Blood of the Cosmos (44 page)

An unexpected flicker of distaste crossed Cesca's face. “Speaker Ricks…” She caught herself. “I consider it poor form to voice an opinion about another Speaker.”

“Cesca's being polite,” Jess said. “Soft times do not require hard leaders, and Speaker Ricks was chosen when the Roamers still believed that these were soft times. His election was an anomaly. Do not judge us based on the Speaker. Your son will benefit from what we can teach him. He shows great promise.”

Arden lifted his chin. “I think I should stay here, Father. There's a lot I can learn, just as I've learned from you. And you're the one who told me that we need challenges to make us strong. We're not like the other clans. We are Iswanders!”

“And he's a little full of himself,” Seth Reeves teased.

“I did say that.” Iswander smiled. “You were listening.”

“I always listen to you.”

“We'd hate to lose him here,” Cesca said, “but it is your choice.”

Arden tried to maintain his proud composure, but then playfully shoved Seth, who tumbled out of control in the low gravity until he bumped into the other drifting students.

“We're Iswanders,” Arden said again. “We're more than just Roamers. You taught me to think big.”

“I think you're right, son.” The comment was like a revelation in Iswander's mind. He realized he didn't need to impress just the Roamer clans, when there was the whole Confederation.
That
was where he should be planting his seeds. He would build ties with the King and Queen and sidestep the Roamer clans.

And he had something the Roamers had expressed little interest in. Since Peter and Estarra were focused on their very public battle with Prince Reyn's illness, however, as well as their questions about the mysterious Onthos refugees, Iswander knew exactly how to gain their attention.

Iswander turned to Jess and Cesca, speaking seriously now. “Sam Ricks is just one man, and he was a mistake. Maybe I shouldn't discard all Roamers because of one mistake.” After all, he had asked for the same consideration himself. He turned to his son. “You've reminded me of one of my own lessons, Arden. Stay here at Academ and keep learning. And I'll keep thinking big.”

*   *   *

Aim higher.

Londa was delighted when he asked her to stay at Newstation for an additional week while he flew to Theroc, and Iswander used the time alone during the flight to consider possibilities. He was by blood a Roamer; his ancestors had come from the generation ship
Kanaka
, along with the scions of all the clans, but Iswander had taken his clan to another level.

Now, he would make himself important to the Confederation's rulers and step into his rightful position among the Roamers from the
top down
—after all, the clans were just another part of the Confederation.

After he landed on the canopy, he filed a request to meet with Peter and Estarra, sure he would have to twist arms and bypass numerous moat dragons. But he explained what he had brought, and his request was approved immediately. He wore a nice new suit and a smile as he was led through the white-walled catacombs of the fungus-reef city to the private quarters of the King and Queen.

“Welcome, Mr. Iswander,” Peter said. “How may we help you?”

He read caution there, but no outright suspicion. Iswander stepped forward. “I would like to help the Confederation, Majesties. I want to do my part. The Shana Rei are a terrible, incomprehensible threat—I had a brush with one of their shadow clouds myself, and it's a miracle my facility survived.” He did not, in fact, understand why the horrific hex ships and their black robot allies had withdrawn … but one did not question a miracle.

Estarra was surprised. “When, and where did you encounter the Shana Rei? And how did you survive?”

Iswander could not show the images of the shadow cloud attack on his bloater extraction fields, because that would reveal the nature of his ekti harvesting. “That was a temporary operation, an industrial site now played out and abandoned. But the experience made it all too clear how much of a threat those creatures pose, and I want to help. Therefore, Iswander Industries will provide ekti-X to the Confederation Defense Forces at an extreme discount, a third of the standard cost for stardrive fuel. It will be my contribution to the fight against the Shana Rei.”

Peter was obviously pleased. “We thank you for your generous offer. General Keah is about to depart on an expedition to the Onthos home system, which was destroyed by the Shana Rei. Any information you can provide from your previous encounter would help.”

