Keister noticed this and gave a slight nod to Clay, giving him permission to start with the questions and tactics he had outlined. Questions were one thing, but the correct phrasing, context, and words used were critical.
Clay leaned forward and cleared his throat. “Are you alright?” he asked.
Palin looked at Clay for a long moment. His expression seemed to soften slightly. “Uncomfortable,” he said slowly, “but not unexpected.”
“Is there anything we can get you?” Clay asked.
Palin slowly shook his head.
Keister wrote something onto a pad of paper and showed it to Clay. It read start with name. Before Clay could speak Palin said “My name is Palin.” Both Clay and Keister looked at each other.
Just Palin. Okay. Clay turned back to him and asked, “How did you get on board our ship?”
Again Palin did not answer right away. “A doorway was created,” he finally said slowly.
Clay waited for more information but did not get it. Palin merely sat calmly staring at him. “What kind of a doorway?”
“An energy doorway.”
Clay smirked at the short answers. Why did he think that Palin would deliver some giant monologue? “An energy doorway,” he repeated. “An energy doorway to where?”
“From,” he corrected.
“From where?” Clay said.
“The doorway was created from our settlement.”
“And where is your settlement?” asked Clay.
Palin gave Clay a look of vague amusement. He cocked his head slightly as one might do when asking someone else if they were serious. “You already know the answer to this question, yes?”
“The bottom of the ocean?”
Palin nodded.
“Are you human?” Clay asked.
“Yes.”
Clay looked at Keister and then down to his notebook. He had no more messages for Clay written on it. Instead, he continued watching Palin intently. No doubt for the more subtle body movements. Clay wondered how much body language Keister could get when Palin was handcuffed with both arms behind his back. “So,” he continued, “you are human but you are using a technology which appears to be beyond anyone else’s capabilities.”
“Anyone else?” Palin questioned.
Clay raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “Countries, governments, anyone else on the planet. No one to our knowledge is capable of doing what you did. What nationality are you?”
Another trace of amusement curled the side of Palin’s mouth. “None.”
“No nationality,” Clay repeated. He thought a moment. “How many people are in this settlement of yours?”
“Twelve hundred.”
Clay shot Keister another glance. “Twelve hundred. That does not sound like a large settlement.”
“It is not,” Palin replied. After some hesitancy, he added, “That is all that is left.”
Clay frowned in confusion. “What do you mean ‘all that is left’?”
Palin inhaled deeply. He appeared conflicted over what he was sharing, and Clay wondered why he was choosing to reveal this information at all. He didn’t think it was fear. Palin had to know that they were not about to harm him.
Palin spoke carefully. “We are all that remains of a very old group.”
“What group is that?” asked Clay. “Do you mean a lineage?” Clay suddenly thought how bizarre this was beginning to sound.
“We are an old group but have not been here very long.”
These answers were becoming increasingly cryptic. Clay sat watching Palin. After several moments, Keister looked over to see if he was going to continue. Clay abruptly asked “what is the ring for?”
Palin breathed in again. “It is a very large doorway.”
“Another doorway,” Clay mused. “And where does this very large door go? What is on the other side?”
“Home.”
“Where is home?”
Palin hesitated but gave in. “A nearby planet.”
Clay could not believe what he was hearing. If this were true an awful lot of science theory was about to become science fact. “Your home is a nearby planet?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“But you are human,” Clay said, pointing out the contradiction. Clearly he could not be human if he were from another planet. He remembered Wong pointing out on the video call that the odds of an extraterrestrial evolving into the same human form were effectively zero.
“I am human.”
Clay frowned. “I have it on good authority that humans are exclusive to Earth,” he said with a touch of sarcasm.
Palin’s smirk returned. “And who’s authority would that be?”
An expert, Clay thought. Actually a supposed expert that I met less than twenty-four hours ago on a giant monitor. He decided against a debate.
“How long have you been here?”
“Sixty years.”
“Sixty years? And doing what?”
Palin did not respond.
Clay made a mental note to relax and leaned back slightly. “So you are human but from a different planet?”
Palin nodded.
Keister spoke up. “How can you be human and an alien?”
Palin looked at Keister, almost politely, but slowly turned back to Clay. “There is more to evolution than you have yet learned, especially that which is carbon based.”
Clay leaned forward again. “Are you saying that the human form is a common result of evolution?”
“Carbon based evolution,” Palin corrected.
“So,” Keister said, “planets with carbon life eventually develop human beings?”
Palin looked curiously at Keister. He nodded his head. “Carbon DNA contain characteristics that affect common, but not precise, evolutionary outcomes; generally things like four limbs, two eyes, internal respiratory systems, five senses, and in some cases larger brains. Survivability is always the priority.” Palin looked back to Clay.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“We are visiting.”
Clay smiled on the inside. He was certain that Palin had just lied to him. “Visiting for what exactly?”
Palin gave an almost imperceptible shrug. The most he could manage with his hands bound Clay suspected. “We are observers.” Palin’s tone seemed to shorten.
“What was your man doing on our ship?” Keister asked.
Palin gave Keister an expressionless answer. “Observing.”
Clay was watching Palin closely. They were losing him. He was going to have to be more direct. “What is the ring for?”
“It is how we came here.”
Clay nodded. “It’s awfully big.” Again Palin remained quiet. His body language, at least what Clay could detect, was changing. He was quickly becoming uncomfortable. He locked his eyes on Palin’s. “It looks large enough to bring something else through, something very big.”
Palin stared at Clay. After a long silence, he suddenly pushed his chair back signaling that he was done with the conversation.
25
Kathryn Lokke sat in the C130 airplane bundled tightly in her thick parka. Her hood was raised up barely fitting over the bulky headphones which allowed her to talk to the flight crew. A quick shiver ran down from her shoulders and she counted back the years since she had been in this kind of weather and temperature. Peering down through the side window, she watched the white surface of Antarctica speed beneath them as the plane headed for the main base at McMurdo.
The plane slowly pitched forward as the pilots began their descent. As the plane sank closer to the ground, Kathryn could see four giant supply tanks on the far end of the base, beyond the hundred or so buildings surrounding the three airfields. In the far distance she could make out the distant harbor with two giant supply ships motionless in the dark grey water. Even further still was a thin line extending into the distance, the McMurdo road to the South Pole.