Free Resident Alien: Department of Homeworld Security, Book 2 by Cassandra Chandler

same.
    “Kira…”
    “I know.” Her voice was quiet “I’m parsing the data.”
    “What, like now?”
    “If we’re lucky, the Tau Ceti are still recovering from the station exploding.”
    “And if we’re not lucky?”
    She lifted her head and kissed him. He could tell her attention wasn’t entirely with him, though. He broke off the kiss and pushed them both up to a sitting position, shifting so that he could sit next to her.
    “We can figure out another way. You don’t have to—”
    “I do. There is no other way.”
    He didn’t know what to do, so he sat next to her and held her hand. Moments ticked by. They hadn’t been vaporized, which he took as a good sign.
    “I think I found something,” she said.
    “What?”
    “A plane crash over Louisiana.”
    Brendan felt his stomach clench. “Yeah, I heard about that.”
    “Scans picked up an unusual reading. An energy burst. It wasn’t long enough to run a full analysis. It could have been the Tau Ceti. But why would they take down a small passenger plane?”
    “James Conroy was on that plane. He was a senator who just got elected. Is there anything in your data about him?”
    “That name has come up several times. He was championing environmental issues.”
    “I thought you were just watching us to make sure we didn’t realize aliens are real.”
    She shook her head. “No, my job was to make sure you didn’t get proof.”
    Senator Conroy was all about stopping climate change. According to Paige, his first priority was convincing people that climate change was real and having a detrimental impact on Earth’s ecosystems. Paige was helping him gather evidence for his reports.
    “Why would an environmental activist show up in your reports at all?” It didn’t make sense.
    “Because of the geographical areas he was concerned with. The water sample reports the station accessed showed shifts in alkaline balance, temperature, and salinity that…”
    He did not like the look on Kira’s face. Her eyes snapped back into focus as her gaze met his.
    “What is it?”
    “They match the ecosystem on Tau Ceti-6. Their homeworld.”
    His heart started to pound. Aliens were real—okay. They were watching Earth. He could handle that, even them walking among Earthlings. But making permanent bases there?
    “Are you saying that the Tau Ceti have changed Earth’s environment to match their physiology?” He wanted to be crystal-clear on that point before he freaked out about it.
    “I’m saying that they have destroyed indigenous ecosystems to make room for their own. This is worse than anything I’ve heard of them doing before. Raiding settlements is one thing, but this amounts to a full invasion of a preservation site. The sanctions they’re risking…”
    “Why would they do it? You said Earth is rich in resources, but what could they possibly be after? Gold? Gemstones?”
    “The Coalition can mine asteroids. Minerals are abundant in the galaxy, and precious stones can be replicated in labs.”
    “What are we missing?”
    “I don’t know. I can’t think of any reason the Tau Ceti would want to set up a permanent presence on Earth.”
    “They’d have to be found out eventually, right?”
    “Maybe, maybe not. The Coalition is aware of the damage Earthlings are doing to their own environment. If the Tau Ceti keep their operation small enough and try to match the damage they’re doing to what’s already going on, they might be able to get away with it for decades.”
    “Shut down your nanites,” he said.
    She closed her eyes for a moment, then said, “Done.”
    The urgency he felt before at the thought of Earth being in danger coalesced into a chilling fear in his chest. Even if the Coalition figured out the Tau Ceti were involved in destroying the listening station, they had no idea what they were doing on Earth. And if the Tau Ceti managed to find Kira…
    He shook his head, trying to avoid that thought. But he had to face it. If they removed