Celli looked from Solimar to her parents in disbelief. "We shouldn't underestimate anybody these days."

Overhead, crackles of icewaves and blue lightning continued to pummel the clustered worldtrees. Solimar winced, clutching Celli as he felt the silent screams of the trees falling under the onslaught. She held on to him, supporting him and drawing strength from him in return.

The bruised skies above flickered with the backwash of the battle far, far overhead. Her attention was divided between the chaos outside and the rapid-fire conversations among the Roamer ships. Kotto Okiah and his vessels seemed to be in trouble. The hydrogues had rallied and turned on them. She heard frantic shouts, a crash, then something barely understandable about a...comet?

"Look! It's changing course by ninety degrees!"

"No comet can-"

"I have to drop us down at six Gs, so I hope I don't crack a rib. Hang on."

"Look out!"

A long pause and then, "There goes another warglobe-it popped like a faceplate meeting a sledgehammer. We're safe enough for now."

"That comet thing must be on our side. The drogues aren't very good at making friends."

"Could be their personality. Or their conversational skills."

Sensing something from the trees, Solimar stared out at the rustling, agitated forest and then up into the sky, his face alight with awed anticipation. "Celli, come here! You'll want to see this."

Below, the Beneto golem stood in the middle of the clearing, wooden arms outstretched, and all the trees seemed to be straining with him. "The wentals!" he called out, sounding as surprised as the rest of the Therons. "The wentals are still alive! And they have come!"

Out in space, Jess Tamblyn's supercharged wental comet plunged toward Theroc. Trailing discarded ionized gases in a long plume, the living projectile homed in on its ancient enemies. The comet struck the atmosphere, screaming as it began to burn up, but never slowing as it hurtled toward the last of the attacking warglobes.

Celli watched the hydrogue ships congregate high over the fungus-reef city. The aliens clustered in a defensive formation and launched concentrated webs of blue lightning, but nothing could stop the supercharged celestial object. At the last instant, the diamond spheres scattered, hoping to offer a less cohesive target.

In response the comet itself fragmented. The frozen chunks separated like individual warheads, flying toward the remaining warglobes. Each fragment shifted, crackling with an inner light. Sonic booms thundered through the air, followed by massive explosions as each cometary shard hammered into a hydrogue ship.

Vanquished, the broken warglobes split apart, and the wreckage fell crashing to the forest. Vengeful verdani folded over, bending to fetter the remnants of their enemies' ships with lashing fronds. With a relentless grip, the iron-hard trees completed the destruction.

Her face turned toward the sky, Celli discovered she was crying and laughing at the same time, unable to believe what had happened. Solimar hugged her. "All the warglobes are destroyed! The Roamers defeated the other ones out in space." He paused, obviously receiving a message through telink. "No...two warglobes have escaped. One is damaged." He grabbed her by the waist and swung her around. "But we're saved."

Idriss and Alexa could not believe what they were hearing. Gasping and laughing with giddy disbelief, Celli said, "Come on, let's go down to the forest."

Amazed Therons gathered in relief and gratitude as they realized that the worldforest had been rescued again-this time not by fiery elemental beings, but by a strange living comet. And the Roamers.

Overhead, where the ice mountain had disintegrated, clouds of vapor spread out. The flash-melted residue from the wental comet drifted to the ground in droplets of exotic rain. Green priests met in the clearing. Celli and Solimar ran to stand by her uncle Yarrod.

The rain came down in a gentle fall, invigorating and alive. The pleasant dampness made Celli's flesh tingle. Wental-charged droplets moistened the ash-strewn ground of Theroc and infused the soil with new life.

As Celli watched, her mouth open in surprise, curling shoots, pale leaves, and stalks sprouted from seeds and root remnants that were suddenly rejuvenated-a thousand times more vibrant than when she and Solimar had danced across the forest. Rain from the vaporized wental comet spread across the land, helping to revive the rest of the worldforest.

Beneto walked among the shaken people. The falling rain drenched his wooden form, making his grain-patterned skin look more lifelike than ever. "It seems we have more allies than even the worldforest anticipated. Long ago, the wentals were powerful enemies of the hydrogues. But the hydrogues, the faeros, even the verdani, believed they were extinct." Then his expression hardened. "And now the hydrogues know know that the wentals have come back." that the wentals have come back."

Chapter 124-ANTON COLICOS.

Space was vast, empty, and their ship drifted utterly alone. The infinite void extended in every direction: up, down, on all sides. Anton Colicos felt as if they were falling no matter which way he looked.

He had never paid much attention to the distances between the scattered worlds, especially not within the Ildiran Empire. He couldn't recall how many days he and Vao'sh had traveled aboard the passenger liner to Maratha in the first place; he and the rememberer had been too absorbed in getting to know each other.

