Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan Read Free Book Online Page A

door.

    "Try a Terran steak," the desk clerk tossed after them as they left. "The chicken bird is good too."

     

    Yorim had the steak. Kyal tried the chicken. They sat on opposite sides of one of the lont, eight-seat tables, munching in silence as they experimented. "What do you think?" Kyal asked finally.

    "Okay . . . but a bit bland compared to a good flank cut. Better when you spice it up." There were some home-imported sauces on the table. "How's the bird?"

    "Okay, I guess."

    "I read somewhere that the domesticated variety the Terrans had didn't fly. Maybe it was better."

    "Oh, really?"

    "Your face looks a bit funny. Kind of distant. Are you feeling okay?"

    "A bit muzzy headed," Kyal admitted. "But I don't think it's the food. The air, maybe."

    "It could be the gravity," Yorim said. "You're feeling the effects of a whole planet for the first time in months. A ship's G-polarizers are localized. It produces a subtly different effect. Some people are sensitive to it. It'll wear off by tomorrow. Did you feel dizzy on the first day or two out in the ship?"

    "I can't remember. . . . Could be, I suppose. Let's hope so." Kyal took a sip of water. It tasted sweet and clean. "How was the tour of the G-system in Explorer 6 ? You never told me."

    "Interesting. They're not under drive in freefall, so you can't divert power from the charge generators the way you can when you're in Venus transit. So they extract it from orbital momentum with periodic reboosts."

    "Casselo could tell you everything you wanted to know about it, then, eh? So you think he's okay too?"

    "As good as we'll get," Yorim agreed. "My take is that we picked ourselves a good boss here, chief. I don't see any problems."

    Kyal chewed silently for a while, then asked nonchalantly, "Did he bring up any political angles? You know, feelers about attitudes and views about different things? . . ."

    "No. We just talked about longball and technical stuff."

    Kyal felt relieved. It seemed that Casselo didn't represent an extension of Sherven in that respect, that would intrude into their working relationship. The findings on lunar Farside sounded too intriguing for the work to be marred by concerns that belonged back home, and as far as Kyal was concerned, were better left there.

    Others had been drifting in since they sat down, mostly younger people but with a few older ones among them too. A girl detached herself from a group who were finding seats at one of the other tables and came over. "Well! Two familiar faces. This huge world is becoming smaller already." It was Naseena, the geologist who had come with them on the Melther Jorg .

    "Naseena!" Kyal exclaimed. "And you seem to be making a good start in getting to know people already."

    "Hey," Yorim greeted.

    "I thought you two were going to that place on Luna," Naseena said.

    "We're taking a week's break to look around a little down here first," Kyal replied.

    "Where are you staying?"

    "Next door."

    Surprised showed on Naseena's face for a moment. She probably expected them to be in one of the hotels. "Me too," she told them. "I'll be leaving in a couple of days." They already knew from their time on the ship that she would be working in the huge mountainous region to the east known as the Himalayas. She took a step back and explained to the others, "These are Kyal Reen and Yorim Zeestram, who were on the same ship. Space electromagnetics. They'll be going on soon, out to Luna."

    "Involved with those Terran constructions that were discovered on Farside?" one of her companions guessed.

    "Exactly right," Kyal said.

    "I've read about them." The speaker was stocky and rounded, wearing a padded work vest over a red shirt, with white hair showing beneath a flat peaked cap. "And I'm curious. Any ideas yet?"

    "The place is a lot bigger than it looks," Kyal said. "We've had some sonar scans done."

    "Already?"

    "While we were on our way out. It goes a lot farther down below the