Hexagon slices continued to peel from the ends of the long black cylinders. The thin, opaque plates twirled across space to line up with adjacent hexes, building the black gridwork larger and larger. As it grew, the barrier blocked out more of the sun and expanded the eclipse shadow across Theroc.

The flagship Juggernaut and twenty Manta cruisers attacked the growing "nightshade" with flamboyant energy displays and exploding weapons, but to little effect. Even when the CDF scored major strikes and shattered off numerous hexes, the segments simply realigned and reattached themselves.

Several reckless Manta cruisers had gone on direct attack runs against the gigantic Shana Rei cylinders. Four cruisers had already been destroyed, though it wasn't clear to Arita exactly how the shadow creatures were fighting them.

And the nightshade grew, widening the eclipse across the forest.

"They can blot out the sun and kill the worldforest," Arita said. "They don't even have to approach the planet." She turned to her aunt. "Kennebar and his green priests can tap into the verdani mind. Maybe they know more about what's happening." She suddenly wanted to find Collin.

Sarein frowned. "We have the comm here. We can listen to reports." That seemed to be good enough.

She and Sarein sat inside the hiveworm nest, both fascinated and horrified to hear the reports. They spoke little, though occasionally they would send grim glances to each other.

Over the hours, the diameter of the nightshade grew, cutting off more and more sunlight. The forest was restless, and the insects began humming, confused as to when they should make their nighttime music. Clinging to normal routines, Sarein lit several lamps outside. Arita could see the glitter of numerous species of firefly leaving their forest mulch nests.

And when the giant occultation plate in orbit finally blotted out the sun entirely and drenched the Wild in shadow, an abrupt smothering night fell without the gentle transition of twilight.

Arita shivered as the temperature dropped. Breezes picked up in an angry stirring of fronds. Even the glow of scattered atmospheric light faded, and bright stars appeared at the periphery of the nightshade's giant hole in the sky.

Predatory night moths took flight, swooping through the fronds to devour other insects. The forest wildlife seemed on the verge of panic, as if they could smell the smoke of an approaching wildfire, but this was worse.

Sarein finally agreed to go. The darkness elicited a primal uneasiness even in her, and she decided she didn't want to be here alone after all. Arita took her packs and her hand lights; Sarein had a brighter portable lantern. The two climbed down from her tree and trudged off through the dark and restless forest. Arita wanted to find her landed flyer. It was time to return to the main continent, her parents ... even Reyn had just come back home.

"I don't usually wander the forest at night," Sarein muttered. Arita could tell that her aunt was frightened.

"I'm not sure when morning is going to come again," Arita said. "We have to go now."

They moved through the underbrush, dodging branches and finding their way through the light of phosphorescent fungi. Arita wasn't surprised when an alarmed-looking Collin dropped down from the trees and landed gently on his bare feet. "The worldtrees were watching you. I knew you were coming."

"We're going back to the capital city," Arita said. "We'll have more options there, more protection, and we can flee off-planet if necessary. You should come along with us."

Collin looked horrified. "We can't just leave the trees! This darkness will smother them-they'll die."

They looked up to see the other green priests sitting among the fronds above, touching the trees with their fingertips, their eyes closed.

Arita turned to Collin. "What are the Shana Rei? Can the verdani tell us anything? Why are they attacking here?"

He shook his head. "The trees are afraid of them. They know how terrible the Shana Rei are, but they can't remember. There's a gap in the worldforest's memory. As a green priest, I have searched ... but there's nothing, as if that part of the memory has died."

Sarein said, "How can there be a gap in the verdani mind?"

"Some part of them was erased long ago," Collin said. "That past is gone in their memory." Above them, Kennebar's green priests muttered to one another, making shorthand comments, not deigning to explain to Arita or Sarein.

Arita heard Kennebar say aloud, "General Keah lost two more vessels. The verdani battleships are gathering their strength for an assault."

A second green priest added, "They are moving toward the nightshade now. Their boughs are spread wide for combat."

