Defending Eden: Book Five, the Darwin's World Series: An Epic of Survival by Jack L Knapp

Author:Jack L Knapp [Knapp, Jack L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Matt rubbed tired eyes. The reports he was scanning were displayed on a kind of virtual screen, but Matt kept forgetting to blink. Which left his eyes dry. Eventually, the need to rest them always interrupted what he was reading.

In this case, the documents had originated with Lee and Bear.

Bear's rangers were serving as aggressors, slipping into camp long enough to embarrass the local commander of a mixed unit, mostly from P100. Mid level commanders seemed reluctant to take decisive action.

As for Poim, he was rarely present even to inspect. So Lee was left to deal with commanders at the company and battalion level and he was frustrated. Should he relieve the commanders and appoint others? No question, the Poimies were not trained soldiers. Good enough to watch over a prospecting party, but soldiers they were not.

Not so Bear. He had a different problem; his highly trained Darwinians thought it great fun to sneak in and steal rifles from sleeping guards. Bear understood, as Lee did, that a real enemy wouldn't be fun at all. As for the guards, if they were angry enough, they might begin to perform better.

Matt opened a separate file and started jotting down notes. Training; how had Old Earth's armies done it? American forces had traditionally been caught short and been forced to catch up. Surely there were lessons to be learned from their methods?

<Will you accept a communication from Erwin Mattson at this time?>

Matt scowled at the interruption, then decided this was as good a place as any to take a break. "Go ahead, put it through."

<'Good morning, Matt. Can we meet? I have only a limited amount of time before I leave P1.'>

"If it's important, I can make the time. How long to get here?"

<'Fifteen minutes?'>

"Agreed." Matt broke the connection and rubbed his temples tiredly. Erwin Mattson; the name sounded vaguely familiar. Someone from his past?

Getting up, he dumped the cold coffee and refilled the mug. Central had re-designed the ancient coffeemaker; the new version could produce coffee on demand that tasted as good as the best that had been available earlier.

His implant nagged at him briefly and Matt shrugged. Ten minutes in the adjacent gym? No question, he needed more exercise than he'd been getting.

For a moment he recalled the old days on D1; all he'd needed to worry about back then was survival! Those long gone days seemed so simple now.

He hurried through his routine and wiped the sweat from his torso before donning a new tunic. The used one went into the recycle chute; Central would reprocess it. But after his visitor left, Matt would need time in a shower! The ultrasonic systems were efficient, but he preferred the feel of cool water on his skin.

Dressed, he drank the cooling coffee and poured another cup. What was so important that the visitor insisted on a meeting in corpora?

Central announced his arrival. <Erwin Mattson asks for admittance.>

"Approved."

There was something vaguely familiar about the young man who so confidently strode forward, hand out.

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