The Fifth Battalion by Michael Priv

Author:Michael Priv [Priv, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Create Space
Published: 2017-12-23T07:00:00+00:00

I think she understood. We drove in silence for a while, my hand in hers, contented smile on her face. She suddenly bolted upright again. “But if you’re escaping, what am I supposed to do? Leave everything and everybody and run away with you? My job and all?”

“Well, look, I’ d be a very rich man on Baltizor. I’d receive my back one-eighth-pay with interest for about five thousand years. Probably one hell of a lot of money.”

“But what about my parents? My friends? My job?” I kept silent, letting her come to some conclusions on her own. In truth, life as she knew it was over. She pondered that for a while in silence, a pensive frown on her face.

“What about my ‘forever dead’ sentence? I mean if I’m a convicted criminal?”

“You were convicted in Murabi Empire. We would be going to Baltizor United Stars, not Murabi.”

Linda nodded, lost in thought again. “What’s it like over there?” “Safe and orderly. Predictable. Respectful. Friendly. Very stable. A little boring but an okay life. Nice. Especially if you got money. People are polite. Practically no crime or poverty. You’ll like it there.”

“How can a place like that exist? Societies here on Earth always seem to be in a state of agitation or on the verge of collapsing or something.”

“This is a planet of criminals. That makes all the difference. Things get hysterical here on a regular basis. Look, United States is only 240 years old and look at the rifts in this society. It seems we are already teetering on the verge of something or other. Murabi Empire is over 800,000 years old. Baltizor Confederacy is well over 300,000 years old. Those societies are very stable, rock-solid, unshakable. Everybody is more or less okay financially and mentally stable. Upward mobility is difficult but so is downward mobility. Things seldom change. People like it that way. They can plan ahead.”

Linda was thoughtful for a minute. “So, the bureaucracy must be quite prevalent then?”

“Yes, bureaucracy is definitely important there.”

“If I have no papers of any kind and in fact I’m an illegal, would they allow me to stay?” Linda was dubious. “You’d be my wife. Hey, look, I don’t know. One problem at a time, hon. As my best friend Bill Hall used to say, ‘we’ll jump off that cliff when we get there.’ We can’t jump off of it now, okay? We got no cliff.”

Linda nodded. “As long as we jump together,” she finally said. “Bet your sweet ass on that,” I agreed.

We drove in silence for a spell, holding hands and thinking. “Picky, where are we going now?”

“Don’t know. Driving north right now, then east. Where do you think we should be going?” “ Well, what we really need right now is some help with the poem. That’d be the Santa Cruz Faculty of Foreign Languages. You know the one I’m talking about?”

“No, I don’t.” I shrugged. “But I suppose it’s a university in Santa Cruz, right?”

“Yes, it’s a big school of languages in Santa Cruz, world-known.

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