Eternity's Mind (15 page)

The King and Queen turned to leave, trying to shoo Osira'h out the door with them, but Reyn gave a wan smile. “It's all right. I'd rather Osira'h stayed here with me.”

For all their concern over his health, his mother flashed a surprised smile at him, and his father grinned. “As requests go, that's a fairly simple one to grant,” Peter said, and they left.

Reyn relaxed on his bed. The open windows of his chamber let in the sounds of the forest: the ratcheting buzz of a pair of condorflies in an aerial mating dance, the chatter of green combat beetles in blustering collisions in the sky. The familiar forest noises seemed so peaceful they almost lulled Reyn into a belief that the Spiral Arm was at peace, with no Shana Rei or black robots or faeros … a place with only fond memories and the company of beautiful Osira'h.

That illusion was false, but he clung to it nonetheless.

Osira'h rummaged in her possessions, unfurled an insulated carrier pack that held the carefully labeled sample vials. Shawn Fennis had insisted on giving them the rest of the kelp extracts when they evacuated from Kuivahr. She held out a nearly empty vial of brownish-green fluid. “We have only two doses of the one that worked best. Do you want to save it for a different time?”

Reyn shook his head. “Right now I want to feel strong—for my parents' sake if nothing else. We'll use the proven sample.” He placed the vial against his triceps, and the self-injector applied the dose. From experience, he knew it would take an hour before he felt partially recovered again, and the benefits would last a day, maybe less. “Save the last dose for analysis. Maybe some Confederation chemists can synthesize more.”

In shelf alcoves in the bedchamber's soft white walls, Reyn saw a piece of vine-strand artwork he had done when he was a boy, decorative polished burl nodules, a preserved insect cocoon, and a pair of gloves he had often worn when climbing the outer shell of the fungus reef.

His sister had always collected biological specimens: interesting beetles, moths, fluffy spore clusters, seeds. Arita planned to gather the entire worldforest, one species at a time. She was endlessly fascinated with nature and had tried to interest him as well, eager to show Reynald a mobile fungus or a spiny arachnid she had discovered. She knew early on that she wanted to be a naturalist, and he remembered how devastated she had been when she failed to be accepted as a green priest. She had tried to hide her sadness, but Reyn sensed it. He had comforted her and helped shore up her determination.

Now, he reminisced aloud for Osira'h. “When we were young, my sister and I would go out in the forest and climb the trees. She was better at it than I was, but I kept up with her.” He lay back on his bed and looked at the curved white ceiling. “Remembering that makes me realize just how much I've slipped. I could never climb out there now. Day by day, I'm growing worse by degrees, and if I think about how I was then…”

He shook his head and felt discouraged all over again. He supposed Arita was off on some expedition. She often went to the Wild to gather new specimens for the vast naturalist encyclopedia of Theroc she dreamed of compiling.

Restless, he climbed out of bed and went to his wardrobe, where he removed his shoulder cape of overlapping preserved moth wings, one of the garments he wore as the son of Father Peter and Mother Estarra for performing local duties. “I don't need to rest. Let's go to the throne room. I want to be there.”

Osira'h smiled at the fine exotic cape. “All right. It might be good for you.”

When they reached the large decorated chamber, Reyn saw Confederation representatives, traders from other planets, government delegates, CDF officers, and green priests. Peter and Estarra sat in ornate chairs decorated with crushed beetle carapaces.

Admiral Handies was presenting a report, and when Reyn and Osira'h entered, the military officer looked flustered to have his well-practiced speech derailed. Reyn minimized the disruption by taking a guest seat at the side of the dais. “Continue please, Admiral. I want to listen in, so I can get caught up.”

Handies cleared his throat. “I was discussing the black shadow clouds that our sensors have detected. Patrol ships report greater numbers of them appearing in open space. General Keah just went to investigate one seen near Relleker. Those shadow clouds are likely incursions by the Shana Rei, and we must be prepared for them.”

