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.It was as though I d had a vision of its fullextent.It was disturbing. I can imagine. Tsien settled back in his chair,big-shouldered, potbellied, reassuring of tone. What made it soespecially uncomfortable, though? The sheer naked size of it! Franz was astonished at his ownvehemence and tried to continue in a calmer tone. I mean, there Iwas thinking in terms of millions of years and how much can youor I hope to see? A hundred and twenty at best.That s the twinkleof an eye Wrong, Tsien shot back. For us that s all the time there is,a lifetime.Beyond that, there s only numbers. Even so, Franz insisted doggedly, we talk cheerfully aboutmillions of years, we use words like age, aeon, gigayear & And we have no gut conception of what they mean. Tsien spread his hands, palms upward; the movement madehis chest and shoulders heave like mountains in an earthquake. Why should we? We don t have to survive a million years to thinkabout them, any more than Sivachandra s team have to pace out themiles in order to measure the distance of a star.Think of yourselfas measuring parallax, only by sighting on a fossil. Franz started. How did you know I was thinking aboutpaleontology? A guess, Tsien said frankly. But a likely one.It s a symbol.We re here to make a new beginning, so we re drawn to reassureourselves by studying other, earlier beginnings which we know ledto successful outcomes.I ve been doing the same, rereadingpioneer papers about space neurosis.They re like maps that assureus we re not walking into unchartered darkness. But we are! Not for the first time in human history.The circumstancesmay be new, but the process isn t.And another thing you ought tobear in mind.You were saying we can t take the long view I didn t say that! You implied it, Tsien said firmly. And you re wrong.Thiswhole trip of ours contradicts the idea.Do you honestly thinkpeople like Garmisch, who conceived this ship, or Yoseida, whodevoted his whole life to financing it and recruiting its crew,weren t capable of thinking beyond the limits of their own personalperceptions? Would you yourself have volunteered to come if youhadn t had a vision of millennia? It may be longer than that beforethe results are in, but we know they ll come.One day. And then Tessa Lubova came in, silently, and instead ofsitting beside Franz took a place, as usual, low on the left of thelong table where the Tripborn members of Captain s Conference always sat together in a tight, exclusive knot.This sort of thing is going to have to stop, Franz told himself, andon impulse called to her. Tessa, I d like you up here next to me, please. For an instant she fixed him with those stony eyes, and thenshe shook her head.Once.Quickly. I said Franz began, but Tsien laid a plump hand on hisarm.Under his breath the chief psychologist said, No, Franz.Itisn t something we planned for, this division.But we daren t denythat it exists. IIOne by one the rest of the twenty members of Conferencetook their places: Lola Kathodos of Engineering, Philippa Vautryof Medical, Sivachandra of Navigation, the three Tripborndelegates apart from Tessa Quentin Hatcher, Vera Hassan, andFatima Shan&There was a slight stir as George Hattus took his place on theleft of the captain s chair.He was the most how would you putit? the most unknown person aboard.People tensed in hispresence, though he was never anything but cordial.Like a policeman rounding the corner, Franz thought, andremembered the days when there had been such people in his life.At sight of the familiar blue uniform, even the most law-abidingsearched their consciences. Yes, that s what George is.He s the ship s conscience.Last of all, precisely on time, Magda Gomez took her place,and they all fell silent. Conference declared open, she said for the benefit of therecord. All right.Now I suppose you want to know why I vecalled you back so soon after our last meeting.It s because thereare too many sanitation-type rumors going around about Trip sEnd.People have started to get sloppy and careless.I want it to beborne in mind that when we reach Tau Ceti II, our job will bebeginning not over and done with! We re here for a purpose, andwe re going to carry it through. Her gimlet eyes fixed on Sivachandra, and he lookeduncomfortable; it was plain Magda had her own ideas as to whohad let the rumors loose. All right, Siv, let s kill the guesses once for all.Tell them thedate of Trip s End. There was a rustle of excitement.Franz tensed.Sivachandracleared his throat. We shall enter orbit around our target world, he said, inabout one