Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [147]
Rlinda wasn’t so sure about his claim. She couldn’t remember how many places Davlin had visited, whether on purpose or by accident when he’d been lost in the network. Thinking fond thoughts, she hoped Davlin was settling in well at his quiet colony. After this mission, she and BeBob were due to return to Relleker, near Crenna, but she doubted she’d have time to visit him.
“And Corribus was your favorite of all those places?” BeBob asked. Rlinda wondered if her partner was shopping for a place to settle down himself, if he decided against going back to Crenna, where he’d hidden for so long.
“It was—when it was empty and quiet,” Steinman answered. “We’ll see what happens after this whole colony business shakes out.”
Rlinda frowned at him. “You didn’t think you’d have a whole planet to yourself, did you?”
Steinman chuckled, showing bad teeth. “No, the Hansa isn’t quite that generous.” He looked back again at the group approaching from the village. “Time for me to go. Give my regards to…whoever ends up being the mayor of this place.”
Before he set off onto the whispering plains of brown grasses and stark poletrees that stood up like the masts of partially sunken ships, Rlinda called, “You sure there’s nothing we can give you, Mr. Steinman? Some mealpax or a couple of tubes of protein paste? I have Bland and Extra Bland.”
He stuck his walking stick into the soft ground. “No, thanks. I’ll try hunting on my own.” The tall grasses had folded around him by the time the rest of the Corribus colonists arrived.
Rlinda spread her arms to welcome the people, who greeted her with grateful smiles and weary cheers. She saw young men and women; some of them looked ambitious, some desperate. What situations had they left behind that starting over from scratch seemed like their best opportunity?
With a roar, one of the big earthmoving machines started up, and BeBob drove the heavy metal hulk down the Blind Faith ‘s reinforced ramp. He blatted the exhaust horn, and the colonists laughed.
Rlinda looked around. “Step right up. The flea market is open for business. We have plenty of things that should make your lives easier.”
Chapter 74 — ORLI COVITZ
Orli didn’t see many opportunities to make friends on Corribus, but she decided to try, as much to please her father as out of any need of her own.
At fourteen, Orli was technically too young to join the initial wave of settlers on a rugged colony world. For the first year or so, a tremendous amount of work would be involved in establishing the infrastructure and building the foundations to make Corribus a thriving colony. Families with smaller children would be allowed to join the second wave of settlement, once the colony no longer depended on regular supply ships and Hansa bailouts.
But Orli had always contributed more than her share. Even during her childhood, she had accepted the adult responsibilities and endless chores of their mushroom farm on Dremen. In filling out their application for the transportal colonization initiative, Jan Covitz had obtained a special exemption for his daughter, writing an exuberant testimonial to Orli’s work ethic, maturity, intelligence, and creative talent.
The first group that passed through the Rheindic Co transportal to Corribus included only five others who were under eighteen, two of them boys. After the first day on Corribus, which she spent exploring the Klikiss ruins, seeking exotic treasures and alien mysteries, Orli met two of the girls, Lucy and Tela, both of them fifteen. They came from New Portugal and spoke with heavy accents. These two girls had been friends all their lives and talked incessantly about how bad things were in New Portugal’s stifling distilleries and wineries on the arid, rocky hillsides. Orli didn’t think their old planet sounded as bad as gloomy Dremen, but neither of the girls was interested in hearing her comparisons, and Orli went back to spending time with her father.
The handful of designated Hansa architects and construction workers mapped and scanned existing Klikiss