Blood of the Cosmos (48 page)

“Thank you.” What she was looking for might well be a life with him. Considering how much she thought of Garrison, and how adrift she felt without him, she was coming closer and closer to that conclusion.

She hoped he was, too. “Please tell him that I think about him all the time, too. And I very much look forward to being together again.” Yes, that would have to do. She would want to tell him much more face-to-face—as soon as they saw each other again.

Aelin seemed stressed, out of place, and he hurried away, leaving Orli to face the amused and questioning glances of her companions. “That's a nice send-off,” she said, trying to focus on business. “We should be ready to follow Elisa's path as soon as possible.”

Tasia looked disturbed. “A slaughter and bloodshed, Aelin said. We'd better see what's really going on.”

Robb said, “We're ready to go, as soon as the
Curiosity
is refueled.”

 

CHAPTER

79

AELIN

Over the past weeks, Aelin had fallen into enough of a routine that he almost forgot about the distant slaughter of the bloaters. He found it gratifying just to be a green priest again, though he remained hungry for contact from the drifting, enigmatic nodules. He knew he was missing something.…

He still feared that someone from Iswander Industries would find him, though. By now they would know he had disappeared; maybe they would guess he had escaped, but more likely they would believe he had vanished in among the bloaters, never to return. Elisa Enturi still came to Ulio Station frequently, though, and if she suspected he had escaped, that woman would surely hunt him down. To protect himself, he monitored all incoming ships, so he could hide whenever she arrived. That was how he had noticed Orli Covitz.…

Aelin spent his days reconnecting with the worldforest through Dauntha's treeling, remembering what he had been. This was what he had been born to do.

But the bloaters …

When he learned the shocking news that clan Duquesne was also harvesting ekti-X, he felt a great heaviness in his heart. More bloaters being murdered! He had fought so hard to convince Lee Iswander to stop spilling the blood of the cosmos, because no one could understand the harm he was doing. And now another clan was extracting stardrive fuel in the same fashion. Had he been the one to reveal the secret by his careless, stupid blurting out? It made him want to weep, and he was desperate to do something about it, but he knew that if the word got out, hundreds of such extraction operations would crop up. It could not be stopped.

Even if he were to prove that the bloaters were significant to the very survival of life in the Spiral Arm, as he suspected, many industrialists would still put immediate personal profit ahead of the general good of humanity. He didn't dare reveal what he knew … but he couldn't just ignore it either.

Aelin felt drawn to where he could see the satellite tank array, the strategic stockpile of stardrive fuel that Elisa Enturi had delivered. The ekti-X tanks hung in a large, organized cluster just outside of the station complex. He could feel the whispers in the back of his mind.

Looking through the side windowport, Aelin regarded the tethered array. He had traveled to Ulio hidden among those tanks. He knew the fuel had been drawn from the bloaters, and he thought he could still feel a connection there, though it was far fainter than what he had sensed from the majestic cluster.

He pressed his palms flat against the windowport, as if he could get closer to the array. Those tanks contained not just simple stardrive fuel. It was the
essence
of the bloaters. Ekti-X possessed its inherent energy because it contained a spark of life from the giant nodules. His heart ached to be so close.

Access to the stockpile array was well guarded by contract security forces. Two armed men looked askance at the green priest as he stood staring at the ekti tanks. Finally, the shorter of the two said, “Why is a green priest interested in stardrive fuel?”

Aelin pulled his attention from the array. “Do you know where ekti-X comes from?”

“Roamers have been distributing stardrive fuel for centuries.”

“Not ekti-X.”

“Don't have a clue, don't really care,” said the shorter guard.

“I do care.” Aelin moved off, even though the ache in his heart had not lessened.

Leaving them, he moved through Ulio Station wrapped in his own thoughts and concerns. His mind had been altered and now he could sense things even without being connected through a treeling. There were ripples in the universe, dark vibrations. Aelin felt frightened.

