AELIN.

No one in the ekti-extraction field objected when Aelin asked to use an inspection pod so he could see the strange nodules up close. The controls were simple enough, and he accessed information from the worldforest. The bloaters called to him, a powerful, weighty presence that seemed to promise so much more. He wondered why no one else could sense it....

He left the industrial complex, with its cold metal decks and artificial light, and headed toward the majesty of the drifting cluster. The thrumming sensation in the back of his mind indicated a presence greater than and different from the huge tapestry of the verdani mind-possibly only a hint of something even more vast.

He needed to comprehend it better. The bloaters were much more than mere space plankton. He wished he could have shared this experience with Shelud, even if only through telink before his brother died of the plague....

Now he tried to recapture his sense of wonder so that it brightened his shadowy depression. He had never felt like this before. Aelin always had dreams, always looked to the sky and imagined places beyond the worldforest, but now that he had ventured far out into the Spiral Arm, he had not found what he expected. Neither had Shelud.

The inspection pod was cramped, built for only one person; it had external arms and manipulator tools for servicing space equipment. Aelin set his potted treeling beside him and flew forward, paying little attention to the lights of other Iswander ships and facilities.

Hundreds of bloaters had been drained of ekti and the cluster was diminished by half. The remaining nodules continued to drift toward the nearest star, which grew brighter every day.

The pod approached the greenish tan spheres. He touched the treeling, opened his thoughts as a green priest, but the phantom half-entity he sensed out there had nothing to do with the verdani mind. In fact, the looming presence seemed to make the stars themselves insignificant.

Suddenly an alert notice skittered across the comm channels, and the ekti-field workers withdrew. Extraction operations raised their shields. Alarms began to ring.

Aelin barely knew how to work the pod controls, and he didn't understand what was happening until he saw one of the distant bloaters glow, then a closer one responded with a bright flash, followed by a flare from the nucleus of a third bloater. The floating spheres lit up like scattered firecrackers in a staccato pattern.

So quickly that it seemed instantaneous, Aelin felt a tingle through his skin, a flicker in the treeling beneath his fingertips. He looked out at the gentle curve of the swollen nodule drifting right in front of him- A chain lightning of mysterious signals ricocheted from one bloater to another, and the one directly before Aelin lit up with an explosive flash. It sent a surge through telink, an avalanche of light that continued to build as other bloaters flared, spark after spark.

He gasped, and his mind ignited. The flash was entirely inside of him, behind his eyes, throughout his mind. An overwhelming flood filled him with awe and ecstasy ... and continued to build.

The flash was over in an instant, but Aelin could barely see. He tried to focus again, but the light was everywhere. He saw that his treeling had died, burned out in the pot beside him. His pod reeled, tumbling end over end.

Within him, the flare grew brighter and brighter, and Aelin had no way to stop it. Even retreating into unconsciousness was not enough. He couldn't get the light out of his head.

CHAPTER.

100.

JESS TAMBLYN.

Inside the hollow comet of Academ, streams of energized wental water poured from the walls and pooled into the spherical zero-gravity ocean. The water thundered in from all directions, aerating the pool, and droplets orbited in sparkling rings.

Academ's air was rich with mist, and residual wental energy added a glow to the walls. Jess drifted outside the fringes of the water as he watched a group of students at their exercise time, jetting through the water, launching themselves through the surface tension. Their activities were monitored by three Governess compies, who hovered like overprotective hawks.

Seth Reeves joined his classmates in an enthusiastic game of tag that had questionable and inconsistent rules. Jess had noticed that the boy missed his father even more than most of the children here did, because Garrison was all he had left, but Seth had thrived here in the classes. He truly loved being at Academ.

Sadly, a few days ago, Seth's father had sent the terrible news about clan Reeves and how their new Okiah colony, including the young students withdrawn from Academ, had perished from the alien plague. All of them.

Jess had been there when Seth received the message. The boy had shifted from side to side, clearly not sure how to react. "I didn't really know them," he mumbled. "I only met my grandfather once, and ... well, they should never have left Rendezvous. They wanted us to go with them. And if we had-"

Tears stung Jess's eyes when he thought of Jamie and Scott Reeves, rambunctious boys with overactive imaginations. But he couldn't control the Guiding Star that other Roamers might see....

Cesca drifted up to him in the zero gravity, maneuvering with a compressed-air pack. She bumped against him and slipped her arm around his waist. Back when they had both been possessed with wental energy, he had been able to sense Cesca from star systems away; now they were just normal human beings again, although occasionally the water elementals initiated a flash of contact.

Jess and Cesca remained quiet, watching the students, remembering how they themselves had once played, overjoyed in the sharing of their bodies. Maybe as a residual effect of the wental energy, they had not aged much in the twenty years since losing the elementals inside them. Cesca's dark brown hair, high cheekbones, and generous mouth were exactly as he remembered when he had first fallen in love with her.

