Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [41]
With his blustery voice, clan leader Del Kellum personally welcomed the Persistence and announced a meeting of all available family representatives. “Since we can’t have any more clan gatherings at Rendezvous, we’ll do our best here, by damn! Somebody’s got to get organized and make decisions.”
After Denn docked his ship among the other vessels, he and Caleb met a harried-looking organizer who assigned them sleeping quarters in an outlying administrative asteroid. The two men each took a shower of distilled cometary water (which Caleb claimed was far inferior to Plumas water, though Denn noticed no difference at all), then made their way to the central complex for the meeting. Denn greeted friends and acquaintances from his trade runs, while Caleb found longtime water customers from the Plumas water mines. Despite the camaraderie, all of the Roamers were tense and unsettled.
Talking with clan representatives in the largest meeting hall, Denn was disheartened to learn that they all expected him to have news about the Speaker. “I am as isolated and disoriented as the rest of you. I have no idea where my daughter is.”
“It’s not like anyone had time to send out memos while evacuating Rendezvous,” Caleb pointed out.
“At least you figured out to come here,” raven-haired Zhett Kellum said, standing next to her father. “We’ve sent out messengers, hoping to get an overall picture of what’s going on.”
“If we don’t hear from the Speaker soon, we’ll have to make plans without her. Since we cut off all trade with the Big Goose, our families need new markets to supply and purchase vital goods.” Kellum slipped a beefy arm around his daughter’s shoulders.
“Cesca will get in touch with us as soon as she can. I’m sure she’s already sent out word, but it may take a while for any message to be disseminated,” Denn said. “But I agree that we can’t wait. We have to start deciding what to do right away. So how do we deal with the Hansa?”
Kellum put his hands on his hips. “We’re holding some EDF soldiers, by damn—if we want to use them as bargaining chips. We rescued them here after the Big Goose got its butt kicked by the drogues.”
“Not that they’ve written us any thank-you notes.” Zhett gave a sour laugh. “It’s been more like playing host to thirty-one princesses.” Then she lowered her eyes. “Except one of them died in a bungled escape attempt, which just made the rest of the bunch angrier than ever.”
“No reason to avoid calling them POWs now,” Caleb said. “Tit for tat. Who knows how many Roamer hostages the Big Goose grabbed at Rendezvous. Or Hurricane Depot.”
“And they’re still doing it,” another clan head said. “They just hit the Chan greenhouses at Hhrenni.”
Denn made a disbelieving sound. “The Big Goose is letting rabid dogs do its decision-making.”
“Yeah, and those rabid dogs have huge ships and lots of weapons,” Caleb pointed out. “We don’t.”
“We might have something eventually,” Kellum said. “We’ve got Kotto Okiah studying the systems of a hydrogue derelict we found here in the rings. Pretty soon now we’ll know what makes the drogues and their vessels tick, by damn.” Though the meeting hadn’t actually started yet, listeners coalesced around Kellum. “Then we’ll have something to use against the Eddies—or at least against the drogues.”
“Let’s think about this a minute before we get ready to go to war,” Denn cautioned. “We’re traders first and foremost, not soldiers. We find resources, mine metals, produce stardrive fuel, and we used to sell a lot of our product to the Big Goose. Now that we’re not doing business with them anymore, are we going to curl up and whimper?” He raised his fist. “Or are we going to find new customers? It’s a big galaxy.”
“Would you listen to him,” Caleb grumbled good-naturedly. “He sounds just like the Speaker.”
“Like daughter, like father,” Denn quipped. “In fact, I