Read Online The Unincorporated Woman by Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin - Free Book Online

and they were unlucky enough to get stuck on my rock. I’ve already given the orders for the charges to be set. Brother Jerome is handling that personally even as we speak. There is, however, one outstanding issue.…”
    “Yes?” asked Marion, flustered but functioning.
    “The children.”
    A deathly pall hung in the air.
    “Right,” sighed Marion, her head nodding plaintively. “What are our options?”
    “Trang’s ruthless, but not evil,” asserted Christina. “If I tell him we’re ejecting our suspended children and other civs, launch them away from his ships, he won’t kill them out of hand. When it’s over, he’ll recover the suspendees and see that they’re not harmed.”
    “Then that’s what we should do,” said Benyair, satisfied that at least someone was going to make it off the rock in one piece.
    Marion, noticed Christina, hadn’t jumped at the idea. Instead, the woman sat motionless with only her eyes revealing a struggle with some inner demon.
    “No,” Marion finally whispered.
    “What?” Christina’s head was cocked in disbelief.
    “We’d be dooming them.”
    “And dying here would be better than being captured by Trang … exactly how?” protested Benyair. He seemed more annoyed than impassioned. Saving the children would have been a noble last act. Marion was robbing him of his consolation prize.
    “Because, Benny … Christina,” Marion said, making sure to look hard into both her colleagues’ eyes, “our children won’t be captured by Admiral Trang, they’ll be captured by Hektor Sambianco and Tricia Pakagopolis.”
    “Well, yeah … maybe eventually,” said Benyair, “but—”
    “But nothing, Benny!” Marion seethed. “What do you think those monsters will do with the only survivors of Altamont?”
    Her question was met with blank stares.
    “Each and every one of them,” she asserted, voice thick with anger, “will have their souls ripped out via psyche audit in some UHF facility. And when they next make their appearance among the living—if such a word can be applied,” she said acidly, “they won’t be the same children who left this facility, on this the final day of Altamont. They’ll be Sambianco’s automata, filled with whatever constructs that bastard wants. But make no mistake,” she said, eyes beginning to well up, “our children—” She now leaned into the table, grabbing its edge for support as her body slumped forward under the weight of the sentence she was about to pronounce. “— my children … will be just as dead as if we kept them here.”
    Christina could feel the edges of her teeth pressing up against her stiffened lips. She wanted to scream but held back. She was desperately trying to find some flaw in Marion’s logic, some reason, some plan that would let the children live, that would have Hektor Sambianco be magnanimous, but … but … Neela. Justin Cord’s wife, kidnapped, psyche audited, and now the rumored sexual plaything of the Alliance’s greatest enemy. Used for propaganda purposes. And she was just one among many. Though Justin had fought on until the very end, everyone knew how Neela’s psychological death had broken him in some unseen way. No, thought Christina sadly. There is no other option . If the children could be exploited—and Christina knew they could—Hektor Sambianco would find a way, just as he had with Neela, just as he had with anyone unlucky enough to have fallen into his clutches. She could not … would not deliver Altamont’s children gift-wrapped to a monster like Sambianco. Christina looked to Colonel Benyair. He inclined his head disconsolately. Marion’s cold logic had apparently struck twice.
    “Very well,” said Christina, voice taut but resolute. “They stay.”
    *   *   *
    Three hours later, Trang’s final assault on Altamont began. Twenty thousand marines landed at the entry port and made it half a kilometer into the mighty rock before they were stopped cold by