John Ringo Council War 04 East of the Sun, West of the Moon v5.0

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vascular system stood out like a model, sunburned nose and cheekbones. Herzer
remembered that he had a tendency to burn if the sun wasbelow the horizon.
They weren'tfriends exactly, but the Blood Lord group was so small that he
tended to know most of the officers and a good many of the NCOs.
"Can the 'sir,' Bus," Herzer said, sighing and settling in the room's only
other chair. "This is a classic FUBAR, you know that?"
"I'm just starting to get an inkling of what's going on in this camp," the
captain replied. "But I'll agree that all signs point to FUBAR."
"Fisked up beyond all recognition," Herzer admitted, his eyes narrowing. "But
part of that fisk up I'm going to stop now. We're going to have to discuss
distribution on things, but bringing you in on what you're guarding is just
going to be part of the change..."
"Do you have authority?" Van Buskirk asked.
"I do indeed," Herzer replied. "And if I don't, fisk it. What we're supposed
to be doing here is planning to retake the fuel tanker that's headed in."
"Thought so," the captain said, grimacing. "That's the thing with the lake,
right?"
"I have no idea," Herzer admitted. "Why?"
"Zero g, training," the lieutenant said. "It's thereally old way to train for
zero g."
"You've been in space?" Herzer asked.
"A couple of times," Van Buskirk said. "I used to play...well...you did ER,
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right?"
Herzer had, indeed, spent much of his time prior to the Fall in Enhanced
Reality, the computer generated world of holograms and nanno-forms where a
good many people gamed.
"Yeah," the commander said. "But I was always in a medieval fantasy
environment. You?"
"You were lucky," the captain said with a laugh. "I was playing shooter
games. Some of the best were on simulated spaceships. A couple of times I went
up for live group tourneys, just to see if there was a difference. There
wasn't enough to matter."
"I wish we could use ER for training, now," Herzer said. "I've never been in
free-fall and neither has anyone on the team as far as I'm aware. And speaking
of teams..." he added musingly. "I'm authorized to recruit in the Blood Lords
for the replacement fighters on this mission. Given the security group here,
and at Blackbeard, there aren't many that are available. Butyour company is
right here, already..."
"Oh, crap," the captain said, shaking his head. "We can't be pulling security
all night and training all day. I won't even go into the whole: 'shouldn't you
ask for volunteers?' thing. I'll volunteer in a heartbeat; I've always liked
fighting in space. But the rest of the company..."
"They volunteered twice," Herzer said. "First for the legions, then for the
Blood Lords. Why ask a third time?"
"How caring of you," the captain said, grinning.
"Apparently a lot of the trainers got killed along with the team," Herzer
said. "So don't be surprised if you get press-ganged as a trainer. And I want
you to go talk to Angus McCullough over in Building Seventeen. Use the back
door and tell him I sent you..."
"That's a blue zone building," Buskirk pointed out. "I'm only cleared for
purple."
"Not any more," Herzer intoned.
* * *
"Shanea, you've met Courtney before," Megan said, as the girl came in her
room.
"Hey," Shanea said, smiling. "Good to see you again."
"Shanea, do you have any experience with children?" Megan asked, carefully.
"I had a younger brother," Shanea said, her face suddenly creasing in an
unusual frown. "I don't know what happened to him, you know?"
"You took care of him?" Courtney asked.
"A little," the girl said. "Me and the nannies. And Mom," she said, quietly.
"The problem is, Courtney has to do some training," Megan said. "And she has
some children here. Could you watch them? One of them's a baby so you're going
to have to change diapers..."
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"Oh, sure!" Shanea said, smiling happily. "I like kids. I want some myself. I
kept hoping that Paul would get me pregnant so I could have a baby, but he
never did."
Courtney's face twitched at that and she carefully didn't look at Megan.
"Great," Megan said, smiling blankly. "Courtney, why don't you go introduce
Shanea to your children while I go see if I can help Herzer? The replacement [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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