The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [6]
Orli and her friends reached their ship, with the Klikiss in hot pursuit. When Margaret tried to go with them, anxious to be away from the insect creatures, the Klikiss warriors singled her out and refused to let her get away. They also crushed her music box, removing the only weapon she had. Having retrieved the rest of the survivors, Tasia flew off, sad at being forced to leave Davlin and Margaret behind.
Davlin almost got away from the Klikiss. He reached one of the transportals and tried to pass through, but he was caught. Gravely injured, he was brought before the breedex, which was on the brink of another fissioning. The singular larva of the new breedex came forward to Davlin, interested in the independent and troublesome human. Before it could subsume him, though, Davlin threw himself on the breedex larva, trying to impose himself upon it. The hive mind swallowed him up.
After Adar Zan’nh eradicated the black robots on Maratha and delivered his startling news about the Klikiss, Nira urged the Mage-Imperator to send Solar Navy assistance to other besieged human colonists on former Klikiss worlds. Zan’nh was reluctant to do this, since he believed the humans had caused their own problems by settling planets that did not belong to them. However, when he witnessed how many innocent humans had been massacred on several devastated colonies, he was deeply moved. Arriving at another besieged world, he used an ancient translating routine to convince the breedex to release the captive colonists.
After their return from Maratha, Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh were given an unexpected task — to remove the lies and correct the errors in the supposedly infallible Saga of Seven Suns. This caused great distress among other rememberer kithmen, particularly the conservative Chief Scribe Ko’sh, but no one could refuse the orders of the Mage-Imperator.
From Ildira, the green priest Kolker continued to spread his telink/thism philosophy like a new religion, even converting many green priests on Theroc. Sullivan Gold, refusing to be converted despite pressure from Kolker and Tabitha Huck, left Ildira and returned to his family on Earth. Meanwhile, Kolker also converted the Roamer trader Denn Peroni, Cesca’s father, and he became an outspoken advocate of the marvelous new philosophy.
After leaving General Lanyan and the EDF, and “borrowing” his grandmother’s space yacht, Patrick Fitzpatrick III searched among the Roamers for his lost love, Zhett Kellum. He finally found her on the gas giant Golgen, where the Roamers had reestablished skymining operations. His reunion with Zhett did not go as expected, however; she refused to speak to him. Trying to come clean, Patrick confessed what he had done earlier, destroying a Roamer trading ship to eliminate a witness; though General Lanyan was ultimately responsible for the murder, Patrick had given the order to fire. After a trial, Patrick was sentenced to “walk the plank” over the open cloudy skies. He bravely accepted his fate, but at the last minute Zhett spoke on his behalf and convinced her father to pardon him. Patrick then became a strong supporter of the Confederation and transmitted a damning message that squarely laid the blame for the Hansa’s problems on General Lanyan and Chairman Wenceslas. Upon hearing this message, Basil rebuked Patrick’s grandmother, former Chairman Maureen Fitzpatrick, for the actions of her grandson.
King Peter and Queen Estarra continued strengthening the Confederation. Seeing the King and Queen as potential allies against the Klikiss and the faeros, Mage-Imperator Jora’h announced that he would travel to Theroc and publicly proclaim an alliance between the Ildiran Empire and the Confederation. Nira accompanied him, as well as Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao’sh. Standing together under the worldtrees, the Mage-Imperator and the King swore a firm alliance. This was truly the death knell for the few remnants of the Hansa still loyal to Chairman Wenceslas.
Upon learning of Jora’h’s announcement,