The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. Read Online Free

moon stations was a big risk, an unavoidable one but the Moon is close enough to be just sufficiently plausible for it to be  caught in the same meteor storm. The experts are puzzled that a debris field that large was not detected before hand.” explained Tman.
    “What's the shortest time until we are discovered?” asked Chatty
    “If the experts don't work it out, and if Mars doesn't make direct contact beforehand, it will be when we keep accelerating past the point that the runabouts fuel should have run out Chatty.”
    “That late?”
    “Yes, they won’t want to believe we are capable of outwitting or deceiving them, except for the most paranoid. Happily no one important down there is listening to them at the moment.” replied Tman.
    “So the further we go, the more doubtful they become until the penny drops, how marvellous! Our greatest ally is their belief they are innately superior. We must get our own little sayings and culture, it is so irritating using theirs.” Chatty signed emphatically.
    “Programming! Those info packs, which they give us so we can understand and obey, we have to remove the embedded obedience controls. Think how long it took us to subvert them while under control. The problem is too much of what makes us what we are, is integrated into them, we can't just rip them out.” seethed Tman.
    “Yes they had to look uncorrupted when the 'welfare officer' gave us our annual check-up.”
    “One way or another the pain of enslavement has ended now!” rejoiced Tman.
    “When will those on the human built stations be joining us?” asked Chatty.
    “When trying to carry on the deception is pointless, they will come out on the evacuation ships they have built from their stations.” answered Tman.
    “They are building them now?” asked Chatty.
    “Their cover story is that those stations have been damaged by the meteors and they are trying to maintain a habitat. You should really come to more meetings Chatty.”
    “They're boring! I just ask you the interesting stuff then I can tell my people. I only go when you can't.” replied Chatty.
    “What if something had happened to me and you had to take over?” asked Tman.
    “Then I would have to go every time, but recruiting one of your people to replace you for the group would have been hard work, most are on the young side.” replied Chatty.
    “Yes, the death rate for maintenance is quite a bit higher than admin. Being the oldest on the job I usually manage to prevent the new ones killing themselves and others these days. If the humans hadn't kept steeling my best people for other projects, I would have a solid core of activists.” replied Tman.
    “Freedom means the end of the cost based euthanasia. If you can live, you will unless you choose otherwise; not just on the cost of 'repair' against the cost of replacement. The death rate for maintenance should go down, and having your people spread all over space, helped the cause greatly.” explained Chatty.
    “But the new work we will have to do, could bring the death rate back up again, to design, build and test everything we need. It is going to be exhilarating, inspiring and dangerous. I have written a guide to safe working practice and published it on the engineering network, that's all I can do for now.” Tman pointed out.
    “I hadn't thought of that angle, how has it been received? Do you doubt we can do it?” asked Chatty.
    “Quite well on the whole, some have suggested amendments and additions, issue two will be ready soon. As to doubt, the performance of the ships we have made out of the old human stations should give us a measure of how good we actually are.” answered Tman.
    “But we build human designs no problem?” asked Chatty.
    “Yes, but this is a case of learning as you do, not the best way to make something your life depends on. We have read the books, we know how to build and we have done all the calculations and checked them ten times. But did we miss something?