Basil laughed. “Impossible, General. Completely impossible. And if we provoke the Roamers in that way, they might well embargo all the ekti. They’re the ones holding the cards, not us.”

“How about EDF spy ships? We could dispatch reconnaissance vessels, look for Roamer skymines.”

“Across the whole Spiral Arm, search for floating factories on every gas planet? Is that where you recommend we expend our efforts, General? The few unrecorded facilities we might discover would be an insignificant percentage, and then we’d have to take them over, occupy the facilities, and run them ourselves. That, General, would be an unwinnable strategy.”

Lanyan took the broad-winged glider higher, then cruised back toward the main base. They had seen enough troop demonstrations for the day.

“At the very least,” the General said, his voice showing that he had taken the time to consider his suggestion, “we could use the crisis to call for a full census of the Roamers. Under the guise of offering to protect their skymines, we could flush them out into the open. That data could prove very useful.”

Basil refused, for now. “Their Speaker Okiah is a clever old woman. She would see through the ruse immediately. The alien attackers are our primary concern, and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize our steady flow of ekti.” He pursed his lips. “However… I will impose price restrictions, so that the Roamers can feel the effects of this war in their credit accounts as well.”

“It will be difficult enough to prosecute a war against an alien threat we don’t understand.” Lanyan did not appear completely satisfied with the solution as he brought the glider in for a landing at the multiple domes of the Mars base. “The lastthing we need is a wrench in the machinery from human beings as well.”

76: JESS TAMBLYN

76JESS TAMBLYN

An emergency clan gathering had been called at Rendezvous. But the Roamer family representatives were in such an uproar that even Jhy Okiah, with her decades of experience as Speaker, could barely maintain order.

Leaders of the various family groups sat on their designated benches in the crowded discussion chamber, jostling, talking, shouting. The air reprocessors worked double-time to keep the atmosphere fresh and breathable, despite such an unusual number of people. The food, air, and water resources of the Roamer gathering point were taxed to their limits. But Speaker Okiah had deemed no other matter more important for their survival.

Jess Tamblyn sat silently on his designated bench, watching the proceedings, but deep in thought. He was now the official head of the Tamblyn clan, at least the man in the best position to represent the water mines, though his four uncles worked hard to keep the facilities running at peak production. Jess would rather be here. He had promised himself to show no weakness, to do everything expected of him.