Ally or Alien: A Sci-Fi Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

surface and moaned with pleasure. 
    His wife threw another portion onto his plate, while the two kids played gravball in the backyard. The late afternoon sun drowned the idyllic suburbia into a golden taint. Beautiful to look at, but hard to enjoy when frustration boiled your insides up.
    Taurus was so entangled in his thoughts, he almost choked on the beef piece. 
    Mrs. McCloud curled her lips.
    "Taurus, it can't be that bad, can it?"
    "It's worse."
    He gulped down the piece.
    "I'm surrounded by bureaucratic imbeciles that think a hostile alien invading our solar system is no biggie."
    "But didn't you say the creature was stuck on Mars? Surely the Newtype can handle it."
    He gave her a look cold enough to freeze the BBQ.
    Had everyone lost their mind?
    "Sweetie, you have never dealt with the Newtype, and neither have these office sitters in the president's advisory board. You just don't know how these soulless shells operate."
    He looked her deep into the eyes to make sure she got the message.
    Doreen nodded.
    "Did you tell that to the board?"
    Nah, but he wished he did.
    “Everyone's so damn pro-Newtype nowadays, saying anything bad against them makes me look like a bigot. And that would tarnish my reputation, especially if the media from the West Coast would know about this."
    Because politics...was all about politics.
    Serve your territory with pride and efficiency for over two decades and life looked good, but do one bad PR move, and out you go. 
    Massacred by the media.
    Cyber-bullied into oblivion by a vocal minority with global reach.
    Damn the web.
    Taurus cringed inside.
    Citizens of the AC had become so sensitive. Just the other day, a high-ranking official of the fleet wore a T-shirt with a Newtype caricature on it, saying, "Newtard".
    Didn't matter he wore the shirt at home, in private.
    The West Coast media freaked out.
    The popular newsfeed, eQuality News, wrote: 
    "I don't care if the American Commonwealth has reached the rims of the Milky Way Galaxy, your T-shirt is still Newtypophob."
    Newtyp-o-phob.
    Come on now, was that even a real word?
    Forget it.
    Taurus pushed his butt into his recliner and swallowed down the last piece of the beefy sandwich. He watched the families pass by his garden and waved back with a forced smile.
    "Maybe I shouldn't care. Maybe I should just wait for my retirement and let the disaster unfold itself. And then when I'm a hundred and thirty years old, and the alien finishes devouring our planet, I'm gonna wave my cranky little finger and say: see? I told you. I freaking told you."
    His wife wiped the grill clean. 
    "I didn't know I married such a loser."
    "Say what?"
    Her off-beat comment broke his concentration. This was such an atypical thing for her to say.
    "For God's sake, you are the Secretary of Space Defense, Taurus The Man McCloud. You have co-orchestrated the war against the shells and now you're caving in because you couldn't get your point across? Jesus Christ—man up."
    What an edge in her voice.
    Her mouth rammed a tactical knife into his ego, but the patient enjoyed the treatment.
    Doreen McCloud continued.
    "You know what your problem is?"
    "This planet doesn't deserve me."
    "You're a brilliant militarist, but a lousy politician. You always were."
    She paused.
    "If you want to win over those officer sitters, you have to think like them, act like them. And that means you have to find a way to make your proposal appealing to the president."
    Taurus almost slipped from his recliner.
    "Appealing? We're talking about a threat that could wipe out humanity. That's the biggest issue any president could ever face."
    Doreen overturned the beef and sausages on the e-grill. She gave him the look of a teacher that was tired of repeating the umpteenth lesson to its degenerate pupil.
    "Honey, did you just listen to what I said?"
    "Something about thinking like politicians."
    She nodded.
    "Aren't the elections coming up?"
    "They are. That's probably the reason why our