Kevin J. Anderson - Saga of Seven Suns 05 - Of Fire and Night

Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Of Fire and Night

The Saga of Seven Suns Book 05

Kevin J Anderson

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

BOOKS BY KEVIN J. ANDERSON

The Saga of Seven Suns

Available from Warner Aspect

Hidden Empire

A Forest of Stars

Horizon Storms

Scattered Suns

Of Fire and Night

Book 6 coming in July 2007

Available from Wildstorm/DC Comics

Veiled Alliances (graphic novel)

TO DEB RAY,

Who was a dear friend long before she became such a devoted fan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As the Saga grows, so does the list of people I rely upon. For help, advice, test reading, and hard work, I

thank Louis Moesta, Diane Jones, Catherine Sidor, and Geoffrey Girard. The official editorial team of

Jaime Levine, Devi Pillai, Ben Ball, and Melissa Weatherill did masterful work, as always. Stephen

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Youll and Chris Moore created fabulous covers for the U.S. and UK editions. My agents John

Silbersack, Robert Gottlieb, and Kim Whalen at Trident Media Group make sure the series keeps getting

the attention any author hopes for. And, as always, my wife Rebecca Moesta contributes more to my

writing, and my sanity, than even she realizes.

THE STORY SO FAR

The ongoing titanic war between the alien hydrogues and the faeros had already extinguished suns and

destroyed planets. Determined not to be trampled on the galactic battlefield, the various groups of

humans developed new weapons and forged powerful alliances.

The Hansa, led by Chairman Basil Wenceslas, ordered the Earth Defense Forces (EDF) to employ more

Klikiss Torches, the superweapon with which they had unwittingly triggered the hydrogue war eight

years earlier. The EDF also built armored "rammer" ships for suicide missions, crewing each rammer

with expendable Soldier compies and a token human commander (one of whom was the Roamer recruit

Tasia Tamblyn).

On the homefront, repeated failures drove Chairman Basil Wenceslas to make impulsive, often

damaging decisions. King Peter and Queen Estarra rebelled against Basil's authority, which increased

the animosity between the Chairman and the royal couple. When Basil ordered the Queen to terminate

her new pregnancy because the unexpected baby did not fit with his plans, she and Peter leaked news of

her condition to the media, through the secret assistance of Deputy Eldred Cain. With such an

outpouring of public joy, Basil could not force the Queen to have an abortion, but punished her

indiscretion by slaughtering Estarra's beloved pet dolphins.

The spoiled and uncooperative Prince Daniel--Basil's choice to be the next King--escaped from the

Whisper Palace. After quite a scandal, the Prince was recaptured and forced to make a public apology.

To keep Daniel from causing further trouble, Basil put him into a drug-induced coma, which

unfortunately left the Chairman without a replacement for King Peter.

With the Hansa's war against the hydrogues going badly, Chairman Wenceslas turned his military forces

against the Roamer clans, using the space gypsies as scapegoats. One major assault destroyed the

Roamer government center of Rendezvous, scattering the clans. EDF ships hunted down hidden Roamer

bases and sent prisoners off to the abandoned Klikiss planet Llaro.

Speaker Cesca Peroni hid out on the frozen mining base of Jonah 12, where miners uncovered and

inadvertently reactivated a nest of hibernating Klikiss robots buried beneath the ice. The robots went on

a rampage and destroyed the base. After Cesca succeeded in obliterating the scheming robots, she and

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

the young pilot Nikko Chan Tylar crashed their ship while trying to escape.

Meanwhile Cesca's love, Jess Tamblyn--fundamentally changed by watery elemental creatures called

wentals that inhabited his body--guided his volunteers to spread wental water across new planets. Along

with the verdani (the worldforest on Theroc), the wentals were age-old enemies of the hydrogues, who

had nearly exterminated them in an ancient war. By restoring the wentals, Jess created another powerful

ally in the fight against the deep-core aliens.

Jess went to the water mines on Plumas where his uncles had taken over the business. Here, years ago,

Jess's mother Karla had fallen into a crevasse and frozen to death. Using his wental powers, Jess found

and extracted her frozen body, hoping to give his mother a proper Roamer funeral. Delivering her to his

surprised uncles in a grotto under the frozen crust, Jess began to melt the ice around Karla. Before he

could finish, though, an urgent message alerted him to Cesca's peril on Jonah 12, and he sped away.

Finding Nikko's crashed ship, Jess engulfed it in his amazing wental vessel and raced to find help for

Cesca, who was injured and clearly dying.

