Read Online In Every Clime and Place by Patrick LeClerc - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Patrick LeClerc
Tags: thriller, Science-Fiction, Action & Adventure, Military, War, action thriller, Marines in Space
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It might even have stopped. Son of a bitch! They must have gotten that seal in place.
A cheer went up from the platoon. If we met that Rescue team, they wouldn’t have to pay for their own drinks for a year. We settled down and waited for the assault shuttle to return.
It was nice to know we might get off this rock.
Now that we were going to live, I had to worry about things like the crowding on the ship, O’Rourke’s commendation, my insubordination, and where we were going to get a fourth for poker until Terry got back to duty. Maybe some of the social workers could play.
All things being equal, there were worse problems to have.
Chapter 7
8 JUN 2078
ASTEROID BELT RESCUE SUBSTATION ECHO 7
“Those bastards set us up?” I asked. “And were willing to let ten thousand people die to sell their version of events to the world? What kind of asshole would wipe out the population of an outpost to make a few bucks?”
“Warlords.” Jensen shrugged. “Pirates. Slavers. And captains of industry, of course, but they get to plan it over cocktails and have somebody else get bloody.”
I grunted. I had seen it. Whole villages in Africa wiped out because they were inconveniently located near some precious resource. And when I thought of it, history was full of colonial land-grabs that amounted to genocide. Smallpox laden blankets, the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee opened a lot of space for US agriculture. It’s not like my ancestors left Ireland for America because things were so good in the Old Country. The Famine was just a grand opportunity for the Ascendancy to clear the rabble off the land and graze cattle on it.
“If it makes you feel better,” he said, “we did get most of the truth. After a lot of people went to jail.”
SNN News File 2, courtesy Brian Jensen
15 Nov 2075
United Belt Mining Corporate Headquarters, Austin, Texas
Bart Rodman, Chairman of the Board of Directors, scowled as he watched the replay of the newscast. He angrily rewound it and played it again. It was the last thing he wanted to see. Corporate officials panicking, pushing toward the escape vessels as armed Marines held them back and loaded the miserable riffraff onto their craft. It was just the thing to inflame the masses, he thought. Ragged, starving orphans and pretty, earnest young women being saved from the indifference and incompetence of the corporate suits and their hired thugs.
He swore and killed the image when the video closed in on a Marine scooping up a crying child and carrying her to safety. God damn it, he thought , who does their publicity? Is the frigging news sponsored by the damn Marines?
“How the hell did it get this far, Joe?” he asked. “I thought I said I wanted this one controlled?”
His assistant shrugged and rubbed his receding hairline. “I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but I told you I thought it was getting out of hand. You pushed the miners too far and it got crazy. It was only a matter of time before the military stepped in.”
“Don’t we have contacts? What about our man in the fleet?”
“Burton?” Joe shrugged, “He’s only a lieutenant commander. He can’t change orders. And he tried to keep the rescue team from going in, but they don’t have to listen to the Navy in peacetime. They pulled their usual justification that the station could become a hazard, and went in.”
“Bullshit!” snarled the older man, his complexion reddening.
“Sure it is. But prove it to the public.”
“We can’t do anything?”
“Like what? You can’t arrest an ambulance for responding to an accident. Even with a liability suit, it won’t fly if they didn’t do any damage. And they were called heroes by the Fleet.”
“How the hell did they get that breach sealed, anyway?”
Joe O’Leary consulted his pocket digital assistant. “Our contacts on the scene say that the rescue ship sealed the hole with the foam they use for a hull breach on a spaceship.”
“The hole should
A cheer went up from the platoon. If we met that Rescue team, they wouldn’t have to pay for their own drinks for a year. We settled down and waited for the assault shuttle to return.
It was nice to know we might get off this rock.
Now that we were going to live, I had to worry about things like the crowding on the ship, O’Rourke’s commendation, my insubordination, and where we were going to get a fourth for poker until Terry got back to duty. Maybe some of the social workers could play.
All things being equal, there were worse problems to have.
Chapter 7
8 JUN 2078
ASTEROID BELT RESCUE SUBSTATION ECHO 7
“Those bastards set us up?” I asked. “And were willing to let ten thousand people die to sell their version of events to the world? What kind of asshole would wipe out the population of an outpost to make a few bucks?”
“Warlords.” Jensen shrugged. “Pirates. Slavers. And captains of industry, of course, but they get to plan it over cocktails and have somebody else get bloody.”
I grunted. I had seen it. Whole villages in Africa wiped out because they were inconveniently located near some precious resource. And when I thought of it, history was full of colonial land-grabs that amounted to genocide. Smallpox laden blankets, the Trail of Tears and Wounded Knee opened a lot of space for US agriculture. It’s not like my ancestors left Ireland for America because things were so good in the Old Country. The Famine was just a grand opportunity for the Ascendancy to clear the rabble off the land and graze cattle on it.
“If it makes you feel better,” he said, “we did get most of the truth. After a lot of people went to jail.”
SNN News File 2, courtesy Brian Jensen
15 Nov 2075
United Belt Mining Corporate Headquarters, Austin, Texas
Bart Rodman, Chairman of the Board of Directors, scowled as he watched the replay of the newscast. He angrily rewound it and played it again. It was the last thing he wanted to see. Corporate officials panicking, pushing toward the escape vessels as armed Marines held them back and loaded the miserable riffraff onto their craft. It was just the thing to inflame the masses, he thought. Ragged, starving orphans and pretty, earnest young women being saved from the indifference and incompetence of the corporate suits and their hired thugs.
He swore and killed the image when the video closed in on a Marine scooping up a crying child and carrying her to safety. God damn it, he thought , who does their publicity? Is the frigging news sponsored by the damn Marines?
“How the hell did it get this far, Joe?” he asked. “I thought I said I wanted this one controlled?”
His assistant shrugged and rubbed his receding hairline. “I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but I told you I thought it was getting out of hand. You pushed the miners too far and it got crazy. It was only a matter of time before the military stepped in.”
“Don’t we have contacts? What about our man in the fleet?”
“Burton?” Joe shrugged, “He’s only a lieutenant commander. He can’t change orders. And he tried to keep the rescue team from going in, but they don’t have to listen to the Navy in peacetime. They pulled their usual justification that the station could become a hazard, and went in.”
“Bullshit!” snarled the older man, his complexion reddening.
“Sure it is. But prove it to the public.”
“We can’t do anything?”
“Like what? You can’t arrest an ambulance for responding to an accident. Even with a liability suit, it won’t fly if they didn’t do any damage. And they were called heroes by the Fleet.”
“How the hell did they get that breach sealed, anyway?”
Joe O’Leary consulted his pocket digital assistant. “Our contacts on the scene say that the rescue ship sealed the hole with the foam they use for a hull breach on a spaceship.”
“The hole should
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