Second Earth Read Online Free

Marines.”
       “ You? You don’t want?” she wailed bitterly.
       “That’s right. I don’t want. I’ve been appointed the expedition commander for the
landing team. So for a change, what I say goes, not you.”
       “Well, I’ve got news for you, Mister
Kestrel. I don’t really care right now about what you do or don’t want. I
outrank you, and I can do whatever I want on this mission. For heaven’s sake,
I’m in operational command of this entire carrier!”
       “Yeah, you look it,” he said under his
breath as he brought his glass to his lips.
       “What did you just say?” she all but
slurred.
       “I said that is precisely the reason why you
should remain safe until I can ensure that you won’t be coming into a hostile
zone.”
       Like the flip of a switch, her mood
instantly changed from anger to self-satisfaction. “Well, Mister Kestrel, you
and I are in a hostile zone right now. And having said that, I’m not sure I
want to continue this conversation with you any longer.” She brushed her hair
back in an overly exaggerated fashion, as if she were actively trying to cover
up the fact that she’d had too much to drink.
       Shawn leaned back in his chair and turned
his gaze back to the large view ports. “Fine.”
       “Fine.”
       “Fine!” he snapped. “I have a mission to
prep for.” He stood from the table, ready to bolt from the space. A sudden
flash of insight crept over him and he turned around to regard the intoxicated,
yet still alarmingly attractive woman. “You know something? I really do care
about you. I don’t think I’ve truly been able to say that about anyone in a very long time. I just…I just hope
someday you can talk to me like a normal, non-crazy person. Maybe then we’ll
both be better off.”
       Her mouth fell open and before she could say
anything that might have marginally repaired their conversation, Shawn turned
briskly on his heel and strode out of the observation deck. She watched as the
doors sealed behind him, then she gently closed her eyes before letting her
forehead free fall onto the backs of her hands.
       Damn
it!

 
    *
* *

 
       The enormous Unified Sector Command
supercarrier Rhea slowed gracefully
in her approach as she neared the small blue-green world. This was Second
Earth: a name coined by the first settlers to venture out this far due to her
uncanny resemblance to their native home planet. Two hundred years ago, when
Old Earth had become too overpopulated and her natural riches almost entirely
depleted, it was decided that it was mankind’s opportunity to travel deep into
the heavens and seek out a new world to cultivate and grow. By that time, Old
Earth had already been visited by a small number of alien races, and when the
trade routes between their worlds became firmly established, so too were the
seeds planted that would eventually blossom into the Unified Collaboration of
Systems in the year 2253.
       A short time before that, in 2248, a planet
had been discovered by pioneering free traders beyond the outer rim of the
then-explored systems. It was a place said to be a mirror image of their home
planet, nearly the same diameter, with slightly more land mass and a much cleaner
oxygen level than the used-and-abused world they were departing. The planet—by
then dubbed UNGC 3329—also had the added bonus of being entirely uninhabited.
       Using primitive jump drives and fission
engines, four colonization ships—each containing a thousand volunteers,
scientists, teachers, doctors, and military personnel—departed for the new
world after two years of preparation in November of 2250. Joining them was a
small flotilla of warships from the newly created Unified Sector Command Fleet,
and together they set forth into the unknown.
       Approximately one year later, a maintenance
oversight in the engineering plant of one of the colonial vessels had gone
unchecked, and the resulting explosion cost the