The Roamer clans found other ways to survive. Cesca's father Denn Peroni helped establish an

independent trading base at Yreka, a colony cut off from all Hansa support and defenses. Denn also

traveled to the Ildiran Empire and met with the Mage-Imperator to reopen trade, once again bypassing

the Hansa.

In the rings of the gas giant Osquivel, Del Kellum and his lovely daughter Zhett ran a complex of

Roamer shipyards. The EDF had recently lost a tremendous battle with the hydrogues there, and among

the debris of the battlefield, Zhett found a small intact hydrogue derelict; her father immediately called

the brilliant Roamer scientist Kotto Okiah to study it. Kotto learned enough from the derelict to develop

a new weapon against the hydrogues: "doorbells" that would blow open a warglobe's hatches. With his

doorbells Kotto rushed off to Theroc, the likely target for the next hydrogue attack.

The Roamers also rescued a handful of EDF soldiers whose lifepods had been left behind by their

fleeing fleet, as well as many sophisticated new Soldier compies, which were reprogrammed and put to

work in the Osquivel shipyards. Zhett helped nurse the POWs back to health, paying particular attention

to surly Patrick Fitzpatrick III; because of the hostilities between the Roamers and the Hansa, the POWs

could not be sent home. Fitzpatrick and his comrades, including Dr. Kiro Yamane (a specialist in Soldier

compies), searched for a way to escape. While romance grew between Fitzpatrick and Zhett, Yamane

found a way to make the Soldier compies go berserk in the shipyards. As part of an escape plan,

Fitzpatrick lured Zhett to a romantic rendezvous, tricked her, and stole a ship to get away while the

Soldier compies created a diversion. The compies, far more destructive than Yamane expected,

systematically detroyed the Roamer facility.

Fitzpatrick's powerful grandmother Maureen was a former Hansa Chairman. After hearing that her

grandson had been killed in action at Osquivel, she rallied the relatives of other fallen soldiers and flew

to the ringed gas giant to establish a memorial. She was shocked to stumble upon the extensive hidden

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Roamer shipyards, now thrown into turmoil because of the unleashed Soldier compies. During a tense

standoff, Fitzpatrick appeared and then angered his grandmother by speaking on behalf of clan Kellum;

he brokered a cease-fire by giving the EDF ships the hydrogue derelict Kotto had been studying. As

EDF ships took the POWs back home, Zhett and the other Roamers slipped away. Fitzpatrick doubted

he would ever see her again.

General Lanyan, the frustrated commander of the EDF, wanted to make an example of someone. With

dwindling recruits, he had no choice but to produce huge numbers of Soldier compies (all of them

carrying Klikiss-robot programming modules) and to distribute them across the fleet. He was pleasantly

surprised when a deserter--Branson "BeBob" Roberts--came to Earth bearing two survivors he had

rescued from a devastated Hansa colony. The survivors, a girl named Orli Covitz and an old man named

Hud Steinman, told a wild tale that marauding Klikiss robots and Soldier compies had destroyed their

settlement. General Lanyan sent a team to investigate these preposterous claims, but he was much more

interested in court-martialing BeBob for desertion.

The trader Rlinda Kett called in all her favors to help BeBob, but it did no good. The trial was a sham,

and BeBob's sentence was a foregone conclusion. To their surprise, though, the spy Davlin Lotze helped

them escape. BeBob and Rlinda flew off in her ship, the Voracious Curiosity, while Davlin led the EDF

pursuers on a wild-goose chase, faking his own death. Just when Rlinda and BeBob thought they were

safe, they ran into a group of inept Roamer "pirates" at the ice moon Plumas. Rlinda and BeBob's ship

was seized, and they were held in the water mines while the Roamers figured out what to do with them.

When he'd gone to rescue Cesca, Jess Tamblyn did not realize that he had unwittingly dispersed a

corrupted spark of wental energy into his mother's partially thawed body. Karla came alive, but was no

longer human. Offhandedly killing one of Jess's uncles, she began to move toward the others, while

Rlinda and BeBob watched in horror.

On Theroc, the recovering worldforest created a wooden golem of the green priest Beneto to act as a

spokesman and to prepare the worldtrees for another hydrogue attack. Beneto's sister Sarein, the Hansa

ambassador, arrived on behalf of Chairman Wenceslas, secretly hoping to become the new ruler of

Theroc. When she did not succeed in that plan, she convinced green priests to spread among the

orphaned Hansa colonies and establish a communications network.

