Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
None of this matters, though. This conversation is a formality, a courtesy. They don’t want me to be too upset. The facts of the matter are that Freya and Mila are the executors of the estate. They don’t actually need my approval to do anything. They’re going to let the remnants of my father’s home be razed to the ground, and a dozen smaller homes are going to be put in its place, and we’ll be rich because money is the only currency their husbands understand. This is what men so often do. They find beautiful legacies, but have no respect for them. They tear down things they didn’t do in order to profit from it for themselves.
I shouldn’t blame them. Our people have a long and storied history of traveling and ravaging and pillaging the world around them for as long as any of us can remember. The impulse to tear down and take is too strong to resist. Even little Bjorn couldn’t help himself. I know he didn’t do it consciously. He’s too young to have any malice in him. But he has instinct.
He understands force, and fire.
“You’ll have enough money to buy a goat farm, if that’s what you want,” Mila says. “Or a dowry for a husband.”
I bite my tongue hard. Arguing with them won’t make any difference. The house is already destroyed according to them. It could be restored, but they won’t do that. They are going to do what they are told, and if I argue, all I will do is make things unpleasant.
The baby lies contentedly in Freya’s arms. Bjorn is grinning on his father’s lap. Mila has her hand on her belly, and her eyes on mine with a pleading expression that begs me silently not to make this any more unpleasant than I have to. Neither one of them are in any condition to argue, and I’d be an asshole to go against the force of a combined family.
“Okay,” I say, forcing a smile. “Sounds like a plan.”
CHAPTER 4
Ialso have a plan.
To get off the planet. To finally do what I’ve thought of for so long, and yet never had the nerve to do. I go to the military industrial quarter of the city, and I audition for the mission.
The business of selling what was left of home has already begun. My ties to Weltheim are being severed. It is time I took to the stars.
The actual ship is right there sitting on a launch pad. It is larger than I imagined it would be, a big white vessel that has protrusions around the exterior with windows and such. A continuous line of people is moving supplies into the belly of the beast. It’s hard to describe the shape exactly. Sort of as if a plane had a lot of other planes bumping out of it. I don’t know that much about spaceships. Let’s hope that’s not a problem in the interview process.
I join the throng of people apparently willing to get on a ship to fuck-knows-where at the very last moment. These missions are not military in nature, and that means there’s all sorts of civilians who get taken on them. Exploration and colonization needs normal people to work, so I gather.
I should be a shoo-in. My father founded this whole city. I should get to found another one somewhere else. That’s just logical.
A large man with white-gray hair and a whole mess of scars, wearing a black and gold uniform that only serves to make him look even more imposing, is striding back and forth on a plinth in front of this crowd of hundreds.
“It is in our blood to want to travel and extend territories. The same way a raven flies, or a flower rises to the sun. We need to go. Off-world missions are open to everyone. Our society believes that talent is in every single facet of the population, and off-world missions require a broad set of skills and temperaments. Final extras selection for the Alheim Mission begins now.” The mission chief gives his address to the candidates. “All major roles have been filled, but we still have some positions available for general workers. Maintenance, exploration, carriers. Grunt work, in other words. It won’t be glamorous, but it will take place among the stars.”
A cheer goes up from the others who just want off this fucking planet at any cost. I didn’t know it was such a common desire.
“You will sit an examination, a personality assessment, and undergo a physical exam as well as a rigorous obstacle course. This assessment will last all day for successful applicants, but you may be dismissed at any time. There are two thousand people here today, and we have only one hundred spots on the ship, so the odds are you’ll be asked to leave, and asked to leave early. Don’t take it personally.”