Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [229]
Space beyond the planet was crisp and black, unhindered by obstacles, but Jess found no sanctuary there. The warglobes hounded them like howling wolves, their hulls scarred and close to cracking. He dodged a lance of blue lightning, but couldn't go any faster.
With no place to hide, he swept downward again, grazing the edge of the atmosphere. The gigantic world rolled past below, and dark battle stains spread through the clouds.
And a miracle rose over the bright edge of the gas giant, backlit by the distant sun: a tangle of branches and thorns, huge limbs extending from an armored core trunk. Seven of the new verdani battleships Jess had helped create, ready to intercept any fleeing warglobes.
Jess drove his small protective sphere straight toward the treeships.
Tasia cried, "Jess, what are you doing? Look at those things!"
"Beautiful, aren't they?"
Closing in, the pursuing warglobes tumbled after Jess's tiny bubble. They didn't seem to understand the threat of the treeships until it was too late.
Extending huge, thorny branches, the flying trees seized the already damaged alien globes. Blue lightning bolts sizzled out, along with icewave spurts, but the spiny treeships ignored the searing energy. They embraced the warglobes with their thick limbs and squeezed. With silent explosions in empty space, the warglobes crumbled. Jagged shards tumbled slowly back into Qronha 3's deep atmosphere like so many smashed components of a Roamer skymine. Leaving the wreckage of hydrogues behind, the verdani treeships climbed away from the gas giant and soared off in search of other targets.
Carrying his frightened passengers far from their hellish hydrogue prison, Jess flew off to safety and freedom. They were cramped in the water-bubble ship, but Tasia and her companions would have endured anything to get away from their captors.
Jess groaned when an EDF ship appeared over the planet. It was a large scout, a troop transport rather than a battleship. After a tense moment, Jess recognized the vessel and its pilot. "Conrad Brindle, I told you to go back to Earth."
"I came to help," the pilot transmitted.
Suddenly excited, Robb grabbed at Tasia's arms. "Is that my father? What's he doing here?"
"If he's offering a real toilet and a bunk to sleep on, I'm there," Tasia said. "Shizz, right now even spampax sounds delicious."
"I'll see what I can arrange," Jess said. The EDF scout vessel approached, drawing closer to the wental bubble. Jess sent out the message "I've got a few people who would like to come aboard, Commander Brindle. They belong with you more than with me."
"Nobody knows where we belong anymore," Tasia said.
Robb answered, "We sure as hell belong away from that nightmare."
"No argument from me there, Brindle."
"I have seats for them all," the man answered. "I can take them back to Earth . . . or wherever they want to go."
135
FORMER PRINCE DANIEL
As the effects of the twitcher wore off, Daniel struggled to regain control of his unreliable body. He had never experienced a sensation like that, falling through the transportal. It felt as if his body had been folded, turned inside out, flown forever in an instant--then dropped intact somewhere far, far away.
It had been nighttime in the Palace District when Peter and Estarra threw him through the dimensional doorway, and the sudden sunlight was so bright that his eyes hurt. He couldn't wait to get back at them. Even if they were the King and Queen, they had no right to do this to him--him! Those two would soon be ousted, and he would be the new King. Nobody could treat a King this way.
Daniel rolled to one side on the uneven ground, flapped his numb hands, and tried to find his footing. The sky was dusty brown, and the air smelled awful, like dirt, wet weeds, slimy mud . . . even poop. What was this place?
Though his muscles continued to misfire, Daniel lurched to his hands and knees, caught his breath, then squatted