Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 674
"But how many in total?" asked one of the holograms.
"Are they turning Diadem into a giant factory? And are they
doing the same to Ventus?"
"Well, that’s the question. Our Ventus expert says they
wouldn’t do that." The admiral gestured at Marya. "Her
institute’s AI’s agree."
"All of Marya’s co-workers were captured by the
Winds," Axel whispered. "They were all taken to Diadem,
presumably. So she’s the reigning expert now."
"This is insane," said the Voice. "How are we going to--"
"My question for the Desert Voice," said the admiral, "is,
do you recognize any of these structures? Are they like what
you saw on Diadem?" He waved his hand, and a new cube
appeared overhead. This one showed a telescopic view of the
limb of Ventus’ horizon. Square solar mirrors hung in the
black sky like fantastic butterflies, and down below, just
beyond the terminator on the nightside of Ventus, lay a lozenge
of sunlit land.
Diaphanous scarves of glowing light, like solidifying
aurora, could be seen spiralling down towards the planet in the
vicinity of the sunlit oval.
"It’s the swans!" The Voice vividly remembered them
closing on her, and how they had crushed and devoured her
body. "Are they attacking something?"
"That’s what we want to know. Are they attacking, or
are they building? Did they hang like that over the shipyard
you saw on Diadem?"
"No. This is something else." She concentrated on the
daylit side of the terminator, until she could make out the
shapes of a continental edge there. "That’s Iapysia they’re
over. It’s very near where I set Calandria and Axel set down
originally."