The Cresperian Alliance Read Online Free Page B

human form but actually married a human. Everyone knew how extremely happy Jeri was with her decision and how wildly she was in love with her husband. It was really too bad that all the survivors couldn't have landed near such a man as Kyle Leverson. He had helped Jeri make the transition gradually while retaining the core of her own personality and the perceptive sense all Cresperians had.
    The perceptive sense was both a hindrance and a help on Earth. Using it, a Crispy could change not only his or her own form but a human's as well, giving them much improved bodies and an extremely long lifespan. Sira had done it herself for several people and so far hadn't appeared to be sorry. Mai Le Trung was the first. It had paid off big time because Mai was a brilliant geneticist. She discovered a flaw in the transition from Crispy to human and helped correct it. Mai would have gone on the mission without asking the cost, had she been here instead of somewhere in space aboard Galactic , so he hadn't really expected that Sira would refuse.
    "Nevertheless, I'm sure they will be glad to see you, or to communicate with you through your perceptive sense, I should say,” he told her. “They've been badly mistreated by the British government. I'm fairly certain they'll not hesitate to come back with you."
    "If we come back, that is,” Sira said. A tiny smile formed on her lips. “I'm sure they'll be glad to take the chance if I have any time at all to communicate with them."
    "All right, then, get ready whatever you need to take with you. We'll be leaving very soon."
    "How will we travel?"
    "By plane for the initial insertion because it has to be fast. Our present plans are for covering fire while the unit parachutes in and assaults the base. They aren't dug in nearly as deep as us so it shouldn't be much of a problem to get in."
    "It's getting out you're worried about, I take it?” Again she smiled.
    "Exactly. A Sea Wolf submarine will be standing by with a Seal team to evacuate you after you secure the Crispies."
    She touched her forefinger to her cheek. “Will John be going on the mission?"
    "Yes. You know he will. He's the head of one of the units."
    "Then I don't know why you bothered asking me. I would have insisted on going with him anyway."
    Chadwick laughed. He already knew how protective Crispies were with their lovers. John Tomlinson had beenSira's friend and lover of some months now. After a period of experimentation she had finally fallen for a human, even knowing how dangerous his profession was. Of course Jeri, the first one, had known, too. Was that a trait? He doubted he would ever know.
    As Sergeant Bangler seated himself in the small auditorium he couldn't keep himself from glancing over at either arm to admire the extra stripe of a Staff Sergeant. He had indeed been promoted. There was competition for his gaze, though. He could hardly stop himself from staring at the woman, Sira Whitman, either. Whispers had gone around the room that she was an alien, a Cresperian or Crispy in the colloquial term. It was hard to believe. She looked like a petite young girl just out of high school and a pretty one, too, with strawberry blond hair and a hint of dimples. Yet she was not only going to be with them during White Horse but was apparently a prime player. She was briefing the unit on the Crispies as he listened, still only half believing his eyes.
    First had come the bare bones of the mission brief; it was compartmentalized, so even though they knew they were part of a larger operation that was now being called Operation Cavalry, all they knew about it was that they were Operation White Horse. It still seemed astonishing that he was involved in it when he had just met the men in his squad and the unit officers today and couldn't remember half their names. They were to go in by low level parachute jump and be withdrawn on a Sea Wolf submarine if they accomplished their mission in time and made it to the secluded shore amidst