Transmission

Professor Brewster put his hands flat on the table, shaking his head. “The truth is, that doesn’t matter at this point,” he said. “The fact is that your presence here has become toxic for this facility. Powerful people were expecting results from us, and we weren’t able to deliver them. Already, I’ve had calls suggesting that our funding will be cut if we don’t sever all ties with you at once.”

Kevin tried to make sense of that. “You… you’re sending me away?”

Professor Brewster was stony-faced. “I don’t know if you faked all this or not, but I’ll say this: already, the FBI is looking into whether you and your mother have committed crimes through your actions here. The best thing that you can do right now is to leave, both of you. You will take nothing with you, and you will receive a bill in due course for any medical services we provided.”

 “Come on, Kevin,” his mother said. “We’re leaving.”

She managed to make it sound like something they were choosing to do, rather than something they’d just been all but ordered to do. She marched angrily along the corridors that led from the building, and if Kevin hadn’t been able to see the tears at the corners of her eyes, he might have believed that she really was just furious and not hurt.

They walked past Dr. Levin, who half turned away from them. Kevin stopped in front of her, hoping she might be able to work all of this out.

“Dr. Levin…” he began.

The SETI director didn’t give him any time to finish. “I’m sorry, Kevin. I heard what happened.”

“You could talk to Professor Brewster,” he said.

Dr. Levin shook her head. “I don’t think David would listen to me right now. I lost a lot of my credibility around here, bringing you to them.”

“But I’m not making this up,” Kevin insisted.

Dr. Levin sighed. “I know you believe that, Kevin,” she said. “It’s just… maybe I should have checked things more carefully. Maybe you found out about things another way, and didn’t even realize.”

“I didn’t,” Kevin insisted.

His mother took his arm. “Come on, Kevin. We’re done here. We’re going to go home.”

She led him away from Dr. Levin, and when Kevin looked back at the scientist, Dr. Levin wouldn’t look at him. The two of them kept going to the exit and out through it, into the noise of the questions being shouted from every angle.

To his surprise, Ted was waiting there, standing by Kevin’s mother’s car. He must have brought it around for them.

“Are you here to question my son’s honesty too?” Kevin’s mother asked, moving between him and Ted.

To Kevin’s surprise, or maybe not, Ted shook his head. “Nothing like that. I just wanted to talk to him.”

 Kevin’s mother looked as though she wasn’t sure, but Kevin put a hand on her arm.

“It’s okay, Mom,” he said. “I trust Ted.”

He’d trusted lots of the scientists too, though. He looked up at Ted.

“I didn’t make this up,” he said.

“I never said you did,” Ted replied. “People change what they think to fit in. They get disappointed because things don’t work out, and they look for someone to blame. They start thinking that proof they’ve seen with their own eyes must be a trick.”

He held out his hand and Kevin took it. “Thanks, Ted.”

“You stay safe,” Ted said. “And… try not to let the things they’re going to say get to you too much, okay?”

“Okay,” Kevin promised.

He couldn’t see how he could avoid it, though. He’d promised the world aliens and he’d failed.

He’d failed.

Was he a fraud, after all? Had he unconsciously imagined the entire thing?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

There were reporters surrounding Kevin’s house when they got back. Reporters, and protestors, and even a few police, obviously there to keep the rest of them back. Kevin kept his head down in the passenger’s seat of his mother’s car, hoping that no one would see him, but there was no real hope of that. The moment they saw the car pulling up, the mass of people surrounded it, and the car practically shone with the glare of the camera flashes.

“When I open your door, don’t stop,” his mother said. She got out, and Kevin braced himself.

She pulled open the door on his side, wrapping a protective arm around Kevin even though he was taller than she was.

“Get back,” she yelled at them. “Get off my property.”

The reporters pulled back a little, but the press of people barely slackened. Kevin held tight to his mother as they fought their way through. The cops there yelled for people to get back, but they didn’t make any move to help the two of them physically. Kevin got the feeling that they were probably just as upset as everybody else about what had happened. How many of them had believed that they were about to talk to aliens directly? How many of them now hated him because the capsule hadn’t been what they expected?

He and his mother pushed their way forward anyway, shoving past people who grabbed at them, demanding answers to questions Kevin didn’t have an answer for.

“Why weren’t there aliens?”

“Why did you do all this?”

“Do you know how many people you’ve hurt?”