Arita imagined the titanic trees extending long thorns like impenetrable spears. The verdani hurled themselves against the growing occultation plate, stretching out branches, trying to tear away the hexes.

Collin bent to a tree, tapped into telink. "The treeships are attacking the Shana Rei-they have no choice. They have to stop more plates from launching off. Others are hurling themselves against the growing barrier, stretching out branches, trying to tear away the hexes." He winced. "But ... there's something about the shadow. It's like acid. Their boughs are shriveling."

In unison, the green priests winced and gasped. "The fronds are blackening! The trees are fighting, tearing ... and withering." Several priests stopped using words altogether and just let out moans and cries of pain.

Shaking, Collin heaved several breaths, removed his fingertips from the worldtree. "The verdani battleships have dropped away from the nightshade. They tore away a section of the occultation plate, but it won't last. Already more hexes are flying into place to fill the gaps." He shook his head. "The Shana Rei have succeeded. This night will not end until all life is smothered on Theroc."

Arita was sure the forest air had grown colder. The breezes rustled branches with a sound like a death rattle. The false night went on.

The trees would weaken, the plants would die, and the sun would never again rise on the Theron worldforest.

CHAPTER.

129.

OSIRA'H In the smothering blindness of the continuing eclipse, the stars around the black blot in space gave no comfort. The cold dark had a stranglehold on the worldforest that tightened, day after day. For Osira'h, with her Ildiran blood, the gathering psychic shadow was even worse.

The fungus-reef capital was lit with supplemental bright panels. Overhead, racks of spotlights shone down over the settled area, which provided enough illumination to give Osira'h strength.

The green priests refused to leave the planet, but Peter and Estarra issued orders for offworld diplomats to evacuate. The Ildiran trade ministers and ambassadors slipped away on the first ship, and the green priests had spread word of the crisis throughout the Confederation, even to the Ildiran Empire.

Osira'h insisted on remaining with Reyn, even though he begged her to go. She was just as worried about him as he was about her. His sister was off on another continent, but they had word that Arita was as safe as any of them were.

But none of them were safe.

Three times in the past several days, black robot ships had launched from the shadow cloud on a sortie against the CDF defenses, but it was mere harassment. The robot ships swooped in and opened fire, paying little attention to their own safety. Two verdani battleships surprised a pair of robot vessels, opening powerful thorny branches to embrace them, crush them, and tear them into ragged debris, while the rest of the robot ships retreated.

The main attack on Theroc, however, was simply the darkness. By blocking off all sunlight and engulfing the world in endless night, the Shana Rei were crippling and starving the great worldtrees. An impressive tactical plan, too, Osira'h realized-it allowed the Shana Rei to obliterate the powerful verdani mind at very little cost to themselves. To her, that meant the worldtrees must pose a threat, and the Shana Rei were weak enough to fear them. But the nightshade would do the work of crippling the verdani for them.

Rlinda Kett had remained on Theroc, supposedly to watch over her Arbor restaurant. She made herself visible and available, bringing fresh meals down into the main fungus-reef. She and her matre d' Zachary Wisskoff delivered a cart laden with soup tureens and spicy fruit salads she had made from the supplies in her kitchens. The matre d' looked gaunt and skittish, but he refused to evacuate, perhaps so he could sneer at the situation.

Reyn had introduced Osira'h to the hearty Rlinda, who embraced the young man with an all-enfolding hug. "Glad to see you, Raindrop, but also sorry you're here." She lowered her voice. "Any progress? Did you find what you needed?"

"I've been to see more doctors, and I have tests, but no answers. Lots of people are working on it, though. Oh, and I did tell my parents. They know how sick I am."

"About time. They'll do everything they can to get this figured out."

"Osira'h has helped me a lot, too." He slipped an arm around Osira'h's waist, which seemed to thrill Rlinda more than anything.

"Now that's the kind of help you need." She opened the tureen of soup, sniffed as she stirred. "Mr. Wisskoff, did you bring the good bowls?"

