Today's Reading

Lavonia nodded. "Redundancy is good. But I've got to talk to the governor, so what can we say for sure today? Bottom-line this for me."

Sheila thought about it, trying to determine what she could say that would satisfy her boss despite their limited information. "Okay. From a data perspective, you know that we've maintained that the planet is 97 percent likely to support colonization?"

"Yes. We teach that to children."

"Right. That number is now over 99 percent."

Lavonia grunted. "That's it?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"That's not much."

Sheila paused, now unsure if her boss was serious or just trying to spin her up, but nothing in their history suggested that the older woman had a sense of humor. At the same time, they'd just learned that their odds of finding a livable planet had increased by fortyfold. How could she miss that? "What.. what do you mean, not much? This is huge."

Lavonia leaned to the side, her shoulder against the wall. "Okay, you're the expert. If you say so."

If I say so? Math says so!

"I absolutely do. I can't wait to tell my team. They're going to be so excited—"
 
"What? No! This stays between you and me."

"What?" Vaguely, Sheila realized her mouth was hanging open. "This is scientific data. My people need it for their work, and they should have it before any kind of news announcement. We especially need to look into what happened to the communications."

Lavonia shook her head. "It's hypothetical data, and until it's verified, not a word. The last thing we need is people getting their hopes up for something, and then us finding out that we made a mistake—"

"But it's not hypothetical. The data is clear—"

Lavonia raised a hand, cutting her off. "Let me put it a different way. The data may be clear. It may be science. But the decision on whether to release that data to the public is a political one, and we're not going to make that decision without briefing the governor first. Is that clear?"

Sheila took a deep breath in through her nose, trying to hold back her emotions. This was the most important discovery of her lifetime—of anyone's lifetime on the ship—and she couldn't tell anybody about it. It wasn't clear at all—what did politics have to do with facts? Yet when she spoke, it was barely more than a whisper. "Yes, ma'am."

Lavonia stared her down for a few more seconds, and then her face softened. "Look. I know this is important to you, and I know it affects other things that your team does."

"Not just my team. All the science subdirectorates. The implications for xenobiology are—"

"I get that," said Lavonia, cutting her off. "But can you imagine what would happen if word got out about a failure of communications with the first probe without the proper context? There could be a panic."

Sheila considered it. She hadn't thought of it that way, but now that she had, she could see it. She still wanted to argue, though. They could issue a statement, provide the context. But they'd know more about the loss of communications in a day. She could certainly wait that long. "Okay. I hear you."

Lavonia softened her voice. "I promise, you can tell your people before there's a public announcement, just as soon as the governor approves it."

Sheila nodded, hoping that she wasn't being set up. Part of her couldn't help but believe that Lavonia wanted to politicize the announcement to further her own ambitions, but was that fair? The announcement would cause a commotion on the ship, and it did make sense to let the governor know so that he could be prepared for that. He'd be a key part of managing expectations, and his team could help tell the story in an accurate and responsible manner.

"Are we okay?" asked Lavonia.

"We're good."

Lavonia nodded once. "Good. I'll let you know when it's time to brief the governor. I'll try to make it soon. Until then, we keep it to ourselves."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." Lavonia opened the door and left.

Sheila stood there for at least a minute, stunned. What just happened?
...

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