"Yes . . . very much so. Thank you." There were a thousand other questions that he could have asked at that moment, but he decided to leave them all for ZORAC later; for the time being he was having enough trouble even trying to visualize engineering on such a scale, yet Shilohin made the whole thing sound as routine as putting up an apartment block.
"As I said a moment ago," Shilohin resumed, "our government insisted on testing the theory first. Our expedition was formed for that purpose--to carry out a full-scale trial experiment on a Sun-like star elsewhere." She paused and made a gesture that was not familiar. "As it turned out, I guess they did the right thing. The star became unstable and went nova. We barely escaped with our lives. Garuth has just told you of the problem with the Shapieron's propulsive system that resulted in the situation we have now--although we have aged less than twenty years since leaving Iscaris, on your time scale this all happened twenty-five million years ago. So here we are."
A chorus of mutterings broke out around the room. Shilohin waited for a few moments before continuing. "It's a bit cramped in here and difficult to change places. Does anybody else have any questions for me before I sit down again and hand this back to Garuth?"
"Just one." The speaker was Lawrence Foster, commander of Main. "A few of us have been wondering. . . You developed a technology that was way ahead of ours--interstellar travel for instance. So you must have explored the Solar System pretty thoroughly in the course of all that. Somebody here's taking bets that at least some Ganymeans got to Earth at some time. Care to comment on that?"
Shilohin seemed to flinch slightly for some reason. . . although it was difficult to be sure. She did not answer at once, but turned to exchange a few briefly muttered words with Garuth. Then she looked up again.
"Yes. . . you are correct. . ." The words coming through the headphones and earpieces of the listeners sounded hesitant, as if faithfully reproducing an uncertainty from the original utterances. "The Ganymeans came. . . to Earth."
A stir of excitement broke out across the room. This was something that nobody wanted to miss.
"Before your expedition went to Iscaris, I guess," Foster said.
"Yes, naturally . . . in the hundred Earth years or so before that time." She paused. "In fact a few of the crew of the Shapieron went to Earth before being recruited for the Iscaris expedition. None of them is here at the moment though."
The Earthmen were keen to hear more about their own world from beings who had actually been there long before they themselves had even existed. Questions began pouring spontaneously from all around the room.
"Hey, when can we talk to them?"
"Do you have any pictures stored away someplace?"
"How about maps or something?"
"I bet they built that city high up in that place in South America."
"You're crazy. It's not near old enough."
"Were these the expeditions to Earth to bring back the animals?"
The sudden increase in the enthusiasm of her audience seemed only to add to Shilohin's confusion. She picked up the last question, the answer to which they already knew, as if hoping for some reason that it would divert attention from the rest.
"No, there were no shipments of animals to Minerva then, neither was there any talk of such a plan. That must have happened later on. Like you, we do not know why that was done."
"Okay, but about the--" Foster stopped speaking as ZORAC sounded in his ear.
"This is ZORAC speaking only to the Earthmen; I am not interpreting for Shilohin. I do not believe that the Ganymeans really wish to elaborate further for the time being. It might be a good idea to change the subject. Excuse me."
The puzzled frowns that immediately appeared all over the room confirmed that all the Earthmen had heard the same thing: apparently the message had not, however, been transmitted to the Ganymeans, who showed none of the reactions that it would, without a doubt, have elicited. An awkward silence reigned for just a second before Foster took firm control and steered them all into calmer waters.
"These things can wait until another time," he said. "Time's getting on and we must be near dinner. Before we finish here, we ought to agree on our more immediate plans. The biggest problem seems to me to be the trouble you've got with your ship. How do you plan tackling that, and is there anything we can do to help?"
Shilohin conferred briefly with her companions and then sat down, giving a distinct impression of relief at getting out of the firing line. Her place was taken by Rogdar Jassilane, chief engineer of the Shapieron.
"We've had twenty years to figure out what the problem is, and we know how to fix it," he told them. "Garuth has described the effect of the trouble, which involved being unable to slow down the system of circulating black holes upon which the physics of the drive is based. All the time that drive was running, there was nothing we could do about it. We're able to fix it now, but some key components were wrecked and to attempt replacing them from scratch would be difficult, if not impossible. What we really need to do is to have a look at the Ganymean ship that's under the ice at Pithead. From the pictures you've shown us, it seems to be a somewhat more advanced design than the Shapieron. But I'm hopeful we will be able to find what we need there. The basic concepts of the drive appear to be the same. That's the first thing we have to do--go to Pithead."
"No problem there," Foster said. "I'll arrange . . . oh, excuse me a second . . ." He turned to throw an inquiring look at a steward, who had appeared in the doorway. "I see . . . thanks. We'll be right along." He looked back toward Jassilane. "Sorry about that, but dinner's ready now. Yes, in answer to your question, we can arrange that expedition for as early as you like tomorrow. We can talk about the details later tonight, but in the meantime, shall we all go through?"
