One miracle which did emerge from the conference was everyone agreeing AD2 must be an absolute priority and hang the cost.
At dinner I had a long conversation with Sir Henry, Jenny Rae, and Gerald from ESA. I raised the thorny issue of a public announcement.
'If AD2 came to life and announced itself to the world, we might not be able to stop it from using our communication systems. If so, a serious cultural shock could result. We must defuse that eventuality while we still have the initiative.'
'It might not come to life and if it doesn't, we'll be able to continue to study it without making any announcement,' said Jenny.
'But what if it takes over the communication systems when it is in Earth orbit? There could be riots if it starts talking to the world without any forewarning,' I said as forcefully as I could muster.
'Then we must prevent it,' said Sir Henry.
'That might not be possible,' said Gerald. 'The only way to block transmission might be to transmit noise on the same frequencies.'
'We could surely do that,' said Jenny.
'I don't think so,' I said. 'It might transmit on multiple frequencies. Jamming could mean disrupting communications throughout the world.'
'If I were going to announce ESA's presence to a new world, I'd be sure I could transmit on all frequencies. Eve's right,' said Gerald.
'Yes, it's a strong argument,' agreed Sir Henry.
'I strongly recommend presenting the information to the world in the same way I did in Downing Street, but as a combined production with local presenters and the heads of state of each country being part of the presentation. This visiting alien has not just come to see the heads of our governments, but to communicate with us as a world. A single entity. How will other heads of state react when they discover we’ve been hiding such a momentous event from them?'
By the end of dinner, I had all three of them onside and Jenny made a call to Roger Clarke in my presence to discover whether he concurred. My point about in-the-know leaders currently blindsiding other world leaders finally persuaded him. Jenny and I then explained our position to the head of ESA and he was soon on-board too.
When we reconvened the following morning, I was called upon to make the case. I won a clear majority, but the arguments continued unabated with only seventy-five per cent in favour at lunchtime.
I made a point of securing lunch with Home Secretary Rae, Michael Sanderson, head of NASA, Sir Henry, and US Secretary of State Parker, as it was the USA contingent who were the laggards.
Domestic issues were their problem with it being an election year and the Secretary of State was not only extremely conservative, but also the actual Republican candidate for the presidency. He was paranoid about damaging his chances in the election and, as a believer in Intelligent Design and the literal interpretation of the Bible he had obvious problems with the existence of an ancient alien spacecraft. When he had first been told about the existence of AD1, he didn’t believe it and said it was a hoax. Unbelievably, he held that view until the discovery of the polarised wires, when he reluctantly accepted that it was really alien.
With his responsibility for NASA, he was influencing the decision to not come clean about the alien. It was frustrating that the combination of politics and religion was affecting such an important decision. The argument at lunch became heated but I hoped my own reasoning would make him change his mind about secrecy.
Before the conference resumed, Jenny Rae and I spoke in detail about my fears and we called the Prime Minister on a conference call. I explained the objection of the Secretary of State. Mr Clarke said he had an idea and would call us back.
During the afternoon, the debate as to whether we should tell or not tell continued to rage, but during each round of arguments, the against contingent lost ground and support. By tea at four o'clock the for camp was close to eighty-five per cent. Unfortunately, this was not a democratic conference. NASA, ESA, CSA, Roscosmos, and JAXA (Japan) had vetoes. We had to convince the Americans as NASA was the only one of the organisations not in favour.
I was taking tea with Sir Henry when my secure mobile rang. It was Roger Clarke. I excused myself and stood in a quiet spot to answer it.
'Evelyn, I hope you appreciate this,' he said with a slight self-satisfied lilt to his voice, 'but I’ve just got off the telephone with the President and I used some leverage. They’ll support a release of the AD1 news in stages.'
'My goodness, sir. That is amazing news. How did you do it?'
'Well, for your ears only, Evelyn, I told him if he didn't allow it, I’d release it in the UK. It’d make him appear foolish at home, being beaten to it by the Limeys.'
'Well done, sir. What's next?'
'Attitudes should change quickly at the conference, as he’ll have been talking to Secretary of State Parker while I’ve been having these conversations with you and Jenny.'
'You know, sir, despite my original plan to drip-feed the news, it is no longer practicable,' I said.
'Why not?'
'Because my plan was to conduct the release honestly. I'm sure if we release in stages, the moment the first release is made, someone will come up with a copy of the picture of Allen.'
'And all your points prior to your presentation become valid, but on a planet-wide scale,' Mr Clarke said.
'Yes, sir. He'll be hated just for being different.'
'I suppose we no longer have complete control over his image?'
'Definitely not, sir. Once those videos were circulated the number of people who had access to the picture went through the roof. Someone is sure to leak it. Imagine the financial incentive a news group might offer.'
'Yes, Evelyn. I see.'
'Can you explain to Jenny, sir, then we can plan a strategy for the conference.'
'Yes, I will.'
'Thank you so much, sir. It’ll make all the difference.'
