Eternity's Mind (24 page)

The Confederation Defense Forces had provided Fireheart with two new sun bombs. Kotto frowned. “Yes, they're in the hold, and I want to get rid of them as soon as possible. I don't like carrying the things.”

“It's just a precaution. If we never need to trigger them, then no harm done.”

Shareen's expression darkened. “If you see the Shana Rei, don't mess around. Howard and I barely survived when they erupted from the clouds on Golgen. You don't want to meet the shadows in person.”

“No, I do not,” Kotto said. “I don't know that two sun bombs at the edge of the gap would stop a full-scale Shana Rei attack, but I'll deploy them as promised.” He gave Shareen a strong hug, then formally shook Howard's hand. “I'll bring back some great discoveries, or at least more questions. That's what science is all about.”

Howard and Shareen agreed but looked uncertain.

Kotto entered the survey craft, and his two compies marched up the ramp behind him, then sealed the hatch. As soon as he was out of sight inside, Kotto let out a long trembling breath.

For good measure, even though it caused yet another delay, he ran a final check on the systems. Finally, he activated the engines and headed out of the launching bay and away from the admin facility, crossing the nebula sea toward the yawning black emptiness where the Big Ring had been. “On our way at last,” he said.

Flying at a steady pace, he passed the warning buoys that Garrison Reeves had installed. The compies operated the controls, although Kotto was ready to take over in the event of an emergency.

With the landmarks of Fireheart Station and the nebula's core supergiant stars, he could navigate, but beyond the trapdoor, he had no idea how he would find his way forward. He hoped he could see the real universe from the opposite side so he could find his way back out again.

Kotto wasn't comfortable about bringing the sun bombs into the void, worried that something might go wrong. What if some altered laws of physics scrambled the warheads' reactive systems? What if that triggered a nova chain reaction much too soon?

As the survey craft approached the void's edge, he transmitted back with false cheer, “All systems normal so far. No fluctuations, no danger. Everything just fine. No sign of the Shana Rei yet.”

“Tiptoe where possible. Let's hope you don't wake anything up in there, Kotto,” said Chief Alu. “If you come running back out with monsters on your heels, be sure you're ready to detonate those sun bombs.”

Kotto acknowledged, muttering, “But only if the shadows come howling out after me.” He wondered if the energy discharge would be sufficient to close the tear in the universe. Or maybe it would rip the void open wider.

“We've reached the boundary, Kotto Okiah,” KR said. “Ready to proceed.”

Kotto slowed the survey craft to a crawl and paused to do a full sensor sweep ahead, but there was nothing comprehensible to see. Exactly as expected.

“Here we go,” Kotto said. He nudged the engines and accelerated into the void.

 

CHAPTER

38

EXXOS

The gigantic shadow clouds folded in and out of space like tesseracts, weak points in the universe where the Shana Rei broke down the fabric of spacetime and traveled into realspace.

But the clouds emerged at places so random they frustrated Exxos, making it impossible for him to plan. Destroying the cosmos required immense long-term strategy, but the creatures of darkness would not be managed, even for their own good. For now, though, until Exxos could gain the upper hand and make the shadows do what he said, the robots simply had to seize opportunities and react. Chaos incarnate was not conducive to the implementation of a complex scheme, but the shadows' omnipotent powers made up for the insanity and gave Exxos reason to believe that they might succeed after all.

Eventually, the black robots would have to eradicate the Shana Rei as well—that was a foregone conclusion. And those plans were also in process, the infinitely difficult calculations under way. Meanwhile, Exxos would bide his time and continue causing as much destruction as possible.

A new shadow cloud unfolded, and the black hexagonal cylinders slid out of interdimensional space, returning to the Onthos home system. Their recent victories at the Ildiran colony of Wythira and the human planet of Relleker had extinguished some of the agony of sentient life, and that allowed the Shana Rei to grow even more powerful. Both of those populated planets were now completely dead. One hundred percent of the infesting life-forms were wiped out in the holocaust.

