“I worked,” he said, “for NASA. Back in ye olden days, before they got folded into GSAF. I was responsible for analyzing data and images sent back from their Lewis and Clark mission, one of the last rovers that was sent precolonization, to test for inhabitability. And I found evidence that indicated that not only had Mars been inhabited by lifeforms before, but that some of these lifeforms had been sentient. Intelligent. Possibly human.”

I sat up in my chair. “What sort of evidence?”

Emil narrowed his eyes at me. “I think you know what sort, boy. I’ve been watching you. I know you’ve found stuff out there in the hills.”

The room suddenly felt very cold. I couldn’t exactly put my sweatshirt on, though, without him seeing Scylla’s artifact, so I just rubbed my hands over the long sleeves of my t-shirt.

“Why did GSAF deny your findings, though?”

He snorted again. “There was a lot of money tied up in colonization. The environmental lobbies were putting pressure on Earth’s governments to decrease carbon emissions. When the big manufacturers found out that they could outsource their operations to another planet, and get a tax credit to boot? It was a land rush. There wasn’t time to postpone colonization to conduct full-scale research. So my findings were discredited, kept under wraps. Swept under the carpet until everyone forgot about them.”

“But… but what about your peers?” I spluttered. “I mean, the other scientists that saw Lewis and Clark’s data—they would have backed you up, wouldn’t they?”

“A few of them did, and lost their jobs as well. The rest of them kept quiet. Economic times were tough, kid. Sometimes it was smarter to sit down and shut up so you could keep putting bread on the table.”

I slumped back in my chair. Un-torquing-believable. It seemed ridiculous, but everything I’d seen over the last two months seemed to match up. I could feel another tension headache pulsating behind my eyes.

“So what are you doing here now? And where does my dad come into it?” I asked.