Now, although the automated systems assisted even a novice pilot like him, Anton was afraid that in the gulf of space he would never locate Ildira. "You'd think with seven suns in the vicinity, it couldn't be too difficult to see." Fortunately, all Ildiran ships used their capital planet as a zero point for nav systems, and the built-in guidance routines could always find their way home.

He did not, however, know how long Rememberer Vao'sh would last.

After escaping the massacre at Secda, the old storyteller had been plunged into the equally devastating horror of utter isolation. As they sat together in the small ship, Anton made every effort to keep conversing with him.

"We've got plenty of time." He smiled brightly and forced enthusiasm into his voice. "Why don't I tell you some Earth stories? It might fill the hours, keep your mind off things-at least until we can stumble upon another Ildiran ship or find our way to an inhabited planet."

Vao'sh blinked at him, dazed. His body sagged as if he had no strength to hold himself upright. His large eyes were bleary and unfocused, and the multicolored lobes on the rememberer's expressive face had gone dull and gray.

"Our situation reminds me of a classic human story called Robinson Crusoe, Robinson Crusoe," Anton said. "It was written in the eighteenth century by an English author named Daniel Defoe." Vao'sh blinked again, as if struggling to focus, and Anton could see he had part of the rememberer's attention. "Crusoe was a castaway, shipwrecked on a deserted island. He lived alone for a long time until finally he encountered a native whom he named Friday. Friday became his close companion, a faithful follower. The two of them lived alone on their island and found a way to make it their home. Sounds like the two of us, Vao'sh."

A shudder of anxiety rippled through the rememberer's body. He looked sadly at his companion, but forced a question to show his interest. "And did they die? What happened?"

"Oh, another ship eventually found them. Crusoe was rescued and told his story to the rest of the world." He patted his friend's shoulder. "That's what you and I will have to do, as soon as we get back."

Anton quickly went through his repertoire of stories about desert islands and how brave shipwrecked heroes managed to overcome the odds: Jules Verne's Mysterious Island, Mysterious Island, Wyss's Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson, Swiss Family Robinson, then the more tragic then the more tragic Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But the rememberer's attention faded, and Anton wondered if he was making their situation worse by reminding Vao'sh of how humans had courageously survived such isolation as no Ildiran could ever tolerate. But the rememberer's attention faded, and Anton wondered if he was making their situation worse by reminding Vao'sh of how humans had courageously survived such isolation as no Ildiran could ever tolerate.

So he changed his approach and told humorous anecdotes, clever fables, absurd parables. Anton kept thinking of how all the others in the skeleton crew had been killed. He explained the human condition of agoraphobia, in which some people were terrified to be in the open among crowds of people. Vao'sh couldn't imagine that; if anything, Ildirans suffered from the reverse condition.

As they continued to wander through the emptiness, their vessel sent out a constant distress signal, and Anton prayed for rescue. He couldn't tell if they were close to any Ildiran splinter settlement. He didn't want to end up lost forever, like his mother.

After Anton had finished sharing five particularly silly fables in a row from Aesop, Vao'sh allowed himself to be drawn into a discussion about the differences between pure fiction and the metaphorical parables humans used to teach lessons, and the historical truth as reported in the Saga of Seven Suns. Saga of Seven Suns.

"We are not always as accurate as we like to believe," Vao'sh said in a grave voice. "Long ago, an epidemic wiped out so many rememberers that their successors created enemies to fill out the Saga Saga."

"Created them? What are you talking about?"

Colors finally flushed across the rememberer's face. "I am about to reveal a secret of which only the greatest of my kith are aware. After the firefever destroyed an entire generation of Ildiran storytellers, after so much of the Saga of Seven Suns Saga of Seven Suns was lost, we invented the Shana Rei from our imaginations. It was a patch to fill in the gaps, a driving force for new stories." was lost, we invented the Shana Rei from our imaginations. It was a patch to fill in the gaps, a driving force for new stories."

This revelation went against everything Anton understood about the Ildiran historians. "You're saying the Shana Rei are made-up bogeymen?"

"The Shana Rei do not exist. They have never existed. But since the peaceful Ildiran Empire faced no real threats, we had no real heroes. Our glorious history required required heroes. Therefore, ancient rememberers invented a mythical antagonist. At first, the stories were part of an apocrypha, but the Mage-Imperator himself commanded that they be included as truth in future versions of the heroes. Therefore, ancient rememberers invented a mythical antagonist. At first, the stories were part of an apocrypha, but the Mage-Imperator himself commanded that they be included as truth in future versions of the Saga Saga. For thousands of years, Ildirans have believed without reservation. I am ashamed that I have contributed to unnecessary fears among our race. A historian should never fabricate history."

