Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match by Ron Francis Read Free Book Online

bother some people. At least he’s not a jerk about it.”
    “I guess you’re right about that,” Manny agreed.
    Early the next morning, Jesse was on his way with Simons and Melendez. Thomas, Josiah and Davis were the backup plan, while Collin, Manny, Finley and Rivera broke down the campsite and took whatever they thought would be needed with them. Jesse’s team made it into the hunter’s camp and noticed that they had left four men behind to guard the camp, along with the villagers that were forced to serve them. Jesse noticed that the villagers were kept in a cage, which instantly made him angry. While Melendez kept watch for anyone that might see them, Jesse and Simons found what they were looking for: a crate packed with brand new, standard issue military blasters. What are they doing with these ? He wondered as he took ten of the sixteen blasters along with all of the other blaster’s power supplies and extra power supplies. They couldn’t carry all of the blasters with them, but the remaining blasters would be ineffective with no power. He knew they would be missed pretty quickly once the rest of the hunters returned, but hopefully by then they would have a campsite set up a lot further away from the hunters. They were about to leave the supply tent when Jesse noticed another military issue crate and opened it up to see dozens of grenades. He decided to take some of those as well. He filled a satchel to the top with thirty-one grenades and handed it to Simons. Simons was also carrying three blasters. Jesse carried seven and handed three to Melendez when they exited the tent. Melendez also took one from Simons so he could more easily carry the grenades. They left the campsite through the furthest tent from the fire as the hunters were returning from the hunt. They needed to double time it back to the rest of their group because their theft would likely be found out soon.
    They met up with Josiah’s group and took off for the new campsite. They were still outnumbered, but at least they would be armed should it come to a fight.]
     
    Jesse finished his snack and pushed the memories of the frozen planet out of his mind. He lay down on his bed for what might be the last time and he hoped for sleep. Suzy and the rest of the crew were right to be worried; he was, too. Oddly enough, he was more worried about how upset Suzy seemed than he was about himself. He made it a point to spend some time comforting Suzy before he left for the Stadium in the morning.
     
    ______
     
     
    Collin found Josiah later that night and approached him apprehensively. “Hey, Jo, can I talk to you for a minute?”
    “Yeah sure, Collin, what’s up?”
    “I know this might not be the best time to be thinking about this, with the death match and all, but I gotta talk to someone about it.”
    “What’s on your mind; is everything ok?”
    “What? Yeah, it’s fine. In fact, it’s great. I’m thinking about asking Bessa to marry me, what do you think, Jo? Be honest, even bring up stuff I might not have thought about.”
    “First off, that’s great, we all love Bessa and you guys are great together. I’m happy for you.”
    “But?”
    “There is no but, only a couple things to think about.” Collin nodded for him to continue, so he did. “If you marry her, and we go back to Earth, she’ll be the only non-human on Earth, and given our recent history, aliens are not really welcome right now.”
    “But surely they’ll be able to tell the difference, right?”
    “Some will, but a lot won’t. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it’s just something to think about.”
    “You said a couple; what else?”
    “Have you thought about how your family will react? If you come home from this mission married, to a non-human, do you know how they’ll react? I know we’ve all told Bessa that our friends and family will love her when they meet her, and I believe that to be the case. Anyone that takes five minutes to get to know Bessa