Eternity's Mind

by Kevin J. Anderson

  He woke to shouts and astonishment. The blackness cleared from his vision like a dark veil ripped away, exposing him to blinding light. He felt weak hands flailing at him, beating against his arms, and he saw that he was standing over Nira. His hands were locked around her throat. He was squeezing tight, strangling her. Her eyes bulged out; her lips were dark and discolored, and she twitched, no longer able to fight.

  He recoiled, tearing his fingers away to release her, lurching backward and staggering against the wall. Nira dropped to the floor as if her joints had become liquid. She gasped and sobbed, sucking in air as she crawled away from him.

  Jora’h saw blood on his hands, blood on his robes—and he looked up to find Muree’n and Yazra’h both there, holding up crystal-tipped katanas that were also dripping with blood. They directed their pointed weapons at him, their faces frozen with uncertainty and fear.

  They were ready to kill him!

  Jora’h sprawled backward onto the polished tiles, lifting himself on his elbows to face them. He heaved great breaths.

  Yazra’h stayed Muree’n from delivering a death blow. “Wait.” The two warrior women gripped their weapons, ready to strike him down if he flinched. Three other guard kithmen had dragged a panicked Prime Designate Daro’h into an alcove, surrounding him with drawn weapons, ready to fight against anyone who might try to kill him—against Mage-Imperator Jora’h, if he became wild and murderous … again.

  Jora’h saw that the courtiers, attenders, and noble kithmen inside the Prism Palace chamber lay dead, slaughtered. He saw a broken weapon, a long table knife, lying next to him.

  He gasped. A crushing weight filled his chest, and he could barely breathe. Had he done that … all by himself? One weapon killed so many? Or maybe the Shana Rei had possessed other Ildirans too. It had been a massacre.

  Nira pulled herself into a sitting position, shaking and sobbing, wheezing to fill her lungs. When she looked at him with abject fear, Jora’h felt empty and cold. He had never imagined that this woman, whom he loved more than anyone or anything else in the Spiral Arm, could ever see him that way. He had tried to kill Nira! How had his vulnerability to the shadows been so profound that he would try to kill his beloved?

  The Mage-Imperator recoiled, turned away, and retched.

  Weak with relief, or perhaps despair, Nira collapsed the rest of the way into unconsciousness.

  Yazra’h had yelled for medical kithmen, and running footsteps thundered down the corridors, doctors along with more guards.

  Daro’h also stared at him, clearly terrified by the bloodshed he had seen and the prominent shadow that had so obviously manifested inside his father’s eyes. The Prime Designate must also realize that if they did have to kill Jora’h because he was irrevocably contaminated, then he would become the next Mage-Imperator. Would Daro’h be any stronger against the creatures of darkness?

  Jora’h hauled himself to his feet. Muree’n still held her katana, but she backed off, watching him warily. The Mage-Imperator knew that the poisonous blackness was inside him, inside the thism and inside all Ildirans. He had to get it out, somehow. He had to purge himself. He dared not let the contamination continue, or else his entire race would die.

  With Nira unconscious, and all the others in the bloody banquet chamber afraid of him, Jora’h pondered the old stories about the Shana Rei. For so long, mad Designate Rusa’h had insisted they follow the old story of Mage-Imperator Xiba’h, who had burned himself to summon the faeros.

  But there was another story he should have heeded more closely. Jora’h remembered the dark tale of the possessed Ahlar Designate and how he had freed himself when he tried to murder all his children.

  Without explanations, Jora’h strode out of the banquet chamber, ignoring the questions and the outcries that followed him. He fled back to his private rooms, where he would lock himself inside. He knew what he had to do.

  CHAPTER

  103

  ARITA

  Arita had never been so convinced or so determined in her life. Eternity’s Mind had spoken to her and conveyed the same message to Orli Covitz.

  Now it all made sense—from the confusing tangle of images and whispers, the retreat of pain and uncertainty. The bloaters drifting through space were coalescing, somehow manifesting out of the fabric of the cosmos, at the same time that the Shana Rei were striving to unmake creation. But that vast space mind, an organism of interlinked cells as large as the galaxy itself, was being decimated by human ekti harvesters. By draining the stardrive fuel and killing those bloaters, those “brain cells,” the extraction operations were slowly but surely attacking Eternity’s Mind like a disease.

