Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

CHAPTER 29"Seeing is not always believing. "—Rod SerlingTHE DIMINUTIVE GRAY being turned its head slowly to-ward where ColonelFerguson stood. The military man, whose concentration was temporarily focused ongauging the initial responses of those in the room, suddenly behaved as though he'd beentapped politely on the shoulder. He turned to Adam with his full attention. The two ofthem gazed at one another for a few seconds without the slightest hint of expression onthe part of either. The Colonel nodded, and then turned to the wide-eyed audience."A few words of introduction are in order before Adam gets to know all of you,"he began, visibly pleased by the astonished reactions of the team. "Adam is, as you cansee, one of the `mythical' creatures to which I've been referring for some time now. He'spart of the ongoing exchange program to which I've also alluded. He and a few other`Grays,' as they've been categorized, visit us rotationally on a regular schedule. Theirduties include technical assistance and, now that we've agreed to their insistence ondisclosure, compliance to that agreement. We send our own counterparts to them aswell.""Where?" a flabbergasted Dr. Chadwick blurted out."Their base of operations is on the other side of the moon right now. As far asexchange programs, we use the underground base in Dulce, New Mexico; AREA 51 andits sister location S-4; and our base in Pine Gap, Australia. This is the first time Adam hasbeen to Mount Weather.""How does it communicate? " Malcolm asked eagerly."Please don't use the word `it' around Adam. The military's sexist predilectionbeing what it is," he intoned, eyeing Deidre, "we've assigned male names to all thevisitors. As you know, they are sexless, but they are sentient, have a range of emotions,and can be offended. They normally don't wear anything, either; the clothes were ouridea.""Sorry. The T-shirt's a nice touch.""Why does he walk so strangely?" Melissa asked."Gravity. It takes him time to get used to earth's gravity, particularly in thecontext of his frail anatomy. Which reminds me," the Colonel continued, "Adam does notspeak as you and I do. He communicates telepathically. He can receive messages fromyou mentally—you can think in words, since he has the English vocabulary of, roughly, ateenager. It should go without saying, however, that he's considerably more intelligent.It's far better to conceive concepts or visualize, but that takes a lot of practice on our part.He can also receive conversation verbally, again with the same vocabulary limitations.When he `speaks' to you, he will use both words and images. One last—"The Colonel suddenly stopped and abruptly turned toward Adam, whose gaze wasriveted on Deidre. The small creature turned again toward the Colonel, who then glared at256