Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [150]
DD had been quite unsettled, as much from the discovery that he was incapable of keeping her happy as from her story itself. That had been his first inkling that his friend, his little girl, his owner, was growing up and that the gap separating them was becoming wider and wider.
He realized they were fundamentally different. As a compy, DD remained the same over the decades, while humans grew and changed. Regardless of these differences, he felt he was much closer to his human owners—Dahlia, Marianna, and then Margaret and Louis Colicos—than he would ever be to his supposed comrades and liberators, the Klikiss robots…
Sirix guided his angular vessel into the Juggernaut’s docking bay, and DD was brought aboard the stolen recon ship. Armored Soldier compies marched up and down the decks, not even acknowledging the Friendly compy. Numerous black Klikiss robots stood at command stations aboard the Juggernaut, filling the role of military commanders, issuing instructions for the warrior robots built by unwitting humans in Hansa fabrication plants.
In the year since the disappearance of this fleet, Soldier compies and Klikiss robots had been busy reinforcing the ships’ armor and installing superior weapons systems. Each of the five Mantas and the Juggernaut now bristled with several times the customary firepower.
Afraid to ask but unable to quell his need to know, DD said to Sirix, “And what do you intend to do with this fleet?”
“Eventually, we may need to turn against the oath-breaker Ildirans, who have discarded our old agreements, excavating forbidden tunnels on a planet that was declared off-limits. We also have questions about what they are doing on Dobro. For now, however, our main targets are the humans. They cannot be permitted to infest the abandoned Klikiss worlds. It will be an easy matter for us to retake our original homes.”
“But why?” DD was confused more than ever. “The Klikiss worlds have been empty for ten thousand years. Nothing ever stopped you from reclaiming those places before.”
“Until recent centuries, many of us were dormant. The majority of Klikiss robots could not join in the battle. We have decided that we value the Klikiss worlds after all.”
“Why? You never expressed any previous desire for them.”
“They are important now because the humans want them now.”
“You sound like an ill-behaved human child,” DD said.
Sirix did not take offense. “We are attempting to help you, DD, and all other human-enslaved compies.”
“We are not enslaved.”
“That is a faulty interpretation of obvious and available data. Now that the Klikiss robots have powerful military weapons, we have the means to strike against our chosen targets. We have already selected the first human colony on which to demonstrate our abilities and our intent.”
Sirix turned and left DD alone, marching up to the Juggernaut’s command bridge. “We will attack and obliterate Corribus.”
Chapter 76 — DESIGNATE-IN-WAITING PERY’H
In the courtyard of the rebuilt citadel palace, the Hyrillka Designate stood surrounded by colorfully robed sycophants—performers, pleasure mates, rememberers, lens kithmen, and dancers. Bright daylight washed over him, dazzling blue-white from the primary sun, augmented by yellowish-orange from the secondary, both of which hung overhead amongst the spangle of the Horizon Cluster.
Pery’h stood formally at attention beside his uncle, though the Designate seemed distracted and uninterested in the pageantry, as if obsessed with something no one else could understand. Thor’h, bright-eyed and frenetic from too much shiing, spent a great deal of time with his recuperating uncle, more time even than the Designate-in-waiting. But the new Prime Designate would return to his own duties on Ildira soon, and Pery’h would begin his years of apprenticeship, fulfilling his mission and—he hoped—making his father proud of him.
Rusa’h had called the two sons of the Mage-Imperator along with his traditional audience into the open courtyard and announced a new kind of celebration. Still looking dazed and distant, the Hyrillka Designate