Finally, Murray leaned back in his chair, his pen held lengthwise between his fingertips, and contemplated Gallian for several seconds as if weighing how to make a delicate point. Gallian scowled back unhelpfully. “Look, I appreciate that ways of going about things might be different where you’re from, and I’ve tried to allow for that,” Murray said. “But I have to say, the answers you’ve been giving aren’t exactly going to serve your best interests. You don’t seem to understand how the system here works. We are not your adversaries in this. We’re on your side. Our job is to put together a strategy that will get us through with the minimum of damage. But to do that, we need complete cooperation.”
Gallian’s jaw tightened. “I’m sorry. I thought we were cooperating,” he replied.
Sally Panchard put in, “I think what Carlton’s trying to say is that whatever else is admitted publicly, we need to know where those artifacts came from. But as far as the case itself is concerned, our position will depend on what we think the other side is able to prove. In other words, we give nothing away. Without proof, how can anyone know for sure if the artifacts were ever up in the Osiris at all? If they were given to you by someone here on Earth after you landed, who said they’d come out of the container that was shipped down, then Lan Keene, you, and everyone in your mission would be exonerated.”
“Yes, yes. Those are just the lines I was thinking along,” Murray interjected.
Sally went on, “There would still be the images that were beamed from Kronia to account for, but they could have originated here and been turned around. So the whole thing could have been engineered between a group of unknown parties here and in Kronia, and you were all used unwittingly.”
Vashen was shaking his head, trying to follow. “But that wouldn’t change what Voler was trying to say yesterday. You’d just be making others guilty instead of us.”
“That’s our job,” Cliff Yeaks said. “You and Dr. Keene are our clients. The other guys are not. If Voler can’t prove who did it, that’s his problem. The thing that matters is, you guys will be off the hook.”
Gallian emitted a loud sigh suddenly, got up from his seat, and stamped over to the window to stare out at the Washington rooftops. ” `The thing that matters,’ ” he repeated. “All this posturing and antagonism, obsessions over who will win and who will lose. When will the people of this world ever learn to stop fighting each other and do things together? Doesn’t it occur to anybody that the thing that matters might be truth?” He turned back to face the room. “Which side are you people on? All I’m hearing is nonsense about legal contortions and antics that don’t interest me that can be dragged out to divert attention from the real issue forever. Is that what you want? I thought this was supposed to be a scientific matter. When are we going to get back to that? The only one among you who speaks that language is Landen, and he has said practically nothing. So why don’t we stop talking about what stories we can invent and try concentrating on asking what really did happen?”
Keene answered, since Gallian was still staring at him. “I think that’s what Carlton is trying to do. As he said, he needs to know exactly at what point those objects—the actual objects, not some kind of container that they were supposed to be in—came into your hands.” Keene paused, then added as the thought struck him, “Come to that, did you ever actually see them outside of a container?”
“A good point,” Sally said, nodding.
Gallian frowned from one to another of them. “I don’t understand. I was quite familiar with them before they were crated. I was involved in some of the studies of them.” He waited, inviting some explanation.
“Gallian,” Keene said despairingly. “Now you’re starting to sound as if they really did come from Saturn. Carlton just told you: he and his people are on your side, yet you’re still giving them a hard time. I’m beginning to see his point.”