{"product_id":"2940014094184","title":"THE LANI PEOPLE","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe boxed ad in the opportunities section of the Kardon Journal of\u003cbr\u003eAllied Medical Sciences stood out like a cut diamond in a handful\u003cbr\u003eof gravel. \"Wanted,\" it read, \"Veterinarian--for residency in active\u003cbr\u003elivestock operation. Single recent graduate preferred. Quarters and\u003cbr\u003eservice furnished. Well-equipped hospital. Five-year contract, renewal\u003cbr\u003eoption, starting salary 15,000 cr.\/annum with periodic increases. State\u003cbr\u003eage, school, marital status, and enclose recent tri-di with application.\u003cbr\u003eAddress Box V-9, this journal.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJac Kennon read the box a second time. There must be a catch to it.\u003cbr\u003eNothing that paid a salary that large could possibly be on the level.\u003cbr\u003eFifteen thousand a year was top pay even on Beta, and an offer like this\u003cbr\u003efor a new graduate was unheard of--unless Kardon was in the middle of an\u003cbr\u003einflation. But Kardon wasn't. The planet's financial status was A-1.\u003cbr\u003eHe knew. He'd checked that immediately after landing. Whatever might\u003cbr\u003ebe wrong with Kardon, it wasn't her currency. The rate of exchange was\u003cbr\u003e1.2-1 Betan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA five-year contract--hmm--that would be seventy-five thousand. Figure\u003cbr\u003ethree thousand a year for living expenses, that would leave sixty-plenty\u003cbr\u003eof capital to start a clinic. The banks couldn't turn him down if he had\u003cbr\u003ethat much cash collateral.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKennon chuckled wryly. He'd better get the job before he started\u003cbr\u003espending the money he didn't have. He had 231 credits plus a few\u003cbr\u003ehalves, tenths, and hundredths, a diploma in veterinary medicine, some\u003cbr\u003etextbooks, a few instruments, and a first-class spaceman's ticket. By\u003cbr\u003ewatching his expenses he had enough money to live here for a month and\u003cbr\u003eif nothing came of his efforts to find a job on this planet, there was\u003cbr\u003ealways his spaceman's ticket and another world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnother world! There were over six thousand planets in the Brotherhood\u003cbr\u003eof Man. At two months per planet, not figuring transit time, it would\u003cbr\u003etake more than a thousand Galactic Standard years to visit them all, and\u003cbr\u003ea man could look forward to scarcely more than five hundred at best. The\u003cbr\u003ehabitat of Man had become too large. There wasn't time to explore every\u003cbr\u003epossibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut a man could have certain standards, and look until he found a\u003cbr\u003eposition that fitted. The trouble was--if the standards were too high\u003cbr\u003ethe jobs were too scarce. Despite the chronic shortage of veterinarians\u003cbr\u003ethroughout the Brotherhood, there was a peculiar reluctance on the part\u003cbr\u003eof established practitioners to welcome recent graduates. Most of the\u003cbr\u003eads in the professional journals read \"State salary desired,\" which was\u003cbr\u003enothing more than economic blackmail--a bald-faced attempt to get as\u003cbr\u003emuch for as little as possible. Kennon grimaced wryly. He'd be damned if\u003cbr\u003ehe'd sell his training for six thousand a year. Slave labor, that's what\u003cbr\u003eit was. There were a dozen ads like that in the Journal. Well, he'd give\u003cbr\u003ethem a trial, but he'd ask eight thousand and full GEA benefits. Eight\u003cbr\u003eyears of school and two more as an intern were worth at least that.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe pulled the portable voicewrite to a comfortable position in front of\u003cbr\u003ethe view wall and began composing another of the series of letters that\u003cbr\u003ehad begun months ago in time and parsecs away in space. His voice was a\u003cbr\u003efluid counterpoint to the soft hum of the machine.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073866383600,"sku":"2940014094184","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014094184_p0.jpg?v=1763600665","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014094184","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}