Earth Star(32)

There was dead silence. Giving me the information would be an admission that I was in charge, so they weren’t going to do it. I realized I’d failed. If they didn’t care about Drago and his team up in orbit, then nothing else I could say would get through to these people. I might as well walk out of the door right now because …

One of the watchers took a step forward and spoke. ‘Of course we have to do everything possible to help. I’m Professor Chan, University Earth. Specializing in 800 to 1000 AD, but I can cover about five hundred years either side of that. I’m afraid that may be too early to be useful to you.’

I held back a gasp of relief, and tried to keep my voice calm as I answered him. ‘Not at all. My personal theory is we’re more likely to find evidence of the aliens well back into pre-history. There’s nothing to stop anyone with a telescope seeing that sphere in orbit. Nowadays, people will just assume it belongs to the Earth Africa solar array, but centuries ago …’

I made a couple of notes about Chan on my lookup, and turned to look at another random team member. There was a second of suspense before she shot a guilty look at Professor Lee and admitted to general knowledge of 1600 to 1950 with a specialization in pre-history of Earth Europe.

That decided things. One after another, the others all answered me apart from the grimly disapproving Nobel winner. When I finally looked at him, he folded his arms in a graphic bit of body language.

‘We’re leading experts in our fields,’ he said. ‘We don’t need an unqualified team leader who’s still wearing nappies.’

Nappies! I was strongly tempted to grab him, throw him across the room to take the superior smirk off his face, and tell him where he could stick his Nobel, but I went for a more dignified approach.

‘You’re leading experts in pre-history, but you don’t share my knowledge of the Military tactical situation. I don’t need to be highly qualified in pre-history myself. I just need enough knowledge to be able to understand the real experts. Do you accept that or not?’

Professor Lee wasn’t backing down. ‘No. We should have someone properly qualified organizing this team. Myself for example.’

That made his position totally clear. Mine was clear too. Colonel Torrek had told me to get rid of anyone who wouldn’t co-operate.

I gestured towards the door. ‘Please go and pack. Military Security will inform you whether you can return to Osiris, or have to wait on another base until this situation is public knowledge.’

He looked grazzed. ‘I’m the number one in my field!’

I ignored him and turned to the others. ‘I’ll need a replacement for Professor Lee, and I want to recruit a palaeontologist as well. Fossil evidence is unlikely to help, but we can’t ignore any chance of finding something. Anyone know a suitable palaeontologist?’

Chan suggested a name and I checked it on my lookup.

‘She’s from University Earth,’ objected a voice. ‘Do we need another ape?’

I restrained my urge to strangle the speaker, merely turning to look him straight in the eyes. He obviously didn’t know what I was, and this wasn’t the best time to tell him.

‘You’re a guest of the Handicapped while you’re on this planet. They’re the true experts in Earth’s history, and you’ll treat them with appropriate respect.’

The short, bearded man saw my expression, and took a nervous step backwards. ‘I didn’t mean it as an insult, everyone says ape, and Professor Chan doesn’t mind.’

‘Actually, Professor Bergen, I do mind,’ said Professor Chan with quiet dignity. ‘It’s bad enough that all the awards go to off-worlders, even when everyone knows their work is inferior to ours, without you actually calling me an animal to my face.’

Bergen flushed red. ‘I really do apologize. I hadn’t thought how it must be for … for the Handicapped.’

Chan gave a nod in response. ‘I accept your apology. Life is extremely frustrating for Earth academics. The anonymous submission process means we can get some of our papers published, but every award committee excludes us by using the excuse we can’t travel to the award ceremony. We’re not living in Exodus century, they could easily set up a live vid link for us, but …’ He gave a graphic shrug of despair.

‘I take your point,’ said Bergen. ‘I’m on a couple of award committees myself, and you have my word I’ll suggest a live link. I’m only one person, but I can try.’

‘If you’d speak on our behalf, it would be greatly appreciated,’ said Professor Chan. ‘We never get the chance to be heard ourselves.’