Chapter 76-SULLIVAN GOLD.

The hydrogues hit Qronha 3 everywhere at once. Warglobes shot up through the clouds, trailing mist behind them. Like the cracking of a lion tamer's whip, alien weapons ripped across the skies. The initial blasts missed the modular cloud harvester and ricocheted off ionic layers in the atmosphere.

The warglobes continued to rise all around them like alarm buoys. The next blast tore open the bottom of one of the facility's ekti reactors, splitting the curved hull and spilling unstable gases and catalysts. The venting vapors acted like an uncertain rocket jet, making the cloud harvester rock and sway.

As the evacuation continued, Sullivan yelled into the intercom system that linked the facility's modules. "You've got every reason in the world to panic, but please don't do it now. We've drilled for this situation over and over. Everybody, go to your assigned evac modules and get out of here. I am declaring this cloud harvester officially abandoned."

Cloud miners raced down corridors, climbed ladders, and ran across decks to get to the dozens of self-contained rescue modules. As explosions thundered through the vast sky, Sullivan forced himself to stay focused on what they needed to do.

He called back to the green priest who stood reeling on the observation deck. "Does the EDF have any ships in the neighborhood?"

The green priest shouted at his treeling, as if his raised voice would transmit better through telink. He hammered his desperate thoughts through the worldforest network, informing the Terran Hanseatic League, the Earth Defense Forces, and everyone still on Theroc. He turned to look at Sullivan. "The EDF is going to send their ships immediately-but they can't get here sooner than a day, maybe two or three."

"Great. We appreciate the gesture, but this will all be over by then." He took the green priest's arm. "Come on, Kolker, we have to get to our own stations. I promised Lydia that I wouldn't take any unnecessary risks."

Running beside him on the open top deck, the green priest struggled to carry his potted treeling.

The warglobes blasted again, and the whole cloud mine shook. More explosions erupted from the lower decks. Sullivan had no idea how much damage had already been done, but he knew the hydrogues would not stop their assault until the cloud harvester had burned up in the gas giant's atmosphere.

Before he and the green priest could reach the edge of the observation deck, two more warglobes fired, igniting one of the half-full storage tanks of stardrive fuel. The shockwave rippling through the structure of the facility destroyed two of the massive suspension engines. Without the levitation fields, the deck suddenly tilted at a sickening angle.

Kolker stumbled and began to slide toward the open edge.

Without thought for his own safety, Sullivan dove to rescue the green priest. Kolker scrambled for purchase, clawing with his hands-and let go of his potted treeling. The slender offshoot of the worldforest tumbled down the steep-angled deck. Its ornate pot cracked and then shattered.

Forgetting himself, the green priest lunged for it. "No!"

Sullivan seized a support railing with his left hand. At the same time his right hand shot out and caught the green priest by his naked ankle.

Beseeching, Kolker stretched out his hand, trying to elongate himself-but the treeling spilled over the edge of the cloud harvester and out into the open atmosphere-falling...falling.

Kolker stared after it, his eyes round with horror and disbelief, as if he had just lost one of his children. The treeling looked tiny as it dwindled to an insignificant speck against the vast battleground in the sky.

Somehow the hydrogues saw it. In a purely spiteful gesture, a warglobe unleashed a blast that vaporized the treeling into a smear of ash that drifted on the angry winds.

Clamping his grip tighter around Kolker's ankle, Sullivan sweated and strained, but the green priest simply stared as he dangled, open-mouthed and silent in despair at being completely cut off from the worldforest.

Detonations continued beneath the cloud harvester. The unstable complex began to wobble, swaying through a pendulum swing. As the observation deck became more level, Sullivan saw his chance. Before the wounded cloud harvester could tip in the other direction, he hauled Kolker back to safety. "Come on, snap out of it! We have to get out of here!"

"But my tree-"

"Nothing you can do about that now, and I'm not going to let you just sit here." He dragged the green priest to his feet, and they raced off to the command decks where the supervisory personnel had already loaded themselves into the escape modules.

"Let's go!" Sullivan pushed Kolker ahead of him through the hatch, then prepared to seal the module door behind him. He scanned the people crowded in the interior. "Have you taken attendance? Is everyone in place?"

