Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [87]
Unless he could reunite with the few other robot enclaves already on Klikiss worlds - a fraction of what he had expected to rally on Maratha - then these ships were all he had. His deadly was reduced to no more than a cloud of gnats!
He was angry and disconcerted, and he needed a target. A new set of tactics suggested itself to him. The returning Klikiss were the primary threat. The most despised enemy. And he could destroy them.
He knew their old worlds, knew where they would go. Sirix decided to take these ships from planet to planet and destroy each transportal. That would effectively cut them off, strand the Klikiss on the far side of the galaxy, or wherever they had been hiding for all these millennia. Then he would exterminate whatever remnants he found.
These EDF ships could easily accomplish that goal. One world at a time.
Fifty-one
Anton Colicos
Now that they were back from Maratha, Anton had another story to tell. Even Rememberer Vao'sh was barely able to contain his eagerness to write down his experiences with the Solar Navy, the black robots, and the returned Klikiss. He would document everything and submit it to the Hall of Rememberers. Vao'sh had never expected to be so much of an actual participant in the events of the Saga.
'Sometimes when I read over the things I've done since coming here, I can hardly believe my own experiences,' Anton said. 'I have to remind myself that it was actually me and not some square-jawed hero!' He chuckled over the pages of notes in his personal datapad.
In the rememberer's bright office in the Prism Palace, Anton was at last getting back to the work that had initially brought him to Ildira, translating parts of the seminal alien epic so that he could bring it home to Earth. He tried to imagine what would happen when he returned to his old university position - would he still have a job there after so long? He supposed it didn't matter. With his experiences and his unique knowledge, Anton could find a high-paying tenured position at the university of his choice. He could go on the lecture circuit. Instead of publishing papers in obscure journals, he could draw on the most exciting portions of the Saga to write bestsellers, even write his autobiography. He would receive considerable attention. If only his parents could have seen it.
Out in the hallway, servant kithmen scurried around, sweeping and polishing. Anton glanced up at the commotion and saw Yazra'h stride through the door with her three Isix cats stalking after her. 'My father has come to see you.'
Looking both impressed and embarrassed, Vao'sh stood. 'The Mage-Imperator had only to summon us. We would have come to the sky sphere.'
Jora'h entered and approached the rememberers. 'I wished to see the two of you in person and watch you at work.' His long hair was neatly braided behind his head, his colourful robes were adorned with reflective strips and spangled with gem chips. 'And I would prefer that no one overhear the request I am about to make.' He smiled wryly. 'It will be interesting to see how well Ildirans deal with major change.'
The Mage-Imperator surveyed their tables strewn with diamondfilm records covered with dense text that comprised only a small percentage of the Saga. Jora'h picked up a sheet, but didn't seem interested in the words etched there. 'A long time ago, I visited two green priests in this very chamber, Nira and old Ambassador Otema. They came here to read the Saga aloud for the worldforest.' Jora'h paused, lost in a reverie, then straightened. 'Ten thousand years ago in our history, Ildira faced a crossroads similar to our current one. At that time, the Mage-Imperator began a… horrendous cover-up.'
'Ah, the Lost Times,' Vao'sh said, his voice heavy. All rememberers were killed in order to conceal the actual events of the first hydrogue war.'
The Mage-Imperator lowered his eyes. 'At that time our Saga of Seven Suns was rewritten and censored so that no one would know the truth. But I am Mage-Imperator now, and