Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) by Josi Russell Read Free Book Online Page B

those empty shelves. Where was the
food? Saras had seedbanks and rootstock aplenty. They had tens of thousands of
acres of terraformed farmland just northwest of the city, and they had all the
fertilizer they needed. Where was the food?
    Aria grabbed her scrip chain and wallet and the
kids and headed to the Market District. The scrip chain was heavy and unwieldy,
strung with triangular brass coins punched through the middle with a triangle
hole for carrying on the chain. The coins were the only currency in Coriol.
They were only good at Saras stores in the city. The stores took no other
currency and the coins were useless in any other colony. Save enough of them
and you could trade them in for UEG money, but the exchange rate was pretty
dismal, and meanwhile, you had to eat.
    Catching a hovercab, she settled Polara and Rigel
on either side of her on the smooth, cool seat and made sure they could see out
the windows. It would be cheaper to take the sol train, but crowding on with
groceries and the two children was stressful for Aria. The press of people, the
effort of trying to contain Polara’s boundless energy, the weight of Rigel in
her backpack carrier, and the grocery bags in her arms always had her snappy
and strained when she got home. A hovercab was quiet, private, and convenient,
especially for grocery shopping. Anyway, they had the scrip and she might as
well use it.
    Because their ship had been the responsibility of
the government instead of any particular corporation, they’d had no debt to
work off when they arrived. Aria figured they’d paid for the journey by being
sold to the Others, a cruel alien race on the planet Beta Alora, and she didn’t
feel bad that they didn’t owe the Saras company when they got here.
    Many of the passengers on their ship had left
Coriol immediately to be nearer family or friends in other cities. All of the
passengers of Ship 12-22 who had stayed were placed in the only empty
neighborhood in Coriol, the newly finished Forest Heights. Forest Heights was
on the edge of the city, inconveniently far from the Market District and the
Colony Office, but wonderfully near the wooded hills and karst peaks that
ringed the city.
    They rode in the hovercab through neighborhoods,
just like their own, with the little blue cottages Minea was famous for. After
the Housing District they entered the Health and Human Services District, with
its towering steel hospitals and research labs. As the hovercab pulled past the
last of the health buildings, Aria caught a glimpse of the grimy cement
tenements where many of the industrial workers lived. The blue-streaked gray
buildings were closest to the factories, mills, and the Yynium refinery that crushed
and purified Yynium twenty-seven hours a day, 420 days per year. It never
closed. The tenements were tall enough to obscure the refinery itself, which
Aria knew was there but had never seen.
    At last the Market District came into view, with
its cheery red and green storefronts. Aria unloaded the kids, shouldering into
the backpack that she used to carry Rigel. She gave the cab driver twenty scrip,
and headed into the produce store.
    She could tell immediately that this was going to
be a difficult day. The store was crowded with people, and the produce bins
were low. “Hold Mommy’s hand,” she said sharply to Polara as a woman with
Yynium dust on the shoulders of her black dress stormed angrily past them
towards the door.
    The woman called back over her shoulder. “Don’t
bother, lady, they’re not selling anything. And when they do, nobody will be
able to afford it.”
    Aria looked at the row of barred registers. It
was true. The cashiers were standing still as the people waited in line with
their groceries.
    Stock boys were scurrying around in front of the
bins, swapping out the prices on every item. Their red vests bore the Saras
triangle across the back. Aria heard a deep, firm voice and turned to see the
store manager, Cyril Gaynes, speaking to