Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [111]
'I'd like to go up to orbit to see my brother and the treeships.'
'Keep her safe, OX,' Peter said. 'I'm counting on you.' She had asked Yarrod to join them as well, and the green priest arrived carrying a small treeling. Through telink, her uncle would help her communicate with Beneto. Peter kissed the Queen goodbye, and the three of them climbed into the small diamond-hulled ship.
After Yarrod found a place to sit and Estarra sealed the hatch, OX turned his attention to the alien controls. With a silent boost from invisible, noiseless engines, the derelict rose up from the meadow, leaving an indentation of smashed flowers and grasses. It climbed like a smooth elevator past the tall trunks of the gathered worldtrees, and burst out into the open, bright sky.
Only a few days earlier, Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni had also flown away, saying goodbyes to their Roamer friends and to the King and Queen. By showing the solidarity of the wentals with the worldforest, and hinting at the incomprehensible power the water elementals could bring to bear, they had given the EDF a lot to think about. But now that she had formally resigned as the Speaker for the clans, Cesca had other work to pursue for the wentals, work that Estarra didn't entirely understand. Or maybe Cesca and Jess Tamblyn should just take time for a honeymoon.
Through the clear diamond walls, she watched the wrinkled landscape of interconnected branches and leaves recede. Then, passing the last rarefied wisps of high clouds, they reached space. OX guided them toward the spiny treeships that circled high above Theroc.
The reinforced trunks were larger than any battleship. Huge armoured boughs stretched in all directions to drink energy from the solar wind. Thorns, each as long as the mast of an ancient sailing ship, speared the vacuum. Fibrous roots dangled out in space like trailing communications antennae. One huge treeship drifted past, gradually turning its bulk to face the bright sun.
'How do I know which one is Beneto?' Estarra said, peering through the dizzying transparent walls.
Yarrod cradled his treeling without seeming to notice anything else around him. 'You know which one.'
Looking at the immense, thorny objects, Estarra did know. Though the silent verdani battleships looked the same, she could sense her brother's amplified presence in a great tree coming over the horizon. 'Take us there, OX - to that one.'
Beneto's treeship gently turned, as if he could see them approach through the eyes of a thousand leaves. Its branches seemed to rustle, and several opened to form a welcoming nest. The diamond-hulled vessel dropped into the welcoming thorny embrace, and the armoured vestigial fronds enclosed them like docking clamps.
Yarrod touched the small treeling in his lap, sending a message. When he looked back at Estarra, his expression had changed somehow, as if Beneto were a part of him, speaking through his mouth. 'I am always with you.'
'Thank you for helping to protect us, Beneto,' she said in a whisper.
Yarrod closed his eyes, furrowed his green brow. The tree-ships, and all of the worldforest, are concerned. There are still threats.'
'What concerns are left? They didn't have any trouble driving away the EDF a few days ago. And the hydrogues are defeated, aren't they?'
Now Yarrod looked through the walls of the derelict, as if searching for new attackers coming from deep space. His voice sounded like Beneto's. 'The Klikiss returning… the faeros growing strong again.' ~
'But the faeros fought for Theroc.' That battle had killed Reynald …
The faeros fought for themselves against the hydrogues. Theroc was just a convenient battlefield.' Yarrod seemed very grave.
Estarra shuddered, no longer feeling safe even with the treeships