She would find a way to talk to the ones with golden wings.
Then the universe would open up wide.
The door closed behind the U.N. investigative team as they left the meeting, cutting off both Veronica Hatch’s rapid-fire suggestions to Josh Kenyon and Troy Peachman’s continued awed murmurings to whoever would listen.
“Well that’s done,” said Helen, smoothing her scarf down. “I do hope our new neighbors appreciate what we’re going through for them.”
Ben smiled faintly at her attempted joke, but Michael’s face remained serious.
“There’s one more thing,” he said quietly.
There was no question as to what he meant. Helen wished there could be. She sighed. “Your people have them?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to ask the yewners to be there for the questioning?” asked Ben in as mild a voice as he owned.
That would be your first priority, Ben, wouldn’t it? “No.” Helen shook her head. “I would prefer we handle this ourselves for as long as we can.” She’d gone down with Michael to arrest Derek. She remembered the hurt on his face, the bewildered betrayal, as if he didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
“But you’re still going to send them back to Mother Earth for trial?” Ben’s face was flushed, but his eyes were cold.
“What else are we supposed to do? No”—Helen held up her hand—“I don’t want to hear it. We are sending them back to Earth, eventually.” She rested her fingertips briefly on the table. I do not want to do this. Please understand, Ben, even with all they are about to bring down on us, I do not want to do this.
She straightened up. “I don’t want them paraded through the halls. We’ll go down.”
“You don’t have to do this, Helen,” Michael told her as he stood at her side. “I can bring you a report.”
He’d said the same thing during the arrest. He was a good boy, Michael. His attempts to shelter her were well meaning. This was even a fairly decent out. No one would question it or think that there was another way to do this.
No one but Helen herself. “No. We all let this happen and we’re all going to be made to pay for it, one way or another. Look at this as the first installment.”
Remember the others, Helen told herself as she led the board out into the corridor and toward the elevator bundle. Remember what is real. Our neighbors have saved more than a scarab crew, simply by being there. They have saved us from the worst this fraud accusation could bring.
It was a strange thought to be having at this moment, but it kept her going as they descended to the administration level and walked in single file into the back of Michael’s security area. Murmured conversations started up as they passed, and Helen imagined the waves of whispering spreading out like ripples in a pool. Whispering about how the entire governing board marched in to see the Cusmanos brothers and endless speculations about what they talked about, spreading and merging to join with the speculation about what really happened to the scarab crews.
She’d have to make an announcement soon. But first they had to try to find out who else needed to be held. Michael was certain the Cusmanoses had not acted alone, and Helen trusted him.
Venera’s brig was the only cramped place on the base. Little cells, little questioning rooms, all decked with big cameras, it was exactly the opposite of the free spaces. Not torturous, no, but disquieting, especially for long-term residents.
The brig had actually been an afterthought. Helen, for all her careful planning, had not envisioned the need for such a place in her original design. But scientists and academics were human, with their share of the human fallibilities, and house arrest did not suffice for everyone.
Two of Michael’s security team brought the brothers into the interrogation room, where the governing board waited for them. Derek, troubled but defiant, and Kevin, hollow-eyed and tired, sat at the end of the table as far from the board as they could get. Derek slumped his shoulders and looked anywhere in the room except at the faces of his accusers. Kevin sat up straight but bowed his head, studying the smooth, wired plastic surface of the table.
Anger grabbed hold of Helen, but she’d been ready for it. What she was less prepared for was the sorrow. Kevin and Derek’s parents had been old-fashioned Christians, and she’d been to both their sons’ baptisms. She’d written Kevin the recommendation that got him into M.F.I.T., and she’d been there when Ben told Derek he’d won the competitive exams that turned him into the one-man survey department.
Beth and Rick Cusmanos had both retired and moved back to Mother Earth. Helen remembered her own mixed feelings at the bon voyage party. But the sons had both stayed. Stayed to do this to Venera.