"That will be fine," Jassilane said. "I will select some of our own engineers for the visit. In the meantime as you say, let's all go through." He remained standing while the rest of the Ganymeans hoisted themselves to their feet behind him, forming a hopeless crush at the end of the room.
As the Earthmen also stood up and began moving back to make more space for the giants, Garuth made one final comment. "The other reason we wish to see the ship at Pithead is also very important to us. There is a chance that we might find some clues there which support your theory that the Ganymeans eventually migrated to another star system. If that is true, we might perhaps find something to identify which star it was."
"I think the stars can wait until tomorrow too," Jassilane said as he moved past. "Right now I'm more interested in that Earth food. Have you tried that stuff they call pineapple yet? It's delicious--never anything like that on Minerva."
Hunt found himself standing beside Garuth in the crowd forming around the door. He looked up at the massive features. "Would you really do it, Garuth. . . go all the way to still another star, after all this time?"
The giant stared down and seemed to be weighing the question in his mind.
"Perhaps," he replied. "Who knows?" Hunt sensed from the tone of the voice in his ear that ZORAC had ceased operating in public-address mode and was now handling separately the different conversations taking place on either side. "For years now my people have lived on a dream. At this time more than any other, it would be wrong to destroy that dream. Today they are tired and think only of rest; tomorrow they will dream again."
"We'll see what tomorrow brings at Pithead then," Hunt said. He caught the eye of Danchekker, who was standing immediately behind them. "Are you going to sit with us at dinner, Chris?"
"With pleasure, provided you are prepared to tolerate my being unsociable," the professor replied. "I absolutely refuse to eat with this contraption hanging round my head."
"Enjoy your meal, Professor," Garuth urged. "Let the socializing wait until afterward."
"I'm surprised you heard that," Hunt said. "How did ZORAC know we were talking in a group of three? I mean, it must have known that to put it through on your audio as well."
"
Oh, ZORAC is very good at things like that. It learns fast. We're quite proud of ZORAC."
"It's an amazing machine."
"In more ways than you perhaps imagine," Garuth agreed. "It was ZORAC that saved us at Iscaris. Most of us were overcome by the heat when the ship was caught by the fringe of the nova; that was what caused many of the deaths among us. It was ZORAC that got the Shapieron clear."
"I really must stop calling its brethren contraptions," Danchekker murmured. "Wouldn't want to upset it or anything if it's sensitive about such matters."
"That's okay by me." A different voice came through on the circuit. "As long as I can still call your brethren monkeys."
That was when Hunt learned to recognize when a Ganymean was laughing.
When they all sat down to dinner, Hunt was mildly surprised to note that the menu was completely vegetarian. Apparently the Ganymeans had insisted on this.
Chapter Ten
The period of leave that Hunt and Danchekker had originally intended to spend on Jupiter Five had expired anyway, so the two scientists traveled the next day with the mixed party of Earthmen and Ganymeans to Pithead Base. The journey was indeed a mixed affair, with some Ganymeans squeezing into the UNSA medium-haul transporters while the luckier Earthmen traveled as passengers in one of the Shapieron's daughter vessels.
The first thing the aliens were shown at Pithead was the distress beacon that had brought them across the Solar System to Ganymede; already that event seemed a long time ago. The aliens explained that ordinary electromagnetic transmissions could not be received inside the zone of localized space-time distortion that was generated by the standard form of Ganymean drive, and for this reason most long-range communications were effected by means of modulated gravity pulses instead; the beacon used precisely this principle. The Ganymeans had picked up the signal after they had at last shut down their main drives and entered the Solar System under auxiliary power, which was fine for flitting around between planets but not much good for interstellar marathons. Their subsequent bewilderment at what they found--Minerva gone and an extra planet where there shouldn't have been one--could well be imagined; and then they had picked up the signals. As one UNSA officer said to Hunt: "Imagine coming back in twenty-five million years' time and hearing something out of today's hit parade. They must have wondered if they hadn't really been anywhere at all and had dreamed the whole thing."
The party continued on through a metal-walled underground corridor which brought them to the laboratories where preliminary examinations were normally made of items brought up from the ship below. The room that they found themselves in was a large one divided by half-height partitions into a maze of work bays, each a clutter of machinery, test instruments, electronics racks and tool cabinets. Above it all, the roof was barely visible behind the tangles of piping, ducts, cables and conduits that spanned the room.
Craig Patterson, the lab supervisor for that section, ushered the group into one of the bays and gestured at a workbench on which lay a squat metal cylinder, about a foot high and three feet or more across, surrounded by an intricate arrangement of brackets, webs and flanges, all integral with the main body. The whole assembly looked heavy and solid and had evidently been removed from a mounting in some larger piece of equipment; there were several ports and connections that suggested inlet and outlet points, possibly electrical.
"Here's something that's had us baffled," Patterson said. "We've brought a few of these up so far--all identical. There are hundreds more down there, all over the ship. They're mounted under the floors at intervals everywhere you go. Any ideas?"
Rogdar Jassilane stepped forward and stooped to study the object briefly.
