My guess was the survey had actually been made immediately after the arrival of the sphere. I watched an aerial view of closely packed trees with the distinctive reddish foliage of Griffith hybrids. Those were going to make this a difficult dig, chaos take them.
Leveque’s relaxed voice started speaking again. ‘The Military wish to thank the civilian archaeologists from Eden Dig Site in Earth Africa, who have volunteered their expertise to help excavate the device. The operation will be led by Field Commander Major Tell Morrath, and her deputy, Captain Eklund. They will be assisted by Professor Pereth of University Earth who will be acting as site leader. Plans for the excavation are being finalized at the Eden Dig Site evacuation centre in Ark.’
Everyone in the hall watched the next vid sequence intently, trying to spot themselves in the pictures. Dalmora’s cunning work, combined with some careful editing by the Military, made us all appear hard at work and totally oblivious to the vid bees, apart from a moment when Fian and I turned to look at them and nod. I sighed with relief.
The screen image returned to Leveque, who wound up his speech. There was a moment of silence before the Earth Rolling News presenter spoke.
‘Earth Rolling News has just received a call from Professor Gaius Devon. Do you wish to hear his comments, Colonel?’
Colonel Torrek sighed. ‘Please patch his call into this interview, so I can talk to him myself. I’m afraid Professor Devon greatly overestimates his understanding of the situation. He was a minor member of a civilian Physics team attempting to analyse the sphere. He failed to make any useful contributions, and his position gave him only a very limited knowledge of events.’
There was a pause before the presenter spoke. ‘Professor Gaius Devon is joining us on live link from his home on Alcestis in Gamma sector, so his answers will suffer from significant comms portal relay lag.’
Fian leaned across to whisper in my ear. ‘Is it a good idea to let Devon into this?’
I was worried too, but I tried to hide that and whispered back. ‘Colonel Torrek knows what he’s doing.’
The screen image divided to show a close-up of Colonel Torrek on one side, and a chaos furious looking Gaius Devon on the other.
‘Please, Professor Devon, briefly sum up your concerns so I can reassure the viewers,’ said Colonel Torrek.
It took a moment for Devon to react and respond. I smiled as I realized how big a disadvantage he was in because of relay lag. Viewers wouldn’t just be impatient at having to wait for him, but constantly reminded of how distant he was from events.
‘First of all, I’d like to point out the holder of the Wallam-Crane Portal Physics Chair at University Alcestis shouldn’t be belittled by being described as a minor team member.’
‘I apologize for any offence,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘I was merely speaking in the context of a team including three Physics Nobel winners. I’m under time pressure here, with an important situation to handle, so can we please move on to less personal issues?’
Fian laughed. ‘Devon may think he’s important, but everyone knows a chair at University Alcestis isn’t in the same sector as a Nobel. He was hoping his precious portal theory would get him a nomination last year, but he lost out to …’
Gaius Devon now reacted and spoke again. ‘I’m appalled at your plans for retrieving this alien device.’
I felt like cheering. I’d expected Devon to ridicule my theory, but the whole of humanity had heard him accept an alien device existed. I didn’t have time to celebrate because Devon had lost control of his wounded ego and was ranting at Colonel Torrek.
‘Firstly, we shouldn’t communicate with aliens, we should destroy them before they destroy us. Secondly, you’re incompetent to the point of insanity if you’re putting Jarra Tell Morrath in charge of anything. She’s not just a totally unqualified 18-year-old, she’s an ape!’
Something odd happened to the world when I heard those words. The people around me, the image of Earth Rolling News, and the huge cavern I was standing in, all seemed to recede off into the distance. I was alone, far away, somewhere very, very cold.
31
The strange distant feeling lasted only a moment, before the real world was back with a rush and the full force of anger hit me. I took a step forward, staring at Gaius Devon’s pompous face on the vid image. Luckily for him, he was out of my physical reach. Chaos take my duty to protect civilians, if I could have strangled Gaius Devon at that moment then I would have done.
Behind the anger came a wave of panic. Gaius Devon had just called me an ape on a vid that was streaming out to every sector. That was personally humiliating, but far more importantly it was disastrous for the Military plans. I was supposed to be inspiring confidence, but no one on sector worlds would have confidence in an ape. I should have known this would happen, but I’d made the fatal mistake of starting to think of myself as human. If that meant Colonel Torrek was forced to order an attack on the alien sphere …