Jas snorted and a few other kids at the table laughed. It was better than I could have expected and I picked up a fork and tried the meal.
"I can't believe someone with all your loot's eating that slop," said Jas. She was giving a half smile, so I didn't think she was mad. I think she was just one of those people who project a hardness no matter what they're really thinking or feeling.
I took a bite. It was actually pretty good. It reminded me of Daniel's cooking. "It's not bad."
"Of course he likes it," said a boy at the table. "He grew up eating compost mash."
"Composite protein mash," I corrected.
"What's it taste like?"
"CPM? I don't know. Proteins. And mash." I laughed. "I guess I never thought of how to describe it."
Another girl made a face. "Sounds gross."
I shrugged. "It's what I knew."
Jas sniffed the food on her fork then shoved her tray away. "Bet you're glad to be getting real food now, huh?"
"That was real food. Just different." I took another scoop of what the woman said was potatoes. It had almost no flavor at all, just how I liked it.
"You really were in space, weren't you?"
I sighed. "No. I've managed to lie to billions of people for weeks now with a straight face. Honestly, I'm pathological. Someone stop me. Quick."
The boy laughed. Even Jas gave a half smile. "I guess you're pretty sick of hearing that."
I smiled, feeling like maybe I was getting the hang of things. They laughed at my joke. It was a start. "Just a little."
"You can't blame people for asking."
"I don't. But I have to admit that it gets old when they don't accept an answer the first time and repeat it over and over instead of moving on and asking something different."
"Like what kinds of aliens there are." It was a statement, not a question. I stared at Jas for a minute before answering.
"I've been asked that."
"But you've never answered."
I picked up my fork and started eating again.
"Why don't you answer that one? You said there are aliens."
"I think you should drop it, Jas," said one of the other girls.
Jas scoffed. "Why? He said he wants people to ask different questions. I'm asking a different question."
"He obviously doesn't want to talk about it."
"Why? What's the matter, Cosworth? What is it you're afraid of by answering?" She made a grunt. "I bet they're monsters and he's setting us all up to be harvested!"
It was so absurd to me that I started to laugh. "I can assure you that no other tribe we've met has any plans on 'harvesting' humanity."
"Fine. Then taking our planet for their own."
"Or using our resources," another kid added.
"Or escaping from their own disasters," said one more.
The thoughts tumbled from them at once. And then, they just waited. Hope in some eyes, fear in others. I wiped my mouth, trying to think of the best way to answer them. "Beyond this solar system is a galaxy. The galaxy is filled with stars, some large, some small, that feed the other millions of solar systems like this one. Beyond that galaxy is another galaxy, and another and another. Earth is not unique. Earth is not special. There is nothing here that anyone would travel billions of light years to take. Or eat. Or steal. Or control."
The silence in the cafeteria was deafening. They couldn't believe what I just said. "That's an awful thing to say," Jas said after long, uncomfortable moments.
Her contradictions made me laugh. I was the only one laughing, though. "You've got to be kidding me! I just told you that there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of from other tribes and why. I'm telling you to relax and enjoy contact, not fear it."
I felt Christophe's hand on my shoulder. "Are you almost through, Jacob? We've got a busy day ahead of us."
"Just a minute," I said, shaking his hand loose.
"Run away, space boy," Jas sneered.
"Why are you angry?" It made no sense to me. I offended them, Christophe assured me later. Well no kidding, but why? I just said the truth, and I said it because they were needlessly scared. Wasn't that the entire problem StarTech faced? The only way to ease fears was education. If people knew the facts, then they could see there was no need for worry.
Right?
"Go back to your other planets if they're so much better than Earth," Jas replied. "We didn't ask you to come back here anyway."
I looked around the table. Though some glared like Jas, most looked suddenly fascinated by their plates and put their heads down to study the diversion. One kid flicked me a quick smile before looking away. "So none of you really want to hear the truth, is that is? You want me to lie to you? Fine. This is the most amazing planet I have ever seen in my life. Please be racist and exclusionary so that the people of this obviously perfect rock never learn, expand, or grow." I stood up and grabbed my tray. "You know why no one would ever invade this place? Because they'd have to deal with all of your bull if they did!"
I pushed past Christophe and threw the tray into the bin with the other dirty trays. "Can we complete the tour now, Mr. Kindle?"
By the time we had returned to my estate, it had been decided that I needed a break from people my age. All the adults who handled me agreed. I think it wasn't so much the outburst as the spin the media put on it.
And in science news, Jacob Cosworth, billionaire heir and first human born off-world, proclaims that aliens will leave the Earth alone because of the perfection we have already obtained. During a visit to the Washington branch of his Cosworth Technological High School system, he told a crowd of rapt students that there would be no reason for further interplanetary expansion because there simply is no better out there. In a statement from StarTech CEO Reginald Luckson, Cosworth's words were contradicted.
"The statements you have run as news have been taken completely out of context. Mr. Cosworth was expounding on the need for humanity to accept and learn from intergalactic races and, in his anger at the common short sighted, self absorbed opinions of humanity, used sarcasm to hammer home his point. We stand behind Mr. Cosworth's statements and are deeply disappointed in your inability to accurately report the facts."
Since Mr. Cosworth has been unavailable for clarification, the station must leave it up to the viewers to decide which version they choose to believe.
Ralph shook his head. "I told them it was a mistake to take you there. Kids are little a-holes."
"I'm sorry," said Lynette. Again. She felt horrible for not being there with me.
"Don't be." I oddly felt good about it all. I got to say exactly what I thought. And in spite of Reginald's barely patient holo to me earlier on how to repair the damage, I decided not to feel bad about it.
"I told you to wear the tie," Jillian admonished for the umpteenth time. She was furious when she saw the press footage from the front of the school.
"A tie wouldn't have made one bit of difference," said Christophe, not even glancing up from his holo. "The entire place was set against him from the moment we walked in. I made a bad call going there."
"When the spotlight turns off the truth comes out." It was something Colson said to me after our second interview, after he goaded me into heated but truthful words once again. He probably loved my outburst at the school. It was something he'd definitely think was "icy".
Take away the distraction of the lights and cameras and questions, and I was just a kid. Put me in a school, and I was surrounded by other kids. There was no place to hide, no people to hide behind. I failed some test. I could see it in the adults' eyes. I could see it in Lynette's face. I failed.
As far as fitting in, kid to kid, it was clear that I had nothing in common with them, nothing at all. I toured the school the rest of the day. I heard the talking in the hall, the things they concentrated on. While a lot of it went over my head, I picked up enough to walk away jaded. Hair color. Parties. Telescreen stars and recording artists. That's what they cared about. Hollow, shallow, silly things.