The Saga of Seven Suns: Veiled Alliances (4 page)

6

COREY KELLUM

The gas giant Daym was a swirling soup of clouds. Gaseous mixtures rose in fluffy strata of lavender, gray, and white from the planetary cauldron.

From the Ildiran warliner delivering a group of human refugees from the generation ship
Kanaka
, Corey Kellum saw the gas giant as a planet-sized opportunity, a business venture that just might become the greatest boon ever to his clan—if they could pull it off.

And it was about damned time for a lucky break. The
Kanaka
colonists had tried several different ventures already over the course of their long journey. They did well at making do. For decades, the clans had kept the
Kanaka
functioning with liberal use of wire and patch putty, innovative application of spare parts, desperate coaxing, and plenty of prayer. They knew how to make things work, even though their colony on the planet Iawa had been a flop, through no fault of their own, forcing them to pull up stakes and roam the stars again.

Even now, some clans stayed aboard the old
Kanaka
, still wandering, while Corey and his people accepted a new purpose, thanks to the Ildirans.
Skymining for stardrive fuel.

Corey had no doubt they could make the clunky cloud trawlers run efficiently and at a profit. The Ildirans certainly didn’t know how to do so; the aliens had no business sense whatsoever, merely continuing their operations as they always had, without any thought for innovation, improvements, or efficiency. Clan Kellum could do much better.

The Ildiran commander of the warliner group, Septar Gro’nh, was a blocky alien with olive-gold skin and a gruff voice. He had not complained about his assignment to ferry a ship full of wayward human colonists to a new home in the clouds; he would also take the retired Ildiran crews back home.

“Corey Kellum, we are approaching Daym. Please prepare your people to assume the skymining operations.” The septar was an unhurried man, but he made no secret that he was ready to return to Ildira. “You will all disembark on Cloud Trawler Number One for your briefing on our industrial operations. Once you have learned our systems, we will complete the transition and remove the Ildiran crew.”

“We’re fast learners, Septar.” Corey grinned, but the military commander seemed immune to charm. “My best engineers have been studying your equipment for the past week.” He did not comment on how inefficient the whole skymining operation seemed, from an objective analysis.

“Excellent,” Gro’nh said. “Our people will be happy to go home.”

“And my clan will be happy to
have
a home.”

The Ildirans had informed the refugees of their activities back on Earth. After the Solar Navy rounded up the generation ships and let them establish colonies, setting up the colonies on new planets, the Ildirans had finally approached Earth. First they made contact to deliver the news about finding the wayward vessels; finally, the Mage-Imperator had just sent a formal delegation to establish diplomatic ties. Some members of the rescued generation ships would be given the opportunity to return to their home planet—either for a brief visit, or to go back for good.

But the
Kanaka
refugees had no interest in going back, especially when an opportunity like this awaited them. Earth was far away and long in their past.

While the septar returned to the warliner’s command nucleus, Corey stared through the observation window, his gloved hands clasped behind his back. Like most of his people, he wore work clothes all the time, often adorned with flashes of color. It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to relax; they just never had the opportunity. Work was their life, so they may as well be comfortable.

Oliver Sung, a dark-skinned man with a leather cap and a pair of goggles dangling at his neck, came up to stand beside Corey. Oliver was a crack engineer, an optimist and his friend. “What do you see down there?” he asked.

Filling the view before them, the hypnotic and dizzying clouds of Daym seemed to go on forever and ever. “I see a giant-sized planet filled with clouds just waiting to be converted into stardrive fuel.”

“
Ekti,
” Oliver said. “The Ildirans call it ekti. You have to get the terminology right.”

“We have to keep the equipment functioning right in order to produce the stuff. I don’t care what label they put on it. Before you know it, we’ll be marketing our own brands.”

Entering the atmosphere of Daym, the warliner drifted down through layers of clouds as it closed in on the first of three cloud trawlers that harvested massive amounts of raw hydrogen and processed it into the exotic allotrope necessary for the Ildiran stardrives.

Drifting among the clouds at an atmospheric layer where Ildirans—and humans—could survive, was a gigantic, industrial city, domed on top, studded with antennae and data-gathering equipment. Long survey probes dangled down into the depths, like the tendrils of a jellyfish; light strips glinted from more than a hundred decks, marking the Ildiran living quarters, cargo bays, levitation engines, ekti reactor chains, and processing lines.

Corey let out a rude noise and shook his head. “What a wreck!”

“We’ll fix it,” Oliver said. “If they were efficient factories, the Ildirans wouldn’t be turning them over to us.”

“The Ildirans crew the cloud trawlers with ten times as many personnel as necessary. No wonder they never turn a profit. We can do it with a lot fewer people.”

According to Septar Gro’nh, Ildirans drew strength in numbers, regardless of the situation, and they disliked being solitary. Let them suit themselves. Corey appreciated this new start for the
Kanaka
refugees, and he prayed to the Guiding Star that this venture turned out better for them than the colony on Iawa had.

Long ago, the
Kanaka
had been the last of the eleven generation ships to depart from Earth. With budgets and patience nearly exhausted, the big vessel was cobbled together out of leftover parts and rushed on its way. Corners had been cut, the initial supply complement was reduced. Corey’s ancestors had the odds stacked against them from the very beginning.

Despite inferior workmanship and inadequate preparation, the resourceful colonists had held their ship and their society together. The hardships forced them to learn how to solve problems in unusual ways. They created a foothold colony in an asteroid cluster around a red dwarf, and then kept searching for a real planet. They lived with adversity, knew how to scrape together every tiny piece of material and put it to a new purpose.

