A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
Unfortunately, the strange creatures in the depths had not been the wild imaginings of a raving man, after all…
His command protégé, Tal Zan’nh, piloted their patrol craft away from the main warliners to the cold, blue-gray giant. For an hour or two, there would be only the two of them, isolated, though close enough to sense the comforting presence of crews in the big ships overhead. No Ildiran liked to be so vulnerable.
Kori’nh fidgeted, impatient to see the creaking old facility, compile his report, and then return to the comfort of crowds. The hydrogues were volatile and unpredictable. So far, they had responded only when provoked, and the Adar hoped the aliens would pay little attention to a small ship carrying two passengers. But the strange enemy had proven that one could never make assumptions about their behavior.
“I have found the facility, Adar.” Zan’nh called up a bright image on the patrol craft’s scanners. Against the frozen atmospheric soup, the once-grand industrial city looked like nothing more than a tiny blip swallowed in a cold, swirling sea.
He had seen images of the Daym skymine in its glory days. The harvesting towns had cruised in different airstreams; every several months, the ekti facilities would join for a rendezvous, and allow the lonely Ildirans to enjoy increased companionship. The skyminers would swap crews and stories before the tides of the sky drew them apart again to continue their hydrogen harvesting.
Because the Ildirans required a population of sufficient size to bind together the thism, Daym had been an extraordinarily expensive operation. Thus, it had made sense for the former Mage-Imperator to subcontract those facilities to eager Roamer workers. The human refugees had taken over all ekti production with such remarkable efficiency that Ildirans soon purchased most of their stardrive fuel from the Roamer clans.
Unfortunately, the hydrogue crisis had thrown those carefully balanced pieces into chaos, and now the Mage-Imperator had to consider all options. The Empire had substantial ekti stockpiles gathered over the centuries, but even those were dwindling. Ildirans needed their own fuel supply, regardless of the source.
Zan’nh divided his attention between the patrol craft’s sensors and what he could see with his own eyes. He seemed surprised by the results of his scans. “The skymine’s been abandoned and falling apart for over a century. But it is in better shape than I imagined. Structural integrity approaches eighty percent. Some of the weaker materials have disintegrated—windows and door seals and the like—but the decks are solid enough in most areas.”
The skymine looked like a floating ghost town of gutted buildings and industrial facilities. Gray clouds of damp mist twisted like insubstantial serpents through the girders. Daym’s distance from the primary sun never allowed its day to grow brighter than twilight.
“Even so, Adar,” Zan’nh continued, “I don’t believe many Ildirans would like to live here.”
“That is for the Mage-Imperator to decide after we deliver our report,” Kori’nh said. “If he feels justified in relaunching ekti operations, then there will be plenty of volunteers.”
As long as it is not me.
Kori’nh was a military officer, a crossbreed of soldier and noble kiths—like young Zan’nh. Every molecule of his DNA had programmed him to be a commander. Other Ildiran kiths had different leanings and skills, each touching their particular soul-thread of the thism from the Mage-Imperator. Cloud miners loved to fill their roles; though after the coming of the Roamers, the miner kith had dwindled, since they were less necessary in the Empire. Perhaps they would be needed again.
The patrol craft settled with a gentle thump on the corroded and buckled plates of the main landing pad. They came to rest above the communal facilities, where crowds of Ildirans had once worked and lived. The Roamers, living here in much smaller numbers, must have gotten lost on the huge Daym skymine.
The thought of