"Not at all, ma'am. Just recyclable ones. Or did you expect me to wash them? Most of our staff departed on the first evacuation ships."

With an extravagant sigh, Rlinda found serviceable bowls and presented soup to Reyn and Osira'h. "The flavor should be enough to command your attention."

Wisskoff served food around the table in the main meeting room, where the King and Queen were studying reports. Peter thanked them. Wisskoff muttered, "Will those be on separate checks?"

Rlinda gave him a withering glance. "Do it for the gratitude."

"I'll be sure to inform our creditors that we will be paying all future invoices with 'gratitude,' ma'am."

Osira'h didn't entirely understand their teasing banter, but she sensed that they were hiding their worry by keeping busy and contributing their support in the best way they knew how. Reyn still kept his arm around Osira'h, who leaned closer against him; they seemed to generate strength for each other just by being in close proximity.

Inside the meeting chamber, several green priests looked frail as they huddled over their treelings, touched the verdani mind, and tried to prepare for the worst. The whole worldforest was weakening-and no effort on a human scale could save them.

"It happened before, and we survived," said one of the priests in the throne room. "All but the smallest portion of the worldforest was wiped out, and yet the trees survived to thrive again."

Queen Estarra wore her traditional garments, like the ones her mother Alexa had worn. "Much of Theroc was devastated, but the trees came back."

The green priest shook his head. "That was the recent war. I was referring to something much worse-a battle far, far in the past." He touched the treeling again, and his brow furrowed in puzzlement. "Theroc is not the original home of the worldforest. That was destroyed, and the ... Gardeners were made extinct." He looked up, surprised by what he had just discovered. A stir rippled through his fellow green priests as they realized the new hint of information that had just been revealed to them.

"Who were the Gardeners?" Peter asked. "Can you tell us more about that battle?"

"Long before humans became green priests, there were ... others. Gone now. Smothered by the Shana Rei."

Listening, Osira'h looked at Prince Reyn. "The Shana Rei nearly destroyed the Ildiran Empire as well. Fear of them is etched deep within us, a permanent scar on our psyches." Her eyes flashed as she drew herself up, and she felt her feathery strands of hair twitch with energy as her determination grew. "But we are in a different situation now. We have new skills. We have me." She gasped Reyn's hand. "Take me to the treetops. I need to see the sky, look out at the stars, and focus my thoughts." She flexed her hand, felt the still-tender burns on her fingers, focused on the pain. "Maybe I can summon the help we need to solve this problem."

Curious, Reyn took her above the fungus-reef city, and they emerged onto the dense polymerized canopy. A few evacuating ships still glinted in the sky, hot exhaust trails rising to orbit. Osira'h sat with him in the soft, spongy embrace of interlocked worldtree fronds. Deprived of nourishing sunlight for days, the leaflets drooped, the color washed out of them.

Reyn looked worried, with a faint sheen of sweat on his face. "All the Shana Rei have to do is wait. This darkness will be the death of the worldtrees."

"Not necessarily." Osira'h had never been able to feel the trees the way her green priest mother did, but she was aware of the verdani presence. Now, as she looked up at the mocking stars, she used her telepathic powers and her understanding of the great forces of the universe to call upon other entities.

Osira'h summoned the faeros, begged them. With her open mind, she showed them the threat, called upon her past connection with them. Though she couldn't see into the thoughts of the fiery elementals, she felt the awakening, the awareness, the response. The sparks grew brighter in her mind.

She turned to Reyn. "They are coming."

Osira'h asked him to stay with her, and they sat together for hours in the deepening cold of the continuous night. They watched the dark sky until she saw bright lights like distant fireflies drawing closer. She rose to her feet, and Reyn stood with her, his face filled with questions.

Before long, dozens of the fireballs appeared, blazing ellipsoids that rolled along spouting a corona of flames. They roared across the Theron sky, crackling and sending out waves of palpable heat. Like miniature suns, they shone their light over the darkened forest.

Green priests ran to the canopy, shouting in fear and confusion. Osira'h, though, was not afraid. "The faeros aren't here to attack," she assured Reyn. "I asked them to help us."

