Contact - Carl Sagan [106]
"Some choice!" the President said. `The one's an atheist, and the other thinks he's from Vega already. Why do we have to send scientists? Why can't we send somebody…normal? Just a rhetorical question," she quickly added. "I know why we have to send scientists. The Message is about science and it's written in scientific language. Science is what we know we share with the beings on Vega. No, those are good reasons, Ken. I remember them."
"She's not an atheist. She's an agnostic. Her mind is open. She's not trapped by dogma. She's intelligent, she's tough, and she's very professional. The range of her knowledge is broad. She's just the person we need in this situation."
"Ken, I'm pleased by your commitment to uphold the integrity of this project. But there's a great deal of fear out there. Don't think I don't know how much the men out there have had to swallow already. More than half the people I talk to believe we've got no business building this thing. If there's no turning back, they want to send somebody absolutely safe. Arroway may be all the things you say she is, but safe she isn't. I'm catching a lot of heat from the Hill, from the Earth Firsters, from my own National Committee, from the churches. I guess she impressed Palmer Joss in that California meeting, but she managed to infuriate Billy Jo Rankin. He called me up yesterday and said `Ms. President'-he can't disguise his distaste at saying `Ms.'- 'Ms. President,' he says, `that Machine's gonna fly straight to God or the Devil. Whichever one it is, you better send an honest-to-God Christian.' He tried to use his relationship with Palmer Joss to muscle me, for God's sake. I don't think there's any doubt he was angling to go himself. Drumlin's going to be much more acceptable to somebody like Rankin than Arroway is.
"I recognize Drumlin's something of a cold fish. But he's reliable, patriotic, sound. He has impeccable scientific credentials. And he wants to go. No, it has to be Drumlin. The best I can offer is to have her as backup."
"Can I tell her that?"
"We can't have Arroway knowing before Drumlin, can we? I'll let you know the moment a final decision is made and we've informed Drumlin…Oh, cheer up, Ken. Don't you want her to stay here on Earth?"
It was after six when Ellie finished her briefing of the State Department's `Tiger Team" that was backstopping the American negotiators in Paris. Der Heer had promised to call her as soon as the crew selection meeting was done. He wanted her to hear from him whether she had been selected, not from anybody else. She had been insufficiently deferential to the examiners, she knew, and might lose out for that reason among a dozen others. Nevertheless, she guessed, there might still be a chance.
There was a message waiting for her at the hotel-not a pink "while you were out" form filled in by the hotel operator, but a sealed unstamped hand delivered letter. It read: "Meet me at the National Science and Technology Museum, 8:00 pm tonight. Palmer Joss."
No hello, no explanations, no agenda, and no yours truly, she thought. This really is a man of faith. The stationery was her hotel's, and there was no return address. He must have sauntered in this afternoon, knowing from the Secretary of State himself, for all she knew, that Ellie was in town, and expecting her to be in. It had been a tiresome day, and she was annoyed at having to spend any time away from piecing together the Message. Although a part of her was reluctant to go, she showered, changed, bought a bag of cashews, and was in a taxi in forty-five minutes.
It was about an hour before closing, and the museum was almost empty. Huge dark machinery was stuffed into every corner of a vast entrance hall. Here was the pride of the nineteenth century shoemaking, textile, and coal industries.