Anton reassured him. "But a storyteller storyteller does what is necessary to influence his audience. Who is to say that the rememberers' stories of the Shana Rei are not more inspirational than the truths that were lost? Your listeners were entertained by the great battles and they cheered for Ildiran heroes that fought in that imaginary war." He shared a wry, sad smile. "Far worse things have been done in history." does what is necessary to influence his audience. Who is to say that the rememberers' stories of the Shana Rei are not more inspirational than the truths that were lost? Your listeners were entertained by the great battles and they cheered for Ildiran heroes that fought in that imaginary war." He shared a wry, sad smile. "Far worse things have been done in history."

After Rememberer Vao'sh revealed his secret, it seemed as if a burden had been lifted from him. But alone and without the comfort of crowds, the Ildiran historian's energy waned with each passing day. Once so enthusiastic and supportive of his fellow Ildirans when he told dramatic stories, the rememberer was unable to battle his own terror and loneliness.

Their ship flew onward, skirting the stars of the Horizon Cluster, wandering in the general direction of Ildira. The strength seemed to flow out of Vao'sh, and he dwindled visibly on the fourth and then fifth day after their escape from Maratha.

Anton did not sleep, knowing that if he didn't keep up the drone of conversation, his friend might slip away. He was utterly exhausted, his imagination squeezed dry from telling every story he could think of, from classic epics to popular entertainment loops. He tried telling jokes, but the rememberer didn't understand most of the punch lines. Finally, Vao'sh began to shudder uncontrollably and slipped deeper into his miserable isolation.

"I wish I had thism thism to share with you." Anton clasped his companion's arm. "That's one thing humans don't have to offer." to share with you." Anton clasped his companion's arm. "That's one thing humans don't have to offer."

After so long without sleep, forcing himself to stay alert for the sake of his friend, Anton could sustain his wakefulness no longer. Vao'sh had spoken not a word in more than six hours, gazing straight ahead in a vegetative state. Anton's throat was sore from constant talking. Their supplies were minimal, and very little water remained. Unable to hold his eyes open, at last he dozed off. He had no idea how long he slept, but it was a healing rest, as intense as a coma...

Anton awoke to an insistent buzzing. The comm panel blinked, and he sat up in alarm. Outside, bright lights swooped closer-Solar Navy scouts patrolling the outer perimeter of the Horizon Cluster!

Anton fumbled with the system. "Yes, we're here! Please. We need help!"

The Solar Navy acknowledged, and rescue ships approached. Anton's heart swelled. It was over at last. They had made it.

He turned to Vao'sh beside him and saw that the rememberer stared helplessly at nothing, completely catatonic.

Chapter 125-DD.

Szeol was another empty planet that had been a hiveworld of the Klikiss race. Unlike most such planets, though, Szeol's environment was not conducive to human colonization. DD knew that if Hansa explorers had found this world by random excursions through the transportal network, this was simply too nightmarish a place for them to stay.

The acrid air was suffused with a midnight hue that clung in the shadows, even in the wan daylight. Despite the sere and broken rocks, gauzy foul-smelling mists crept across the ground, settling in pockets and cracks. Lichens covered the exposed boulders like splattered bloodstains. Winged jellyfish creatures cruised in packs on the updrafts, hunting for prey; they watched the black robots, Soldier compies, and DD, but did not attempt to attack.

Ancient Klikiss towers and cave cities had been built here, assembled with iron-hard fused polymers and silica so that the structures endured for millennia. The emptiness had lasted even longer than that.

DD inspected the creepy landscape where many of the robots had gathered to organize their extermination war. Sirix, who misunderstood DD's uneasiness, rose up on telescoping fingerlegs to loom over the Friendly compy. "Our creator race is no longer here. They have been obliterated, thanks to our efforts. You have nothing to fear from them."

DD regarded the black machine. "I do not fear the extinct Klikiss, Sirix. I fear what you you will do to the human race-and to me." will do to the human race-and to me."

"We intend only to help you."

DD didn't argue with the Klikiss robot, nor did he believe him.

Boneless creatures with wet, black skin squirmed into shadows so swiftly that DD's high-resolution optical sensors could not decipher details of their appearance. Moving shadows crossed the purplish sky, and loud hooting sounds echoed through the canyons, resounding from cliff walls.

Sirix drank in everything he saw. His buzzing mechanical voice sounded almost proud when he said, "This world belongs to the Klikiss robots now."

