(eng) Mike Shepherd - Jump Universe 03 by They Also Serve

Author:They Also Serve [Serve, They Also]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

RAY HAD DEFENDED a lot of base camps in his years of soldiering. Never had he planned a defense around an array of options like today's, he reflected as he drove over to the church. He got there just as the little priest was coming down the aisle, greeting each parishioner with a smile. He gave Ray a wide-open hug. "You're up early, man."

"No earlier than you."

"I'm just doing the Lord's work."

"I hope I am, too." Villagers filed by, young and old, men and women. Many acknowledged Ray as well as the priest. "Thank you for the work you're offering," was the general thrust of most. "We need your work," was Ray's honest answer.

"Saves our young men from having to go to the cities to find work that pays in coin," the priest reminded Ray.

"But not to pay for the land," Ray pointed out. To the priest's raised eyebrows, he explained the night's discoveries. The priest stared straight ahead for a long while.

"There's been hot blood between the city folk and the farmers almost since we first started to spread out. Cities have their needs. We farmers have ours. New Haven may talk about being for the Green, but these people grow it." The priest eyed the fields, dotted with people working.

"But if you don't grow it, city folks don't eat," Ray said.

"And if they don't make the utensils and glass and needles and fine goods, ours is a pretty plain existence. We need each other. So long as we remember that, all is well. But that's not always easy, not when Refuge needs expanded sewers or mass transit and we need a river dammed for electricity or to make room for bigger grain and potato barges."

"Every society is a work in progress, trying to balance those tensions."

"Well, if I remember right, or the story that was told to me is true, the Sterlings tried to avoid the problem by claiming all the land around Richland. Farmers who settled there worked as tenants, no better than the workers in their mines and factories. About a hundred years ago there were riots about absentee landlords. Really, just Sterlings as landlords."

"Why didn't farmers just go around Sterling land?"

"Why doesn't anybody just walk away from a problem? If a farmer's too far from a city, his horse eats more hauling produce to market than he earns. Now we have river barges on the James and railroads out here. Not then."

"How did they solve it?"

"Now that, I don't remember. Didn't you say you'd copied much of Refuge's archives?"

"Yes. Kat can help you dig through them."

"A delightful young woman. This will be a pleasant day."

Ray had his doubts about that. He dropped the padre at the hospital/research center with Kat. Mary caught him in front of the HQ. "Boss, young Jeff's gone AWOL." Mary handed him a note. He read it through.

"Any luck looking for our vanishing box?"

"Nada, zero, and zip."

"Think these people can find it?"

"Two girls, followed by two guys. Who knows? Crazier things have happened, and this planet is the craziest I've ever visited.

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