"Why?"
There was no indication that she was heard. The star map disappeared and only the three lights remained. The center one continued to pulse in rhythm to the words spoken.
"I will now speak for the Mediator. All factors have been considered as presented by the Defender. Option one would require the least cost, but is considered too risky because the native life-forms on the third planet have proven themselves a threat to the defense system by having destroyed part of it.
"Option two would require the highest cost, but would only be done if the Council considered the natives of the third planet as potentially worthy of membership in the Coalition. It would require a lengthening of our internal lines of communication, which is not recommended.
"Option three is recommended because it can be immediately implemented and requires no interaction with the natives of the third planet. Additionally, it reduces our internal lines of communications, always a desirable military goal.
"The Mediator's role is to observe and then present to the Council the perspective of all parties involved. The Defender's perspective has been presented. The Mediator has studied the data on your planet. The Mediator has tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are not yet ready for inclusion in the Coalition, nor are they on a developmental path that would lead to it."
In place of the lights was a swift flickering of images, most gleaned from Earth news reports. Despite the rapid shifting of scenes Hawkins recognized all of it-Lebanon, the Gulf War, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, all the hot-spots of the world flashed before his eyes in a distressing series of pictures.
"The Mediator has also tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are responsible for the destruction of the relay site under Vredefort Dome and that there is a statistically significant probability that there may be future damage to the defense system caused by the natives, even if the present damage were to be repaired-especially now that our relay sites at Ayers Rock and Tunguska have been detected and uncovered."
Again the scenes shifted, this time showing pictures of missile silos, submarines, bombers, and other military hardware.
The images disappeared. "The Mediator believes that the natives of the third planet should be given a chance to present their perspective. There is some information we require to clarify the situation. Why are only three of the eight personnel we requested present? You may now speak."
Hawkins blinked and looked at Debra, then down the line at Tuskin. The Russians must have been given a list of four names also. "We did not understand what the message meant," Debra offered.
"You understood enough to uncover our relays at Tunguska and Ayers Rock," the voice replied. "You understood enough to send some personnel across. We examined the man who came through alone-he was injured and disoriented and appeared simply to be fleeing the site where he had been. He was not one of those we requested. We sent him onward to where our scanners indicated he desired to go. Where are the other personnel we requested?"
"Our other two members are waiting for us to report back on what we have discovered," Hawkins said. "We had no idea what would happen when we went through the Wall in your relay site."
"What about your other three, Colonel Tuskin?"
That was the first indication that the voice knew whom it was addressing. That also explained the eight seats lined up. Hawkins wondered what sort of information might be getting drawn from him through whatever had pierced his skin. Was it some sort of lie detector? What had he been injected with?
Tuskin seemed at a loss for words for a few seconds. "My people also did not know what would happen. Your Defender should understand that a reconnaissance is in order before committing oneself to a course of action. As the military man listed, I was sent across first."
"Your distrust and unwillingness to comply with a simple request does not indicate favorably. We selected the two most powerful group entities on your planet to communicate to. Between your two entities you control the vast preponderance of military might-and most of the destructive weapons that pose a threat to our relay sites.
"More important, you are the only two group entities on this planet that have projected personnel into space. That is normally considered one of the first steps in proving eligibility to join the Coalition. We were disappointed to discover that you have managed to do that, yet still remain as a species entity on your planet."
"Did you destroy the Voyager 2 probe?" Hawkins asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the failings of the human race.
"Yes. When it passed out of your star system, it was detected by the sensors and examined. The main computer allowed it to continue until the Vredefort Dome relay was destroyed. At that time automatic defensive measures destroyed it. The initial reaction was that the Vredefort Dome relay had been destroyed by a Swarm attack, and all systems responded accordingly until the data could be examined."
"How could a Swarm attack have made it through your defensive system to attack Earth?" Tuskin asked.
"The Defender has shown you that the system has been degraded. The Swarm has the capability to make attacks of limited size that might evade the external sensors."
"Has this happened before?" Hawkins wondered why Tuskin seemed so concerned about this.
"Most recently, in the time count you call 1908, a Swarm Splinter ship infiltrated this system. It reached the third planet and launched an attack on the Tunguska relay. We were able to destroy the ship just prior to destruction of the relay. We were not capable of doing that at Vredefort Dome because the attack came from the planet natives and not the Swarm."
"The explosion at Vredefort Dome was not done by either of our governments," Hawkins tried explaining.
"It was done by a native of the third planet."
Hawkins went into detail, talking about the two missing bombs and the fact that he had been part of a team trying to recover them. He felt shackled with the inability to use his hands and by the total lack of response from the three points of light. There was no indication that he was even being heard, until he had finished. The reply was not what he had hoped.
"We are not interested in the factionalism among the natives of the third planet except as they directly affect the Coalition. The destruction of the relay site at Vredefort Dome did so affect us. We wish to avoid such occurrences in the future. For that reason we have shown you the three options we are considering, along with the perspective the Defender and the Mediator have on those options.
"The fact that you have a weapon still missing and uncontrolled that is capable of such power as that which destroyed the Vredefort Dome relay was a very significant factor when we considered your species on the scale for acceptance into the Coalition or even simply protection by the Coalition.
"We carefully selected four personnel from each of your two factions in terms of the skills of those personnel so you could understand the options and the relative merits of those options. We chose one military person to be able to understand the Defender's analysis. We chose a statistician to understand the risk-and-benefit projection of each option. A geologist to be able to help you uncover the relay sites so we might bring you here. And a physicist to understand scientific matters as they might come up to affect your decision."
"Where are we now?" Tuskin asked.
"Our present location is classified," the Speaker replied.
"Are we on Earth?" Tuskin persisted.
"No."
"How did we get here?" Tuskin asked.
"Through what you call the portals or Walls."
"We know that," Tuskin replied. "I want to know how we traveled through space to get here."
"Even if we told you, you would not understand."