Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [41]
'Whatever that means.' He sounded very sad. They stood together and watched as Conrad Brindle boarded the EDF transport and fired up the engines. The ship rose above the high worldtrees of Theroc and disappeared into the sky.
Twenty-two
Kolker
In an open square in Mijistra, an exotic fountain shone under the light of multiple suns. The fountain generator created and then manipulated immense silvery bubbles filled with a roiling clear liquid, like the essence of a mirror. Surface tension made the bubbles undulate, their membranes rippling and reflecting the numerous suns in the sky, as if they were spotlights constantly in motion.
Seven self-absorbed lens kithmen had gathered around the bubble fountain, as though about to receive a strange communion. They squatted in solemn meditation, staring into the bubbles' uneven surfaces, as if expecting the flares of light to reveal the secrets of the universe. Not one of them moved.
From a distance, Kolker watched, trying to learn from the lens kithmen by observing them. The fountain bubbles swayed as the internal plasma rose, then descended, perhaps to imply the constantly changing nature of knowledge. Kolker longed to know what they knew, to see what they could see. Lightsource, soul-threads, . He summoned the nerve to walk closer, paused behind two lens kithmen before stepping among them.
They moved aside to allow him access, but did not offer any overt invitation. Their starflare pupils had shrunk to the tiniest of pinpricks as ethereal light played across their faces. Unable to contain himself any longer, Kolker interrupted them. 'Please tell me what is in there. What does the fountain reveal to you? I need to know. And I need to know how to touch and understand your .'
The lens kithmen seemed to think him either stupid or inferior. 'Humans have no . They are not connected by the soul-threads. It would be fruitless for us to explain what you cannot possibly experience.'
Kolker stared at the reflective fountain until the light seared patches of colour into his eyes. He was forced to turn away. 'So one should never bother to attempt a seemingly impossible thing?' He couldn't keep the bitter tone from his voice. 'When facing the hydrogues, didn't your own Mage-Imperator demand that you do the impossible? And did you not achieve that?'
The lens kithmen looked at him, even the ones on the opposite side of the fountain. They all seemed to be sharing uneasy thoughts. Finally the man on Kolker's left said, The Mage-Imperator gave us no orders to instruct you.'
Kolker turned away, colours still dancing in front of his eyes. He felt lost. The hole within him was deep, and he hadn't found anything solid enough to fill it yet. He couldn't even know if would be enough.
'Why would you want to do this?' one of the lens kithmen asked him. 'It is not for you.'
Kolker refused to believe that, refused to surrender. Leaving the fountain, he climbed the steps of a monolithic building, sat down, and bent to stare into his prismatic medallion. He turned it one way and then another, so that flares of rainbows played across his face. Trying indefinable techniques, he concentrated on the light, remembered the thought tricks he used unconsciously when connecting via telink, and tried to clutch at the invisible, intangible straws of .
He sat motionless for hours, simply staring at the medallion and searching.
Twenty-Three
Osira'h
The only treeling on Ildira stood open to the sky, as high as Osira'h's waist, rising from a misshapen lump of burned wood. The fronds were a delicate pale green, its thin trunk covered with golden bark plates. Though the girl wasn't a green priest herself, the treeling seemed to call to her.
She brought her four halfbreed siblings to stare intently at the tree and exercise their mental powers, as they had done among their mentalist teachers on Dobro. To try for more. The