Ekti was the only known allotrope of hydrogen, though other elements had varying molecular forms. Carbon manifested itself as powdery graphite, crystalline diamond, or exotic polymer spheres of buckminsterfullerene. Long ago, the Ildirans had discovered how to reconfigure hydrogen into a fuel that allowed their stardrives to function.

Before ambitious Roamers took over the ekti-harvesting industry, old Ildiran-model cloud trawlers had been much larger, hosting a minimal splinter community of sixty to ninety family units and requiring a gigantic infrastructure. Therefore, harvesting ekti had cost the gregarious Ildirans a great deal.

Independent Roamers, on the other hand, could operate skymines with a small support staff, which also allowed them to sell stardrive fuel at lower cost. The Ildirans had gladly surrendered their monopoly on ekti production, glad to leave the “desert islands in space” and let humans have the misery to themselves.

The rest of the Hansa considered the Roamers to be little more than gypsy space trash, disorganized and disreputable. No one had an inkling of how much the clans actually had and how many taxes they avoided, since they kept such information hidden from outsiders.

A flutter of white wings went past Jess’s face, startling him. He looked up to see a dozen doves flapping around the deck, swirling out into the sky and circling back to their perches and feed bins. “I’d forgotten about the birds.”

“This is a perfect place for them. Look how far they can fly.”

“Yes, but where do they land?”

Ross rapped his knuckles on one of the railings. “Back here.” Clouds extended for a thousand miles below them, but neither Ross nor Jess felt dizzy. “They have nowhere else to go, so they always return. The best sort of cage.”

Fastening his insulated jacket against the chill, Ross gazed across the infinite distance like a feudal lord surveying his domain. Jess pulled up his hood against the breeze. Behind them, exhaust plumes boiled upward like thunderheads that rapidly dispersed into the cloud decks of Golgen. The two brothers stood side by side in comfortable silence.

During the lull in conversation, Jess sensed it was time for his gifts. He opened one of the pocket pouches on his right thigh and withdrew a thick golden disk engraved with symbols that matched the Tamblyn clan markings embroidered on Jess’s and Ross’s clothing. “Tasia made this for you.”

Ross took it, looking with wonder at the beautiful device his younger sister had created. “As usual, I’m impressed by her engineering skills … but I’ll need to know what it is before I can use it.”

Jess pointed to the dial and the numbers. “It’s a compass. It can be normalized to any planet’s magnetic field so you can always find your way. See, there’s the Guiding Star.”

“Is my little sister implying that I’m lost?”

“It’s just her way of showing that she misses you, Ross, though you’d never get through her tough-girl act long enough for her to admit it.”

Ross’s grin grew. “Yeah, I miss her, too.”