Jora’h could not tear his eyes from the thermal pummeling of the Moon. “And lead all the faeros directly back there? Rusa’h wantsme,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 comfortingthism 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 theSaga of Seven Suns. Though the students and professors had studied the alien race and culture, they had never seen an actual rememberer perform before.

At first, the old historian had seemed pleased to have such enthusiastic audiences, but no matter how well the academic elite treated him, Vao’sh never forgot why and how he was here. And neither did Anton. Anger and resentment always remained in the background of his thoughts. There were no justifications for the Chairman’s behavior, but no one would listen to the outrage of a mere scholar or an alien storyteller.

Over the past several days, the old rememberer had begun to weaken visibly. Seeing his friend’s anxiety and nervousness, Anton did his best to support him, just as when the two of them were drifting alone in space following their escape from the Klikiss robots on Maratha. Even with his newfound strength and certitude, having survived the isolation madness once already, Vao’sh found it difficult to grasp the tenuous strands ofthism when his people were so far away. The Moon was not so close after all.

Maintaining appearances as best they could, they departed from a lecture hall that had been filled to capacity with fascinated listeners. Anton and the rememberer had stayed for an appropriate amount of time to greet friends and colleagues. Vao’sh was such a consummate performer that few others would have noticed his uneasiness, but Anton was attuned to how much his friend was hurting. He was amazed by Vao’sh’s strength and adored his determination. He was sure no normal Ildiran could have survived.

Outside the lecture hall they found the students and teachers abuzz, shocked by something that was occurring in the news. Emergency announcements blared from a current-events transmission screen mounted on the wall of a student lounge. Anton had seen plenty of emergencies lately, but this one must be different from the usual Hansa propaganda, judging by the reaction of the university audience.

Vao’sh stared at a sequence of long-distance images that showed a group of Ildiran warliners fleeing from the lunar base. He quickly understood what was going on. “The Solar Navy is rescuing the Mage-Imperator, and I am here.” He turned meaningfully toward Anton.“And I am here.”

Anton caught his breath. “They’ll come back for you. They have to. You’re an important rememberer.”

“I am expendable. They have come only for the Mage-Imperator.”

“The Ildirans are attacking our Moon!” cried a blustery professor. “Do they think they can get away with that? How dare they!”

Anton snapped at him, “We kidnapped their leader and held him hostage. How did you expect the Solar Navy to respond?”

One young female student shook her head sadly. “They shouldn’t have resorted to war. We never need to resort to war. Diplomacy could have solved the problem.”

Next, the situation became worse, much worse, as the faeros attacked, then destroyed the Moon itself.

The crowd fell speechless, quickly forgetting their indignation toward the Solar Navy. Several of them dropped into chairs, unable to stand. Vao’sh stared at the screen, all color draining from his facial lobes. Images from Conrad Brindle’s battle group showed the fragmented, glowing-hot rubble of the Moon driven in all directions by the liberated energy. The EDF ships had to retreat swiftly with shields on full power as they were pummeled by flying debris.

The old rememberer looked at the black emptiness of stars into which the Solar Navy warliners had disappeared. Anton turned to his friend with tears in his eyes. The others certainly misinterpreted the reason for his weeping.

In a devastatingly flat tone, Vao’sh said, “I am the only Ildiran in the entire solar system.”

102

Nikko Chan Tylar

Nikko Chan Tylar was pleased to be flying theAquarius again on a mission as one of Jess Tamblyn’s water bearers, and this time his father accompanied him. Crim was glad to be safely away from Llaro, both from the Eddies and from the bugs. He didn’t seem too sure, however, about taking instructions from his son. “At least let me help with the navigation, Nikko. Admit it; that was never your strong point.”

Nikko blushed. “Okay, I admit it.”

“And we can’t afford any lost time. In fact, I’ll even pilot the ship if you want. Go take a nap or do some homework.”

“I completed my schooling five years ago.”

“Nobody ever completes schooling. You can always keep learning.”

“You never wanted to pilot a ship before. Come to think of it, when you worked in our greenhouse domes, I don’t think you liked it there either.”