hour less than fifteen days from now. A babble of comment broke out; only the Tripborn sat assilent and immobile as they always did. Now that s out of the way, Magda said finally, Lola, doyou have a question? Lola Kathodos nodded vigorously. Can we publicize thisnews or is it for our ears only? My section has been particularly fullof inside information and I d like to squash it. Yes, by all means.And what s more I m going to declarefour hours celebration time this evening.Mark you, I don t want anybody hung over tomorrow because that s when we get down toreal work.Now we can put a bit of meaning into boat drill andlanding routines.Hatcher! Quentin Hatcher cocked his head. The boat simulator is your responsibility, isn t it? I want youto pick your half-dozen best trainees and run them through a finaltest.Then Siv and I will decide who gets to make the firsttouchdown. Expressionless as ever, Hatcher nodded. Before I move on to the next stage, does anyone else haveanything to say Medical, Administration, Psychology? Oh, Franz!Didn t Ecology have a report lined up? Not for the first time, Franz found himself admiring the wayin which Magda kept her finger on the ship s multiple pulse.Hespread his hands. To be honest, I was going to have to pass on some badnews, but the nearness of Trip s End solves the problem. Better tell us what it is, anyway. We ve had a major attack of sterility in one of our mostimportant cultures.Productivity is down in all areas food, air,fresh water& Consumption would have been due to exceed outputin a month or so.But by that time, I imagine, we ll be able to bringup raw materials from the planet and tide us over. Magda glanced at Hattus. George, what s the populationright now? Two thousand one hundred forty-nine, Hattus answeredpromptly. It s one below schedule.There s a late birth coming up,isn t there, Philippa? Yes, Philippa Vautry confirmed. Edna Barsavitza is fivedays past due.I ll bring the labor on artificially; we won t want to deliver a baby while we re actually in orbit. So you think we don t need to worry about your problem,Franz? Magda said. Not if we can bring up clean water and maybe somesterilized minerals from the planet, Franz agreed. Fine.Okay, Siv? I think so, Sivachandra said after a brief hesitation [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.It was as though I d had a vision of its fullextent.It was disturbing. I can imagine. Tsien settled back in his chair,big-shouldered, potbellied, reassuring of tone. What made it soespecially uncomfortable, though? The sheer naked size of it! Franz was astonished at his ownvehemence and tried to continue in a calmer tone. I mean, there Iwas thinking in terms of millions of years and how much can youor I hope to see? A hundred and twenty at best.That s the twinkleof an eye Wrong, Tsien shot back. For us that s all the time there is,a lifetime.Beyond that, there s only numbers. Even so, Franz insisted doggedly, we talk cheerfully aboutmillions of years, we use words like age, aeon, gigayear & And we have no gut conception of what they mean. Tsien spread his hands, palms upward; the movement madehis chest and shoulders heave like mountains in an earthquake. Why should we? We don t have to survive a million years to thinkabout them, any more than Sivachandra s team have to pace out themiles in order to measure the distance of a star.Think of yourselfas measuring parallax, only by sighting on a fossil. Franz started. How did you know I was thinking aboutpaleontology? A guess, Tsien said frankly. But a likely one.It s a symbol.We re here to make a new beginning, so we re drawn to reassureourselves by studying other, earlier beginnings which we know ledto successful outcomes.I ve been doing the same, rereadingpioneer papers about space neurosis.They re like maps that assureus we re not walking into unchartered darkness. But we are! Not for the first time in human history.The circumstancesmay be new, but the process isn t.And another thing you ought tobear in mind.You were saying we can t take the long view I didn t say that! You implied it, Tsien said firmly. And you re wrong.Thiswhole trip of ours contradicts the idea.Do you honestly thinkpeople like Garmisch, who conceived this ship, or Yoseida, whodevoted his whole life to financing it and recruiting its crew,weren t capable of thinking beyond the limits of their own personalperceptions? Would you yourself have volunteered to come if youhadn t had a vision of millennia? It may be longer than that beforethe results are in, but we know they ll come.One day. And then Tessa Lubova came in, silently, and