Before he left, he folded her in a long, warm, desperate embrace. “Yes, the clans need us, each in our own way,” she said. “Roamers must prepare. You know this will get worse.”

Jess nodded grimly. “Yes, that’s one of the few things I do know.”

She found Jhy Okiah in the zero-G nursery on one of the outlying asteroids of the Rendezvous complex. The Speaker had heard the news and by now also knew about Jess’s cometary bombardment of Golgen, but she had not yet responded. In all her years involved in Roamer politics, the old woman had learned not to react too quickly.

“A moment of consideration often prevents a thousand apologies, Cesca,” she had once said. Because of the vast distances between the scattered Hansa colonies and uncharted Roamer settlements, no action ever had instant counter-effects. Sometimes, years were required before consequences made themselves known.

Jhy Okiah drifted against a wall, her brittle old legs bent into a lotus position. The Speaker had placed her thin wrist in a tether loop that anchored her in the weightless environment. Here in the nursery, she loved to watch the Roamer children play and laugh while learning movement skills in the gravity-free environment. The painted chamber walls were padded so the children could bounce balls, or themselves, off different targets.

In the center of the nursery, equipped with a canister of compressed air that she used for maneuvering, the matronly Governess-model compy UR kept a careful attentive eye on her charges. UR had a full suite of first-aid skills and discipline programming, and a great deal more patience than any human. With her maternal-based psychology, the compy could tend many Roamer children at once.

When Cesca entered the zero-gravity nursery asteroid, the Governess recognized her before Jhy Okiah came out of her deep reverie. “Cesca Peroni, it has been far too long since you’ve come to visit me. Are you behaving yourself, as I instructed?”

Cesca smiled at the motherly compy. “I haven’t forgotten any of the things you taught me, UR.”

“See that you do not.” Then the Governess jetted off to interpose herself between two boys who were wrestling and tumbling a bit too roughly. UR had watched over several generations of Roamer children, and though stern and meticulous, she also knew how to inspire devotion and love.

While the old Speaker continued to gaze at the rambunctious children, Cesca pulled herself along the wall handholds and took up a position next to her. Jhy Okiah said, “It may seem odd, with all the chaos and noise here in the nursery, but I come here for peace so I can think.”

Cesca looked at the carefree boys and girls. “It’s not difficult to understand, Speaker Okiah. Where better to see that there are still people who have no concerns and are delighted with life? People who envision the whole future bright around them?”