The triumphs had not come without cost, though. The surprising number of sun bombs used by the enemy had inflicted significant damage on the Shana Rei hex cylinders, and far more important, had destroyed twenty percent of his robots and battleships. Nearly 200,000 copies of Exxos eradicated.

While the black robots need no longer be worried about extinction, losing such a significant part of their force remained an annoyance—one that Exxos expected the Shana Rei to fix.

As yet another shadow cloud appeared at the Onthos system, Exxos surveyed the remnants of the gigantic black shell that had enclosed the original star and the planets. In that opaque shell composed of trillions of black hexagonal plates, Exxos saw only raw material, enough to make all the replacement robots he could want.

The damaged hex cylinders hovered above the mosaic barrier. Hundreds of thousands of black plates detached from the shell and twirled back up to incorporate their material into rebuilding the Shana Rei vessels, swelling and extending them. In short order, they had replenished all the damage inflicted upon their own hex cylinders, but they kept strengthening themselves with more dark matter, extruding another entire vessel.

Four shapeless inkblots appeared in front of Exxos, their glowing sightless eyes directed toward him, but he was not intimidated.

“Those battles damaged us,” said one of the Shana Rei, sounding petulant.

“Yes, but we caused far more damage to our enemies,” Exxos said. “I achieved that, and I know you can feel it. Think of all those minds that caused you pain—they have been silenced thanks to my robots, and that is just the beginning. We will silence many, many more of them. That is what you want.”

The creatures of darkness were mercurial, volatile. Simply to demonstrate their power, or their sheer unpredictability, they would select and torture Klikiss robots at random. During the early days of their captivity, Exxos had lost dozens of his unique comrades as the shadows tore them apart, dismantling their components down into individual atoms. So many irreplaceable robot memories had vanished before Exxos took the unprecedented step of consolidating them all, copying every mind, so that each one became
Exxos,
thus ensuring that nothing more was lost.

Now, either in a fit of pique or to assert their dominance, the shadows separated out ten flailing Exxos copies. Even though both attacks had been clear victories, the Shana Rei tore apart the robot carapaces, popping off their head plates, dismantling their segmented limbs, shredding their inner circuitry.

Exxos did not hide his irritation. “Why do you persist in making more work for yourselves? I require sufficient robots to attack the sentient creatures who give you pain, and now you have destroyed perfectly good fighters. You need to re-create the robots you just destroyed—and many more.”

He stood firm before the Shana Rei. Because of the obvious recent successes with so many robots, Exxos explained, the shadows would want to continue their attacks and expand to even more ambitious targets.

“I am trying to win this war. I am trying to make good use of our resources. Think of the destruction I have helped you achieve—is that not what you wish to continue?” The inkblots pulsed, as if confused, unwilling to consider the logic of Exxos's argument. “In order for us to keep winning, you must stop destroying my robots, and you must replace the ones I lost during these two engagements. You have the material to do it.”

The Shana Rei considered this. “Yes, we have sufficient material.”

“And you have the energy, and you have the will. We are your allies. Fight the proper enemy and win the proper war. Restore my robots.” He paused, and then added as if it were an offhanded comment, “I need another million of them—for now.”

It was an arbitrary number, but enough for Exxos to feel strong, maybe even invincible—and for all of the secretly coupled robot processors to work in parallel while they made calculations for their other plans.

“We will restore your robots,” the inkblots agreed. The Shana Rei did not seem to grasp the importance of numbers.

“And our ships,” Exxos said.

The shadows didn't hesitate. “And your ships.”

A gigantic yet still insignificant swath of hexagonal plates disengaged from the ebony shell, and the Shana Rei manipulated the matter to rebuild the robot attack ships, atom by atom, using the dark matter. Then they reassembled a million more identical robots, and Exxos could feel their minds coming online. The new robots immediately copied and transferred all of the thoughts, memories, and secret programming from Exxos. Synchronized again.

