A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [204]
The effect was immediate, and astonishing.
A pale phosphorescence bloomed outward from the point where the first drop touched the sea. The shock-wave glow rushed across the water like a hot fire across gasoline. Brightness grew as the wental expanded into a new body, stretching out. Jess felt a surging sense of wonder, and a certainty that he had done the right thing.
The line of cool, watery illumination rushed outward like an electric current, infusing the dead ocean with new life, a bursting essence that grew stronger in an uncontrolled cascade. A shout of elation echoed through Jess’s mind, a liberated explosion of delight and power.
We are reborn.The wental rushed through all the levels of the alien sea, like moisture permeating a desiccated sponge.
Jess felt the damp mists against his exposed skin, vibrant with life. He raised both hands to the cloudy, thunderous sky, shouting out his triumph, overjoyed that he had rescued these beings from extinction.
Now fill your container with water again,the wental said into his mind. Each drop contains our entire essence. It will not diminish us.
Jess refilled the cylinder from the cold primeval ocean that was now imbued with the elemental presence. The seas of this alien world were full of life, and from here he could carry more of the wentals to other planets. He felt like an old Earth folk hero who had been a roamer in his own right: Johnny Appleseed.
This is only the beginning. Go to your Roamers. Ask them to help disperse the wentals across other oceans, on other worlds.
“I will,” Jess said. He now had something to offer the clans. With the aid of the wentals, all humans had a better chance of winning this unwanted war. Even the Big Goose would be indebted to him.
And…so would Cesca.
Now that his initial quest was over, Jess climbed back aboard his ship, carrying the full container of revitalized water. Before storing the large cylinder, he filled a small vial with the water, which he kept in his pocket so that he could still communicate with the wental. They had so much to learn about each other.
When he departed from the nameless ocean world and flew into the brightening clouds, the resurrected wentals already seemed to be affecting the weather patterns, draining furious power from the storms and converting the oceans into a simmering reservoir of life energy. The primeval planet seemed lavish with power, like a supercharged battery.
Jess soared away, increasing his speed because everything had changed now—not just in the outlook for the hydrogue war, but in his own mind and heart. He had been foolish to give up on Cesca so easily. No matter what advantages Reynald and the Therons had to offer, Jess loved her and wanted her back. It had been unfair for him to snatch a choice out of her hands. Couldn’t they have tried to find a better solution?
And now, Jess could come to Cesca not as a lovestruck optimist, but as an equal who could stand beside the Speaker of all clans.
Although he had been gone for months on his nebula skimmer, out of contact, maybe he could get back to Rendezvous before she actually completed the wedding ceremony with Reynald. He had to change her mind. He would not hesitate this time, but would declare his love for her and let propriety and Roamer traditions be damned. Jess had lived with personal sorrow long enough. Together he and Cesca would be strong.
As the ship raced across open space, Jess felt as reborn as the liberated wental.
106
CESCA PERONI
The leaders of prominent Roamer families met with Cesca Peroni to discuss their impending partnership with the Therons. After the Roamer betrothal ships had visited the lush worldforest, Father Reynald had asked for a reciprocal meeting on Rendezvous.
But the clan leaders had grave reservations about inviting strangers into their isolated asteroid complex. Long tradition and suspicions did not