K’davu
Una had planned for this moment for weeks. It had been the goal ever since her joining with the Rengru, since coming to understand what they were, and what they wanted. There was only one way, she had concluded, that the Boundless would ever accept what she had learned.
They had to be shown.
“The Rengru cannot communicate normally with others not of their kind,” she said. “It requires a physical union. They told me of what existed back here on K’davu, and how it had changed. When Lieutenant Connolly told me of your message from Eudah, Wavemaster Kormagan, I thought it was only right that the Rengru ask her to attend.”
Kormagan gawked at Eudah—and the other four riders, all Rengru-joined, each representing one of the five founding races of the Boundless. It could not be that Eudah, not possibly. But she had to find out. She spoke tentatively, voice quavering. “Thank you for what you are doing, daughter. The Rengru are destroying our lives.”
“Your duty honors all of us,” replied Eudah. She smiled. “I wrote those words. Long ago, to Virell, my beloved daughter, as she went off to space.”
Kormagan fell to her knees. “Greatmother?”
Eudah stepped forward and touched Kormagan’s forehead. “I see your face, and I see my child, from long ago.”
Kormagan looked up, eyes tearing. “How is it possible? You—”
“Should be dead by now. It could be said of this entire planet.” Eudah turned to look out at the alluvial plain. “After the First Wave left K’davu, the Rengru grew ever more frantic, rushing our continents. They knew something we did not: that our star above was about to enter a period of greater, more frequent radioactive emissions, intense even for this nebula. K’davu would have been completely cleansed of life—had it not been for the Rengru.”
“This has happened before,” said one of her companions, whose golden features were vaguely avian. “Many times, long before our recorded history. Our historians learn more about those times every day. The Rengru are driven now, as they were then, to find us when they know the time is coming—and to protect us.”
“Nonsense,” Quadeo snarled. One of the Vis-kal species, the wavemaster had vaguely lupine features, Una thought—and a temper. “Why would the Rengru do anything for us? What do they get out of it?”
“Your survival,” Una replied. “That is all they want. To help their neighbors in need.”
“It’s coadaptation,” Ghalka said, mesmerized. “Two species adapting, cooperatively, to deal with a change in the environment.” She looked to Eudah. “I’ve never seen it happen in so short a time frame. How long has the solar cycle been hostile to life?”
“Hundreds of years. I was here then. Our southern peoples came together as one to battle the Rengru, not knowing what they intended. When they did bond with individuals,” she said, clearly horrified, “we killed them before they could communicate. It takes months—sometimes much longer—for the bond to take hold. Few have minds organized well enough to adapt quickly.”
Pike chuckled. “They’d never met anyone who grew up with the Illyrians.”
Una moved past the praise. “It was an accident that they tried to bond with me at all. I have two legs. They just didn’t know the difference.”
Eudah went on. “After the space travelers departed, our defenses fell at last. They charged—and bonded with us. Enshrouding us, protecting us. Not in time to save all from the sun, but many. They have spent the last decades helping us rebuild our world so we can live on it.”
One of Eudah’s other escorts gestured to the Boundless battlesuits. “The Rengru are our own armor against death. When the rays are bad, they protect us doubly, with the structures you saw before.”
“And the joining offers other benefits,” Eudah said, “such as long life. But I must say I feared I would never see the day when our children returned.” She reached for Kormagan with one of her Rengru limbs.
Kormagan swatted it away. “No.”
She got to her feet. “I am not Virell. We are not the First Wave! Five hundred and more have come since, all trying to get back to you. All opposed by the Rengru!”
“Whom you were organized to fight,” Una said, thinking it was her responsibility to speak for them. “The Rengru don’t recognize much nuance on their own. There are only bipedal beings to be saved—and bipedal beings trying to stop them. Their initial fear had been that you would disrupt their work to save those left on K’davu. Once you had killed enough of them, they began building defenses—and extending their boundaries ever farther beyond K’davu. They constantly tried to bond with one of you, to communicate—”
“But you kept killing anyone that they ‘compromised,’ ” Connolly said.
Kormagan looked sharply at him. “You were with us.”
