Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [210]
122
JESS TAMBLYN
Before he could reach his sister inside the alien citysphere, Jess faced an army of Ross replicas. The hydrogues could not have chosen a more potent image to use against him. He could think of no greater symbol of his failure and his heart's betrayal than the face of his dead brother.
How had they guessed? How could the drogues possibly know about Ross?
Long ago, Jess had taken advantage of his brother's trust, had fallen in love with the woman who should have married Ross. But now Cesca was wental-infused, like him. And Ross was this.
His hovering wental vessel had come to an impasse with the crowd of quicksilver copies that blocked his way from all sides. Ross stared at him.
How could they know?
From within the encapsulated ship, the wentals spoke to him. It means nothing. They do not know you.
Ross had been one of the very first victims of the deep-core aliens. The hydrogues must have copied his appearance. That was all. The hydrogues had used that image when their emissary had killed Old King Frederick.
Despite the doubts in his heart, his mind insisted on the logic. He'd been tricked by his emotions too many times--recently by the tainted wental that had reanimated his mother, and now this. How could the hydrogues possibly understand Ross's significance to the man now leading a wental invasion into their midst? It couldn't be so.
With iron-hard resolve, Jess shouted at Ross's infinitely repeated face. "You are not my brother, any more than she was really my mother." He clung to his love for Cesca and his hatred for the hydrogues. Tasia was down here somewhere, and he wouldn't let this inhuman horde stop him.
Knowing what he had to do, Jess made his choice. With a single thought, he burst the bubble of his ship. Liberated wental water sprayed out like deadly hail in all directions. Droplets splattered across the quicksilver drogues with the force of burning acid, and the human shapes began to writhe and dissolve. The elemental mist engulfed the standing army and destroyed the hateful charade of Ross look-alikes.
Jess was alone now and unhindered, clear of the protective shell of his wental ship. Although he stood in the impossible environment wearing only his white gossamer suit, the water elementals flowing through his bloodstream preserved his tissues.
When he found his sister, he would have to re-form the protective bubble, create a new water ship. That problem didn't seem any more insurmountable than the other hazards he had already knocked aside. First, though, he had to figure out where Tasia was being held.
Jess hurried through the confusing labyrinth of the citysphere. Far away, unaffected by the destruction caused by the wental droplets, other liquid-crystal hydrogues slithered through hollow structures, climbed monoliths, and entered geometrical grottoes. A new barrage of warglobes cruised high overhead, launching to the upper atmosphere.
Jess hurried. When faced with this crisis, how long would it be until the deep-core aliens disposed of their human prisoners? His sister and her fellow captives were somewhere in this geometrical nightmare. Were they being held as hostages, strange zoo specimens, torture subjects?
Then, with a lurch, the entire citysphere began to move. He felt the great mass slowly accelerate. Far outside the metropolis, a ragged line appeared in the swirling soup of sky, a vertical tear not only in the atmosphere, but in the fabric of space itself. The dimensional line opened, yawned wide like a gaping mouth to swallow the bizarre citysphere.
A hydrogue transgate.
Fear shot through Jess as he realized what they were doing. To shake off the overwhelming attack of the wentals, the deep-core aliens intended to abandon Qronha 3 and vanish to another one of their gas giants. He couldn't let the hydrogues get away! They would take Tasia with them.
Then Jess felt an external exhilaration swell around him. A tingle rushed toward him like a fusillade of gunshots.