Earth Afire (The First Formic War)

negative and Yanyu had to retract her hand, reinsert it into the field, and begin the dance again. Finally they reached a simple, metal door adorned with the Juke Limited logo and the words:
     
    A STRONOMICAL O BSERVATORY
    Yanyu led them into a low-lit observation room with a domed ceiling. Images of star clusters and nebulae and astronomical data were projected onto the ceiling, dissolving in and out like a screensaver. A dozen desks were scattered around the room with lamps and computer terminals and personal items. In the center of the room was a conference table, where a small crowd of researchers stood waiting. Yanyu stopped and gestured to the bearded man near the front. “Victor, Imala, I’d like you to meet Dr. Richard Prescott, the director of the observatory and our lead astrophysicist.”
    Prescott stepped forward and shook Imala’s hand. He was younger than Victor had expected, midthirties maybe, with a mop of brown hair and casual street clothes. “Ms. Bootstamp. A privilege. Welcome. And Mr. Delgado, good to have you, as well. I hope you had no problems getting here.”
    “I had to sneak Victor out of the recovery hospital where he was being held,” said Imala. “Which broke a few laws and makes both of us fugitives. Other than that, no problems.”
    Prescott seem unfazed by this. He put his hands in his pockets and smiled warmly. “Well, you’re safe here.”
    Imala cut to the chase. “We need to get an audience with Ukko Jukes. With his backing, we can make a legitimate warning to Earth. Can you make that happen?”
    “Probably,” said Prescott. “But first things first.” He gestured to the conference table. “Won’t you sit down?”
    “You don’t believe us, do you?” said Victor.
    Prescott smiled. “We wouldn’t have brought you here if we didn’t think you might be telling the truth, Victor. We all believe you to some extent. But before any of us act, we want to be absolutely certain. There are people outside this room who will need a lot more convincing than us. If we work together, we might be able to win them over.” He gestured again to the table, and this time Victor and Imala each took a seat.
    Prescott sat at the head of the table. “You have to realize, people in our field are even more skeptical of claims of extraterrestrial life than normal people. We have to be. Scientists are bred to doubt and question everything. Plus the prevailing belief has always been that we would hear extraterrestrial life before we saw it. We’d pick up their transmissions long before they showed up on our scopes. But so far no one in the science community has heard anything.”
    “You can’t hear anything,” said Imala. “The interference is crippling communications.”
    “True,” said Prescott. “But that makes the whole claim of extraterrestrial life all the more difficult to believe. Impaired communications strike a lot of people as enormously convenient to a charlatan trying to justify the sky’s silence.”
    “I’m not a charlatan,” said Victor.
    “I’m not saying you are,” said Prescott. “I’m telling you what the chatter is out there. Nobody wants to back you because it’s a claim they can’t independently validate. So they keep quiet and hope someone else will take the risk. No one wants to look like a fool supporting what might be the biggest hoax of the century.”
    “The biggest discovery of the century,” Victor corrected. “Not to mention the biggest threat to our species.”
    Prescott settled back in his chair. “That’s the question, isn’t it? Yanyu has shown us a few observations she’s made. We’ve all seen the vids you and Imala uploaded. We’ve combed through the evidence. We’ve argued about it for hours. Now we want to hear it straight from you. If we believe you, we’ll make things happen. The floor is yours, Victor. Convince us.”
    Victor glanced at Imala, who gave him an encouraging nod. Then he looked at the faces of the people gathered around the table, all of them older than him and well educated and experts in their field. Most of their expressions were unreadable, but a few had a hard time hiding their skepticism.
    He cleared his throat and began to speak.
    For the first hour no one said a word. Then Yanyu would occasionally speak up, throwing in astronomical data that seemed to validate Victor’s story.
    When he finished, the questions came fast. How is this ship causing the interference? Where is the ship now? Has