“And then what?” Robb asked.
Howard yelled. “We’d better get out of here!”
“What?” Tasia cried, flying straight toward the flurry of robot ships converging in front of them. “What?”
“Supernova!” Shareen said.
“The core will collapse and throw off all the outer layers in an explosive reaction—the largest explosion in the known universe,” Howard said. “And when that giant star goes supernova, it’ll trigger the other core stars and ignite a chain reaction of supernovas. That’s what the faeros are doing. It’ll wipe out the entire Fireheart nebula, and all of us!”
Shareen steeled her voice. “And quite possibly the Shana Rei. Much more than a million sun bombs all at once—that’s what they’re trying to do. And I hope it works.”
The two newborn verdani treeships flew away, catching up with Declan’s Glory as they soared toward the fringes of the Fireheart nebula. Rlinda’s ship was much too close to the core and the faeros. The blue star throbbed, clearly reaching its critical instability.
“Run!” Shareen said. “The situation just got a thousand times worse.”
“We haven’t exactly been dallying.” With an even more frantic edge, Tasia and Robb hurtled between several black robot ships, barely missing one, then flying away at all possible speed.
At the nebula’s core, the faeros finally achieved their goal. The blue supergiant swallowed up the companion stars and pulled in even more stolen stellar material. It was all happening so fast. The gigantic star throbbed, throwing off great shock waves of building radiation. The faeros seemed to revel in it.
And then it all changed. As the heart of the nebula detonated, the star exploded with a thunderclap loud enough to awaken the entire universe.
The CDF battleships and Solar Navy warliners were already retreating, nearing the edge of the nebula.
The Voracious Curiosity fled with as much acceleration as their bones could tolerate—and still, they were overtaken by the violent slap of the shock wave. All of their systems flared, nearly overloaded. The shields were at maximum, but weakened from the constant hammering of robot weaponry. Their ship was buffeted about like a bit of pollen fluff in a hurricane.
Under the impossible photonic and radiation flood, the Shana Rei shadow cloud curled back, torn into black shreds as the shock wave from the multiple supernovas expanded and expanded, rolling along in intense walls of radiation.
Just before their screens failed, Shareen saw Declan’s Glory trying to keep up with the huge verdani treeships, but the flare of light engulfed Rlinda’s ship.
Tasia screamed. “No! Rlinda!”
Then the secondary shock front slammed into them as more of the core supergiants exploded, tearing a gigantic hole in the nebula. The Curiosity’s systems overloaded into static. The ship’s interior lights dropped out, then reawakened as dull red emergency systems.
The Voracious Curiosity spun about until Shareen was sick, confused and lost, barely holding on to consciousness. Then even the emergency lights went black.
CHAPTER
123
ROD’H
Trapped inside the entropy bubble in the void, Rod’h and Tamo’l watched the faeros inflict a tremendous blow on the Shana Rei, bombarding them with more light and cleansing radiation than even the creatures of darkness could withstand.
But still they needed more.
Previously, when the faeros attacked the shadow clouds, they had only been able to hurt the darkness by sacrificing themselves—but the multiple supernovas caused far more harm. The fiery elementals had combined their powers to drive the unstable stars over the brink, and now the faeros struck back using the weapons of physics and the secrets held within the nuclear reactions of the universe itself.
Inside the core stars, the fireballs had changed nuclear chemistry, unleashing a supernova reaction like a scream of defiance in the face of the shadows—as devastating as the cosmic mind crushing their shadow clouds, as damaging as the sun bombs unleashed inside the dark void against the vulnerable flank of the Shana Rei.
Within the prison of their entropy bubble, angry dark inkblots appeared before Rod’h and Tamo’l, as if they blamed their captives for the damage. Rod’h wished he could have taken credit for such a blow. He didn’t have the power, but now he had the inspiration. And he had Tamo’l.
The blazing eyes inside the inkblot smears flared. Shana Rei voices roared out, “The light! Burning light!”
“Then burn more,” Rod’h growled. “Tamo’l, they are weakened!”
