Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [224]
Cesca stared in disbelief at the flowing quicksilver features of the man she had promised to marry. "Or at least they've copied him. Ross was one of their first targets. Perhaps the hydrogues are using his image to communicate."
Jess slumped into a wall-mounted slingchair, as if the low gravity had suddenly become unbearable. He leaned his head against the rough wall. "Haven't they hurt my family enough? What did we ever do to these creatures?"
When they heard the emissary's ultimatum, Jess and Cesca looked at each other, angry now. The explosion and the murder of Old King Frederick took them entirely by surprise. Cesca bit back a moan. Although the Roamers had never signed the Hansa Charter and did not consider Frederick their King, the hydrogue emissary's final act went beyond the bounds of comprehension.
Jess was white-lipped. "All this is in response to a Hansa experiment? Roamers had nothing to do with igniting Oncier!"
"Neither did the Ildirans." Cesca's mind spun, grasping the implications. "These...hydrogues don't comprehend our social groupings or politics. Apparently, they don't even know the difference between humans and Ildirans."
Jess sighed. "Or maybe the distinction doesn't matter to them."
The shaken trader scuttled off to spread the word. Cesca told him where he would find Speaker Okiah, since the old woman needed to hear the news before gossip and horrific rumors reached her.
Weary and torn, Cesca wanted nothing more than to run off with Jess to somewhere they could be together and not have to worry about galactic warfare and alien antagonists. But that would not happen for a long time, now. She placed a gentle hand on Jess's shoulder. "Go home, Jess. There's nothing you can do here."
He looked up at her, as if too many thoughts warred within him, struggling to get out. "There's always something I can do, some way to fight, to survive. Isn't that what Roamers have always done?"
Before he left, he folded her in a long, warm, desperate embrace. "Yes, the clans need us, each in our own way," she said. "Roamers must prepare. You know this will get worse."
Jess nodded grimly. "Yes, that's one of the few things I do know."
She found Jhy Okiah in the zero-G nursery on one of the outlying asteroids of the Rendezvous complex. The Speaker had heard the news and by now also knew about Jess's cometary bombardment of Golgen, but she had not yet responded. In all her years involved in Roamer politics, the old woman had learned not to react too quickly.
"A moment of consideration often prevents a thousand apologies, Cesca," she had once said. Because of the vast distances between the scattered Hansa colonies and uncharted Roamer settlements, no action ever had instant counter-effects. Sometimes, years were required before consequences made themselves known.
Jhy Okiah drifted against a wall, her brittle old legs bent into a lotus position. The Speaker had placed her thin wrist in a tether loop that anchored her in the weightless environment. Here in the nursery, she loved to watch the Roamer children play and laugh while learning movement skills in the gravity-free environment. The painted chamber walls were padded so the children could bounce balls, or themselves, off different targets.
In the center of the nursery, equipped with a canister of compressed air that she used for maneuvering, the matronly Governess-model compy UR kept a careful attentive eye on her charges. UR had a full suite of first-aid skills and discipline programming, and a great deal more patience than any human. With her maternal-based psychology, the compy could tend many Roamer children at once.
When Cesca entered the zero-gravity nursery asteroid, the Governess recognized her before Jhy Okiah came out of her deep reverie. "Cesca Peroni, it has been far too long since you've come to visit me. Are you behaving yourself, as I instructed?"
Cesca