Read The Unincorporated War for Free Online

took place.”
    “They do not have a right to people.”
    “Agreed, Mr. Sadma, but it won’t matter when a corporate core battle cruiser is reducing both Eris and Ceres to rubble. However, I think I have a solution that both of us may be able to live with.”
    Tyler’s left eyebrow notched up slightly. “I’m listening.”
    “If after Eris declares disincorporation the Alliance demands an investigation concerning compensation for any Alliance citizens that lost income, could you keep Eris from rejecting that demand out of hand?”
    Tyler didn’t answer at first. He put his fingers to his chin, then rubbed.
    “Yes?” asked Justin.
    “What good would it do? We’d never pay.”
    “Honestly,” answered the President with a short laugh, “who cares? They’d send a commission. You’ll review and then reject the commission’s report. Then I’ll request another commission. If they absolutely insist on payment, I’ll pull the credits out of the orbital fees of abandoned claims. By the time the issue gets sorted out it won’t matter.”
    Tyler didn’t like what he was being asked to do, or more specifically, what he’d been asked
not
to do, but he had to grudgingly admit that Cord hadn’t asked him to violate any of his beliefs. Now it was Tyler’s turn to laugh.
    “I like the way you operate, sir. Very well, Mr. President, I’ll do as you ask. The Shareholders can poke around Eris till their eyes explode if it’ll make you happy.”
    Justin picked up the glass of Erisian ale and bowed his head slightly to his newfound ally. “Thank you, Mr. Sadma.”
    They spent their remaining few minutes together with small talk of rocket ball and the best place to get a good pizza in the outer orbits.
    “Mr. President,” said Tyler, “I’ll have a pie from Galarzo’s on Eris flash frozen and sent to you. It’s the best in the system.”
    Tyler of course knew that that claim had been made on every planet and rock in the Outer Alliance and, as a result, the President probably had a few hundred flash frozen pizzas to get through before he’d ever make it to the Erisians. But that didn’t stop Tyler from making the offer nor the President from accepting it.
    As Justin saw the congressman from Eris out the door, he allowed himself a moment to decompress. He knew that a crisis just as bad as this one was probably just another day away. This one wasn’t quite as bad as what had occurred between a Sednian and a Jovian battle cruiser only three days earlier, but it ranked up there.
One day at a time,
he had to keep reminding himself.
One day at a time.
He would not fail his new country. He’d lead them to safety and a better future—no matter the price.

     
    We will lose a long war,
thought Justin to himself for the umpteenth time as he stared down at the planet below. Even on the flagship of the O.A. fleet Justin felt ill at ease. True, the ship and the fifteen others she rode with were a testament to the ingenuity of the techheads at the Gedretar shipyard in Ceres, particularly Kenji Isozaki, the chief engineer, who’d apparently pissed off the wrong executive at GCI and had, as punishment, been sent to Ceres. An unassuming man, Kenji had turned out to be a certifiable jury-rigging genius. He’d proposed an idea that was so simple Justin had accepted it on the spot: Don’t build a fleet; improvise one. And that’s exactly what the O.A. had done. What Justin found himself flying in couldn’t really be called a ship, more like a large mine hauler retrofitted with added living quarters, fusion generators, and, according to Kenji, some “big-ass” rail guns. The guns, Kenji had explained, had originally been slated for use in a Jovian mining operation. That they were now being pointed toward the inner core rather than the outer planets was of no consequence to the intrepid engineer. He’d been given a task and over the course of a year went about completing it. Accordingly, the enemy had a fleet as well. A lot