"Williamson, Michael Z - Freehold 01 - Freehold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Michael Z. Williamson - Freehold (BAEN) (v5) [htm jpg])

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Chapter 1


"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous
circumstances would have lain dormant."
ЧQuintus Horatius Flaccus

Sergeant Second Class Kendra Pacelli, UNPF, was looking forward to finally
finishing the admin from her deployment to Mtali. The entire experience had been
unpleasant, from the tedious, cramped trip there in a military transport, to the tedious,
cramped trip back in a military transport. In between, the stay had been mostly boring,
very aggravating, and exhausting when it wasn't boring.

She'd been eager at first. The chance to visit another planet, even one torn by war,
she found exciting. Upon arriving, they'd all been restricted to base, so she saw nothing
of the local culture. They were shipped through the UN starport, and there were not even
vendors of local food to sample. Most of the other UN troops, predominantly from Earth,
had insisted on not listening to "that raghead crap" music. She'd heard nothing but Earth
pop for the entire six months.

Then the long-term troops had resented her for her trip's duration. They had
eighteen-month rotations. It wasn't her fault, and she was there to help the Logistic
Support Function, thus freeing someone else to go home early, but that didn't seem to
matter. Apparently, they'd rather have stood the extra time than have her take a short tour.

There'd been a couple of missile attacks on the base while she was there. She'd been
in an orbital station doing admin during one, and the shuttle simply waited until it was
over to land. The other one was over before she realized it wasn't a drill, and the damage
was negligible. She understood some areas had been pasted daily and had regular body
counts, but she was nowhere near those places. She wasn't complaining, but the end result
was that she had no war stories of any kind.

It had been typical logistics work; issuing, returning and accounting for gear and
filing docs, except that the days were longer, the facilities nonexistent and the
entertainment lacking. She wasn't a big fan of vid and the rec center's supply of books
and games was slim. She also found few people who could play table games well. All in
all, she might just as well have stayed home and not left her dorm.

She had received additional pay and got a tax in-centive, which would mean more
records-keeping in exchange to justify the tax return. The rest of the pay came at the cost
of, naturally, more admin. Sitting at her carrel, she coded off on her travel itinerary, her


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waivers for tests and boards missed while deployed and the return of her issued combat
equipment. She had been ordered not to open that unless attacked, which she'd found
bothersome. The fact that to inspect her gear for safety was deemed wrong because it