Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [28]
'Coming here certainly wasn't a step in the right direction, but because of the story I might give you a discount anyway. I heard about the Eddies attacking the Osquivel shipyards, but I couldn't tell you where Del would go.' Andrina scratched her platinum-blonde hair, then shrugged. 'If I were looking for general information about Roamers, I'd go straight to Yreka. That's our main trading and distribution complex. Everybody's got something going on Yreka.'
Patrick sat back in his metal chair. 'Yreka? But that's a Hansa colony, not a Roamer settlement.'
'It's everything now. I can give you maps and directions.'
'No need. I've been there before.' Patrick had not wanted to remember much of what he'd done in those days. Another black mark on his past that Zhett didn't know about. He wondered if she would ever forgive him if she knew everything, but he had to give it a shot. 'Thank you. It'll be… interesting to go back.'
Fourteen
Zhett Kellum
Even a million Roamer skymines would not have made the gas giant Golgen seem crowded. Zhett spent day after day on the open decks of the Kellum facility with the sharp-scented breezes from high-level clouds blowing in her face. Now that gas planets were free of hydrogues, the clans could get back to skymining again. In the past month alone, twenty new skymines had appeared in the clouds above Golgen.
She watched cargo escorts fly off loaded with fresh stardrive fuel, supply haulers bringing gourmet foods and general staples for the skyminers. Feeling chilly, she went back into the control deck where her father would be busy. Following Roamer tradition, since she was the clan head's only child, Del had made her his deputy, and Zhett took care of much of the daily business.
The control deck was abustle with activity. People shouted from station to station, screens mapped the trajectories of nearby sky traffic, monitors displayed graphs, schedules, and columns of figures. Business as usual. Because of the congestion, all Golgen sky-miners had to coordinate their activities, arrange for distribution of ekti, and compete with each other over pricing and shipment options.
Kellum raised his voice to be heard above the din, already in the middle of his meeting with reps from the numerous skymines. 'Sooner or later, some of you have got to move to other planets! It makes no sense to put all of our ekti stations and refineries on one single world. Why not distribute them throughout the Spiral Arm? By the Guiding Star, we've got plenty of gas giants to choose from! Go somewhere else.'
'But Golgen was the first planet cleared of the drogues,' said Boris Goff, chief of a nearby skymine. 'Every one of us made a big investment to set up shop here. If we move now, it'll take years to recoup our losses.'
One man muttered, 'With prices going down, we have two choices: stay here and slowly go bankrupt, or move and go deeper into debt.'
Del waved Zhett over. 'Come here, my sweet. Maybe you can talk some sense into these… gentlemen.'
She formed a wicked smile. 'Sure, Dad. Which one's being the most unreasonable?'
Liona, an older female green priest, arrived looking out of place among the colourfully dressed Roamers. Her emerald skin was adorned with many tattoos, and she carried a small potted tree. 'I apologize for being late.' She had been assigned here when the Roamers, Therons, and colonists agreed to work together. After weeks on the cold metal industrial facility, Liona was still unsettled, having been accustomed to forests and open spaces. On Theroc, the only way to see the sky was to climb the worldtrees above the dense canopy. Here, she could hardly escape seeing the sky.
Some Roamers were suspicious of letting any outsider - even a green priest - learn too much about them, but more complained about not knowing of major events until much too late. Liona