Sub Sitting In?

This is my entry into the wewrite freewrite contest, by @zeldacroft and @freewritehouse, for week #13. For more information on the contest, have a look at this post:
https://steemit.com/wewrite/@freewritehouse/we-write-13-the-host

This Week's Prompt
The Host
by @ntowl

The silver orb gleamed in the light. Resting on a long metal tube extending from a circular base, nothing had ever terrified Jonathan more. He glanced at the clock. Three minutes left. He rolled his chair closer to the desk, grasped the tube in his right hand, and pulled the orb closer. A wave of heat flashed through him and he dabbed his forehead with a towel in his left hand. The roaring in his ears grew louder as he double checked the status on the monitors. A quick high-pitched but not unpleasant beep, beep, beep broke through the noise in his head.

"Two minutes to go Jonny. Ads are rolling now, I'll start your introduction when they end. You'll go live immediately after, just like we rehearsed yesterday," Steven's calm voice came through the headphones Jonathan wore.

He nodded, eyes wide.

"Jonny? You there bud?"

"Yes."

"We must have an audio issue. I can barely hear you. Damn! I knew we should have run a few more tests. Ok, give me a sec-"

"It's ok," Jonathan said louder, and swallowing hard. "I-I just lost my voice there a bit." He dabbed his face and released his death grip on the microphone. It's shiny surface reflected a distorted version of himself stretched around the sphere, broken in spots by the mesh that let his voice travel through.

"Yeah, that's better. Look, I know it's your first live show and your nerves are probably on edge."

You have no idea, Jonathan thought as his heartbeat began pounding in his ears.

"Everyone's nervous their first time. But you're here for a reason, remember that," Steven paused, "Time check, thirty seconds. Take a couple of deep breaths, shake out the nervousness and be ready to go at the end of your intro. We've already got ten calls on hold for you. They warned me you'd be popular! No catching up on my reading during your show. Time check, fifteen seconds. You got this bud, right?"

"Yes. Yes I do," he said sitting up taller in his chair, dabbing his forehead again. "No problem at all..."

"Awesome! Remember I'm here for you behind the scenes, keep an eye on the system chat in the bottom left corner of the screen. Time check, intro rolling..."

The bumper music played in his ear and a man with an unbelievably deep voice told the audience how lucky they were to be listening to the internet radio station KFLY and their newest host. The introduction ended and Jonathan miraculously became Jonny.

"Hey everyone. This is Jonny James on KFLY radio and I'm so glad you could join us for the premier of Everything and Anything. I'd like to jump right in and take some calls rather than bore you with the overly pedantic babbling I tend to do. Sooooo, Caller one. Tell us your name, where you're from, and whatever it is you want to share tonight."

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••.•´•.••My Part Begins••.•´•.••

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“Hi Jonny… I’m Ralph from East Bolden, and I wanted to bring up the extraterrestrial life-forms vying for permits to set up colonies, first on our moon, and then possibly here on earth if everything goes okay with the moon colonies, and ask what you think of the current proposal for the basic, required qualifications that have been set in place for such approvals?”

“Well hello Ralph from East Bolden, a neighborhood I’m quite familiar with, having grown up in the adjacent Preston Hill division. Yours is a very timely question, and one that, just 5 years ago, would have been the stuff of science fiction. You know this all started in 2021, right?"

Ralph spoke up, “Yes, I was working night shift at a shipping center. We always had the radio playing over the loudspeakers, and it blew us away when we heard the special report of the confirmation that they existed, and that our government was in contact with them, on the radio that night.”

“We didn’t get a lick of work done the rest of that night. And that included the shift foreman, too! Nobody did crap that night but listen to the reports once they started.”

“Right… my experience was somewhat similar to yours, Ralph, except I was in my dorm room at Stanford, and my roommate and his girlfriend were there, watching TV while I was trying to study for a physics exam. When the special report came on, I heard it and rushed out to watch.”

Jonny continued, “As for the current issue that’s up for debate, now that several extraterrestrial societies have expressed their desire to work with us and to become new settlers and inhabitants of planet earth along with us, we have entered the “friendship phase” as they have accepted our wishes to set up earthling colonies on their worlds as well.”

“I think we just ride it out at this point Ralph, and see how it works out. I think it’s pretty promising though. Thank you for that Ralph, and now I see we have Jonathon on the line. Good evening Jonathon, I see you’re from Atton View. A beautiful neighborhood; so, what can we help you with tonight, Jonathon?”

“Why don’t you start by telling your listeners what a fraud you are?”

Jonny froze, and Steven debated with himself on whether he should end the call, since the guy seemed to just be out to make trouble, but he didn’t want to end it without Jonny giving approval. After a very awkward pause of dead air, Jonny spoke up.

“I should just end this call, Jonathon, but since you have asked such an insulting, accusatory, out of line opening question, I will just ask you, Jonathon; “Just what, in your estimation, qualifies you to even bring such rubbish to the public forum? I think you know that you sound like a nut; or do you?”

“You know why I called… Jonny. I called because you are a fraud – who’s impersonating ME!”

Sources for images used in this post:

_{On Air: Image by Ben Hartwich from Pixabay
Forklift: Image by Pashminu Mansukhani from Pixabay
Man In Despair: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay}