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Authors: Christie Golden
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toward Jake were definitely not conciliatory, he was only amused and curious as to the need for such secrecy.
“Before we begin,” said Kortanul, “it is imperative that you both swear that word of what transpires here goes no further.”
Jake and Adun nodded. Kortanul stepped forward to Jake, holding up his hand, palm facing out. Jake mirrored him. A gentle glow began to pulse between them and easily, naturally, their minds merged. So linked, Kortanul asked for Jake’s solemn promise. So linked, in a deep place within the Khala where he could not lie, where violation of this oath would result in swift punishment, Jake made the oath.
He watched, filled with apprehension, as Adun did likewise. Never before, in the centuries in which he had served, had anything like this been asked of him. He wondered what was so dire that the Conclave felt they had to resort tosuch measures to ensure loyalty from two whose loyalty had never once been questioned.
The members of the Conclave nodded, satisfied, and Jake and Adun were permitted to sit in the beautifully carved chairs that were usually reserved only for the Conclave. Jake noted that while they were lavish and opulent, set with crystals, inlaid with precious metals, and of a form pleasing to the eye, they were not very comfortable.
“We can either show you this information in a link or tell you,” Kortanul continued. “It is your choice, Adun. Though I will advise you that if this is merely told, you may find it hard to believe.”
“Speak,” Adun said. “If this is as portentous as you say, I would hear reasoned thoughts about it, not the emotions you feel toward it.”
Kortanul inclined his head. “As you wish, Executor.” Despite his words, he seemed deeply reluctant to speak. Adun and Jake waited patiently.
“Impossible as it may seem, there are those among us who would destroy everything we have sought to build over the last millennium. They—”
“We’re finally here,” Rosemary said, shaking Jake awake. “But boy, Professor, I’d talk to your travel agent of a protoss. This place doesn’t look at all like you described it to me.”
Jake woke up with a start. He’d slept wrong and had a terrible headache. He went to rub his temples and winced; he’d forgotten about the bump on the head he’d taken not that long ago. It took a second forRosemary’s words to register. He threw off the blanket and got to his feet, sitting down heavily and looking through the screen as Rosemary guided the ship into orbit around the homeworld of the protoss.
“Oh my God,” he breathed.
He had come expecting the verdant lands of Temlaa and Savassan, a world of lush rain forests and oceans, of gleaming cities and mysterious temples. But the planet that filled the screen had been horribly brutalized. With a sickening feeling, Jake beheld mammoth patches of blackened, charred earth. Here and there were what struck him as being pathetically small patches of green rain forest, although his rational mind realized they must stretch for hundreds of kilometers. What lakes there were looked brown and unhealthy. The oceans alone seemed to have escaped….
Jake’s mind flashed back to the dinner conversation he had had with Rosemary and the late Ethan Stewart. Ethan had said something about Aiur—but Jake had been more than a little the worse (or better) for the alcohol and focused on the sorbet.
The sorbet is indeed made from the juice of the sammuro fruit of Aiur,
Ethan had said.
Damned hard to find, even on the black market. This may be the only taste any terran may ever have of it.
“So that’s what Ethan meant,” he said, grief closing his throat. It was not Temlaa’s grief or Zamara’s he felt now, but his own—a nauseous sensation of loss and anger and disappointment.
Zamara—what happened?
The zerg found our homeland. You can see the remains of their infestation from here.
So that was what that somewhat shiny, crusty gray material that covered huge
“Before we begin,” said Kortanul, “it is imperative that you both swear that word of what transpires here goes no further.”
Jake and Adun nodded. Kortanul stepped forward to Jake, holding up his hand, palm facing out. Jake mirrored him. A gentle glow began to pulse between them and easily, naturally, their minds merged. So linked, Kortanul asked for Jake’s solemn promise. So linked, in a deep place within the Khala where he could not lie, where violation of this oath would result in swift punishment, Jake made the oath.
He watched, filled with apprehension, as Adun did likewise. Never before, in the centuries in which he had served, had anything like this been asked of him. He wondered what was so dire that the Conclave felt they had to resort tosuch measures to ensure loyalty from two whose loyalty had never once been questioned.
The members of the Conclave nodded, satisfied, and Jake and Adun were permitted to sit in the beautifully carved chairs that were usually reserved only for the Conclave. Jake noted that while they were lavish and opulent, set with crystals, inlaid with precious metals, and of a form pleasing to the eye, they were not very comfortable.
“We can either show you this information in a link or tell you,” Kortanul continued. “It is your choice, Adun. Though I will advise you that if this is merely told, you may find it hard to believe.”
“Speak,” Adun said. “If this is as portentous as you say, I would hear reasoned thoughts about it, not the emotions you feel toward it.”
Kortanul inclined his head. “As you wish, Executor.” Despite his words, he seemed deeply reluctant to speak. Adun and Jake waited patiently.
“Impossible as it may seem, there are those among us who would destroy everything we have sought to build over the last millennium. They—”
“We’re finally here,” Rosemary said, shaking Jake awake. “But boy, Professor, I’d talk to your travel agent of a protoss. This place doesn’t look at all like you described it to me.”
Jake woke up with a start. He’d slept wrong and had a terrible headache. He went to rub his temples and winced; he’d forgotten about the bump on the head he’d taken not that long ago. It took a second forRosemary’s words to register. He threw off the blanket and got to his feet, sitting down heavily and looking through the screen as Rosemary guided the ship into orbit around the homeworld of the protoss.
“Oh my God,” he breathed.
He had come expecting the verdant lands of Temlaa and Savassan, a world of lush rain forests and oceans, of gleaming cities and mysterious temples. But the planet that filled the screen had been horribly brutalized. With a sickening feeling, Jake beheld mammoth patches of blackened, charred earth. Here and there were what struck him as being pathetically small patches of green rain forest, although his rational mind realized they must stretch for hundreds of kilometers. What lakes there were looked brown and unhealthy. The oceans alone seemed to have escaped….
Jake’s mind flashed back to the dinner conversation he had had with Rosemary and the late Ethan Stewart. Ethan had said something about Aiur—but Jake had been more than a little the worse (or better) for the alcohol and focused on the sorbet.
The sorbet is indeed made from the juice of the sammuro fruit of Aiur,
Ethan had said.
Damned hard to find, even on the black market. This may be the only taste any terran may ever have of it.
“So that’s what Ethan meant,” he said, grief closing his throat. It was not Temlaa’s grief or Zamara’s he felt now, but his own—a nauseous sensation of loss and anger and disappointment.
Zamara—what happened?
The zerg found our homeland. You can see the remains of their infestation from here.
So that was what that somewhat shiny, crusty gray material that covered huge
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