Out in the nebula, the faeros were no longer afraid of the creatures of darkness, and they plunged into the expanding supernova flare as if overjoyed. Bombarded with such intense damage from the real universe, the walls of the entropy bubble rippled.
“It’s collapsing,” Tamo’l said. “Will we escape?”
“No,” Rod’h answered, because he did not want to lie to her. “But maybe we can help. Maybe the faeros can help us.”
Her voice carried the faintest tremor. “How?”
Rod’h remembered when he and Osira’h had sought out the elementals around the unstable star of Wulfton, begging them for assistance. The two siblings had used their telepathic powers to link with the faeros. Rod’h had strained his innate abilities and used his mind to pull on them, to plead with them as he had been born to do.
Rod’h had always tried to compete with Osira’h, struggled to be as strong, sure that with his superior halfbreed genetics he should be able to draw on the same strengths that his sister could. Together, they had touched the faeros, opened a channel … and the fiery elementals had fled in fear, refusing to help.
But now the situation had changed. Osira’h wasn’t here, and it was entirely up to Rod’h. No, he had Tamo’l, his sister—both of them halfbreeds, both of them with incredible potential thanks to the breeding program. She could help.
“I need you, Tamo’l,” he said.
Within their shadow cloud, the Shana Rei squirmed and flickered. Their symbolic eyes swelled wider, blazed brighter, then turned red as if they were being torn apart by agony. Rod’h saw that the creatures of darkness were suddenly vulnerable, and he knew how to destroy them—if only he could make the connection, if only he could prove himself one more time.
If only the faeros would listen and realize what he was offering them.
“We cannot let the shadows control us, Tamo’l.” He reached out to her, but because of the dimensional folding, she drifted just a hairsbreadth from him, yet a universe away.
It didn’t matter. They were together in the way that counted. He could look into her eyes, and somehow she understood.
“I can sense you, and that is enough,” Tamo’l said. “And I can sense the misbreeds watching, sharing their strength with us, too. They will give us what we need.”
Rod’h knew what they needed. “The faeros are out there, but we need to bring them in here. Because of what we are, you and I have a connection to them. That is why we were bred in the first place, and now the faeros can put an end to this whole war. If they could get inside here—if they could come into the shadow cloud.” He allowed himself a bitter grin. “The Shana Rei believe they’re safe and protected in their void. But they will be the cause of their own downfall.”
Tamo’l nodded, accepting, willing to do anything that was within her power. “Draw on me. Use whatever you need. We have to do this.”
Rod’h opened up his mind. He yearned; he connected. He sought out the faeros. The fiery elementals were close, swirling in the expanding Armageddon bubble of the supernovas they had triggered.
Suddenly, nearly fifty black robots appeared with them inside the entropy bubble. Their carapaces split apart, their jagged solar-power wings extended, as well as clawed pincers, sharp implements they had used to torture and experiment on Rod’h. They came close with murderous intent. Somehow, they knew what Rod’h and Tamo’l were trying to do.
But he was beyond fear. His captors ha
d done every terrible thing they possibly could, and nothing remained for him to be afraid of. Now, he was only afraid of failure.
The Exxos counterparts buzzed in unison. Numerous robots suddenly grew alarmed, fearing what the two halfbreeds were about to accomplish. Rod’h reached out, and Tamo’l reached out with him. She spoke with a whisper of wonder. “Can you hear it? In the back of my mind—it is Mungl’eh … singing.”
There, in the vast empty sea of unreality, they linked with the faeros, and the elementals recognized them, catching their thoughts … and they understood where the two halfbreeds were, what they were offering.
With all of his being, surrendering every last scrap of his heart and mind, his thism, his thoughts, his soul, Rod’h invited the faeros inside. He drew the fiery elementals through him, through Tamo’l, and into this cavernous sheltered bubble of the shadow cloud.
