Read Online The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) by Michael Wallace - Free Book Online Page A

transmission
     
    “Give me five hours with Hillary Koh and I’ll have a response,” Swettenham said the moment the recording had ended.
    “I haven’t decided yet that there will be a response, and if there is, you and Koh won’t be the ones to compose it.”
    “I didn’t mean that, I only meant we’ll be ready to reverse translate whatever you—wait, what do you mean you haven’t decided?” The engineer’s voice climbed in pitch until it was competing with the whine of fluid gushing through the smaller pipes. “They’re friendly. You heard it.”
    “They certainly claim to be friendly. It could be a trap.”
    Swettenham shook his head vigorously. “Oh, no. I know what you’re thinking, and I know what Apex does, but there’s no way they could fake this. They’d have to know Old Earth English, then they’d have to come up with a plausible path to put something together that sounds like a modern dialect, complete with vowel shifts and word changes. This sounds exactly like what you’d expect to hear. You couldn’t fake this.”
    “Apex is clever. They no doubt have their own linguists.”
    “And teach someone to be fluent. Can the birds even make human sounds like that?”
    “Or take someone captive,” Li said, “and force her to record a fake distress message. Or they could have easily intercepted the message and are waiting to see if anyone answers. Those are only the most obvious risks.”
    Swettenham didn’t respond right away, but licked his lips and blinked rapidly. He was looking for some way to refute this, Li could see, and at last he nodded, seeming to settle on something.
    “But we have to take a chance.”
    “That’s your rebuttal? That we’ll take our chances with fate? This isn’t a game of liar’s dice.”
    “Commander! The Albion woman said ‘the fate of your people.’ You know what that means. My God, you must.”
    “I do not, Swettenham, and neither do you.”
    “They know something, something that has happened to Singapore, and it’s terrible news, it’s the worst possible news.” The man reached out and grabbed Li by his uniform. “It’s over, Commander, we’ve lost! We have to team up with these people or we’ll be exterminated. Extinct , she said.”
    “Wartime hyperbole.” Li removed the man’s hands from his uniform. “If you continue this hysteria, I’ll have you locked in solitary confinement. If you spread news of this, you will be in violation of Directive One.”
    “I never knew,” Swettenham said, taking a step back until he was pressed against the pipes. “You’re like your sister. I thought you were different. I thought you would see.”
    “I haven’t made a decision yet,” Li said. “But until I have, nothing has changed. Is that understood?”
    The gleam returned to the man’s eyes. Hope, returning. Well, there was one good thing about Engineer Dong Swettenham—he was not harboring any secret conspiracies. The man’s every emotion was written on his face.
    “Yes, sir. And thank you, sir.”
    “For what?” Li gestured for the man to follow him up the passageway. They walked on the large green pipe like it was a walkway.
    “For trusting me with this. It is the most interesting work that has come to me in eleven years. By far. I won’t let you down.”
    “I know you won’t, Swettenham.” Li felt himself warming to the engineer again. “And I promise I’ll make my decision soon. The ship is still coming our way, there’s time. Meanwhile, lock down the message. Nobody else is to have access to it but you, me, and Hillary Koh. I suppose Koh will have to listen to it, won’t she?”
    “Of course.” Swettenham nodded. “Yes, I’ll keep quiet. You can count on me. Just don’t . . . don’t wait too long, all right?”
    Li would talk to Koh, but he thought she’d be equally amenable. No doubt she had factional sympathies—didn’t everyone these days?—but surely he could put her off for a few more hours. Better call her