Birthright: After Earth Read Online Free PDF

was palpable. Private Suttonwas wiry and easily one of the most athletic Rangers in the corps. There was nothing wrong with her companions.
    What was wrong was the mission itself.
    The delivery shuttle skimmed across the Falkor Desert of Nova Prime. Sutton was at the helm, keeping a steady hand. Every so often it bobbed up and down as a powerful gust of wind would endeavor to blow it sideways. The Falkor was renowned for its strong winds; of all the desert areas of Nova Prime, it was most prone toward sandstorms. Why anyone would have the slightest interest in setting up shop out here, Mallory couldn’t even begin to fathom.
    And yet a group of scientists had established an outpost, and they were in need of help.
    Routine help.
    Mind-numbingly boring help.
    Which was the only sort of mission she had these days.
    Colonel Green had welcomed her back to the ranks of the Rangers all right, but since that day, he had been extraordinarily, even insanely, cautious in terms of how he utilized her. She had assumed that she would be thrust into major undertakings involving Ursa. Instead most of her missions were routine patrols in areas where there had been no Ursa sightings.
    I should be out there helping. I should be battling the Skrel and their plans and their evil. And instead I’m stuck doing chores that anyone could do. You don’t need a Ghost to do a delivery run. You don’t even need a Ranger to accomplish it
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    Yet that was what she was stuck doing. The past several months there had been almost no rain on Nova Prime, and the population was creaking under the effects of the growing drought. As a consequence, water was being carefully rationed, and the dispensing of it had fallen under the auspices of the Rangers.
    Green had selected her to head up this particular run. When she’d received herorders, she had wanted to scream in protest. She’d hoped that Green had finally decided to give her something interesting, but no, he was still keeping her on the shelf. When she’d offered a token protest, Green had simply replied, “I’m utilizing you where I feel you can do the most good, Lieutenant.”
    She wasn’t buying that for a second. It was obvious to her that, despite her value as a Ghost, Green had trepidations about putting her into the thick of things. She had briefly considered bringing her complaints directly to the Commanding General. If anyone should be irritated by a Ghost being underutilized, it would be the Original Ghost.
    She couldn’t bring herself to do it, however. First of all, how would she broach it?
Hey, General … I happened to run into your wife in the cemetery the other day, and figured you and I would have a chat
.
    Second, she had far too much respect for the chain of command. She answered to Green, and Green in turn to the man variously referred to as the Commanding General or Prime Commander. She had no business bypassing Green. It wasn’t her job to decide where she could best serve the Rangers. It was her job to obey.
    So the only option she really had was to continue the way she was going, as her belly slowly began to distend and make the presence of her little parasite known. The bump was not yet having a major impact on her physicality, but she was feeling the beginnings of awkwardness and discomfort, a recurring sensation of being off balance as her center of gravity shifted. She hated it because her body had always been a finely tuned machine and she wasn’t appreciating in the least a wrench being tossed into the works.
    I hate my baby
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    She felt guilty the instant she thought it, but she couldn’t help herself. Here the child’s presence had apparently made her capable of ghosting, but she wasn’t being allowed to take advantage of that status. So all she was left with was a sense of anger and frustration because the infant was crimping her ability to do her job, condemning her today after day of inconsequential duties. The baby was curtailing her ability to serve, but if