Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [186]
One of the Tamblyn twins--Nikko wasn't sure whether it was Wynn or Torin--added on the same channel, "We might have to use buckets or barrels for the little ships. But we'll fill up that way if we have to."
Nikko didn't have any doubts. "Just sit back and watch. Trust me, that water wants to get aboard."
The ocean itself took care of the rest. Rising up, the living waves poured themselves into the voluminous holds. Amoebic streams of water, acting like pseudopods, lifted up in defiance of gravity. Wentals flooded into every storage hold of the volunteer ships.
While activity continued in a blur around him, Nikko stood on the rocks, smelling ozone-laden air. The cargo operations went on for hours, as ship after ship of every configuration came down, checked systems, jockeyed for position even though the ocean was huge, then took aboard the strange water. Similar scenes were doubtless happening on other wental distribution worlds as groups of Roamer ships filled up, preparing to deploy their secret weapon.
Upbeat, Nikko transmitted across the comm circuit, "Once you all deliver this water to your designated gas giants, the wentals will spread through the clouds like an unstoppable flood. The drogues won't know what hit them." He laughed. "Or maybe they will, but they'll still lose."
"The Eddies didn't do much good when they knocked their thick heads against the drogues at Osquivel," Zhett Kellum said sourly. "It'll be a pleasure to show them how it's done."
"Sounds better than a Klikiss Torch, by damn," said her father. "At least we'll still have a planet left when we're done!"
Near sunset, another small Roamer vessel arrived. As the straggler descended to the edge of the water, a thick arm of living ocean rose up to form a liquid landing platform, safely apart from the rocky archipelago where the other diverse craft had settled down. The ship rested calmly on the shimmering platform, buoyed up by the silvery-blue shelf. Even before she emerged, confident and alive with her power, Nikko guessed that it was Speaker Peroni. His shoulders sagged with relief. She could organize the whole operation!
The Roamer volunteers gathered around. Most were defiant and eager to launch a strike against the drogues. She swept her gaze across all the people, obviously pleased by the size of their ragtag force.
"Jess just sent me a message through the wentals. He is going to make an immediate assault on Qronha 3--but that will be only one of many simultaneous strikes. Hydrogue gas giants are located all across the Spiral Arm. The wentals have dispatched detailed navigational information to all the water bearers and their respective teams, sorting gas giants by distance from each distribution world. There will be no overlap in targets. Everyone will know exactly where to go."
"We haven't made any assignments here yet, Speaker Peroni," Nikko said.
She looked around. "With all the ships here, I'm guessing we have at least fifteen separate distribution groups. I will provide updated charts and specific target worlds for each group. With us, and all the other squads from the various distribution worlds, we can take care of hundreds of drogue gas giants in a few days' time.
"When they come under attack, the hydrogues will probably try to jump through their transgates to other gas giants. But if we hit everywhere at once, they'll have no place to go, no way to escape. We can't allow them to keep a single foothold. We must leave no safe worlds for them to run to." The Roamers cheered, ready for the fight.
On their starcharts, Speaker Peroni outlined the upcoming offensive. Datapoints scattered across the Spiral Arm marked the extent of the hidden