The Ashes of Worlds - Kevin J. Anderson [37]
“If the human colonists are technologically proficient, perhaps they will assist us in creating more robots,” QT suggested. “After all, the current fabrication lines are designed for human hands.”
“And we could use the help,” PD said. “We should keep them alive.”
Sirix grudgingly agreed. “Some of them, perhaps — if it serves our purposes.” He contacted his ships to inform them of the mission priorities. The robot fleet altered course and flew off toward their new destination.
* * *
23
General Kurt Lanyan
As his battle group followed the pinger signal on the runaway Roamer cargo escort, Lanyan felt genuine satisfaction. At Golgen, he had put all the skymines in their places and showed the clans that they had to line up in support of the Hansa for the good of the human race. His troops had also captured enough stardrive fuel to run the whole fleet for six months or more. Definitely a good day’s work. As he sipped a cup of black coffee on the Goliath’s bridge, Lanyan mulled over how much the Chairman would appreciate what he’d done. For once.
Tight supplies of ekti had hampered the EDF for years. How could a space fleet perform its work properly if they had to account for every fume, every discretionary patrol run? Now that his ships were pursuing one of the “escaped” cargo escorts, Lanyan was sure he’d soon have even more to show for his efforts. Yes, he felt very good about himself and his crew.
“That was a bad business back at Golgen, General.” Conrad Brindle had come aboard the flagship from his Manta for consultation and debriefing. He didn’t sound enthusiastic at all.
“Bad business? It was a complete success.”
“It was a civilian target, sir. We had no legal justification for seizing their assets without due process — ”
“They were enemy sympathizers at the very least, if not actual combatants.” Lanyan wished the other man had the decency to voice his objections in the privacy of the ready room, rather than on the bridge where the rest of the crew could overhear.
Brindle stood his ground. “At the Academy I taught students in ethics, the Hansa Charter, and the fine points of EDF regulations. During our Golgen mission, the proper procedures were not followed. What we did was tantamount to piracy.”
Lanyan cut him off, annoyed that this man would rain on his parade. Years earlier, Lanyan himself had hunted down and executed the Roamer pirate Rand Sorengaard; this was completely different. “Mr. Brindle, you made the right decision when you chose not to join Willis’s mutiny at Rhejak. You showed an admirable strength of character when you left your own son and his Roamer ‘friend’ on Theroc and remained loyal to the Earth Defense Forces. Don’t fail me now when things are going so well.”
His tactical officer interrupted them. “General, the pinger signal has stopped! The cargo escort’s gone to ground in the system ahead.”
Lanyan set his coffee aside, hoping Brindle wouldn’t press the matter further. “Tell me about the system. What’s there?”
“Nothing that I can see, sir. Metal-rich rocks in erratic orbits — barely worth noting on a starmap. The only name I could find in the records is Forrey’s Folly. I can’t tell if it refers to any particular asteroid.”
Lanyan nodded slowly, smiling. “Ugly, useless, and out of the way — exactly the sort of place Roamers like.” He scanned starmap archives where a tangle of ellipses showed the orbital paths of the many out-of-ecliptic planetoids around a small dim sun. The cargo escort had gone directly to one of the asteroids. “Proceed with caution. We’ll probably find another clan hideout.”
The sensor operator scanned the rock. “The presence of processed metals and geometrical shapes clearly indicates artificial constructions.”
“Charge in with our weapons ready, but don’t open fire unless