Consortium of Planets: Alien Test by Jack Wells Read Free Book Online Page A

caught on to the fact that he was worried about her and gently interrupted. “Sir, at the Academy we studied your missions so many times I felt like I couldn’t squeeze out another fact or lesson. The Corps has given you incredibly difficult missions. It’s amazing to anyone with half a brain that there weren’t more deaths and collateral damage.” Getting more animated by the second, Beth was beginning to sound like an excited cheerleader. “You always found a way to minimize the destruction. You pulled off those missions with such cunning and style that you have become a hero, a living legend, an inspiration. You’re the biggest reason that the Corps even exists! If I die up here, I’ll go down in history just because I was your partner!”
    Without realizing it, Beth had hit on Dean’s greatest fear: that she would in fact die and he wouldn’t be able to save her. He had to stop her.
    “L.T., take a breath! You’re starting to sound like my press clips and it’s pretty damn embarrassing.”
    Beth couldn’t see his face but heard the smile in his voice.
    They both paused and then Dean acquiesced. “All right, we’ll go in together. First, we’ll head back to base, get the equipment we need, and wait for dark. We may have a little better cover that way.”
    Keeping low, they began moving away from the crater and in the direction of their craft. Ellen’s voice startled them as they worked their way through the Moon’s dust and across its rocky landscape. It reminded them just how many people were watching their mission.
    “Colonel Forge, the chancellor wants to talk to you.” A vague apology in her voice echoed in Dean and Beth’s ears.
    Beth kept quiet and listened intently on the open channel as Dean briefed the situation. He expressed their concerns and what they planned to do next. As she listened, something didn’t feel right. It sounded like the chancellor was trying to goad the colonel into saying something incriminating. She waited helplessly until the conversation ended, and when she could speak to the colonel privately.
    At last, she broke her silence. She let out a long sigh with the huge breath she was holding.
    “I think he was baiting you to say something that could make you look bad!”
    Over the last five years, Dean found that his love/hate relationship with Visen had turned to mostly hate. Neither man had acknowledged the change, but Dean definitely felt the shift. The missions had gotten more dangerous and he was given less equipment and fewer people each time to accomplish them. That trend had finally culminated with the current mission to thwart a possible alien invasion with only one green Academy grad for backup.
    Wanting to minimize the lieutenant’s concern so that she could focus on the mission, Dean decided to play down the exchange with Visen. He turned toward her with a shrug and shook his head. “Oh, he and I play this game where we test each others mental acuity with verbal sparring. It doesn’t mean a thing.”
    He hated lying to her. Knowledge and trust in one’s partner is what keeps both of them alive, but with only a week on the job, she didn’t need to know about his problems with the boss. Her silence made Dean feel small and he wondered if his acting job had fooled her. Was he worried about her feelings or how they might affect the mission?
    Before he could finish those thoughts, the ground began to rumble. Just as he started to turn back toward the alien base, a violent shock wave threw something heavy against his back. The force knocked him forward into the lunar dust. Feeling no decompression from a tear in his suit, he realized Beth had been thrown into him from behind. She was now lying across his back. He was glad that he was able to help absorb some of her fall, but she felt limp.
    “Lieutenant, can you hear me?” He sounded desperate, but he didn’t care. “Can you move?”
    She still didn’t respond. It scared him. His initial self-assessment