Freedom Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

system did not surprise him. They had taken his decision to leave Earth in their control as a license to mount a covert effort to retake control over all of humanity. But now, it seemed likely that Goldin was dead and his sister was being held captive on Earth. He hoped. “You’re right. Our people on Ceres and Vesta knew who the Unity loyalists were when we jailed former Governor Aranxis. Along with the Unity’s covert operatives. So it couldn’t be those people. This complicates things.”
    His sister wiped her eyes, nodded and then laid her head on Ignacio’s burly shoulder. His Basque brother met his look. “My captain, it hurts me to say this. But your sister Cassandra may well be held as a defense against us attacking the South Pole Naval Academy.”
    A human shield? That would explain why his parents had not heard from Cassie in months, and why she had not replied to his coded digitext message that he’d sent to her smart-talker phone. A hand touched his shoulder.
    “Jack, she loves you,” Nikola said softly. “And she’s loyal to you, to us, to everyone on Mathilde. She may . . . may try to suicide before she can be used against you.”
    Hollowness filled his gut. Sweat ran down the back of his neck. His head ached and his mouth went dry. The thought of losing spunky Cassie was almost too painful to bear. But Hideyoshi had coped with the death of four crewmen when the Bismarck’s belly laser pod had been vaporized by a neutral particle beam during their attack on the HikHikSot colony ships. And Ignacio had lost two of his cousins, Sabino and Milpeades, in the fight against Alien predators. If they could cope, so would he.
    Jack looked to the leaders of his First Belter Fleet. “Captains Minna Kekkonen of the Wolverine , Ignacio Aldecoa of the Badger , Akemi Hagiwara of the Orca , Júlia Araujo of the Caiman , Aashman Dasgupta of the Mongoose and Kasun Guardiya of the Leopard , will you join me and our fellow fleets in ending Unity control over Earth? Will you help me bring the chance of true freedom and liberty to peoples too used to others making decisions for them?”
    “Yes!” “ Hai !” “ Bai !” and similar agreements burst out from the men and women who had traveled light years into the predator-filled blackness of interstellar space. They had stood by him even when their fleet of nine ships was outnumbered by predator grav-pull ships. And they had shared beers, bourbon, cigars and steaks with him in between those deadly battles. Their loyalty was solid. As was the loyalty of Hideyoshi and his Mars fleet and Gareth’s own Second Belter Fleet. Well, their future course was set. Earth they would attack. Bureaucrats they would kill. And the factory that had built the ships which had nuke-bombed his home world would be vaporized.
    “Captain Jack?” called his particle physicist, the Brit Archibald Wheeler. “When do we eat?”
    Jack laughed, choked, coughed and laughed again. As did Nikola, Hideyoshi, Minna, Elaine and everyone gathered around their table. He fixed on the Bismarck’s boss. “Admiral, can your Auto-Chef feed us? Something better than soy steaks?”
    The man who had renounced his Unity oath of allegiance in favor of Jack’s wild idea of attacking predatory Aliens showed relief, then a full grin. “Nope. But the cooks in the Mess Hall outside of this room can feed us. And I have a few bottles of bourbon and scotch that one of my ensigns found in a market on the Mathilde torus habitat. You want some?”
    “Oh yes!”
    Jack smiled at Nikola, who gave a sigh and looked less worried. She knew he would worry about the safety of his sister Cassie. But she also knew that once he set his mind to a course of action, nothing short of death would stop him. And nothing would. Not the bureaucrats of Earth. Not the Alien Hunters of the Great Dark. Not even the unknown nature of Alien peoples who might not even understand what liberty and freedom meant.
    Well, once they had tamed Earth he