Strange Alliance

By Michael Black

Daniel Curran had come a long way, but Earth had not. A couple of Council Ambassadors concoct a plan to help Earth, and Daniel signs on; one small problem, it might violate the One Rule. The plan is simple; 'scare' the Earth into waking up to the reality of getting along with others who don't look like you...

After the scare tactic actually works, the Shreela discover an unknown race in far off unexplored space; Daniel and Family get involved naturally, and the mystery gets bigger...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Black
• Release date: May 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463436011

Michael Black

I was born in 1948, to two delightful parents, in Brockton, Massachusetts. From about 5 years old I knew I loved Science Fiction and Horror movies. I graduated from Braintree High School in 1966. The Military draft was going strong then, and since I didn't want to be conscripted, I joined the Naval Reserve the next year. From 1968 to 1970 i served on my first ship, going to the Mediterranean on one 6 month cruise, being released after my 2 year obligation. From 1970 to 1972 I did Weekend Warrior time on two reserve Destroyers once a month, and two weeks in the summer. Just before my enlistment was up, I found I liked the life of a sailor, and reenlisted in the regular Navy, for the remainder of a twenty year carreer.After that, I went to work for a private Ship Yard, and spent the next 24 years working on more Navy Ships, making much more money of course. I retired in 2016, and have been learning how to enjoy retirement ever since.

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Strange Alliance

By Michael Black

Copyright 2019 Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About Me

Chapter 1

Hal is back Boss! David popping in like that always startled Daniel, despite the fact that it had long been a routine occurrence over the years. Angel had done it just to tease him sometimes on the ship before she had made the giant leap into a physical human body. David was a bit less inclined to tease though; and usually announced himself in Daniel’s mind before doing so; he simply didn’t do it unless he was excited; like now. Daniel didn’t even get a chance to respond before Angel, Jane and Angie came running into the atrium from their pool lounging and swimming lessons; Jane seemed more excited than the other two, Where is he David? Is he going to be here soon? It was understandable really; while all five members of the Curran family loved their friends on ‘Salvation’ dearly, only Jane and Daniel had been ‘born’ on Earth. It was simply more personal to them on a genetic level.

David tried to ease Jane’s anxiety, Hal is approaching slowly Jane; with the traffic in local space today, the area controller set a maximum speed limit on approach vectors. He will be landing here in twenty minutes. David spent the time to update Hal on the changes that had been made at Kendrisaan’s villa. He told Hal to land beside him at the new ‘Curran Home’ with the two small pyramids out front; David also mentioned that he could project himself ‘inside’ Daniel’s home too. David laughed at Hal’s reply; Boss, Hal wanted to know what it ‘feels’ like to walk with people outside a ship. I told him it takes getting used to; but it does feel really good. Mom, I told him about sky too. Angel had difficulty with open sky for a while; simply put, it didn’t have clearly defined measurements. It took her a while to get over her agoraphobia, before she had asked the question that allowed Kendrisaan to migrate her consciousness into a physically human body.

Twenty minutes to the second later Hal landed as instructed; it took another minute for Hal to summon the courage to try this new ‘outside projection’. When he popped into the atrium, he took one look at the sky and almost popped right back to his ship, There is nothing solid there! David went right to his friend and put his arm around the man’s shoulders, Take your time Hal, it will feel good as long as you keep your attention on us. Come sit with me and tell everyone the news. David got a sheepish smile from Hall, and after sitting down, he began updating the family on the journey to Alpha Centauri, "Everything went surprisingly well really; they built that ship well and it didn’t have any mechanical failures all the way there. Olga did call me two days out though, she saw me heading her way before I went into stealth mode and saw it as a challenge. Olga tried every optical filter she had, and she said the infrared filter produced a slight halo around me. Olga is very smart and I’d better let Father know about that; he may want to rethink the stealth shielding. Anyway, No one minded that I was shadowing them so I didn’t need stealth anymore. Olga said that Mr. Allencourt was laughing hysterically for a while. He sent a message to all of you, ‘Thanks for caring!’

Daniel smiled at that, Good, so they got there alright, they must have pampered the engines though; you’ve been gone for fourteen months. I wish I had some idea how they’re doing on the ground. Hal looked surprised, Oh no Daniel, Olga really worked her engines; they got there in ten months and three days. I hung around for three months to make sure they were settled in. The colony is ok…I must confess though. I went back to Earth; there is fighting in many areas using conventional weapons on the ground, and the six military ships were running around the system taking pot shots at each other, but they are finding it difficult to keep their lasers on target long enough to be effective. The particle beam weapons failed after the first day I observed them. At best, the Earth is learning that space warfare is not as easy as they had thought. Earth has a long way to go yet to perfect power distribution; the ships apparently burned out their own machinery before they burned anyone else. At the time I left the factions were concentrating on overpowering each other on the surface. Either they are afraid, or smart enough to recognize the consequences; none of the factions have used nuclear weapons yet. I came back through the Shreela gate so I could report to you quicker. I found it odd that none of them were advancing on each other anymore; they just sit there in their own countries and send a few missiles toward the other’s country, only to be intercepted. It is almost like no one is sure of what they want.

