember, no one
on Earth has heard about the destruction at Golgen yet.”
“Then perhaps we should tell them,” Cesca said.
“The Speaker thought you might suggest that,” he said. “She is willing to inform Chairman Wenceslas.”
“Shizz, of course she should inform them!” Tasia said, appalled. “This is a threat that affects all of us.”
“Yes, but Roamers like to keep their secrets,” Cesca said.
“I’m sick of our secrets,” the girl said. “What good does it do to withhold this knowledge? If these alien …
things
attack more of our skymines, we’ll be forced to call on the Eddies. We don’t have a military of our own.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” the message runner said. “King Frederick himself asked his people to perform their patriotic duty,
to strengthen the defenses for all humanity against these strange antagonists, to stand together.” The young man fumbled with
the displayer, trying to call up another file. “I recorded the King’s exact message. Here, I can play it.”
Bram Tamblyn said, “It’s no surprise the Big Goose would use this sudden attack as an excuse to shore up the EDF. Damned Eddies!”
“An excuse?” Tasia cried. “How can you say that, Dad? Those ships killed Ross. Who knows where else they’re going to attack?”
Bram gasped, and his face turned grayer. Jess held him up and said, “Drop it, Tasia. Come on, Dad. Let’s get you inside. You
need to rest.”
Cesca hurried to take Bram Tamblyn’s other arm. Tasia’s compy offered her assistance. “Shall I take readings? Dispense medications?”
“Leave him alone, EA,” Tasia said. “It’s just his usual melodrama.”
Even with her minimal medical experience, Cesca could see that the old man was not feigning his distress. They took Bram inside
his curved hut and put him to bed. Jess sat at the man’s side.
Cesca found packets of Bram’s favorite pepperflower tea and brewed him a cup, though the old man had great difficulty sitting
up to take a sip. He did, however, smile at her in appreciation.
He slept for about an hour. Cesca sat restlessly next to Jess, and the two talked in low voices. Although she ached to do
so, she dared not speak to Jess about whether they could finally accept their love for each other. That would take time, she
knew.
With this startling new information, Jhy Okiah would call her back to Rendezvous as soon as possible, but she hated to leave
Jess alone with his sudden responsibilities. His four uncles had already picked up the work of pumping and shipping the water,
as well as electrochemical conversion into traditional high-energy fuels. The Plumas water industry had been in the Tamblyn
family for generations, and it was their duty to keep it functioning, regardless of family disasters. Many of the Roamer clans
depended upon it.
Cesca squeezed Jess’s hand. “You’ll manage, Jess. The crews are all trained, the equipment runs smoothly. Your uncles know
what they’re doing. You’re strong and smart, and you’re a good man.”
“Ross was a good man, too.” Jess did not look at her, but stared instead at his father’s drawn face as he slept. “That didn’t
help him against the alien attackers … or even with my father.”
With a commotion that seemed calculated to destroy any peaceful rest her father might have gotten, Tasia entered the dwelling,
pushing through the insulation seal and stomping her booted feet, with EA following her. Her face was pink from the cold,
as if she had paced around the ice shelf, mulling over her thoughts. Tasia’s face was screwed up with determination. Cesca
didn’t know Jess’s little sister as well as she’d hoped, but she could see that the girl had not come for the purpose of comforting
her father.
Jess obviously recognized his sister’s mood. He immediately tried to deflect whatever outburst Tasia was about to make. “Did
the message runner depart yet? You can escort him back to his ship, if he needs the company.”
“He’s gone, but before he left, he showed me King Frederick’s recruitment message.”
