Blood of the Cosmos (26 page)

As a young girl, Celli had loved running through the forest barefoot, clad in only scraps of clothes. She and Solimar had climbed the trees together, leaped from branch to branch as they practiced treedancing. Now, though, they lived in the middle of a blazing nebula, surrounded by enclosed habitats, floating stations, and industrial outposts. It had been their calling to come here, and Celli didn't regret it. Many green priests went far from Theroc to spread the worldforest by planting treelings, while expanding the instantaneous telink communication network.

Since the heavy nebula radiation interfered with traditional outside communications, green priests and telink were vital here. Through the treelings, Celli and Solimar sent instantaneous messages anywhere across the Spiral Arm, and when they weren't needed for communications, they tended the crops.

Now Celli was on her knees, picking strawberries and occasionally popping one into her mouth. “The spoils of my profession,” she said, wiping her red-stained lips.

The worldtree fronds above rustled and scraped against the curved panes, as if whispering gossip about them. Solimar bent over to inspect tomato plants, parting the leaves until he found a bright red prize, perfectly ripe. Working together, they filled their baskets and carried them out to the delivery platform for distribution among the habitats.

While Solimar did an inventory and decided which Roamer facility was due to receive that day's harvest, a shuttle docked at the greenhouse dome. Celli remembered that Kotto Okiah had asked to visit so they could meet his two new lab assistants. The scientist emerged with a young man and woman dressed in Roamer jumpsuits, as well as his two compies. Since Kotto wasn't prone to making introductions, the pair of newcomers introduced themselves.

Celli and Solimar took them on the tour of the various crops. As they walked through the main, humid dome, Howard Rohandas and Shareen Fitzkellum both stared at the straining trees; apparently neither had seen a worldtree up close before. Shareen immediately sensed the problem and turned to the two green priests. “Those trees can't stay here—they'll wreck the whole dome. No expansion possible?”

Celli felt the ever-present ache of dread. “None that we can think of.”

Kotto patted his two new assistants on the shoulders. “You're welcome to suggest a solution.”

Shareen lifted her chin. “We just might do that.”

Celli felt a twinge of hope. She offered them strawberries, and from the expression on Howard's face, Celli doubted he had ever tasted a strawberry before. “This is fresh, and sweet, and juicy, and—”

Kotto paced about, looking out-of-place and impatient. “Well then.” He scratched his curly hair. “I have a list of other places to show you two, so we'll want to move on. I need to get back to the lab complex before the end of the day.”

“We're currently running calculations, Kotto Okiah,” said the compy KR. “Even as we accompany you.”

“I know that, but I can't oversee them without my notes.”

“We'll double-check the work, sir.” Shareen sounded eager and helpful. “Maybe find ways to improve on the designs, if you don't mind.”

Kotto regarded them for a long moment, then said, “Feel free to make suggestions.”

Later, after Kotto and his guests flew off to their next stop, Celli and Solimar were alone again in the greenhouse dome. They felt a tangible uneasiness surrounding them like a sour humidity in the air—but it wasn't just the plight of these two enormous trees.

When they pressed their free hands against the gold-barked trunk, she and Solimar could sense the bright heart of the primary worldforest on Theroc. Celli sought the support of other trees, knowing that the verdani mind would endure, even if these two trapped trees were doomed.

What Celli found when she probed deeper into the extended network, however, was troubling. An uneasiness spread through the interconnected trees, and many of the verdani thoughts were fuzzy and distracted, without the instant clarity she usually experienced when tapping into the worldforest mind. She found only dissolute thoughts and confusion.

Maybe it was just echoes of the trembling claustrophobia from these stunted trees, but she feared that something worse, something incomprehensible, was happening to the worldforest itself, far away.…

 

CHAPTER

39

ORLI COVITZ

Dando Yoder, the old trader who had crashed on Ikbir, was distraught at how long repairs were going to take, but Garrison accepted the challenge, announcing to the insular colonists, “After I get the
Prodigal Son
ready, we'll head out and arrange for replacement stardrive parts and an engineering team—along with whatever supplies Ikbir needs.”

