82 CESCA PERONI

When the Roamer engineers completed repairs to the fungus-reef city, Cesca invited Mother Alexa and Father Idriss to return to their rebuilt home.

Roamer crews labored with heavy machinery throughout the forest. Already they had reclaimed parts of the blasted landscape and built many temporary homes for the refugees. “I don’t know that we could have done it without Roamer assistance,” Alexa said.

Cesca nodded solemnly. “Hydrogues destroyed our skymines and our traditional way of life, too. But we persevere, and fight, and hold on to the things we value most. Our peoples have much in common.”

Father Idriss looked up at the organic mass propped up on the worldtree with jury-rigged struts and grafted-on crossbeams. “It looks . . . different.”

“It looks fine,” Alexa answered. “Let’s go up.”

Cesca accompanied an excited Kotto Okiah as the Theron leaders re-entered the place where they had ruled in happier times. “You did an excellent job working with the materials at hand and finding innovative solutions, Kotto.”

The eccentric engineer was bursting with pride. “That’s what Roamers are good at, Speaker.” In only a month, he and his Roamer team had completed a job that would have taken the Therons years to do.

Inside the restored meeting chamber, Alexa and Idriss waited for their eyes to adjust to the soft artificial light. They gazed, smiling and uncertain, at the changed space. “I was afraid we’d have to abandon the whole fungus reef,” Alexa said.

Like a puppy turned loose, Kotto moved excitedly around the room. “You saw the plans already, but here’s what we did. We reinforced the load-bearing walls with solid beams of worldtree wood. Could have used metal or polymer composites, but I thought you’d prefer a more natural look.” He rapped his knuckles on sturdy ripple-grained beams that supported parts of the large room. “Underneath the city, we had to install a network of braces and struts. Right now it looks a little raw, but you could plant vines or other foliage to cover the framework.”

Idriss said, “Our people will be glad enough just to come home.”

“Home.” Alexa’s voice caught in her throat. “This meeting chamber was where we crowned Reynald. It seems like only yesterday. And now both Reynald and Beneto are dead.” She turned to Idriss, her eyes glimmering with tears. “Why is Sarein taking so long to come home? I was sure she’d be here by now.”

Idriss said, “Nahton assured us she’s arriving soon.”

Kotto led them into corridors that burrowed through the reef. “Look, we’ve installed new plumbing and power conduits throughout. Many of the old ventilation systems were inefficient and tangled. Some of them went to dead ends. Whoever maintained the circulation systems seemed to be making it up as they went along.”

Idriss looked at his wife. “Yes, that’s how it was installed in the first place.”

“Well, it’s much more efficient now. You’ll notice a clear difference when you use it.” Kotto strutted beside the two leaders, who looked shell-shocked and uncertain about all the changes and improvements, although Alexa and Idriss would probably never figure out how to use most of them.

As if sensing his thoughts, Alexa touched her husband’s muscular arm. “These are changes we can live with, Idriss. Our world will never be the same.”

Kotto wandered ahead, still chatting. “Enough of this city is restored for a third of the original population to move back in . . . maybe half, if they’re willing to crowd together in close quarters.”

Alexa showed little cheer despite the good news. “We won’t need to crowd—we lost too many people during the attack.”

Kotto looked embarrassed and saddened. “I didn’t mean to get so excited.”

Soot-stained and out of breath, Cesca’s father hurried in from the outer deck and trudged along the corridors, calling out, “Cesca!” He wiped his sweaty dark hair away from his forehead when he found his daughter. “One of our ships just came in with a message from the Osquivel shipyards. Del Kellum needs Kotto’s assistance.”

The engineer raised his eyebrows. “But there’s still plenty of work to do here.”

Denn grinned. “Kellum’s found a small hydrogue derelict, completely intact. He thought you’d be the best person to investigate it—if you’re at all interested.”

The engineer sucked in a quick breath. “A real drogue craft, still functional? Not just broken wreckage like those pieces the Hansa took from here?”