“Only to keep you from hurting people. And then to help my own.”
“Same difference.” Kormagan turned her wrath back on the natives. “The Rengru have technology. Why did you not have them send us a message?”
“Messages, here?” Pike asked. “You know how well they travel in this nebula.”
“And the Rengru would never understand the mission,” Una added. “They communicate like everyone else does in the Pergamum—locally. The will, the drive to transmit something like that would never have made it far. They had to find an agent.”
Kormagan wasn’t accepting it. She railed at Eudah. “Why didn’t one of you make the trip yourself? You could have found your daughter—before she gave her life in your name.”
Eudah gasped. “Did she? I had hoped—”
“She was one of the first to fall. She inspired all of us!”
“I—” Eudah’s words caught in her throat. “I would have left if I could. But the Rengru joining causes biological changes—changes that mount over a long term, binding us to this place. We could never survive parting from this world.”
“The Federation has medical experts,” Pike volunteered. “We could help with that.”
“Someone would have to ask. We are happy here.” Eudah nodded to her companions. “Our communion with the Rengru has enriched all our lives. No one has ever asked to be freed.”
“Of course not!” Quadeo grew enraged. “Who would, with eternal life on the line?” She faced Eudah. “So you left us out there to die, trying to save you from them!” She pointed to the Rengru crowning Eudah. “This has all been a mistake. It’s all been for nothing!”
“Not for nothing,” Eudah said, visibly unnerved by the conflict. “Yes, the war is a mistake—but it can end now. And you can all come home, and live with your people again!”
“Join you?” Quadeo spat. “Not if it means becoming like you. I would never accept existence in such a disgusting form!”
“You could not live here otherwise,” one of Eudah’s companions said. “Not unless you remained in your armor during the storms. Could you live like that?”
Connolly laughed. “They’ve done it for decades.”
“Silence,” Kormagan said, clearly fraught. “We will decide this ourselves!”
In unison, Pike and Una nodded to Connolly. This was a time to stand back. A family matter.
The oldest of the Boundless stepped forward. “I think I would try,” Barson said.
“What?” Quadeo blurted.
“I am old, child. The Thirty-Twos are the oldest of the surviving waves—yet they were the last stop for me. I entered service a hundred years before.” He looked to one of Eudah’s colleagues—a member of the Vis-kal species, like him. “I do not expect eternal life. But I would live among my people for the last days of it.”
“We are your people,” Quadeo shouted.
“Quiet. Let me think.” Kormagan looked long at Eudah—and then at her allies. She could read their faces; several were hypnotized by the cityscape. “I don’t think Barson will be alone in thinking that,” she said, “and I can see others of our people following along, once they know.”
“And you?” Eudah asked.
Kormagan shook her head. “I won’t stay here. I can’t be Boundless and accept a prison, no matter how wonderful it appears. But I will put the choice to the rest. If they come here, and you make your case, I will not interfere.”
Eudah nodded. “That is all we could ever ask.”
“A monster, a traitor, and an old fool,” Quadeo said. She got in Kormagan’s face. “Your command is ended. I’m going to find a way to go back and return with all the waves. And purge this misbegotten planet!”
“The Rengru will stop you,” Pike said. “With or without our help.”
“Then you will die too!”
Kormagan reached out and grabbed Quadeo’s metal collar, yanking her near. She growled as she shook her fellow wavemaster. “You will do as I say, little recruit. Or I will end your insults once and for all!”
Quadeo locked eyes with Kormagan—and appearing to see reality, nodded. Kormagan released her, and she staggered away—
—only to speak into her battlesuit’s collar. “Cargo pod twelve, deploy!” The armor’s caddy ejected a coconut-sized sphere, which escaped Quadeo’s hands and bounced on the rocky ground. She dove for it. Before anyone caught her, she reached it and twisted its halves.
“Freeze!” Pike commanded, activating a control as he did. Immobilized, Quadeo pitched forward, bruising her face in the dirt. “What have you got there?”
Una reached for the black item, fallen from Quadeo’s grasp. Kormagan hurried to her side—and confirmed what she had already surmised. “It’s a bomb!”