Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance Read Free Page A

Israeli.
    Ian had gotten between the two men and talked them down. It took almost a half hour, but by the time Ian had left, the men had shaken hands, and admitted that they had been holding on to former prejudices. He got them to agree to try to work on understanding each other, and to understand the other had a different point of view on a subject.
    Serena had watched Ian handle the situation and nodded at how well he handled it. Since both men had been rather large, she wasn’t sure she would have gotten between them as Ian had, but his methods worked.
    Serena didn’t know anything of their argument, since she wasn’t from Earth, but after Ian explained it to her, she had to admit it was very similar to arguments she had broken up between some of her new crewmembers from different houses.
    As she watched Ian speed away, she returned his wave, then consulted her pad that had the map of the station on it. A group of engineers were building another power section somewhere at this end of the station, and she wanted to see how they were doing it. At Ian’s request, the Prometheus was here to support the construction efforts, as well as to provide security.
    Although it split the two defending ships apart by four light years, it was the right thing to do, and it gave her and her crew something to do while they were here. Admiral Goya was overjoyed with the situation, since it gave him an excuse to assign the Prometheus to the sector. Serena had her Marines stationed throughout the large installation, and half her engineering team was aboard to learn as much as they could and assist wherever possible. Her fighters, after being brought back up to full operational strength by Ian, were patrolling the system, and her Centurions were doing a more detailed survey of the system for resources.
    This binary system Ian had called Centauri was rich in minerals and had an arable planet and moon suitable for colonization. It also had dozens of moons and asteroids rich with ores for mining and five large gas giants, four of which could be mined for hydrogen and several other gasses used in modern industry.
    She crossed to the other side of the main corridor, and her attention was immediately captured by the large planet below. Almost twice the size of Earth, the planet Atlas had nearly twice the volume of Earth and only slightly higher gravity.  It was so much like Earth and New Talos, that it was as if it had been terraformed specifically for their race.
    She had yet to visit that planet, but she vowed to herself she would visit the surface before she left this sector. She surprised herself when she felt a sense of peace settling over her she hadn’t felt since the loss of her home planet years ago. Yes, this wasn’t a combat assignment, but she knew it was very important, and, in her mind, it was possibly of critical importance to the Talosians. These remarkable people had awakened something in her.
    When she realized that, she stopped walking and simply stood looking out at the planet. One of the two stars, the distant one, was visible in the upper left, but it was hard to look at directly, even when looking through the shielded plasti-glass. The main star was currently ‘above’ the station and out of sight. Just peeking over the horizon, the green moon named Apollo was just becoming visible, and the other smaller moon named Hades was heading behind the planet.
    She let herself get lost in her introspection, hoping to clarify what she was feeling. She knew it wasn’t just her either. She had seen an improvement in her crew as well. The Marines, once they returned from the planet, stood prouder. The crew of the ship went about their days with purpose, the over-all attitude of the ship felt different.
    People, tired of fighting endless battles and knowing that only more battles awaited them, had her crew moving about their duties like automatons. But since arriving here and seeing what these people had done, and continued to do,