Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) by Raymond L. Weil Read Free Book Online Page B

at first,
particularly the first year or two. That was why all the clones spent their
first two years of life inside Vesta under close supervision. It took them a while
to assimilate how Humans interacted with one another and to be able to handle
their emotions. Even now, on occasion, he had to explain things to Casey.
    “There’s a new
one over there,” she said, pointing excitedly. One of the things Casey enjoyed
the most was trying out different styles of food. Only recently had she discovered
Chinese, and she'd fallen in love with the different tastes and aromas.
    Ryan nodded
and they threaded their way through the crowd to the small restaurant Casey had
spotted. She was right, this was a new one; it hadn’t been here a few weeks
back. Ryan liked the wide-open spaces of the food court. There were tables
scattered about where one could sit and take his or her time eating. People came
here from all of the different habitats; many came to the station to trade or
pick up supplies. Numerous small cargo ships now traveled from habitat to
habitat delivering products and other items necessary to make life inside the
habitats as comfortable as possible.
    Reaching the restaurant,
they took a seat at a table along one wall where they had a little more
privacy. Ryan watched with interest as Casey examined the menu critically for a
food item she hadn’t tried before. She was always wanting to try something new.
    “This looks
interesting,” Casey said, pointing to the sweet and sour chicken on the menu.
“I think I’ll try that.”
    They waited
for several moments and Ryan was starting to get a little impatient. He noticed
the server who'd given them their menus wait on several other tables, taking
their orders. That was strange, as Ryan and Casey had been seated a few minutes
before these others.
    As the server
passed by their table, Ryan reached out and gently tapped his arm. “We’re ready
to order.”
    “One moment,”
the server replied before turning and rushing to the back of the restaurant to
vanish through a door leading to the kitchen.
    Ryan watched
curiously as a larger man stepped through, followed by the server who was
pointing toward their table.
    “What’s going
on?” asked Casey, looking with confusion at Ryan. “Why won’t they take our
order?” She'd noticed how the server had been pointedly ignoring them but had been
hesitant to mention it. There were still so many things about Humans she didn’t
fully understand. That was one reason she liked the military as it was a more
structured environment with rules and regulations.
    The large man
stepped up next to their table and stared at Ryan with a narrow look in his
eyes. “I’m the manager. I’m sorry, but we don’t have any food for you.”
    “What do you
mean?” asked Ryan, feeling suddenly suspicious. “The other customers in this
restaurant are being served their food.”
    “I mean we
don’t serve her kind!” answered the man gruffly, pointing a finger at Casey.
“We only serve real Humans.”
    Ryan felt his
anger begin to stir. There were an uncomfortably large number of regular Humans,
who hadn’t accepted the clones into society even though it was the law. “What
do you mean, her kind?” Ryan asked challengingly, his eyes narrowing sharply.
His hand clenched into a fist as he struggled to control his rising anger.
    “Clones!” the
manager replied in a hard and cold voice. “You can eat here, but she’ll have to
leave.”
    Ryan let out a
deep breath. Unfortunately, the Human clones were easy to spot. Their skin was
unblemished and had an unusually youthful look. He closed his eyes and shook
his head. This was something he'd not been expecting to encounter on
Centerpoint. There were hundreds if not several thousand clones on the station
every day.
    “She has just
as much of a right to eat here as anyone else,” Ryan spoke evenly, staring into
the man’s unrelenting face. “The Federated Assembly has given clones the