But Philip did not give her the chance to speak. “Before we say anything else here”—Philip looked haggard. No surprise. His partner was lying in the infirmary with tubes in her arms and synaptic stimulators in her ears while all five medical doctors tried to work out how many nerve grafts she was going to need—“I want to know why our outgoing communications are being blocked.”
Our what? Vee straightened up. Now she could see why both Terry and Robert appeared particularly grim.
Helen gave a short sigh, as if this were a minor inconvenience. “Venera’s governing board has decided that, for the time being, all outgoing communication which contains references to this latest development will be held for transmission at a later time.”
“You cannot do this,” said Robert through clenched teeth. “You have no right to restrict free communication.”
“Venera Base reserves the right to refuse transmission of data which might include proprietary or unpublished information based on work that does not belong to the person requesting the transmission.” Dr. Failia said it like she’d memorized it. She probably had. It was probably part of the colony’s charter or some similar document.
Philip shook his head. “That is not an acceptable decision, Dr. Failia.”
“It is most definitely not acceptable,” said Terry. “This is the real thing. We need to get this out as soon as possible.”
“No,” said Helen flatly. “That was what was done with the Discovery. Now we know that was a fraud. Who knows what this latest phenomenon is?”
“I do,” said Troy, his voice husky with awe. Vee had heard that tone plenty of times down in the Discovery, but this was different somehow. Down there, she’d been quite sure it was all for show, a way to impress Lindi with his depth and give Terry good sound bits. Now though, she got the sudden impression they were hearing what he really felt. “They were saviors. Merciful saviors. They took gentle care of the crew of Scarab Fourteen—”
“They kept Heathe’s body,” cut in Dr. Godwin. “What’d they do that for? Merciful saviors? Maybe just morbidly curious?”
“We can’t know,” said Michael Lum. “Not yet. From what we saw we can’t even know if we can communicate with them.”
“Yes, we can.” Vee blurted out the words before she even realized she had spoken.
“What?” said Dr. Failia sharply. Everyone turned to face Vee.
“We can communicate with them,” said Vee, slowly this time, letting the ideas bubbling up inside her mind coalesce, giving herself a chance to see them clearly. “They can see.” Yes, there it was. The foundation. They could build from there. “One of them was watching me the whole time. Their eyes were made up like a human eye, or near as, which means it’s probable they can see in wavelengths we use and resolve images very close to the way we do.”
“And assuming you’re right?” said Dr. Godwin.
Vee felt herself smile. Ideas flowed through her. This could work. They could do this. “If they can see, we can communicate with them. I don’t know if they could hear a radio broadcast, but they might be able to read a letter.”
“You want to teach them their ABC’s? How?” Dr. Failia’s voice was suspicious but not dismissive. Good. Excellent
“Holographs,” Vee told them.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Dr. Godwin. “It’d take years to get a holograph setup that would work.”
Vee’s smile spread. She loved surprises. She loved the impossible, and this was the most impossible set of circumstances she’d ever been in. “It’ll take a week. The hard part’s already done.”
“What is the hard part?” asked Dr. Failia.
Vee leaned forward. “The hard part would have been getting a working laser in place, but we’ve already got one. Whoever built the Discovery took care of that for us. There is a laser down there that Josh says will work under Venusian conditions as soon as we jack it into a power source.”
“And you think you can talk to them?” Dr. Lum sounded half-afraid, half-hopeful.
“Maybe.” Her gaze turned inward while her mind lined up the things they’d need. “We build a holotank outside the Discovery where they can see it. Line it up with the laser. Wire the laser so it can be controlled from inside one of the scarabs. It’s got a double beam, so it can record and project once we get the tank in place. I’ve brought some of my rapid-replay film with me, so if we can set up some kind of cold-box for the tank to work in, we won’t have a problem there—”