Alien Salvation by Tracy St.John Read Free Book Online

cook for
you. You earn real food. I hope like Kalquorian
cooking.”
    She’d certainly liked how it smelled,
and the idea her parents would enjoy a real honest-to-goodness meal
made some of her anxieties ease.
    Bacoj said, “Apology most food we give
is emergency rations. We no rescue team. Only
containment.”
    “Tell me more about your containment
assignment.”
    Japohn answered because he had the best
command of her language. His suspicious gaze narrowed on the broken
windows of a former clothing boutique as he looked for any signs of
attack. Looters had torn the shop apart, and nothing but
broken

    fixtures and one lonely clearance sign
remained. “Containment for radiation. We keep from spread until
evacuations complete.”
    “Your people are trying to evacuate the
affected areas?”
    Japohn glanced at her, his expression
softening briefly to one of pity. “Evacuate all Earth.”
    Only knowing the danger of being out in
the open kept Lindsey from stopping in her tracks. “Why are you
evacuating the whole planet?”
    “Can no stop most radiation.
Containment shields no permanent solution. Air, soil, water all
contaminate. Earth no support life two your years.”
    Lindsey did stop for an instant, gaping
at him. “We were hit that bad?”
    Japohn nodded and jerked his arm to
indicate she should get moving. She did, but she had to force
herself to pay attention to her surroundings. Shock tried to steal
her focus.
    Japohn’s voice tried for sympathy,
attempting to soften his devastating news. “Clean up take decades.
Earth recover long time for life return.”
    Lindsey tried to fathom the devastation
her planet faced. She’d known a lot of major cities had been hit,
but this was beyond her.
    Dogged to the end, she asked, “How many
Earthers have died?”
    It was Bacoj who delivered the blow.
“Estimate near 75 percent. More loss for sickness,
injure.”
    Lindsey stopped again and stared at
him. He was talking billions of lives. Not thousands of men, women
and children. Not millions. Not hundreds of millions.
    Billions.
    The Kalquorians also halted, looking
back at her, their faces compassionate.
    “Who did this?”
    Bacoj struggled to find the words.
“Kalquor fleet invade Bermuda Triangle portal. Earth government
make trap nuclear for portal breach. Kalquor no know this. Kalquor
invasion detonate. Apology, Lindsey. Kalquor no want kill
Earth.”
    Lindsey struggled to absorb his
explanation. If she understood the Kalquorian’s halting speech
correctly, Earth’s leaders had booby trapped the wormhole, setting
up their major cities for nuclear annihilation if breached by an
invading force. Rather than allowing the planet to be taken over,
her government had destroyed it and most of its innocent
inhabitants as well.
    Rage at the insane loss of life choked
Lindsey. She could remember one sermon in the church the law
demanded she attend, one of the last before she’d gone into hiding.
War with Kalquor had seemed inevitable, and the priest had exhorted
the congregation that it was better to die pure and sinless than to
live forever in sin. That if the lustful Kalquorians, determined to
have Earth’s women as sex slaves, succeeded in capturing their
planet, righteous fathers should slit the throats of their wives
and daughters to save them from everlasting hell.
    Apparently, the Church-run government
had agreed.

    I knew it, she thought. I knew the
maniacs in power would do us all in. So why am I so
shocked?
    * * * *
    After a few moments in which Bacoj
watched pained rage suffuse Lindsey’s face, she turned on her heel
and resumed leading the Kalquorians to where her parents
hid.
    He felt terrible and wished he spoke
her language better so he could express his feelings to her. It had
to be a shock to learn Lindsey’s leaders, those charged with the
wellbeing of the populace, had been the ones to visit such horror
upon her planet. The fact his people had had a hand in the demise
of Earth made him ashamed. In