“Whole and unbreached, a pristine opportunity for some intrepid investigator.” Cesca recognized her father’s provocative smile from times he had teased her when she was a little girl.

Kotto had had a long string of accomplishments in his career; among all the clans, Cesca knew there was no better person for the job. He had a voracious mind, had studied all forms of technology from Hansa to Ildiran, and had even read every available document on Klikiss ruins that archaeologists had filed. “You have to go, Kotto.”

“But there’s still so much here—”

She enunciated each word clearly. “You have to go, Kotto.”

Like a child, he resisted just a moment more, then grinned. “Yes—yes, I do. When can we leave?”

Denn made a grand gesture toward the exit. “Now that the forest fires are put out, Torin Tamblyn wants to get back to the water mines on Plumas. He’ll give you a ride.”

After Kotto hurried away, bubbling with excitement, Cesca accompanied Idriss and Alexa to an open balcony from which they could watch the continuing activity. In the distance, they heard the droning hum of machinery, and saw Therons and Roamers hooking up cables while heavy lifters removed the charred husks of dead worldtrees. Excavation and extraction crews had removed most of the fallen tree trunks, making great piles of deadwood in a section of the forest obliterated by the worst fires. Cesca didn’t know what else they could do with all the debris.

Looking down, she saw Yarrod climbing the wide trunk up to the high fungus reef. He scrambled as swiftly as a gecko, linked with the worldforest mind and moving with complete ease. When he reached the network of struts and braces beneath the main structure, he swung around them and climbed up to greet the three people on the balcony.

The green priest was nearly as old as his sister Alexa, his face marked with tattooed symbols of the skills he had acquired in the service of the worldtrees; he had looked deeply weary and broken upon his return to the burned forest, but seemed invigorated now.

“I bring a message from the worldforest, a mutually beneficial suggestion for Cesca Peroni and her Roamers. Would you like to salvage any of this fallen wood? Take it away? Much usable lumber remains, and this wood has remarkable properties.”

“It is a great gift, Speaker Peroni,” Idriss said. “A magnificent one.”

“But not at all sufficient to repay you for everything you have done for us,” Alexa added.

Cesca tried not to look too overjoyed. Nowhere else in the Spiral Arm did people have access to worldtree wood for construction or even ornamental purposes. “I am . . . intrigued. Since leaving Earth, our clans have lived inside asteroids, on ships, and on inhospitable planets. We’ve rarely had the luxury of wood—and now you are offering much more than we could use for our own purposes.”

“Well, you are merchants,” Yarrod pointed out. “Could you use it as a commercial commodity?”

“Perhaps.” Cesca remained frustrated that they had received no response whatsoever from the Hansa to their demands, and she feared that Chairman Wenceslas was planning something. “Even if we refuse trade with the Hansa, we could send wood products to the Ildirans, or to some of the distant colonies with tenuous ties to the Big Goose.”

Knowing how much income they were likely to derive from the sale of the remarkable and rare worldtree wood, Cesca made an immediate decision. “And we will share a portion of the profits with you. The Theron economy has suffered greatly in this attack, too.”

Idriss said, “The forest already provides everything we need.”

Alexa placed a hand on her husband’s arm. “Things are different now, Idriss. Our people face many hardships. With additional funds, we could purchase materials and hire extra labor to speed the forest’s recovery.”

Idriss scratched his square black beard. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Are you certain the worldforest is willing to let us take away so much fallen wood? These were worldtrees, dead brothers of the forest.”

Yarrod’s expression was stoic. “Cesca Peroni, you will help us carry away our dead and give their sacrifice additional meaning. Only then can the site of this massacre give birth to new life.”

In the distance, a heavy lifter hauled an enormous charred trunk as large as a spaceship. Cesca nodded. “Worldtree wood will certainly enrich our colonies in space, just as Roamer work has helped to rebuild your cities here. Let this be a symbol of the cooperation and friendship between Roamers and Therons.”

Mother Alexa squeezed her husband’s large hand. “That’s what Reynald would have wanted.”

Horizon Storms
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