Now, though, her fine dark brows drew together. "Do you sense it, Jess?" When he took her hand, he instinctively felt the tingle that the electric elemental touch used to have. "The wentals seem uneasy."

Jess looked at the glowing comet walls. Though the wentals had lost the ability to communicate with them in clear words and concepts, he did feel a throbbing of buried turmoil. "Yes. I don't sense any imminent danger to Academ. But ... something's changing, something big-out in the Spiral Arm."

Their conversation was interrupted when a strange woman jetted across the open sky, heading like an aimed projectile toward the splashing children. Two Roamer teachers followed her, looking flustered, but the woman knew exactly where she meant to go. Her brown hair had highlights of gold and her brittle expression diminished her natural beauty. She wore normal business clothes, not traditional Roamer garb, and Jess noted an insignia on her jacket-Iswander Industries.

He and Cesca moved to intercept her, and she sped directly up to them, using a compressed-air pack to kill her forward momentum. "My name is Elisa Enturi. My son is Seth Reeves. You have him here."

Cesca tried to stall. "Seth?" The boy was playing with his classmates and hadn't noticed the woman yet.

Jess asked, "You're Elisa Reeves?"

"Enturi. Seth's father kidnapped him and placed him here without my knowledge or consent. He let me think my son was dead! I will initiate legal proceedings soon enough, but for now I need to take Seth to safety."

"But he's perfectly safe here," Jess said. "Everyone thought you died in an explosion. Seth said he saw it himself. I know Garrison believes you're dead."

"I am obviously very much alive, and I am the boy's mother. His father stole him, placed him in extreme danger-" She calmed herself with a visible effort. "I am relieved my child is unharmed. Thank you for watching over him, but I will take him. Now."

"I don't think he'll want to go. He's doing very well among the other students," Cesca said.

Two Roamer teachers finally caught up with Elisa, looking breathless. "Sorry, Jess. She docked here and just barged in! She says she's taking one of our students away."

"She's Seth's mother," Cesca said.

Elisa looked toward the children playing in the water, narrowing her eyes as if she were doing a deep scan, until she spotted her son. She jetted forward. "Seth!"

The Governess compies broke up a squabble when a quick game of splashing got out of hand. Seth dove out, rose above the water, shaking droplets off of him and rubbing his eyes.

Then he saw his mother, and Jess saw his expression change-more to confusion than delight. "Mother? You're alive!" He stared for a moment and then started to cry.

"That explosion ... your father never should have taken you out there. He put you in harm's way. You could have died."

"But ... but you fired the shot-"

Elisa intercepted the boy, took his arm, and held on-not a warm and motherly embrace but more like a capture. "I was trying to protect you."

Seth seemed cowed. He didn't cling to his mother, but said, "I'm glad you're alive. I was so scared when all those bloaters exploded...."

Cesca said, "We'd better send a message to Garrison. He's at Earth, so it'll take him a few days to get here. In the meantime-"

"I'm taking custody of my boy now."

Jess felt a knot in his stomach. "Seth asked to be here. He's doing well in his studies and has a good life with the other Roamer children. Let's discuss this like adults."

"If Garrison acted like an adult, he wouldn't have tried to kill my son," Elisa snapped.

Alarmed, Seth found the courage to say, "Dad always protected me!"

Cesca said, "Your version differs significantly from the account that we received, Ms. Enturi."

Elisa was adamant. "You cannot prevent me from taking my own son."

Jess and Cesca both felt a pang, especially after the domineering Olaf Reeves had withdrawn Retroamer children from Academ and taken them with his clan out to deep space; now they were all dead. But Academ operated under certain rules. Even Garrison had signed the agreement that any parent could remove their child from the school.

Cesca's voice was cold. "Come with us to the administration office, Ms. Enturi. If you insist on taking him without letting his father have input, we'll require documentation...."

Seth was well behaved, clearly disappointed, but he did as his mother told him. "I'd rather stay here," he muttered.

Inside the administration office, Cesca called up the files on the screen. "We need to know where you're taking him. There has to be some way for us to contact the boy."

"After Garrison stole my boy and hid him from me?" Elisa said. "I'm afraid not. Seth will be just fine. I have everything he needs. I'll see that his education continues properly."

Jess wished he saw more warmth in her and less possessiveness. He unsealed a locker in his desk and withdrew a small vial filled with a sample of wental water. A keepsake. Handing it to Seth, he said, "Take this as a souvenir of your time here."

Seth placed it in his palm, looking with wonder. "What is it?"

"Wental water, just like what you played in. It's special."

Cesca shot Jess a quick glance; she knew what he was doing, but didn't say anything.

"As long as it's not harmful," Elisa said, then hurried through the rest of the paperwork. Before she took the boy with her, she remembered to thank Jess and Cesca for their efforts. "I'm sorry to put you in the middle of this."

After they departed, Jess felt very uneasy. Cesca's eyes shone with unshed tears, and he hugged her. "We should send a message through the green priest at Newstation. We've got to let Garrison know what happened."

