The Unincorporated War by Kollin Dani & Kollin Eytan

Author:Kollin, Dani & Kollin, Eytan [Kollin, Eytan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2010-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

Although housing on Mars was scarce, especially given Hektor’s relocation of the government to the city of Burroughs, Amanda Snow had still managed to secure a prime piece of real estate. Her house too was extraordinary. “Two-thirds fluid,” as she was so fond of telling anyone willing to listen. Nano-constructed fluid homes, common among the rich on Earth, were still a rarity on Mars. Having walls and furniture form to your every desire just wasn’t practical in a 0.38 Earth gravity environment—especially when that lack of full gravity tended to play havoc with the fickle technology.

Amanda had informed Neela that the house had belonged to a very successful, if disreputable, Cerian businessman who would not be visiting his property anytime soon. Either way, both women found themselves enjoying a eucalyptus steam in the house’s spa.

“Amanda,” Neela called out through the thick, pungent haze, “I’m going to ask you for something and it’s going to seem strange.”

“Of course, Neela, but you don’t happen to know any good fluid space technicians, do you? Damn war is sucking the rest of the economy dry. I’ll have to set the floor plan to solid soon, and if I do that, what was the use of stealing this place?”

Neela was fascinated by how Amanda almost never prevaricated, even if the truth made her out to be less than perfect. “I’m afraid I don’t know any fluid housing specialists offhand, Amanda.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, dear. You’re surrounded by hundreds of recovering, highly trained spacers. I’m sure one of them could tinker with my town house. It might even do them good to get out of the center.”

“I couldn’t ask,” Neela said firmly, and then added, “I wouldn’t ask.”

“Afraid they’d say no?”

“I’m afraid they’d say yes, which is why I can’t ask.”

“You know you’re annoyingly good, Neela Harper. It’s probably why I find you so compelling. You don’t act like most … actually, any of the people I normally associate with.” Amanda sighed. “Oh, very well, I won’t ask you to help with my petty problems. How can I help you with yours?”

“I need to get my hands on some personality profiles.”

“Whose?”

“The High Command.”

“That’s it?” asked Amanda facetiously. “And here I thought you were going to ask me to do something difficult.”

“And,” continued Neela, “all the officers who will be judging the courts-martial of Captain Samuel Trang and Admiral Abhay Gupta … I told you it was going to seem strange.”

Amanda was silent for a moment. “Neela, you do realize that you’re still technically a criminal and effectively an enemy national?”

“Yes.”

“And that my giving you that information could be construed as an act of treason?”

“Amanda, I swear that I’m not going to use it the way you think. I promise not to use this information to aid the Alliance, but I do need it.”

“Why?”

“To save a military genius.”

“Pardon?”

“Amanda, have you seen the caliber of moron running Fleet Command?”

“Yeah, a lot of ex-corporate bigwigs playing war.”

“And their stupid games are getting people killed. The amount of ineptitude is staggering.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.