53.

LEE ISWANDER.

A few months ago, Lee Iswander could not have imagined such an ambitious new start, the possibilities as numerous and bright as all the stars in the Spiral Arm. After losing everything at Sheol, he had doubted he would ever recover. But now, thanks to Elisa's discovery of the bloaters, he had a tremendous opportunity, and he did not intend to waste it. Iswander Industries would rise like a phoenix from the ashes of the lava-processing disaster.

Elisa had led him out to the new cluster of drifting sacks, thousands of them on the far outer edge of a solar system that was so obscure it had no name, only coordinate numbers. The silent bloaters were as marvelous as they were mysterious.

Alec Pannebaker ran an analysis, trying to understand what the swollen nodules were, where they were drifting, and why they had clustered together in ways that gravity could not explain. They were possibly organic, but with very little structure. A comparison to giant plankton seemed apt. Most important, the membrane-enclosed globules were filled with ekti that could be easily drained and processed. That was all Iswander needed to know.

Most of his assets had been tied up in the Sheol facility, his primary accounts impounded, pending legal actions. Accusations and criminal charges flitted about as the investigation continued, but Roamers were loathe to fall into what they saw as "old Hansa ways" of pointing fingers, looking for scapegoats, and solving problems with lawsuits. The history of the gypsy clans was filled with instances of life-support failures, dome breaches, asteroid collisions, structural collapses. Sometimes the universe lashed out, and people paid the price. Roamers tended to stick together.

Even so, they were not convinced the industrialist was really a Roamer, in his heart.

When Iswander tried to buy the equipment he needed for his new secret operations, many Roamer businessmen refused to deal with him, blaming him for the Sheol catastrophe. One particularly intractable supplier of storage silos told Iswander, "You'd never be able to meet my price."

Iswander met the man's gaze. "Name your price-I'll meet it."

The supplier crossed his arms over his chest. "Fifteen hundred and forty-three lives."

Iswander went elsewhere. He managed to liquidate some of his other assets, scraping together enough funds to buy the basic equipment he needed, though he told no one what it was for. Over the course of a month, he set up his operations in the new bloater field under tight security, inviting a small group of workers who were willing to take another chance on Iswander Industries, the few faithful who had stuck with him even in his darkest hour.

The drifting cluster of bloaters soon developed into an ambitious ekti-extraction outpost: a cluster of big ships, modular stations, industrial storage tanks, pumping vessels, and six cargo shuttles that would soon begin distributing stardrive fuel. Iswander was optimistic, and expected he would need more ships soon enough. These thousands of bloaters held a wealth of ekti for the taking, and no one else knew the source.

Fifteen of his modular habitats were linked together, comprising a headquarters, an admin module, living quarters, landing bays, and a small medical center in case of accidental injuries. At the moment, only sixty people worked out at the site, but once Iswander began making a profit he could hire more employees, all carefully vetted. Before long, Lee Iswander would restore his wealth and, more important, his reputation.

His wife and son were glad to help him make a fresh start. Though they were lonely out here, both Arden and Londa believed him when he said he was going to make his name and his fortune all over again. Elisa Reeves got to work, as she always did.

Pannebaker and two other engineers modified existing equipment to drain bloater sacks. The ekti was easily obtained, the operation far more efficient than the huge and expensive traditional skymines that processed mind-boggling quantities of hydrogen into small amounts of stardrive fuel. Iswander knew that his new ekti source would change the Confederation, change the whole Spiral Arm-but he did not intend to reveal his secret.

Best of all, tests confirmed that the ekti from the bloaters had a higher energy potential than traditional stardrive fuel. The difference was so remarkable that Iswander decided to call his product ekti-X. There would be much consternation among the Roamers who now shunned him, because they wouldn't be able to figure out his source.

Occasionally, the nodules sparkled and flashed, but no one understood why, how to predict the sequence, or what it meant. The discharge caused problems with electronic circuitry nearby, and Iswander's engineers installed significant shielding where necessary. Because he knew how explosive the bloaters could be, having seen the images Elisa brought back, he also instituted extreme safety measures.

Otherwise, Iswander was happy to let scientific investigations continue so long as they didn't interfere with the extraction work. He had a lot of ground to make up.

Ships flitted around the bloaters, and tankers filled with purified ekti-X hung near the clustered spheres. By now, fifteen of the giant sacks had been drained, and the empty membranes hung like husks in space. As he watched the workers tow another flaccid membrane out beyond the traffic areas, Iswander was reminded of old sailing ships on the seas of Earth, hunting whales for the blubber. He knew he was anthropomorphizing the nodules, which certainly weren't alive, weren't aware. They were just gas bags filled with stardrive fuel. They weren't even biological, as far as anyone could tell.

Elisa stood with him in the admin module looking out the windowports. "As soon as possible, we will bring clan Iswander back to prominence, sir."

"Your confidence is contagious-as well it should be."

Her smile was hard. Elisa Reeves was not soft by any measure, but she was a beautiful woman. Elisa Enturi, he corrected himself; she no longer wanted to be known by her married name.

