Anomaly (11 page)

“But are they like us? Do they have feelings? Do they care about each other?”

Teller squeezed her hand gently, appreciating her question on another level. It was nice to see Cathy as someone other than a reporter. From what he'd seen, she had a good heart, she'd just got a little too excited, a little too out of her depth, something that was equally true for him.

Cathy leaned into him, running her hand up his arm.

“Yes,” he replied, thinking about it. “I think they are a lot like us. Nature is brutal. Nature is indifferent to cruelty, but to be civilized is to be civil, to be courteous and kind. Everything I've seen suggests they're civil in a way we should aspire to. So, yes, I think they have feelings. I think they care about each other. I think they care about us.”

“So would they have concepts like love, compassion, mercy?” she asked.

“Oh, I don't know,” he replied. “From what we've seen, there's every reason to think so. But there's also the danger of reading our own emotions into them, projecting our concept of love onto them, so we'll have to wait and see to be sure.”

“You know, you're kind of sexy when you talk geeky science.”

“Ha,” cried Teller, taken off guard, realizing she was looking into his eyes.

She pulled playfully on his arm. She had a beautiful smile, he thought. Her pupils were dilated in the soft light. To Teller, Cathy was stunning.

“Ah,” he began, feeling rather awkward. “I've never been good with the opposite sex.”

“You don't have to be good at everything,” replied Cathy, toying with him playfully. At an intellectual level, he could see what she was doing, how she enjoyed playing with him and getting the upper hand. But love was more than an intellectual analysis, and he felt something stirring within him.

“And I've always hated that phrase, opposite sex,” he said, trying to lose himself in that train of thought for a moment. “I mean, how do we oppose each other? How are we opposites? I think we're complementary.”

It was only then he realized quite what he was saying. He covered for himself quickly.

“I mean, men and women are complementary, not opposites. I wasn't trying to say you and...”

Cathy cut him off, putting her finger on his lips.

“Sometimes,” she said, “you talk too much.”

And with that she leaned in and kissed him.

Teller slept in later than he realized. It was almost ten before he'd showered, shaved and got dressed. Someone had laid out a freshly-pressed NASA polo shirt for him. It was something he wore with pride. Not bad for an elementary school teacher, he thought.

He wondered how quickly the novelty would wear off and when he'd start to miss the kids. He wondered what they thought of him, wondered how well he came across on television. He thought about several of the kids individually, picturing their responses, their enthusiasm and sense of pride at seeing their teacher working with NASA. He could just imagine their heartfelt support and encouragement.

Teller grabbed a bagel from the mess tent and walked the thirty yards over toward the command center that had grown up around the main NASA research trailer. Even from a distance he could see Mason in full flight, his arms pointing as he commanded what, for him, was Patton's Fifth Army. If he'd been a musician, he'd have been a conductor, thought Teller.

Cathy and Finch were coming back from the morning media briefing. As usual, Finch was filming everything, even the walk back from the outer barricade. Cathy saw Teller and darted over toward him with a spring in her step, leaving Finch behind. Teller smiled as she came up to him holding two cups of coffee.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Teller.

“Double latte,” said Cathy, handing him one. “The coffee here is lousy, but I've got contacts on the outside; an old friend that works as a barista in Midtown. She's set up a portable station and is making a killing from the media circus.”

Teller sipped at the coffee through the disposable plastic lid. The milk froth was smooth and creamy. The coffee was a little cool, but quite refined, not too bitter. After two days of military mud, it was refreshing.

“We're going to have to get security clearance for your friend,” joked Teller.

Cathy was beaming. She reached out, brushing her hand playfully against him.

“I must admit, I had an ulterior motive in bringing you some coffee.”

“Really,” replied Teller, enjoying her contagious enthusiasm.

“Can you help me?”

She looked quite coy.

“Sure,” he replied, smitten.