He gave a small nod. “I will be happy to tell her what I can. And speaking of the Onthos, I have relevant information there, as well.” He removed the datapack he had brought. “This is a large database of Onthos records, their derelict city, their history. A woman named Orli Covitz arrived at my complex, infected with the plague that killed clan Reeves, and she brought me all of these records from the space city before it was destroyed—with the request that I disseminate them.” He extended the datapack. “Earlier, I tried to interest the Roamer clans in this treasure trove of information, but they didn't know what to do with it. Considering the Onthos are now settling on Theroc, perhaps you can put the data to some use?”

Estarra was indeed very interested. “And all that medical data? I don't know if it can help Reyn, but it might answer some questions about the Onthos.”

Peter was more skeptical. “And you're just giving it to us? As a goodwill gesture?”

Iswander smiled. “I'm not in everything for profit, sire. All humans should have this.”

 

CHAPTER

72

ELISA ENTURI

Arrogance
, Elisa thought. Sheer arrogance. Aaron Duquesne seemed cocky, unconcerned. Were Roamers always so flippant? Even Garrison hadn't been so egotistic. But she benefited from that arrogance now.

Duquesne's crew flew away from Ulio Station in two ships, heading back toward their hidden extraction site. Elisa had placed trackers on both ships, so she followed them easily enough. Any number of other poachers could have followed them the same way. Her annoyance grew as she cruised along, her sensors picking up their stardrive wake.

Though Garrison was less arrogant than the Duquesnes, he just as na
ï
vely assumed that Roamer clans cooperated and considered all people to be intrinsically fair, comrades ready to offer help. During the Elemental War, they had been outlaws, crack survivalists. How quickly they had forgotten! Now, from what Elisa could see, the Roamers had just become stupid. Aaron Duquesne was either inept or oblivious.

The journey from the Iswander extraction yards had taken three days by Ildiran stardrive, and now she followed the Duquesne ships on a different vector for a day and a half. Apparently, they had found a bloater cluster much closer to Ulio. It didn't surprise her. The strange nodules were becoming more and more common.

Using the onboard databases, Elisa read up on clan Duquesne during the flight, wondering if they were all idiots, or if she had just encountered a select few. The clan had invested heavily in skymines on Belliros after the end of the Elemental War, purchasing old cloud harvesters abandoned by other clans who wanted nothing more to do with skymining; the investment had seemed like a sure bet since gas giants were again safe from the hydrogues.

But now Iswander's inexpensive ekti-X was stripping away their livelihood.
Poor things.
That was how business worked.

Clan Duquesne obviously preferred to take the easy way out, and harvesting ekti from innocuous bloaters was certainly easy, requiring little investment to reap great profits. She didn't know how they had discovered the secret, but she had to cut it off at the source.

According to her tracker signals, the two Duquesne ships had reached their destination. Elisa decelerated so she could approach without being seen. Maybe the extraction field had more security than these oafs would suggest. Elisa's ship couldn't withstand a concerted attack, so she would likely have to come back with more firepower. On the other hand, she knew what the bloaters were filled with. If she found the opportunity, she could easily ruin the Duquesne operations.

As she approached the site, she encountered a few straggler bloaters that streamed into the vicinity from deep space. With her running lights doused and her engine output on low, she eased forward, alert, staying out of sight.

The Duquesne extraction yards were primitive, even laughable. Clearly, the bumbling clan had not figured out the most efficient way to retrieve stardrive fuel from the bloater sacks. Several old-model Roamer ships hung near the central cluster. The Duquesnes had converted a large tanker into an operations center. A corral area held fuel cylinders, while three stripped-down water tankers were attached to separate bloaters, slicing open the tough membrane and spilling the protoplasm out into space, which they gathered with scoops and booms.

Elisa was appalled. Spilled stardrive fuel drifted in globules throughout space. So much waste! And yet, the bloaters were so plentiful, clan Duquesne could always get more, no matter how much they lost.