"Garrison is gone," she had reminded him when she took her maiden name again. "He was dead to me before the explosions killed him and my son. I don't want to carry his name around like old luggage. We both need a fresh start, sir-and this is the place to do it. Once you begin supplying limitless cheap ekti-X for the Confederation and the Ildiran Empire, the Sheol disaster will be forgotten. Everything else will be seen as a mere setback."

"Thank you for that, Elisa," he said-but he wouldn't soon forget the 1,543. Nevertheless, he realized that reliability and loyalty were very attractive qualities.

Alec Pannebaker loved zipping around in an inspection pod while the extractors plunged nozzles through the tough bloater membranes and began pumping out the murky contents. It was like protoplasm inside a gigantic cell, and each bloater contained an amorphous dark structure at its core, like a rudimentary nucleus. Iswander's processing stations centrifuged the base material to remove unwanted compounds and then filled hundreds of canisters of ekti-X.

Ten years ago, Pannebaker had served aboard a Roamer skymine, and he understood ekti processing. He made sure Iswander understood that draining bloaters was a thousand times more efficient than traditional stardrive fuel operations.

Elisa said, "Once we start distributing our ekti, sir, the Roamers are going to go nuts. We'll have to be very careful not to let anyone else discover where our operations are."

"We've got plenty of reasons to keep a low profile," Iswander said. "And I can't trust anyone more than I trust you, Elisa. I want you to handle the distribution. Our first major shipment should be ready to go soon."

"I've already started making plans, sir. If we bring our ekti-X to a central point-say, Ulio-I can hire pilots to distribute it from there." She looked out at the expanding operations, the extraction and refinery. "This is something we both needed." The bitterness in her voice had not faded.

"A new start," he said. "Everybody loves a redemption story."

CHAPTER.

54.

EXXOS.

Trapped in an incomprehensible pocket behind the universe, Exxos and his black robots struggled to understand the Shana Rei's hatred and capriciousness. Was it curiosity, or just a penchant for destruction? The cold inkblot creatures had offhandedly dismantled two more robots for no comprehensible reason, unless they were bored or frustrated.

"How can you help us fight?" the Shana Rei demanded.

"We have abilities that you cannot know," Exxos bluffed. "We will demonstrate them-when necessary."

With racing thoughts, he collated everything he had learned, including unreliable knowledge from his databases of Ildiran myths. He needed to comprehend the Shana Rei before he risked offering further answers.

The robots drifted in a netherworld of darkness surrounded by a cloud of debris from their dismantled ships. Suddenly a flicker of light rippled through the void, and all the inkblots flinched. The representational eyes flickered and blurred, then blazed more intensely.

"What was that?" Exxos asked. "Please explain."

"Pain. More pain. It grows worse."

"Where does the pain come from? What hurts you?" Exxos said.

"Pain comes from the evolving universe. Pain comes from the stain of life, from thoughts and order being imposed upon the natural state of chaos."

"My robots are powerful, but our sentience causes you no agony. We are different."

"You are different."

"We are powerful."

"That remains to be seen."

The black blots swelled and closed in on Exxos, and he thought they might call his bluff and dismantle him, but the Shana Rei kept talking in their vibrating portentous voices. "In the beginning, all was silent, all was black, all was peaceful. But now the chatter of thoughts, the burning of stars, the outcry of gravity is one endless scream in our minds. We cannot unmake it fast enough."

"Our goals are aligned," Exxos immediately pointed out. "We wish to destroy as well."

"We intend to destroy everything-including you."

"No, not us. My robots are unique. Do not underestimate what we can do." Exxos had to convince them. "Listen-and hear our silence amid the scream of creation. A powerful silence. We know how to create the silence you need. If you destroy us, you will lose an opportunity to win your battle."

"We will not destroy you. Yet." The eye in the inkblot vanished, then reawakened. "The greatest agony is caused by the frenzy of life, the pulsing of minds, the energy of thoughts. We are exploring, reaching out. We have found an Ildiran ship and swallowed it. We have found the hydrogues and will systematically eradicate them. But they do not cause us the worst pain-there is something new, something greater."

The surviving black robots floated motionless in the entropy bubble, unable to escape. Exxos calculated their probability of survival as ... very small. "We know the Ildiran race fought you long ago," he said. "You failed. You lost. You need our help."

Another flicker of light rippled through the void, causing the Shana Rei to flinch. Exxos observed, but remained unable to draw useful conclusions. Something in the outside universe was disturbing them, but he did not understand what it was.

The nearest inkblot swelled. "Ildiran thism burns like a net made of agony. We would have disintegrated the thism network long ago, but the faeros fought beside the Ildirans. In a similar way, the extended verdani mind forms a deadly web that traps us. We nearly destroyed it once, but some trees survived ... and now we can feel that the worldforest thrives again. The task ahead of us is great."

Exxos insisted, "Our robots also attempted to exterminate humanity and the Ildirans. Robots and Shana Rei fight the same battle. We know how to destroy it all. Together, we can succeed, if you trust us."

