The warliners blasted as well, a haphazard flurry of discharges that went far afield, although several struck and damaged one lagging robot ship. The other two enemy vessels pulled forward, careening straight toward the black cloud.
The shapeless nebula surged and roiled, which Keah found disconcerting. She leaned forward. “What the hell?”
The robot ships pushed toward the blackness, and suddenly, like the pseudopod of a nightmare amoeba, it lunged out and engulfed the two enemy vessels.
The third robot ship kept struggling along. The CDF and Solar Navy ships charged forward to intercept it, but the lights flickered on the Kutuzov’s bridge. Diagnostic screens went to complete static. The engines sounded as if they were laboring.
The navigator fumbled with his systems. “We’re losing control, General. I can’t figure out these glitches.”
From Engineering, Mr. Kalfas transmitted on the override line, “Systems everywhere are going haywire.”
All the pursuing ships were struggling as they raced after the last robot vessel. Adar Zan’nh signaled from his command nucleus, “I do not like this, General. If these malfunctions continue, we will be dead in space.” His face looked drawn, his eyes haunted. “One of our rememberers has reminded me of a similar black nebula from our past. I am not sure I believe it myself, but it could be very dangerous.”
The lagging robot ship finally made it to the shadow cloud and vanished inside the darkness.
The Kutuzov lurched, and the deck tilted as the artificial gravity systems became unstable. Two Manta cruisers sent distress signals and abandoned the pursuit, changing course. Systems flickered on the Juggernaut’s bridge, and competing alarms began to ring out. Many systems had already dropped offline.
No robot vessels were visible on screen, but the shadow cloud continued to swell toward the pursuing ships.
In disgust, Keah muttered under her breath, “All right, dammit!” She activated the comm again; it took her three tries to connect with the Solar Navy flagship. “This is frustrating, Z! Break off the pursuit.”
The battle groups veered away from the dark nebula and retreated. The robot ships were gone.
FORTY-ONE
SHAREEN FITZKELLUM
After a year in the straightjacket of schools on Earth, Shareen was glad to be back in the free skies of Golgen.
When she had asked her quiet study partner if he would be interested in leaving the classroom for some “real education” at the gas giant, Howard remained so calm that he almost fooled her, but she knew him well enough to see the excitement in his dark eyes. “That would be an excellent way to acquire a practical education. My family would be pleased if I became a certified ekti-processing engineer.”
She thought it was cute. “And I’d love to have you there with me,” she said. While she couldn’t wait to leave Earth, she didn’t want to lose Howard.
Happy to reward a child that caused them no problems, unlike his siblings, Howard’s parents agreed to the proposal. Howard Rohandas had seven brothers and sisters; as the youngest, he had often been left alone, especially since his siblings gave his parents so many headaches. Howard was a good student, self-sufficient and reliable.
As they emerged from the transport in the skymine bay, the clangs, pumps, engine roars, and venting gases sounded like a welcoming choir to Shareen. Howard wrinkled his nose at the chemical exhausts in the air and the industrial racket. “Is it always this noisy?”
Shareen laughed. “Sometimes louder, when big shipments come and go. You’ll get used to it.”
She spotted her parents working their way toward them, dodging equipment and activity. Her mother held Rex with one arm, waving with the other. Shareen ran forward to give her mother a hug, then she playfully poked her baby brother in the stomach, making Rex giggle.
“About time we had some qualified help around here,” Patrick said. “This must be Howard Rohandas? You come highly recommended from a source I trust.” He nodded toward his daughter.
“Pleased to meet you, sir,” Howard said. “Shareen and I worked together in school, but she says I’ll learn much more on Golgen.”
“Shareen might not have gotten passing grades without you, Howard,” Zhett said.
Howard blushed. “We helped each other.”
“My problems were with the instructors, not the science,” Shareen said, then gave Howard a comradely nudge with her elbow. “I needed him more than I thought, and it was good to have a friend to help me out.”
Her brother Toff bounded in, his hair tousled, wearing a justified expression. “See, Mom? You can’t send me to Earth. Academ was hard enough.”
Shareen teased him. “Academ was hard for you because you can’t sit still.”
Toff looked to his father, as if he might be a better ally. “I’m going to be a skymine engineer, so I may as well just stay here and learn.”
“First you’d have to find a skymine that’d take you,” Shareen said.
Her grandfather blustered into the bay, both arms extended. “And there’s my lovely granddaughter!” Del Kellum’s exuberance always embarrassed her. “And who is this fine-looking young man?”
“Shareen’s boyfriend,” Toff said.
Howard’s mouth fell open, and he looked as if he were trying to speak, but no sound came out. Shareen took pity on him. “Don’t overwhelm my friend or he’ll jump off the deck. Let him settle in.”
Though he seemed to be out of his depth in this new environment, Howard finally managed to say, “Really, this is nothing compared to my usual homecomings with seven brothers and sisters.”
“Good,” her mother said. “We intend to put you to work on the next shift.”
After unpacking, Howard wanted to explore, and Shareen led him along the process lines deep in the bowels of the skymine. Roamer workers in jumpsuits moved through the maze of conduits, testing flow temperatures or monitoring pressure levels in the throbbing reactors. Pistons pumped alongside the catalyst chambers.
The skymine plowed through the Golgen sky, gulping and exhausting huge quantities of atmosphere, digesting the hydrogen, and crunching the atoms into the rare allotrope that served as stardrive fuel. Up on the intake deck, Shareen laughed in the roaring wind as fans cleared the air of chemical mists.
When Toff came in, obviously looking for his sister, he had a mischievous expression. Shareen rolled her eyes. He always tried to find ways to pester her. “We’re working here,” she said, hoping he would take the hint.
“Looks like you’re just chatting,” Toff said, then added in a singsong voice, “Or did you want some alone time with your boyfriend?”
Shareen snapped, “Why don’t you dive into the clouds and go hydrogue hunting? Don’t come up until you find some.”
Toff started to give her a rude response, but ducked when he saw Del Kellum enter the deck. “Toff, there you are. I’ve got work for you to do.”
“Sorry, I have homework! I was just asking Shareen some questions.” Toff darted away.
When her brother was gone, Shareen said to her grandfather, “I’m showing Howard the process line. We studied the engineering on paper, but he should see it with his own eyes. If Howard and I put our heads together, we could change the nature of skymining. He’s very practical, and I’ve got lots of big ideas.”
Her grandfather chuckled. “You always did—and sometimes they’re even good ones.” Del Kellum glanced up at the chutes, the big fans, the pumping turbines. “Roamers have been in the business for centuries, and this skymine’s been working for a long time. I have high hopes for you, girl.”