  And that sentience might be the only thing powerful enough to stop the Shana Rei from uncreating the cosmos.

  Arita shivered as she stared at the Kellums. “You have to stop harvesting the bloaters. Stop draining them. You’re wounding our greatest potential ally!”

  Orli’s voice also had an urgent edge. “She’s right. Every bloater you drain weakens the neural network, damages the connected cells.”

  “That mind won’t save just us, but the universe itself,” Garrison said. “Think of what the Shana Rei did to Earth, to Relleker, to the Ildiran planets. That’s only a start. We know what the shadows intend to do to … everything.”

  Orli looked sickened. “Once Tasia, Robb, and I told the Roamers about the source of ekti-X, we triggered an avalanche of bloater harvesting.” She blinked, dismayed. “We’re the ones who provoked this new mass slaughter of the clusters.”

  Garrison said, “It wasn’t your fault.”

  Arita turned to her green priest friend, who grasped his treeling. “Collin, you have to send the message far and wide through the telink network, so all the green priests know. We have to convince them, and convince all the ekti harvesters!”

  Arita knew it would be a tough sell to the more extensive Roamer commercial operations, but she had another option. She rarely had to draw on her connection to her parents, but now was the time. “And most importantly, let the King and Queen know. Bloater extraction has to cease across the Confederation, immediately! They need to order at least a temporary moratorium until we can prove to everyone what this means.”

  Collin was breathing hard, amazed for Arita’s sake, glad that after her many years of feeling discarded and inadequate, now she could connect to an immense new sentience. Now they both understood what it meant. “I will tell them. I’ll make sure the King and Queen know how urgent it is.” He drew a deep breath. “I once was sure that the verdani mind was the greatest consciousness the universe had ever seen, but this is so much more.”

  With a deep frown, Zhett stared out at the Kellum operations, placing her hands on her hips. “So you’re telling me that we’re both awakening and killing God, at the same time.”

  Orli said, “We’re saying that you have to stop the bloater harvesting. Each operation like this is sabotaging a powerful weapon against the creatures of darkness. We know it. Arita and I both know it.”

  “But that’s a fortune waiting out there, and we spent our last pennies on this gamble!” Del said. “By damn, we just got running at full capacity…” Looking at Arita’s expression and a similar one on Orli’s face, he wrestled with the decision.

  Zhett heaved a sigh and slammed a fist on the comm channel. “All Kellum workers! Withdraw from the bloaters—take a break. Cease all ekti extraction immediately until further notice.” She looked around at the others on the main deck. “We can take a breath while we figure this out.”

  A flurry of confused responses came back, some of them angry. Marius Denva was quite insistent on finishing out their shift and filling one last array. Patrick fielded questions. “We’re not happy either, but we have to do it. Temporary moratorium—deal with it.”

  “All those flashes in the nuclei—are they more dangerous than we thought?” Denva said.

  DD interjected, “We know the bloaters are indeed highly volatile, and an explosion
could travel throughout the cluster and obliterate all operations.”

  Orli added, “Those active flashes make the extraction field more dangerous. It’s an awareness spreading through the neural network of Eternity’s Mind as it becomes more conscious, and the flashes will increase—if we don’t kill all the brain cells first.”

  Arita considered, then smiled at Zhett. “If that’s the reason they need to hear, then tell them it’s too hazardous—too hazardous for the whole universe.”

  Seth swallowed hard. “My mother set off the first chain reaction when she was chasing us. That wiped out a whole bloater cluster.”

  “And she destroyed another cluster when she hit the clan Duquesne operations,” Orli pointed out. She had been there to see the aftermath herself. “Each one of those large-scale explosions wiped out hundreds of bloaters—what kind of damage did that cause?”

  Arita gasped. “It might have been like a … a stroke to the space mind. We can’t let that happen again.”

