‘Gaius Devon’s lost all credibility,’ continued Colonel Torrek, ‘and I’ve just scared everyone with a blunt reminder that a pre-emptive attack could lead to the extinction of the human race. Now the politicians have to allow us more time to contact the sphere. Of course, I risked triggering a blind panic, but that was why you were such a perfect choice for our Field Commander.’
I shook my head in bewilderment. ‘What? Why?’
Colonel Torrek laughed. ‘Because you’re descended from Tellon Blaze, Jarra. Right now every news channel in every sector is playing vid clips about him.’
I instinctively glanced across at the wall showing Earth Rolling News, and saw one of the famous images of Tellon Blaze. ‘But that’s ridiculous. We’re digging things up, not fighting, and …’
‘This isn’t about facts, or logic, it’s about pure emotion,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘The most terrifying creatures humanity has ever met were the chimeras of Thetis. Everyone’s seen the ent vids building up the legend of Tellon Blaze fighting them. An 18-year-old boy doing the impossible, rallying people against a terrifying foe and leading them to victory. Now we’re encountering intelligent aliens for the first time. Everyone is comforting themselves with the thought that if the aliens turn out to be hostile, there’s another Tellon Blaze in command ready to save them.’
I was grazzed. I could have understood that reaction, even felt the same way myself if the descendant of Tellon Blaze had been someone like Drago, but when it was just me … ‘Sir, I’m just a history student, how can anyone possibly believe …’
‘They believe it because they want to, because they’re scared and it makes them feel safer. Forget about Gaius Devon. He damaged himself, not you, by insulting a descendant of Tellon Blaze at a time like this, and it would be more than his life was worth to set foot in Beta sector.’
Beta sector, I thought vaguely. Yes, it wasn’t just that Tellon Blaze was Betan, Thetis was in Beta sector as well, so feelings would run strongly there. I realized this was like being constantly saluted when wearing the Artemis medal. I was only a clueless kid who’d been in the right place at the right time, but people weren’t really saluting me. They were saluting the history of courage and sacrifice represented by the medal on my shoulder.
Now it was the same again. I was still a clueless kid, but I was representing the glittering legend of Tellon Blaze. If the Military needed me to do that to prevent public panic, then I had to do the best I could.
‘Now, I need to discuss arrangements with you,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘The news channels all want to send their own reporters and vid teams to Zulu Dig Site.’
I forced my dazed head to focus on practical matters. ‘We can’t allow that, sir. The area is in pre-rainforest phase, smothered with Griffith hybrid trees. We’ll be felling and moving around huge quantities of them, and the Griffith hybrid was genetically engineered to provide a habitat to as many rainforest species as possible. That means we’ll be annoying everything from predators like scimitar cats and dire wolves, right down to a lot of unfriendly insects that sting or carry diseases. Dig Site Command will make sure everyone has the latest inoculations, but we still can’t have vid teams roaming around without impact suits, and teaching them to wear suits would take days.’
‘I see your point, but we need to let people see what’s happening. How would you suggest we handle it?’
‘Let a couple of reporters from Earth Rolling News come to the site, but they’ll have to stay in a dome. My team can run the vid bees for them.’
‘I’m sure Earth Rolling News would love the exclusive,’ said Colonel Torrek. ‘I’ll patch them into this call.’
While he did that, I looked around. Fian had followed me, and was silently listening, but everyone else was keeping their distance. I spotted an elegant figure in deep red, and shouted across to her.
‘Dalmora! I may need you in a minute.’
The image of a man with a remarkably ugly but intelligent face appeared next to that of Colonel Torrek. They were already in mid conversation.
‘… delighted to handle coverage of this,’ said the man, ‘but if amateurs are running the vid bees then …’
I’d been through a lot recently, and I didn’t have the patience for this. I interrupted brutally. ‘I wouldn’t describe my team as amateurs at making vids.’
The man was obviously startled. ‘Major Tell Morrath! No criticism was intended, but …’
‘I understand your concerns. Please allow me to save time by reassuring you.’ I beckoned Dalmora into view of my lookup, and saw the man’s eyes widen as he saw what appeared to be a dazzling vid star.