Echoes of Earth Read Online Free

echoes indicated that he had chosen to make the remark privately, along a security channel only the two survey managers could access.
    “Do you think this could be sabotage of some kind?” she asked via the same route.
    “It’s a possibility,” he said. “Directed or otherwise. Maybe something installed in the software before we left. It could be a remnant of an old test routine gone haywire, perhaps. Who knows? We’ve had destructive mutations come out of the genetic algorithms before, although nothing so subtle or convincing as this. If that’s what it is, we’ll break it soon enough.”
    She wanted to be reassured by his confidence. “And if it isn’t?”
    “Then chances are we’ll learn something new.” His smile was wide and genuine. “That’s what we’re here for, after all.”
    She nodded halfheartedly. Sabotage had been a possibility in everyone’s minds prior to departure. Although they had no way of knowing what had happened to ail the other survey missions, theirs had gone without a major hitch thus far, and she planned to keep it that way. But the fear kept her awake some nights, and there had been rumors.
    “This couldn’t be the work of our supposed plant, could it?”
    “The company spy?” He came down the bridge toward her. “I can’t believe you’d really worry about something like that, Caryl.”
    “I’m not,” she said, biting down on a sharper denial. “It does feel like we’re being tested, though.”
    “By whom?”
    “ Other than Earth, you mean?”
    He laughed. “Aliens on one side, spies on the other. That’s not much of a choice. I’m glad it’s you and not me who has to make it.”
    She turned back to the main screen to watch Alander soaking in his bath, and for a brief moment she envied him. He looked so peaceful, so unconcerned, so real. He wasn’t some ghost bouncing around the inside of an electron trap, conjuring up experiences and calling them authentic. He wasn’t fooled for a moment.
    But then, that may have been as much his problem as it was his fortune. In their circumstances, if you didn’t allow yourself that self-deception, the whole house of cards came tumbling down—as they had with Peter. As soon as your doubts set in, you were as good as lost.
    It was like that with command, she thought. Jayme had the right idea, for all that he was the military guy and she was the civilian. The hardest part of the mission was probably over (since the greatest physical risk to the Tipler and to them had been while in transit, when Sivio was in charge), but that didn’t make the job of juggling priorities any easier. Caryl Hatzis’s job was like that of a university administrator trying to deal with an overworked staff and limited resources—with no possibility of a funding increase.
    Glitches she didn’t need. She had enough on her plate already.
    She had been unconsciously watching Alander while she thought. He hadn’t moved, but the water level had, inching up his chest and to the top of the bath. Part of her had been waiting for him to switch off the flow, so when he didn’t, she started to feel concerned.
    “Jayme, does that tank have a volume sensor?”
    “It does.” The main screen rearranged itself, revealing a red line inching down a vertical scale.
    She pursed her lips. “Will someone call him before I do and tell him to shut off the goddamn water? If we lose that reaction mass, I’m going to be seriously pissed off.”
    “Sounds like you already are.” He paused. “I’ll let him know as soon—”
    An alarm cut him off, and Hatzis found herself back in the vector display.
    “What’s going on?”
    “We’re picking up something,” said a new voice: Ali Genovese of telemetry.
    “Where from?” asked Sivio. “Which satellites?”
    “Everywhere! All of them! Whatever it is, it’s bright, and it flared up just seconds ago—but it’s not from the sun. It seems to be coming from Adrasteia.”
    “Show us,” Hatzis ordered.
    There was