The First One's Free Read Free Page B

Kai had displayed on the launch’s console
as well. “If I’m reading this right, the hold is this way.” She
walked past the drone and toward a darkened section of corridor. As
she approached, lights flickered on ahead of her. “Well, nice to be
welcomed.”
    After a few moments, she found her way to a
bulkhead that opened when she spoke the alien word panra .
The bulkhead split and separated into the walls. The lights inside
came on with loud clangs, indicating a primitive type of electrical
circuit. Just the thought of it made Kai nervous. How did these
people get around space without blowing themselves up or getting
shocked?
    Tishla stopped at the entrance. “I’ve found
the hold.” After that, she just stood and stared.
    “Tishla?”
    Still she stared, saying nothing, her back to
the drone and, subsequently, Kai.
    “Tish? What’s wrong?”
    “If that alien isn’t lying about the roots,”
she said, “there’s enough here to feed the capital and its
environs. We can grow enough from the skins to feed the rest within
three turns.”
    If . That’s why he purchased Tishla’s
indenture contract. It paid for the education that would allow her
to determine whether the alien was telling the truth.
    “That’s good,” said Kai. “Because if he is
lying, I will cut him down myself in Capital Square.”
     
    4
     
    “It’s starch,” said Marq as he and Kai walked
through the square. “All primate species, at least those we know
about, need starch. Most need protein as well, but in famine
conditions, starch will do as a temporary fix. I noticed no
livestock on this world. Did you not import them?”
    Around them, workers (many of them rioters
only a few days before) labored to clean up the square. Never a
spectacular place to begin with, it had been reduced to a scarred
moonscape of shattered glass, scorched walls, and broken masonry.
Patches of red appeared on the pavement in places. Kai wondered if
Marq knew it was blood.
    “Today is a rare day on Essenar,” said Kai.
“It’s not raining. The only places it does not constantly rain on
this world are the deserts, the polar caps, and out to sea. It’s
too damp to grow the grains and grasses needed to feed livestock,
or we would have planted them decades ago.”
    “So places like the deserts and sea and ice
caps, I take it, can only be populated by normal citizens with the
resources to adapt there.” He looked around. “Our ancestral
homeworld once had an entire continent set aside for criminals.
Seems like a waste, really. If you despise someone enough to kick
them out of your homeland, why not dump them on an island somewhere
and let the criminal nature solve the problem on its own?”
    “Welcome to the island,” said Kai. “Worlds
more hospitable are reserved for, as you term them, ‘citizens,’
though our society is not so egalitarian.” He watched as a man and
his daughter boarded up the window of a shop on the far side of the
square. The man did not own the shop, but had been one of those who
burned it. What might that man have been capable of , Kai
wondered, if the weather on Essenar had permitted normal food
production? With a large enough population, farming could be
automated to allow cities to grow. “We need more than these wonder
roots you’ve given us, Marq. We need grains that will grow here.
Can you do that for us?”
    Marq laughed that strange alien laugh of his.
“Governor, this load of tubers was lost through an error in
logistics by my employers. I learned your world had a problem and
saw an opportunity to show you what Juno can do for you. But my
people have a saying, one that dates back to before we left our
ancestral world.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “‘Only the first one’s free.’ The tubers in
their present form can feed you. For that, I am deeply pleased. You
know how to grow more from the skins, and I will explain to you how
to pollinate the flowers so you can harvest seeds. All I require in
return is the