2. Conference.
Floyd stood at the front of the conference room. He had just conveyed what he'd heard from Andrews to nearly everyone of significance in the mission, who were present either in person or by telephone; with the notable exceptions of the astronauts aboard Discovery. The time delay made communication with Astronauts Bowman and Poole impractical.
"There you have it," Floyd intoned. "The secret is about to get out. Questions? Comments? Suggestions?"
Vasquez spoke first, and she spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. "Someone in this organization has broken confidentiality rules," she began. "We suspected there might be a leak when the story broke about the seriousness of Discovery's communication troubles. I think we now know that someone in our organization has talked, when he or she should not have done so."
"That may be true," Floyd agreed, "but finding the leak and taking remedial action are not our priorities right now. Our main concern is the report that is about to be broadcast by the BBC in a matter of hours, and whether we want to comment on it before it airs."
"I agree, Heywood," Vasquez replied. "My point is not that we ought to drop everything and hunt down the leaker. My point is that we don't want to take a problem with our confidentiality procedures and make that problem worse."
Steeg spoke up. "I don't see how we can comment on the story. All we've heard is a terse summary of the story's lede. We don't know what details or evidence the BBC has. For all we know, their evidence is nothing more than a clever hoax, and they might have nearly every fact wrong. Or they may have some things right and a lot of things wrong. I wouldn't want to be in a position where we confirmed 'facts' that turned out to be wrong."
"Liz," Floyd turned to Assistant General Counsel Elizabeth Groh, "from a legal standpoint, can we say anything?"
Groh cleared her throat. "I'd say no. Even if or when the secret gets out, we are all still bound by our oaths and agreements not to discuss anything with the public. Moreover, only the communications and public relations group speaks for us; none of us speaks for the Council or for any department or for the mission. That said, our original confidentiality restrictions recognized the possibility that secrecy might not be maintained forever, and that if secrecy is lost, it may be necessary for the head of the Council to make a formal statement. What that means is that you, Dr. Floyd, have the authority to comment as you deem necessary and appropriate, but I'd advise that we wait and see what the BBC reports before you say anything on the record. Then you may comment, if you choose; but the rest of us have to keep our mouths shut, at least for the foreseeable future."
Mark Pierre, from one of the scientific research divisions, spoke next. "Heywood, if the BBC reporting is mostly accurate, I think you'd have to issue a statement of some kind. You cannot simply continue to deny things that we know will eventually come to light anyway. You don't want to go down in history as a liar or a cover-upper."
Floyd smiled. "No, Mark, I certainly don't. But I will have to justify why I maintained secrecy for so long. Not too long ago, some members of the Council felt that the time was ripe for us to make a public announcement, and put the matter to a vote. The deciding vote was mine, and I didn't feel we were ready just yet. We've been trying to raise public consciousness about our place in the universe, but I haven't been satisfied that we've been able to do that well enough. It seems to me that there's still too much superstition and xenophobia in the world in general, and in the United States in particular."
"I've never been as optimistic as you that we'd rid the world of superstition and xenophobia in my lifetime," Pierre responded, and others in the conference room laughed. "But whether the world is ready for it or not, it may just be that we will have to confirm that an intelligent alien civilization may have visited us on a previous occasion. Now, we'll have to make it clear that we can estimate the time of their visit by what we found when we excavated the artifact. There will be those kooks who say that the aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids, or that they inspired various primitive artwork. We must be ready to say that those kooks are almost certainly wrong and that the aliens did not interact with human beings, since there were no human beings at the time of their visit. We most certainly do not want to validate every crackpot story that has been circulating about alien visitors. We also need to make it clear that there is no indication of any hostility, no evidence whatsoever of any planned invasion."
"Good points," Floyd agreed. "But they probably ought to be saved for later consideration. You're right, Mark, we will have a lot of educating of the public to do. For right now, as I see it, my best course of action is this. I will contact Mr. Andrews of the BBC. I will tell him that I am not in a position to comment on his reporting, until I see what is actually reported." Floyd turned to Groh, "Liz, I think I'll give prudence as my grounds for refusal to comment at this time, rather than say I that I cannot answer on advice of counsel."
"That's fine," Groh nodded. "Claiming to rely on a lawyer's advice always looks bad."
"After we see what the BBC reports," Floyd continued, "and after we learn what evidence they actually have, we can issue a formal comment of some kind. That's how I propose to proceed. Any objections? Any recommendations?" Floyd paused. "Hearing none, that is what I will do. And if there's nothing further—?"
"There is one thing I want to mention, Dr. Floyd," Berger spoke up from the back of the room. "The BBC is promoting its report not only in the UK, but also in other markets. Many of the US networks are jumping on the bandwagon. One network is promoting the story as supposedly containing 'bombshell' revelations. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is heavily promoting the BBC story as well, as are outlets in continental Europe. It looks like the BBC is gunning for world-wide attention. And the BBC wouldn't be doing this unless they were one hundred percent confident in their reporting."
"If what you're saying, Dave, is that we ought to prepare ourselves for a world-wide upheaval," Floyd sighed, "then I think I have to agree. The report is going to shock the world. It will come out eventually that we had an opportunity to break the news to the world in our own way, but I decided not to do that, and now I have to be responsible for that decision."