For herself, Orli was both pleased and disappointed to be leaving this quiet, uninteresting place, and DD, of course, was happy to go wherever Orli went. Seth was anxious to get to Newstation and go back to Academ, an ambition that DD (and Garrison and Orli) strongly encouraged.

No, there was no reason for any of them to stay here.

Since Yoder worked for Kett Shipping, Orli decided it was time to take care of something she had meant to do all along. Rlinda Kett had given Orli another chance when she needed it, and even though she had dispatched a message to tell the big trader that she was all right, she needed to go see Rlinda in person. She would travel with Garrison and Seth to the Roamer capital, and from there she would arrange passage back to Kett Shipping.

After they packed up to leave Ikbir for good, Garrison and Orli offered Yoder their prefab dwelling. The scruffy trader seemed very pleased. “You're giving me your home? I could always just sleep in my ship.”

“We don't plan to come back,” Garrison said, “at least not anytime soon.”

Orli said, “You'll have more room to stretch your legs here. Sleep on solid ground for a change.”

“Haven't done that in years.” Yoder scratched his beard. “But I suppose it's a day for new experiences.”

Taking their few possessions, Orli and DD went to the
Prodigal Son
, which felt more like home to them than Ikbir ever had. Garrison had been eager to jump out of bed that morning, rather than his usual slow and comfortable waking with Orli.

The colonists came to the spaceport, partly to wish them goodbye, but also to present lists of desired items. Orli's most heartwarming moment was when her refurbished compies all came out to stand in front of her. “Thank you for staying with us, Orli Covitz,” LU said. “You gave us a new life.”

Sounding maternal, MO said, “I will take care of the colony for you, Orli Covitz. I promise it will remain clean and efficient.”

DD seemed worried, looking from the compies to Orli to Seth. “Shall I stay here with the other compies, Orli?”

Seth looked shocked, but before he could say anything, Orli reassured them both. “Of course not! You're my personal Friendly compy. I—” Her voice cracked. “I don't know what I'd do without you.”

“I am relieved to hear that, Orli. I don't know what I would do without you, either. But I would do my best.”

Garrison was already in the cockpit, and Seth joined his father, while Orli and DD sealed the ship behind them. She usually felt bittersweet about leaving a place she called home—even places with terrible memories, such as Dremen and Corribus—but there were no roots holding her to Ikbir, so she experienced no real sadness. She would rather be with Garrison anyway, although she had business to take care of once they left Ikbir.

Watching him in the cockpit, she smiled at how Garrison let his son do the basic checklists and ramp-up routines. She felt strangely proud to watch Seth show off his skills. As he worked the controls, lifting off from the spaceport, Garrison explained parts of the in-system engines and navigation systems. DD added comments, because he had undergone the same training himself.

“Three days to Newstation,” Garrison said as they exited orbit and headed out of the Ikbir system, then he looked over at Orli, who sat close beside him, “but I'd like to make a detour on the way. If that would be all right with you? It's something personal … something that Seth and I need to do. For my clan.”

She leaned on his shoulder. “Where are we heading?”

“I want to stop at Rendezvous.”

DD piped up, “Rendezvous is abandoned. The new Roamer center of government is located on Newstation, and according to my recent records, even the clan Reeves reconstruction efforts have ceased at Rendezvous.”

“Reconstruction efforts ceased because my clan left it all behind,” Garrison said. “My father must have realized the project would never be completed. Instead, they chased their dreams to what they thought would be a new home.…” He didn't finish, didn't need to finish. Orli was the one who had found all the members of clan Reeves dead aboard the derelict city.

“What do you want to do there?” Orli asked.

“Just pay my respects.” He looked at her. “If you don't mind that we take the extra time? Thirty hours?”

“I'm in no hurry. Once we get to Newstation … then we have to decide what to do.” She placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezed. He put his hand over hers.

