SETI had turned into a lobbying organisation surprisingly quickly, which was part of the reason it had transferred its headquarters to Washington and even positioned many of the review sections — where Jason had worked before he’d become the Discoverer — in Washington. The easiest way to get funding from political leaders was to prove that the funding would help the politician’s chances of getting re-elected, and that meant pork — lots and lots of pork. SETI couldn’t compete against the military-industrial complex when it came to building new factories in specific states, but it had had influence. And now it had a great deal more.
Jason sipped a cup of water gratefully as the meeting room slowly filled up. He shouldn’t have been in the room at all — and wouldn’t have been, if he had not been the Discoverer, the man who had become famous around the world. Crenshaw and the rest of SETI’s senior directors hadn’t hesitated to take advantage of Jason’s fame, using him to attract funding to SETI and convince politicians to support SETI’s vision of the universe. And that fame came with a sting in the tail. If Jason went off-message — if he decided that the aliens weren’t friendly — it would rock their little utopia. The money they’d received since the Discovery would be at risk.
He sat up sharply as a familiar scent intruded upon his nostrils. An alien had just entered the room, escorted by a pair of plainclothes officers from the Washington PD. Personally, Jason suspected that the officers were actually from the CIA, but there was no way to know for sure. The alien waved one hand at Jason — he’d learned that that was a loose greeting from a Snake — before sitting down on a weirdly-shaped stool. Jason had to take his eyes off the alien’s body as it moved and sat. It was so wrong to human eyes that he almost felt sick.
Fighting it down, he studied the alien carefully. It was still hard to tell them apart, but he was starting to realise that tiny indentions and colour patterns over their faces served to differentiate them from one another. There was still no way to separate the sexes; hell, no one even knew if the Snakes had two sexes. They could easily be functional hermaphrodites, with asexual bodies, or perhaps their females laid eggs which were then fertilised by the male. There was no way to know. One of the many subjects upon which the aliens refused to discourse was their own biology.
Jason frowned as the alien eyes turned to meet his. He had never considered himself a xenophobe — xenophobes never went into SETI — but there was something about the glowing red eyes that seemed to awaken old instincts long buried behind the veneer of civilisation. There were people in America who had trouble looking into the face of a black man; Jason understood, just now, what they must have felt. They could never have explained the feeling and perhaps concealed it, fearful of the dread accusation of racism.
“Thank you all for coming,” Crenshaw said. Jason looked up from the alien, surprised to see that the room had filled up without him noticing. Many of the faces were familiar from SETI, or political broadcasts, but a handful were strangers. He caught the eye of a Japanese woman of indeterminate age who winked at him when she noticed him staring. Feeling as if he didn’t belong in the group, he sat up and tried to pay attention. “As you can tell, feelings are running high outside.”
Jason winced inwardly. The room was supposed to be soundproofed, but he could still hear the protesters as they thronged the streets of Washington. Their demands had blurred into a deep roar that was all the more chilling for being barely understandable. He wondered if someone had also leaked the fact that this meeting was being held; SETI had once needed all the publicity it could get.
Crenshaw nodded. “The Washington police tell us that we should be safe in here, but we do need to keep an eye on the situation,” he continued. “Without further ado — Jeannette McGreevy.”
Jason felt his mouth fall open as the Secretary of State stood up. She was shorter than he’d expected, somehow, which might have been why he hadn’t recognised her. Even so, there was an air of bulldog determination in her face that suggested that anyone who got in her way was in for a very hard time. He hadn’t seen anyone so determined since his mother had confronted his father over rumours that his father had been cheating on her. It wasn’t a pleasant memory.
“I had a long speech with praise for the Discovery and the Discoverer,” McGreevy said, “but I’m afraid I will have to ask you all to take it as read.” She smiled at Jason, who found himself on the receiving end of an almost shark-like smile. “The Secret Service has taken the precaution of placing a helicopter ready for emergency evacuation, so I don’t want to stress the poor dears. They work so hard to protect us from threats.”
There was an amused note in her voice that Jason didn’t like at all. “It is my belief,” McGreevy continued, “that the Government will accept the terms offered by the Federation. After much intense negotiation, the Federation has agreed to bring forward the schedule for integrating Galactic-level technology into humanity’s general technical base — in exchange for prompt acceptance of their terms. It will help cushion us from the inevitable economic earthquake when the full effects of the terms make themselves felt.”
Jason nodded, impatiently. Disposing of the world’s nuclear stockpiles might not cost the world anything — particularly if the Galactics could be convinced to fly them into space and push them towards the sun — but every other term would certainly have an economic effect on America, as well as the rest of the world. There were trillions of dollars tied up in the defence industry — everything from producing tanks to training and hiring out mercenaries — and all of those dollars would be at risk. Some production plants could probably be retooled to produce components for space-based industries instead, but others would have to be scrapped. The protesters outside demanding that the human race join the Federation might not be so enthusiastic when they realised that they’d lost all prospect of getting a job in the economic crunch.
“It is our belief that SETI — the organisation that detected the Federation’s presence — should be reconfigured as the Welcome Foundation,” she concluded. “The Welcome Foundation will have two goals; one, it will prepare the world for membership in the Federation and two, it will help cushion the economic problems by suggesting new uses for our industrial plant.”
There was a long pause. “Any questions?”
Jason hesitated, remembered that he was the Discoverer, and held up a hand. “Our general tech base is well behind the Federation’s,” he said. “Why do you expect industrial corporations to retool for space when they will be effortlessly outmatched by Federation products?”
McGreevy looked, just for a second, angry. Oddly, it was the alien who answered. “The Federation will ensure that your economic base has a chance to adapt to the new situation by levelling protective tariffs on Federation technology entering your system,” he said. “There will be a number of incentives provided for shared development, but such incentives will depend upon Federation corporations working with their human counterparts.”
“That will be one of the roles of the Welcome Foundation,” McGreevy said. “I trust that this is acceptable to you all?”
Jason was unsurprised to see Crenshaw and the others agree at once. They’d wanted to be important and now they were. And his global fame would help them. Everything McGreevy had said had made sense, and yet… somehow, Jason was worried. Something didn’t quite add up.