instead ofsitting beside Franz took a place, as usual, low on the left of thelong table where the Tripborn members of Captain s Conference always sat together in a tight, exclusive knot.This sort of thing is going to have to stop, Franz told himself, andon impulse called to her. Tessa, I d like you up here next to me, please. For an instant she fixed him with those stony eyes, and thenshe shook her head.Once.Quickly. I said Franz began, but Tsien laid a plump hand on hisarm.Under his breath the chief psychologist said, No, Franz.Itisn t something we planned for, this division.But we daren t denythat it exists. IIOne by one the rest of the twenty members of Conferencetook their places: Lola Kathodos of Engineering, Philippa Vautryof Medical, Sivachandra of Navigation, the three Tripborndelegates apart from Tessa Quentin Hatcher, Vera Hassan, andFatima Shan&There was a slight stir as George Hattus took his place on theleft of the captain s chair.He was the most how would you putit? the most unknown person aboard.People tensed in hispresence, though he was never anything but cordial.Like a policeman rounding the corner, Franz thought, andremembered the days when there had been such people in his life.At sight of the familiar blue uniform, even the most law-abidingsearched their consciences. Yes, that s what George is.He s the ship s conscience.Last of all, precisely on time, Magda Gomez took her place,and they all fell silent. Conference declared open, she said for the benefit of therecord. All right.Now I suppose you want to know why I vecalled you back so soon after our last meeting.It s because thereare too many sanitation-type rumors going around about Trip sEnd.People have started to get sloppy and careless.I want it to beborne in mind that when we reach Tau Ceti II, our job will bebeginning not over and done with! We re here for a purpose, andwe re going to carry it through. Her gimlet eyes fixed on Sivachandra, and he lookeduncomfortable; it was plain Magda had her own ideas as to whohad let the rumors loose. All right, Siv, let s kill the guesses once for all.Tell them thedate of Trip s End. There was a rustle of excitement.Franz tensed.Sivachandracleared his throat. We shall enter orbit around our target world, he said, inabout one hour less than fifteen days from now. A babble of comment broke out; only the Tripborn sat assilent and immobile as they always did. Now that s out of the way, Magda said finally, Lola, doyou have a question? Lola Kathodos nodded vigorously. Can we publicize thisnews or is it for our ears only? My section has been particularly fullof inside information and I d like to squash it. Yes, by all means.And what s more I m going to declarefour hours celebration time this evening.Mark you, I don t want anybody hung over tomorrow because that s when we get down toreal work.Now we can put a bit of meaning into boat drill andlanding routines.Hatcher! Quentin Hatcher cocked his head. The boat simulator is your responsibility, isn t it? I want youto pick your half-dozen best trainees and run them through a finaltest.Then Siv and I will decide who gets to make the firsttouchdown. Expressionless as ever, Hatcher nodded. Before I move on to the next stage, does anyone else haveanything to say Medical, Administration, Psychology? Oh, Franz!Didn t Ecology have a report lined up? Not for the first time, Franz found himself admiring the wayin which Magda kept her finger on the ship s multiple pulse.Hespread his hands. To be honest, I was going to have to pass on some badnews, but the nearness of Trip s End solves the problem. Better tell us what it is, anyway. We ve had a major attack of sterility in one of our mostimportant cultures.Productivity is down in all areas food, air,fresh water& Consumption would have been due to exceed outputin a month or so.But by that time, I imagine, we ll be able to bringup raw materials from the planet and tide us over. Magda glanced at Hattus. George, what s the populationright now? Two thousand one hundred forty-nine, Hattus answeredpromptly. It s one below schedule.There s a late birth coming up,isn t there, Philippa? Yes, Philippa Vautry confirmed. Edna Barsavitza is fivedays past due.I ll bring the labor on artificially; we won t want to deliver a baby while we re actually in orbit. So you think we don t need to worry about your problem,Franz? Magda said. Not if we can bring up clean water and maybe somesterilized minerals from the planet, Franz agreed. Fine.Okay, Siv? I think so, Sivachandra said after a brief hesitation [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]