Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [141]
A crew wearing full environment suits came back down from a surface-access tunnel and delivered their report to Caleb. "Crust shiftings knocked our wellhead shafts out of alignment. The pumping machinery is wrecked, the fuel-conversion tanks broken, the chemical lines completely out of whack."
Defeat salted the old man's voice. "We've got one lift still functional, but some of the indicator lights are giving funny flickers. Jess, even if you and Cesca patch the ceiling, I just don't know if this place is salvageable. With Andrew dead . . ." He choked, then drew a long breath. "And without you working with us on a regular basis, we'll have to reassess how we do business, if we do business at all."
When Jess spoke the words aloud, they hurt him deeply, but he and his uncles already knew the decision that had to be made. "We'll have to abandon Plumas, at least for now. Too many systems are damaged to maintain a reliable environment."
The survivors still hadn't absorbed what exactly had happened. Wynn and Torin shook their heads, though. "We can't just leave, Jess. Look at all the work that needs to be done!"
"How is clan Tamblyn ever going to afford all this?" Torin moaned.
"Andrew handled our finances. How can we do it without Andrew?"
"Clan Tamblyn has money in its accounts, don't you worry about that," Caleb growled. "But where are we going to get the heavy equipment to redrill the damaged shafts and repair the delivery systems? I'm getting a headache already. By the Guiding Star, it'll take years!"
Jess felt the wentals singing through his body. Now was the time. He and Cesca could not forget their primary mission. "There's other work for you all to do--something more urgent. We need your help. All Roamers, all humans."
Caleb blinked. "Look around you, Jess! We're not in a position to help with folding napkins."
"Not true," Cesca said. "Call the survivors together. They need to hear this."
Caleb shrugged. "We could use a break--and a little bit of hope."
Haggard-looking men and women gathered around the ruins of the settlement huts. The Plumas workers stood together, uneasy and uncertain. They had watched Jess and Cesca battle the thing that had been his mother, and these people were afraid of the powerful couple.
The wentals made Jess's words resonate through the entire grotto. "Speaker Peroni and I came to Plumas for a reason. You have already fought the Eddies and the drogues. You've lived on the run, struggling to survive, even as one livelihood after another was taken away. However, the war isn't finished yet. Not even close. The greatest battle is coming--and the wentals need our assistance."
Torin grumbled, "Seems to me your wentals caused us a whole lot of grief."
"One tainted wental," Jess corrected. "The others saved you. The others can save all the clans, and the rest of the human race. We have to unleash thousands and thousands of wentals against hydrogue planets."
Cesca said, "It has to be us. The Ildirans and the Eddies don't have weapons that can crush the drogues."
"The Eddies were powerful enough to turn Rendezvous into a scrap heap," Caleb pointed out. "Why should we bother helping them?"
A stormy flicker crossed Cesca's face, but she narrowed her eyes and spoke calmly. "All humans aren't like the Eddies. Roamers are better than that."
Caleb raised his eyebrows. "You expect us to believe that if we defeat the drogues, the Eddies will stop preying on clan facilities? Stop wrecking our fuel depots and greenhouse asteroids? Are they going to release the Roamer prisoners they've taken? Shizz, maybe they'll rebuild Rendezvous while they're at it! Jess, you and Speaker Peroni know better than that."
"What we know--and what all of us need to remember--is that the drogues are our real enemy. Among humans, there will always be conflict. Would you just prefer that