Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [126]
“And in exchange you hibernated for millennia?”
“Among other things. Centuries mean nothing to Klikiss robots, and we had time to wait, so we agreed to their terms. The first of us were awakened, as planned, on a moon in the Hyrillka system five hundred years ago. Our return has been orchestrated for a long, long time. At last our mission is about to reach its culmination.”
DD stared out the front of their swift ship, seeing the bright jewel of a star as they closed in on another solar system. Before the compy could ask another question, Sirix cut him off. “I have provided you with enough data to contemplate for the time being. We approach our destination, where we will awaken the last of our soldiers.”
Chapter 60—KOTTO OKIAH
Once he had arranged to meet with Del Kellum in the Osquivel administrative station, Kotto could barely contain his enthusiasm. The eccentric inventor was so excited about his new theory that he found himself unable to do other work, so he and his two compies shut down their temporary systems and left the hydrogue derelict in empty space.
He let the compies pilot the shuttle down into the industrial complex in the gas giant’s rings, far below. Del Kellum hadn’t wanted him to study the alien wreck too close to the shipyards, just in case the hydrogues took notice. Kotto didn’t mind the isolation; he could never have concentrated properly amidst the many distractions down in the rings.
While he waited for the clan leader to see him, thoughts ricocheted through his mind. “It’s a solution at least, right? This is what we were supposed to be doing in the first place, isn’t it, GU?”
“I have no context for your statement, Kotto Okiah,” the scuffed compy said.
Kotto gave a dismissive wave. He couldn’t expect them to follow his train of thought if he didn’t say anything out loud. “Never mind.”
He fidgeted, then looked again at the sketched-out calculations and his scrawled proposal. He liked to work with scraps of recyclable paper instead of on a datascreen, which he found confining. Real paper gave him more creative elbow room, the freedom to think and flow; after he was finished, GU always cleaned up his sketches and summarized the basic idea in a neater format. Now, the two Analytical compies accompanied him to project backup data and supporting hypotheses, should Kotto need it. Whenever Del Kellum got here...
“What’s taking him so long?”
“I do not have access to his schedule, Kotto Okiah,” GU said.
“Neither do I,” KR said.
“What a conundrum.” Kotto sighed and leaned back in his chair.
He had made similar presentations before. His mother had trained him how to present his case and stand up against the usual stream of complaints and uncertainties from other clan leaders. Roamers weren’t unimaginative, nor were they afraid to take risks, but they were conservative and careful. The clans had suffered too many tragedies and disasters over the years.
“You need to be firm, and your conclusions must be irrefutable,” Jhy Okiah had said. “If you show a speck of uncertainty, they’ll eat you alive and you’ll never get any project approved.”
Faced with the hydrogue interdiction against skymining, Speaker Peroni had called for all Roamers to find innovative ways to keep producing ekti. Kotto had plunged into the challenge with a vengeance, one idea after another. And unlike his other schemes, this new plan was incredibly simple—child’s play by comparison—yet it had enormous repercussions. Today, he only had to convince Del Kellum; there wasn’t anyone else involved.
“Good thing it’s a small-scale operation,” he muttered to KR.
“I do not have any context—” the compy began.
“What’s that?” Del Kellum said as he came into the chamber without apologizing for being late.
With a glance at a chronometer,