When the Solar Navy had delivered the
Kanaka
to an available planet, the colonists celebrated, hoping their troubles were finally over. They tried to make a new home on Iawa, the first generation with their feet on solid ground for a long time—but a pernicious blight wiped out all their crops, infested their seed stock, and left them facing starvation. They were forced back into space, returning to their old generation ship, clutching at any straw. Some of the colonists grumbled that they were homeless again; Corey preferred to think of it as
footloose
.

By then, they had learned how to thrive under adverse circumstances. Rather than crawling back to Earth, they chose instead to wander and find some other niche to fill.

Through persistence, Corey had negotiated his way into a lucrative Ildiran business deal for a few hundred of his clan members. Upon learning that the Ildirans did not like to operate their isolated cloud trawlers, Corey had extolled his people’s abilities and offered to take over the ekti harvesting operations on Daym, the nearest gas giant to Ildira. “Why not let us give it a try? It could benefit both our peoples.”

And if that worked, they could even expand the operations, bring in more clans from the
Kanaka
. . . .

The Ildiran military commander didn’t understand why the humans would be interested . . . but then, the Ildirans didn’t understand human ambitions at all. In fact, they were rather naïve, even though their empire had been around for fifteen thousand years.

During the clan gathering of
Kanaka
refugees, Corey presented his idea. “None of this turned out the way our forefathers dreamed, and so anybody who wants to go back to Earth can do so. The Solar Navy has offered to take you there. As for myself, though, I’m going to become a skyminer. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll work on an ice moon, or live underground in an asteroid. I’ll make do.”

The response had been overwhelming: The
Kanaka
colonists didn’t want to slink back to Earth. In fact, they had no idea whether Earth would even take them. Corey’s people chose to go live in the clouds.

Throughout the preparation work, teams of engineers studied the Ildiran blueprints, analyzed the chemical process that converted hydrogen into ekti, used simulators to strip down and reassemble the reactor chambers. Oliver Sung had been one of the first to express his scorn, “Shizz! The Ildirans haven’t modified these things in centuries.”

Corey chuckled. “Good, let’s do an overhaul. Put on our innovation hats and come up with a trick or two. If we prove ourselves here, Ildiran skymines are harvesting ekti on dozens of gas giants, and we’ve got plenty of other
Kanaka
colonists ready to take the jobs.”

“Sign me up,” Oliver said.

Now, Corey’s people were full of hope when Septar Gro’nh’s warliner arrived at the first of Daym’s three cloud trawlers. The
Kanaka
refugees packed up their possessions and prepared to be shuttled over. Corey told the septar that they could probably all make it in a trip or two. “Our people travel light.”

Next to him, Oliver snorted, “That’s because we don’t have much left after so many setbacks.”

As the human teams and their families disembarked on the giant floating facility, the Ildiran engineering crews—crowds and crowds of them—came forward to greet Corey’s people. The cloud trawler’s chief engineer bowed before Corey. He was a squat Ildiran with a pug nose and tufts of wiry hair that stood out on above his pointed ears. “We grant you a great honor in turning over operations to you and your people. The three Daym cloud trawlers have produced ekti for four centuries. Currently, they are home to more than four thousand Ildiran workers. Are you certain your few hundred people can handle the operations?”

Corey chuckled. “Don’t worry, sir—we’ll take care of every piece of equipment as if it were our own.”

“It is yours, Corey Kellum. We hereby cede control of the Daym facility to your people, provided you continue to produce ekti for us.”

Corey’s response was automatic. “And we’re happy for the opportunity, Chief. Running these big factories won’t be much different from keeping our old generation ship functional. But this time we’ll be making a profit.”

Over the course of the next several days, while Ildirans gave tours and briefings of the operations, thousands of lower-level Ildiran workers commenced their orderly evacuation. They gathered in the cargo bays and boarded waves of shuttles back to Septar Gro’nh’s warliner; the journey from Daym to Ildira was a short one, but the preparations took a long time.

Soon enough, the gas giant would be in the hands of Corey’s people.

The chief engineer spent many hours showing Corey and Oliver the workings of Cloud Trawler Number One, answering questions about the technology, lecturing about the skymining life. Corey smelled the chemical fumes, heard the pulse of the reactors, sensed the rush of atmospheric gases flowing through the intakes and billowing out the exhaust stacks.

Although Corey was not an expert in alien moods, he thought the chief seemed forlorn as the large crew abandoned the ancient facility. Giving up his life’s work, Corey supposed. “We are glad to return to the seven suns of our home,” the chief said, though his tone did not match the words. “Living in extended isolation is difficult for us.”

Corey rubbed his chin. “Then we can make you a deal. If this works out, other
Kanaka
clans will be glad to take over your skymining operations on other planets as well—after we prove ourselves, of course.”

The chief engineer nodded. “That is definitely a possibility. First, though, the next few months, we will allow you to move to the other two Daym cloud trawlers. If you wish it.”

“We definitely wish it.” Corey knew how valuable the stardrive fuel was. Now that the Mage-Imperator had offered stardrive technology to the Terran Hanseatic League back on Earth, the demand for fuel would increase exponentially. He preferred to make long-range plans, and he wanted his people to be on the forefront of the new industry.

Several days later, after the last Ildiran crewmembers filed onto the final shuttle and departed, Oliver joined Corey on the deck. Both men waved at the enormous ornate warliner drifting among the clouds. The big ship cut through the cloud decks like a prowling leviathan.

Corey let out a long sigh of relief, finally believing that the aliens had turned over the huge facility to them. He and Oliver exchanged a high-five, then Corey hurried to the station-wide intercom. “All right, everybody—the Ildirans didn’t want it, so we’ve got this facility all to ourselves. Let’s get to work.”