Read Torian Reclamation 2: Flash Move for Free Online

chewed some of the meat.
    Jumper took a bite. “Yeah. Not bad.”
    The agritent compound reached beyond the north and northeast horizons. To the immediate left grew a thicket of woods. Small residential tents were erected between the trees and the huge greenhouses, wherever there was room for them. Those had to be where the workers slept. Living conditions did not look enjoyable at all. Jumper could see why Hol4 chose to escape.
    The greenhouses themselves were impressive. Three stories high, wide and deep, clear moriglass tops with fine green screen sidewalls. Inside, many natives could be seen working. The closest one housed tri-pyrus trees, as far as Jumper could see into it, which bore three different varietals depending on the season. Jumper’s dad called them all pears, but the locals had different names for each fruit. This type of tree was highly productive and always had something ripening. The workers in the tents moved ladders and portable staircases about harvesting, pruning, fertilizing, and performing irrigation line maintenance. Tending tri-pyrus trees was a never-ending job, as the optimal harvest time for each piece of fruit was a window of only a few days.
    The guards shoved Hol4 inside the doorway of first tent, where an Amulite wearing a thin black neck collar ran over to greet him.
    “That must be a scientist,” Jumper said to Alan. The scientist bent down and inspected Hol4’s anklet, nodded and directed him towards the middle row of trees.
    “Hol4!” Jumper shouted while pressing his hands and face against the screen. “We’ll be back for you! I’ll get you that space station job, and we’ll come back and rescue you from this place!”
    Jumper was shoved again, from the side now, but not by a native. This time it was Alan. He had a look of extreme distress on his face. The guards then grabbed ahold of them both and pushed them inside the same tent.
    “Foreman, put these two Earthlings to work as well,” the big guard said.
    Jumper and Alan fell to the ground before the scientist, who cocked his head at the two guards before gazing down on Jumper and Alan.
    “Hol4 doesn’t want to work here anymore,” Jumper said as he and Alan sprang to their feet. “And we won’t, either.”
    “Tulros,” the scientist said. “I am the foreman of the southern tri-pyrus tents. Call me Foreman, please. Your friend is under a work contract. Have you ever picked pyrus before?”
    “Work contract?” Jumper shot back. “Is that what you call slavery here?” The foreman cocked his head again in response.
    “We’re not under any contract,” Alan said. “We are free residents of the Earth colony, in the cities region. We were abducted in the Sinlo foothills and brought here against our will. We demand to go free.”
    “Go free?” the foreman asked. “Where would you go? You’re too far from the cities region now. As freelancers, you must earn your keep, same as the contractors. Everyone works here. If you’ve come for the games, you must produce for a while first, until the appropriate time comes, and then you can be taken to the arena in the west. Until then, you must work. There can be no non-producers in the plains.”
    “We don’t plan on being in the plains,” Jumper said. “We mean to leave and head south. Immediately.”
    “Put them to work,” the big guard said from behind. He had come inside the tent and was now standing immediately behind Jumper.
    “It would be best if you cooperated,” the foreman said. “There’s good picking today in the center row.”
    Jumper had a moment of indecision. He looked at Alan.
    Alan shook his head. “I don’t like the looks of this, Jumper. I mean, picking some fruit is nothing I’m opposed to—but if we start, it might become easy for them to keep us here as forced laborers.”
    “We choose not to cooperate,” Jumper said to the foreman. “So, what are you going to do about it? I think you should know my father is a university