Daniel chuckled softly, looking at Hal as the young AI actually fidgeted; thinking he might have been in trouble yet again for exceeding his ‘orders’. He looked over at his girls; even though this news about Earth was not funny at all, both Angie and Jane were having a hard time not smirking; this moment was all about Hal and his lack of self confidence. Angel winked at her husband, Relax Hal, you have done the right thing again; if you keep doing that, I won’t have anything to tease you about anymore. How long did you monitor anyway? Angel’s unfiltered praise for his choices surprised Hal, but the surprise quickly turned to a wide smile, I monitored and recorded all of it for a week, and have sent the report to the Council as required. He looked unsure again, but Daniel calmed him, Hal, you did what is right. Don’t ever think we will be angry with you for fulfilling your responsibilities. The only way I could be angry with you is if you tried to avoid the responsibility. You are coming along my friend, keep it up. Hal was shaking his head when he popped back into his ship a few minutes later; he was smiling though when he told David, I still have much to learn. David laughed with his friend, So do I Hal; we will never stop learning.

***

Daniel wasn’t exactly happy with hearing Hal’s account of what was going on with his people; neither were the girls really, and they all discussed the situation at length for the next hour. Angie had the best comment of all, Why are they just sitting still and shooting long distance at each other? That isn’t how they have waged war before; usually someone invades and everybody else fights their aggression. This doesn’t make any sense; it is stupid!

Daniel’s eyes went wide; his precious wife had hit the nail on the head, That’s it! Angie, you are a genius; the Earth isn’t waging war, they are ‘posturing. I think deep down they all know they had something good going on with the mutual cooperation policy, but lost it because somebody got mad. All this is because emotions overpowered their rational minds; just like I warned you long ago. Angie girl, this isn’t stupid; that would be going nuclear. What they are doing is wrongheaded certainly; but that brings the real question into focus. How do we get the Earth to straighten out their thinking; I have no officially recognized status anymore.

That is where you are wrong Daniel. Here in the Council you are still very much the Ambassador for Earth. That has not changed, Kendrisaan was walking into the atrium, a half smile on his face. He had been ‘in session’ within the great chamber all day, ironically debating the latest Earth status Hal had provided in his report. That they were doing so for that long told Daniel that the ‘Council of Sentient Races’ was taking Earth’s troubles seriously; he wasn’t exactly sure why though, Why is the Council taking so much interest in Earth’s problems Kendrisaan? We are just a single world very far away and no threat to the people at all.

Kendrisaan laughed outright then, Daniel, your question has a very easy answer; the Earth has become important to all the races over these nine years because your tiny planet is a reflection of all our race’s histories. With the few exceptions that warred between each other, most of us warred amongst ourselves on our own worlds before migrating to the stars. The human race is a reminder of our own heritage and we would see you succeed. Daniel had no idea how that could be done; the only two people he knew who might get him through the door on Earth weren’t even there now, Jay Allencourt and ‘former’ President Salcone were residing on a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri at that very moment; there was ‘another’ someone, but it was the last person he would have ever thought of…

***

President Montgomery Stanton was in a bind now; during the administrative turnover in the White House Monty had rebuffed President Salcone’s offer to introduce him to Daniel and his family. He wasn’t a xenophobe per se’, but he didn’t think he needed an old military veteran and his alien ‘harem’ to help him run his country. He had been very wrong; Monty begrudgingly admitted that now, he needed Daniel Curran badly, only he had no way to contact the man. But perhaps the bunch of ‘escapees’ on Salvation did. Monty didn’t think much of them; while he couldn’t quite bring himself to call them traitors, he did think they were cowards for abandoning Earth. To his mind they stole the starship ‘Salvation’; and all the American technology with it that he might have used as a bargaining chip with his fruitless debates with other countries. That really made him mad usually; they had taken all the best research people with them too, many of them from all the other countries. Those feelings had to go away now; Monty Stanton was stuck with one huge cloud of reality hanging over him now, he needed Daniel Curran and he needed the man’s advice. So Monty did the one thing he thought he would never do; he sent a message to President Salcone on Proxima Centauri ‘c’, begging him to get in touch with Daniel…it was a desperate move; and he had no idea if the request would ever be answered. The radio transmission would take almost five years to even get to Salvation…

Monty was lucky in a way; somebody received the radio transmission three days later, it just wasn’t quite who he hoped was going to help him out. Rrlkk was most of the way to Earth after transiting the Alpha Centauri gate two days before. The First Born had ordered Rrlkk to scan and observe the planet for a week to determine if their grand plan