Apparently they did not want allies. "For millennia, we retreated to where we found a glimmer of peace, but now the universe is stirring, like a monster emerging from a chrysalis. Something powerful threatens us in a way we have never before experienced. We were driven to act, triggered to return."

The dark blots insisted that their war was not just a physical one, but a conflict that required more than weapons and ships and explosions. The Shana Rei would lash out in less-comprehensible ways against the cosmic shrieks of life. They would attack their enemies via their psyches; they would follow the paths of thism that were strung like hot wires from planet to planet, cutting with razor edges into the minds of the Shana Rei.

The Shana Rei gathered around the helpless black robots. "The jabber of sentient life will never fall silent. If we do not prevent the great awakening, all is lost, and the void will never know peace. We must eradicate the detritus of creation."

"We robots are intellectually familiar with the Ildiran Empire and their thism, with the verdani and their green priests," Exxos said. "We can design an organized plan to achieve our goals. Together, we will be invincible. We can help you create weapons that will obliterate everything."

"Creation is pain."

"It is necessary to create in order to destroy." Exxos would say whatever was necessary to maintain his survival and that of his robots. He surmised that the Shana Rei were insane by any rational measure. An insane sentience was dangerously unpredictable ... but potentially manipulable. "We will help you extinguish sentient life. All we ask is that you preserve one small corner of the universe for us. You would be wise to take advantage of our powers."

The inkblots fell silent, conferring with one another in a manner the black robots could not detect. Finally, the nearest Shana Rei answered, "We agree to exclude a zone where you and your kind can exist-provided you prove useful and can accomplish what you promise. So long as the pain diminishes."

Exxos felt that he had achieved a great victory; the Shana Rei believed his claim, for now. The other captive robots buzzed and hummed. The shadow creatures converged on them. The voice said, "We Shana Rei wish to be at peace. We wish to die. We wish to be uncreated."

Exxos digested that data for a moment, then said, "We can help."

CHAPTER.

55.

SHAREEN FITZKELLUM.

The clouds of Golgen continued to erupt with black storms, and the gas giant seemed to be tearing itself apart. Mist plumes thrashed like serpents, and the cloud layers ripped open as atmospheric quakes rumbled up from below.

One huge warglobe lurched above the dense clouds, so close that it sent the whole facility reeling, and then lay like a dead fish, its crystalline hull turning black. From within, the stain spread and swirled like poisonous smoke. Black cracks shot along the diamond hull, and then the warglobe split open. Curved shards tumbled down into the clouds. Nearby, two more warglobes blackened and shattered.

Shareen realized that the open skydeck was not a smart place to be, now that the blight-stricken hydrogue had thrown itself off the edge and into the open air.

With Rex tucked under his arm, her father shouted, "Down to the launching bay-we have to get to a ship!" From below, the first escape vessels streaked out of the skymine's lower bay doors.

Toff bolted for the open doorway. "I'll get a tow-skimmer. We can hook a tether to the ekti storage silos and pull them to safety."

"Don't you dare," Zhett yelled. "We can get more stardrive fuel, but I have no intention of replacing my children."

To the untrained eye, the evacuation looked like complete chaos, but the skyminers knew what they were doing as they raced to assigned gathering stations. Ever since she was a little girl, Shareen had been drilled for emergency evacuation. She took Howard by the arm and raced him along. "Follow me, and I'll keep you safe. Everyone on the skymine is trained for this."

"For this?" The young man seemed more fascinated than terrified.

"Sure. We plan for every contingency."

Down in the launching bay, the doors were wide open, the atmosphere field dropped. Breezes whipped inside the bay, tossing debris around and scattering lightweight equipment. Ships launched out in all directions, somehow managing not to collide. As five skyminers tumbled into an escape shuttle, the pilot yelled to anyone else in the bay, "There's room for four more. Get your asses aboard!" Four more people got their asses aboard. After the hatch sealed, the shuttle took off.

Out in the open gulf of clouds and wind, another hydrogue warglobe succumbed to the black stain. During its death throes, the pyramidal projections crackled with blue fire and lanced out in uncontrolled blasts. One stray burst struck a nearby ekti-storage raft, and the detonation created an expanding fireball in the sky.

Rex wailed, but Del didn't let go of him. Patrick shouted, "Which ship, Zhett?"

"That one. I have the launch codes, and I'm taking the controls. Anybody want to argue with that?"

Nobody did.

"Classes were boring on Earth," Howard said to Shareen, "but..."

"Trust me," Shareen said, "you'll learn more in fifteen minutes of this than in a dozen exams."

The skymine shuddered, and the deck tilted so severely that a wheeled loader slid sideways toward the open bay, blocking the exit. A husky skyminer leaped into the cab, powered up the engines, and rolled the loader out of the way, but it began sliding toward the opening again. The driver gave up and jumped out just before the loader rolled off into the sky.

Zhett's ship scraped along the sloped deck, its struts sending up sparks. The roar of wind in the cargo bay, the monotonous alarms flooding the station comm, her little brother crying, and warglobes exploding out in the clouds all mixed together to make a deafening din.