The five captured EDF Manta cruisers and the huge Juggernaut had landed in the desolation. Ranks of Soldier compies continued to march out of the last human battleship according to transmitted orders.

DD followed as Sirix trudged up a path into the clustered towers of the empty Klikiss metropolis. The hollow structures contained two of the stone windows that the ancient race had used as transportals. A third trapezoidal gateway stood out in the open surrounded by whistling winds, poised on the very brink of a deep canyon. It looked as if someone might walk directly through the transportal and fall over the edge of the sheer cliff.

While DD watched, an image inside the cliff-edge transportal shimmered, and a pair of Klikiss robots marched through as if they had merely stepped onto a veranda. Inside the ruined city, the other two main transportals activated regularly, disgorging more and more Klikiss robots to join in the war preparations. Inside the hive dwellings, hundreds of insectile machines moved about, building, repairing, digging deep tunnels.

DD asked, "Did you choose this planet as your rendezvous? Is this where all the Klikiss robots are gathering?"

They walked into the yawning towers, which looked like cavity-filled stalagmites. "This world is one gathering place. One of hundreds."

Sirix stopped in front of the city's second transportal window, through which robot after robot arrived. The images in the stone trapezoid flickered, alternating the transmission nexus from other departure points. Though the black robot said nothing, he seemed to be welcoming his fellow mechanical survivors, or perhaps he was simply counting his troops.

The Klikiss robots looked virtually identical, but DD had enough precise patterns stored in his memories that he could distinguish one shape he had seen before. The robot now striding through had been one of the three accompanying the Colicos expedition to Rheindic Co. This machine had dragged DD away from his masters Margaret and Louis in their last stand in the Klikiss caves. "You are Dekyk. I remember you."

The black robot scanned DD for a moment, then dismissed him, turning instead to Sirix. He spoke in a staccato series of clicks and hums, which DD was able to interpret. "The Ildirans have changed the parameters. Our agreement has been discarded."

Sirix said, "What has the Mage-Imperator done?"

"For centuries they hid a breeding program from us. The Ildirans have developed a telepath to act as an ambassador, one who can meld with the hydrogues, as we did. It is a female, no more than a child. However, she will make the Klikiss robots irrelevant."

Sirix said dismissively, "We ceased to be Ildiran pawns long ago. They reawakened our first hibernating robots five centuries ago, as agreed in the ancient treaty. None of us suspected the Ildirans would betray us. We had no choice but to abandon them."

Dekyk hummed and clicked as he considered the information. "There is more. The Ildirans on Maratha excavated our ancient tunnels. A small group discovered our subterranean base, which, by ancient agreement, was to have been left alone."

"Have they managed to disseminate this information?"

"No. By now, our robots there should already have disposed of the Ildirans who discovered us."

Sirix considered for a long moment. "They must all be exterminated, along with the humans. We will be methodical, and successful."

Due to the nature of Szeol's murky night, the purple clouds and the dim sunrise, DD could not accurately determine the diurnal cycle. His internal chronometer told him that many hours passed while the Klikiss robots and the Soldier compies went about their sinister business in the dead alien city.

The robots did not restrain him in any way, but the macabre world intimidated the Friendly compy. Margaret and Louis Colicos would have wanted him to gather information that might help save other humans, though DD had little chance of escaping to distribute that intelligence.

One of the interior transportal windows activated. The stone wall flickered, and air pressure equalized with a sudden explosive bang that was trapped within the narrow layer of the transportation gate itself. Three Klikiss robots stepped through, their bodies instantly covered with glossy frost and steaming vapors that boiled around them. DD caught just a glimpse of swirling hellish gases in the image behind the transportal wall.

"The hydrogues are ready at Qronha 3," one robot reported. "The trap has been sprung. All sixty rammer ships the Earth Defense Forces sent are now ours."

DD tried to assess what he had just seen. "Hydrogues use the same technology as the Klikiss?"

"Hydrogue transgates operate on the same principle, because long ago we robots shared the technology with them," Sirix explained. "The entire interdimensional network is connected. The map is laid down in the fabric of the universe."

DD, busy processing this information, did not respond. The hydrogues had long used transgates to travel from one gas giant to another, stitching together their hidden empire, while humans neither saw nor guessed at their presence deep within the clouds.

Margaret Colicos herself had escaped through one of the Klikiss transportals; if she had accidentally connected to a hydrogue transgate, then she was certainly dead. But DD still held out hope that his master had escaped to a safe place and was simply lost somewhere.

Sirix and Dekyk moved close to the Friendly compy, closing in. "We have another reason to make this a great day of celebration, DD-for you and all of the enslaved human compies."

DD could not flee. "I do not anticipate receiving your news with great joy."