Third World Read Online Free

than a small fraction of it
alone and by himself. A lot of folks had more reasonably filed on a
few hundred hectares, and all hands contributed to the work. One or
two others in the area had bigger holdings and more grandiose plans
for it. They at least had a reason.
    He could see that much. But Hank just
liked the space. Good fences make good neighbours, but there was no
need for that when the nearest house was a couple of kilometres
away. Hank’s place was the end of the line, and that way he didn’t
get much traffic.
    As far as the bracken-pods went, that
was just an excuse. You could gather them anywhere that was public
property, and he had wondered a time or two why so few people did.
It took minimal business savvy to gather bracken and sell it to the
brokers when they came through once a year.
    All a man needed was a scythe, and a
wagon. That and some twine, and feed for the working
critters.
    Hank just liked the look of the place
and wanted to keep the neighbours a little ways down the road, so
to speak…some things were better left unsaid. It had a way of going
around.
    The visit might have been more
enjoyable for Hank if only he could have figured out what brought
it on. He had no idea of why she was there and she didn’t see fit
to enlighten him. As things went, they had their tea, passed the
time, exchanged pleasantries, and after a while, they gossiped
harmlessly enough about various local personalities. She brought
Hank up to date on any number of things, which was good as he had
little to contribute in that line himself.
    Yet for the life of him, Hank couldn’t
figure out what it was about. It was that unusual to get a
visitor.
    She’d been alone a long time and he
accepted that, the question was why him?
    And why now?
     
    ***
     
    Commander Jeff Burke of Her
Majesty’s Ship Hermes stood in front of the cupola that let in a spectacular view of
space and the planet below. Third World, named for its position in
this system, a name which had stuck more to eliminate arguments
than any other reason, had a population of over half a million. The
tall, athletic Burke had held command of Hermes for four years. His thoughts
congealed.
    Settlement had begun seventy-five or a
hundred years ago, but the original plans to export a half a
billion people to the planet had quietly been shelved when the
newcomers had been in place a few years and the complaints started
to roll in. An inquiry had been held, and ultimately it was
determined not to be anybody in particular’s fault, but pioneering
was hard work and ultimately even the best-prepared settlers fell
to subsistence level as people spread out and began to exploit the
local environments, about which they had initially known
little.
    The Planetary Authority, once
established, was understandably eager to perpetuate itself as
bureaucracies will. Perhaps initial reports of the planet’s
potential had been a little too glowing. A half a million in
population was not enough to make a viable and self-sustaining
economy, and with recruitment dropping off quickly it was no longer
profitable to send any more colony ships.
    The Commander had a problem,
in that things were heating up in the Vega sector and confrontation
with Them seemed
imminent. The Empire and Them had been bickering for years.
    Responsible for law and order in his
sector, he had little jurisdiction on the surface, and yet he was
also charged in recent orders with apprehending and confining known
deserters from Her Majesty’s Service until such time as
courts-martial could be convened and punishments doled
out.
    The trouble was, they had only a vague
idea of where a few of them were, might be, or had last been
sighted. Combing through the duty roster revealed a grand total of
sixteen or seventeen non-essential personnel available for
assignment to shore duties, none of whom he had a whole lot of
confidence in. They were available for a reason, not unusual in the
service. The only person he had to lead them