"Module seven is missing three," said his supervisor.

Crammed into a corner, Tabitha Huck looked down at her screen. "Module four has an extra two."

"Are we we full?" Sullivan asked. full?" Sullivan asked.

"We've got the required complement, but we could fit another dozen or so if somebody else's module is damaged."

"I didn't see anybody up on the command deck, but we'll give 'em thirty more seconds." Another explosion rocked the structure. "Tell everyone else to launch."

Everything about the evacuation had looked good on paper, but now the greatest question remained: Once all the modules disengaged and flew away, would the hydrogues follow them? The evacuation modules couldn't hope to outrun a warglobe.

Kolker sat with his knees drawn up to his chest, looking utterly miserable, a green priest without a tree. "No one will know what's happening now. All contact has been cut off. They'll think we're dead."

Sullivan tried to sound encouraging, "You sent out the alarm in time, Kolker. The EDF knows. But we've got to get ourselves out of here." He glanced at his chronometer. "Time's up. Let's launch."

They held on as their escape module broke free from the doomed cloud harvester. The crude vessel rocketed away from the attacking hydrogues. Around them, other self-propelled and autonomous escape vessels launched like spores from a mushroom.

As the module rattled and vibrated, Sullivan peered through the port. Below, the hydrogues continued to attack the remnants of the sky facility.

"They don't seem to be pursuing us, Sullivan," said Tabitha. "Not yet." A sigh of relief, then a shudder of delayed terror passed through the refugees.

As the escape module rotated in its ascent, Sullivan got a good view across the ocean of clouds to the much larger Ildiran sky-harvesting city. The hydrogues were brutally dismantling Hroa'x's facility as well, surrounding the immense platform and opening fire. Already, smoke and flames gushed from myriad breaches in the other complex's hull.

"The Ildirans are under attack too," Sullivan called. "But their design didn't allow for the escape and rescue of their crew. They're all going to die."

Inside the evacuation module, his companions grumbled with anxiety. The green priest looked up at Sullivan, his misery increasing. "Hroa'x said there wasn't anything he could do," Kolker said.

"Ildirans won't modify their older designs. They don't plan ahead." Sullivan scrutinized his comrades in the escape module; the rest of the autonomous vessels also had plenty of room for other passengers.

He made a decision, knowing he'd never hear the end of it from Lydia. "I'm not going to let them all die. We've got the means to do something about it."

His people looked at him in disbelief. Tabitha spoke for all of them. "You're not actually going back down there!"

"We all are." He turned to the communications officer. "Open a channel to the Ildiran skymine, if anybody's listening. Tell Hroa'x we're on our way. I want all our modules to rally. We're going to rescue as many Ildirans as we can. We can make a difference."

Kolker's look of amazement gradually transformed into something akin to respect. He gave a faint nod.

"But Sullivan..." Tabitha said, aghast. "We can't take that risk."

"I don't see that we have any other choice."

Chapter 77-TASIA TAMBLYN.

General Lanyan sent a direct EM transmission from the lunar base to the sixty clustered rammers out in the asteroid field. "All right, it's showtime!" Thanks to the instantaneous communication from the green priest Kolker, the EDF knew about the hydrogue assault on Qronha 3 while the attack was still happening. As Tasia and her fellow dunsels snapped to attention at temporary training stations, she found herself thinking of how Ross had never had a chance to call for help when the hydrogues obliterated his Blue Sky Mine...

Lanyan's message continued, wasting no time. His hard face wore an eager smile. "The rammer fleet is parked, fueled, and waiting. We've been looking for someone to slug, and the drogues have finally shown themselves. It'll be like cracking a few eggs with a whole bunch of sledgehammers. This is what the six of you have been waiting for. Now get going."

Tasia and her companions shouted in response, though it would be almost an hour of signal delay before Lanyan heard them back at the Moon base. As the other five dunsels prepared to depart, she ran to get EA.

The sixty rammers launched in less than an hour. Practically speaking, Tasia knew they would not get to the gas giant before the drogues finished their job. But rescuing the miners wasn't the primary thrust of this operation.

