Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [223]
Estarra held on to Peter, both drawing and giving reassurance. "I never thought we'd get this far."
As Earth receded, bright and blue and unprotected, Estarra knew that Peter's heart was torn for abandoning his people, for leaving during this crisis. It made him seem a coward, running away in humanity's time of greatest need. But Basil would kill them, especially now, if they didn't go. The King would accomplish nothing if he stayed. Estarra knew, though, that even if they lost the battle here, human civilization was not destroyed.
"Peter, the human race is more than just Earth. We've spread far beyond our original boundaries. Chairman Wenceslas forgot that. He cut ties with Theroc, with the Roamers, with all the other Hansa colonies." She looked at him with her large brown eyes. "From Theroc the two of us can rule as true King and Queen, to help all humans recover from this. No matter what happens on Earth, win or lose, the Chairman would never have allowed you to be the leader humanity needs. This is our only chance."
He nodded, knowing she was right. "OX, get us away as fast as you can."
The Teacher compy flew in silence. OX's memories might be gone, but he had uploaded enough information to become an expert in this alien craft. In a clipped and emotionless voice, he reported, "I detect multiple obstacles distributed across all valid paths ahead. I will attempt to avoid them."
Estarra could see through the transparent walls to the raging battle. The "multiple obstacles" were remnants of hundreds, even thousands, of ruined vessels--Ildiran warliners, hydrogue warglobes, EDF battleships. Their tiny derelict was a mere grain of sand among all the spaceships crashing into each other and firing weapons.
The attacks had spread out to encompass a huge volume of space in the neighborhood of Earth. The battle was everywhere, and Estarra saw no way around it. OX chose the best course and accelerated straight into the frenzy of engagement. Another group of Ildiran warliners had just arrived, hundreds more ornate battleships.
"Is there anything we can do if ships start firing at us?" she asked. "We are in a hydrogue globe, after all."
"The engineering crew left basic communication devices and controls aboard the derelict. I can attempt to send a message over standard military frequencies. That will inform them we are not enemies." OX worked the controls, sent out a signal.
"If they believe us," Estarra said. "And if they notice us at all."
"I hate to tell everyone we're aboard. I'd just as soon keep Basil in the dark for as long as possible." Peter leaned over, folding his hands together. "But there's nothing to be done about it now."
"I have removed your identification from the transmission," the compy said. "I suspect few people aboard the EDF vessels noticed. They are quite busy now. General Lanyan has just attempted to transmit a ‘guillotine protocol' to shut down the robot-controlled ships, but it seems the Soldier compies have rerouted their systems. General Lanyan sounds quite angry that his plan is not effective."
The tiny derelict dodged, swooped, and dipped, making abrupt course corrections that should have thrown Peter and Estarra against the walls, but the deep-core aliens had an efficient momentum-dissipation system.
Some of the beleaguered Earth Defense Forces ships took potshots at the tiny sphere--which meant they probably hadn't been listening at all. A glancing jazer bolt sent them spinning, but OX quickly reasserted control.
Then Estarra saw something more incredible than anything else in the space battlefield. "Look, Peter! They're . . . they're trees. Huge trees from the worldforest--just like Nahton told us!"
Verdani battleships engaged the hydrogues, wrapping spiny branches around the warglobes to crush them. Estarra pressed her hands against the curved wall, peering