The Ashes of Worlds Read online

  General Lanyan’s consolidation of the scattered colonies, meanwhile, went no better. He traveled to Rheindic Co, the hub of the transportal network, and marched his soldiers through to the first colony planet on his list, Pym. Arriving there, though, they found that the whole colony had been overrun by a huge subhive of Klikiss. As soon as his soldiers encountered the giant insects, they opened fire. The battle was much worse than anything General Lanyan had prepared for, and he lost a great many soldiers before he finally called his men to withdraw to Rheindic Co. The Klikiss followed them though the transportal, and the battle continued there. Lanyan barely escaped and was forced to destroy the Hansa’s main transportal nexus to prevent more of the bugs from passing through. He raced back to Earth to inform Chairman Wenceslas of this shocking new threat.

  With the failure of both Admiral Willis and General Lanyan, the Chairman was more frustrated than ever. The Hansa had no King (though Basil had a mysterious new candidate undergoing training), and so he put forward the religious leader, the Archfather of Unison, to build a fervor among the populace, declaring the monstrous Klikiss to be demons and cursing King Peter. Though Deputy Cain was highly skeptical, the gullible people accepted the fanaticism.

  Next, the Chairman dispatched Lanyan and the Archfather to make an example of the weak but rebellious colony of Usk. The leaders of Usk had torn up the Hansa Charter and sworn allegiance to the Confederation, but they had no defenses and no real political aspirations. When Lanyan and the Archfather arrived, they unleashed a bloody pogrom, wiping out homesteads, slaughtering livestock, burning towns, and finally crucifying the leaders who had defied the Chairman.

  Since the Usk pogrom had been such a success (as far as the Chairman was concerned), he dispatched Admiral Willis and her executive officer Conrad Brindle (Robb’s father) to crack down on another upstart colony, the luxurious reef world of Rhejak. Willis set up her base despite the vehement objections of the locals and settled in, trying to govern the people. She used a light touch, granting them the freedom to go about their daily lives. When some of the locals committed brash sabotage, however, she was forced to crack down. After meeting with the local leaders, she reached a compromise that everyone could live with, and she thought she was giving the Hansa what it needed.

  The Chairman, however, was not pleased. He dispatched General Lanyan to complete the job properly — to unleash another pogrom on Rhejak, murder the leaders, and punish the populace. By the time Lanyan’s battle group arrived, Willis had become quite fond of Rhejak and its people, and she did not want to see them massacred. Finally, after so many grievances against the Chairman’s handling of the numerous crises, she could no longer follow a fundamentally criminal government. She tricked General Lanyan, stunned him, and took over his ships before he could launch his attack on Rhejak. It was an outright mutiny, but most of her officers and crew had similar misgivings and they followed her. Conrad Brindle, though, refused to break his oath to the Hansa. He and a handful of others accompanied General Lanyan back to Earth in disgrace.

  On the Klikiss-infested colony world of Llaro, Orli Covitz and Hud Steinman struggled to survive as the bugs built their hive city all around the stockaded town. Accepted among the Klikiss, Margaret Colicos and DD could come and go as they liked, and Margaret explained how she had survived among the Klikiss for so many years, showing a small music box that her son Anton had given her. Orli herself was quite proficient in playing her own synthesizer strips, and the Klikiss hive mind, the breedex, summoned her into its great chamber to play. Frightened for Orli, Margaret helped the girl survive the encounter. Orli played her music, and the hideous hive mind let her go.

  Margaret finally informed the captive colonists what the Klikiss had in store for them. The Llaro breedex was continuing its many wars with other subhives and also finding and destroying any enclaves of black robots it could find. In order to increase its numbers and expand its army, the breedex needed to fission — and for that it needed new genetic material. The Klikiss would slaughter all the colonists and use them as catalysts to create a much larger insect force.

