Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [9]
"We will make them stop. They will be annihilated." The emissary pressed closer to the wall of his sphere. "Long ago, we helped the Klikiss robots destroy their creator race. That extermination is the proper model for all future conflicts." The metal gaze pierced the swirling currents. "Since we have come to Ildira, it would be most efficient if we eliminated you now."
4
JESS TAMBLYN
Leaving Jonah 12, where renegade Klikiss robots had wiped out an entire Roamer base, Jess's water-and-pearl craft accelerated out of the dark system like a liquid cannonball. His living vessel carried within it a damaged ship and two injured passengers. One of them was Cesca--and she was dying.
Floating in the energized water, Jess peered through a porthole of the damaged Aquarius to observe a harried and hurt Nikko Chan Tylar. The young pilot huddled over the woman Jess loved, but he could do little to help Cesca. She lay on the deck, looking gray and clammy, unconscious. Her body had been snapped and broken when the Aquarius was shot down; it was a miracle they had survived at all.
Tending her despite his own painful injuries, Nikko seemed to have aged a decade in the past few hours. Though the young man had a sprained wrist, probably a few broken ribs, scrapes, and bruises--nothing his ship's first-aid packs and painkillers couldn't take care of--he had barely left Cesca's side. Jess desperately wished he could touch her himself, kiss her or hold her hand.
But he had given up much of his humanity when he'd become part of the wentals. It had been the only way to stay alive. He couldn't lose Cesca, too! The wentals had been part of his body for some time now, had fundamentally changed him, but he still didn't understand the powerful entities. Jess had told the wentals to find any nearby Roamer base, even a Hansa colony with a medical center. But everything was too far away.
Why wouldn't the wentals help her? He knew they had the power to do it.
In saving him years ago, the wentals had altered his body chemistry, transforming him into a strange dynamo whose touch would kill any other human. He could do great things with this newfound power--even become a tremendous weapon in the war against the hydrogues.
But some of the simplest acts were denied him. What good were his spectacular abilities if he couldn't do what he wanted most in the universe? How he longed to hold Cesca and soothe her pain. He couldn't even stroke her sweat-damp forehead as she died. But he had to get as close to her as possible.
Moving through the warm water, Jess cycled through the Aquarius's hatch and stood dripping on the deck. A filmy white garment clung to him, and his hair waved about like seaweed in a current. Nikko looked up at him, almond eyes full of hope, as if he believed that Jess could work miracles--which he could. But not this one.
"I've scanned the medical database, Jess, but she's way beyond my ability to patch up." He held his freshly bandaged arm in front of him. "By the Guiding Star, I can barely take care of a sprained wrist, and she's all smashed inside. Internal bleeding for sure, probably a punctured lung. Who knows what else."
With his unbandaged arm, Nikko gave Cesca a stimulant, hoping to stave off the worst effects of shock. Drifting closer to wakefulness, Cesca began to cough. Blood bubbled from between her lips. Though the water-and-pearl ship raced between the stars at incomprehensible speeds, Jess knew she wouldn't survive much longer--unless the wentals did something.
"She has to live, Nikko." Jess stood with his fists at his sides, feeling hopelessly isolated. He couldn't even touch her! "She's . . . the Speaker for the Roamers." The reason sounded noble, but both he and Nikko knew that such an esoteric argument was nothing compared to the fact that Jess loved her.
The wentals spoke inside his mind. The woman will die soon.
He was angry at them for coldly stating the obvious. "Then save her."
Some things cannot be changed.
He tried to pinpoint the source, as if one particular wental might be the origin of this