The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [2]
Meanwhile, unaware that their hated creator race had returned, Sirix and his black robots attacked any former Klikiss world on which humans had established colonies. As replacements for DD, whom he had tried to reprogram, Sirix had wiped the memories of two other compies — PD and QT — and taught them how to kill humans without remorse. Believing that the former Klikiss planets belonged to them, the robots struck mercilessly, obliterating any settlements. Sirix had resurrected thousands of black robots over the years, and they were all ready to form a unified robot force to destroy humanity.
Then the transportals activated on the colony Sirix had conquered, and a host of ravenous Klikiss marched through, immediately attacking the robot forces. With PD and QT, Sirix barely escaped this unexpected battle and was forced to eradicate the transportal and retreat to Maratha, an Ildiran world where the robots were establishing a powerful base of operations.
On Ildira, the Mage-Imperator ordered Adar Zan’nh to launch a frantic program to rebuild the Solar Navy, erecting shipyards in orbit and diverting the resources of the Empire to the project. Zan’nh also made use of the innovative skills of the humans who had been forced to remain at Ildira, including Sullivan Gold and Tabitha Huck. With Gold’s administrative abilities and Huck’s engineering ideas, the manufacturing proceeded at a furious pace.
Sullivan’s companion green priest Kolker felt isolated and confused. For a long time he had been cut off from his beloved telink with other green priests, and even after he was given access to a treeling, the sensation felt lacking to him. When he saw how the Ildirans — all Ildirans — were linked through thism, he wanted to understand how it worked. Lens kithmen rebuffed him, telling him that he could never grasp the thism, but Nira’s five half-breed children were able to show him the key. As Kolker struggled to understand, he finally comprehended in a way he had never dreamed. Incredible mental vistas opened for him; better still, he knew how to share his discovery. He converted Tabitha Huck and many of her coworkers at the shipyards, though Sullivan refused. Soon, with this unique synchronicity available, Tabitha and her crew led the Ildirans in phenomenally increased productivity.
As the Solar Navy began to be restored, Jora’h’s daughter Yazra’h formed a plan with Adar Zan’nh to begin recapturing lost Ildiran worlds, particularly Maratha, which had been taken over by the black robots. Yazra’h convinced the human historian Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh to accompany the military force. This was a terrifying prospect for them, since Anton and Vao’sh had nearly died there in the robot takeover, and Vao’sh had barely survived the isolation madness when the two of them had flown alone to Ildira. But they agreed to witness the events in order to record them in the Saga of Seven Suns.
Reaching Maratha, the Solar Navy bombarded the robot base, then went to the ground to wipe out the last machine survivors. While they were embroiled in battle, a large Klikiss swarmship arrived and dispatched thousands of warriors, who also meant to destroy the black robots. After the battle was won, a tense moment followed when the Klikiss insisted that they would reinhabit all of their own worlds, but Zan’nh held his ground, asserting that Maratha had never been a Klikiss planet, and the swarmship departed. Shortly afterward, Sirix and his black robot refugees arrived at what they expected to be a thriving base on Maratha, only to find utter devastation. Once again, they fled, seeing their plans fall apart.
The black robots and the Klikiss were not the only threats to concern the Ildiran Empire. The mad Designate Rusa’h, after suffering a severe head injury during a hydrogue attack on Hyrillka, had led a destructive but ultimately unsuccessful revolt to overthrow the Mage-Imperator and establish his own thism network. Unwilling to surrender in defeat, Rusa’h flew his ship directly into one of Hyrillka’s suns. Instead