+around the station. He was headed into the dark alleys of Hollowtown,
+the area to the west of APD headquarters.
+
+But before the condos sprang upward to the sky, there was a large
+open, empty area. Anything that had been there before was gone.
+
+Looking around, he realized that he was in what had been the Gardens
+of Callough. He remembered the Gardens, filled with larkspur and
+hollyhocks, nasturtium and daisies, with fountains and a little stream
+running along the flower beds. There were dozens of flowers from
+Earth. There had been some from Agalder as well. The colors had been
+overwhelming: reds, blues, yellows, purples, greens, and every vibrant
+shade in between. All gone. The area was blasted. Grays and blacks,
+dirty browns were the only colors here now. He turned away. It hurt
+too much.
+
+There had been voting booths here, too, gaily decorated with the
+purple and green of Agalder. He had voted here, voted for Manchester.
+She had been by far the best candidate for President of the Republic
+and had won in a landslide. And then had been gunned down on the steps
+of the Capitol as she was taking the oath of office, along with her
+Vice President and dozens of others.
+
+On duty that day, he was standing at the base of the steps, thirty
+feet below the President-elect. She had stood straight and tall, proud
+to receive the honor. He had seen the guns coming out. How had they
+gotten them inside the barricades? He had pulled his weapon and
+started firing, already knowing it was too little, too late.
+
+Wounded, he had lain on the steps for hours before someone discovered
+that he was still alive. But he hadn't cared. Manchester was dead. He
+had heard much of the talk around him from the invaders. The coup had
+been a total shock to everyone on the ground. No one, including the
+security advisors, had ever heard of the group that took over. Tavis
+had learned later that they were a group of itinerant pirates who saw
+an opportunity and took it.
+
+Just because they were taken by surprise didn't mean that the people
+of Agalder didn't fight back. They fought. And they fought with a fury
+and a hatred engendered by the slaughter of Manchester and her people.
+
+The new President wasn't just wildly popular. She represented the
+whole history of Agalder. From the lost colony that was almost reduced
+to cannibalism before it was found to the exploitation by the Xei
+Empire and the rebellion, through the fall of the Empire and the Iron
+Wars, until a greatly reduced population on Agalder had banded
+together to throw out the remnants of the invaders.
+
+Manchester had come from the lowest class on Agalder. A street orphan,
+she had no idea who her people were. But she had understood the
+concept of a free society and its ramifications for all the people.
+She had educated herself and clawed her way upward. In many ways,
+Manchester had been the symbol of freedom on the planet.
+
+Ten years had gone into drawing up a Constitution, delineating the
+powers of the government with enough checks and balances to choke a
+chaupoo. The temporary government had agreed to step down when
+Manchester had taken office. Everything was going so well. And then
+the pirates struck. There was a fleet of them. Their soldiers had been
+off-loaded on an uninhabited island just off the coast. The first clue
+the people of Agalder had was seeing Manchester shot down. Then the
+troop carriers had skimmed by overhead. The tanks and JVDs had come
+rumbling into the city.
+
+Men, women, children, all had taken whatever weapons were available to
+attack the enemy. For a time the pirates were pushed back by the sheer
+ferocity of the attacks. The attacks came from everywhere. No pirate
+could walk alone in the city unmolested. Children as young as six
+would drop from windows with knives and razors, or spades and forks,
+whatever could pierce skin, put out an eye, or slit a throat.
+
+But children with box knives and sling shots couldn't defeat trained
+men with modern weapons. A lot of people died for nothing, thought
+Tavis. Yet the Resistance had persisted, Maybe soon they would take
+back the planet before the pirates destroyed it entirely.
+
+The spirit of revolution in the people of Agalder still flamed. But it
+had been nearly twelve years since the Pirate Regime had taken over.
+That's what Agalder called the usurpers. They called themselves the
+Democratic Advisory Council of Agalder. He shook his head. They were
+so good at putting their boots on the natives' necks. That was about
+the only thing the bastards were good at. Except of course, for their
+talent at taking every last cent you earned and their adeptness at
+making people they didn't like disappear.
+
+He knew he was crazy to wander these alleys alone, but he had to see
+for himself. Garbage was piled high along the sides of the buildings.
+Some people just threw their refuse at the disposal openings and
+walked away, even if the noisome waste splattered against the side of
+the building. The openings to the trash disposals weren't all covered.
+He shuddered as he thought what could happen if a child climbed in
+there. Kids got into everything, especially when told to stay away. He
+remembered his son climbing...