Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [55]
Jess stepped higher onto the dry rocks as the waves suddenly parted with a roar and the immense ball lifted itself from the water. The new ship hovered dripping over the restless seas, its framework filled with ocean water caught in an invisible bubble of wental force, like a gigantic raindrop held together by surface tension.
The planet’s twin moons shone down under cascades of stars, limning the water-based vessel with silvery radiance. The coral and pearl glowed with cold fire. The delicate bubble-ship moved smoothly, gently, until it hovered a hand’s width from the ground in front of Jess. The wall of flowing water beckoned him like a doorway, and Jess knew that he had to enter. He passed without a ripple through the membrane.
He found himself inside an aquarium globe filled with water and fishes, tiny sea animals, drifting plants, everything touched by the wentals’ essence. Inside, he stood enfolded by the water, feeling only warmth and comfort. It was amazing and wonderful.
Now you, and we, can command this ship.
His sense of awe gave way to impatient determination. Finally he could be off on his grand quest, and he knew exactly where he had to go. He would set out to find Cesca again—at least to let her know what had happened to him, and to ask all Roamers for their assistance in his grand new mission.
Not knowing how he did so, Jess guided the huge water ship. The enormous sphere of water rose into the misty clouds. Smoothly and silently, the wental starcraft rose away from the unnamed planet, leaving the throbbing, living seas behind.
Jess was going back to Rendezvous, where he belonged.
Chapter 27—CESCA PERONI
Once the news leaked about the EDF attack on Raven Kamarov’s ship, the Roamers would be up in arms and they would all offer their own suggestions for retribution—as Jess had done when he’d bombarded Golgen with a flurry of comets. Before that could happen, however, Cesca decided to meet in private with a handful of the most important clan leaders. She called together those who happened to be in Rendezvous at the time.
As always, the interconnected Roamer families would push and pull in different directions. Getting the clans to agree on anything, Speaker Okiah often said, was almost as difficult as establishing a new outpost on the most inhospitable of planets.
Cesca would speak her piece and listen to their advice, but she feared they would want to go overboard. And how could she argue against it? The EDF had actively attacked Roamer ekti ships like criminals in the night.
But the repercussions of the clan response would reverberate for years to come.
Seven scions met inside one of the large rock-walled chambers carved out of the central Rendezvous asteroid. Cesca sat at the head of the table, watching the men and women, none of whom knew exactly why they had been called here on such short notice. “I’m afraid I have to deliver bad news again.”
Old Alfred Hosaki put his bony chin in his hands with an exaggerated groan. “I should just stop coming to these meetings.” The others chuckled, then waited nervously to hear what the Speaker had to say.
With a stumbling clamor in the narrow halls outside of the room, Nikko Chan Tylar and three strong Roamer men carried in loads of battered and twisted wreckage, hull plates, an engine cowling. Blackened scars and unnaturally melted curves hinted at what had happened to the destroyed vessel. They dumped the debris on the floor at the back of the room.
“This is all that remains of Raven Kamarov’s ship,” Cesca said. The clan leaders stared.
Everyone remembered the bearded and likable captain who carried ekti deliveries to various Roamer depots. Cesca explained how Nikko had found the wreckage along Kamarov’s projected route. Nikko grinned as if he would be rewarded for such a find, but she said, “I’ll speak to you again later,” and sent him and his helpers away so the other Roamers could continue their meeting. His father, Crim, who was in the meeting, turned