When the hydrogues did arrive at Theroc, hoping to destroy the worldforest, unexpected allies came to

stand against the enemy: Kotto Okiah destroyed many warglobes with his new "doorbell" weapon. And

a living comet infused with wentals crashed into the hydrogues, finally defeating them. Though they

were driven off, the hydrogues now knew that the supposedly extinct wentals had returned to the fight.

In the aftermath, the golem of Beneto received an awesome armada of spacefaring "verdani battleships"--

huge thorny trees intent on defending the worldforest.

Meanwhile, the insidious Klikiss robots worked their quiet plans for conquest. When Admiral Stromo

went to Orli Covitz's devastated colony world, following up on the survivors' reports, he uncovered

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

evidence that robots were indeed responsible for the massacre.

Tasia Tamblyn, responding to an ongoing hydrogue attack on a Hansa skymine at Qronha 3, led the

sixty compy-crewed rammer ships. The boss of the skymine, Sullivan Gold, evacuated his people and

also rescued a great many Ildirans from a nearby facility. Before Tasia's rammers could arrive, Sullivan

was already flying away with the Ildirans, and they were intercepted by Solar Navy ships. When Tasia's

rammers finally reached the gas giant, the Soldier compies turned on her and captured Tasia and her

personal compy EA. Joining with Klikiss robots, they seized the rammer fleet for themselves and

intended to use the ships against humanity.

Klikiss robots had also attacked the few people remaining on the Ildiran resort world of Maratha. The

scholar Anton Colicos, his friend Rememberer Vao'sh, and a small group found themselves stranded on

the nightside of the planet, facing a long overland journey. Not knowing the robots were the culprits, the

ragtag band of Ildirans blamed mythical creatures called the Shana Rei, which were the subject of many

tales in the Saga of Seven Suns. When Anton and his companions reached the supposed refuge of Secda,

they found it overrun with armies of Klikiss robots. Anton and Vao'sh barely escaped in a small ship and

flew away, alone. But for Ildirans, solitude leads to madness. During their long flight to Ildira, Anton

tried to keep Vao'sh occupied, but the old rememberer degenerated into a near-mindless state by the time

they arrived. Safe in the Prism Palace at last, Anton tried to nurse his friend back to health.

The Ildiran Empire, meanwhile, was rocked by a civil war led by Hyrillka Designate Rusa'h and the

Mage-Imperator's own son Thor'h. After suffering a head injury, Rusa'h was cut off from the telepathic

thism that bound their race together. Filled with delusions of grandeur, he created an independent thism

web and spread a bloody rebellion, forcing other Designates to surrender and accept his brainwashing.

Adar Zan'nh brought a group of Solar Navy warliners to quell the revolt, but those ships also fell under

the mad Designate's control, and Zan'nh was taken prisoner.

When Rusa'h tried to convert his devious brother Dobro Designate Udru'h, he thought he had found a

willing partner. Leaving the impressionable young Designate-in-waiting Daro'h in charge, Udru'h set up

a trap and a betrayal that led to Rusa'h's downfall and the end of his rebellion. Hyrillka was recaptured

by Mage-Imperator Jora'h, and the traitorous Thor'h was seized. But the mad Designate fled, flying

directly into Hyrillka's primary sun. In the last moment before Rusa'h's ship was consumed, a group of

flaming faeros rose up and surrounded him, carrying him into the star.

The faeros and hydrogues continued their constant war, smothering one of the seven suns of Ildira. Now

was the time for the Mage-Imperator to try his special "weapon"--his own half-breed daughter, Osira'h.

With the girl's special telepathic powers, Jora'h hoped she could call the hydrogues and get them to

reaffirm an ages-old nonaggression agreement. Osira'h, who had learned the truth of Dobro's human-

Ildiran breeding program from her green priest mother Nira, experienced mixed loyalties and confusion,

not sure whom to believe. Still, she did her duty and rode in a protective chamber down into Qronha 3 to

communicate with the hydrogues.

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Back in Ildira, with the civil war over, the Mage-Imperator was shocked when Udru'h revealed that

Jora'h's beloved Nira was alive after all. Still in love with the green priest, the Mage-Imperator

demanded that she be freed and returned to him at once. But when Udru'h went to the island on Dobro

where he'd kept Nira prisoner, he discovered that the green priest had escaped and was nowhere to be

found! Before Jora'h could learn this, though, Osira'h returned to Ildira with a huge armada of hydrogue

warglobes, all of them looming over the Prism Palace. Now Jora'h had to face the hydrogues, knowing

that if he failed to make a convincing case, the deep-core aliens would destroy his entire world.