"It resembles a modified G-pack," Shilohin commented from the doorway where she was standing next to Hunt. The Ganymeans were able to converse via ZORAC, still at Main, seven hundred miles away. Jassilane ran a finger along the casing of the object, examined some of the markings still visible in places, and then straightened up, apparently having seen all he needed.
"That's what it is, all right," he announced. "It seems to have a few extras to the ones I'm used to, but the basic design's the same."
"What's a G-pack?" asked Art Stelmer, one of Patterson's engineers.
"An element in a distributed node field," Jassilane told him.
"Great," Stelmer replied with a shrug, still mystified.
Shilohin went on to explain. "I'm afraid it's to do with a branch of physics that hasn't been discovered by your race yet. In your space vessels, such as Jupiter Five , you simulate gravity by arranging for most portions of the structure to rotate, don't you?" Hunt suddenly remembered the inexplicable sensation of weight that he had felt on entering the Shapieron. The implication of what Shilobin had just said became clear.
"You don't simulate it," he guessed. "You manufacture it."
"Quite," she confirmed. "Devices like that were standard fittings in all Ganymean ships."
The Earthmen present were not really surprised since they had suspected for some time that the Ganymean civilization had mastered technologies that were totally unknown to them. All the same they were intrigued.
"We've been wondering about that," Patterson said, turning to face Shilohin. "What kind of principles is it all based on? I've never heard of anything like this before." Shilohin did not answer at once but seemed to pause to collect her thoughts.
"I'm not really sure where to begin," she replied at last. "It would take rather a long time to explain meaningfully. . . ."
"Hey, there's a booster collar from a transfer tube," one of the other Ganymeans broke in. He was staring over the partition into the adjoining bay and pointing to another, larger piece of Ganymean machinery that was lying there partially dismantled.
"Yes, I believe you're right," Jassilane agreed, following his companion's gaze.
"What the hell's a booster collar?" Stelmer pleaded.
"And a transfer tube?" Patterson added, forgetting his question of a few seconds before.
"There were tubes running all over the ship that were used for moving objects, and people, from place to place," Jassilane answered. "You must know them because I've seen them on the plans of the ship that your engineers have drawn."
"We kind of half-guessed what they were," Hunt supplied. "But we were never really sure about how they worked. Is this another G-trick?"
"Right," Jassilane said. "Local fields inside the tubes provided the motive force. That collar next door is simply a type of amplifier that was fitted around the tube to boost and smooth the field strength. There'd be one--oh--every thirty feet or so, depending on how wide the tube was."
"You mean people went hurtling through these things?" Patterson sounded distinctly dubious.
"Sure. We've got them in the Shapieron too," Jassilane replied nonchalantly. "The main elevator that some of your people have already been in runs in one. That one uses an enclosed capsule running inside, but the smaller ones don't. In those you just freefall."
"How do you avoid colliding with somebody?" Steliner asked. "Or are they strictly one-way?"
"Two-way," Jassilane told him. "A tube would usually carry a split field, half up and half down. The traffic can be segregated without problems. The collar contributes to that too--part of it is what we call a'beam edge delimiter.'"
"So how d'you get out?" Stelmer persisted, still clearly fascinated by the idea.
"You decelerate through a localized pattern of standing waves that's triggered as you approach the drop-out point you've selected," Jassilane said. "You enter in much the same way . . ."
The conversation degenerated into a long discussion on the principles of operation and traffic control employed in the networks of transfer tubes built into Ganymean spacecraft and, as it turned out, most Ganymean buildings and cities. Throughout it all, Patterson's question as to how it worked never did get answered.
After spending some time examining a few more items from the ship, the party left that section of the base to
continue their tour. They followed another corridor to the subsurface levels of the Site Operations Control Building and ascended several flights of stairs to the first floor. From there an elevated walkway carried them into an adjacent dome, constructed over the head of number-three shaft. Eventually, after negotiating a labyrinth of walkways and passages, they were standing in the number-three high-level airlock anteroom. A capsule was waiting beyond the airlock to take the first half-dozen of them down to the workings below the surface. By the time the capsule had returned and made its third descent, the whole party was together again deep inside the ice crust of Ganymede.
Accompanied by Jassilane, two other Ganymeans, and Commander Hew Mills, the senior officer of the uniformed UNSA contingent at Pithead, Hunt emerged from the capsule into number-three low-level anteroom. From there a short corridor brought them at last to the low-level control room, where the rest of the party was already gathered. Nobody took any notice of the new arrivals; all eyes were fixed on the view that confronted them from beyond the expanse of glass that constituted the far wall of the control room.
They were looking out over a vast cavern hewn and melted from the solid ice, shining a hundred different hues from gray to brilliant white in the light from a thousand arc lamps. The far side of the cavern was lost to view behind a forest of huge steel jacks and columns of ice left intact to support the roof. There, immediately before them, stretching away into the distance and cutting a clean swath through the forest, was the Ganymean ship.
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