Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [70]
“Something sure pissed the hydrogues off.” Maybe the human colony was just too tempting a victim after the hydrogues finished their destruction of Crenna’s sun. Or maybe the drogues had reasons that no human could understand anyway. Then she remembered that not long ago Chairman Wenceslas had authorized the use of five more Klikiss Torches. Five more hydrogue gas planets had been obliterated. A clear provocation? “Damned fools! They had to go and light a bunch of fuses—what did they expect? No wonder the drogues are retaliating.”
The screams continued over the comm system for no more than an hour, at which point every standing structure and every living person on Relleker had been erased. Rlinda found it appalling.
She glanced at Mayor Ruis. “I hope those drogues are satisfied and don’t come hunting us for a little extra sport. We’re playing possum, but who knows how good their scanners are? As it is, we got away just in time.” Alarmed and sickened, the mayor hurried to spread the word.
Rlinda flicked switches and cut even the Curiosity ’s running lights. She’d been in similar situations before, but her heart felt leaden, and her throat was dry. If Governor Pekar hadn’t forced them to leave, all of the Crenna refugees—and BeBob and herself—would have been down there as well, slaughtered...
The outcome of the Relleker massacre had been assured. She couldn’t have done anything to save them. The only thing she could accomplish now was to survive, keep all the Crenna refugees aboard alive—and haul ass for Earth with the news.
Chapter 33—ORLI COVITZ
Though he had not asked for the girl’s company, the old hermit took his responsibility seriously. “I always knew I needed a permanent shelter. Now I’ve got the impetus I needed to get off my ass and build my own private castle.”
Orli self-consciously brushed herself off. She felt as dirty as Hud Steinman looked. “I wasn’t complaining about sleeping on the ground.” Even so, she had to admit that the camping experience was a lot more fun in the concept stage than in the execution.
“Didn’t say you were. But my back hurts. Time to design and build a house.” He looked at her, his brow furrowed. “I don’t suppose you know anything about carpentry? Architecture?”
“Only a little bit that I read in schoolbooks.”
Steinman shrugged. “How hard can it be? We’ll figure it out.”
While he scratched out plans and chose a spot by a freshwater spring for their “homestead,” Orli helped with whatever else she could find to do. She sorted through the salvaged tools from the colony town, deciding which could be used for their task. She rechecked Steinman’s calculations, attempting to do so when he wasn’t looking. She knew he saw her doing it, but he did not object, either thinking the idea was cute, or just glad to have someone verify his math. She found a few mistakes but did not point them out to the old man.
When he’d finally convinced himself he knew what he was doing, Steinman showed her his hand-sketched plans and explained how the two of them would go about building a house. “We can cut down poletrees for lumber. We can make boards with the laser saw, and the skinnier logs will make a perfect framework.”
Orli let herself be carried away by his enthusiasm. “I bet we could weave some of the long grasses into strips, like ropes. Use it for lashing logs.” She’d already plaited a few of them around the campfire.
“Didn’t people make bricks out of mud a long time ago?” Steinman suggested. “We could probably do that, too. This world is full of building materials!”
She and Steinman easily felled one of the poletrees, and when the long trunk crashed into the grasses, two startled lowriders thrashed away. The topmost section of the poletree