People crowded around him in the station corridors, but he felt all alone. The air was harder to breathe. The slaughter of so many bloaters was causing a
shudder
in the universe. He could feel the oppressive weight, but couldn't identify the source.

As he stumbled along, he bumped into visitors to Ulio, paying little attention as he hurried to find a place where he could be safe. In an empty corridor he stopped, pressed his bare back against the bulkhead, breathing heavily. When he closed his eyes, the darkness seemed to come from all directions, so he opened his eyes out of desperation.

He couldn't sound an alarm because he didn't understand what he was sensing. He had shouted dire warnings to Lee Iswander before, but no one had believed him. Aelin staggered down the corridor until he made his way back to Dauntha's quarters. She, at least, would listen.

When he entered her chamber, he found the old woman communing with her treeling. Oftentimes when he saw her do this, she would have a blissful expression on her face. Her eyes would be closed and her skin would twitch as she lost herself in contact with the worldforest mind.

Now, though, troubled lines furrowed her brow. When he burst into the room, she didn't even look up, still desperately searching the verdani mind.

“I'm afraid, Dauntha,” he said. “I sense something I don't understand.” He shook his head, then stumbled forward to grasp the treeling with her, his fingers touching Dauntha's. They could communicate more closely this way. She opened her eyes and Aelin stared into them. “Something is coming—something terrible.”

Dauntha stared at him for a long moment, and her head twitched in a slight nod. She let go of the treeling and said, “I know.”

 

CHAPTER

80

EXXOS

Eager to make progress after wrecking the Hiltos shrine and annihilating the hapless human trader, Exxos urged the Shana Rei to continue their depredations. The shadows seethed, frantic to tear up reality, unravel order, and eliminate the throbbing presence of intelligent life—but because the Shana Rei were irrational and chaotic, they lashed out without any sort of plan whatsoever.

Exxos saw that as poor strategy. He needed to guide them, develop a grand scheme that would
test
the creatures of darkness. He wanted to bring about the full extinction of all sentient species, one step at a time. With tools from the Shana Rei, his robots would annihilate one center of civilization after another.

More importantly for his own survival, Exxos observed and learned with each engagement. As his black robots understood what the shadows
could
do, and were
willing
to do, Exxos would force the creatures of darkness to push harder. In doing so, he could also measure the limitations of the Shana Rei, since eventually the robots would need to find a way to exterminate the shadows as well.

“We have a new opportunity for destruction,” Exxos announced, knowing that the pulsing inkblots were always listening. “And so we require you to create more warships for us.”

Agony shimmered through the horrific ripping voice in the void. “You would cause us pain again.”

“Living things cause you more pain,” he pointed out.

“It all causes us pain.”

“But destruction gives you relief—that is why you must do this,” Exxos said, then waited. The inkblots appeared, roiling opaque Rorschach stains that opened their blazing and sinister eyes. He pressed, “Wiping out myriad life-forms will alleviate your pain.
We
can alleviate your pain. But only if you do as I say.”

When the Shana Rei did not respond, he insisted, “My robots have skills the Shana Rei do not possess. We will develop a plan. Once all of their intelligent thoughts are gone, then you will be powerful enough to wipe out everything else—the universe as well as yourselves.”

He paused. “But we need your ships. Use your powers to manifest matter so that we can conduct our war.
For you.
We have been planning this for a very long time.”

Nevertheless, Exxos knew that reality was grim. Only 237 black robots remained of what had been millions. Each black robot was supposedly unique and could not be mass-produced, and now they all had standardized themselves to have the same mind,
his
mind. Even so, Exxos didn't know how he could ever bring back the overwhelming metal swarm that had once nearly conquered the Galaxy.

On the other hand, if the black robots obliterated everything else—the Ildiran Empire, the human race, and eventually, the Shana Rei—so that the only intelligent beings in existence were his robots, all of them bearing his mind and thoughts … then that would be enough.

“We will create your warships,” the Shana Rei agreed. The black robots thrummed with shared excitement. “We will endure the pain—but you will do the fighting.”

