Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [59]
He absently tapped his chin and returned his attention to the designs of a self-contained hot-world settlement. "These new techniques could open many formerly uninhabitable terrestrial worlds for Roamer settlement. Heavy elements and pure ores will be very useful in our industries. With proper care and diligence, Isperos could be a gold mine for us...well, gold and other metals."
"And the beauty of it is that no other humans would ever want those worlds," Jhy Okiah pointed out, eyes bright. The Speaker watched the doubt play across Cesca's olive-skinned face. "Perhaps I am not objective where my youngest son is concerned. What is your opinion on the project, Cesca?"
Cesca studied Kotto's boyish face. "One has to admit the risks, but also recognize the rewards. Could Isperos be much more of a challenge than anyplace else we have settled?" She shrugged. "As long as the rest of Roamer society is prepared to help shoulder the burden of this new colony while engineers and a few brave settlers take their first uncertain steps, then we should make the attempt."
Jhy Okiah looked up at the stone ceiling of the asteroid chamber, as if imagining the Rendezvous complex all around them. "By the Guiding Star, if Roamers never tried to do the impossible, we would never have accomplished anything."
27 BERNDT OKIAH
Only a practiced eye could see the beauty of the skymine under construction at the slapdash facilities in the broken moons of Erphano.
Burly Berndt Okiah stood within the transparent bubble-dome installed on the pockmarked moon. With the industrial station's low gravity and the enormous olive-and-tan gas giant filling the sky, Berndt experienced an odd shift in perspective: The immense planet seemed below him, and he felt as if he were falling headfirst into the clouds.
Teams of Roamer constructors had descended upon the system's rubble, analyzed the geological composition, then brought in mobile factories to begin work. Automated smelters and ore-crunchers had devoured entire moonlets, processing rocks to leach out necessary elements, extruding plates and casting components. Later, an army of construction workers removed the designated components and assembled the giant industrial puzzle.
Occasionally, at construction sites within the boundaries of Hansa territory, some of the still-functional Klikiss robots volunteered to perform hazardous space construction. They worked hard, asked no questions and took no payment, but operated on their own schedules. Most Roamers, though, didn't trust the mysterious ancient machines and preferred to do their own labor.
Since this was Berndt Okiah's pet project, a skymine that he would own and manage, he had been here from the beginning, more than a year. He had lived in austere encampments of underground chambers drilled into the small moons and then coated with polymer walls. As the resources were chewed up, shipyards had grown like a forest. Tall girders, support derricks, and tether cables held the skeleton of the Erphano skymine as Roamers added the metal flesh.
Though Berndt had confidence in his workers, he was still blustery and intrusive, watching over their shoulders as they assembled the ekti reactors. His grandmother's pet engineer, Eldon Clarin, had recently arrived with new plans and bold suggestions to improve the systems. At first, Berndt had been put out by the sudden change in plans, until he realized the modifications would require no more than a week and, if successful, make his new skymine more productive and therefore more profitable.
Berndt had promised himself and the Roamer clans that he would make a success of this operation. His grandmother had given him an exceptional opportunity—though some claimed he did not deserve yet another chance—and he would not waste it. Berndt had many things to prove to himself and to his people.
As he sat in the observation blister watching the final preparations, Engineer Clarin entered through the access tube. "I've checked all the systems, Chief. The skymine is nearly