Back in the conference, the Secretary of State made a statement, 'I’ve been discussing this matter with the President and we’ve decided we will allow the release of the information in stages.
'We would like everyone to agree to a release firstly of the existence of AD1, perhaps using the NASA footage of its discovery, followed by the discovery of the new fuel.'
How dare he talk about it being NASA's footage? It was all ESA/Roscosmos footage! The more contact I had with this man, the less I liked him. It was worrying that he might soon be the president of the USA.
'We suggest a second release a few days later of the images found of the solar system, the alien's home world images during a third release and finally the image of the alien itself and the fact we've found AD2 and will be sending an expedition to collect it.'
I whispered to Mrs Rae, 'That is what we expected. He's left himself open to our plan.'
The Home Secretary stood and thanked the Secretary of State for his courageous decision and suggested, if there were no further objections, NASA and ESA should work together to prepare the releases, so they were done in exactly the same manner in all languages.
The Home Secretary had been clever. She hadn't said it would be separate releases necessarily, so it left the door open to work on them separately first then make the case to amalgamate them into a single news item, which would save face for the Secretary of State.
There was a call for a show of hands. The head of ESA asked for those for and a sea of arms were raised, and against... no one.
21 Allen Meets the World
Suddenly news began to leak, perhaps based upon the strange secret meeting of the heads of space agencies and top government ministers in Paris.
Some of the tabloid newspapers, mainly those often called The Gutter Press began to speculate wildly. Stories quickly emerged that a planetoid had been discovered in the outer reaches of the solar system and it was on a collision-course with Earth. Another was that the sun was turning nova. The most common story was that a UFO had been captured. Even prestigious news media like T
he Times in London and The Washington Post were speculating like crazy.
All of my fears about not drip-feeding the discoveries, were coming home to roost. At one point, the Home Secretary actually apologised to me, because she’d been one of the strongest influences on the Prime Minister about maintaining secrecy. The problem was that there was no point in me being right in retrospect. We were having to deal with the repercussions here and now. I finally convinced our government, ESA, and JAXA that we needed to get the true story out quickly. Roscosmos even threatened to do their own release if the USA didn’t change its attitude pretty damn quick.
It took several trips to Houston, the Ames Research Center, and Washington to get the head of NASA to agree that telling the world was best presented in a single thirty-minute prime time programme. During the last visit, I had a rough video to show how the story could be delivered in around twenty-two minutes, allowing time for the head of state to introduce and sum up.
My main arguments against a piecemeal release were the almost certain leaks of the image and the fragmentation itself. Once the first announcement was made, people would quickly lose interest in the future instalments and all our manipulation to try to prevent hatred of Allen before we revealed him would be wasted. This was the first time people would have the opportunity to prevent prejudice before it became endemic – I was determined not to miss the opportunity. My drip-feed idea had been the best, but this was the most sensible alternative with that not having been adopted.
Advertising agencies I’d commissioned for advice said that fewer than one in five would watch all transmitted episodes. The majority would have missed the important information and formulated their view of him from his looks alone. Exactly what we needed to avoid.
Finally, Michael Sanderson agreed with me. He deliberately waited until the Secretary of State was out of the country, and he got approval from the President. Michael was worried about doing this, but my arguments had been sufficiently convincing he was prepared to risk the downside on his own position. The delays, however, did nothing to quell the media’s suspicions. Their stories were increasingly slanted towards the capture of an alien spaceship, which, frankly, was too near the truth for comfort.
When we went out for dinner in the evening, I managed to get Michael to open up a little about the relationship between the Secretary of State and NASA. He told me they were uneasy bedfellows, due to the Secretary’s strange religious beliefs.
He said, ‘Eve, he’s seen the Mars and Earth orbit shots which clearly show they were taken millions of years ago, yet he seems to turn a blind eye to the implications regarding a six-thousand-year-old Earth. Frankly it’s as if he’s blind to the facts.’
‘There’ll be a lot of religious beliefs damaged by our documentary, Michael.’
‘I fear so. Who is narrating yours?’
‘I’ve been volunteered for Britain, Canada, Australasia, South Africa, and other English-speaking countries. The PM will do the introduction on the British version. Who will be doing yours?’
‘Probably me,’ he said.
I reassured him. ‘Don’t worry, we’ve the best scriptwriters working on this.’
‘You can let me have a copy of yours?’
‘Of course. The plan is to give a copy of the script to every head of state and to prepare a documentary subtitled in the country’s own language. Other than a couple of shots of Yuri and me in the Scaffy Wagon, I don’t appear, so all you need to do is replace my voiceover with yours. They’re using the English version featuring me for the subtitled programme. Yuri is doing it for Russian speaking countries.’
‘I’d prefer to do the same, but you know the good old U S of A – we always have to do it our way,’ he said with a chuckle and we chinked glasses of an excellent Californian Chablis.
When we left the restaurant, a press horde was waiting us. They wanted to know why the head of NASA was meeting the astronaut from Goonhilly who had the ear of the British Prime Minister. We barged our way through the crowd, repeating ‘no comment’ to every question.
