The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict Read Online Free Page B

chosen for the Alliance Senate chamber on Advranki Prime.
    Clowy looked at the painting on the monitor and said, “Did your dad paint that one?”
    “Yes,” Ella answered, “This is his latest painting. He titled the work Bird Flying Over Canyon . He traveled to the unpopulated area in the southern zone of Solaria to paint it. The military accompanied him to guard against wild animals and they had to tie everyone to the ground to ensure that they didn’t fall of the cliff. It was an exciting adventure; well to hear him describe it anyway.”
    Clowy responded, “Wow, it is really beautiful.”
    “So, do you like Lorano?” Ella asked Clowy.
    “He’s okay,” she responded politically.
    “No, I mean do you like, like him? Would you ever see yourself liking him?”
    Clowy answered, “What, I don’t understand.”
    They were speaking the Alliance basic language to each other. Sometimes, certain concepts do not easily translate, so Ella said, “Computer, translate my last sentence to Altian.”
    …Estimate translation at 99.8% accuracy…
    …Are you, or would you at a future point be romantically interested in the being named Lorano. You are both single, the only two beings from your species on this ship, and roughly the same age…
    Clowy smiled broadly and yelled, “Yuck, I would rather go on a date with a human.”
    Ella said, “Clowy, a human would kill you and eat you.”
    Clowy responded, “Well, it would still be less painful than an evening with him!”
    The cabin erupted with the sounds of their laughter. They finished their meals and continued talking until they were hailed by Arean and ordered to return to the bridge.
    “Captain, we are being hailed by the Justice ,” said Carank.
    “On-screen,” announced Captain Solear.
    Justice’s entire bridge and engineering crews were in landing bay where the wreckage of the Hiriculan fighter had been dragged aboard. Lorano was in the middle of everything, checking figures, directing others, and scurrying back and forth to the wreckage. It took them several moments to realize that the Sunflower had acknowledged the hail.
    Lorano looked up, realized Captain Solear was now watching and said, “We have identified the foreign element in the wreckage. It is biological, and you won’t believe where it is from.”
    Lorano told him exactly what it was. Lorano was right, Captain Solear didn’t believe it. He almost asked Lorano if he was sure, but caught himself just in time. The Captain really didn’t want a lecture on from Lorano on how he had solved the mystery. Instead, he said, “Lorano, excellent work. We have to report this to the Alliance Senate immediately. As soon as you are finished, get back on board the Sunflower. ”
    He motioned to Clowy and asked her to set up a taskforce wide broadcast. When she indicated it was ready he said, “All hands, we have disturbing proof the enemy engagement earlier today was no accident. They were testing a new weapon, or biologic to be exact. We are returning immediately to Advranki Prime.”
    He cut the system wide contact, mentally noted that the communications system performed marginally better than before, and said, “Ella, set course for Advranki Prime and signal the other ships to prepare to leave.”
    Arean said, “Lorano is back aboard.”
    “Excellent,” Captain Solear responded, suddenly thinking about the absurdity of being happy that Lorano had rejoined the ship.
    “Course is set. We are 10 minutes travel from the hyperspace lane.” Ella said.
    A few minutes later the three ships lined up in single file and jumped to hyperspace. Three jumps later they would be home.

Chapter 2
    Victor Bullpeep’s mini-freighter had just exited hyperspace near Solaria when he heard the news. He couldn’t’ believe it, so he replayed the broadcast. He still couldn’t believe it, so he replayed it a third time; scrunching his face in concentration to be sure he heard it correctly.
    The newscaster said, “Today, at