The robots bombarded the area until it was a glassy molten field. The transportal itself was more durable and required six overflights and heavy blasts before the trapezoidal wall came down as well. No one would be able to depart from Eljiid now.
Exxos took pride in showing the Shana Rei what his robots could do, and the creatures of darkness were satisfied to eliminate even this small cluster of intelligent life, which eased the clamor in the universe by a small degree.
Although the Shana Rei cooperated, they considered this an insignificant part of the battle. They were aware of an even more titanic sentience that terrified them, made them feel helpless, but Exxos didn’t understand it. The shadow creatures claimed something tremendously powerful was awakening in the cosmos. It had maddened and provoked the Shana Rei, driving them out of hiding. Whatever it was, Exxos felt sure he could help them destroy it… or at least he and his robots could survive until the Shana Rei themselves were destroyed. If the tides of battle shifted, maybe the robots would find a way to ally themselves with this powerful new force. Exxos would keep his plans flexible.
The Shana Rei were chaos incarnate, violent but disorganized, and could not develop long-term plans. Exxos, though, could create much more intricate schemes, look at an overall strategy. He had convinced the Shana Rei to fear, or at least respect, the robots. While drifting in the black void, Exxos had proposed grand schemes, extolling how his robots could assist the shadow creatures in obliterating life. He made up more extravagant lies.
And the Shana Rei believed him, for now.
When their initial annihilation was finished, the robot ships landed in the smoking ruins of the research camp. Exxos and his comrades filed out, scuttling forward on clusters of fingerlike legs. They inspected the charred bodies of the human colonists and used metallic pincers to tear apart a few who still groaned and tried to crawl away. Exxos declared the settlement lifeless before he and his robots moved toward the abandoned Klikiss city to finish their work.
A thick briarpatch of Whistler cactus had grown up around the base of the ruins, and the hollow thorny growths moaned and hummed, as if the smoking devastation had changed their tune. When the robots set fire to the Whistler grove, the roaring flames and rising heat made the fluting sounds even more shrill. The Shana Rei seemed even more pleased when the Whistlers fell silent.
Exxos and his companions entered the ruined city. Millennia ago, when the Klikiss had created their sophisticated robots, they gave them personalities, emotions; they also designed the robots to feel pain, weakness, and defeat—simply so the malicious Klikiss could torment them. How could the insect race have been surprised when their own robots turned on them?
Now, when Exxos came upon the numerous mummified bodies left behind in the final swarming, the black robots remembered the awful tortures that had been inflicted upon them. Unified in their rage, they fell upon the Klikiss corpses and tore them to pieces with snapping pincer claws.
The violence did little to salve their hatred, and the mutilation seemed petty when compared with the grand cosmic plans of the Shana Rei to eradicate all sentient life. Exxos was pleased nevertheless. After destroying the Klikiss towers, the black robots flew away into the greasy smoke that rose from the Whistler grove and the blackened human settlement.
The ships returned to the simmering shadow cloud and rejoined the enormous hex ships, which withdrew into the swirling nebula. As the Shana Rei erased their newly manifested ships from existence, uncreating the raw matter, their own pain decreased.
When the shadow cloud departed from Eljiid, it left a very quiet place in its wake.
SEVENTY-EIGHT
OSIRA’H
Even though Osira’h and her siblings could not feel the same affinity with the worldforest as a green priest did, they knew their mother took great solace among the trees. Because Nira longed to help poor Gale’nh, she asked him to meet her in the lush greenhouse on top of the Prism Palace. She wanted to see if the verdani could help.
Osira’h accompanied her brother, leading him up the glowing corridors to the rooftop. Gale’nh seemed so empty and fragile, as if the depths of the shadow remained inside him. Osira’h shared her own thoughts with her brother, whatever energy she could dredge up from her mind, but Gale’nh’s close connection with his halfbreed siblings had been damaged. Nevertheless, alone he had found an inner strength, a way of propping himself up so that he could move through the days.
The grove of tall worldtrees in the rooftop garden stood invigorated by the seven Ildiran suns. The treelings, planted there many years ago, now served as the point of contact for green priests with the rest of the Spiral Arm. The worldtree fronds whispered together.
Nira waited for them by the trees, her skin a bright, rich green. She smiled, but Osira’h could see the concern hidden just beneath the expression. Her fingertips touched the gold-scaled bark of the nearest tree. Nira closed her eyes briefly and let her thoughts flow into the verdani mind, then she sighed and reached out to take Gale’nh’s hand, drawing him close, as if completing a circuit.
“I will help you in any way I can,” she said.
Gale’nh held her hand, but remained unmoved, clearly feeling nothing from the green priest’s contact. “If I knew a way you could help, Mother, I would accept it.” He released her grip, ran his own hand over the trunk of the tree, but he didn’t seem to find what he was looking for.
Osira’h took her brother’s hand and grasped her mother’s, trying harder. As she concentrated, she did feel the innate power of the worldtrees, a presence that connected the vast forest across the entire Spiral Arm.
“Sometimes we can share strength,” Gale’nh said, “and sometimes we’re all alone. I was there all alone aboard the Kolpraxa. My entire crew included hundreds of Ildirans woven together with their thism—but that didn’t give them enough strength to stand against the shadow cloud.”
His entire body shuddered. Osira’h squeezed his hand harder. Nira’s eyes widened as if she caught a hint of what he was seeing inside his mind.
“The blackness didn’t understand us either,” Gale’nh continued, as if the memories were growing sharper in his mind. “It engulfed us, devoured us—and found all of my crew wanting. I watched Rememberer Ko’sh standing in terror, shouting that it was the Shana Rei. He raised his fist, howled for them to go back to the void—and then he disappeared. Uncreated.” His voice hitched. “I used everything I had, gathering those closest to me. I tried to protect them, tried to hold on to them, but I felt them fade, as if they were bled down to nothing.” He blinked at Nira. “I want to say that I was stronger than the others, Mother… but I think I was just different. I could feel the thism being torn up all around me. The mental threads snapped. There was nothing I could do.” He hung his head.
“You survived,” Nira said. “You came back to us. You’re still here.”
Osira’h added her encouragement as well. “You’re the only one who has touched the Shana Rei. You’ll remember something. You know something.”
Gale’nh shook his head. “What if I brought back some residue with me? When Rememberer Ko’sh told the stories, I thought he was just trying to frighten my crew, but maybe he wanted to prepare them for what was out there. He couldn’t prepare them enough.”
Neither Osira’h nor Nira had an answer for him.