  Hearing this, the appalled colonists began to develop defenses and desperate plans. Davlin Lotze slipped away from the stockade and established a secret hideout where others could be safe. Once his sheltered cave complex was ready, small groups of Llaro colonists began to slip away, but only a fraction had gotten to safety before the Klikiss made their move. A large force of insect warriors marched to the stockade to kill all the humans, but the captives did not go down without a fight. They used makeshift defenses, explosives, and firearms to kill many of the Klikiss.

  In the midst of this, Sirix led his black robots to attack the Llaro subhive. After so much damage had been done to his robots, he wanted to destroy every breedex he could find. The ferocious attack by the black robots, as well as the desperate fighting from the colonists, caused a great deal of damage to the Klikiss. In the turmoil, Orli, DD, Hud Steinman, and many others managed to get away. When they finally reached Davlin’s distant hideout, the refugees didn’t know where they could go or how they could find safety.

  Margaret Colicos, though, had insisted on remaining behind. Back at the blasted stockade, she watched in dismay as the victorious Klikiss devoured the human survivors in order to acquire their memories and genetic material, after which the wounded breedex underwent a massive fissioning to expand its hive and recover from its losses.

  Stinging from his defeat on Llaro, Sirix pulled his remaining robots to safety and tried to come up with a new plan. During his attack on the Llaro breedex, he had lost many of his irreplaceable comrades. While the Klikiss could recover from their casualties, black robots were unique storehouses of ancient experiences. PD and QT suggested an unusual solution — that Sirix should seize an appropriate manufacturing facility and build new black robots. These replacements would not have the memories of the lost robots, but they could become a key part of Sirix’s army. The black robots searched for a suitable facility they could take over.

  Many of the Llaro colonists were Roamer prisoners, and they had not been forgotten. Tasia Tamblyn, Robb Brindle, and Nikko Chan Tylar (whose parents were both detainees on Llaro) flew a rescue ship to Llaro, expecting to see a handful of bored EDF guards and a lot of surly colonists and detainees. When they arrived, though, they ran into the Klikiss. Caught unprepared, Tasia’s ship was shot down; it crashed in a remote ravine, where it lay damaged, needing significant repairs before it could fly again. They were found by Davlin Lotze and taken back to the hideout, where they all made plans to repair the ship and fly away to safety, far from Llaro.

  Just as they completed fixing the ship, however, the Klikiss captured Tasia, Robb, Orli, Nikko, and Davlin. They were brought back to the hive city and held as raw material for the next upcoming fissioning. Margaret Colicos and DD agreed to help free them. When another powerful subhive attacked the Llaro breedex, the chaos of Klikiss fighting Klikiss gave the prisoners the opportunity they needed. They had only to get back to Tasia’s repaired ship, load it up with the rest of the refugees, and go. Davlin remained behind, using Orli’s synthesizer strips to play a music that paralyzed the hive mind. After making it possible for the others to escape, though, he found himself trapped.

  Orli and her friends reached their ship, with the Klikiss in hot pursuit. When Margaret tried to go with them, anxious to be away from the insect creatures, the Klikiss warriors singled her out and refused to let her get away. They also crushed her music box, removing the only weapon she had. Having retrieved the rest of the survivors, Tasia flew off, sad at being forced to leave Davlin and Margaret behind.

  Davlin almost got away from the Klikiss. He reached one of the transportals and tried to pass through, but he was caught. Gravely injured, he was brought before the breedex, which was on the brink of another fissioning. The singular larva of the new breedex came forward to Davlin, interested in the independent and troublesome human. Before it could subsume him, though, Davlin threw hims
elf on the breedex larva, trying to impose himself upon it. The hive mind swallowed him up.

  After Adar Zan’nh eradicated the black robots on Maratha and delivered his startling news about the Klikiss, Nira urged the Mage-Imperator to send Solar Navy assistance to other besieged human colonists on former Klikiss worlds. Zan’nh was reluctant to do this, since he believed the humans had caused their own problems by settling planets that did not belong to them. However, when he witnessed how many innocent humans had been massacred on several devastated colonies, he was deeply moved. Arriving at another besieged world, he used an ancient translating routine to convince the breedex to release the captive colonists.

