The dean had recently given him the most spacious office in the building. Its large windows looked out on the parklike courtyard and the Ildiran-inspired sculptures. Four unwashed coffee mugs sat on his desk. A plant a gift from someone? was brown and dead because hed neglected to water it.
At any moment, a big burning rock could hurtle through the atmosphere and obliterate the entire campus. He wasnt sure he cared.
Across the planet, the whole population lived with that fatalism. Some people had become dramatically religious; others responded with wild end-of-the-world hedonism. Many didnt know what to do. To Anton, no disaster seemed as significant as the death of Vaosh. He heaved a sigh. Hearing somebody at his door, he looked up from his desk.
For the first time in years, Anton saw his mother.
He stared, and Margaret stared back at him. Hello, Anton.
The silence stretched out for an impossibly long moment, and he finally blurted, Where have you been?
He couldnt remember doing so, but suddenly he was up from his desk and running to the office door. His mother seemed bony and rigid as he threw his arms around her. It was an automatic reaction; he couldnt recall the last time Margaret had given him a hug. His parents had always been so wrapped up in their archaeological pursuits that they didnt know how to deal with children, not even grown-up ones.
He continued, barely pausing for a breath. I looked for you! I begged Chairman Wenceslas to send search teams, and he did. I made inquiries, but then I went off to Ildira He shook his head, as if to rattle his thoughts back into place. It was so hard to get news there.
No one knew where I was, she said. I was too far away. Much too far. You always did enjoy epic stories, and Ive got one thats a saga and a half.
Whats it about? Will you tell it to me? Anton realized maybe he would be able to complete writing that long-planned biography after all.
Margaret seemed lost in thought. Where do I start? The black robots? How your father died on Rheindic Co? How I lived isolated among the Klikiss for years? How I finally came back home? She flashed him a strange smile. Remember that music box you gave me the one that played Greensleeves?
It was a present for your. anniversary? Birthday? He always had trouble figuring out what to get his mother, and he had bought it at the last minute. Although the little metal box hadnt cost much, it had appealed to him, and she had seemed pleased by the gift. You actuallykept that?
It saved my life. Its music was why the Klikiss didnt kill me, as they did the other human captives. She held his shoulders, studying him. You look sad.
Once again, he was at a loss for words. Weve both got some complicated stories to tell. He shook his head. There was a time when I thought being invited as the guest speaker to a conference was the most exciting thing I could aspire to. I liked to read about great heroes, not try to be one. Without realizing he was doing it, he suddenly found himself crying on her shoulder.
Margaret held him for a long while, and then took him by the arm. Is there a coffee shop on campus where we can talk?
He wiped his eyes. Well need more than a cup of coffee. How about we plan on having dinner together?
Margaret smiled as they walked down the hall. Tonight, and maybe for the next few nights. This wont be quick or easy.
115
Mage-Imperator Jorah
Drawing a deep breath of bitter air on the open landing bay with Del Kellum, Jorah stared out into the clouds, watching the stately Solar Navy ships. Osirah and Nira were also with him to observe the preparations to take the battle back to Ildira. Nearby, the hydrogue derelict sat waiting for whatever tests Kotto intended to perform, but his work on it as well as the Klikiss Siren had been preempted by their preparations to fight the faeros. The intense gear-up had been under way since the previous day.
After the war council meeting, Adar Zannh had returned to his flagship to oversee yet another round of practice runs. Warliners cruised back and forth in regimented formations, practicing maneuvers, performing intricate loops and close encounters, in training for their offensive against the faeros.
They never tire of flying in all those complicated patterns, do they? Kellum asked.
The Adar tells me these maneuvers help Ildiran pilots to hone their skills. As they watched, three warliners drove directly toward each other, nearly colliding, but then dodged with pinpoint accuracy.
Impressive enough, but when those ships go into actual battle, the rules of engagement wont have anything to do with fancy dance moves.
Jorah looked at the bearded man. At one time he would have disagreed out of sheer pride, but now he nodded slowly. Adar Zannh has been learning to adapt. But who has a training program to fight the faeros? This is a new kind of war for us.
For all of us, by damn.
They peered into the bottomless pit of calm clouds. Out there, Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni flitted about the cloud tops in their silvery vessel, coalescing water droplets and then flying back to the skymine.
The wental vessel returned to the open launching bay to deposit a large spill of energized water they had retrieved from the atmosphere. This should be enough to make a few dozen more ice projectiles, Jess said, emerging from his shimmering ship with Cesca.
The liquid flowed out onto the scuffed metal floor, and the wentals seemed to know what to do. The spreading puddle separated itself into smaller globules that formed pointed cylinders and then, in a flash of curling white steam, they spontaneously froze into icy artillery shells.
Kellum called a work team that used insulated gloves and tongs to distribute the frozen shells among the ships near the skymine, and Jess and Cesca flew off again to draw more traces of wentals from the clouds. By the time the ships were ready to go find the faeros, they would all be fully armed.
While the activities carried on all around them, Nira sent telink messages through her treeling to inform the Confederation of the plans the allies were making to fight the faeros on Ildira.
Jorah felt satisfied. We have waited a long time for this. And I am glad, very glad, that I maintained my faith in the Confederation and the Roamers, rather than trusting Chairman Wenceslas.
A cargo vessel loaded with hundreds of the new projectiles lumbered off across the sky to deliver them to the other skymines. Adar Zannh had already sent specifications to Kotto Okiah, so the Roamer engineer could create frozen wental shells for use in Ildiran projectile launchers. Soon, the Solar Navy would be armed with them as well.