Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [121]
Peter leaned forward, angry but careful not to overstep his bounds and give the Chairman reason to eject him from the room. “Excuse me, but why must we ‘move’ on them? If you are confident in your legal argument, we should present it to Speaker Peroni and give her a chance to revise the Roamer response, perhaps begin a limited number of ekti shipments again to establish goodwill while we negotiate the matter. In fact, I see no reason why we can’t announce that we condemn further acts of piracy against Roamer ships, without addressing the question of whether or not their accusation was true in the first place.”
“That would solve only the immediate part of the problem,” Basil said. “But I refuse to reward their efforts at coercion. Without question Roamer unruliness would become a thorn in our sides again and again. We need to decisively put an end to their…disruptive manipulations, so that we can concentrate on winning the important war. The hydrogues have been relatively quiescent, even after we used four more Klikiss Torches against them. It is time to swiftly and decisively defeat the Roamers and earn wholehearted public support for the victory.”
Admiral Stromo distributed his printed summaries. There weren’t enough copies for Peter, but the King extended his hand and waited, until the liaison officer surrendered his personal copy. Stromo said, “Truly, King Peter, this will provide the greatest benefit in the long run. You’ll see.” He linked his display screen to the table, and enlarged diagrams were projected across the matte crystal surface.
With a growing lump in his throat, Peter looked at the descriptions for a direct invasion of known Roamer outposts.
Stromo continued: “I assigned a team of my best tactical experts to develop alternative strategies. The Roamers have always been notoriously secretive, but we know more than they realize about their movements, distribution, and activities. By backtracking flight paths and analyzing elemental breakdowns from processed materials in their shipments, we have estimated the locations of some of their mines and factories. Though we’ve been aware of several important sites for years, we have kept that information until it could be put to good use. Now it is time. Several of these places have large ekti stockpiles just waiting for the taking.”
“The stockpiles are probably even more bloated now,” Lanyan pointed out, “since the Roamers aren’t selling ekti to us anymore.”
Looking pleased, Basil tapped his fingers on the table. “I suggest we put together a powerful EDF crew to sweep into one of these depots and confiscate the fuel for our war needs. A surgical strike to show them we mean business. They’ll see they’re out of their league.”
Peter could not believe what he was hearing. “But now you are talking outright piracy, Basil.”
“Deputy Cain has just offered a legitimate legal rationale; therefore it is merely an exercise of eminent domain, not piracy at all. The Roamers have little or no military defense and rely on their secrecy for protection. They know we outgun them, and they cannot afford long-term hostilities. We’ll force them to join us, to everyone’s benefit.”
Eldred Cain turned to Peter, sounding reasonable. “King Peter, we have always been willing to pay for the stardrive fuel supplied by the Roamers. We have even accepted their exorbitantly inflated prices over the past several years. But if they will not sell to us, we have no choice but to obtain ekti in some other fashion. It is a strategic imperative.”
“What about our new cloud harvester on Qronha 3?” Peter offered. “Another shipment is already on the way, now that they’ve worked out a truce with the Ildirans there.”
“A good start, but far from adequate,” Cain said. “We would need several dozen more cloud harvesters running at full capacity just to meet our minimal defense needs.”
Basil tapped his fingers impatiently on the tabletop. “No, as a matter of principle, the Roamers must join us. Their professed independence must be subordinate