1

KING PETER

A heavy transport bearing the Earth Defense Forces logo settled onto the Whisper Palace plaza to the

sound of cheering almost loud enough to drown out the landing jets. An honor guard carved a safe

corridor through enthused spectators toward the shuttle and laid down a purple carpet for King Peter and

Queen Estarra.

Taking steps in perfect synchronization with hers, the young King spoke from the corner of his mouth so

none of the professional eavesdroppers could hear. "I so rarely get to announce good news that isn't an

outright lie."

Well aware that Chairman Basil Wenceslas was watching and ready to respond if they made the slightest

wrong move, Estarra answered with equal caution. "We've had to report the deaths of soldiers far too

often. Greeting genuine returning heroes is a vast improvement."

No one had expected to find EDF soldiers alive this long after the battle of Osquivel; the missing men

and women had been presumed killed by the alien hydrogues. Now, blinking in the Palace District's

sunshine, thirty survivors hurried down the debarkation ramp, jostling each other as if they couldn't wait

to drink in the air of Earth. All of the smiling refugees wore new uniforms provided by the rescue crew.

According to reports, they had immediately ejected the clothing given to them by their Roamer captors

(or was it "hosts"? Peter wondered) out the disposal chutes.

Barely able to contain the ecstatic mob, the guards let the corralled VIP relatives and selected loved ones

forward. During the return voyage, former Chairman Maureen Fitzpatrick had transmitted the names of

the POWs. Excited families bounced from one rescued survivor to another until, like puzzle pieces, the

right ones interlocked with hugs, joyous shouts, and mutual weeping.

Despite this glowing reception, Peter knew the Hansa government was thoroughly embarrassed to find

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

anyone there. The EDF's clash with the hydrogues at Osquivel had been an utter disaster and a frenzied

retreat. Many wounded soldiers were left to die aboard disabled vessels and unclaimed lifepods. But a

band of Roamers had rescued some of them. Maureen Fitzpatrick and families of the fallen had gone to

the ringed gas giant with the intent of establishing a memorial, and by sheer coincidence had

encountered the Roamer shipyard and secured the hostages' return.

Without question, many more soldiers could have been rescued if the panicked EDF hadn't abandoned

them. Once the heady celebration was over, people would begin asking questions. Basil, you certainly

have egg on your face, Peter thought and realized that that was when the Chairman proved most

dangerous.

Behind his eyes he saw a memory-flash of bloodied water, butchered dolphins, lifeless glassy eyes of the

once-playful sea mammals: Basil had not reacted well to the leaked news of the Queen's unsanctioned

pregnancy. Peter could not get the smell of blood and saltwater out of his nostrils.

"Keep to the schedule," Basil's voice scolded from his tiny ear microphone. "This is taking too long."

He squeezed Estarra's hand and faced the transport, waiting for the main event. Sensing an even greater

spectacle, the crowd grew quiet. The cargo doors cracked open with a thud and a groan, metal sliding

against metal. Interior floodlights shone with a glow like banked fires. Soldiers and cargo handlers used

lifting apparatus and gravity-reducers like wranglers transporting a chained prehistoric monster. A small

hydrogue derelict.

Roamers had found the dead ship drifting in the rings of Osquivel after the great battle. Though this

scout vessel was less than ten meters in diameter, the crowd drew in a near-simultaneous gasp of

amazement and fear.

As lifters lowered the derelict to the ground, Maureen Fitzpatrick approached Peter and Estarra with her

grandson, one of the thirty refugees, and shook the King's hand as if he were a business partner. As a

former Chairman, Maureen understood both how little power Peter truly wielded and the necessity of

playing the game. "Sire, we had to let the Roamers escape in exchange for this derelict. I hope you agree

it was an acceptable bargain."

"I'm sure the Roamers won't cause us any particular harm." He considered the recent aggression against

them to be a deadly distraction that wasted vital military resources. Another one of Basil's boondoggles.

"You made the right decision. Now we have an intact enemy ship to study. I will see to it that both of

you receive recognition for your service."

Pleased to be in the limelight again, Maureen looked like a plump cat that had just swallowed a whole

mouthful of canaries.

Estarra looked at the quiet young grandson of the old Chairman. "You seem distracted, Mr. Fitzpatrick.

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Are you well?"

"Sorry--I was . . . thinking about someone."

"All this talk about Roamers must be distressing to him." Maureen touched the young man's arm. "He

and the rest of the EDF survivors deserve a long furlough, King Peter--if I can convince General Lanyan

of that."

