Webdancers by Brian Herbert Page A

soldiers or the highly unusual ships, so nothing could be done about it.
    Might that be the additional menace he sensed now? He let the question sink in. No, he decided. The threat came from something else.
    Just ahead he saw the rear of the podship fleet. The larger and more impressive Webdancer was out in front, leading the others. At the immense rate of speed that Noah had attained, the fleet seemed to be traveling slowly through space, and he caught up with it easily. None of the vessels noticed him, and as he neared he found himself hurtling out of the sectoid chamber toward Webdancer , and back into the anteroom he’d been in before embarking on this strange journey.
    Moments later he was standing in that room, staring through the doorway into a gray-green wash of light.
    And abruptly, as if emerging from a trance, Noah jerked to awareness and hurried across the corridor, to the room occupied by Anton, Nirella, and Subi. The three of them sat at a table, engaged in intense conversation. At first they didn’t notice him enter. Then Subi called attention to him, and they all looked at Noah in a similarly odd manner, leaning close and squinting their eyes. Under their intense scrutiny Noah felt warm. Drops of perspiration formed on his brow.
    “I sense a terrible danger out there,” Noah said, at last. He could hardly get the words out.
    “Are you feeling all right?” Nirella asked. She wore a red uniform with gold braids and insignia, designating her rank as Supreme General of the MPA armed forces. But now she conducted herself more like a caring woman than a military commander, looking at him with concern and urging him to sit down.
    He resisted her efforts and pulled his arm away from her grasp. “I’m fine. Listen to me. I sense an additional threat, more powerful than anything else we’ve ever seen or discussed.”
    “But what?”
    “I can’t say, but it’s out there, and seems like even more than the disintegration of the galactic infrastructure.”
    “It can’t be military,” Nirella said. “We’ve defeated the Parviis, and the Mutatis don’t have anywhere near the power we have now. We control all the podships, so we can go and attack their planets at anytime.”
    “It’s not Parviis or Mutatis,” Noah said. “Or any other galactic race. It’s something else entirely. I think … I fear … that it’s beyond anything we’re able to comprehend.”
    “For hours we’ve been in range of deep-space nehrcom relay stations,” Anton said, “and the reports from our planets are all good. Nothing significant is happening in our sector, or anywhere near it.”
    “Maybe it’s only the infrastructure after all,” Noah said. He slumped into a comfortable chair that the podship had created, off to one side. He smiled grimly. “ Only the infrastructure. As if that isn’t enough.”
    “The repair and restoration of the galactic network needs to be our top priority,” the young doge insisted.
    “I don’t dispute that,” Noah said. “I just wish we’d get to the starcloud faster so we can get on with it.”
    But no one in the room had any idea what was really occurring. Or the fact that HibAdu conspirators were using their own technology to relay false nehrcom messages. In actuality, a terrible thing had happened, which Noah and his companions would soon discover.…

Chapter Fifteen
    We are a galactic race that no one has ever noticed. Doesn’t the intelligence of our members—at least the best of us—compare favorably with that of any recognized galactic race? Admittedly, we look different from any of them, and we don’t have their cellular structures, but who’s to say that a galactic race has to be biological? Whey can’t it be mechanical instead, with metal and plax parts, and computer circuitry?
    —From one of Thinker’s private data banks
    Unable to move, Ipsy watched as a mechanical claw reached for the remains of a large, dented unit that had once been the central processing