Star Realms: Rescue Run by Jon Del Arroz

Author:Jon Del Arroz [Del Arroz, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Evil Girlfriend Media
Published: 2016-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Separated

Regency BioTech Central Office—Mid-Level Quarters, Mars

Local Date February 13th, 2464

The Central Office Promenade teemed with people. First shift had just ended for a large portion of the corporate personnel, which meant time to buy food, supplies and other items in the markets conveniently located between the workspaces and the employees’ homes.

How much more obvious could the corporation be? The employees received their paychecks for working, and were forced to buy their goods back from the corporation, sucking back their hard earned credits right back into the system. It became an endless cycle of reliance on the corporation for everything, one that very few could break.

Joan’s time in the Star Empire Navy had given her similar disillusions, but with the prospect of putting her life on the line as well as the starships went into battle. She had remembered broken pipes spewing chemicals on the thirty-second deck of the Destiny, and having to go in with a hazmat suit to plug the leak, while wondering what was going on outside or on the bridge that caused the damage. Word never came down from the top ranks what had happened. She, like so many of her other crewmates, was told to do a task and not ask questions.

In front of her, someone scanned a handtab against a vendor stall, the console making a chirping sound letting the patron know a payment was processed. Just like Joan’s time in the military, people here didn’t ask questions. They did what they were told. That made it difficult to make the in-roads she needed to find Commodore Zhang.

Joan glanced over to Trian, who spoke to someone while placing food supplies into his bag. He said it could take weeks before they had a solid enough a lead to act on their mission, but Joan suspected from G.O.D.’s earlier urgency that there wouldn’t be nearly that much time before Zhang was made into some public show of what happens to the Trade Federation’s enemies. Which in all likelihood would involve an execution.

On the opposite side of her, Yui scanned her handtab to make a payment. The console flashed red. Yui frowned. “Huh, my ident isn’t working.”

Trian paused what he was doing to step over and take a look. “Let me see,” he said.

Yui tried again, waving her arm over the console more slowly this time. Once more, the console flashed red.

Trian frowned, cocking his head at the console. “This isn’t good. I’ll try,” he said. He moved his arm in front of the console, producing the same result as Yui had.

The line behind them swelled, patrons grumbling that it wasn’t moving quite fast enough. Joan looked back over her shoulder and gave a reassuring smile to the people behind them. “We need to get going,” she said softly.

“I know,” Trian said, smacking his fist against the console. He took a step back to survey it, as if that would change the programming.

A clerk made her way up toward them. “Is something the matter? Can I help you?”

“Machine’s broke, won’t take our idents and debit our account,” Yui said.

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