Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [83]
The rammer-ship construction zone was a bustle of activity. As she flew in, she admired the complexities of the operation, the gigantic floating scaffolds and open warehouses in space where constructor pods and workers in engineering suits puttered about, assembling the vessels.
It reminded her of Del Kellum’s shipyards. Of course, Roamer shipbuilders working together without military bureaucracy would have been able to do a faster and better job. She always felt a smug pride in the clans, compared with the bloated and cumbersome Hansa.
Oddly enough, though, the regular Roamer ekti shipments were late. Her fellow Eddies looked to her for an explanation, as if Tasia could interpret clan behavior, but she had been cut off from the clans for so long that she had no idea what was happening at Hurricane Depot, with Del Kellum’s cometary skimmers, or at any of the other ekti facilities. She’d even heard rumors that Speaker Peroni had declared an embargo against the Hansa…but that didn’t make any sense, and no official news release had come from the Chairman. She was sure there must be some obvious explanation.
Tasia cruised her shuttle around the massive armored warships and imagined how each one would strike a single, deadly blow against the warglobes. Looking at the skeletal frameworks of the rammers, she could see that they were generally similar to a standard EDF Manta, but stripped down, with few amenities for a human crew. These rammers were little more than self-propelled hammers to crack open the crystalline shells of warglobes.
So far, the Klikiss Torches were the only absolutely reliable weapons the humans had used against the hydrogues, and since Tasia had successfully delivered her weapon at Ptoro, other gung-ho officers wanted to do their part. Chairman Wenceslas and King Peter had already authorized another three Torches to be used on gas-giant targets…
More than anything else, Tasia wanted to strike against the enemy aliens, again and again. It would be months yet before these rammer vessels were completed, their structural spines and reinforcements inlaid, the massive engines installed. But she hoped to be there, volunteering for the mission, as soon as they were ready.
Chapter 42—CESCA PERONI
Now that she and the strangely different Jess were finally alone in the privacy of her office chamber, Cesca longed to throw herself into his embrace. But she couldn’t because of the dangerous alterations she saw in him. The power crackling from his skin, his body, had transformed him into a walking live wire.
“What’s happened to you? Explain to me how…how you’ve changed, Jess.” She looked at his handsome and sincere face, his blue eyes, his strong and straight nose, remembering when she had kissed him.
Standing as far away from her as the rock walls would allow, he held up his hands to keep her at bay. She saw the oily slickness of moisture covering his skin and the pearlescent garment. His face and hands had a translucent, almost shimmering quality, as if his flesh had taken on the eerie phosphorescence of deep-sea creatures. The recycled air around him smelled of ozone, as if charged with ions from an electrical storm.
“I’m alive, thanks to the wentals, but I am no longer human, Cesca. I myself don’t know half the things I can do…but it’s fantastic.”
“As long as the man I knew and loved is still inside there somewhere, Jess, then we can find some way to be together. Our Guiding Star will show us how.”
Again, Jess held her at a distance with a gesture. “This is bigger than just the two of us now, Cesca. There’s too much to do, too much I can do—for all of us. We have in our grasp the solution to our crisis. With the help of the Roamers, I can save