Through the mental connection, he experienced the horror and pain, the astonishing and unwarranted destruction, the obliteration of the splinter colony. He felt the ekti-processing facility devastated by the hydrogues, and then the further massacre as Qul Aro’nh drove his fully crewed warliner on a suicide mission to destroy one of the alien warglobes. The Mage-Imperator endured the deaths of the soldiers and crew, and all of the slaughtered workers who had not been evacuated from the sky city.

He felt the defeat of the Ildiran Solar Navy.

And when he came back to himself, surrounded by stunned silence and confused fear in the throne room, the Mage-Imperator remained speechless. He was appalled by what the hydrogues had done. He wanted to howl his anguish, his anger and helplessness.

He had read the signs and known of the increasing threat from the legendary enemy, but he had looked upon the reappearance of the strange aliens as an opportunity. If managed correctly, the hydrogue aggression could have been used to rekindle the waning golden age of his Empire. But the Dobro experiments were not yet complete, and the Mage-Imperator doubted his plans could ever come to fruition now.

Ah, the agony in his soul!

With their attack on Qronha 3, the hydrogues had struck him to the heart. Now he feared that this war would bring about the destruction of not only the upstart Terrans … but the Ildiran Empire as well.

93: RAYMOND AGUERRA

93RAYMOND AGUERRA

OX had saturated Raymond’s brain with so much information the young man felt his skull would explode. And there seemed to be no end in sight. So much to learn, absorb, and memorize. If anything, the urgency of his training seemed to have increased.

After enduring so much tedious instruction and review, the wonders of the Whisper Palace had begun to fade, and Raymond’s restlessness was growing. He had not been outside to breathe fresh air or run through the streets in months. Though the Palace was vast, with many remarkable chambers and diversions, he thought longingly of the days when he had been able to slip unseen through the crowds that gathered for the King’s speeches. He liked to sneak a treat from a vendor’s stand, or walk home with a bouquet of fresh flowers for his mother.

His heart ached at the thought of her, not only because of the accustomed sadness, but because—with this one memory—he realized that OX’s lessons, the entertaining toys and games and fine food, had made him forget about his family. His mother and brothers had died in the terrible fire and explosion, and Raymond did not want to be distracted from the tragedy. Perhaps that had been the Chairman’s intention all along.