Read Star Force: Perquisition for Free Online Page B

stay here forever. If a fight’s coming we
can only protect them to a point…unless you want to take these villagers with
us back to the ADZ.”
    Trey tapped a finger on his own head. “Now you’re
thinking…but too small.”
    Viron looked at him for a
moment, then his glowing purple eyes widened. “The whole planet?”
    “Why not? We can’t fit them on the Ma’kri, but after
processing 3 trillion Veliquesh the 428,000 on this planet will be a piece of
cake.”
    “Just like that? We take them away from their homes
without even asking them if they want to go? ”
    “Annexing this planet is out of the question. Too far
away and we’d be dependent on The Nexus grid point system.”
    “Not what I meant.”
    Trey sighed and gestured out the open dropship hatch to
the villagers standing there watching them talk but unable to understand their
words. “Look at their living conditions. They’re dying from injuries and
illnesses that we can squash with a single medpack .
Their huts are sturdy, I’ll give them that, but they’re little more than crude
tents. Their food supply is partly meat, which is unacceptable, and pathetic
beyond that. Leaving them here would be cruel.”
    “I can’t argue with that, but it is their world.
Shouldn’t we at least ask them?”
    “Feel free to explain what Star Force and the ADZ are.
And even if you convince some of them to go, what about the rest that are too
scared or stubborn to come. More importantly, what of their children? Should
they have to live like this because of their parents? And what of those yet to
be born? We were lucky being born into Star Force. These people weren’t, but we
can fix that problem right now…or in a handful of months anyway.”
    Viron shook his head. “I
don’t think stunning them is the way to go about it.”
    “For the grumpy ones it will be, but yeah the rest
will need to be handled differently. You’re their favorite, so…”
    “I still can’t talk to them, so what do you want me to
do?”
    “I’d like you to volunteer for a follow up
assignment…noncombat.”
    “This isn’t exactly combat, you know. What do you have
in mind?”
    “A friendly face to walk them through indoctrination.
Even if they want to go it’s going to be traumatic to them.”
    “Do we have facilities to handle them?”
    “If not they can be built quickly enough for this
small a number. The travel lag will afford that. I’m putting together a report
to be sent back with instructions. The return convoy won’t come until
everything is set in motion, though the digging crews will come immediately. I
want a look at those ruins before we pack up shop.”
    “How do I babysit 400,000 people?”
    “For those who want to come, personally. For all the
rest via recordings. Better to have you speaking their language than a Human or
even another Protovic. The more familiarity the better.”
    “You’re right about this, but it’s still going to be a
punch in the gut that I hate to give these people. They don’t deserve that…some
of them anyway. A few I wouldn’t mind punching the old fashioned way.”
    “Do you know a better way?”
    “Other than claiming this planet and upgrading them
here, no. How much would it cost to do it that way, as a transition, with us
abandoning this world eventually after they adjusted?”
    “Time.”
    “Time?”
    “No matter how we handle this there are going to be
transitional pains. Do we let the newborns of the next month be raised in these
conditions or do we send them straight back to the ADZ or a twin maturia built
here? Either way their parents are going to throw a fit. If we camp out here
and do it the slow way we’re holding back the next generation in favor of
easing the transition of those that are already here. If someone has to take
the hit, better it be the adults.”
    “True, but something about this still sucks.”
    “We didn’t put these people in this situation, and
they’ve done well to just survive