Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [68]
'We reclaim our worlds,' the Klikiss representative said. 'We come to destroy our robots. We travel through transportals to inhabit worlds abandoned in our last Swarming.'
'We fight the black robots as well.' Zan'nh kept his voice firm but calm. 'You saw that here.'
The Klikiss was not impressed. 'Sharing an enemy does not mean shared goals. We will have our worlds back. All of them.'
'Maratha was never a Klikiss planet. Maratha was part of the Ildiran Empire. We have assisted you in eradicating the robot infestation here. We are grateful for your efforts in the fight, but this planet is not yours to reclaim.'
The Klikiss remained silent. Zan'nh stared at the screen without flinching.
Anton thought of something new that made him shudder. If the Klikiss were still alive and reclaiming their old planets, where had they come from? Rheindic Co was an abandoned Klikiss world. His father had been killed there and his mother had vanished, perhaps through the transportal. Had she blundered into the reawakening Klikiss race? He wished he knew what had happened to her. He wished he knew what was going to happen to him.
Finally the Klikiss on the screen spoke again. 'We have other planets. This world was not a Klikiss world.' The rest of the interlocking insect ships returned from the surface and joined the huge cluster vessel. Without sending another transmission, the alien swarmship departed.
Anton let out a long sigh of relief. He still could not read all Ildiran emotions, but everyone here seemed rattled.
'An unexpected turn of events,' Rememberer Vao'sh said.
Anton nodded. 'Or, as we say in an Earth story, the plot thickens.'
Thirty-nine
Kolker
In front of the Prism Palace, seven streams of water came together and poured in a cascade down a wide gullet, gushing into chambers beneath the Prism Palace, from which they were piped back out into canals.
Kolker found Osira'h and her siblings there near the edge of the flow. At the gurgling convergence, Muree'n, the youngest though not smallest of the children, fearlessly leaned over the wide, watery mouth, dropped stones in, and watched them disappear into the misty depths.
Osira'h chatted with her brothers and sisters. 'These streams make seven underground waterfalls. Underneath the Palace, you can walk around the pool, even follow, the streams as they flow out through the bottom of the hill.'
As a green priest, Kolker had been fascinated by the potential in these five halfbreed children. He knew they shared a bond that few others could comprehend, stronger than either Ildirans and their thism or green priests and their telink. Did that give them a key to what he wanted to know?
Several days earlier, he had gone to the rooftop greenhouse, surprised to find the five of them, led by Osira'h, playing around the single treeling. Since these children did not have access to telink, Kolker could think of no reason for them to hover around the small worldtree.
But as he surreptitiously observed them, it became clear that these children were not playing. They were attempting something, joining hands, concentrating, almost praying. So, Kolker had watched and was excited to see them make some kind of progress, a connection beyond telink.
Since the lens kithmen had given him no help, he wondered if these children could offer insight. They had to know he was watching.
Now in spite of the background roar of the water, Osira'h sensed Kolker's approach. 'You're a green priest. We're going to the treeling. Would you like to come?'
Kolker couldn't have asked for more. 'I would like to understand. I came to talk with you because no one else can answer my questions - not the green priests, nor the worldtrees, nor your lens kithmen.' He held up the crystalline medallion that Tery'l had given him. 'I've been using this to search for the Lightsource, but I haven't found