  Collin released his treeling, and his face was filled with hesitant hope. “I’ve informed the King and Queen through the verdani network. Green priests are spreading the word with great urgency. I stressed how much you want this, Arita. Your parents didn’t waste any time—they issued an immediate decree that places all bloater-harvesting operations on hold, under threat of the strictest penalties.”

  Del, Zhett, and Patrick paced the bridge of the HQ ship. “We’ll have to shut down our work for now. If we refuse an order from the King and Queen, by damn, that could cause war to break out between the Roamers and the Confederation.”

  Zhett added, “The Shana Rei have hurt us too, and if this space-brain thing is fighting against them, I’m not going to do anything to help out the shadows.”

  “If we’re the only ones who stop harvesting, it won’t help,” Patrick said. “Most clan operations don’t have a green priest. We don’t have one. It’ll take a long time for word to spread.”

  Garrison’s expression hardened. “The biggest operations are still run by Iswander Industries. He’s extracting bloaters by the hundreds.”

  Arita turned to Collin. “Does Iswander have a green priest? Wasn’t Aelin with him?”

  “Aelin died at Ulio Station,” said Collin. “I have no contact with the Iswander complex. We have no way of sending a message, and he will keep harvesting and killing the bloater cells as fast as he can.”

  Orli straightened, looking at them all. “We know exactly where the Iswander operations are.”

  Garrison had already risen from his seat in the HQ ship. Zhett Kellum had also made up her mind. “I saw the damn shadows at Golgen and again at Kuivahr, and I’m going to do what I can to fight them. We know where a lot of other clan operations are. We can take fast ships and tell them they may be destroying our only chance against the Shana Rei. We’ll deliver the Confederation command—and twist arms if they won’t listen.” She looked at her gruff, bearded father. “Dad, you’re going with us. You’re a former clan Speaker, and the Roamers will listen to you.”

  “Good point, my sweet.”

  Garrison turned to Orli and Seth. “We’ll take the Prodigal Son straight to the Iswander operations.” Arita and Collin hurried to follow him back to the ship. “One way or another, we’ll make him stop.”

  CHAPTER

  104

  GENERAL NALANI KEAH

  The detonations looked beautiful against the infinite black void, sun bomb after sun bomb washing over the crystalline shadows. Even with the Kutuzov’s protective filters, the flares still burned her eyes.

  And it felt damned good.

  Keah smiled. “Even when you try to hide in another universe, there’s no place where the sun don’t shine.”

  Her soldiers cheered and whistled. Sensor Chief Saliba just shook her head. “How can I work with this? These readings make no sense!”

  The void itself seemed to echo, ricochet, and enhance the sun-bomb blasts, sending nova light into the deepest shadows where even the corners had no corners. Howard and Shareen were bursting with joy on the Juggernaut’s bridge. “That’s a blow for Kotto!” Shareen said. “Wish he could have seen it.”

  Howard said, “Looks like the strike was very effective.”

  “Damned right it’s effective.” Keah turned to the helmsman. “Let’s head back out to Fireheart Station.” She lounged back in her command chair. “Where does our arsenal stand, Mr. Patton?”

  The weapons officer received reports from the other ships in the strike force. “We used approximately half of our restored sun-bomb complement, General. Our laser-cannon batteries are substantially drained, but they’ll recharge in a few hours.”

  “Then let’s hit them again,” she said. “No harm in a little overkill. Don’t take anything for granted.”

  Adar Zan’nh interrupted across the comm, his transmission edged with static. “General, are your sensors picking up the same readings?” The Adar’s brow was furrowed, his voice grim. “We may need to brace ourselves.”

  She glanced at her technicians, then turned back to the screen. “Our sensors are so overloaded we can’t see much of anything at all, Z.”

  Lieutenant Saliba cried out, “General, the void is folding, crystallizing—it’s the Shana Rei!”

  On the main screen, the blackness consolidated as long lines formed hexagonal cylinders. Obsidian plates manifested while the creatures of darkness returned to the void from wherever they had been in realspace.

  Keah felt a shiver run down her spine. “Better launch a few more sun bombs after all, Mr. Patton.” She swallowed hard. “And then haul ass for home.”