Hansa scientists hurried into the security zone, eager to get their hands on the alien ship. Engineering

Specialist Lars Rurik Swendsen was like a child unwrapping the largest present at a birthday party. "Just

look at it! It's perfect. And if its systems work, we should be able to build counterparts using similar

technology. This could be the biggest advance since producing Soldier compies from Klikiss robot

designs, or . . . or the Klikiss transportals themselves. Just think of it!" The tall Swede looked as if he

might start dancing.

Maureen interjected, "We've also secured detailed notes and logbooks from tests performed by a Roamer

engineer. Some of the data may be useful."

Dignitaries came forward to have their images taken beside the hydrogue ship. With so much

disheartening news lately, media reporters would seize upon this happy story, just as they had repeated

the unofficial announcement of the Queen's pregnancy.

Even so, this small derelict was a grim reminder that the hydrogues could strike Earth at any time.

However, Peter thought of Basil lurking behind shadows in the Palace, it would be refreshing to confront

an enemy who isn't afraid to face you.

2

ADMIRAL LEV STROMO

The Manta shot across space to rescue any surviving "dunsel" commanders from the rammer fleet. By

now, the sixty kamikaze ships should have smashed the drogues at Qronha 3.

The cruiser's Ildiran stardrive was pushed to its maximum; sweating engineering crews and their Soldier

compy counterparts monitored all systems, wary of overloads. Admiral Stromo was seventeen hours

behind schedule--before launch, he had insisted on going through every checklist and prep report, as if

this were merely a training mission instead of a rushed interception--but the escape pods should have

plenty of air, food, and water to last the six token human dunsels for at least another day, maybe two.

Stromo had plenty of time.

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Anderson, Kevin J. - [Saga of Seven Suns 05] - Of Fire and Night

Itching for a chance to deploy the EDF's new rammers, General Lanyan had seized the chance when

hydrogues attacked a Hansa cloud harvester at Qronha 3. Crewed almost entirely by Soldier compies,

the massive reinforced vessels were built for the sole purpose of crashing. By design, the token human

commanders should have been able to eject to safety, and the retrieval Manta would pick them up. The

operation had looked perfectly good on paper.

The Admiral slept soundly in his private cabin, leaving administrative details to the officer-in-charge.

When the wake-up alarm buzzed, he grumbled that a grid admiral should be allowed a few extra hours

of rest. He climbed out of his padded bunk, rubbed his eyes, and got ready for his shift. He was expected

to provide a good example for his troops, though he would rather have stayed home. Stromo's particular

skills were in the areas of bureaucracy, politics, and paperwork. Other EDF officers must be eager to

make a name for themselves and get a promotion. Wouldn't one of them have been a better choice for

the job?

Nevertheless, he was here. He had his orders. He wanted to finish up and go back.

Stromo splashed his face with water from the small basin. When he rubbed his cheeks, he felt a touch of

stubble, but decided he could wait another day before taking his anti-beard-growth hormone. The pills

often made his stomach queasy, but shaving was a nuisance.

After putting on a clean uniform, he leaned closer to the mirror, increased the magnification. The heavy

jaw and round neck showed an unsightly extra chin that matched his growing paunch; even his eyes

were puffy, and not from lack of sleep. Maybe he should start an exercise regimen, when he had spare

time.

Stromo had never intended to go back into combat, never thought he'd need to be a rock-hard soldier

again. But since the hydrogues, few things in his life had gone the way he'd wanted them to. He was

aware of much snickering at his expense, the insulting nickname of "Stay-at-Home Stromo" because he

preferred a desk job to real military work. But there came a time when the desire for comfort and

predictability superseded pride and ambition.

The glowing digits on the bulkhead wall reminded him that he had only a few minutes to get to the

bridge if he meant to be there when the cruiser reached Qronha 3. He should be sitting in the command

chair for the important part of this bothersome mission. He combed his short iron-gray hair, took a deep

breath, and adjusted his bar of medals (most of them awarded for length of service or for being in the

right place at the right time). Ready for duty.

He moved at a brisk pace down the corridor, back straight, shoulders square, chin pushed forward as if

he were power-walking for exercise. He passed a dozen Soldier compies and nodded a greeting out of

habit. He was not surprised that they did not salute or respond. Unlike Friendly-model compies, such

niceties were not part of the required military programming.

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Kevin J. Anderson - Saga of Seven Suns 05 - Of Fire and Night

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