Jassilane searched through what he knew of the motivations behind the strange things that humans did. “Out of revenge?’-’ he guessed. “To get even with the authorities? Or was it to assert your identification with an ideological principle that you saw as being violated?”
“No. For the money.”
They found a connector combination that matched. Jassilane began fitting it together, while Keshen used the console to isolate one of the satellite’s primary downlink beams. The neat thing about the way they were doing it, he thought as he worked, was that JEVEX could check all it wanted to for somebody trying to break into it; it
wouldn’t find anything. VISAR would be connected, via the satellite, to one of the surface nodes—wherever it was located—that Eubeleus himself had ordered to be shut down, and which wouldn’t activate again until JEVEX itself opened its channels to Jevlen for the invasion. It was a bit like dressing the robbers up as the security guards, and waiting for the bank to call them in.
The pervasion of the Voice seemed to fade, and Ethendor felt another presence taking form in his mind, somehow colder and more remote, aloof and dominating. “Does the Prophet hear?”
Ethendor looked upward in reverence. “Is this the Great Spirit who comes at last to this unworthy servant?”
“It is. I see and hear through you, and shall be your soul Go forward now to the people and proclaim to them that the moment that was promised is at hand. Now will the sun shine, and when the day returns, the currents shall come down to you again.”
Visions of Hyperia came to Ethendor. Moving slowly in a semi-trance, he raised his arms high and advanced to the edge of the platform at the top of the steps, while the priests who had been performing the devotions parted to let him pass. An expectant hush swept over the crowd below. The priests on either side and slightly to the rear of him assumed attitudes of prayer and waited.
“The time is upon us!” Ethendor’s voice thundered across the silent throng. “All of our patience, our sufferings, our labors against the unbelievers, and our unwavering faith will be rewarded. The Great Spirit from beyond has come into me, and now I proclaim to you that the Awakening is to begin.” He stretched his arms high and threw back his head. “Let the sun shine again and the days return upon Waroth! And then shall the currents descend that shall carry the multitudes to Hyperia!”
In the gloom, the entire mass of the crowd lightened as thousands of faces turned upward simultaneously.
And in the sky above, the sun began to brighten.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
A mighty roar of cheers, shouts, songs, and praises swept over the crowd as the twilight turned to day and the city stood revealed in its full extent and color. To Hunt’s eyes it was a strange mixture of classical colonnades, spires and minarets of a vaguely Eastern flavor, and massive, terraced pyramids that looked Aztec, with materials varying from polished white, like marble, to crude dwellings of brown and muddy yellow. There were arches framing many of the smaller side alleys, and high bridges that could have been aqueducts. The dress of the people was a mixture of ancient and medieval, consisting in some places of long robes and skirted tunics, in others of hooded jerkins and coarse coats. More riders formed up on either side of the train, and the cavalcade wound its way through the packed streets toward a high structure on a rocky hill, surrounded by an inner wall.
“What does this mean?” Nixie asked Hunt. “The daylight returning. What has happened outside?”
“JEVEX is operational again,” Hunt told her soberly.
She looked at him with an uncertain expression. “Is there anything they can do, now, outside? Will it still be possible for VISAR to reconnect?”
Gina was watching with a tense look. Hunt said nothing.
“JEVEX will be checking for access attempts,” Eesyan said expressionlessly.
Nixie looked up, and a strange, distant expression came over her face. After several seconds it became grave.
Hunt stared at her. “What is it? Nixie, can you hear me?”