  Another round of blasts knocked apart the emerging hexagonal cylinders, but they recoalesced as the CDF ships beat a hasty retreat. The Solar Navy warliners fired their aft laser cannons, tracing destructive lines across the shadows, but even more black hexes emerged after them.

  “Hard about and let’s get out of here,” Keah said. “Can we find our way back to the opening, Lieutenant Tait?”

  “We’ve got the breadcrumb pingers to follow.”

  “Then get us back to that doorway.”

  The Okrun launched two more sun bombs as the hex cylinders hurtled after them. “I can stay and fight if you need me to, General,” Admiral Haroun said. “It’ll give you time to retreat to safety.”

  “If we don’t find a way to stop these things, there’ll be no safety out in Fireheart either,” Keah said. “Follow us—we’re all in this together.”

  The Shana Rei looked blacker and more malignant inside the void, which was their natural habitat. Shareen looked at Howard with a stunned expression. “That attack should have wiped them out. It should have hurt them to the core!”

  “I think it hurt them, but maybe not enough,” Howard said.

  Giant hex cylinders hurtled after them. Keah grumbled as they raced out of the angry void, heading toward the doorway in space. “A little more speed if you please, Mr. Tait.”

  The helmsman overrode the safety systems, and Keah could feel the added acceleration. Alongside, the Solar Navy warliners raced along, keeping pace—and the infuriated Shana Rei closed in from behind.

  “They’re gaining on us, General,” Tait said.

  “Maybe we can lock them inside the void somehow,” Shareen suggested. “If we close the doorway into Fireheart, they’ll be trapped here.”

  Keah wasn’t so convinced that would matter. “The shadows can pop in and out of realspace whenever they like. I’m not sure we’d stall them for long.”

  “And they’re right on our tail, General,” said the first officer.

  Adar Zan’nh and his warliners kept firing their laser cannons, barely holding off the Shana Rei. “Our batteries are nearly depleted, General. We must leave here soon.” His transmission was plagued with more static as the entropy closed in.

  The rippling aftereffects penetrated even the CDF shields, and at their stations, the Kutuzov bridge crew yelled as half of their systems failed. Keah prayed
that her flagship wouldn’t degenerate into a confusing gasp of malfunctions before they could get back into realspace. “Keep up the pace, Z! Just a little farther. There’s a surprise for them right on the doorstep. Shareen just reminded me of it.”

  The Shana Rei lunged closer, but at least they didn’t launch their black robots inside the void. The hex cylinders were surrounded by a thickening cloud of shadows that had folded into the void, which now extended toward the strike force. One of the lagging warliners tumbled out of control, disoriented, its lights dimming. Ildiran distress signals were swallowed up in a garbled disarray of transmissions.

  Ahead in the featureless black emptiness, her navigator suddenly spotted a gash of light hovering in space, a colored flare of diffuse nebula gas that evoked another cheer from the crew. But the angry black hex cylinders careening after them did not seem intimidated.

  Adar Zan’nh said, “Perhaps we should block the gate, use the last of our enhanced weapons to prevent the shadows from attacking Fireheart Station.”

  Keah steepled her fingers as she sat on the edge of her command chair. “I have another idea, Z. Trust me—if this doesn’t work, we can always fight to the death later.”

  “I would be glad to have another alternative, General.”

  “Twelve sun bombs remaining on the Kutuzov, General,” said the weapons officer. “But once they’re gone, they’re gone.” Dr. Krieger’s facilities certainly weren’t going to be manufacturing more, and it would take some time before weapons factories elsewhere in the Confederation could pick up the slack.

  “We have two more warheads in reserve,” Keah said, “and I want to trigger those first. Keep the rest for a rainy day.” She flashed a hard grin. “Kotto Okiah left them right here for us.”

  The CDF ships shot out of the open gateway back into the Fireheart nebula, with the Solar Navy warliners following close behind. The emanating ripples of dark entropy caused one of the Mantas to fail, its systems shutting down—but with its momentum, it continued straight out through the gap.