Contact across the Solar System

Back in DC

Cristina's announcement became very big news, and reporters besieged her about it. When she returned to DC, she put out a public statement about her meeting and she also released some pictures of that meeting. She also contacted the FBI about something that its agents had been doing in secret -- checking out the SSC's reports on its residents in the US, much like what Europeans and others have been doing. She asked what was ready to go, and the FBI responded "Most of it. There are still some things that we are checking out, especially for the earlier residents." She asked if Adamski's associates were ready to go. "Yes, they are. We finished them some time ago." She then invited some agents to a press conference to present their results.

She showed up with two FBI agents, while wearing a green skirtsuit with some handwritten notes and a smartphone in its pockets.

She welcomed everybody and introduced the agents, she pulled out her notes and read them, and she started with a recap of the contact effort.
"Contact with the Solar System Community has been very personally difficult for me, and it has been difficult for many other people in the world. It placed me on the horns of a dilemma - some very sharp horns that poked me very hard."
She reached around and patted her rear end.
"Poked me that hard."
"But we are gradually resolving that dilemma, and I am happy to announce some of that resolution here."
"A little over a week ago, I went to Santa Catalina Island and I met some members of the SSC's Earth Contact Committee. They read my mind about why I considered mind reading to be so troubling. Yes, everybody says that's weird, but it worked. The SSC people now have a much better appreciation of why some of us find it so troubling. To make a long story short, they can read minds and we can't, and our meeting helped bridge the gap of understanding."
"As to the SSC itself, it seemed way too good to be true. It is a Star Trek sort of society, and I've long been a fan of the Star Trek series. But as we learned more about it, it became evident that it was indeed what it seemed like. Part of that was our data recorders. Yes, we spied on the SSC. But when the SSC found out about them, they accepted it. They almost seemed to think that we needed to spy on them."
"They also kept contacts very limited, much as I and other anti-espionagers wanted. They didn't invade us in force or swamp us with tourists or do any other such thing, and they haven't been publishing everybody's secrets that they learned with their mind reading."
"I have another reason. I had a lot of hardship in my early years, but I never lost sight of the finer things in life, the higher levels of Maslow's pyramid of needs. The arts, beauty, family, friendship, love, learning, science, travel, you name it. It required a lot of sacrifice from me and my family, but it was worth it. When I entered politics, I resolved that in a moral, advanced, and productive society, no one should ever be too poor to live, and everyone should be able to enjoy the blessings that such a society makes possible. That has been my guiding light, my north star, over all my career in politics."
"When I look at the Solar System Community, it is evident to me that they have achieved that goal. They are also willing to help us achieve that goal, if we are willing to accept their spying on us and their reading our minds, and if we are willing to do some of the work that's necessary. They are also not willing to give us their most advanced technologies, out of concern that we might misuse them."

"Now for our big announcement. It's the FBI's investigation of the Solar System Community's covert residents here in the United States, an investigation using information delivered to the FBI by the SSC. It has had a sizable population of residents here, going all the way back to when this nation was some British colonies. In particular, the FBI checked on the residents that George Adamski had known: Orthon, Firkon, Ramu, Kalna, Ilmuth, and Zuhl. The SSC's details on their visits and residence stays all fit in with our records and with the memories of some people. The detective work of BeerKeg and German Shepherd at CTIE has been abundantly confirmed, and even George Adamski's accounts are also somewhat confirmed."
"With that, I hand it over to the our FBI agents here, Paul Clinton and Samantha Lansky."