"Queeth is not integrated into VISAR yet," Calazar informed them as they watched. "Therefore we can’t go down there. The view is being captured under high resolution from orbit and injected into your visual cortexes."
The view narrowed, and the magnification increased. The crowd consisted of beings who were bipeds with two arms and a head, but the parts not covered by their roughly cut clothes seemed to be formed from what looked like a pink, glinting crystal rather than skin. Their heads were elongated vertically and covered with reddish mats on top and behind, their limbs were long and slender, and they moved with a flowing grace that Garuth found strangely captivating.
What made his eyes open wider in surprise was the group of five figures posing above the crowd at the top of the steps, standing motionless and erect in flowing garments and high, elaborate headdresses. They seemed aloof and disdainful. And then Garuth realized suddenly what the movements of the slender, pink aliens meant. The movements were signaling supplication and reverence-worship, aimost. The starship commander turned his head sharply to direct a questioning look at Calazar.
"The Queeths think that the Jevlenese are gods," Calazar explained. "They come down from the sky in magic vessels and work miracles. The Jevlenese have been experimenting with the technique for some time as a means of pacifying primitive races and instilling respect and trust in them before moving them from barbarism toward civilization. Apparently they got the idea from Earth-from their surveillance observations of long ago."
Shiohin seemed concerned. "Is it wise?" she asked. "How could a race hope to advance toward rational methods and effective control of its environment if its foundations are built on such unreason? We know what happened on Earth."
"I was wondering if you’d say something like that," Calazar said. "I myself have been wondering the same thing. Perhaps, before these recent developments, we have been altogether too trusting of the Jevlenese." He nodded soberly. "I think we will see some big changes in the not-too-distant future."
Before either of the others could reply, VISAR informed them, "Frenua Showm will join you now."
"We don’t need the view anymore," Calazar said. The image of Oueeth vanished, and a second or two later Showm was standing by Calazar.
"I don’t like it," she said frankly. "The Terrans will want a confrontation with the Jevlenese, and that would mean all kinds of problems. The whole situation is complicated enough as it is."
"But we did set the Jevlenese up to handle the surveillance of Earth," Calazar pointed out. "Why shouldn’t we expect to accept the consequences?"
"We didn’t set them up," Showm said. "They argued and pressed demands until the Thurien administration of the time conceded. They practically took it over." She shook her head apprehensively. "And the idea of the Terrans getting involved in our investigations makes me nervous. I don’t like the thought of them gaining access to Thurien-level technology. Remember what happened to the Lunarians. And look at what the Jevlenese have been doing since they acquired their own version of VISAR. It’s simply a fact with all their kind-if they get their hands on advanced technology, they abuse it." She glanced at Garuth and Shilohin and then looked back at Calazar. "Our concern was for the Shapieron. It is now safely at Thurien. If the rest were up to me alone, I’d break off contact with Earth now and leave them out of it completely while we straighten out the situation with the Jevlenese. We don’t need Terrans. They’ve served their purpose."
"I must protest!" Garuth exclaimed. "We regard them as close friends. If it hadn’t been for their help, we would never have reached Thurien at all. We cannot simply disregard them. It would be an insult to every Ganymean on the Shapieron. "
Before Calazar could reply, VISAR interrupted with another announcement. "Excuse me again, but Porthik Eesyan is asking to join you. He says it’s urgent."
"Well, we’re not going to resolve this in minutes," Calazar said. "Very well, VISAR. We will receive him."
Eesyan materialized at once. "I’ve just left Hunt and Danchekker at Thurien," he said. The Thuriens took VISAR so much for granted that they never bothered with preliminaries. "I was half expecting it-they’ve found out about the Jevlenese. They’re demanding to talk to us all about them."
Calazar stared at him in astonishment. The others looked equally taken aback. "How?" Calazar asked. "How could they? VISAR has been censoring all references to them from the data-stream beamed to Earth. They couldn’t have witnessed one scene with a single Jevlenese in it."
"They’ve deduced that humans are here," Eesyan replied, modifying his previous statement. "They’ve worked out that the surveillance has to have been run by humans. We’ll have to do something. I don’t think I can stall them much longer-especially Danchekker."
Garuth turned toward Calazar and Showm, at the same time spreading his hands wide. "I hate to say I told you so, but it is as I said-you can’t keep secrets from Terrans. Now you’ve got to talk to them." Calazar looked inquiringly at Showm.
Showm searched her mind for an alternative but couldn’t find one. "Very well," she agreed wearily. "If it must be. Let’s bring them here while we’re together and tell them the facts."
"What about Karen Heller, VISAR?" Calazar asked. "Is she coupled into the system at this moment too?"
"She’s at Thurien examining surveillance reports from earlier years," VISAR replied.
"In that case invite her to join us," Calazar instructed. "Then bring them all here as soon as they’re ready."
"One second." A short pause followed. Then, "She’s just finishing hard-copying some notes through to McClusky. She’ll be here in half a minute." Simultaneously Hunt and Danchekker materialized in the middle of the floor.
"I still say I’ll never get used to this," Garuth muttered to Shilohin.
Chapter Twenty
"We have conducted surveillance of Earth since the beginning of human civilization," Calazar declared. "For most of that time the operation has been entrusted to a race within our society known as the Jevlenese, which until now we have not brought to your attention. As you appear to have deduced for yourselves already, the Jevlenese are fully human in form."
"Homo sapiens are somewhat . . . volatile," Frenua Showm added, as if feeling that some additional explanation was called for. "Humans possess an intense instinct for rivalry. We felt that the issue was potentially sensitive. It could always be revealed tomorrow, but never unsaid again once said today."
"You see," Danchekker pronounced, looking toward Hunt with some evident satisfaction from where he was standing on the far side of Karen Heller. "As I maintained-an independent hominid line descended from ancestral primates taken to Thurien at the time of the migration from Minerva."
"Er. . . . no," Calazar said apologetically.
Danchekker blinked and stared at the alien as if he had just uttered a blasphemy. "I beg your pardon."
"The Jevlenese are far more closely related to Homo sapiens than that. In fact they are descended from the same Lunarian ancestors as yourselves-of fifty thousand years ago." Calazar glanced anxiously at Showm, then looked back at the Terrans to await their reactions. Garuth and Shilohin waited in silence; they knew the whole story already.