Rod’h felt a purifying blaze of fire, a heat that did not, in fact, contain any pain, but simply relief and victory. Tamo’l was with him, and he could feel her thoughts, too. His mind shouted outward with victory and exhilaration, a flood that poured outward to his siblings, throughout the Ildiran thism … and even to their mother, far away in Mijistra.
The faeros came through them like a meteor storm. In a searing flash, the fireballs roared inside the shadow cloud through him. Rod’h opened a channel and became a living transportal that disintegrated his body before he knew anything else, and thanks to his connection to Tamo’l she was able to do the same.
In doing so, they let a wildfire of elementals enter the core of Shana Rei entropy. For the first time, the faeros could come directly inside the most vulnerable heart of the shadows, erupting with fire and light. Incandescent and growing stronger, they blazed through the last remnants of Rod’h and Tamo’l to destroy the creatures of darkness and their monstrous shadow ships from within.
CHAPTER
124
OSIRA’H
With Prince Reynald still in a coma and fading away in the last stages of his mysterious sickness, Osira’h struggled to find a solution—something they hadn’t yet tried. But hadn’t they tried everything? Neither the green priests nor the Confederation’s best doctors knew what to do. It was not through lack of effort. Reyn was dying.
Osira’h had spent days at the Prince’s bedside, but he never opened his eyes, never whispered a word to her. His pulse remained steady but weak, and his skin had lost much of its color. She stayed with him because she believed that her presence gave him strength. Reyn had always said so.
“We’re supposed to see the ice geysers on Edilyn,” she said to him, “and the fossil canyons on Fornu.”
Back on Ildira, medical kithmen had run every test and devoted tremendous resources to finding a cure. Confederation pharmaceutical labs had synthesized drugs similar to the kelp extracts from Kuivahr, but they no longer proved effective. Research teams had made partial progress, thanks to the Pergamus data, and they knew a chemical template that would block the debilitating microfungus … but they had to find it among millions of Theron native specimens.
It was not enough.
Osira’h could think of only one other place where she might make a demand. It was a very slim hope, but right now it was her only one. Though it meant leaving Reyn’s side, she had to take that gamble.
King Peter and Queen Estarra came to stand beside the Prince’s bed. Under any other circumstances, their dying son should have been the only thing they were worried about, but the crisis sweeping the Spiral Arm also demanded their attention. The green priests provided them dire updates about the battle taking place in the Fireheart nebula, but their descriptions were erratic, disorganized, as if none of their counterparts aboard the battleships had clear knowledge of what was actually happening.
The Shana Rei were tearing apart the Confederation and the Ildiran Empire, and nothing could stop them. Earth had been destroyed, the CDF and the Solar Navy decimated. And her brother Rod’h was trapped among the shadows, beyond any hope of rescue—joined now by Tamo’l. Osira’h agonized over that, but she could not help them, no matter what she tried.
For Reyn, though, she had an idea, another desperate chance.…
Osira’h said to Peter and Estarra, “I have to make the attempt. Even if it fails, I need to try. I’m going—by myself. I think maybe the Onthos can help. Their disease, his disease—different, but both are connected to the trees.”
Estarra scowled. “They murdered my sister, and they’re killing the trees. They won’t be inclined to help.”
Osira’h couldn’t articulate her reasoning or her hope. She could only say, “I’ve asked everyone else. Your green priests insist on preserving the Gardeners, and the verdani won’t let them die. They must have something to offer.”
She felt isolated and alone as her private flyer crossed the narrow sea to the other continent. Though she was far from the gigantic struggle taking place, Osira’h could sense great turmoil throughout the Ildiran Empire. Mage-Imperator Jora’h was under impossible strain, and his anguish was like a high-pitched wail in her mind. With her closer sibling bond, she experienced similar desperation from Gale’nh, as well as Muree’n.
Building in intensity, she felt a smothering struggle tempered by a desperate hope: Tamo’l and Rod’h were doing their best to resist the Shana Rei inside their void prison. So many wildfires of crisis building to an out-of-control blaze, so many people pulling on their last energy to make a final stand. So many …
Osira’h knew she would be on her own to help Reynald. She was cut off from the other battles against darkness, but she could fight for him.
