Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [19]
Under the damaged main dome, EDF engineers had rigged up light panels powered by temporary battery cells. A cluster of Roamer prisoners stood among ruined plants and gardening equipment. It looked like a hurricane had hit this place.
Stromo squared his shoulders. He enjoyed playing the part of a conquering military leader. “Who’s in charge here?”
“I bet you think you are,” answered one middle-aged man with reddish-blond hair. His round, rough face bore the red marks of a recently worn oxygen mask. Dried blood at his nose and hemorrhages in the whites of his eyes showed that he must have been exposed to the explosive decompression.
Stromo glanced at the blasted hole in the dome. Gummy clots of a translucent substance blocked most of the leaks, though he could still hear air hissing out into space. “I know I’m in charge. But is there a particular Roamer I should be talking to?”
“I’m Crim Tylar. You can talk to me as well as to anybody else.”
“I intend to make this an orderly evacuation,” Stromo said. “We’ll move all your personnel to a holding planet. You might even consider it a vacation after living on a floating rock like this.”
“We made these asteroids tolerable enough. Until now.”
Stromo smiled coolly. “You can use Roamer ingenuity to help establish a new Hansa settlement. A step toward making up for all the times when you shirked your duty to your fellow man.” Looking down at the tattered and uprooted plants, he saw fresh vegetables and recognized the bright red color of ripeness. He realized how hungry he was for good, fresh food. “Oh, tomatoes!”
But as he bent over, Crim Tylar stomped on the plant, sending a splurt of red juice and seeds up onto the Admiral’s leg. “I didn’t grow them for you.”
Stromo froze, but managed to keep his temper in check. The EDF soldiers would open fire if he gave the order, but he didn’t want to let this blow up into an impossible situation, especially with himself in the middle. Instead, knowing it was childish, he snapped, “Roachers don’t understand the concept of sharing.”
Chapter 8—CESCA PERONI
When the Roamer clans scattered, Cesca needed to get the old former Speaker to a safe, isolated place. At Jhy Okiah’s suggestion, Cesca took her to Jonah 12, hoping to stay with the small group of engineers there just long enough to gather her thoughts and to come to a decision about what to do.
Only a week ago, Rendezvous had been attacked—destroyed—by the Earth Defense Forces. The first wave of chaos and confusion hadn’t yet finished sweeping through the dispersed clan settlements, and it would be some time before the Roamer families could be brought together, but as Speaker of the clans, Cesca was determined to establish efficient communications again. In spite of the current turmoil, she planned to get an emergency network in place as soon as possible and had already sent out scouts, temporarily enlisting all of the small mining base’s long-range ships to gather and distribute information.
Cut off, the independent clans would be as hungry for news and guidance as Cesca was to talk to them. As soon as she received word back from some of the more important family heads, they would create a provisional council and choose a new center of government. She prayed that the scouts’ Guiding Stars would help them get the word out swiftly. If they did not, she feared that the hotheaded clan members who had demanded the provocative ekti embargo in the first place might act rashly, and get themselves killed in the process.
Long ago, the clan leaders had planned for various disasters, and designated several gathering points for Roamers in times of emergency. Although Rendezvous, the primary gathering point, was now gone, Cesca hoped to visit the few that remained in order to rally her people. Unfortunately, only two days after they settled in at Jonah 12, old Jhy Okiah’s suddenly declining health forced Cesca to change her plans. Despite the former Speaker’s protests, Cesca insisted on staying at Jhy Okiah’s side. “This place is as good as anywhere else,” she said. “I’ve