Having achieved my objective over the video, I flew back to London the next day with press chasing me at check-in and on arrival.
««o»»
We began work on the presentation in earnest.
A working script was soon formulated, and a selected diverse audience was called in to watch it under the Official Secrets Act. It went down well, although as expected, those with stronger religious beliefs were finding it challenging. The problem for them, particularly the Islamic, Christian, and orthodox Jewish people, was the issue of a soul and creation in God’s image. I reported this back to the Prime Minister and he promised to let the heads of each of the churches watch the video two days prior to the general populace, so they were able to prepare for any adverse comments.
It only took two days for me to record the twenty-two-minute programme, with the images inserted into the correct positions in the script and me improving my emphasis on some aspects which required refining. Digital copies were soon winging their way around the world.
We gave the video to heads of states a week prior to the launch so they had the option to either introduce it personally or append a recorded introduction. We were well aware the whole thing would soon be leaked by irresponsible leaders.
My own status would change with its release. If my standing had been growing scientifically, this would make me famous globally. Mario and I discussed this at length, and he promised to bring me back to earth if my ego became too inflated!
Only the USA, France, China, and Russian-speaking countries were going to do their own separate announcement video. The French made their decision based on the language needing to be French – which was only to be expected. They always liked to use their national tongue. With Russia, it was different as Yuri would be the presenter and he, with me, was the co-discoverer of the alien artefact. He’d been born in the Ukraine but had dual citizenship. As for China, well, they were just continuing to be inscrutable.
Most countries put a press embargo on the item, but as expected, information did leak anyway. Unfortunately, my father had seen an item in a Korean online paper which linked my name with the speculation. Fortuitously, it happened to be when Mario and I were arriving to stay with them for the weekend.
We had driven down specially to show them an advance copy of the programme, but Dad didn’t give me an easy ride when we arrived on Friday night.
‘Is this what this inflated honour is all about?’ he asked accusingly, before I’d even got my coat off, and he tossed a printed copy of the webpage onto the coffee table. He so annoyed me when he jumped to conclusions.
‘Sort of,’ I said, giving it a cursory glance. ‘We’re here to fill you in with the true story, Dad, not this foreign speculation.’
Once we’d got unpacked and sat down with a gin and tonic, I picked up the sheet and it repeated the same old story that NASA had discovered a UFO in Earth orbit. It went on to say that they were about to admit to having an actual dead alien in Area 51. I tossed it to one side, pulled a data stick out of my bag and handed it to him.
‘We’d better watch this now. It’ll be going out worldwide next Sunday. I’m swearing you and Mum to secrecy until it does. Do you understand? You tell no one. Not even Auntie Jean or my sister,’ I said, looking each of them square in the eyes one after the other. They both nodded.
‘I mean it! Dad, Mum. No one must hear this from you as I am breaking the Official Secrets Act by letting you see it. Promise me.’
They both promised to keep it secret.
‘Sorry, Eve, didn’t mean to be unpleasant,’ Dad said as he plugged the stick into the television. He was often hurtful then immediately contrite. I think it was an age thing.
‘The Internet item is nonsense,’ I said, ‘and, for the record, it was Yuri and me who discovered it on an ESA mission. It was not NASA!’
‘Hence the DCMG honour?’ he asked. I nodded.
‘How lovely, dear. He seems friendly,’ said my mum when it finished.
‘Well, we believe he is offering the hand of friendship but of course he’s been dead for one hundred million years. I’m sad I’ll never have the opportunity to meet him in person.’
‘And this is going out worldwide?’ Dad asked.
‘Yes, at prime time in each nation.’
‘I’m so proud of you, Evelyn,’ he said, and his hand gripped mine tightly, tears in his eyes again.
‘Dame Evelyn, please!’
We all chuckled together and chinked our gin and tonics.
Mum chipped in, ‘Now that’s out of the way, Evelyn, Mario, we’ve something far more serious and important to discuss – your wedding in August!’
We all laughed.
««o»»
The next seven days were chaotic for me. An endless stream of calls from the media who had of course managed to get copies of the video and wanted to interview me in depth. The release was embargoed so they couldn’t jump the gun, but I refused point blank to talk, telling them all to wait until after the UK broadcast which was planned for seven o’clock on the coming Sunday.
It didn’t stop them badgering me and it was unbelievable how they were speculating about the creature. It was almost as if they hadn’t listened to a single word in the documentary. I had a showdown on the telephone with one of our most prestigious news organisations on the Friday.
‘Can we not get a few words from you about the creature itself?’
‘Sorry. Come back to me on Monday and we can talk at length.’
‘Come on, Dame Evelyn. You can’t really be positive about a monster like this. There’ll be riots if these things start crawling around among us.’
‘Stop right there, you idiot hack!’ I exclaimed. ‘We have worked hard to show these people wish us no harm and we are already reaping the rewards from their technology as you will learn in the coming weeks. If you use the word “monster” to refer to this person again, you and your entire news organisation will get nothing further from me at all… ever! Try explaining that to your editor.’
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