hands at Sykes, dismissing him and focusing on Lydia. “How did you get these shots? What are they from?”
“Optical interferometry. They’re from the Solar System Baseline Array.”
“I tried to get my astronomers tasking on the SSBA since it became operational, but we always got the brush off. They told me it was because the ‘fragment’ was a low order priority, but I always figured it was just another sign of the box I’d been put in.”
Lydia frowned. “You’re closer to right than wrong, but not everyone who believed was isolated like you were. You had more than a few supporters within the community. Eventually it became more suspicious to reject their requests than it was to let them get their pictures. No one in the administration ever imagined it would reveal something like this, though.”
Gordon’s eyes narrowed slightly. “And which side were you on, Lydia? Were you one of the believers or one of the ones blocking them?”
She returned his glare steadily. “The administration is my administration, Gordon, for better or worse, but I also have faith in my friends. I’m the one that authorized the re-tasking of the SSBA. Is that good enough for you?”
He nodded, his expression softening. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long time out in the cold is all. I’d become of the opinion that I didn’t have any friends left out there anymore.” Gordon shook his head and smiled again. “But what are we doing here? We should be planning our press conference! We have to get the word out as soon and as wide as possible.”
Neither of the others said anything. A hint of a smile touched the corner of Sykes’ mouth. Gordon looked from one to the other and then sat back, dismayed. “You’re still not going public, are you? You have pictures of the damn thing and you’re going to sit on it?”
Lydia’s voice pleaded for his understanding. “We have pictures of something, something that backs up your original assertion, but it’s still not proof. The images we have come from a new satellite constellation that most people don’t understand, and that brings with it some doubt. We only arrive at a final image by mathematically combining the images from space based telescopes positioned in different orbits all around the solar system. For most people, that brings in even more doubt, some degree of un-believability. And to get the final image of the … object, we had to process it even further.”
Sykes cleared his throat, inserting himself in the conversation. “That picture doesn’t really exist, and it won’t exist. It’s a computer-manipulated image from an unproven system that backs up the claim of an industrialist most people regard as nuttier than Howard Hughes in a straightjacket. No one is going to publicly stick their necks out to support you, and they’re certainly not going to give you a budget to assist with your little science fiction crusade.”
“So we work harder to convince them!” Gordon downed a slug of scotch. His expectations had grown so high in moments, and now they had been sent crashing. His nerves were a mess. “We support some pretty screwy shit in this country with no justification whatsoever, and now that we have something real and verifiable to show people, we’re just going to say that it’s too risky? That there’s not enough there to back it up?
“This could be either the best thing to happen to the human race in its whole history, past or future, or it could be the end of our history, the end of everyone, timid politicians and innocent soccer moms alike. Either way, people have to be prepared. By the time we have the type of evidence that will convince the administration to go public, we won’t need it, because everyone will be able to just look up and see the aliens in orbit!”
“Oh, get off your soapbox, Lee. You had the chance to go public years ago as well, right
“Optical interferometry. They’re from the Solar System Baseline Array.”
“I tried to get my astronomers tasking on the SSBA since it became operational, but we always got the brush off. They told me it was because the ‘fragment’ was a low order priority, but I always figured it was just another sign of the box I’d been put in.”
Lydia frowned. “You’re closer to right than wrong, but not everyone who believed was isolated like you were. You had more than a few supporters within the community. Eventually it became more suspicious to reject their requests than it was to let them get their pictures. No one in the administration ever imagined it would reveal something like this, though.”
Gordon’s eyes narrowed slightly. “And which side were you on, Lydia? Were you one of the believers or one of the ones blocking them?”
She returned his glare steadily. “The administration is my administration, Gordon, for better or worse, but I also have faith in my friends. I’m the one that authorized the re-tasking of the SSBA. Is that good enough for you?”
He nodded, his expression softening. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long time out in the cold is all. I’d become of the opinion that I didn’t have any friends left out there anymore.” Gordon shook his head and smiled again. “But what are we doing here? We should be planning our press conference! We have to get the word out as soon and as wide as possible.”
Neither of the others said anything. A hint of a smile touched the corner of Sykes’ mouth. Gordon looked from one to the other and then sat back, dismayed. “You’re still not going public, are you? You have pictures of the damn thing and you’re going to sit on it?”
Lydia’s voice pleaded for his understanding. “We have pictures of something, something that backs up your original assertion, but it’s still not proof. The images we have come from a new satellite constellation that most people don’t understand, and that brings with it some doubt. We only arrive at a final image by mathematically combining the images from space based telescopes positioned in different orbits all around the solar system. For most people, that brings in even more doubt, some degree of un-believability. And to get the final image of the … object, we had to process it even further.”
Sykes cleared his throat, inserting himself in the conversation. “That picture doesn’t really exist, and it won’t exist. It’s a computer-manipulated image from an unproven system that backs up the claim of an industrialist most people regard as nuttier than Howard Hughes in a straightjacket. No one is going to publicly stick their necks out to support you, and they’re certainly not going to give you a budget to assist with your little science fiction crusade.”
“So we work harder to convince them!” Gordon downed a slug of scotch. His expectations had grown so high in moments, and now they had been sent crashing. His nerves were a mess. “We support some pretty screwy shit in this country with no justification whatsoever, and now that we have something real and verifiable to show people, we’re just going to say that it’s too risky? That there’s not enough there to back it up?
“This could be either the best thing to happen to the human race in its whole history, past or future, or it could be the end of our history, the end of everyone, timid politicians and innocent soccer moms alike. Either way, people have to be prepared. By the time we have the type of evidence that will convince the administration to go public, we won’t need it, because everyone will be able to just look up and see the aliens in orbit!”
“Oh, get off your soapbox, Lee. You had the chance to go public years ago as well, right
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