Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [184]
The enormous tree battleships headed out into space, dispersing toward countless simultaneous battlefields.
106
JESS TAMBLYN
When he left Theroc, Jess knew that the hundreds of verdani battleships would do their part in the imminent battle--as would the wentals. If all was going according to the broad plan, Nikko and the rest of Jess's water-bearer volunteers would be rallying Roamer recruits; many pilots should be flying to various central wental planets to prepare for their final push. Cesca would coordinate the whole plan, sending messages through the wentals to guide near-simultaneous strikes to infested gas giants across the Spiral Arm. The concerted attack against hydrogue planets would hit like a chain reaction. . . .
As the water-and-pearl vessel raced across empty space, heading toward Charybdis, through the wentals Jess instantly knew that something unexpected was out there . . . another ship. It hung dead in space, drifting. Damaged? Lying in ambush?
He approached cautiously, and soon identified the human craft--a large EDF scout, far from any star system. A lone figure floated outside, completing repairs to the external engines. Though the ship could have carried a small crew, only one person was visible.
When he saw the strange wental sphere coming toward him, the panicked man jetted into the open hatch. Detaching his helmet inside, the Eddie pilot scrambled into his control seat. Through the cockpit windowport, Jess could see he was an older black man, his close-cropped wiry hair dusted with smoky gray.
Jess cautiously hovered his alien vessel in front of the scout's cockpit, standing at the outer skin of the bubble so that the EDF man could see that he was human. With a reassuring smile, Jess raised his hands in a nonthreatening gesture. He hoped the pilot wouldn't fire a jazer blast at him. The other man stared in disbelief.
Drifting to the comm apparatus his water bearers had installed, Jess opened a direct channel, using one of the supposedly secret EDF frequencies that Roamers had discovered long ago. "I mean you no harm."
After fumbling with his systems, the pilot responded on the same frequency. "I am Lieutenant Conrad Brindle on a scout expedition for the Earth Defense Forces. Who are you? What are you doing out here--and what kind of ship is that? Are you . . . human?"
"Oh, I'm human, and maybe a little bit more. How did your scout come to be damaged, Lieutenant Brindle?"
"Hydrogues!"
"Ah, so we share the same enemy."
"I was doing recon at Qronha 3." Brindle was clearly unsure of how far he should trust this exotic stranger, but he was so overwhelmed that he quickly broke down. "The drogues and the Klikiss robots are keeping human prisoners! They're holding eight people hostage inside a gas giant."
That seemed impossible. "How do you know this?"
"Direct video images. My son is down there. We thought he was killed by the hydrogues before the battle of Osquivel. But he's alive and he's deep inside Qronha 3!" Brindle shook his head. "How am I ever going to rescue him?"
Jess had heard of Qronha 3, but this made no sense. "Why were you scouting a gas giant in the Ildiran Empire in the first place? What interest do the Eddies have?"
"We lost sixty new rammers there. Commander Tamblyn led them on an assault against the hydrogues, but they just disappeared. My orders were to see if I could intercept a surveillance signal."
"Commander Tamblyn?"
"Tasia Tamblyn. They picked her to lead the rammer charge."
A suicide mission. Of course Tasia would have flown the highest-risk operation. The Eddies would have chosen her because she was a Roamer. Expendable. Eddies had always treated clan members like that.
"Commander Tamblyn is my sister," he said. Surprised, Brindle looked again at the strange figure of Jess in his shimmering white garment and his alien water vessel. "Is she still alive? Tell me what happened to her. Tell me everything."
While Brindle explained, Jess seethed inside his wental