Read The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) for Free Online

shrugged. “Yeah, I kinda made that up. But a girl’s got her needs, too. And besides, I like the girl-to-guy ratio we have onboard.” Her attempt at a wicked smile came across as insincere.
    “Still, I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to get involved with these guys so soon.” Adam knew he was experiencing a trace of jealousy. After all, Sherri and he had shared a bed together for a couple of weeks before the battle on Zylim-4, as well as for the first few days on the Juirean cruiser. After that, Sherri had claimed one of the staterooms for herself, and began to spend more time with a couple of the men they had rescued. He had to admit it, Sherri couldn’t go anywhere onboard the ship without being flirted with by at least a dozen of the younger men, and she seemed to be beaming with more and more confidence with each passing day.
    “So what’s up?” she asked as they neared her stateroom.
    “Kaylor wants to meet with us in the ready room. He says it’s important.”
    “And Riyad?”
    “He didn’t ask for him to be there. Besides, he’s still scared shitless of him.”
     

    Since Kaylor and Jym were the primary pilots of the huge battlecruiser, Adam had allowed the two aliens to claim the captain and XO quarters directly off the bridge. They were also able to adjust the gravity for this section of the ship to a more comfortable level, while the Humans kept the rest of the ship up to their much-heavier standard.
    The ready room was a small conference room off the captain’s quarters, and Kaylor and Jym were already there when Adam and Sherri entered. A three meter long table jutted out from the rear bulkhead, with chairs on either side. A monitor was mounted on the bulkhead at the end of the table.
    Adam could see the look of worry on Kaylor’s face. “What going on?” he asked, as he and Sherri took seats on the opposite side of the table from the two aliens.
    “We may have a problem,” Kaylor said without preamble. “Jym picked up a massive gravity wave about a day ago that nearly collided with us.”
    “What does that mean?” Sherri asked.
    “It bolted past us as if we were standing still,” Jym said, bobbing in his chair, visibly agitated. “It was a communication pod.”
    Sherri shook her head. “I still don’t follow.”
    “When a region of space is without communication relays, the fastest way to communicate is to send physical communication pods. These are small craft with incredibly large gravity generators. They can travel at many times the speed of even Class-5 ships, like this one.”
    “And..?”
    “This pod is following the same track as we are – heading for Earth.”
    Adam leaned in closer to the table. “So someone has sent a communication pod to Earth? Where did it come from?”
    “Somewhere in The Fringe. But that’s not the worst of it,” Kaylor said.
    “Go on.”
    “The pod was sent in the open, with its message broadcasting continuously.”
    Sherri shook her head. “Listen guys, we’re not up on all the intricacies of intergalactic communications. What are you trying to say?”
    Kaylor stared back at her for a moment before answering. “It means anyone can trace the pod to its destination, and also intercept its message.”
    Adam suddenly went pale. “So the Juireans could learn the location of Earth?”
    “Correct. And the message – tell them, Jym.”
    Both Humans shifted their stunned stares to the tiny alien. “The message was encrypted, but I’m pretty good at this kind of thing. Using the equipment aboard, I was able to decipher it.” He looked down at the datapad he held in his hand. “It said, ‘Existence of Humans and of Earth has been exposed, along with our association with the Klin. We have engaged the Juireans off Dimloe and on Zylim-4, and the Juirean forces appear to be weaker than anticipated. Our Klin advisors have recommended that the time to begin our invasion of Juirean space should be within three years. It has been projected