“It is our purpose to assist you in causing destruction,” Exxos said. “We have already chosen our next target. That is why I summoned you.”

The void shattered, and Exxos heard a great ripping sound as solid matter appeared, large forms of opaque black metal—atoms created out of nothingness, through great expenditure of energy by the Shana Rei. The creatures of darkness already had the detailed blueprints that Exxos had developed: armored ships filled with expansive weaponry. Each time the robots struck, they modified their plans so that the next time their attack would be even more effective. When all the battleships were created, Exxos knew that for all of their chaotic mayhem, the Shana Rei had reproduced the vessels exactly as instructed.

As the fleet of black warships appeared, the Shana Rei trembled and moaned … and Exxos noted with great interest that they seemed briefly weakened—and that was very important data. He said nothing, but he knew his fellow robots noticed it as well. They buzzed with silent excitement in their secret coded transmissions, which the Shana Rei did not seem to hear.

A part of the robots' combined processing power analyzed how much pain the shadows endured after mentally manufacturing this many ships. Next time, Exxos would demand twice as many vessels, just to test them. And if the creatures of darkness were sufficiently drained, he could possibly make a different move.…

With a disorienting spin, Exxos found himself on the command bridge of an impressive new warship. His comrades were distributed among the other battleships, fifty-one of the powerful vessels, far more than last time. Exxos didn't know why the Shana Rei chose that particular number, didn't know if numbers themselves meant anything at all to the creatures of darkness. But he accepted the gift of the black fleet and planned to cause enormous destruction with it.

They would eradicate a major Confederation trading complex, destroy numerous human ships, and take enormous satisfaction as they heard the screams of countless biologicals dying.

When all the robots were prepared to launch their attack, Exxos provided the Shana Rei with details on where they should emerge into real space from the void. A trapdoor ripped open, and the fifty-one heavily armed ships dropped out. The Shana Rei hex ships followed them through the newly created shadow cloud.

The black fleet descended upon Ulio Station.

 

CHAPTER

81

XANDER BRINDLE

After the
Voracious Curiosity
flew away to track Elisa Enturi, Xander looked at Terry and rubbed his hands together. “Time for us to get down to business—you've got a preinheritance to collect.”

OK said, “I will assist in any manner possible.”

While Terry remained unsure, Xander elbowed him in the ribs. “You don't even look happy about it.”

“I don't know how to react. I've got you, we've got our ship, we have a satisfying life…”

“And now you'll add a huge treasure to that. There's nothing wrong with accepting the money. Maria wants you to have it.”

Terry was still uncertain. “She's still alive, you know.”

“Then call it a gift—that's even better. Donate it all to some humanitarian cause, if you like.” He couldn't stop grinning. “But I'd prefer you kept a little bit, so we could pamper ourselves. Good food isn't cheap.”

“I suppose it would go wasted, otherwise,” Terry admitted. “Let's at least see what we're dealing with.”

Maria Ulio had given them all the codes they needed to access her concrete stockpile—the tangible rainy-day wealth she kept sealed aboard one of the core hulks that comprised Ulio Station. The rest of Maria's fortune was dispersed in various accounts throughout the Confederation, but all those access numbers were sealed in an encrypted file in the Ulio Central Offices. Transferring those would be their second priority.

Roamers rarely coveted vast wealth for its own sake—they were more interested in what they could
do
with it. The clans invested heavily, expanded their operations, attempted impossible schemes—and often failed, lost everything, then started all over again.

Xander wasn't greedy, but he was so happy for his partner. What Terry really wanted was a medical procedure to restore the use of his legs; he never said as much aloud, but Xander would have been willing to pay every single credit of Maria Ulio's fortune, plus every single microcredit in his own accounts, if that could happen. Terry had seen numerous specialists, and they claimed the nerve damage was irreversible. Trying not to get his hopes up, Terry did not press the issue. Still, Xander wondered whether a huge infusion of cash might change that opinion.…