Erin shook her head. “I don’t mean you can’t do that because of the technology hurdle. I mean even if you could do that—you can’t do that. My actions have breached ethics, I know that. But this would be a breach of ethics on one of the grandest scales in history.”
Hansen nodded. “Which is why Drake didn’t tell you about it. He knew you’d feel this way. Which is surprising given what you’ve been through at the hands of one of these monsters.”
Erin’s eyes widened and she visibly shrank back on the bed. The expression on Hansen’s face made it clear he regretted saying these words the instant they had come out of his mouth.
“What do you know about that?” she demanded. “Those records are sealed.”
Hansen lowered his eyes. “Nothing is sealed when it comes to Drake and his advanced computer,” he said softly. “And I am truly sorry. I’m sorry that we abused your privacy in this way. And I’m sorry that this happened to you. I can’t even imagine. But the way you picked yourself up and recovered from this is unbelievable. Inspiring. How you could trust anyone ever again, especially a man, I’ll never know. I couldn’t in your shoes.”
Erin wasn’t sure she could in her shoes either, which probably explained her lack of any kind of meaningful, long-term relationship. She blamed it on her dedication to her work, and that was part of it—but there was far more to it than that …
She looked away. She felt more violated than she had in years—possibly since the incident had occurred. But she needed to shake it off. It wasn’t Kyle’s fault for reading a profile that Drake had thrust in front of him.
Or was she already going out of her way to find reasons to forgive Kyle Hansen? To minimize his part in this? Was that why Drake had sent him? Did he and his computer predict she would be attracted to Kyle’s warmth and obvious sincerity? Was Drake even more adept at manipulation than a human?
“Is that why Drake chose me to be his partner in crime?” said Erin. “Because he figured I’d have a grudge to bear? That I’d be easier to convince to ditch my principles for a cure?”
Hansen opened his mouth to answer and then closed it again. A few seconds later he said, “That’s something you’ll have to ask him. I wasn’t involved in this decision. Drake likes to keep things compartmentalized, and until recently, I had no need to know just who it was that was testing psychopaths.”
In a rush Erin realized that while it seemed in some ways that she had known Kyle Hansen forever—her libido certainly thought so—she had just met him. She had gained a strong sense of his personality, his sense of humor, and his intelligence, but she knew absolutely nothing more about him. There was so much going on she hadn’t bothered to ask him a single question about himself.
“Time out,” she said. “Before we go any further, let’s do something I should have done a while ago. You know everything about me. But who are you? And how did you get involved in this?”
Hansen smiled. “You know, it never occurred to me I hadn’t told you already. Sorry. Let me give you the short version. I’m a physicist. Thirty years old. Single. Currently unattached,” he added, and as soon as he did a look of disbelief came over his face. “I’m not sure how my relationship status made it into a CliffsNotes summary of my entire life,” he said in embarrassment. “Must just be a Facebook-generation thing.”
Erin’s heart had picked up speed at this indication of interest on his part, so unsubtle even he was surprised it had come out of his mouth. “Right,” she said with an amused twinkle in her eye.
“I grew up in the Midwest. Indianapolis, Indiana, to be exact. My father was a mathematician and my mother a nurse, and I have two older brothers. Grew up loving science and science fiction. Completed my undergraduate at Purdue, and then went on to do graduate work in computer science and physics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Working on making advances in quantum computing.”
“That’s an interesting coincidence given what you’ve told me about Drake’s magic computer.”
“Not a coincidence. That’s how I found him. I had a theory about how to isolate quantum events. If I was right, my theory predicted a certain type of quantum pattern when I searched a particular…” He stopped himself in midsentence. “Unless you’ve spent years studying physics this isn’t going to mean much to you. So let’s just use the word spectrum for simplicity’s sake, even though this isn’t technically correct. I had a theory for how to identify certain quantum spectra and what this might mean. My thesis advisor, who was British, thought my ideas were rubbish.”
“They have such a beautiful way with words over there, don’t they?”
Hansen laughed. “He had some other choice words as well—this was just the nicest. Anyway, I went on to find what my theory predicted I would find—but more organized, and while still at vanishingly small levels, a far clearer signal than I had expected. When I plugged these results into my theory, it suggested a quantum computer was operating. Not the fledgling attempts we were currently making, but a far more sophisticated version.”
“What did your advisor say to that?”
“That it was more rubbish. He said it was obviously an artifact. To him, this was even greater proof I was wrong. After all, for me to be right, a quantum computer had to be operating. And we were decades away from something on that level. In fact, the one we were working on at CMU was the most advanced in the world.”
“He didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion it was an alien design?” said Erin, rolling her eyes. “Talk about lack of imagination.”
“Exactly,” said Hansen with a smile. “Anyway, long story short, I was stubborn. I was able to localize the source to…”
He stopped as though considering what he should say next, and there was something about his expression that made Erin believe there was more to his story than he was telling. On the other hand, this was the abbreviated version, after all, so this was to be expected.
“To Yuma,” he finished. “So I went there and began looking for a source. And I kept digging. Drake took notice. Finally he brought me into the fold. I left the graduate program and my old life behind, and removed myself from the grid. For the past four years I’ve been working with him, and learning quantum physics well beyond what human science has achieved.”
Erin realized so much was going on that she hadn’t really internalized just how monumental it was, how epoch-making, for humankind to finally have unambiguous proof, not just of alien life, but of intelligent alien life—although she still needed to verify for herself just how unambiguous this proof really was. But assuming it was true, it would change the course of human thought forever. She remembered reading a quote from a famous scientist, she couldn’t remember who, speculating about intelligent life in the universe, that was particularly apt to this situation: Sometimes I think we’re alone. Sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the thought is staggering.
“You mentioned you read a lot of science fiction,” said Erin.
“That’s right.”
“I imagine it has to be a thrill to know what this part of the galaxy is really like. To know we aren’t alone. To know that seventeen civilizations exist out there.”
Hansen nodded, and a euphoric glow spread over his face. “I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”
“So how many people work with him, besides you?”
“Indirectly, several dozen. Directly, just me, and only because I forced myself on him. He couldn’t risk that I would keep pressing, trying to get others to take my theory seriously. He knew he might be discovered if I succeeded, so he decided he had to take me on. More as damage control than anything else.”
“So what’s your role?”