A Forest of Stars - Kevin J. Anderson [97]
Cesca took a moment to absorb this. “So Jess and I should just drop our pretenses? We were going to announce our engagement within a few months, but—”
Now the old woman became stern. “Too late for that, child. If you had done so years ago, I would have supported your decision. But now, you’ve got other obligations. Circumstances have changed around you, and we can all see what the Guiding Star shows us.”
Cesca recognized the woman’s hard tone and knew there could be no debate. Her heart sank.
“You are not like other women, Speaker Peroni.” Okiah spoke the title like the crack of a whip. “You cannot choose according to your personal desires and wants. You cannot trip lightly through your life with sparkling eyes, holding on to girlish fantasies. A Speaker must rise above mere personal considerations. There are rewards, and there are costs.”
“Jess signed aboard one of the new nebula skimmers and launched out into deep space. He said he knows I’ll make the right decision,” Cesca admitted. “Apparently he has more confidence than I do.”
Jhy Okiah put a leathery hand on Cesca’s arm. “He was trying to help you. He saw what you could not…or were not ready to see.”
Cesca sat in silence for a long moment. She had already known what her answer to Reynald must be. “Then I will pay the price, and I will not count the cost.”
48
JESS TAMBLYN
Like a glorious butterfly, the nebula skimmer spread its wings and unfurled micro-thin fabric across thousands of square kilometers of space. Hot new stars at the center of the emission cloud showered photons into the diffuse gas, stripping electrons from atoms, leaving an afterglow of pale green and swirls of pastel pinks and blues.
As the skimmer tacked through the nebula, the huge scoop swept a handful of atoms from each cubic meter of near-vacuum: neutral or ionized hydrogen mixed with a dash of oxygen, helium, neon, and nitrogen. The curved sail funneled the captured molecules like a ramjet, condensing them into traces of hydrogen for processing into ekti, skimming off and separating out any valuable by-products. The raw material was sparse, but it filled a sea as large as the gaps between stars.
Jess’s small habitation pod and processing machinery dangled from the enormous diaphanous sail, connected by struts and cables to the gossamer collectionfilm. Trailing behind him, moving with the force of the photons that battered the reflective surface, hung lightweight condensers, filters, and an efficient small-batch ekti reactor designed by Kotto Okiah.
Other Roamer skimmers trolled across the light-years-wide nebula. Like a fleet of fishing boats drifting into rich waters, the ethereal ships spread out, remaining in radio contact. Most of the pilots engaged in lengthy conversations or played strategy games, stretched out because of the signal delay caused by the sheer distance.
Jess, though, preferred to be alone, pondering and thinking. In his heart, he would always belong to Cesca, but in reality they were destined to be apart. I should have married you long ago.
He had been foolish, the two of them overly concerned with imagined scandals and repercussions. Would such a confession truly have brought dishonor upon Ross’s memory? Would it have distracted Cesca too much from the demands of the hydrogue conflict? He didn’t think so, but now it was too late. Actually, their complicated love had probably proved more distracting. He had not seen the Guiding Star clearly enough.
By now, though, Cesca should have accepted Reynald’s proposal. The Roamers and Therons could share resources for their mutual betterment, stand together against the opposing forces that threatened either to absorb or destroy them.
Meanwhile, Jess drifted alone in a sea of vanishingly thin gas. Even the most violent plasma ripples or ionic