The Ramal Extraction Read Free Page B

to get out of this fuckingform-chair and back into action where she belonged. A chance to stretch.
    Better get the b.g. stuff collected so she could do the briefing. In extraction work, time was the biggest enemy. If the kidnapped victim wasn’t killed immediately, there was usually a period when they might be recovered alive. But after a few weeks, the longer the elapsed time, the fewer chances of a live recovery.

FOUR
    On the
GS Frag
, a Class III Leapship that could haul eighty people and all their gear in relative comfort eighty light-years at a Leap, and twice that many people in a pinch, Jo Sims stood at the head of the conference room table. Seated around the table were Gunny, Gramps, Doc, Formentara, and
Kluth
fem. Colonel Cutter leaned against the carbon-fiber inner wall near the room’s primary hatch.
    “All right, folks, listen up. We are on our way to Ananda, half of a binary system with Om, planets circling a class G2V star, FHND 31-Epsilon—that’s Flamsteed-Halley New Designation for those of you not planning a second career as an astronomer.
    “Informally, the system is called Lance. Mid-rim, Orion Arm, turn left at the Dagger Nebula and straight on ’til morning.
    “Ananda is an E-type world in the ninety-eighth percentile for atmosphere and gravity, a little more oxy, a little less nitrogen. Your circulating antibacterials and antivirals have been updated to deal with the local bugs.
    “Twenty-two-hour days, 369-day years, climate range Within Terran Standard Limits, but shading more into tropical, save toward the poles.
    “Activate your sunblocks and drink a lot of replenishment fluid.
    “There are no indigenous intelligent species. Eight-tenths of the place consists of saline seas, landmasses clustered mostly around the equator, with small-continent-sized islands farther north or south.
    “The usual—trees, mountains, lakes, plains, like that. Lots of trees where we are going, so expect to see a lot of wood construction.
    “Population nine hundred million, originally settled by wealthy immigrants from TerraIndia, the local businesses are chiefly agro- and aquacultural, mining, and assorted light industry. Largely self-sufficient, their unique exports are medical-grade Rhodopsin, a visual-purple substance extracted from a local fish, used in military vessel viral-molecular computer-memory systems, and Heavenspice.”
    “Ooh,” Gunny said, “Heavenspice. Doubles the cost of a good meal for one sprinkle of that. Worth it, though.”
    “Good meal?” Gramps said. “When’s the last time you ate anything other than field rats or vat-grown mysteryburger burned to a crisp? Dusting those with Heavenspice would be a crime against nature.”
    “You’d know
all
about crimes against nature, wouldn’t you, old man?” Gunny said. She smiled.
    Jo ignored them. “The reason we got this job is because TotalMart has a couple of big stores on the world, plus being an exporter. They work long-term contracts with both the Rhodopsin fish processors and the Heavenspice Growers Union, and they want to keep the Rajah happy, so they recommended us. We need to move somewhat cautiously, so as not to—”
    She stopped. “Am I boring you, Doctor?”
    Wink looked at Jo. He faked a big yawn.
    “Truth, fem? I confess, I am pretty much somnambulant.”
    She lit her Stress Analyzer aug, just because she could. Always useful for PsyOps to know when somebody was lying. She scanned the heads-up display—another direct send to her optic nerves.
    Heartbeat. Respiration. Blood pressure. Myotonus. Perspiration. Conductivity. Eye movement…
    Given his stats, the yawn wasn’t fake. He was pretty much relaxed enough to be on the edge of nodding off.
    The fucker—
    “And that’s different than usual
how
, Doc?” Gramps said. “You the only man I ever knew could go to sleep sucking a bulb of hot soup while falling down a flight of stairs.”
    There was a soft whicker from Kay. They didn’t laugh loud, the Vastalimi,