Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [20]
Hydrogue depredations had put the families on higher alert for years—though few had expected that the greater threat would come from the Hansa government itself. Because of this constant state of vigilance, many ships had escaped the Eddy battle group at Rendezvous and were now spreading the alarm to hidden clan settlements, unmarked transport ships, and secret Roamer industrial facilities. By their very nature, Roamers were independent, bound only by loyalties, honor, and a loose system of laws. Rendezvous had been one of their few acknowledged safe havens. Right now, their very looseness and independence made the clans a difficult target for the EDF thugs, but it also created great problems in forming a united front.
But only a week had passed. Only a week. Cesca knew she could consolidate the people, and she hoped the Big Goose would now ease up, assuming the Roamers were broken. But in that, they would be very much mistaken.
Jhy Okiah had thought to hide on Jonah 12, because her youngest son had established the new base here. Not long ago, enthusiastic and ingenious Kotto had drawn up blueprints, run simulations, and convinced clan leaders to contribute funding and labor. The surface of Jonah 12 was made of hydrogen-rich ice, lakes of liquid methane, and other small-chain hydrocarbons that were useful for Roamer industries. And so Kotto had set up operations here, on a frigid chunk of rock and ice in the outer darkness of a system that some early clan explorer had named after a man who’d been swallowed by a whale.
Swallowed in darkness. With everything that had happened to the Roamers, Cesca felt as if she were in a similar situation...
Ambitious workers had set down modular domes in a base that was powered by a small-pile nuclear reactor. Moving like fat penguins, grazers trundled over the uneven terrain, gouging long troughs. Machinery cooked gases out of the harvested ice, sifting out hydrogen molecules that were recondensed for ekti processing; lightweight elements were diverted for colony use or for shipment to other clan settlements. Unwanted exhausts boiled up from each slow-moving grazer like clouds of steam from an old-fashioned locomotive. In the supercold environment, the processed exhaust refroze immediately, settling back down like thick, vaporous snow. Railgun launchers shot barrels of pure hydrogen ice up to a drifting ekti reactor that would catalyze the hydrogen into ekti, the valuable allotrope used as stardrive fuel.
Remembering her son’s wild plans, Jhy Okiah had wanted to see Jonah 12 for herself, even though Kotto was currently off investigating a hydrogue derelict found in the rings of Osquivel. His chief engineer, Purcell Wan, temporarily in charge of operations, had provided living quarters for Cesca and the former Speaker.
It had been more than a decade since the old woman had set foot on another planet, and even in Jonah 12’s low gravity she was barely able to breathe or move. Cesca suspected that the weight of the recent disaster and their uncertain future pressed on her friend more heavily than gravity did...
Now as she sat next to Jhy Okiah on her narrow bed, Cesca saw that the light had dulled in the old woman’s eyes. Watching the EDF ships blast Rendezvous, destroying the connecting cables and girders of the cobbled-together space rocks, had been a direct blow to her.
Inside their small habitation bubble, Cesca made pepperflower tea for both of them and sat sipping. Jhy Okiah just held the cup in her hand, letting the warmth penetrate her papery skin. Thick transparent windows on the curved sidewall of the chamber showed a fantastic landscape of molded hydrogen ice, but the old woman focused instead through the chamber’s skylight, staring at the panoply of stars.
“I suppose I should be cheering you up,” Cesca said, “but I’ve got so many questions in front of me, and every answer I step on seems to be a trapdoor.”
The former Speaker’s wrinkled, colorless lips formed a weak smile.