Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [224]
One of the huge alien trees shifted its course and came at them. Peter cried out, "OX, change course. We don't want to get caught by that thing."
"I will attempt to avoid it, King Peter." The compy focused on the jumbled crystalline controls, and their tiny sphere moved in an erratic pattern, but the thorny treeship came closer, its branches sweeping wide like the jaws of a trap.
"I don't think it's our enemy," Estarra said. "It's from Theroc."
"Maybe not, but we're sitting in a hydrogue ship, and those trees are destroying warglobes one after another." Peter's blue eyes were wide.
"Shall I identify Queen Estarra in my transmission?" OX asked.
She jumped at the chance. "Yes, OX! Say . . . I'm a daughter of Theroc, but don't give my name."
Moving with amazing speed, the organic vessel caught them in its mighty grasp and drew the derelict into a nest of thorns and fronds. The branches were huge. Estarra could see the overlapping golden bark scales now turned into impenetrable space armor. The javelin thorns scraped against the smooth curve of the derelict. The limbs pulled them closer, wrapping tighter.
OX did not sound concerned, though his hands flurried over the controls. "I apologize, King Peter. It is beyond my capabilities to evade the treeship."
Huddled against the derelict's wall, Estarra pressed her hands flat against the crystalline hull. The ominous growth looked similar to and yet different from the worldtrees she had climbed when she was younger. Those trees had been so peaceful, curious, wanting only to acquire knowledge. But these verdani battleships seemed intent on destruction. Or was it protection?
Crackling words came from the portable comm system aboard the derelict. She leaned forward, surprised to hear a sound like singing, a warm voice she remembered from childhood. "Estarra . . . sister."
"Beneto!" She looked at Peter, then scrambled to the comm system. "It's Beneto. He's inside that treeship."
"I am the treeship."
Beneto had died on Corvus Landing. Yet Sarein and Nahton had told her of Beneto's reincarnation as an avatar of the worldforest, complete with her brother's thoughts and memories.
"Beneto, don't harm us," she said.
"You are in a hydrogue ship?" His voice no longer sounded exactly human.
"We're escaping from the Hansa, from Earth. The Chairman is trying to kill us, so we're going to Theroc." She fiddled with the transmitter's controls to hear him better. "I wish I could tell you everything, Beneto! I wanted to see you again."
"Can he help us?" Peter asked.
"We need to get home, Beneto. Come with us," she urged.
"I cannot. The battle is here. The final battle. I belong to the seedship now. We are one." The enfolding branches now held the derelict in an embrace rather than a threatening grip. "We destroy the hydrogues today, but first I will see that you stay safe, little sister."
The treeship began to move away from the furious combat zone. Blasts of enemy weaponry struck and splintered the outer fronds, but Beneto's huge tree body did not flinch as he protected them. Once the verdani battleship had carried them beyond the last attacking warglobes, the thorny branches spread out and tossed the derelict into empty space, like a farmer casting seeds.
"I'll miss you, Beneto," Estarra called after him.
"I will always hold my memories of you, and of Theroc. They will remain with me for thousands of years as I journey across the cosmos."
At his controls, OX piloted their craft again, resetting course for Theroc. "I have already begun to make new memories," the compy said. Peter smiled.
Estarra stared back through the transparent hull as they hurtled away. The enormous organic vessel dwindled in the distance. In her last glimpse of the verdani battleship that was her brother, the many-branched weapon crashed again into the hydrogues.
132
DENN PERONI
When Denn Peroni flew a group of Roamer ships