Part XVII

    If you watched the NBC Nightly News on September 19th, you saw the exact same thing Angus, Chief Brennan, Betty, and every other Tom, Dick, and Harry saw that night.  Brian Williams conducted a live interview with an astronaut performing a space walk on a mission to perform maintenance on the Hubble Space Telescope.   It was a total PR stunt from the government.  The questions rehearsed, vetted, and void of any digging into the purpose behind the sudden launch to conduct a mission normally left to UFO grant chasers.  Undoubtedly, many viewers would have turned to the Phillies and Braves dueling it out in a division battle had the interview gotten any less interesting than it already was.
    "Colonel Stenson, thanks for being patient during our commercial break.  Are you still with us?"
    "That's affirmative, Houston, I mean America."  A public smile from Brian Williams in response to an intentional miscue.  "It's very rare to have an interview from space and even more so while we are conducting a mission, even one as routine as this."
    "So Colonel, do you really expect to find signs of intelligence during this mission?"
    "That won't be my job Brian, I'm just up here to conduct preventative maintenance and ensure that this giant camera will function properly.  The guys on the ground have an interest in the Eta Cassiopeia system due to it's relative proximity to our own solar system.  Just like the Kepler and Mars missions, NASA focuses a portion of its efforts on finding other Earth-like planets suitable for the possibility of life.  NASA isn't thinking in such large steps yet."
    "Can you give those of us on Earth a description of your view from space?"
    "Breathtaking.  Amazing.  Any word like that you want to use, use it.  There isn't a view like it anywhere on Earth.  I would love to be able to sit back and enjoy it but we're under a timeline so that will have to wait."
    "Understood Colonel.  What's the plan for the rest of your time in space?"
    "We've got another mission planned that will be led on the ground to calibrate the lenses tomorrow.  Once we're finished and given the green light, we'll dock with the space station for about a week or so to transfer cargo and conduct some other routine maintenance.  This is a fairly stand- what the..."
    A few flashes blinked on the side of Colonel Stenson's darkened visor and a bright white flash blurred out the screen.  He turned to face the source, didn't say a word, and the feed kept rolling.  Reflecting on his helmet were a series of lights in multiple rows moving across his faceplate.  He raised the sun visor and the camera caught the expression of a young boy inside a 45 year old man.  Realizing the camera was stationary, he slowly turned it and sent approximately 10 seconds of footage down to Earth that shocked everyone who saw.
    "You are not going to believe this..."  The only other thought Colonel Stenson had in his mind to do was lift a hand and wave.  Then someone cut the feed.