Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [45]
On a flat stretch of ice far enough away to minimize any hazard to the domes, railgun launchers regularly shot canisters of concentrated hydrogen up to the automated ekti reactors. Now, though, one launcher’s trajectory had been altered to send a special package on an endless journey out to deepest space.
Sixty of the workers gathered in respectful silence and stood together in cold shadows. Behind them, the warm yellow beacons from the base domes provided a welcome contrast to the stark whites and grays of the outer landscape shrouded in low-lying methane fog.
Cesca stood next to the wrapped package that held the old woman’s body, feeling both lightheaded and incredibly heavy at the same time. Making sure that the suit’s comm was off, she spoke quietly, as if Jhy Okiah could somehow hear her. “I hope you continue to think well of me even now that the Roamer clans are in far worse shape than they have ever been. Our people deserve nothing less than my best, so I’ll use what you’ve taught me to find a solution.” She squeezed her hand into a tight fist in the insulating glove of her suit. “Somehow.”
Left in charge of the base, Purcell Wan busily checked the launcher, ensured that the wrapped body was ready for its final interstellar journey. The railgun was a simple reaction-mass system that could lob containers far from the small planetoid’s gravity. “I increased the power and the range, Speaker Peroni. It’ll easily provide escape velocity. Jhy Okiah will go far, far from here, out in space where she belongs.”
Since he couldn’t see her nod behind the shadowed faceplate, Cesca acknowledged verbally. She drew a deep breath to compose herself before she flicked on the suit’s line-of-sight comm so she could address all of the gathered Jonah 12 workers.
“We are Roamers, all of us,” she announced aloud, struggling to remember the words she had tried to rehearse. “We have always been independent, exploring places where no one else would look, making lives for ourselves in the face of adversity. Jhy Okiah showed us how to do that. She led with her wisdom and by her own example. Her many children have succeeded among the clans, leading, working, and serving. Her youngest son established this very base.”
“I wish Kotto could be here,” Purcell groaned. “He doesn’t even know about his mother.” Murmurs of acknowledgment echoed across the communications systems.
Cesca added her own affirmation. “In her last words, the former Speaker said she could see her Guiding Star. Her spirit has flown on its final journey. Now let her body also soar free. Jhy Okiah will become an eternal roamer among the stars, forever drifting from place to place.”
The rest of the memorized words failed her, so she stepped back, gesturing with a gloved hand. Purcell gave instructions to two of his workers, who operated the launcher. Lights flashed from shifting fields, and the tightly wrapped body moved down the long rails.
With a silent flicker of acceleration, the irregular cylinder of Jhy Okiah’s body sailed upward in a gentle streak. Its reflective blanket glittering silver, the body flew with enough velocity to snap the thin threads of Jonah 12’s gravity.
Cesca leaned backward so she could turn her faceplate to the black and starry sky. She wished Jess could be with her now. Where was he? Would he ever come back to her?
The shining trail of the projectile dwindled until it became nothing more than a fast-moving star among all the others in space. The panorama made Cesca recall all the other Roamers who had perished over the centuries in their quest to disperse across the Spiral Arm and find their own freedom away from Earth...a freedom that was even now being stolen from them.
She wondered where her father was. She’d last seen Denn Peroni working in the forests of Theroc. Did he know what had happened on Rendezvous? Roamers should know to gather at certain central points, such as