Breakaway (Expeditionary Force, #12)

by Craig Alanson

“I will begin by writing my own children’s books, instead of that crap you use for teaching little monkeys now. My first book will be The Little Engine That Said ‘Screw It’.” “Uh, what?” “Come on, Joe, try to keep up. In the classic tale, which is pure brainwashing by the way, the little engine volunteers to pull a super heavy train up a hill, when all the other engines couldn’t do it.” “Uh,” it had been a while since I read that book. “What is wrong with that?” “Seriously? First, the scenario is totally unrealistic.” “Well, sure, the engine is too small to-” “It’s not that. The union contract would not allow an engine to perform a job that was outside its craft. Try that, and boy, there would be a grievance filed, faster than you can imagine.” “It’s a children’s story, Skippy, the-” He was on a roll and ignored me. “Also, if the big engines that were designed to pull the train couldn’t do it, why would a little engine volunteer to even try? It could easily burn out a bearing, and then there would be a big hullabaloo about whether the damage was covered or not, because it did not occur during an authorized job-related activity.” “You might be over-thinking this,” I muttered before he rolled on. “Also, what is the little engine’s incentive? Is it going to be paid more that day? Noooo. Joe, you might think that story is all about the corrosive power of peer pressure.” “Really, I didn’t think that at-” “It’s even worse than that. The bigger engines bullied the little one into...