Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [2]
When he'd gone to rescue Cesca, Jess Tamblyn did not realize that he had unwittingly dispersed a corrupted spark of wental energy into his mother's partially thawed body. Karla came alive, but was no longer human. Offhandedly killing one of Jess's uncles, she began to move toward the others, while Rlinda and BeBob watched in horror.
On Theroc, the recovering worldforest created a wooden golem of the green priest Beneto to act as a spokesman and to prepare the worldtrees for another hydrogue attack. Beneto's sister Sarein, the Hansa ambassador, arrived on behalf of Chairman Wenceslas, secretly hoping to become the new ruler of Theroc. When she did not succeed in that plan, she convinced green priests to spread among the orphaned Hansa colonies and establish a communications network.
When the hydrogues did arrive at Theroc, hoping to destroy the worldforest, unexpected allies came to stand against the enemy: Kotto Okiah destroyed many warglobes with his new "doorbell" weapon. And a living comet infused with wentals crashed into the hydrogues, finally defeating them. Though they were driven off, the hydrogues now knew that the supposedly extinct wentals had returned to the fight. In the aftermath, the golem of Beneto received an awesome armada of spacefaring "verdani battleships"--huge thorny trees intent on defending the worldforest.
Meanwhile, the insidious Klikiss robots worked their quiet plans for conquest. When Admiral Stromo went to Orli Covitz's devastated colony world, following up on the survivors' reports, he uncovered evidence that robots were indeed responsible for the massacre.
Tasia Tamblyn, responding to an ongoing hydrogue attack on a Hansa skymine at Qronha 3, led the sixty compy-crewed rammer ships. The boss of the skymine, Sullivan Gold, evacuated his people and also rescued a great many Ildirans from a nearby facility. Before Tasia's rammers could arrive, Sullivan was already flying away with the Ildirans, and they were intercepted by Solar Navy ships. When Tasia's rammers finally reached the gas giant, the Soldier compies turned on her and captured Tasia and her personal compy EA. Joining with Klikiss robots, they seized the rammer fleet for themselves and intended to use the ships against humanity.
Klikiss robots had also attacked the few people remaining on the Ildiran resort world of Maratha. The scholar Anton Colicos, his friend Rememberer Vao'sh, and a small group found themselves stranded on the nightside of the planet, facing a long overland journey. Not knowing the robots were the culprits, the ragtag band of Ildirans blamed mythical creatures called the Shana Rei, which were the subject of many tales in the Saga of Seven Suns. When Anton and his companions reached the supposed refuge of Secda, they found it overrun with armies of Klikiss robots. Anton and Vao'sh barely escaped in a small ship and flew away, alone. But for Ildirans, solitude leads to madness. During their long flight to Ildira, Anton tried to keep Vao'sh occupied, but the old rememberer degenerated into a near-mindless state by the time they arrived. Safe in the PrismPalace at last, Anton tried to nurse his friend back to health.
The Ildiran Empire, meanwhile, was rocked by a civil war led by Hyrillka Designate Rusa'h and the Mage-Imperator's own son Thor'h. After suffering a head injury, Rusa'h was cut off from the telepathic thism that bound their race together. Filled with delusions of grandeur, he created an independent thism web and spread a bloody rebellion, forcing other Designates to surrender and accept his brainwashing. Adar Zan'nh brought a group of Solar Navy warliners to quell