She landed her flyer outside the miles-wide swath of dead trees. Up to the blight’s boundary, the dense worldforest seemed lush and peaceful, although she was aware of the dark disease churning beneath its surface. The Theron home guard and green priests had fought against the Gardeners, and they had begun blasting away the already-dead trees where the Onthos had built their fortress. But when General Keah had arrived announcing the destruction of Earth, King Peter had rushed back to the capital, leaving only a contingent here to contain the Onthos. The Gardeners hadn’t made any further moves.
Emerging from her ship, Osira’h met a haggard-looking military commander and the green priest Zaquel, both uncomfortable with the standoff. The commander said, “They haven’t tried to attack, but we know they’re breeding in there. They’ll infest the whole worldforest.”
Zaquel said, “The Onthos spore mothers need healthy worldtrees to reproduce. By bottling them up in the dead section, we can stop them from multiplying further—for now.” She sighed. “But the worldforest is still dying. The blight that afflicts the trees and the Gardeners afflicts the entire universe.”
“And Prince Reynald, too. We need to cure one piece at a time,” Osira’h said. “If we can.”
She walked past the barricade line, and no one tried to stop her. She stepped in among the fallen brown trees, the smashed branches and splintered wood. She picked her way carefully into the desolate area. Osira’h heard a rustle in the branches and saw that the Onthos were all around her. The smooth-skinned aliens peered down at her, seemingly frightened and angry.
“There’s a disease inside you,” she shouted. “You know it. You can feel it. Why do you choose not to cure yourselves?”
The Gardeners chittered. More of them came, as she waited for an answer. Finally one of the aliens stepped forward. “The darkness is in us, and it is integral to us.”
“My friend is dying of a similar thing,” she said. “But you’re not dying. How do you still function? How can I save him?”
The spokesman—Ohro, she assumed, or another just like him—said, “Would you save your friend if the cost was to let him succumb to shadows?”
Osira’h wasn’t sure how she would respond to that terrible choice. “Others are fighting. You have surrendered, but the people of Theroc, the human Confederation, the Ildiran Empire, the green priests, the verdani, the faeros—�
� Inside herself, she felt a rush of heat, a burning urgency. She linked tightly with her siblings, Gale’nh and Muree’n both adding strength, making a clear connection … to Rod’h! And Tamo’l!
Deep inside the smothering blackness, she suddenly felt fire, a welcome blaze of light. Rod’h had done it. He had called the faeros. Osira’h gasped. The searing light raced along her mental connection with her siblings. They smashed open the floodgates and used their own special abilities to let the fiery elementals inside.
Osira’h experienced a swelling wave of triumph from both of them. She sensed what her siblings had done, and she knew they were gone in an instant. She could experience the fire, the exhilaration, the pain … and she knew the incredible blow they had dealt to the Shana Rei. She was proud of what they had done, and grief-stricken to know they were gone.
As the incandescent pain burned and broke the telepathic connection between them, Osira’h’s body hunched over, as if a seizure had shaken her entire being.
The Onthos reacted as well, but their agony seemed different and deeper—and it went on far longer. Tamo’l and Rod’h had been consumed in an instant, and their psychic cry fell silent inside her mind, but the Onthos continued to gasp and hiss. Something fundamental had been ripped out of them.
They began to drop from the high branches like rotting fruit, falling from the brown boughs of the worldtrees they had killed. One struck the ground beside her with a loud thud and snap of bones. Many crashed down from great heights, while others were impaled on the broken wood they had left strewn around. Dozens lay dead from the fall, while others slid down from the trees, bleeding, exhausted. Broken.
Even as Osira’h tried to comprehend what had just happened, she listened to the dwindling agony of the Gardeners. Their wails became whimpers.
Finally, one of the creatures picked himself up, stunned, barely able to maintain his balance. “I did not think we could be cured or saved, but the shadows are burned out of us now. The blight has been extinguished within.”
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