Easy To Be A God (The Fields of Long-Forgotten Battles Book 1) by Robert J. Szmidt

Author:Robert J. Szmidt [Szmidt, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Royal Hawaiian Press
Published: 2017-05-08T06:00:00+00:00

FOUR

Eight hours later Henryan was relieved by another soldier, and could return to the residential area. This time he went for the slowest, standard train—a ride on it cost far less than on the express line. Valdez advised him to save credits by avoiding such luxuries, because with his sedentary job he wouldn’t get too many extra points for the generated energy, and a sergeant’s salary wasn’t among the highest, especially that the Admiralty assigned the parolee the lowest possible category. Thus, Swiecki had to wait on the platform for the fifth train before he was able to crowd in. It was quite an ordeal. Moments, in which he didn’t feel the pressure and the body odor of his fellow travelers, were rare. A dozen minutes later, he pushed his way to the exit, to finally breathe the crisp air of the central corridor in his sector. After a few steps he paused to decide what bothered him more: the dirt sticking to him or the growling in the stomach. A shower or the mess hall… He chose the former.

He arrived at his living quarters after a short, brisk march. His accommodation was located favorably—everything Henryan might need was within walking distance. He’d begun to undress even before he passed through the door. The kinetic batteries removed from the slots on his belt were immediately placed in the power supply; Lieutenant Valdez was right—during the whole day’s work he had charged them in just thirty percent! He unzipped his jumpsuit, slipped his arms from the moist sleeves, removed the boots, took the thick socks off and chucked them into a corner. Soon he reveled in the warm mist filling the narrow cylinder of the shower cubicle. A twenty seconds’ bath. A costly luxury—he used up his daily ration of water.

He wiped himself dry quickly, threw the towel to the evaporator and put on a fresh change of printed underwear. The old pants went to the atomizer. He wasn’t going to save energy points on the underwear. It was enough that he would have to wear the same jumpsuit for a few days in a row. He took a tracksuit from the dresser, put it on, looked at himself in the mirror and started toward the door. He stopped halfway. The meal card was still in a sweaty jumpsuit hanging sadly from the door of the shower cubicle.

He felt the material quickly, and muttered in surprise when his fingers found a hard object in one of the side pockets on the leg. A moment later, he held a microcrystal between his fingers. A clean one, with no signs or print on it. He pressed his thumb to the bottom of the vitreous pyramid, but no hologram identification appeared over its top.

“Interesting…” He weighed the find in his hand.

This data storage device definitely didn’t belong to him. So how did it end up in his jumpsuit? It certainly hadn’t been there before. He checked the pocket that morning, leaving for breakfast. There should be only the meal card inside it now.

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