Scarcity (Special Forces: FJ One Book 1) by Adam Vance Read Free Book Online Page A

thousands of British and Indian civilians. It was put down by an overwhelming British force that arrived seeking, and taking, bloody vengeance. The days of peaceful, somewhat benevolent rule were over. The conquest of the country was doable, when its citizens were used to being ruled by one conqueror or another, but the attempt to conquer the culture had been an epic disaster.
    The second the pouch returned from flashpace, it beeped him. He confirmed and opened the message.
    ASAP. EO tran ETA 12
    And a period for emphasis this time…
    He shut the book and jumped up. “All hands, action stations.”
    Everyone dropped what they were doing and stood up, ready for orders.
    “We’ve got 12 hours to figure out who gets transported to Eden One. Do you have a shortlist?”
    Sergeant Cruz nodded. “We’ve got the ringleaders’ names from Marcus here, sir. About a dozen prime movers.”
    The Captain looked at Marcus closely. The young man was brilliant, no doubt. Was he honest, though? He was a criminal, after all. Would he give extra names just to settle old scores?
    “Weapons, Engineering, your take?”
    They looked at each other, nodded, then Sergeant Kaplan spoke. “The kid’s on the Asperger’s spectrum, sir. Too precise about facts to make shit up.”
    “List approved. Get them to the landing pad. We move out when the transport lands. We’ll piggyback on it to Caladan and then transfer to a ship home from there.”
    “Yes, sir,” they said in unison, springing into action. There would be time for questions later. Nobody complained about getting so close to the Pleasure Planet only to use it as a hopping station home.
    “I need you to divide up my closeout tasks. I’ve got to run to the city.” He left it to them to figure out how to distribute the added duties and ran out the door.
    He opened a comm channel as he kicked the slider into motion. “Captain Orlov, get into your dress uni right now. There’s been a change of plans.”

CHAPTER SEVEN – CALL ME CRAZY
     
    At Tiamat Station, they’d been slipped into their tubes, each one just long enough for its occupant. The tubes were bundled and inserted into the transport.
    The transport dropped them at Caladan station, somewhat cruelly giving the condemned colonists one last look at Paradise before they arrived in Hell. The squad didn’t even get out to stretch their legs at Caladan, and their bundle was quickly transferred to a craft just large enough for the five of them. FJ One should have been dropping downline to the planet for some well deserved R&R, but nobody complained. Captain Chen had communicated HM’s urgency to the team.
    The Captain used the transport time to catch up on Earth news, dialing up a tape delay program on his contacts. Reaction to the events on Tiamat had been swift and, as usual, splenetic.
    There were two talking heads on a split screen, both of whom he recognized. Charles Fitzhugh was one of HM’s lieutenants, and the other head belonged to Martina Abubakar, the leading proponent of what was euphemistically called “Hastening.”
    “The colonists didn’t only attack the natives, Martina. They hijacked, let me repeat that, hijacked FJ technology and used it against our own people. ”
    “I’m not arguing about their methods, Charles. It was certainly inappropriate to…”
    “Inappropriate? You call a baker’s dozen of Class 1 Felonies inappropriate?”
    “Inappropriate to take matters in their hands so drastically. But this is a reflection of how people are feeling, all over Earthspace.” That was a dog whistle, a code word – subtly trying to make people think of all the habitable worlds as belonging to Earth, to humanity. “Time is running out, and more people are dying every day. The H7N9 plague in China, the black lung in India, E. Coli in the Basic Diet in Detroit…”
    “And your answer is to hit all the new worlds like a plague of locusts, to overwhelm them with our numbers…”
    “Of course not. It’s