Terra Dawning Read Online Free PDF Page B

planet.”
    “Surely they can tell the difference between random pulses and a fully functioning reactor?” Carlyle asked.
    “Not really, you see the Ancients... uh, I guess that's you folks, used a lot of fission reactors. The waste from those crude devices is still creating energy even after all these years. A really huge power signature was detected once on the Aramic Plateau and was investigated. No one really understood what they found, but later discovered to have been a special dump for the spent fuel of fission reactors.
    “Thirteen prospectors had died digging down to it. It finally had to be disintegrated just to get rid of the lethals. Since then, no one pays much attention to energy flares and the like. No one wants to deal with them, so they just leave them alone,” Addson replied.
    “Well, I guess now we know why no one ever dug one of us up. But still, if someone starts investigating the energy signatures, we're going to be in trouble,” Kaitlin said as she carried a platter of sandwiches into the room.
    “True, but there are other ways to track things,” Elrond said. “Whenever a craft or ship passes through an area, it always makes some form of disturbance. Depending on the local conditions of the area, that disturbance can be detected and tracked with the right tools. So, the more we move around, the easier it is for someone on the surface to track us.”
    “Are you talking about that Neutrino thing you mentioned earlier?” Ben asked.
    “Well, that's one way to do it, but not what I was thinking about. Tracking ocean currents or looking for micro-changes in the atmosphere both above and below water; of course both of those methods become unreliable if enough time passes,” Elrond explained. ““May I ask a question that's off topic?”
    “Yes,” Ben replied.
    “Why would you attack us? We didn't even know you were here,” Elrond asked.
    Ben looked thoughtful for a moment. “Because of your proximity. Our survival is fully dependent on remaining undiscovered. We have a very large population that have no desire to become anyone's vassals. Besides, we feel that this is our planet and from the way we understand things on the surface and in the Galaxy, just coming out from hiding wouldn't be any guarantee that we'd be left alone. We want our planet back and we want our own autonomy. This is the home world of the human race. We originated here. We deserve the same rights as everyone else in the Empire.”
    “How large is your population? For that matter, how large an army do you have?” Arivan asked.
    “I'm sorry, Ms. Jythee. I think we need to keep that information to ourselves for now. I do feel that I can trust you, but there is too much at risk for me to take a gamble like that,” Ben replied. “I hope you can understand that. I really don't mean to be rude.”
    “Well, I thought I'd ask, since you know all of our secrets...” she replied.
    “Excuse me, but did you say this planet is our home world?” Elrond asked.
    Ben looked at Addson. “Why don't you tell them about what you've learned about us, but please don't mention anything about our people or how we live?”
    The young woman bowed her head to him. Then looked at Elrond. “After you fired those missiles at me and I crashed into the floater, I was in pretty bad shape. In fact, not all of my injuries have fully healed yet.
    “But when they came to rescue me, I thought they were the pirates originally. If I had had a working comm system, I would have reported everything that was going on. Luckily, I didn't, because that would have gotten these people discovered. Once they opened the escape pod, and started helping me, I knew that these people couldn't be the pirates because they cared."
    Elrond winced again during her explanation; embarrassed about his part in her 'death'.
    She continued. “The emergency medical AI in the skipper managed to find a common form of communication so we could speak to each other. That really