The Cresperian Alliance Read Online Free Page A

a dyed in the wool pacifist, but he had yet to meet the woman personally, so he couldn't be certain.
    Stop the woolgathering, and do the hard thing, he told himself. You're procrastinating. He punched a button on his desk. The image of his enlisted aide, Sergeant Dianne Torres, reappeared.
    "Yes, General?"
    "Dianne, please run down Colonel Chadwick for me and have him report as soon as possible. Highest priority."
    "I believe he's in the training area, sir. If not, I'll find him."
    "I know you will. Thank you. When he's gone, send in Lieutenant Hank Anderson.” The monitor blinked into an image of a dachshund puppy on its back with its paws in the air and tongue lolling from its smiling mouth. Would that the world were that innocently happy, he thought. A moment or two later Colonel Peter Chadwick knocked, then entered.
    "Coffee, Peter?"
    "Er. No thank you, sir. I'm about to flounder in coffee as it is."
    Washington laughed. Some days he felt the same. “I hear that one, loud and clear. All right then, let's get to business. The Chief wants the Horses on the road as soon as humanly possible."
    "Mmm.” Chadwick rubbed his chin. “Can you give me a week?"
    "NO. Not unless you absolutely have to have it. Or let me put it this way. He realizes a rush job risks failure. But if it works out that way he's prepared to take out the site and every person in it, including your people if you're not clear."
    "Wow. Shit. The man is in a hurry."
    "Right. I don't have the full details yet but the Zeng Wu is back and word is that there are bad guys out there.” He pointed up by way of illustration. “The President wants this other stuff cleared up so he can concentrate on what to do about them."
    "Is he going to try for the other aliens, too?"
    Washington shrugged. Lines formed on his brown forehead. “It certainly looks that way. All except for India, at least. Don't know why he's excluding India, and I'm not about to ask. All you're responsible for here at the moment is... well, with three of ‘em going at once, not all four, they're not calling it Operation Four Horsemen anymore. I haven't heard what the new overall code name is. Anyway, I'm going to authorize you to take Sira with you on the White Horse segment. If we get in there, she'll be helpful in communicating our intentions to them."
    "He doesn't mind risking her?"
    "Apparently not."
    "Will she go?"
    "To help her friends? I imagine so. I would."
    "So would I but we aren't Crispies."
    He shrugged again. “With her or without her, it's a go. Three to five days from now. Can you do it?"
    "Yes, sir."
    "Good man."
    "Of course I'll go, Paul. They've been there much too long already.” Sira Whitman turned her calm, steady gaze on the colonel.
    "Thank you,” Chadwick said. “I thought you'd jump at the chance but I also wanted to make you aware of the danger, too. There's a possibility none of the unit will return and that your friends will die along with them.” He tried to gauge the young woman's response and knew it was impossible. She was an alien, a Cresperian stranded on Earth when their starship was lost. She was alien even though she looked entirely human and most of the time even thought like a human. She even had a human lover.
    "I don't know that they're friends, Paul. All I can tell you is that I'll know of them, not that I knew them personally. The ship was huge compared to the ones we're building and it was impossible to be close to everyone aboard. They were more like... mm, spaceborne cities."
    It seemed like a long, long time ago to Chadwick that Sira had been a Cresperian, complete with the tall, four-limbed, pyramid-headed and orange-eyed body. Thinking she could never return to Cresperia after being rescued by the Americans from Libyan captivity, she had allowed Jeri Leverson to talk her into changing her form to human. He had heard her remark on what an easy decision it had been, considering that Jeri Leverson was also Cresperian and had not only taken the