Come and Take Them-eARC Read Online Free PDF Page A

pilot waited perhaps half a minute before firing a brace of attitude rockets to aim himself, then another to stop. Marguerite braced herself.
    Whoomf!
    Personally, I prefer a more sedate flight, Marguerite thought. But if I’m going to turn this gaggle of inbred mules into stallions…well, a little discomfort is probably required.
    * * *
    The plane to the mainland was waiting when Marguerite’s shuttle set down. She was quickly hustled out and into a locally produced limousine, Esmeralda trailing behind, watching but not carrying the baggage. The limo then raced to the plane. No sooner were the admiral and her cabin girl strapped in than the thing started its takeoff run. In seconds, it seemed, she was airborne and heading toward Valdivia, in the shadow of the Atacama mountain range, in Colombia del Norte. The UEPF wasn’t precisely popular in Valdivia, which retained a fairly strong alliance with the Federated States, and very friendly relations with the Republic of Balboa, but as long as war wasn’t actually in the offing and there was a peseta to be made, a limited trade—mostly limited by the UEPF’s emphasis on security and secrecy—was kept up. For the most part the trade was by air, but three or four times a local year a ship was allowed in Atlantean waters with heavier and bulkier goods. This was always presented as a case of mere efficiency over shipping goods from Old Earth.
    In truth, though, thought Wallenstein, as her plane lifted wheels up, the fleet couldn’t survive six months without the planet, even with the latifundia on Atlantis Island. Speaking of which, if the locals ever discover how we do our farming even the bloody Gauls will be up in arms over it. But what the hell am I going to do with the slaves and serfs? I can’t free them, not really. Oh, sure, I have the power to, but if I do, they’ll start to leave. No food would be bad enough. But when they start leaving and the locals, especially the Federated States, discover what bad shape we’re still in they’ll nuke us on general principle.
    Fuck, I hate my own system. But I have to tolerate some evil—and I know it’s an evil—for a longer-term good. I have to.
    * * *
    The plane was supersonic. This didn’t completely eliminate engine noise—it travelled through the material of the hull—but at least reduced it to a tolerable level.
    “Do they have slavery here on Terra Nova, High Admiral?” Esmeralda asked.
    Reluctantly, Wallenstein nodded, adding, “Commonly, in some places and some cultures. The more civilized local states try to stop it, but…well…even there there’s slavery. Mostly for girls. Mostly for sex.”
    Esmeralda shivered. “You know what happened to me before you freed me at Razona Market? You never asked, but you know?”
    “I know,” admitted the high admiral. “I wish I’d gotten to you sooner. Before…”
    The olive skinned cabin girl had no trouble believing that. But would you also have saved my sister whose heart was cut out by the Neo-Azteca on your Ara Pacis ? she wondered silently. She had to admit, in fairness, Yes, you likely would have.
    Esmeralda could read, but what had been a more or less vestigial ability was now, under the instruction of her lover, the earl of Care and captain of the Peace , quite polished. And she had read, too. She’d read enough to know that her admiral’s ultimate destination was in the middle of a place settled by her own distant relatives. She knew, too, that the physical layout was very similar. None of the books she had read on screen seemed to explain why, but to her it was obvious. The people—the “Noahs,” they were called—who built or created the transit point, the people with that kind of power, who had also moved populations of Earth animals to the new world, had also simply used their immense power to modify the new Earth to closely match the old. Precisely why they did this she didn’t know.
    The books from which Esmeralda was allowed to read were