“Mason's given me the assignment from hell. Well, that's probably a bit of an overstatement. I shouldn't call it that, but I've definitely drawn the short straw.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. I get the religious debate. They're sending a car over in a few minutes. I've got to go and meet with the Interfaith Commune Group down in lower New York. Would you like to come? Keep me company? Help out if the discussion gets overly technical?”

“Sure.”

“You mean it?” she asked. “You'll come? Really?”

“Really.”

“It's not too late to say you're too busy,” she said.

From the radiant smile on her face, Teller could see his company on this assignment meant a lot to her, so he was happy to go along with her. She was quite quirky, and he liked that about her.

“I'll come,” he replied as they walked into the command tent. She gave his hand a little squeeze, trying not to draw too much attention to them, but wanting to reach out and touch him. She was flirting, but he could see she was trying to avoid making it too obvious to anyone else. Nothing much had happened last night, nothing beyond a kiss, but they both seemed drawn to each other all the more.

“Oh, here's another headache,” said Mason with a smile, reaching out and shaking Teller's hand. “Sleep well?”

“Too well,” replied Teller.

“Good. The core team has a list of questions for you and the contact team wants to run some scenarios by you. The scaffolding's complete, so we're ready to proceed with the beryllium. Anderson has that scheduled for lunchtime, when the intersection aligns. Oh, and you'll love this, they're going to throw a few isotopes at it, try to mix things up a little, see what it makes of that.”

“Nice,” said Teller, liking their thinking. “I'll be interested to see how it responds to that.”

Anderson walked over, seeing Teller talking with Mason,

“Hey,” said Anderson, patting Teller on the shoulder. “You're going to love this. Beryllium, boron, carbon. We get carbon!”

“Really?” replied Teller, his mind racing with the possibilities.

“Oh, yeah. And we're going to have some fun with it. Give it some purified
¹²
C and separate dumps of the isotopes
¹³
C and
¹⁴
C. I've got buckyballs, graphite, diamonds. We've even sourced some carbon nanotubes. A couple of the guys are really pushing the bounds of the fullerenes on this one, putting together an absolute smorgasbord of different types of carbon molecules. Don't ask me how, but Bates has got his hands on almost a kilo of buckminsterfullerenes; purified
¹²
C in an arrangement of 60 atoms that look like a bunch of mini soccer balls. What do you think our little green friend is going to make of that?”

“Damn,” said Teller. They'd taken the concept of communicating via chemistry and were running with it. They were about to ask some serious questions of the anomaly. He was beginning to regret saying he'd go with Cathy. She was standing beside him, seemingly reading his mind. He glanced at her. She frowned a little, his childlike excitement was evident.

“I suspect,” he began, “that our friend is going to get very excited about taking things beyond the elementary level. Twenty bucks says he shows us some new fullerenes in response.”

“He,” said Cathy, somewhat amused at the assumption of gender.

“It,” added Teller, conceding ground.

“Now, that's a bet I'd like to lose,” replied Anderson with a laugh.

“How are you going to present?” asked Teller.

“The idea is to use the scaffold to drop-feed from just above the core,” said Anderson. “So we're avoiding the possibility of introducing any foreign elements during the delivery process, minimize any possibility of contamination. I want to keep the tone of our conversation pure, so to speak.”

Anderson was pointing over at the rigging on the concrete slab as it sat on a 30 degree incline. The framework sat to one side of the intersection, rising up in a hook-like shape that reached above the softly glowing core like a giant question mark.

“Now is when the real science begins,” said Teller, aware Finch was broadcasting their conversation. “I wish I could stay for the drop, but I'm speaking at the Interfaith Commune Group this afternoon.”

Mason looked at Cathy. She tried to hide her delight.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Mason, turning toward Teller. “Do you know what you're getting yourself into? It's a very different world out there. It's not the same world you left a few days ago.”

Teller was surprised to hear Mason talking like that. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the comment.