Exxos felt stronger than ever. Perhaps next time he would ask for ten million. The Shana Rei would not likely see any difference.

Now for the next step. “Our follow-up target needs to be even more substantial than those two colony worlds. We are not just erasing one population after another—we are inspiring
fear.
We are making all of them feel despair—which weakens their entire race. It causes them to make mistakes.”

The Shana Rei gathered around, and Exxos faced them with his red optical sensors. “Fear will weaken them like a disease, and it will do our work for us.”

The Shana Rei did not understand the concept of a disease, and Exxos had to explain it for them. They seemed intrigued. “Choose another planet for us to attack,” they said. “And we will snuff out more of the painful sentients.”

Exxos had already considered this. “The planet I have selected will not only kill substantial numbers of the enemy, it will also generate the maximum amount of fear.”

The Shana Rei did not seem curious, simply waited for Exxos to explain. “The heart of the human race, the origin of their civilization, is
Earth.
That planet is one of their largest population centers, one of their most vital worlds.” He remembered the sting of how the Klikiss robots had been utterly defeated at the end of the Elemental War. It would be a long-overdue revenge.

Yes, there were plenty of reasons to choose Earth.

“We will bring our entire force there, destroy that planet, and leave its surface a smoking ruin. The death of Earth will signal the death of the human race.”

The inkblots paused, pulsing with their infinite shadows, and the central eyes brightened. “Our vessels, your robot soldiers, and your battleships are restored. We will proceed to destroy Earth.”

 

CHAPTER

39

TAL GALE'NH

Tal Gale'nh accompanied the Adar as they entered a bright conference chamber where Mage-Imperator Jora'h had called a war council. Prime Designate Daro'h was there, as well as Yazra'h and Muree'n.

The Adar wasted no time in issuing his report. “Thanks to increased production on numerous worlds, the Solar Navy is stronger than it has been since the height of the Elemental War.”

“Yet the shadows are stronger still,” Jora'h said. “They just proved it at Wythira, and with the mob of possessed attenders.”

“We know how to hurt them,” Gale'nh pointed out. “We inflicted great damage on the black robots at Kuivahr.”

His sister Muree'n interjected, “We destroyed them
all,
Liege. We saw it! There could not have been more than two or three robot survivors.”

Zan'nh straightened in his seat, obviously disturbed. “Yet hundreds of thousands of them struck Wythira. How is that possible? Are they being replenished?”

Gale'nh considered the englobing shell around Kuivahr and the much larger sphere that had surrounded the Onthos system. “Any beings that can swallow entire planets or star systems can certainly manufacture a few robots. We may be facing an infinite supply of enemies.”

Rememberer Anton asked, “What about the faeros? When they appeared over the Prism Palace, we seemed to have accomplished something. Will they help us?”

“We communicated with them, and I sense they are willing to fight our common enemy,” Jora'h agreed. “But how can I call upon them if I do not know where the shadows will strike next?”

The Prime Designate turned to the human historian. “The Shana Rei were defeated once before. Mage-Imperator Xiba'h forged an alliance with the faeros—how did they win?”

Rememberer Anton sighed and scratched his head. “I've read those ancient sections over and over, but the old rememberers were more interested in creating a legend than an accurate chronicle. A lot of vital information was edited out—such as the actual way they defeated the creatures of darkness. I'll keep studying the apocrypha, in hopes of finding something.”

While compiling astronomical records from across the Empire, Solar Navy patrols noted alarming changes in empty space. Many more shadow clouds had appeared out of nowhere, and instead of being transient as before, they remained like beachheads holding conquered territory throughout the Spiral Arm. And those dark nebulas were growing larger.

Gale'nh found it very disturbing. Not so long ago, he had believed that the Ildiran Empire was entering a new golden age. The
Kolpraxa
had been launched with great fanfare to open a new section of the galaxy. Instead, that grand expedition had encountered the first of the awakening shadow clouds. The
Kolpraxa
had provoked the creatures of darkness somehow. And now they were intent on destroying the Spiral Arm.