“That’s the most recent image we have,” said Hari, as the pictures froze on the walls. Jordan felt surrounded by an almost palpable menace.
Elyse said, “All these images were taken from Hari’s homeworld, before the Predecessors sent out the mission that arrived here.”
“Before Hari and Adri and all these people were created,” Brandon added.
“Yes,” Hari answered, from the front of the room.
“And what happened to your homeworld when the gamma burst engulfed it? What happened to your ancestors?”
Hari looked slightly uncomfortable, but he answered, “They had already gone extinct. Our homeworld was occupied by inorganic entities. Had been for many thousands of years. Your years.”
“Inorganic—you mean, like the Predecessor.”
One of the women across the table replied, “Not precisely. More like our predecessors.”
Jordan blinked and shook his head. “Your history goes back a long way.”
“More than thirty million of your years,” said Hari.
“And this gamma burst?”
“It’s real, Jordy,” said Brandon. “Elyse has been going over the evidence with these people all morning. Not merely imagery, but measurements of the energy intensity in the eruption.” His face was somber. “It’s like a wave of death hurtling toward us.”
“Toward you, and dozens of other intelligent species in your section of the Orion arm,” said Hari. “Most of those species have not yet reached the level of high technology. Most of them have no way of knowing about the coming disaster—unless you reach them and save them.”
Fixing his gaze on Elyse and Brandon, Jordan asked them, “Are you certain?”
Brandon nodded, his lips a tight, rigid line. Elyse said, “There’s no denying it.”
Jordan thought about how many apparent truths had been denied in the past. How many human beings had died because some men made up their minds to ignore the truth, to overlook the data, to denigrate those who warned of impending problems. Wars that could have been stopped before they started. Diseases that spread because people denied their reality. The greenhouse warming that was changing Earth’s climate: it could have been averted, or at least mitigated.
He shook his head, trying to focus on the here and now.
“Absolutely certain?” he repeated to Elyse.
Very solemnly she replied, “Absolutely.”
Jordan pulled in a deep breath. “Then we’ve got to decide what to do about it.”
Brandon said, “Right. And the first step is to convince Meek.”
Factions
They were a subdued group as they rode the buggy back to the camp the following morning. Longyear drove, as usual, with Jordan sitting beside him. Thornberry and de Falla occupied the second row, Elyse and Brandon the third.
“You should have let them pump their biology program into your brain, Paul,” Thornberry said as they went along the trail.
“Maybe,” Longyear replied guardedly.
From the rear, Brandon quipped, “We’re still waiting to see if you turn into an alien clone or something, Mitch.”
“A leprechaun, more likely,” Thornberry rejoined.
De Falla turned in his seat to face Elyse. “You’re absolutely certain that what they’re telling us is true?”
Looking as if she were tired of answering the same question over and again, she answered, “Absolutely certain. Yes.”
“Data can be faked.”
“I know,” said Elyse. “But they have such a massive amount of data. Visual imagery, radio telescope returns, gamma ray measurements. I looked for inconsistencies, for flaws … it all appears to be true.”
“Appears,” de Falla said.
Elyse stared at him for several silent moments, then said, “I suppose at the heart of everything is the fact that I trust them. They’re astronomers and astrophysicists, not politicians. They deal with observations and measurements, not rhetoric.”
Jordan said over his shoulder, “Have you shown their data to Zadar?”
“Yes. Demetrios agrees, the data are conclusive.”
Brandon said, “The only question now is, what are we going to do about it?”
Jordan replied, “We try to convince Harmon. He’s our test case. If we can’t convince him, we won’t have the ghost of a chance of convincing the movers and shakers back on Earth.”
Without taking his eyes off the trail twisting through the trees, Longyear said, “Well, you’ve just about got me convinced.”
Surprised, Jordan asked, “You’re not totally sure?”
“Adri and his people wouldn’t be the first to speak with forked tongues.”
“Oh, for god’s sake!”
“Think about it,” Longyear insisted. “We know they’ve got terrific technologies. I’m itching to learn about their biotech. But suppose they’re using technological tricks to convince us about this gamma eruption?”
That silenced the rest of them.
Until Jordan said, “If they are, and there’s no gamma wave threatening Earth, then why did they invent such a story?”
“How should I know?” Longyear said.
“But on the other hand,” Jordan went on, “if the gamma burst truly is real, we’d be consigning the entire human race to extinction if we did nothing.”
“We’d be consigning the whole human race to falling for some alien scheme if we swallow their story,” Longyear countered.
Thornberry piped up, “By their fruits you shall know them.”
“What?”
“From the Bible. You can determine what’s good and what’s bad by looking at the consequences of the way people behave.”
“But we don’t know the consequences,” de Falla pointed out. “We won’t know the consequences for another two thousand years.”
Jordan said, “I think I see what Mitch is driving at. If we fail to act and the threat is real, the human race dies. If we do act and the threat is a fake, then … what?”
“Are we willing to take the chance?” Thornberry asked.
“Do we have the right to take that chance?” Jordan replied.
“Certain death versus some unknown motive of the aliens,” said de Falla.
“Some choice,” Brandon said.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Jordan insisted.
“Try telling that to Meek,” said Brandon.
Resolution
As soon as they reached the camp, Brandon called a meeting of the entire group. Jordan watched with a mixture of amusement and anxiety as they filed into the dining area. He, his brother, Elyse, and Thornberry sat on one side of the long table. Meek, Longyear, and de Falla chose the other, facing them. Jordan was surprised and a little disheartened when Yamaguchi came in, looked at the lineup, and chose Meek’s side. Verishkova sat beside Thornberry.
Hazzard, Zadar, and Trish Wanamaker were on the screen at the foot of the table. No telling which side they’d be on if they were here, Jordan thought.
Once everyone was settled in their chairs, Brandon slowly got to his feet. Reluctantly, Jordan thought.
“Mitchell has taken the brain boost,” he began, “and he seems no worse for it.”
From the screen, Hazzard quipped, “He’s become a nuisance, pestering me to build an energy shield for the ship.”
Most of the people around the table chuckled.
“It’s astounding, it is,” Thornberry enthused. “I got a university education in physics, I did—inside of a few hours.”
“And what else did they pump into your brain?” Meek asked, his long face scowling.
Thornberry shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Nothing, far as I can tell.”
“As far as you can tell.”