CHAPTER.

101.

KING PETER.

Unannounced, the Kutuzov and part of the CDF battle group careened into the Theroc system so swiftly that the verdani battleships prepared to defend against an attack.

General Keah broadcast on the emergency frequency, requesting an immediate meeting with King Peter. "This can't wait, Sire. It seems we're at war, and we didn't even know it. Wait until you see these images."

CDF warships filled the skies above the worldforest, many of them battered and damaged. Her flagship Juggernaut and fifteen Manta cruisers had managed to limp back from the disastrous confrontation at Plumas that should have been a simple war game with the Solar Navy.

King Peter was deeply disturbed to see the wounded battle group. "General, what happened to the rest of your ships?"

On the screen, Keah wiped a hand across her brow. "I sent many of them directly to Earth for full refit and repairs, Sire. Admirals Handies, Harvard, and Haroun escorted the ships to the LOC, but I won't lie to you-we lost a hell of a lot of ships in that mess."

His brow furrowed. "We'll need your report, General, as soon as you can get down here."

Queen Estarra contacted governmental staff throughout the fungus-reef complex, calling Roamer clan representatives, Confederation delegates, and any planetary ambassadors who happened to be on Theroc. Inside the throne-room chamber, technical officers scurried to rig the image-relay screens, unrolling and applying them to the soft fungus walls. Everyone was still abuzz with questions when General Keah's shuttle arrived. A Roamer man in a clean, but well-worn jumpsuit accompanied her: Ron Tamblyn, who had escaped from the Plumas water mines with nothing more than the clothes on his back.

Keah spoke without being introduced, without calling the meeting to order. "We were attacked, Sire. For the test exercises, I had three full battle groups, plus the Kutuzov-and we still barely made it out alive." She shook her head as the techs powered up the relay screen. "Without Adar Zan'nh, I wouldn't be making this report-you'd be wondering why you lost fifty of your best ships."

The wallscreens displayed images of the attacking black robot ships, and Peter felt a chill to see them again. "Those are more black robots than you chased at Dhula."

"Worse than that," General Keah said. "The bugbots have allied themselves with the Shana Rei. Creatures of darkness straight out of Ildiran legend." The dramatic images showed the boiling shadow cloud that opened up like a stain in empty space, disgorging first the robot ships and then enormous hexagonal cylinders.

Keah looked uncharacteristically agitated. "We didn't know how to fight them. Our weapons did nothing."

Estarra asked, "We understand that the Klikiss robots have a grudge against us, but we've never encountered the Shana Rei. How did we become their enemies?"

"I don't have a molecule of an idea. One of the robots communicated with us, said that their combined goal was to exterminate all intelligent life, all vestiges of civilization." The listeners in the room fell into a stunned silence. "In my opinion, your Majesties, that doesn't leave much room for negotiation." Keah switched to another file. "Watch these images of Plumas. The Shana Rei just crushed the whole ice moon!"

Ron Tamblyn stepped forward. "My clan lost everything-the Plumas water mines, our trading operations, fifteen tankers. We're still counting the number of casualties."

Sheri Sandoval, the Confederation's representative from the Roamers, looked shell-shocked at the task before her. "How many survivors do you have, Mr. Tamblyn? Our ships can take you to Newstation."

"That's exactly where I want to go," Tamblyn said. "I've got family there. My cousin Jess is at Academ."

Peter said, "We'll make sure your refugees get the help they need."

Estarra sat straight in her ornate chair. "General Keah, we'll want a full report on the damage to your ships and which weapons were most effective. How do we fight these things that have declared war on us?"

"In my professional assessment, Queen Estarra, our jazers and relativistic projectiles did squat. We destroyed quite a few bugbot ships, but no matter how evil the robots are, I believe the Shana Rei are far worse. They consider the robots nothing more than cannon fodder. Whenever our ships got close to those giant Shana Rei hexagon vessels, our systems started to malfunction and break down. Adar Zan'nh sent me information the Ildiran rememberers retrieved from their old historical records. Apparently, the Shana Rei are composed of entropy itself, chaos. Even physics doesn't work right in their vicinity."

The dour representative from the planet Ramah said, "Then what hope do we have of fighting them?"

A small smile curved the edges of Keah's lips. "There is a bit of a silver lining. The Solar Navy found some ancient weapons designs and tested out their prototypes. Laser missiles and sun bombs-they both showed some promise. The Solar Navy will share the designs with us, and we'd better get them into production yesterday." Keah crossed her arms.

King Peter rose from his chair, and Estarra stood beside him. "Now, more than ever before, the Ildiran Empire and the Confederation need to work together as allies. Prince Reynald is currently a guest in Mijistra, but it's time that the Queen and I go there to meet with the Mage-Imperator. This is a crisis." He glanced at Estarra. "We'll depart for Ildira as soon as possible."

CHAPTER.