Peter responded in a brisk voice. “How do you propose that we prepare, Admiral? What can we do beyond what we're doing now? If you have new suggestions, we need to get started.”

Handies seemed flustered. “I wish I had a better answer for you, sire. All of our Mantas and Juggernauts are loaded with enhanced sun bombs, but we don't know where the Shana Rei will strike. Adar Zan'nh reports that the Solar Navy succeeded in eradicating all the black robots at Kuivahr, so they should no longer be a threat. If true, that significantly improves our defensive position.”

“And the shipyards at the LOC are building new warships?” Peter asked. “Repairing the damaged ones?”

Handies glanced at his notes. “Yes, sire. As swiftly as possible. We are constructing and repairing at a pace not seen since since the height of the Elemental War. General Keah is quite a taskmaster.”

“Yes,” said Estarra. “It's one of the many reasons she commands the Confederation Defense Forces. Let's hope that we're prepared enough when we need to be.”

After the Admiral departed, Reyn looked around the throne room, disappointed that his sister's chair remained empty. “Where is Arita? Off on another research trip?”

Estarra's forehead knitted in concern. “She and Collin left for the Wild several days ago, and they were very worried. They'd lost touch with Kennebar and his followers, and even our green priests weren't quite sure of the situation over there. Your sister and Collin went to investigate.”

Peter frowned. “We haven't heard anything yet. Collin should have sent a message back through telink by now.”

Reyn tried to sound confident. “Arita can take care of herself. She always has.” But he felt uneasiness grow inside him.

 

CHAPTER

23

ARITA

They left the shattered black worldtrees behind and ran through the underbrush toward Arita's personal flyer that had brought them to the Wild.

Collin stumbled along. Now that they had escaped the voidpriests and the murderous Onthos, the reality of what Kennebar had done was catching up with him, and they were both in shock. Breathing hard, he said, “I don't know if any other green priests heard me when I called out through telink. I didn't feel anyone else inside there. The verdani mind in the Wild has been cut off, partitioned somehow. The trees aren't aware of what they've forgotten and what they're not seeing. Back at home, the green priests don't even notice.”

“We'll tell everyone when we get there,” Arita said. “I still don't know how to explain the …
immense
voice I felt when I was most desperate. It certainly wasn't the verdani.”

They hurried to the aircraft. Arita feared that the rest of the Onthos—and there must be many more—would come hunting for them. They sensed the oppressive silence of the trees, as if the worldforest were either slumbering or unconscious, having expended all its energy to overthrow the voidpriests. Right now, the forest felt dangerous and threatening again, the close massive trunks pressing in. Having grown up on Theroc, Arita had danced through thickets all her life, dodged shrubs and vines, but now the forest seemed to be hindering them, intentionally. Even Collin struggled, and a green priest usually slipped like a summer breeze through the densest underbrush.

She let out a sigh of relief when they found the flyer in an open meadow. Exhausted, their bodies aching, they ran toward the craft. Even without telink, they could use the aircraft's comm system to announce the emergency, and when they returned home, Collin would tell the green priests the full extent of what was happening in the Wild.

With long-delayed dismay, Arita recalled something Kennebar had said. “We can't go back just yet. We have to stop by Sarein's dwelling first. If the Gardeners attacked her, she may need our help. And if they killed her…”

She activated the engines, expecting that at any second the trees or the Onthos would find some way to prevent their departure. But the craft rose unhindered above the meadow and skimmed over the treetops.

Beside her, Collin continued to heave large breaths, holding his head in his hands. After a minute, he straightened and explained to her what he had seen deep inside the trees. “Now I understand what's really happening. Thousands of years ago, the Shana Rei did wipe out the Onthos home system and killed part of the worldforest. Some of the Gardeners got away—but they carried a … spark of dark.” He looked over at her as she flew. “And when the refugees came here, our worldforest didn't notice it. We welcomed the Onthos, but now they're spreading their blight and killing the trees. We have to stop them.”

“How can there be so many?” Arita asked. “Only a hundred landed.”

