Aurora (The Exodus Trilogy) Read Online Free

deviating in the slightest. Most proposals that weren’t part of the original plans were therefore denied, but it was worth a try. This time, the arguments to go might be strong enough to convince even Havelar himself.
    The reason for all this was an image received from the Exodus six days ago. South of Fort Andrews, a vast expanse of grass stretched as far as the eye could see, with scattered lakes and probably some marshlands in between. None of the patrols that had been sent out to explore the area had ventured far enough south to see the end of it. But they knew there were large forests beyond the explored lands, stretching as far as the southern coastline. The earlier images produced by the Exodus hadn’t revealed what lay beneath the forest canopy, but the image received just six days ago had turned the entire scientific community upside down.
    The image was one of many picturing the forest, but with one difference. It showed a thin plume of smoke rising through the canopy. Maria didn’t know what to think. Of course, it could be a forest fire, but Jeremiah had been adamant. There was nothing to support such a claim, and subsequent images showed nothing to indicate there had been a forest fire in the area. No, he claimed, whatever produced the plume was contained, controlled.
    So, could it be human? A few eager beavers going off on their own? She didn’t think so. As far as Maria knew, no one had even ventured that far, and the rules set even before landing had been clear: No unauthorized expeditions that might endanger them all, because no one knew what they might find.
    But if not human, what then? An intelligent species? That was the thing everyone spoke of, and to be truthful, that’s what had gotten her so excited about it as well. Of course it might be something entirely unexciting, such as a geyser or some sort of volcanic phenomenon, although Jeremiah, being a geologist, claimed it couldn’t be. Whatever it was, the thought of actually going out there into the unknown, to explore, gave her butterflies. It was simply too exciting not to be a part of it.

Chapter 2
    KENNETH TAYLOR
    After coming to Aurora, Kenneth Taylor had often contemplated the twists and turns that had divided his life into three distinct parts, and the differences and similarities between these parts. He saw them as three different lives, and he himself as three different people living these lives. In his first life, he’d been the cocky and sometimes over-confident young man on his way to the stars. The space cadet watching Scott and Reynolds putting down the flag on Martian soil, making him immensely proud, and quite a bit jealous as well. That young man still had his own goal well within range, since his goal had been to be among the first colonists to build an outpost on the red planet. Then he had made one critical mistake, one that was to shape his life for years to come, and lead to his downfall, and kill his dream of ever going to Mars. His mistake opened his eyes to the way fear and paranoia were destroying the ideals upon which his entire life was built. That same mistake had saved his life, too, because the Mars colony ended in disaster. But, by then, the young, enthusiastic man had been replaced by another, more careful and quiet Kenneth Taylor. His second life was one of personal solitude, academic success and growing estrangement from the society he would once have been willing to die for. While his success as an academic was undisputed, he chose to keep his political views to himself. From bitter experience, he knew that the wrong word in the wrong ear could end his career, and he even saw other skeptics fired, or even sent off to jail on account of minor offenses and hearsay. Then Devastator appeared, and his third life began. He still didn’t know how it would turn out, but so far, it had brought him from Harvard to Aurora.
    He had taken to the habit of wandering off, out by the perimeter where military patrols kept a