“Well . . . of course.” Luodine looked surprised. “Isn’t that why we are here? It’s not just to drink coffee.”
“You mean it’ll be going out right now, as we speak?” Marie queried. She glanced at Cade uneasily.
“Not that directly,” Luodine replied. “I said we do preliminary editing here. Then it would be reviewed and cleaned up by the directors back home. But within a few days or so, sure. I’d hope you’re going to be big news—the other side to what the people there have been told. Hyadeans involved with Terran leaders who plot assassinations and lie about it. What an exposure! We got the idea from watching how the media works here. Didn’t you know? Vrel, didn’t you tell them? ”
“I was more concerned with getting them out of the country,” Vrel said.
Cade shook his head, bewildered. Yes, it was the kind of thing he’d wanted; but it was happening so soon. The thought of talking to aliens at distant stars rendered him momentarily speechless. A week ago he had been just a guy in California making a living and minding his own business. Now he was hours away from possibly becoming an interstellar celebrity.
“What’s the problem?” Luodine asked. “I thought you’d be in favor.”
Marie began, “It’s just that . . .” She faltered, looking to Cade for a moment. “Well, it isn’t as if they’re not in communication with Earth. In two days the powers back here will have the story, know our faces. Then where do we go?”
“But that’s no different from the position you’re in anyway,” Vrel pointed out. Which of course was true. Cade looked blankly back at Marie. Her expression said she couldn’t argue with it either. “You’re already wanted by the ISS,” Vrel went on. “So I assumed you’d want us to make a version of the take for the U.S. network as well. That’s what I told Luodine.”
“We’re set up to do it,” Luodine confirmed.
Cade had a glimpse of how Terrans must look through Hyadean eyes—forever finding reasons why not to. He decided to try being a Hyadean instead. “Okay,” he heard himself say. “So let’s do it.”
Luodine lapsed into Hyadean exchanges with Nyarl, who carried out what sounded like some kind of programming dialogue with the equipment, checking responses on one of the screens. Then they were ready to go. Thryase opened by answering some questions from Luodine, then going off into longer monologues. Since this version was for a Hyadean audience, the language was Hyadean. For Cade and Marie’s benefit, Vrel summarized in murmured asides. Essentially, Thryase was repeating the skepticism he had expressed on the way from Uyali regarding the Hyadean depictions of the Querl. He offered the conclusion that the hostility with the Querl was an outcome of the same kind of policy that he saw being enacted on Earth now. What kind of policy was that? Luodine asked. Exploitation, Thryase answered. The Hyadean power elite sought to subdue the Querl in order to establish overlordships for themselves, away from the drabness of their own tired, worn-down planets. But the splendors of Earth went far beyond anything ever seen on the Querl worlds. Now Earth represented the premium pickings for luxury resorts and estates, to be made a quasi-feudal reserve where the privileged could get rich from Terran labor and resources. Financial control was being effected with the collusion of Terran leaders in return for the Hyadeans conferring wealth, power, and protection.
“That’s exactly what the AANS is fighting,” Marie whispered to Cade. “The West is told it’s about Asia wanting to hang on to its economic advantages.”
“Now, you will be shown back on Chryse, right?” Cade checked with Thryase when he had finished. “So what kind of risks will that mean? I thought that independent coverage outside the official guidelines was unheard of.” He felt strange as the Hyadean cameras, which had been tracking the speakers automatically from different angles in the room, caught his voice and turned toward him.
“I came here as an observer. I described what I observed.” Thryase shrugged. “You see, I’ve been learning a lot since I came to Earth.”
That set the background. Next it was Cade and Marie’s turn. Luodine briefed them that the object was to get their version of the Farden-Meakes affair, the cover-up and attempt to lay the blame elsewhere, and the bid to silence the witnesses. Luodine had obviously been well versed by Vrel. She put Cade and Marie on-screen together, beginning by asking them questions and then leading them into elaborating in their own words. They spoke in English, naturally, which they were told would be dubbed by a translation for the final version. Vrel explained that the voiceover would describe them as being interviewed after escaping pursuit in the U.S. Exactly where they were and how they had gotten there would, understandably, be left vague. After a few repeats and reruns, Luodine declared that she was satisfied.