Reese had never heard this before. Did this mean she owed her life to the Imria? The thought didn’t sit well with her.
Dr. Brand continued: “The procedure put them into a healing coma for several weeks, during which the chamber—and the Imrian DNA—worked to repair their physical injuries. One positive side effect of the Imrian DNA is that it also promotes much faster healing. It was truly a last-resort effort. Had they not been on the verge of death, we would not have tried it, because at the time of their accident, the procedure was still in testing and was not one hundred percent safe.” Dr. Brand smiled. “We were overjoyed that Reese and David reacted so well to it. We are so happy to see them safe and sound today.”
Everyone turned to look at them again, but Reese noticed that Amber was the only one of the Imria without a smile on her face. She seemed pensive rather than happy.
Dr. Brand said, “I’m also very pleased to announce that we are going to make this procedure available to as many humans as we can.” A dozen questions were shouted at her all at once, and she held up her hands. “I will answer as many of your questions as I can, and my associates will be available during your tours to take your questions as well. Additionally, information on the adaptation procedure will be provided in the precis that you’ll receive later today.”
“I thought you said the procedure wasn’t one hundred percent safe,” one reporter called.
Dr. Brand nodded. “It is not. I must be honest with you. We were working very hard to save Reese’s and David’s lives when we operated on them, and for that reason we did not record everything as precisely as we would have in a controlled environment. Therefore, we are not going to make this procedure widely available just yet. First we will issue a call for volunteer test subjects. Those subjects will need to consider the potential risks very carefully. We do anticipate that some tests will not be successful, but we hope that the number of failures will be few.”
“By ‘failure,’ what exactly do you mean?”
“I mean,” Dr. Brand answered soberly, “that we do expect some test subjects to die.”
A thrum of tension rippled through the audience. “How many?” a reporter asked.
“We don’t know. We believe the fatality rate will be low. But we cannot be sure—not until we have done more tests.” Dr. Brand shifted in place and glanced at David and Reese again. “We believe that the successful test subjects will be between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Adolescent brains are very different than adult brains, because adult brains have become specialized. In fact, the younger the subjects are the better, but we will not undertake testing on children. That is against our principles.”
“You’re going to do this to teenagers?” said an astonished journalist.
“We will only take volunteers. We believe there will be teens who are in situations where the potential for risking their lives makes sense. For example, teens who are suffering a life-threatening illness.”
“How will you find these teens?”
“We are working carefully to construct an application. We will let you know when it’s ready.”
Akiya Deyir stood and Dr. Brand moved aside so that he could approach the podium again. “Thank you, Evelyn. As Evelyn said, further information about the adaptation procedure will be made available to you later today. Perhaps in the interest of time, we could move on from this subject for now. Does anyone have other questions?”
“What about Amber Gray?” one reporter asked. “She was shot in that video, but she seems perfectly healthy now, only two weeks later. Did she use this chamber thing?”
Reese saw Amber raise her head to seek out the member of the audience who had asked the question, but it was Dr. Brand who answered it.
She returned to the microphone and said, “Our medical sciences are more advanced than yours. We operated on Amber after she was shot, but we also heal more quickly than humans. One of the prime advantages of making the adaptation procedure available to humans in the future is this lifesaving ability to heal.”
As Dr. Brand sat down, Deyir asked, “More questions?”
“In the video, it looked like Amber Gray saved Reese Holloway from getting shot, and then Amber appeared at the press conference in front of the Holloway house. What is Amber Gray’s role in all this?”
Reese remembered that the press gathered here didn’t know what she had told Sophia Curtis about Amber, because that interview hadn’t aired yet.
“Amber is a unique member of our Earth-based team,” Deyir answered. “She is Evelyn’s daughter, and unlike the rest of us, she was born here on Earth. Her role was to contact Reese after her return from the adaptation procedure and make sure that she was healing properly. Any other questions?”
An excited murmur rose from the reporters, and one said, “We want to hear from Amber herself. Can she tell us what she did to contact Reese? Did she see that bullet coming?”
Amber sat very still, making no move to stand. For one instant, she glanced at Reese, who tensed up.
“I’m afraid Amber will not be speaking to you today,” Deyir said with an apologetic smile. “She has undergone a major ordeal herself, and she won’t be making any public statements. Do you have any other questions?”
Reese let out her breath in relief. A buzz of frustration rose from the reporters in the audience around her, but it didn’t take them long to refocus.
“You said that you had a misunderstanding with the US government. Can you say more about that?”
“I’m afraid not,” Deyir said. “We are currently discussing the situation with your government and we don’t want to disrupt that process. We’ll let you know more details when we can, but I want to assure you that we believe we can move forward from this and form a solid and mutually beneficial relationship.”
“Are you behind the global phenomena of UFOs?”
“There are far too many UFOs reported for us to be the cause of them all,” Deyir answered. “It may be that some sightings were of our ships, but I estimate that is a very small percentage.”
One of the reporters shouted out a question that caused the whole crowd to fall silent: “Why do you look like us?”
The ambassador stood still for a long moment, considering the question. “For millennia—many more millennia than humans have known—we have been seeking answers to questions about our origins. The only thing we have learned for sure is that even we cannot know everything. We are born; we live our lives; we die. As individuals, we will never know—not truly—what we were before we were born. We cannot know if our consciousness was created during our gestation, or if it existed previously, scattered among the dust of the stars. We cannot know what happens to us after we die. There are places we are unable to walk, things we are unable to know.
“One of the things we have been unable to determine—that we will likely never be able to know—is the exact nature of how our species came into existence. We can approximate, of course. Some of your own theories about the origins of life are similar to ours. We can talk about proteins and amino acids or chemical stews or bacteria traveling the universe in asteroids. All of these—or perhaps none of these—are possibilities. What we do know from our travels throughout the universe and our research over time is that life, whenever and wherever it emerges, is always a miracle. The odds are stacked against it. Though we have found other life-forms—small, single-cellular organisms are plentiful—there are very, very few intelligent species out there. We have found evidence that others have existed, that they came into being and flourished and disappeared. We know that we are not the first, and we will not be the last. We know that life turns in a cycle, just as it does for each individual. Each species, each civilization is born, it flourishes, and it dies.”
Akiya Deyir looked out at the audience seated in front of him and smiled a thin, strange smile. “So, the answer to your question, I’m afraid, may not be very satisfying, but it is the truth. As Evelyn said, there is no coincidence. The fact that we have found you humans; the fact that you look like us; that we could be your siblings—it is a miracle. And we are grateful for it.”
CHAPTER 10
In order to tour the Imrian ship, everyone at the press conference was divided into groups of six, and each group of six was packed into a long SUV to make the five-minute drive from the visitors’ center to the landing spot.
