Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 563
physical infrastructure of the planet crumbles around them. A
friend of mine had a smuggler’s base there. I took a walk-only
once in the six months I was there. Empty cracked streets,
the terraforming failing, red dust freezing to the tiles. And a
permanent orgy going on inside the computers. Creepy."
"But Earth! We’re going to visit Earth. A world like
Ventus."
"Yeah. Beautiful place. Too bad it’s inhabited by
Earthmen." He sighed. "Sorry. I’m being the jaded traveller
again."
She glanced back at him, half-smiling. "We will rescue
your Calandria. Earth will support us in this."
"Not if we can’t make our case." As refugees, they had
been unable to get Turcaret’s DNA examined; extrapolating the
growth patterns of a being from genes alone was expensive.
Axel had access to the money he had been paid by the god
Choronzon for tracking Armiger, but he didn’t dare tap it
because the navy wanted to bill him for their rescue. If they
knew about his secret accounts they would drain them just as
they had his public one. So for now, he was officially broke
and Turcaret’s head remained in a cryonic jar in his stateroom.
He’d kept it hidden under the bed.
The navy was willing to drop them off anywhere they
made regular stops. Marya had chosen Earth without
consulting Axel.
"Look at this place," he said. "Nobody here gives a damn
about Ventus. The navy’s convinced Armiger is a resurrection
seed. If they decide to burn Ventus down to bedrock just to
make sure they’ve eliminated every last vestige of 3340,
nobody in the Archipelago is going lift a finger to stop them."
He crossed his arms and glowered at the delicate rainbow
light shining from the homes of seventy trillion people.