Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [21]
“I feel more qualified to be a poet than a leader.” She blew out a long breath to release her frustration. “What a mess! How am I supposed to meet with the Roamer clans? The facilities and settlements are so diffuse, how will I get word to everyone to announce a clan gathering? And where should we hold it? We’re all outlaws now. Is it even safe to bring all the families together again in one place? What if the Hansa already found out about our gathering points? Dangerous!” She put her elbows on her knees.
“You’re letting impatience get the best of you. Rushed decisions are often bad decisions.” She patted Cesca gently on the arm. “It took only a few minutes to destroy Rendezvous, but it’ll take a long time to bring the clans together again. Spread the word, and the clans will know eventually.”
“But I have to do something. I want to rally the clans, inspire them, tell them not to surrender. If I’m the Speaker, shouldn’t I go to Earth and demand restitution?”
“They will seize you and hold you as a political prisoner.”
Cesca sipped her tea without tasting it, just for something to do. She fretted. “I should at least go back to Rendezvous and survey the damage...if there’s anything left at all.”
“Those damned Eddies stole our central place and our history.” Tears welled up in the former Speaker’s eyes, and she drew a deep, rattling breath. “My timing is poor, Cesca. I should have died earlier, when you were handling everything so well.”
“Don’t talk about dying,” Cesca said. “You need to stick around long enough to see how this all ends.”
Sitting on her bed, Jhy Okiah squeezed Cesca’s hand with surprising strength. “It does you no good to keep relying on me. You will figure out the solutions for yourself.” The old woman sighed. “I wish Kotto was here. He always comes up with solutions.”
“Crazy ones,” Cesca said with a forced chuckle.
“But solutions nevertheless.” She set her cup of pepperflower tea on a small shelf, then looked out through the skylight again, as if trying to count the scattered diamonds of distant suns. She suddenly smiled and pointed with one finger. “Oh, look. My Guiding Star!”
Cesca glanced up, following the old woman’s gesture, but all the stars looked alike. She felt the sinewy hand clench, and when Cesca looked down again, the light had faded from Jhy Okiah’s eyes.
Chapter 9—JESS TAMBLYN
Encased within his alien water-and-pearl ship and protected by the power of the wentals, Jess descended into the raging depths of the gas giant Golgen. He had asked the water elementals to take him here so that he could see firsthand what he had accomplished in his first strike against the hydrogues.
His strange vessel plunged through wispy clouds and tearing winds; vapors scoured the exterior hull. Apocalyptic storms churned through the high-pressure seas of condensed atmosphere where enemy hydrogues had once lived. Seven years ago, as a brash and vengeful human, Jess had dealt a mortal blow to them.
He and his clan engineers from Plumas had fired short-period comets into this planet as if they were cosmic cannonballs. The impacts, like giant thunderbolts wielded by ancient gods, had been unstoppable, the shockwave concussions more destructive than the strongest thermonuclear bombs.
The huge gas ball was still marked with discolored blemishes like gangrenous wounds from the cometary fusillade. The intervening years had not quelled the atmospheric disruption; repercussions would continue for decades at least. The still-angry human part of Jess Tamblyn took satisfaction in that, a measure of revenge for the death of Ross and his Blue Sky Mine, which the aliens had destroyed...
But while he was focused on his past efforts to defeat the hydrogues, he suddenly received flashes of images, alarms, and thoughts from the wentals themselves—a burst of news sent through the interlinked water beings. The message was not clear, but Jess comprehended what was happening: The EDF had attacked another Roamer outpost, the home of Nikko Chan Tylar, who had barely escaped.