The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [146]
Now the faeros, elemental companions to the hydrogues, were doing the same to the Earth’s Moon. “What the hell did we do to piss them off?”
Or were the humans just in the way?
The vengeful faeros continued to pour energy through the crust, pounding hot spikes all the way into the Moon’s core, until it reached a final unstable point.
Conrad couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Unable to stand, he collapsed back into the command chair.
Because of the lunar mass and size, the explosion seemed to occur with infinite slowness, a gradual crumbling and separation. The Moon cracked, fissured . . . and then literally broke apart like a ball of dried clay.
* * *
* * *
100
Mage-Imperator Jora’h
The fireballs swarmed in as the Mage-Imperator’s ship angled high out of the orbital plane. The rest of the Solar Navy had successfully gotten away to the rendezvous point, and now the flagship warliner could no longer hide behind the bulk of the Moon.
Though the EDF reinforcements had finally arrived from their stations around Earth, they were by far the least of Adar Zan’nh’s worries. He did not engage them, but flew past with all possible speed. Instead of pursuing them, however, the faeros concentrated their fury upon the Moon itself.
Even the Adar was astonished by the sheer number of fireballs that Rusa’h had summoned. “We must take you to safety, Liege. We cannot stay here.” He turned to the helmsman. “Set course for Ildira.”
Jora’h could not tear his eyes from the thermal pummeling of the Moon. “And lead all the faeros directly back there? Rusa’h wants me, does he not?”
“Then we have go somewhere safe for a while,” Nira said.
“King Peter would offer me sanctuary on Theroc,” Jora’h considered, “but the faeros already know that place. The worldforest has been devastated too many times. We need a world that has no connection with our prior dealings.”
“We must make our decision now, Liege,” Zan’nh said with an edge in his voice, staring at the fireballs on his screens.
Standing pale and shaken at the edge of the command nucleus, Sullivan Gold cleared his throat. “I’ve got an idea. I have the coordinates, I know the facilities, and I was about to go there myself.” He glanced at his wife. “There’s a gas giant called Golgen with plenty of Roamer skymines. They have no love for the EDF or the Hansa, I can promise you that — and I bet they’d welcome the presence of the Solar Navy, as protection in case the Chairman decides to raid them again.”
After what was happening on the Moon, Jora’h doubted the Hansa Chairman would be particularly interested in consolidating Roamer skymines. Nevertheless, he needed to vacate the solar system before the faeros spotted their single remaining warliner. “Very well. We will go to Golgen.”
* * *
101
Anton Colicos
For weeks Anton had tried to keep Rememberer Vao’sh occupied at the university, first out of courtesy and friendship, then out of desperation. Once the Mage-Imperator had been taken back to his prison in the lunar EDF base, the comforting thism that had protected the old historian had stretched thinner and thinner.
But Chairman Wenceslas insisted that Vao’sh stay so that he could continue disseminating information about Ildira to other scholars. The dean of the Department of Ildiran Studies sent repeated glowing reports back to Hansa HQ, but Anton doubted the Chairman agreed with the academic priorities. For that, he was glad.
On the faculty, Anton had garnered a great deal of clout and prestige by arranging for the Ildiran historian to give lectures. Vao’sh entertained audiences of students for hours with dramatic presentations from the Saga of Seven