Starfall: A Starstruck Novel by Brenda Hiatt Read Free Book Online Page B

needed.”
    Not that there were any Grentl-cleared Engineers now that Eric was dead. It wasn’t something I needed to know right now, anyway. Unless the Grentl did want a report?  
    “When was the last report sent?”
    Aerleas abruptly dissolved, to be replaced by my grandfather, Leontine. “Most recent contact with the Grentl occurred in the seventy-second year of Sovereign Leontine’s reign.” He sounded just as mechanical as Aerleas had, showing no sign he recognized me. Which made sense, since this was a totally separate Archive. Still, it fleetingly made me think of how Rigel would act if I ever saw him again. I quickly forced my mind back to the matter at hand.
    “The seventy-second… Um, how long ago was that? In Earth years?”  
    “Forty-six Earth years.”
    “And what was communicated then?”
    “The Grentl requested an update on the colony’s status, which I provided as a data file. Displaying now. For security reasons, no text may be transferred from this Archive to any other storage medium.”
    A large rectangular screen replaced Leontine’s image, black print on a white background, filled with statistics on the colony’s status at the time. At the end a narrative summary briefly outlined changes since the prior report, thirty-four years earlier.  
    Power reserves had declined, which had been compensated for by consolidating three villages and putting two others on reduced energy—now voluntarily inhabited by technophobes, I knew. Government structure was mentioned in just a sentence or two, noting a slight shift in fine representation in the opposite direction from how I hoped to move things. No mention whatsoever of Earth or the Echtrans there. Odd, since I knew they’d been involved in the first Moon landings, which would have happened fairly recently when this last report was written.  
    Curious, I inquired about that omission.
    Leontine’s image reappeared. “Sovereign Aerleas cautioned me against mentioning any contact with Earth. She believed, based on years of communication with the Grentl, that such information might provoke them to take measures against either Earth or Nuath to prevent further interaction.”
    Yikes. They’d definitely learned about it from me, and from Faxon, too. “Um, why?”
    “She intentionally never told me what specific risks she perceived, as I was never able to learn her method of shielding my own thoughts from the Grentl. It is why I sent my reports via the data port rather than directly, as she had. As contact with Earth continued to increase over the course of my reign, filtered reports seemed safest, given Aerleas’s concerns.”  
    Good to know about that option…if it wasn’t already too late.
    “How often do the Grentl ask for reports?”  
    “The time between requests varies. On average, every thirty-nine Earth years.”
    Past time for another one, then, which was probably why they activated the device to begin with. If I sent their overdue report, maybe they wouldn’t come here in person after all? It was definitely worth a try!
    “Where can I find all the data I’ll need for a new report?”
    “All data is available at any Sovereign’s request. Method of retrieval is addressed in the main Archive.”
    Wow, this Archive really was limited strictly to the Grentl!  
    “Thanks,” I said, even though it wouldn’t matter to this stripped-down version of my grandfather. “ Chartlann fionragh. ”

5

Intrinsic error

    According to the clock on my bedroom vidscreen, it was past one in the morning—and I had to be at another stupid breakfast meeting at eight. Even so, I went ahead and popped the Grentl Archive out of the Scepter, replaced it with the main Archive and activated it, smiling as the more lifelike version of my grandfather appeared in front of me.  
    “Emileia.” He smiled, too. “You now have the information you require?”
    “Some of it,” I told him. “I need to know how to call up all the colony data so I can put