Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [225]
I repay my debts, Denn thought.
Kotto Okiah guided the foremost of the eleven spidery cargo escorts next to Denn's Dogged Persistence. The craft were nothing more than frameworks for hauling tanks of concentrated stardrive fuel, useless for bearing wental water to gas-giant targets. However, the thin tubular legs could easily fold around the stacks of flat packages like decks of giant playing cards.
Ever since the eccentric engineer had brought his blueprints to Yreka, dozens of Roamer and former Hansa manufacturing facilities had produced hundreds of thousands of the simple, flexible mats. Though the Roamers were stung by Eddy depredations, and the Hansa colonies were just as angry for being abandoned by their own government, when they had learned of the drogues' planned attack on Earth, they decided to do something about it.
"This is your baby, Kotto. Would you like to be out front and center?"
"Oh, I don't really need to have any special credit. The doorbells will be doing all the work."
Denn chuckled. "I'm not expecting the Big Goose to hand us any trophies, no matter what we do here."
The Roamer ships saw the fireworks of a furious battle long before they came close to Earth. Denn tried to drink it all in. Green priests dispersed around the orphaned Hansa colonies had forewarned them about the huge verdani battleships, but none of the Roamers was prepared for the sight of those twenty awesome trees grappling with one warglobe after another.
He saw EDF battleships clashing with each other, Juggernauts firing upon Juggernauts. Was it some sort of civil war? Then he remembered that Soldier compies had hijacked much of the fleet. Maybe the robots had come back for revenge. The Eddies certainly seemed to piss everybody off. . . .
Of course, there was no mistaking a gaudy Ildiran warliner. Denn had been to Ildira more than once to reopen trade with the Mage-Imperator, and his Dogged Persistence had been escorted by such warliners. Hundreds of the extravagant Solar Navy ships had already smashed themselves into warglobes, but the hydrogue forces still looked overwhelming. As the remaining deep-core aliens reeled, recovered, then renewed their attack, Denn spotted hundreds more Ildiran warliners charging in. They moved in perfect formation and accelerated, obviously preparing for another concerted suicide run. Hundreds of vessels, each one of which must contain at least a thousand Ildirans. All of them ready to sacrifice themselves.
If the doorbells worked as the engineer promised, all those deaths were so unnecessary.
"Kotto, we've got to do something about this."
"Our cargo escorts are flying as fast as they can. We'll be there in ten minutes."
"Doesn't look like we have ten minutes. Those warliners are already starting their acceleration runs." Without waiting for further discussion, he sent a broad-range burst. "Calling the Solar Navy! This is Denn Peroni from the Roamers. Remember me? I've been a guest of your Mage-Imperator several times. Is anybody out there?" The cohort of warliners continued to plunge toward the hydrogues. Obviously, they weren't interested in conversation. He raised his voice, feeling greater urgency. "Please listen! We have brought a new weapon to deploy against the hydrogues. There's no need for you to sacrifice your lives."
Kotto added his voice. "Let us show you what we've got up our sleeves. By the Guiding Star, it's much more efficient than smashing so many warliners."
"And it'll save thousands of lives," Denn added. "Just give us a few minutes."
A deep voice answered. "This is Adar Zan'nh. Tal Lorie'nh, you have my permission to suspend your attack run. I know about these Roamer traders--let us see what they intend to do." His voice held a note of relief.
"Acknowledged, Adar," said Lorie'nh. The accelerating warliners