Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [197]
“That won’t be too difficult.” Wynn frowned at the ice pack around them.
“I’ll come back.” Jess raced for his water-and-pearl ship, consumed with worry for Cesca, hoping he would get to her in time.
Chapter 99—DOBRO DESIGNATE UDRU’H
The Dobro Designate and Adar Zan’nh disguised themselves roughly with components from the dead guards’ uniforms. They confiscated the weapons, though both men knew they could never survive if all the brainwashed crewmen stood against them. With only two people to take over an entire warliner, they had to be much more subtle, and there wasn’t much time. The battleship would reach Dobro soon—and Udru’h knew the trap that waited for them there.
“The Mage-Imperator was forewarned about the threat to Dobro. He will destroy this ship rather than allow it to take over another Ildiran colony. We need to break Rusa’h’s hold on this crew before we arrive.”
The Adar appeared haggard and lost, as if the burden upon him had been doubled. “But how are—” Udru’h waited, letting him think through the possibilities. Then it dawned on Zan’nh. “Ah! The cargo hold is full of shiing!”
The Designate nodded. “The rebels intended to use it to subsume Dobro’s populace, but that can work both ways. Shiing will temporarily break this crew’s connection to any thism network, whether it belongs to Rusa’h or to the Mage-Imperator.”
Zan’nh’s brow furrowed. “They’ll be disoriented, detached from any guidance at all. They won’t know what to do.”
“Are you not the Adar? Then command them. Are you a good enough leader to reassert order and reason upon your own crew?”
A faint smile curled Zan’nh’s lips, and he showed his teeth, glad to be something other than a pawn. “Yes, I am. That’s how Adar Kori’nh achieved his greatest triumph when the old Mage-Imperator died.”
Udru’h looked down his nose. “Yes, but he ended up destroying himself and all his warliners. I would prefer a different outcome.”
Zan’nh’s eyes sparkled, and his mind seemed to grow stronger with each passing minute. “If we succeed in this, it will be a story worthy of Adar Kori’nh.”
“No, it will be a story worthy of the Saga of Seven Suns.”
Taking their weapons, the two made their way down back passageways and service shafts, creeping from deck to deck. Even when they were inevitably seen from a distance, they maintained their composure. Because Rusa’h’s rebels were blind to any thism but theirs, they did not challenge Udru’h or Zan’nh.
While the warliner flew toward Dobro, Prime Designate Thor’h and the rest of the maniple would be attacking another splinter world, spreading shiing and trapping new followers in mad Rusa’h’s web. It had to stop.
Udru’h and Zan’nh would begin to turn the tide by recapturing this warliner, and by saving Dobro and its people, both human and Ildiran.
In the cargo levels, they found thousands of cylinders full of shiing gas, lined up, row upon row, ready to be unleashed upon the population of Dobro. The nialia production fields on Hyrillka had been working at extraordinary levels to create enough of the drug to meet the needs of the spreading insurrection.
Zan’nh hauled out canisters and brought them to the warliner’s ventilation systems. None of the Solar Navy crewmen ventured into the isolated storage chambers; until the warliner arrived at Dobro itself, they had no need for the compressed shiing.
As Zan’nh connected the canisters to the ventilation system, Designate Udru’h went to an emergency station at the cargo bay’s hatch and found two breathing films to be used in the event of a disaster. He handed one of the soft, pliable membranes to the Adar. “Rusa’h insists that we must come over to his network willingly, that we can’t be forced, but so much shiing would still distort our thoughts. I don’t want to take that chance—do you?”
The younger man shook his head. “I intend to keep my thoughts clear and my determination firm.” They applied the breathing films to their faces. Fortunately, shiing gas would