Transmission

To his surprise, he saw Professor Brewster shake his head. “Ideally, Kevin, I think it’s best if you say as little as possible. We need to manage people’s expectations of all this and what it might mean for them.”

“But there are aliens,” Kevin said.

“And that will scare a lot of people,” Professor Brewster explained. “We need to be careful. Trust me, I’ve been involved in announcing a lot of scientific discoveries. It’s important to get the message right with these things so that people can understand the potential implications of it all.”

He led the way out to a small platform, where some of the researchers had set up a small table. Kevin sat in the middle, with the two adults flanking him. Out in front of him was what seemed to be a sea of people, many of them with cameras. They started to shout questions almost as soon as Kevin and the others sat down.

“Professor Brewster, have you really found evidence of alien life?”

“Can we expect to be visited by aliens in the near future?”

“Is this all some kind of joke?”

“Who is the boy?”

Kevin did his best to just sit there, while Professor Brewster leaned forward and started to answer, looking officious.

“Well, those are all very complex questions,” the institute’s director began, and Kevin could see how this was going to go.

Apparently, so could Dr. Levin. “Yes,” she said. “There are aliens. No, this is not a joke, and most of you have already met Kevin. From what I’ve seen of the news, half of you have already started to trawl through his life. There’s really no point. We’re not trying to hide anything. To prove that, we’re going to hold regular press conferences here, explaining what we find out.”

Professor Brewster looked as though he’d swallowed something unpleasant, but the questions were already coming in again.

“But does the boy, does Kevin, really have communications with an alien civilization?” a reporter called out. “He’s talking to them?”

When Dr. Levin looked over to him, Kevin stood up, trying not to look as nervous as he felt right then.

“I’m not talking to aliens,” he said. “I’ve had… some visions, I guess… and I can translate their signal when I hear it. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” a reporter said, with a laugh “It sounds like plenty. Will we get to hear these signals?”

“I’m not sure anyone would understand them,” Kevin said. Although what if someone did? What if there was someone else out there like him? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? Kevin didn’t know right then.

“But we have you to translate, don’t we?” another reporter called out. “Doesn’t the public have a right to hear these messages?”

“They do,” Dr. Levin said, and again, Kevin had the impression of her speaking up before Professor Brewster could say anything. “Which is why we’ll be holding regular press conferences from now on, where Kevin will try to decipher the signals we’ve recorded from that region.”

 Professor Brewster stood up. He had a smile fixed in place that looked as though it might crack at any moment. “Okay, folks. I think we shouldn’t tire out Kevin too much. That’s enough for one day.”

***

This time, Professor Brewster had more than enough time to shout.

“You ambushed me, Elise!” Professor Brewster said. “Regular press conferences?”

“Come on, David,” Dr. Levin said. “You know it’s the right thing to do, and this way you get to keep everything orderly, rather than having people trying to break in to get information. You’re a scientist. You don’t believe in hiding things away.”

“I also don’t believe in getting our funding cut because someone in Congress thinks I’m giving away something we should hold onto,” Professor Brewster said, and Kevin could hear some of the worry under the anger.

Kevin wondered what it must be like to have Professor Brewster’s job. Presumably, he’d wanted to be a scientist when he was Kevin’s age, had wanted to discover things. Now, it seemed as though he mostly spent his time organizing things and worrying about money. It sounded like the kind of thing someone had to do if they were a manager or something, not a scientist. It wasn’t something Kevin would have wanted to have to do.

“We’ve announced them now,” Dr. Levin said.

“You’ve announced them,” Professor Brewster said. “We can still—”

He found himself interrupted by a call, and something about his expression as he answered said that this was different from the calls he’d received so far about this.

“Hello? Yes, this is he… I’m sorry, did I hear you correctly?… Yes, at once.” He looked ashen as he put the phone down. “We need to go to the lobby, now.”

“Why?” Kevin asked.

“Because they’re saying that the President is here.”