Contact - Carl Sagan [174]
In the end, the Five were permitted to talk among themselves. She systematically bade farewell to each. No one blamed her for the blank cassettes.
`These pictures on the cassettes are recorded in magnetic domains, on tape," Vaygay reminded her. "A strong electrical field accumulated on the benzels, and they were, of course, moving. A time-varying electrical field makes a magnetic field. Maxwell's equations. It seems to me that's how your tapes were erased. It was not your fault."
Vaygay's interrogation had baffled him. They had not exactly accused him but merely suggested that he was part of an anti-Soviet conspiracy involving scientists from the West.
"I tell you, Ellie, the only remaining open question is the existence of intelligent life in the Politburo."
"And the White House. I can't believe the President would allow Kitz to get away with this. She committed herself to the project."
`This planet is run by crazy people. Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Their perspective is so narrow, so…brief. A few years. In the best of them a few decades. They care only about the time they are in power." She thought about Cygnus A.
"But they're not sure our story is a lie. They cannot prove it. Therefore, we must convince them. In their hearts, they wonder, `Could it be true?' A few even want it to be true. But it is a risky truth. They need something close to certainty…And perhaps we can provide it. We can refine gravitational theory. We can make new astronomical observations to confirm what we were told-especially for the Galactic Center and Cygnus A. They're not going to stop astronomical research. Also, we can study the dodec, if they give us access. Ellie, we will change their minds." Difficult to do if they're all crazy, she thought to herself. "I don't see how the governments could convince people this is a hoax," she said.
"Really? Think of what else they've made people believe. They've persuaded us that we'll be safe if only we spend all our wealth so everybody on Earth can be killed in a moment-when the governments decide the time has come. I would think it's hard to make people believe something so foolish. No, Ellie, they're good at convincing. They need only say that the Machine doesn't work, and that we've gone a little mad."
"I don't think we'd seem so mad if we all told our story together. But you may be right. Maybe we should try to find some evidence first Vaygay, will you be okay when you…go back?"
"What can they do to me? Exile me to Gorky? I could survive that; I've had my day at the beach…No, I will be safe. You and I have a mutual-security treaty, Ellie. As long as you're alive, they need me. And vice versa, of course. If the story is true, they will be glad there was a Soviet witness; eventually, they will cry it from the rooftops. And like your people, they will wonder about military and economic uses of what we saw.
"It doesn't matter what they tell us to do. All that matters is that we stay alive. Then we will tell our story-all five of us-discreetly, of course. At first only to those we trust. But those people will tell others. The story will spread. There will be no way to stop it. Sooner or later the governments will acknowledge what happened to us in the dodecahedron. And until then we are insurance policies for each other.