Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [1]
The Hansa, seeking a means of space travel that did not depend on ekti, dispatched teams of explorers through “transportals”, an ancient alien system of gateways found on abandoned worlds. One of these explorers was the intrepid spy Davlin Lotze. Since all transportal coordinates were enigmas, many destinations held unexpected dangers.
Also, hoping to break their dependence on Roamer stardrive fuel, the Hansa established their own ekti-harvesting skymine, run by Sullivan Gold and his green priest Kolker at the gas planet Qronha 3, where Adar Kori’nh had fallen in his dramatic showdown against the hydrogues. Sullivan’s crew produced a great deal of ekti until a group of Ildiran warliners arrived, also intending to mine the clouds. Sullivan negotiated an uneasy truce with the Ildirans, and both skymines cruised the clouds, always on the watch for the hydrogues’ return.
Wrestling with his fresh thism-knowledge of unexpected plots, new Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora’h attended the funeral of his poisoned father. Caught in the hydrogue war, the Ildiran Empire was running out of ekti as well. Jora’h’s brother, Designate Rusa’h—who had been in a sub-thism sleep since a hydrogue attack on his planet of Hyrillka—suddenly woke up in the Prism Palace’s infirmary. His personality dramatically altered, Rusa’h claimed to have seen powerful visions while he was comatose. Uneasy, Jora’h sent his injured brother with Prime Designate Thor’h back to Hyrillka to rebuild his devastated planet, along with Pery’h, the next Hyrillka Designate.
Although the grim Dobro Designate Udru’h paid tribute to the new Mage-Imperator, Jora’h could not forgive his brother for secretly subjecting Jora’h’s beloved green priest Nira to years of breeding experiments. Nira, now supposed dead, had given birth to Jora’h’s half-breed daughter Osira’h, whom the Dobro Designate believed might become a savior of the Ildiran Empire because of her remarkable telepathic abilities. Nira was not dead, however, but hidden on a remote island where the Mage-Imperator would never find her.
On an isolated Ildiran colony, the human scholar Anton Colicos studied the Saga of Seven Suns with his friend and mentor, Rememberer Vao’sh. They remained with a skeleton crew in the domed city of Maratha Prime on the dark side of the planet, while work crews of Klikiss robots completed a sister city on the opposite side of the world. The Ildirans discovered an unusual network of tunnels but could not figure out who had built them. One evening, while Anton and Vao’sh told stories, an explosion occurred in the generators beneath the city, cutting off all lights and power. It was clearly sabotage. Left without enough power to survive, the crewmembers decided to trek over to the sister city. After contacting the Klikiss robots to explain their plight, the refugees set off in three shuttles—two of which exploded. More sabotage! Anton, Vao’sh, and a few others managed to get out of their craft safely, only to find themselves stranded. They set off on foot in the darkness toward supposed sanctuary among the Klikiss robots, but Anton was very suspicious...
In secret, the Klikiss robots had long planned to destroy both humans and Ildirans. Dragging the compy DD from enclave to enclave, the robot Sirix resurrected long-dormant groups of Klikiss robots, which were now almost all activated and ready to move, much to DD’s dismay.
When a Klikiss robot appeared at the IldiranPrismPalace, demanding details of the secret breeding projects on Dobro, Jora’h refused to tell him anything. The Mage-Imperator then caused a stir by traveling to Dobro to meet his daughter Osira’h and to visit Nira’s grave. Ildirans were upset that their leader would go against long-standing tradition and leave the Palace. Jora’h flouted tradition further by appointing his warrior daughter Yazra’h as his personal bodyguard, a position that had never before been held by a female...
Desperate to continue its expansion even under such austere circumstances, the Hansa encouraged citizens to pack up