Since her rank was highest, Tasia was in charge of the overall mission, with the other dunsels responsible for ten rammers each. She stood on the bridge beside her quiet compy. Though the small Listener could do little of the technical work compared to all the burly Soldier compies manning the stations, EA was a reminder of her home and her upbringing. Soldier models required neither personality programming nor conversational skills, but they would follow Tasia's orders precisely, and that was all that mattered. EA, at least, could offer a little moral support and be good for some conversation along the way.

The heavily armored warships accelerated above the ecliptic and prepared their faster-than-light stardrives. Qronha 3 was deep in Ildiran territory, not far from the alien capital world. Tasia didn't concern herself with trespassing into Ildiran space: If this military action succeeded, she doubted the Mage-Imperator would complain. And if the rammer ships failed, Tasia wouldn't be in a position to worry about it.

Mission briefing data streamed to their ships even as they departed, and Tasia reviewed the details of the attack. All telink signals from the green priest had cut off, and the modular cloud harvester was already presumed destroyed. Though the Hansa facility had been active for less than a year, it had produced a respectable amount of ekti, enough to pay for its construction twice over...but not the lives of the crew. The Hansa skyminers had escape systems in place-identical to the ones on these rammers. Even so, Tasia assumed that all personnel had been lost.

Just like on so many Roamer skymines...

She turned to her Listener compy. "EA, remember when we went to Golgen? You and I sneaked away from the water mines, so we could visit Ross after he got the Blue Sky Mine up and running."

EA paused. "Yes, that description was in your diary files, Tasia Tamblyn. You admired your brother Ross very much."

"Right. And the drogues killed him. That's That's why we're here." Since EA was merely recalling a data summary and not an actual memory, Tasia let the conversation drop and kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. After this mission she would get her command back...supposedly. Then she would show the Eddies what this war was really about. why we're here." Since EA was merely recalling a data summary and not an actual memory, Tasia let the conversation drop and kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. After this mission she would get her command back...supposedly. Then she would show the Eddies what this war was really about.

Tasia knew the Soldier compies had no need for a pep talk, but she felt a desire to give one. So she contacted the other dunsel commanders just before they engaged their stardrives. There was just enough time for her to give them a bit of encouragement and fire them up for the impending battle.

"I've taken a lot of flack from the EDF because I grew up among the Roamer clans. Do you have any idea how many Roamer skymines the drogues wiped out? My brother was one of their first victims. I joined the EDF to fight back. Because I'm both a Roamer and an EDF officer, I've got a bigger axe to grind than anyone I know."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "My other brother Jess joined the fight by sending a couple dozen comets flying like nuclear bombs into Golgen. We don't know how many hydrogues he destroyed, but I'm guessing it was quite a few. Today I plan to continue that family tradition. How about you? Are you ready to wipe out some hydrogues?"

The five token commanders responded with enthusiastic acknowledgments. If Tasia expected any grumbling about her heritage, she got nothing. The dunsels only offered support, and she decided they must be good soldiers after all, no matter what black marks might be on their service records.

She smiled. "We have at our command some of the best weapons in the human arsenal. We are the only ones entrusted with this responsibility. Now, the drogues already got their butts kicked at Qronha 3 once, and I'm surprised they had the balls to show up there again. But they came back for more, so let's go give them more."

Giving the order to engage the stardrive, she looked around the rammer's bridge at the Soldier compies that stood ready to do their duty. They worked the controls, activated the powerful engines, and lurched the battering-ram vessels across the gulf of space.

Chapter 78-MAGE-IMPERATOR JORA'H.

The battle between hydrogues and faeros on Durris-B ended eight days after the Ildirans first noticed the stellar conflict. The besieged yellow star flickered, struggled...and finally collapsed into a dark sun, its nuclear fires extinguished.

Never in more than ten millennia of recorded Ildiran history had such an epochal event occurred. Only two stars remained of the Durris trinary, a white star and a red dwarf now orbiting a black stellar cinder. The people in Mijistra stared into the sky, terrified.

"Osira'h will depart immediately," Mage-Imperator Jora'h commanded. All across the Empire, the thism thism was singing with danger. Like distinct fires erupting in a sweeping forest, bright and painful outbursts of panic clamored for his attention. was singing with danger. Like distinct fires erupting in a sweeping forest, bright and painful outbursts of panic clamored for his attention.

