Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [54]
He despised being trapped like this!
"Yes, Liege. I will make the arrangements. The trader is already on his way." She bowed, then ran off, colored light dappling her smooth skin. Jora'h began to make his way back down to the dais and his duties.
In an attempt to show respect, the Roamer man dropped to one knee before the chrysalis chair, then looked up with an infectious smile. His long brown hair was tied in a ribbon, and he wore a fine outfit embellished with clan markings. He seemed very pleased with himself.
"This ekti comes from a cometary processing facility, where we strip out the hydrogen and convert it to stardrive fuel. It's a difficult and costly process, Your Majesty." He shrugged. "The hydrogues haven't left us many alternatives."
Ever since the beginning of the hydrogue war eight years ago, the production of stardrive fuel had dwindled to a trickle, and the Empire's vast stockpiles were now severely diminished. "We will pay your price," Jora'h said. Humans worried overmuch about rising and falling expenditures, trying to trick their commercial partners into greater or lesser payments. Ildirans, on the other hand, operated as aligned pieces in a large, interconnected network.
Peroni grinned. "I have some good news for you, though. The Roamer clans are skymining again! We found at least one gas giant cleared of the hydrogues. There'll be plenty more ekti to come. This could be the start of a long and profitable partnership between humans and Ildirans. I'm sure of it."
"We thank you for your trust." Jora'h's heart felt cold and heavy inside his chest. Yet the hydrogues intended to exterminate all humans . . . and the Ildirans just might be forced to help them do it.
30
SULLIVAN GOLD
The Hansa skyminers hated being held hostage inside the PrismPalace. Tabitha Huck slumped onto a bench, scowled at the guarded door of their spacious chambers. "A damned odd way to say thank you." She glared at the muscular guard woman who prowled the corridors with her vicious-looking panther pets. "You do a good deed and just look what happens."
Sullivan took a seat beside her. When the hydrogues attacked Qronha 3, the Hansa workers had been ready to evacuate, but the Ildirans had no way to escape. After a wrenching decision, Sullivan had ordered his crew to save the doomed Ildirans, at great risk to themselves. "We couldn't just leave them all to die, Tabitha."
"Maybe we should have! We lost one of our own escape modules while the drogues were attacking, and now we're stuck here. If we'd evacuated while the warglobes were busy destroying the Ildiran facility, we'd be home right now."
Sullivan put a paternal hand on her arm. "But would you be able to sleep at night?"
Tabitha looked sideways at him. "I'm willing to take tranquilizers."
Sullivan watched the silhouette of Yazra'h pacing in the hall. The lean guard looked in on them and scanned their forlorn faces. "Stay here until we release you again. You are not to leave these rooms for the next two hours."
"Why? What's changed?" Sullivan barged toward the door. "What did we do wrong?"
"It is not my place to explain."
"Our loved ones need to know we're all right," he pleaded. "Can you at least provide a treeling for my green priest, so we can send a message? Tell our families we're still alive. Please, it would mean so much to him. To all of us."
Kolker was the most desperately affected member of his crew. The green priest had always been loquacious, talking endlessly through his treeling with his comrades across the Spiral Arm. But Kolker had lost his treeling during the destruction of the cloud harvester and now was utterly cut off from his beloved telink. He was more than just lonely, more than sad. He was like an addict forced to endure a prolonged withdrawal. And it was all so unnecessary! Why was the Mage-Imperator doing this to them?
"I have other duties." With an abrupt dismissal, Yazra'h stepped away from the door and closed it behind her.
Tabitha scowled as