Even with wide-range scans, Elisa detected no defenses, no perimeter scouts, no patrols. It was ridiculous. Any profitable operation needed some kind of security, if only to defend against random thieves. Well, that made her mission simpler. She was glad she wouldn't have to conduct an overt war. She could take care of this herself, quickly and efficiently.

At the cockpit controls, she glowered at the primitive extraction site—seven ships, three extraction vessels, the main operations ship, local high-intensity lights, and hundreds of bloaters swarming like plankton in a cosmic sea, drifting together in a close cluster.

Yes, that would do.…

Dropping any pretense, Elisa flew toward the extraction complex and broadcast on wide comm channels. “Aaron Duquesne, after all your talk at Ulio Station I expected to be more impressed with what I found. You stole Lee Iswander's discovery, but it doesn't look like you know what to do with it.”

There was an outbreak of activity in the operation, a chatter of surprised voices over several different channels. Finally, Aaron came on the screen from the main operations ship. He no longer looked so cocky, displaying obvious anger, but she read fear beneath it. “You followed me from Ulio, bitch! This is a private clan Duquesne installation, and you're trespassing.”

“You remained in plain sight at all times, Mr. Duquesne.” Even if this man did not blurt out the ekti-X secret on his next trip to Ulio Station, someone else was bound to be just as curious and just as ruthless. Sooner or later, he would be tracked down through his own ineptitude; she was glad to be the one to do it.

But how had Aaron Duquesne discovered the source in the first place? She personally did the trading with outsiders; the extraction field workers were not allowed furloughs. Who could have revealed the secret? Was there an active spy among the Iswander workers? That would pose a difficult challenge.

Then the answer struck her like a blazing light in the back of her mind. It had to be either Garrison or Orli! They had seen the original extraction yard, then departed after the remaining bloaters in that cluster fissioned and metamorphosed. They could have blurted it out to anyone. Lee Iswander had shut down his operations there, so there was nothing left for anyone to find, but he never should have let those two depart with impunity. Not only had Garrison taken her son, now he had apparently ruined Iswander's future as well. Bright anger flared behind her eyes.

Duquesne made a laughable attempt at a threat. “We'll defend these yards.”

“I don't think you can, Mr. Duquesne.” She watched two of the ships power up while another was already moving toward her. They had some weapons, but she wasn't worried. She held the wild card. “I have to protect the interests of Iswander Industries. Your operations here are over.”

Duquesne sneered on the comm screen. “What's the matter? The great industrialist can't stand a little competition?”

“Lee Iswander doesn't need to tolerate your competition.” Elisa powered up her ship's weapons. They were small, intense jazers, not enough to fight off a battleship … but she didn't intend to get into a firefight. She had other obvious options.

“And what are you going to do about it, bitch?” Duquesne said.

Elisa opened fire.

When she discovered the first cluster of bloaters after chasing Garrison, she had fired a warning shot across his bow to get him to surrender. She hadn't intended to strike one of the bloaters, but the nodules were so closely clustered, it had been unavoidable. Just an accident.

Now, though, she targeted the bloaters intentionally, knowing what would happen.

The drifting nodules were filled with unprocessed stardrive fuel. All they needed was a spark. Elisa strafed her high-energy weapons across the three bloaters that were connected to extractors; then she fired indiscriminately at any other nearby nodules, just for good measure, taking all of her shots in a second.

She was already enhancing her shields as she accelerated away.

The bloaters blossomed into fireballs. The volatile ekti ignited and roared outward like a sun going supernova. The energy of the blast ripped apart the extraction complex, and the firestorm swelled as each explosion ignited adjacent bloaters. Her rear cameras recorded the Armageddon chain reaction as she streaked away.

On the comm, she heard indignant cries and screams of fear—all of which were swiftly cut off.

Explosions engulfed the entire Duquesne complex, and the fires continued to swell, but Elisa had seen enough. She felt exhilarated, satisfied, and vindicated. She was convinced that she had done exactly what Lee Iswander would have wanted her to do.