“Based on their relationship with the trees, we thought they were symbiotes, but they have become
parasites.
They use the trees, infest them. That's how they reproduce like spores—dozens of Onthos created from each worldtree—and that process kills the tree. The shadows destroyed their original grove of worldtrees back on their home planet. That's why the verdani mind has no memory of it, and now the same memory loss is spreading here.”

Arita was horrified. “But if they always reproduce like that, how could the worldforest not know about it?”

“Normally there was a balance in the ecosystem. It started as a symbiotic relationship. Only older or damaged trees were used as incubators—that was how the Gardeners were born. Trees did die in the process, but the Gardeners tended the forest in exchange and the trees flourished. Because of the Shana Rei, though, the Onthos are nearly extinct, and they're desperate. They're now breeding far faster than the forest can sustain.”

“They've got to be aware of the damage they're causing,” Arita said, feeling the anger again. “They know damn well what they're doing. That's why they tried to kill us.”

She landed their flyer in a small clearing near Sarein's isolated home, the hiveworm-nest dwelling where she lived as a hermit. As they climbed into the dry, silent structure, Arita called out repeatedly, holding out hope that her aunt would step onto the open balcony to scold them for causing such a ruckus.

But the place remained silent, as ominous as the too-quiet worldforest.

“I don't think she's here,” Collin said.

Arita insisted on searching the dwelling for clues. Sarein's chambers were full of shadows and the beginnings of dust. Some cooking implements were still out, and the bed was unmade, as if she had disregarded any chance that anyone would visit. A cup of cold klee sat on a counter.

Sarein had been working on memoirs that chronicled her own activities and some sad crimes, back in the final days of the Terran Hanseatic League. She had told Arita she wanted to preserve an accurate history, without excuses. The bound, physical journals rested on a shelf, with a half-finished one still open on the table. Sarein had written some of her memories by hand because it served a cathartic purpose. The journals seemed so archaic, yet so appropriate. Arita picked one up, flipped the pages, then closed it. Tears pooled in her eyes.

“She's not here,” Arita said. “Kennebar must have been telling the truth.” She remained quiet for a long moment, not sure what to do, hoping like a naïve little girl that Sarein would simply return from an expedition of gathering food in the forest. But they both knew that wasn't going to happen.

Sarein was gone.

The Onthos had killed her.

She had been all alone here, with no one to hear her call for help, no one to be with her. Sarein was gone.…

Collin waited patiently, not pressuring her, but Arita realized they needed to go. The worldforest itself was at stake.

Before she left the empty nest dwelling, however, Arita gathered all the volumes of Sarein's writings. Her aunt had set them down as a kind of confessional, and they were historically important. Arita slid them into a satchel that Sarein kept near her shelves and slung the satchel over her shoulder. Once they got back to the fungus-reef city, she would make sure that her mother, Anton Colicos, and any interested historian would have access to them.

It was the best way to remember Sarein.

 

CHAPTER

24

ADAR ZAN'NH

The septa of warliners arrived in the Kuivahr system, where Adar Zan'nh expected to find nothing but a graveyard. He remembered full well what he had left behind here after the battle with the Shana Rei.

His warliners spread throughout the system, all defenses alert, scanning for any evidence of the ominous shadow clouds. The Ildiran crew were uneasy, not because of something they sensed, but because of what they knew.

Anton Colicos waited in the command nucleus next to the Adar. Tal Gale'nh had been assigned to lead another warliner on the expedition. Now he transmitted from his own command nucleus, “Sensors indicate significant debris in the vicinity, Adar. It may be worthwhile to analyze the black robot ships that we managed to destroy.”

“If the sun bombs left anything worth studying,” Zan'nh said, but gave his permission for the scouts to retrieve any wreckage. Fortunately, the space battle had completely eradicated the black robots, so that enemy would no longer pose any threat. “Approach Kuivahr.”

One of the technicians frowned, the lobes on his face flushing with consternation. “Nothing appears on our sensors, Adar. The planet is gone.”

“It is there,” Zan'nh insisted. “But you might not be able to see it.”