Seeing the blot in the sky from the windows of the Prism Palace, he pushed aside all hesitation, all uncertainty about his youngest daughter and her special abilities. Osira'h had to open a direct line of communication with the hydrogues before they annihilated the Ildiran Empire. No one else was capable of it, now that the Klikiss robots had betrayed them.

On his orders late the previous day, Yazra'h had loaded the pressure vessel aboard one of seven warliners. They were ready to take Osira'h to her destination. Shortly thereafter, Tal O'nh had announced that his cohort of battleships was also prepared and awaited the Mage-Imperator for their departure to Hyrillka. Everything was happening at once. At last.

Carrying an assortment of weapons and accompanied by her Isix cats, Yazra'h stalked into the skysphere reception hall. Little Osira'h, barely half the height of her oldest sister, followed her.

Osira'h stopped before the dais and waited in silence. When the Mage-Imperator saw her, his chest ached with all the hopes he had invested in this child. Only the day before, after making his final decision, he had called the girl to spend an hour with him up on the highest tower platform of the Prism Palace. Together, they had gazed out at the majesty of Ildira. Air traffic flew in an intricate dance overhead, while below them the seven streams fanned out from the Palace's hill like the spokes of a wheel, and a line of pilgrims, made tiny by distance, moved along in an unending thread.

He had tried to express to the girl how much he had loved her mother, but even a Mage-Imperator found some things too difficult to communicate. Oddly enough, Osira'h showed little surprise at anything he told her. Jora'h wondered what Udru'h had said to her about Nira. Nothing kind, he was sure.

If she survived, if she succeeded and returned, the Mage-Imperator promised himself he would do much better for this amazing child who stood at the base of his dais. Now there was no time. With each passing hour he received new and disturbing vibrations through the thism, thism, and he could not delay his daughter's crucial mission to the fresh stellar corpse of Durris-B. But before he could send Osira'h on her dangerous journey, a messenger ran shouting into the skysphere hall. and he could not delay his daughter's crucial mission to the fresh stellar corpse of Durris-B. But before he could send Osira'h on her dangerous journey, a messenger ran shouting into the skysphere hall.

"Mage-Imperator, the hydrogues are attacking our cloud harvester on Qronha 3. We just received a desperate signal from Chief Miner Hroa'x. The destruction has only just begun, but our facility will surely be destroyed!"

Pushing himself up out of his chrysalis chair, Jora'h addressed Yazra'h and Osira'h with new urgency. "Then you must go there, there, rather than the dead sun. We have an obligation to defend our cloud-harvesting city, and since the hydrogues have chosen to strike us again on Qronha 3, that is where we will meet them." He placed his strong hands on the girl's small shoulders. "Osira'h you must get through to the enemy before they destroy us all. Bring them to me, whatever it takes. Let me speak with them so that I can somehow make peace." rather than the dead sun. We have an obligation to defend our cloud-harvesting city, and since the hydrogues have chosen to strike us again on Qronha 3, that is where we will meet them." He placed his strong hands on the girl's small shoulders. "Osira'h you must get through to the enemy before they destroy us all. Bring them to me, whatever it takes. Let me speak with them so that I can somehow make peace."

Guards and bureaucrats swirled around Osira'h and whisked her away toward the warliners. Jora'h stared after the girl, and his hopes went with her.

This was a day of great changes and momentous events. He had sent his daughter to her destiny, and it was time to deal with Hyrillka. Now Now. Several whole worlds were already lost. Enough! He could no longer tolerate this blindness in the thism thism.

Today was also the Dobro Designate's deadline to face Rusa'h.

"Summon Tal O'nh," he called. "We depart for Dobro within the hour. And we must hope that Designate Udru'h has done his part."

Chapter 79-CELLI.

The Beneto golem led Celli and Solimar along wide paths where Roamer heavy machinery had removed the wrecked tree hulks. Celli grabbed Solimar's hand, and the three of them went deeper into the charred and splintered wasteland.

"Are you ready for this, Solimar?" she whispered. "Whatever it is?"

He kept walking. "Whatever it is. I'm sure the worldforest has its reasons for picking the two of us."