Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [142]
Caleb did not sound convinced, but he grudgingly agreed. The Tamblyn brothers stood together, took one long look at the ruins and the impossible task of rebuilding it all. Torin said, "All right, we're at your command. Tell us what you want us to do."
The surviving workers were glad just to have a sense of direction after the turmoil they'd been through. Jess could see they were ready to cause damage if they were pointed toward the enemy and given an appropriate weapon.
Together, he and Cesca explained how they intended to use water tankers to distribute wentals in a simultaneous attack against drogue gas giants. Jess spoke up: "Everyone here can fit in the remaining fourteen tankers. Divide the duties among yourselves as you wish. We'll tell you where to go fill your tankers and be ready."
"Nikko Chan Tylar is already recruiting as many Roamers as he can convince to join the fight. Jess's other water-bearer volunteers are doing the same thing all around the Spiral Arm, directing them to congregate at other central wental worlds," Cesca said. "If we're going to strike all drogue planets at once, we'll need every clan from Avila to Zoltan."
"If you want to find a lot of Roamers, go to Yreka," Caleb said. "That's our main gathering place these days. Denn and I were the ones who set up the whole thing." The Tamblyn brothers described the new trading center, where orphaned Hansa colonies were working secretly with Roamer traders. Cesca was pleased to hear that her father might be there.
Later, the survivors made their way up the one functioning lift shaft to the surface, taking ground vehicles to the water tankers waiting at transfer points. They crowded into the passenger compartments.
Jess stood outside on the bleak terrain. His wental vessel shimmered nearby like a veined bubble. He wondered if Plumas would ever be a bustling and thriving outpost again, or if this would be the end of the water mines.
Cesca held him. "A peaceful and prosperous future is not so far off," she said. "But first we have to win this battle. In order to strike all gas planets efficiently and simultaneously, we've got to coordinate this whole wave so the drogues don't have a chance."
"A real administrative problem," Jess said.
"That's something I'm good at. These people need the Speaker." She gave him a relieved smile. Out in the open under the starlight and the reflected illumination from the ice moon, he thought she looked very beautiful.
He hesitated, but they both understood the wentals' plan. "It took us a long time to be reunited, but now you and I need to separate once again. You go to Yreka--and I've got to go to Theroc."
"I know," she said. "I heard the worldtrees calling the wentals, too."
The verdani had pledged to fight with them, worldtrees and wentals in an alliance even greater than they had had ten thousand years ago. When Jess kissed her, the sadness of their parting only made her lips taste sweeter. "By the Guiding Star, I swear that when this is all over, you and I will be together."
84
KOTTO OKIAH
Kotto had almost run out of ideas--an entirely new experience for him. After scanning the ruins of the Jonah 12 base, he detected high radioactivity levels, which implied that the reactor had undergone a catastrophic meltdown. (That was inconceivable, but how could he argue with the data?) He found no ships in the vicinity, no signs of life, and no answers.
So he went hunting again. After searching three more systems, he found a small Roamer settlement named, of all things, Sunshine. A blistering bath of photons poured over the planetoid's surface. The Tomara clan holed up underground, excavating tunnels in the crater walls, while solar collectors gorged on extravagant amounts of energy. During the long cold nights on Sunshine, the Roamers scurried out to do their work on the surface.
The place was mostly empty. Kotto asked where everyone had gone. "Why, they've all flown to Yreka," answered an old, one-armed man who worked a tunnel-excavation machine that was five times his size.