"Yeah, I guess you're right. Will you back me up in the conference, Tom?"
The doctor nodded. "Gladly. It's pretty hard to believe, but you've got me believing."
Jim was personally acquainted with most of the newsmen who showed up for his conference. He had met them and helped them get stories on the Prospector during the past two years. They were sympathetic toward him.
He began his story by reviewing his initial discovery of the difference in moon elements. He explained the analysis and showed them samples of the telemetry record. Then he eased slowly into his discovery of fossil hydrocarbons and finally the living hydrocarbons. He watched carefully as he moved deeper into the story. He didn't want to lose them here.
They stayed with him, incredulous but confident that he knew what he was talking about. It was when he spoke of the fluctuating potential measurements, that proved to be interpretable as EEG recordings that he almost lost them. But he introduced Tom Banning quickly to verify his statements. And Tom introduced the EEG machine itself. He offered to demonstrate. A half dozen of the reporters tried it. They had no doubts, afterward.
"You can almost draw your own conclusions," said Jim in winding up the conference. "That thing is out there in our sky. There's no doubt about it. I've shown you what we know. Now let me tell you what I believe:
"There is some form of life in the moon. It is not merely in the moon. It is the moon. I believe its bulk occupies almost the entire volume of the moon. I believe this nemesis was spawned incalculable eons ago in a time and a space that is literally outside our own. It was driven out of that time and space by intelligent beings who could not destroy it, but who could at least exile it in a state of dormancy. Or perhaps they thought they had destroyed it and wanted not even the remains in their own domain. Perhaps the craters of the moon were caused by bombardment intended to destroy the thing.
"But it is not dead. It was dormant. Now, our laser probings have stirred it to feeble life. It made a deliberate effort to capture or destroy the Prospector by opening a fissure beneath it. My TV film recording proves that the fissure was not there previously.
"What are we to do about it? That is why I have called you here. Consider that the science of the intelligences in the domain that spawned this thing could not destroy it. What chance has our feeble science and powers against such a force? Hydrogen bombs would probably serve only to feed it the energy for which it is starved.