Uplink — Jane S. Fancher

Investigating some disruptions in the vital interstellar data 'Net, Admiral Loren Cantrell must rely on information obtained from Stephen Ridenour, the hostile young genius in charge of solving HuteNamid's mysteries.

UpLink
'NetWalkers Original Series: Book Two

    The colonists of HuteNamid, descendants of Earth's Native Americans, asked only one thing of the Alliance in return for the vital job of planet-busting: that the world they were given to tame be viable for human life without terraforming.
    The planet they received is a veritable Garden of Eden.
    Or is it?
    Admiral Loren Cantrell thought she had her mission well under control: She had Stephen Ridenour's report ready for the 'NetAT, and she had the local governor's daughter as a stanch ally. She knew how the data was disappearing...now she had to learn why and who.
    As she pursues these questions, Stephen sets out on a quest of his own: he might have solved Cantrell's problem, but his own remains.
    Little do they know that Stephen's past and Cantrell's present are on a collision course...with the future of the ComNet alliance hanging in the balance.