SEN. LARCH: Will you describe Spaceship X for us, Colonel Greaves?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Yes. It was roughly cylindrical in shape, and constructed of a dead-black, nonreflective metal. Only one viewport was visible to us—a small one just aft of the lock—and this viewport proved to be the only one the ship possessed. Perk and I estimated the vessel's length at about five hundred feet, its breadth at about eighty-five feet, and its depth—as I said, it was only roughly cylindrical—at about fifty feet. In view of later developments, I think it safe to say that these estimates were close to being one-hundred percent correct.
SEN. LARCH: Are you positive that they are your original estimates, colonel? Are you certain that you did not revise them in order to substantiate the conclusion you arrived at after boarding the vessel?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Those are our original estimates.
SEN. KUELL: Senator, may I have a word?
SEN. LARCH: Please proceed, Senator Kuell.
SEN. KUELL: Colonel Greaves, I'm sure you realize what a grave bearing yours and Commander Perkins' discovery can have upon religious beliefs throughout the world should the conclusion you arrived at prove to be correct. Therefore, I'm sure that you won't take it amiss if I press this matter of dimensions a bit further. Now a cubit, as all of us present are well aware of, represents the length of the human arm from the end of the middle finger to the elbow—a matter of from eighteen to twenty-two inches. We have, in other words, a variation of five inches. Hence three hundred cubits, broken down into feet, varies from four hundred and fifty feet to five hundred and fifty feet; fifty cubits, broken down into feet, varies from seventy-five feet to ninety-one and one half feet; and thirty cubits, broken down into feet, varies from forty-five feet to fifty-five feet. Now, if we calculate the average of each of these sets of figures, we arrive at the following dimensions: length—five hundred feet; breadth—eighty-three and one fourth feet; and depth or height—fifty feet. Does it not strike you as being highly significant, Colonel Greaves, that yours and Commander Perkins' estimates should have thus fortuitously approximated—and two cases actually have coincided with—these figures, and isn't it reasonable to assume that you revised your true original estimates so that they would accord with your subsequent theory as to the nature of Spaceship X, and that the actual dimensions of Spaceship X may be altogether different from those which you ascribe to it?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Again, I can only say that the estimates I gave you were our original estimates. We had no need to revise them and we would not have revised them even if the need had arisen.
SEN. KUELL: Then why weren't they radioed back to central control coincidentally with your announcement that you had sighted—and I use your own words—'what appears to be a spaceship of stupendous proportions'? Why were they withheld until after you had re-boarded the Camaraderie 17?