[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
we surveyed the Seco and the runabout.
The security officer turned toward us, casually letting the weapon move in our
direction.
"You didn't leam about Wavertown in school?" Farren's voice rose.
"No. What was Wavertown?"
"Wavertown was where the Secos killed 200 miners for refusing to work the deep
seams."
"The deep seams?"
"You're hopeless, Sammis," sighed Farren. "Look. All the easy metal is gone.
At Wavertown, there were deep seams of iron ore. You know, the stuff they make
steel from? The seams were so deep that a lot of miners got sick from the heat
and the fumes. Some of them died. The government said they died from drinking
too much etheline. The Secos took over the mines. The miners refused to go
back to the deep seams. The miners held a public meeting, and the Secos
surrounded them and ordered them to the mines. The miners refused. The Secos
shot them. Two hundred died, and close to a thousand were wounded."
I shook my head. The Eastron Sympathy Revolt had been nothing like that. The
southern miners had refused to support the war effort against Eastron and had
sabotaged the mines so badly that they were never reopened. When the
Secos had tried to stop the sabotage, the miners rose and tried to keep the
troops from the mines until the destruction was complete.
"Look, Sammis. You're gentry. Or you were. Do you think your folks were going
to tell you that they beat down
freemen and miners? And what about Nepranza?"
"What about it?" I asked softly. I'd never heard about it. "That was a long
time ago."
"Nepranza was three-four years ago. What world were you in? Just because some
minor lord got uppity when a few
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
youngsters got too friendly with his daughters, the Secos murdered a dozen.
Then they did have riots. The lord's girls were fine, they said, but a lot of
the town's daughters weren't. They were dead, or wished they were."
I just kept shaking my head. Did they think that the newspapers would have
hushed up the kind of massacre that
Farren said had taken place? Or the supposed events in Nepranza? My pack felt
like it weighed as much as the steamer that waited by the barracks.
"Do you really believe that drek about natural choice of the gentry?" Farren's
voice was almost a shout.
The Seco was sneering openly as Eitar grabbed Farren's arm.
"Chill it, Parren. Sammis doesn't honestly know. Can't you see that?"
I wanted to slug them both Eitar for being so damned condescending, and Farren
for believing that all gentry had forked tongues and fangs. I didn't do
either. I just walked away from them.
"Still gentry at heart..."
"... just chill it... lost both parents... made it through ConFeds..."
Just as I drew up to the runabout, careful even in my rage to keep a good
distance from the dark-haired Seco with the riot gun, he swung to back to face
the barracks door, and stiffened.
"Valtar? Have any of the ConFeds arrived back here?" The woman who had greeted
Carlis so efficiently stood full in the torch lights, glancing past the Seco
toward Eitar and Farren, who were still mumbling about me. "Are those the
first?"
I tried to keep my mouth shut as I studied the woman.
She had sandy-blond hair that glinted in the light, and a figure that might
almost have seemed boyish, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, until I saw
her even narrower waist. Despite shoulders nearly as broad as mine and short
hair cut square across the back of her neck, she was clearly feminine. Her
face was almost elfin, except for the set of her jaw. I liked what I saw of
her figure.
She reminded me of someone, but I was in no shape to remember who.
"Trooper." The words were directed at me. "Yes, Colonel." I had no idea what
she might be, but she radiated authority. At my response, she smiled, a
professional smile. Even so, the smile softened her expression momentarily,
made her look years younger, close to my own age, before she wiped it away.
She was attractive in a familiar sort of way, but that could have been because
it had been so long since I had been around any real women. "We're a military
project, Trooper, but not military. I'm Dr. Relom." She studied me again. "How
long before the rest of the troops arrive here?"
Her scrutiny left me feeling uneasy, as if she saw right through me.
"The other road scouts, about twelve in all, are on the way back. The
unloading crews will be a while yet."
"You are?" she asked, the smile clearly gone.
"Sammis, ConFed maintenance, Doctor."
She frowned, then let the expression drop. "The barracks are yours. There's no
power right now, but we should be able, now that you have some mechanics here,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]