Changing course, they headed into deep space away from Ikbir's sun. Before they engaged the stardrive, though, the
Prodigal Son
's sensors detected strange anomalies ahead and around them. Orli blinked and felt a thrumming, chiming sound in her head. At first she thought it was barely audible feedback from the ship's control console, but it seemed to be coming from out in space—and behind her eyes. She rubbed them, felt the vibrations increase. “Do you hear that? I can feel it getting louder…”

“No sound detected, Orli,” DD said.

Garrison looked at her, concerned. “I don't hear anything.” He ran long-distance scans. “But there is something out here. Maybe you're just more sensitive.” When he enhanced the images from the high-res scope, Orli was amazed at what she saw.

Delighted, Seth exclaimed. “Look, they're bloaters!”

Orli couldn't shake a tingling thrill that washed through her, and the chiming sound inside her head grew even louder. These strange floating nodules had cured her of the Onthos plague back at the Iswander extraction complex. She was surprised to see them out here, far apart and drifting individually in the emptiness. Previously, she had only seen a large cluster of the bloaters. She rubbed her temples again, but the strange feedback sound resonated inside her head. Was it coming from the bloaters? Orli had been immersed in the protoplasm inside one of those things; maybe she had made some kind of connection with them. If so, what were they trying to communicate now?

Orli studied the high-res screens, then looked through the windowports to see them with her own eyes, though very little light reflected from the greenish brown nodules. She recognized a startling pattern. “They're like breadcrumbs, dropped in a line.”

The numerous bloaters were strung out in intersecting trails, lines heading toward Ikbir's star and then extending out into the vast cosmic emptiness, like stepping-stones appearing from nowhere.

Garrison enhanced the windowport display with active phosphors. Seth gasped and grabbed the compy's polymer arm. “It looks like a web!”

“All the bloaters appear to be moving together,” DD observed.

Though Orli could hear them in her unexpected way, she could make no sense of the sounds or music, but she continued to try.

 

CHAPTER

40

OSIRA'H

After they all felt the resounding empathic tremors of massacres taking place in Mijistra and at the Hiltos shrine, Jora'h announced his immediate departure from Theroc. He needed to be back among his people, although Osira'h was just as concerned about his own vulnerability to the shadows. As the nexus of the
thism
, the Mage-Imperator was a target.

Because of his inability to help his people through the distant disasters, Jora'h looked sickened. Osira'h could feel the emotions emanating from her father, though he tried to quell them, knowing that all of his people would sense his dismay—which would weaken the Ildiran race further.

Osira'h had been sad that she would leave Prince Reyn, but that was just the sorrow of parting—not a tragedy. Now there was a crisis at the heart of the Empire. Part of her longed to stay with Reyn; he needed her and she gave him strength. But Osira'h belonged back on Ildira. Her unique halfbreed powers had allowed her to save the Empire before. She needed to be ready to do it again.

As the entourage rushed to depart, Ildiran cutters were en route from the warliners in orbit. King Peter and Queen Estarra came to bid the Ildiran delegation farewell.

Wanting to stay with her until the last possible moment, Reyn accompanied Osira'h to the landing area on top of the canopy. Since his recent collapse, he had been tended by Confederation medical specialists as well as traditional Theron doctors. Unable to cure his debilitating illness, they treated the symptoms. Even knowing that he had contracted it from a microfungus indigenous to the worldforest had not helped them find a solution. Local Theron remedies had no more effect than the most sophisticated pharmaceuticals developed on New Portugal, or black-market drugs from some place called Rakkem. His parents had offered immense rewards for any flicker of hope, but so far, no miracle had appeared.

During Reyn's recovery, Osira'h had been his closest companion. In his private chambers, with the windows open and colorful flying insects dancing outside, Osira'h remained with him, holding his hand and encouraging him to rest, while Reyn insisted vehemently that he was fine. “It was just a dizzy spell. I felt weak, but I'm better now.”

Much to Peter and Estarra's satisfaction, Osira'h had a greater force of will, and she made him take his recovery slowly. Despite his protests, he was obviously glad that she remained there.