Read The End of All Things: The Third Instalment for Free Online

rest area for the CDF recruited for guard work.
    “It’s local midnight and that crowd out there’s not going anywhere,” Powell said. “I think the funnels might be a feature for a while.”
    “It’s going to make going to work difficult for the Colonial Union folks who work in this building.”
    “Maybe they’ll all telecommute,” Salcido said.
    Lambert looked back out at the crowd. “Yeah. I would.”
    “How much longer are we here?” Powell asked me.
    “The technicians are training the Kyiv police on operating the things,” I said. “So a couple more days.”
    “And then what? Off to the next planet to squash another protest or stomp on another building?”
    “You wanted to stomp that building in Kyoto,” Lambert reminded Powell.
    “I didn’t say otherwise,” Powell said, turning to Lambert. “I didn’t mind putting a rocket through that truck today, either. The alternatives might have involved me getting hurt or killed. So, fine.” She turned back to me. “But this wasn’t the gig I signed up for.”
    “Technically speaking, you didn’t know what the gig was when you signed up for it,” Salcido said. “None of us did. All we knew was we were getting off the planet Earth.”
    “Sau can play lawyer all he wants, but you know what I mean, Lieutenant,” Powell said.
    “Ilse’s right,” Lambert said. “This is our third mission in a row where we’re trying to keep a lid on people rebelling against the Colonial Union.”
    “These sort of missions have always been part of the deal,” I said. “Before you three came on I and the Tubingen were called on to squash an uprising on Zhong Guo. Some people there got it in their head that they wanted an alliance with Earth.”
    “Did they tell the Earth about that?” Salcido asked.
    “Don’t think they did,” I said, and then motioned out the window, to the protest. “My point is that this is, in fact, our mission. Part of it, anyway.”
    “Okay, but three in a row,” Lambert said.
    “What about it?”
    “Has that happened before, in your experience? Ever?”
    “No.”
    “And you’ve been in the CDF how long, now? Six years?”
    “Seven,” I said. “And three months.”
    “Not that you’re counting,” Powell said.
    “If you don’t you lose track,” I said. I turned back to Lambert. “All right, yes, it’s unusual.”
    “And that doesn’t bother you?” Lambert asked. “Wait—I phrased that poorly. I mean to say, you don’t find it troublesome? Because when Ilse here, our current queen of the ‘who gives a shit’ line of thinking, is starting to get tired of our act, there might be a problem.”
    “I didn’t say I was tired of it,” Powell said. “I said it’s not what I signed up for.”
    “There’s a distinction in your brain between the two,” Lambert said.
    “Yeah, there is,” Powell said. “I’m not tired of this. I can do this shit in my sleep. But I don’t see it as my job. My job is shooting the hell out of aliens who are trying to kill us.”
    “Amen to that, ” Salcido said.
    “What we’re doing here, I mean, really, who gives a shit?” Powell said. She waved out the window. “These people are protesting. So what? Let them protest. They want to break up with the Colonial Union, let them.”
    “When the other species come down to scrape them off the planet, then your job would get harder,” I pointed out.
    “No it wouldn’t, because they’re not part of the Colonial Union anymore. Fuck ’em.”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how much, and in a twisted way, I assure you, I admire your commitment to amorality,” Lambert said.
    “It’s not amoral,” Powell said. “If they’re part of the Colonial Union, I’ll defend them. That’s my job. If they want to go their own way, fine. I don’t see it as my job to stop them. But I also won’t stop the aliens from shoving them into a pot if they do, either.”
    “Maybe that’s what we need,” Salcido said. “One of these