Tomorrow’s Heritage Read Online Free Page B

out the details for the Science Council in a couple of weeks. This reaches to Goddard and beyond. When the theocracies and politicians get hold of it . . .” Dian made an obscene comment and Todd chuckled. “Yes, but they will. It’s going to be general knowledge. The timing’s the thing. I’ve got to try and get Pat’s help. So we wait.” He hesitated for a moment. “Will Beth and the others last until after the reunion?”
    Dian’s hands dug in painfully along his neck for a moment. Then she resumed the massage, softening it to a caress. “They’ll wait. Trust.”
    “I do. But I know how it feels. Hell, the urge to blab the news right now to the world is almost irresistible. I want to do it myself, and never mind waiting to share it with the family first.”
    “So?” Dian patted his shoulders, finishing her ministrations. She floated around him and perched on the edge of the monitor console. Her expression was wry.
    “Just how do you suggest I make that announcement, Dr. Foix?” Todd asked. “Just break in on their favorite entertainment system or local news outlet? Our news is going to change everything radically, no matter how it’s done. Our species is a masterpiece of contradictory reactions, anyway. Never more than right now.” He stared at the ERS views of Earth in space and chuckled bitterly. “Look at it, so peaceful. The epitome of the new Spirit of Humanity movement, cutting across religions, uniting the believers down there. And the same beings still wage war against each other, kill one another, even organize arenas where performers and spectators both can be maimed and killed, just so the excess violence gets boiled off from human society. How to break the news? ‘Hey, humanity, there’s an alien vehicle headed this way, a messenger from another intelligent species, one more powerful and advanced than we are. But I don’t want you to get excited about this. Stay calm. Everything’s going to work Out okay.’ ”
    Dian cocked her head, her dark brown eyes glittering with the joy and wonder of the discovery they bad made. “You could do it . . .”
    “No, I’m no orator. And that’s what it’ll take—someone to make them accept, keep down the fear, convince them the alien will bring the wonderful future. I’m not that person. Most of them have never heard of me. But if Pat . . .” Todd wondered if he was making the decision on a superstitious base: If he pretended the scheme would work, maybe it would come true.
    “No worries about converting little sis to the cause, huh?” Dian said slyly. “You know, this just might throw those wild-eyed secessionists at Goddard back on the tracks.”
    “Why not, as long as we’re wishing.”
    Dian’s pert features hardened. So did her voice. “Wishing. That’s what it is and we know it. We can’t hide what we’ve found, and we’re going to trigger off a massive reaction. Hope against hope, some of them—a lot of them—are going to panic. They’ll blow up the news and dress it in alien invasion stuff.” She touched his face, communicating her willingness to share despite her cynicism. “But a first contact is going to take place. No stopping it, or you. You detected it, and you deserve the credit. If we’re lucky, and there’s someone in the future to write a history about this era, your name is going to get remembered. I want that.”
    “Take the long view,” Todd said, reciting a phrase they had bandied back and forth for many months.
    “Affirmative . . .“
    The fear was there, deep within his mind, the way it had been ever since they had conclusively confirmed the data three weeks ago. It was wonderful, a dream of ages, Ward’s dream, his, come true. Yet the excitement and the anticipation were being tainted by his fear of the consequences. He hadn’t looked that far ahead, at the beginning, hadn’t allowed himself to contemplate the impossible—that Project Search would succeed. Now he would have to live with the