Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [60]
"Observe the seven streams," the Mage-Imperator said in his most commanding voice, "and consider exactly what Ildirans accomplished here."
Klie'f, an old and distinguished member of the scientist kith, and Shir'of, a younger but talented representative of the engineering kith, studied the convergence point with its foaming water, as if Jora'h had just posed a new technical challenge. Vao'sh nodded, recalling the historical tale.
In a complex engineering feat, the Prism Palace builders had channeled these streams to flow toward the seat of the Mage-Imperator. Using gravity-assist steps and locks, scientists had wrestled the currents, manipulated the water itself, so that the streams flowed against nature, climbing in a white torrent until they reached the apex. Here before the main gate, the seven streams joined to pour down a wide well in a circular waterfall, at the bottom of which the gushing water was redistributed from outlets below and behind the Palace hill.
Jora'h waited, but no one ventured a response. In angry impatience, he shouted above the roar of the water, "We did the impossible! And we must do it again. Long ago, Ildirans used their ingenuity to defy the laws of the universe. They achieved the unachievable because the Mage-Imperator demanded it of them. I now demand the same from all of you."
The representatives seemed intimidated; Adar Zan'nh's expression remained stoic, but he nodded. Rememberer Vao'sh looked intrigued.
"Answer this question and you will save our Empire." Jora'h paused. "How can we stand against the hydrogues?"
Klie'f and Shir'of looked at each other, then at the military strategists; they all turned to the commander of the Solar Navy. Zan'nh said, "None of our weapons have proven effective. Adar Kori'nh destroyed many warglobes, but at a cost far too great for us ever to achieve victory."
Jora'h stepped to the lip of the furious waterfall as it vanished down the deep well. "That is why I called you. The hydrogues have given me an ultimatum that I find unacceptable. I bought time by pretending to agree. Now I need you to give me another solution to another impossible challenge. You are my best. Take these questions to your fellow kithmen, work together with them. Push yourselves beyond your usual boundaries. If you succeed, I guarantee you a place in the Saga of Seven Suns, memorialized for all time. What Ildiran could ask for more than that?"
"You are asking us to stand up against the undefeatable, Liege," Klie'f said.
"Yes, I am. Give me new strategies, new defenses, new weapons!"
Zan'nh bowed toward his father. "You are the Mage-Imperator, Liege. You are our leader, and we comprise your Empire. If we cannot solve this problem, then we have failed you indeed."
"If you do not find a way," Jora'h said in an oddly flat voice, "then two races may die."
Rememberer Vao'sh, though fascinated by the conversation, looked at his leader. "Liege, I am a mere storyteller. What can I do?"
Knowing more of the historical truth than he had ever wanted to learn, Jora'h had often cursed his predecessors for hiding so much information about past encounters. He had to break that long-standing censorship. "We have fought the hydrogues before, but many of the records of that conflict are locked away in the apocrypha. Unseal them and study them. Learn what has been forgotten, and bring me any clues you may discover about our enemies."
"An immense task, Liege. I will inspect all our records here, but there are important archives on distant planets, particularly Hyrillka."
Jora'h recalled that the first Klikiss robots had been excavated from their long hibernation on a moon of Hyrillka. Centuries ago. Was something more buried in that system? Some lost document explaining the ancient compact that had changed the alliances in the first great war? Perhaps a record of how Ildirans had once shared a bond with the faeros, as the hydrogue emissary had accused?