  After their return from Maratha, Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh were given an unexpected task — to remove the lies and correct the errors in the supposedly infallible Saga of Seven Suns. This caused great distress among other rememberer kithmen, particularly the conservative Chief Scribe Ko’sh, but no one could refuse the orders of the Mage-Imperator.

  From Ildira, the green priest Kolker continued to spread his telink/thism philosophy like a new religion, even converting many green priests on Theroc. Sullivan Gold, refusing to be converted despite pressure from Kolker and Tabitha Huck, left Ildira and returned to his family on Earth. Meanwhile, Kolker also converted the Roamer trader Denn Peroni, Cesca’s father, and he became an outspoken advocate of the marvelous new philosophy.

  After leaving General Lanyan and the EDF, and “borrowing” his grandmother’s space yacht, Patrick Fitzpatrick III searched among the Roamers for his lost love, Zhett Kellum. He finally found her on the gas giant Golgen, where the Roamers had reestablished skymining operations. His reunion with Zhett did not go as expected, however; she refused to speak to him. Trying to come clean, Patrick confessed what he had done earlier, destroying a Roamer trading ship to eliminate a witness; though General Lanyan was ultimately responsible for the murder, Patrick had given the order to fire. After a trial, Patrick was sentenced to “walk the plank” over the open cloudy skies. He bravely accepted his fate, but at the last minute Zhett spoke on his behalf and convinced her father to pardon him. Patrick then became a strong supporter of the Confederation and transmitted a damning message that squarely laid the blame for the Hansa’s problems on General Lanyan and Chairman Wenceslas. Upon hearing this message, Basil rebuked Patrick’s grandmother, former Chairman Maureen Fitzpatrick, for the actions of her grandson.

  King Peter and Queen Estarra continued strengthening the Confederation. Seeing the King and Queen as potential allies against the Klikiss and the faeros, Mage-Imperator Jora’h announced that he would travel to Theroc and publicly proclaim an alliance between the Ildiran Empire and the Confederation. Nira accompanied him, as well as Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh. Standing together under the worldtrees, the Mage-Imperator and the King swore a firm alliance. This was truly the death knell for the few remnants of the Hansa still loyal to Chairman Wenceslas.

  Upon learning of Jora’h’s announcement, the Chairman took drastic measures. He ordered Admiral Esteban Diente to take a powerful EDF battle group to intercept the Mage-Imperator after he departed from Theroc. Admiral Diente was appalled at the orders, but he could not refuse, because the Chairman had taken his family hostage.

  After Mage-Imperator Jora’h made his promises to King Peter, he felt that he had strengthened the Ildiran Empire. However, Rusa’h and the faeros had just begun their worst ravages. They tracked down Denn Peroni and Caleb Tamblyn, who were flying a water tanker filled with wentals, and destroyed the ship near the icy planetoid Jonah 12. Denn was killed, but Caleb escaped in a lifepod and was marooned. The faeros also went to the primary wental planet of Charybdis and overwhelmed the living seas with their flames. Jess and Cesca could feel the agony of the dying wentals, but by the time they arrived the oceans had been scorched, the planet burned. The faeros had declared war on the wentals.

  An armada of fireballs emerged from the dead Ildiran sun of Durris-B, reigniting the star and flooding out like a meteor shower. When Tabitha Huck took a newly built warliner on a shakedown cruise, the faeros were able to sense her presence because of her conversion to the telink/thism religion. They destroyed her and the new warliner, then flew toward Ildira, where they also targeted Kolker and all his converts there. Mijistra began to go up in flames.

  Prime Designate Daro’h, left in charge of the Prism Palace, was forced to flee as the faeros incarnate Rusa’h came for him, demanding to know where the Mage-Imperator was. Osira’h and her siblings used their unique powers to protect the Prime Designate and Yazra’h; they all escaped through water channels beneath the Prism Palace.

