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

fire the missiles. He would not be the one to initiate the conflict.
    It was at this point that Ella did something, by all accounts, dumb.
    She had seen a hail that appeared to be from another ship, answered it without thinking, and was greeted by Lorano leering at her through the screen.
    “Hello human,” said Lorano.
    “I am not a human,” Ella responded.
    “Well, you look like a human” responded Lorano.
    “Do not,” Ella retorted. At this point though she knew she had lost the argument.
    Lorano responded, “Humans have white, black, brown, and yellow skin. Some are as short as you. Who’s to say there aren’t blue ones we haven’t observed yet.” He was smiling broadly and clearly enjoying the exchange.
    “I was born on Solaria, not, not … Human world,” Ella responded. She felt silly for having forgotten the name of humanity’s planet. “Have you even ever met a human?”
    “Yes, I am looking at one now,” Lorano sneered.
    Ella became visibly upset and shouted, “Well, you look like an Altian, but you are clearly an ass!”
    The upcoming battle momentarily forgotten, Captain ordered Ella off the bridge to compose herself. Clowy graciously volunteered to accompany her. He mentally counted to twenty while they exited. Arean walked over and stood next to the Captain, who then addressed Lorano. “What can I do for you?”
    Lorano responded, “I command that you move Sunflower behind the other two ships.”
    “Why?” asked the Captain; though he already knew the answer. He just wanted the personal victory of hearing Lorano say it.
    Lorano made no point to hide his intentions. He simply stated, “Because I’m aboard.” He must have realized when the words were spoken aloud that they sounded insensitive, so he added, “Really, it’s simple Captain. I am worth more than the lives of everyone else aboard either the Justice or the Protector. ”
    Captain Solear ran his green fingers through his hair. Per current Advranki fashion, he was growing it long – just above his ears. He knew that if he outright rejected the request that Lorano would file a complaint with fleet headquarters. He answered, “It is too late to change formation. If only you had told me 15 minutes earlier we could have changed our attack pattern to accommodate your request.”
    “Well, what I am to do now?” questioned Lorano.
    The Captain responded, “Come to Sunflower’s bridge. It will be sealed for battle. You will be safe here even if Sunflower is struck by the destroyer’s ion cannon.”
    Solear thought it was odd that Lorano wouldn’t have thought of that since he had basically designed the ship. Sunflower may not fly after a direct hit from the destroyer’s ion cannon, but the bridge would certainly be intact and functional.
    “Thank you Captain,” Lorano responded. “However, I want you to know that I did in fact try to signal you earlier.”
    “The message was garbled and we didn’t receive it. Something may be wrong with our communications gear. You can diagnose it yourself when you reach the bridge. No time for further discussion,” said Solear. “Go now!”
    Fortunately, the communications equipment was located in the lowest section of the bridge, keeping Lorano away from the main section and the bridge crew. Hopefully, the task of reviewing the communications gear would keep Lorano busy for quite a while.
    The cruiser is the second smallest designation of ship in the fleet. There are three other classes: corvette, destroyer, and battleship. In relative terms, a battleship is twice as big as a destroyer which is twice as big as a cruiser. A corvette is tiny in comparison and is used primarily to shuttle officers or important communications.
    Fighters are technically the smallest vessel, but they are considered fighters, not ships. The final category of fleet vessel is a transport. A transport is just bigger than a fighter and can dock in a cruiser. It is considered a boat.
    In literal terms though, a