The fireballs drifted over the canopy as if to acknowledge Osira'h's presence, then together they swooped upward and hurtled out into space.

CHAPTER.

130.

ZOE ALAKIS.

Zoe waited inside her sterile dome on Pergamus-and waited, and waited-hoping for word from Tom Rom. She checked with her system perimeter sentries, the picket-line ships. Nothing. She began to grow very concerned.

She had good reason to worry about him, especially after his recent encounter with the Roamer pirates on Vaconda. Though he was more competent than any other person she knew, Tom Rom put himself in dangerous situations-to do as Zoe asked-and she dreaded the day when he would not come back.

Finally, though, a small, unrecognized courier ship arrived at Pergamus, burning the last of its fuel in a red-line deceleration. Her picket security ships went on alert, racing out to defend the medical research station, but she could see that this tiny courier vessel posed no conceivable threat. One or two blasts could vaporize the ship before it even entered orbit.

Then Tom Rom transmitted a security code, and his voice came through, rich and familiar. "Zoe, prepare an available ORS, full lockdown and quarantine setup. I've ... brought you the alien plague for your library."

She found herself grinning like a teenage girl. Just hearing his voice made everything all right, but she found it odd that he hadn't transmitted his image. She wanted to see him. Zoe responded quickly, using a priority override to break through the usual signals of the security ships and the receiving crews. She had a wealth of questions.

"I don't recognize that vessel-what happened to your own ship? Why didn't you send a message? You're five days late, and I was worried...." She let out a nervous laugh. "Go through the full decon routines and meet me here in the main dome. We'll have time for the whole story. It must have been quite an adventure."

Tom Rom maintained an audio-only transmission. "Zoe, use secure channel five." Then he switched off.

She frowned. That meant he had a private message for her that he didn't want even her most dedicated personnel to overhear. Something that could not wait. She tapped the controls on her desktop and opened a new window, piped in through several layers of security access.

When Tom Rom's face appeared on the screen, she gasped in dismay. His face looked ravaged and discolored, as if thugs had held him down and beaten him ... but Zoe could see the blotches were not mere bruises.

"I brought you the alien microorganism, Zoe, as promised. It's inside me. I'll take samples of my own blood, seal them in sterile packages, and arrange to transfer them to a designated Orbital Research Sphere. I don't want this to go into any surface dome, no matter how many precautions you take. This may be the deadliest disease we have ever studied. I have only a few days left."

Zoe shook her head, trying to deny what she saw. "I'll put you in one of the ORS labs. I'll use all of our facilities and researchers-everything Pergamus has. We'll find a way to treat you."

Tom Rom had never denied her before, but now he shook his head. "This is incurable, Zoe: one hundred percent mortality. You can't risk it. Every person aboard the alien space city died."

Zoe refused to listen. "Those other victims didn't have my resources, my experts, my database. I'll take care of you-I promise."

"You will get the disease sample for your library, but anything else is too dangerous. I can't let this disease get near you, Zoe. Once the specimens have been placed in a safe orbital station, I will need to be neutralized."

Growing angry, she leaned closer to the screen. "That's not going to happen, and you know it."

"I insist," he said.

"Insist all you like. I'm going to ignore it. You've always listened to me, done as I asked. You swore-and now I'm going to hold you to your word."

"Then I'll destroy this ship myself, just to be sure."

Zoe snorted. "No, you won't, because you haven't given me the sample yet."

She called up records on screens across her table surface. "Take your ship directly to ORS Twelve. It's empty-recently sterilized and decontaminated. Our best team just finished refitting it for research."

"Dr. Hannig's lab?"

"Yes. Hannig made a mistake, and I cleaned it up. We can take care of you there."

Tom Rom looked deeply disturbed, but she had found a loophole and she knew it. "You have to do this for me," she said. "Let us put the Pergamus facilities to good use. You know I'll take the proper precautions. I will assign a team of doctors, every one of them in a sterilization suit. The ORS is completely isolated."