  Returning from his rescue of the human colonists on Klikiss worlds, Adar Zan’nh found the burned warliners of Tal O’nh’s septa. As soon as O’nh and Designate Ridek’h warned him about the impending holocaust on Ildira, Zan’nh raced off with his ships. When they arrived, the Solar Navy warliners attempted to battle the fireballs, but they had no effective way to combat the living fire. The Adar did, however, rescue Daro’h, Yazra’h, Osira’h, and the other half-breed children. But they needed the leadership of the Mage-Imperator.

  On his flagship warliner, Jora’h could sense the horrific events unfolding on Ildira. Through her treeling, Nira received news that the faeros were burning Mijistra, but her contact abruptly ended when the lone treeling in the Prism Palace turned to ash. Desperate to get back, Jora’h ordered his warliners to increase speed — only to run into Admiral Diente’s EDF battleships. Diente fired upon the warliner, damaged its engines, and captured the Mage-Imperator. Despite Jora’h’s urgent pleas about the disaster on Ildira, Diente escorted him and all the Ildiran captives to the EDF base on Earth’s Moon. Chairman Wenceslas came to see the prisoners, pleased at his easy victory, and told the Mage-Imperator that he must remain a “guest” of the Hansa until he abandoned his alliance with the Confederation and denounced King Peter.

  The faeros had conquered Ildira, and Rusa’h installed himself in the Prism Palace. Now that he had discovered the telink/thism pathways through his other victims, the faeros incarnate was able to follow them back to the worldforest. Suddenly, green priest converts on Theroc burst into flame. From there, the hungry elemental fire spread to the towering worldtrees. The forest on Theroc began to burn.

  1

  Admiral Sheila Willis

  Ten Mantas and one giant Juggernaut cruised across empty space, leaving Earth behind — possibly forever, as far as Admiral Willis was concerned. Though her ships still bore the markings of the Earth Defense Forces, their crews no longer served the Hansa. No, not after everything they had seen.

  Chairman Wenceslas would have called them mutineers. How could anyone not feel bitter about that?

  There’d been a time when Willis was young and naïve (or perhaps just insufficiently jaded), when she had thought all decisions were clear-cut, all answers black-and-white. She had believed that the good guys were fundamentally different from the bad guys. Well, she’d left that attitude behind on Rhejak when General Lanyan’s brutality had forced her to make a previously unthinkable decision.

  By seizing a whole battle group and turning her back on her beloved EDF, she had set wheels in motion — wheels that might well run her over. After dumping Lanyan, Conrad Brindle, and a handful of hard-line loyalists on the outskirts of Earth’s solar system, she was taking her ships to Theroc, to join King Peter and his Confederation.

  No matter how many times she tried to rationalize her decision, though, it still felt like desertion. Her brain was simply wired that way. She scanned the people on her bridge for signs of uneasiness. Willis was surprised at just how many of them had volunteered to burn their bridges and join her. Abandoning their homes, friends, families, and possessions was not a decision to make lightly. Obviously, she wasn’t the only one who had smelled something rotten in the Hansa.

  The last time she had brought these particular Mantas to Theroc, Willis had been under orders to arrest Peter as an out
law ruler. . . .

  “Approaching destination, Admiral,” said her helmsman.

  “Make sure you announce our arrival politely. We don’t want them to pee their pants when all these warships show up.” She took a few moments to adjust her posture, her uniform, her expression. Ready to go meet the new boss.

  As soon as the eleven ships entered planetary orbit, however, Willis saw that something was wrong. A flurry of mismatched Roamer ships had been launched into erratic orbits. Cargo craft, fast scouts, lumbering barges all lifted off from the forested continent and raced away from the planet in all directions. Two of the larger Roamer ships nearly collided with each other.

  Her young comm officer’s skin turned prominently pink. “Admiral, it’s total pandemonium down there! Frantic distress calls, screams — Theroc is being attacked, but I can’t see how.”

  The threatening verdani treeships that circled the lush forested world like a crown of thorns were in trouble. Thrashing their enormous thorny branches, they did not even react to the oncoming EDF war vessels. They were battling some pervasive, unseen enemy.