Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades Read Online Free PDF Page A

the expansive rain forest was only evident when
someone realized how efficient the jungle was at providing food. At
any time, there were three major food crops ready to pick. As they
went past their season, another three or more crops were ready. The
creatures of the jungle kept much of it in balance, as the jungle
grew wild for the long time it was uninhabited. Birds of all kinds
picked near the top of the tall trees, a variety of small mammals and
monkeys ate fruit and whatever else they could find in the middle,
while great cats and other beasts roamed the jungle floor.
    What the pickers from
Haven Shore took from the jungle made little difference to the
inhabitants; it was easy to pick a little and move on instead of
stripping areas. Ayan sometimes wished she could remove herself from
the Haven Shore Council and join them. The life of a picker was part
labour, and part exploration, and the people who stayed past their
first week stint in the jungle claimed to love the work, the
challenge, and the jungle they depended on.
    The cliffs running
roughly through the middle of their island had sheltered over half of
the jungle from the ecological damage from the attack on Tamber
months before, and never had she seen a more vibrant place as she did
when she looked to the untamed side of the island. The Everin
Building straddled a narrow part of the cliffs where stable rock
jutted upward, as though trying to become a mountain. Most of the
homes had a view overlooking the jungle on the west side, while east
facing homes had a view of the other buildings, temporary shelters,
and administration centres that would eventually be replaced, and the
shoreline in the distance.
    “Commodore?” asked
Lee Romita, the project manager in charge of constructing the Everin
Building. He was a tall, wiry man with grey-black hair that seemed to
have an escape plan from his scalp that varied from strand to strand.
He approached her with a grin that told her that he didn’t have
anything to hide, and he was glad to see her. “I wasn’t expecting
you for an hour.”
    Hearing her rank, and
remembering that she was still in uniform - a white, fitted one-piece
vacsuit with gold rank insignia with her modified violator handgun
hanging on her thigh - brought her back down to reality. “I wanted
to take a look before you started putting in the supports for the
top,” Ayan told him.
    He greeted her properly
with a friendly hug and stepped back to arms’ length. “From the
trouble I hear on Crewcast about city council and all that malarkey,
I don’t blame you for seeking high places. This vote’s got a burr
in people’s shoes, there’s a big group against and a group just
as big for.”
    “I know, maybe if
they could all stand here for awhile I could be more certain about
how it’s going to turn out,” Ayan said, looking eastward, into
the wind and towards the distant shoreline. Deep waters kissed the
white, blue, green, and yellow quartz beach sands there.
    “I’m sure it’ll
turn out right, whatever the outcome,” Lee said. “As for the
building, we’re at decision-making time again, and I’d rather you
make this one.”
    “Start working on the
transit system,” Ayan said. “Or concentrate on building the
spiral frame.”
    “Yep. I know my Trina
wants to get around faster, takes forever to get to the Medical
Centre in the morning. Still, she says all the walking’s given her
a girl’s bum again for the first time since she gave birth to our
first, and neither of us are complaining about that.”
    Ayan couldn’t help
but laugh at his frank speech, but he had a point. The occupancy
level of the Everin Building was rising, and the temporary elevators
were always crowded. Connecting and building the permanent transit
system, at least inside the main structure, would alleviate a lot of
frustration. The spiral frame, a new foundation to connect more
segments to the Everin Building on arms stretching away from the main
structure, was