“You know how what wiped the dinosaurs out was supposed to be an asteroid or something. . . .”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, suppose they weren’t on Earth at all before it hit, the way everyone assumes. Suppose they came here with it.”
“Came with what? You mean with the asteroid?”
“Yes—or whatever it was.” Robin made an appealing gesture. “If Earth’s gravity was too big for them to have existed, then they must have existed on something else. That’s logic, right? Well, suppose the something else was whatever Earth got hit by. It doesn’t have to be an asteroid like we think of them—you know, just a chunk of rock. It could have been, maybe, like something that had an atmosphere they could live in.”
“Wouldn’t it need to have been pretty huge, though, to have an atmosphere?” Keene queried.
“Not necessarily, if it was cold with dense gases. Titan has an atmosphere. . . . And in any case, the whole thing didn’t have to hit the Earth. Maybe it got close enough to break up, and only part of it did.”
Keene’s first impulse was to scoff, but he checked himself. Wasn’t that just the kind of automatic reaction that he was having so much trouble with from the regular scientific establishment? He could see reasons for not buying the suggestion, but simply the fact that it conflicted with prior beliefs wasn’t good enough to be one of them. Robin was trying. Keene paused long enough not to be dismissive.
“What about the impact?” he asked. “These things explode when they enter the atmosphere, like that big one over Siberia, oh . . . whenever it was. Or imagine what must have happened when that hole in Arizona was dug. You’re talking about bones being preserved intact enough to be put together again. Eggs. . . . And we’ve even got footprints. Would they really be likely to survive something like that?”
“That was what I wondered when Robin put it to me,” Vicki commented.
“Maybe, if they were encased inside chunks of rock that were large enough—say that came down across a whole area like a blanket,” Robin persisted. “The air might act as a cushion.”
“So you’re saying they might not actually have lived here at all,” Keene said, finally getting the point.
“Exactly. They lived on . . . whatever.” Robin looked from him back to Vicki as if to say, well, you asked for suggestions.
Keene sat back and snorted wonderingly. Ingenious, he had to grant. But being ingenious didn’t automatically mean being right. There was still that other small factor known as “evidence” to be considered.
“I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll put it to a couple of the planetary scientists that I know. We’ll see what they say.” Robin deserved that much.
“Really?” Robin looked pleased. “Hey, that would be great!”
“Sure. Why not?”
After breakfast they watched a replay of the Kronian landing and motorcade into Washington from the day before. Seeing the Kronians alongside native Terrans for the first time brought home something that Keene had never really registered before: they were tall. Sariena was a natural for the cameras to single out for close-ups, and she came over well when taking her turn to respond to the welcoming address by the President. Keene noted that the Kronians remained seated, and all of them wore sunglasses outside.
Keene and Robin spent an hour experimenting with a new electronic paint board that Robin had just added to his computer. Playing father figure was good for Keene’s self-image in enabling him to claim the capacity to be socially responsible if he chose. All in all, it was a relaxed, easygoing morning—the perfect way to recharge after the past week and prepare for the equally demanding one ahead. And then, just as Keene was getting ready to leave to go back over to the city for the press conference, Leo Cavan called from Washington, rerouted from Keene’s private number, with some news he said he’d rather not go into just now, but which had to do with the Kronians. Was Keene still planning on coming up to D.C. first thing the coming week? Keene confirmed that he was—probably flying up tomorrow night. Fine, Cavan said. Could he make it earlier in the day so that they could meet for dinner? Sure, Keene agreed. It sounded important. Cavan said yes, he thought it was. And Cavan wasn’t the kind of person who did things without good reason.