“The anomaly has changed everything. The rule book has gone out the window. The whole world is scrambling to keep up. The implications of contact with extraterrestrial beings have been earth-shattering. I don't think you realize just how sheltered you've been in here. Things are moving at a rapid pace out there. This whole fiasco has upset the apple cart.

“And it's not just the fringe groups, or the conspiracy nuts. This thing has rattled everyone's cage. Governments, churches, corporations, they're all struggling with what's been termed The Upheaval. They're struggling because the assumptions they built their lives upon have been called in question with the advent of an alien intelligence. And they're all reacting in different ways. Some are embracing it, others are in denial, while still others are raging against it, but no one is indifferent to it.”

Mason paused for a second.

“There's a reason I asked Cathy to go. And, no, it's not to throw her to the wolves.”

Cathy clenched her lips as she focused carefully on what Mason was saying.

“For us, the anomaly is fascinating. It's impartial and unemotional. It's just another science experiment, albeit on a cosmic scale. We just want to have a crack at it and analyze the results, lose ourselves in the details. For the rest of the world, though, it's disruptive, it's upsetting. The anomaly's very existence threatens everything. It threatens the religious status quo, it challenges the old order, it forces a rethink. Everything is being re-evaluated.”

“So why did you choose me?” asked Cathy. “Am I the dumbest? Or just the most expendable?”

“Not at all,” said Mason, laughing at her choice of words. “I chose you because you're the closest one to them. Out of all of us, you're the best one to be able to relate to the challenges they face. For you, this isn't about hydrogen and helium. For you, this is about the awe, the intrigue. For us, this is about discovery. But for you, this is about change. And you have a unique advantage, you've seen all this through our eyes, and you've seen it without any fear.”

Teller was genuinely surprised. For a hard-ass, Mason had some depth to his reasoning.

“Well,” he admitted, smiling, “I guess that means I am throwing you to the wolves. But the point is, you're street-smart, you're used to people driving a hidden agenda. You're a reporter, you know the angles. Just don't commit to anything and I think you'll represent us quite well.

“The organizers have assured me the debate is not going to be technical or speculative. I've told them we're not willing to entertain in any kind of scientific discussion, or any announcements outside of the established channels, so they're not after an inside scoop. They just want an inside opinion. They want to hear from someone that's been here on the ground. The less technical the better. That's why I chose you.”

Cathy stood there, nodding her head.

“Are you sure you still want to go?” asked Mason, looking at Teller.

“Yes,” said Teller. As intriguing as the element drops were, there would be plenty of time to go over the results when he got back. And, besides, he was surprised by Mason's comments about the outside world. Teller hadn't given the rest of the world a second thought. He assumed everyone would be as excited about the anomaly as he was, so he was curious to see what other points of view there were out there, what their reasoning and motivations would be. And, besides, deep down, Teller felt he fell into the same non-technical category as Cathy. He was an elementary school teacher, not an astrophysicist. It was time to let the real scientists get on with business.

“Then go,” said Mason without any hesitation. “I've got enough headaches to deal with. Do you know what this bloody anomaly did when it broke up those buildings? It tore through the office of the Consular General for the country of Turkey. It ripped the roof off the mission for Bosnia Herzegovina, and cut through a storage room belonging to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea. They all want to claim territorial sovereignty over the damn thing, saying its presence on diplomatic territory is akin to being present in each of those countries.”

Cathy laughed.

“You laugh, but I'm happy to hand the religious debate to someone else. I've got enough to deal with.”

Cathy and Teller turned to walk out.

Mason called after them.

“Hey, take no prisoners.”

The drive to the town hall in downtown New York took almost an hour even though it was only four miles away. Teller and Cathy sat in the back of a Marine Corps Hummer. The police cleared the road immediately around the United Nations so they could drive out with ease. Their military Hummer was provided with a police escort, but the traffic in New York was chaos. At first, it just seemed like the classic New York gridlock on a Friday afternoon, with everyone wanting to head upstate for the weekend, but it didn't take long to realize something was wrong.