Giant Series 01 - Inherit the Stars

by Inherit the Stars [lit]

  Pictures from the past rolled by before his mind's eye: a boy,

  reading books, shut away in the upstairs bedroom of a London slum .

  . . a youth, pedaling a bicycle each morning through the narrow

  streets of Cambridge. The people he had been were no more real than

  the people he would become. All through his life he had been moving

  on, never standing still, always in the process of changing from

  something he had been to something he would be. And beyond every

  new world, another beckoned. And always the faces around him were

  unfamiliar ones-they drifted into his life like the transient

  shadows of the rocks that now moved toward him from the mists

  ahead. Like the rocks, for a while the people seemed to exist and

  take on form and substance, before slipping by to dissolve into the

  shrouds of the past behind him, as if they

  had never been. Forsyth-Scott, Felix Borlan, and Rob Gray had

  already ceased to exist. Would Caidwell, Danchekker, and the rest

  soon fade away to join them? And what new figures would materialize

  out of the unknown worlds lying hidden behind the veils of time

  ahead?

  He realized with some surprise that the mists around him were

  getting brighter again; also, he could suddenly see farther. He was

  climbing upward across an immense ice field, now smooth and devoid

  of rocks. The light was an eerie glow, permeating evenly through

  mists on every side as if the fog itself were luminous. He climbed

  higher. With every step the horizon of his vision broadened

  further, and the luminosity drained from the surrounding mist to

  concentrate itself in a single patch that second by second grew

  brighter above his head. And then he was looking out over the top

  of the fog bank. It was just a pocket, trapped in the depression of

  the vast basin in which the base had been built; it had no doubt

  been sited there to shorten the length of the shaft needed to reach

  the Ganymean ship. The slope above him finished in a long, rounded

  ridge not fifty feet beyond where he stood. He changed direction

  slightly to take the steeper incline that led directly to the

  summit of the ridge. The last tenuous wisps of whiteness fell away.

  At the top, the night was clear as crystal. He was standing on a

  beach of ice that shelved down from his feet into a lake of cotton

  wool. On the opposite shore of the lake rose the summits of the

  rock buttresses and ice cliffs that stood beyond the base. For

  miles around, ghostly white bergs of Ganymedean ice floated on an

  ocean of cloud, shining against the blackness of the night.

  But there was no Sun.

  He raised his eyes, and gasped involuntarily. Above him, five times

  larger than the Moon seen from Earth, was the full disk of Jupiter.

  No photograph he had ever seen, or any image reproduced on a

  display screen, could compare with the grandeur of that sight. It

  filled the sky with its radiance. All the colors of the rainbow

  were woven into its iridescent bands of light, stacked layer upon

  layer outwards from its equator. They faded as they approached its

  edge and merged into a hazy circle of pink that encircled the

  planet. The pink turned to violet and finally to purple, ending in

  a clear, sharp outline that traced an enormous circle against the

  sky. Immutable, immovable, eternal. . . mightiest of

  the gods-and tiny, puny, ephemeral man had crawled on a pilgrimage

  of five hundred million miles to pay homage.

  Maybe only seconds passed, maybe hours. H~tht could not tell. For a

  fraction of eternity he stood unmoving, a speck lost among the

  silent towers of rock and ice. Charlie too had stood upon the

  surface of a barren waste and gazed up at a world wreathed in light

  and color-but the colors had been those of death.

  At that moment, the scenes that Charlie had seen came to Hunt more

  vividly than at any time before. He saw cities consumed by

  fireballs ten miles high; he saw gaping chasms, seared and

  blackened ash that had once held oceans, and lakes of fire where

  mountains had stood. He saw continents buckle and break asunder,

  and drown beneath a fury of white heat that came exploding outward

  from below. As clearly as if it were really happening, he saw the

  huge globe above him swelling and bursting, grotesque with the

  deceptive slowness of mighty events seen from great distances. Day

  by day it would rush outward into space, consuming its moons one

  after the other in an insatiable orgy of gluttony until its force

  was spent. And then.

  Hunt snapped back to reality with a jolt.

  Suddenly the answer he had been seeking was there. It had come out

  of nowhere. He tried to trace its root by backtracking through his

  thoughts-but there was nothing. The pathways up from the deeper

  levels of his mind had opened for a second, but now were closed.

  The illusion was exposed. The paradox had gone. Of course nobody

  had seen it before. Who would think to question a truth that was

  self-evident, and older than the human race itself?

  "Pithead Control calling Dr. V. Hunt. Dr. Hunt, come in, please."

  The sudden voice in his helmet startled him. He pressed a button in

  the control panel on his chest.

  "Hunt answering," he acknowledged. "I hear you."

  "Routine check. You're five minutes overdue to report. Is

  everything okay?"

  "Sorry, didn't notice the time. Yes, everything's okay. . . very

  okay. I'm coming back now."

  "Thank you." The voice cut off with a click.

  Had he been gone that long? He realized that he was cold. The icy

  fingers of the Ganymedean night were beginning to feel their way

  inside his suit. He wound his heating control up a turn and

  flexed his arms. Before he turned, he looked up once more for a

  final glimpse of the giant planet. For some strange reason it

  seemed to be smiling.

  "Thanks, pal," he murmured with a wink. "Maybe P11 be able to do

  something for you someday."

  With that he began moving down from the ridge, and rapidly faded

  into the sea of cloud.

  chapter twenty-three

  A group of about thirty people, mainly scientists, engineers, and

  UNSA executives, filed into the conference theater in the Naycomms

  Headquarters building. The room was arranged in ascending tiers of

  seats that faced a large blank screen at the far end from the

  double doors. Caldwell was standing on a raised platform in front

  of the screen, watching as the various groups and individuals found

  seats. Soon everybody was settled and an usher at the rear signaled

  that the corridor outside was empty. Caidwell nodded in

  acknowledgment, raised his hand for silence, and stepped a pace

  forward to the microphone in front of him.

  "Your attention, please, ladies and gentlemen . . . Could we have

  quiet, please . . ." The baritone voice boomed out of the

  loudspeakers around the walls. The murmurs subsided.

  "Thank you all for coming on such short notice," he resumed. "All

  of you have been engaged for some time now in some aspect or other

  of the Lun
arian problem. Ever since this thing first started, there

  have been more than a few arguments and differences of opinion, as

  you all know. Taking all things into consideration, however, we

  haven't done too badly. We started out with a body and a few scraps

  of paper, and from them we reconstructed a whole world. But there

  are still some fundamental questions that have remained unanswered

  right up to this day. I'm sure there's no need for me to recap them

  for the benefit of anyone here." He paused. "At last, it appears,

  we may have answers to those questions. The new developments that

  cause me to say this are so unexpected that I feel it appropriate

  to call you all together to let you see for yourselves what I saw

  for the first time only a few hours ago." He waited again and

  allowed the mood of the gathering to move from one suited to

  preliminary remarks to something more in tune with the serious

  business about to begin.

  "As you all know, a group of scientists left us many months ago

  with the Jupiter Five Mission to investigate the discoveries on

  Ganymede. Among that group was Vic Hunt. This morning we re

  ceived his latest report on what's going on. We are about to replay

  the recording for you now. I think you will find it interesting."

  Caldwell glanced toward the projection window at the back of the

  room and raised his hand. The lights began to fade. He stepped down

  from the platform and took his seat in the front row. Darkness

  reigned briefly. Then the screen illuminated to show a file header

  and reference frame in standard UNSA format. The header persisted

  for a few seconds, then disappeared to be replaced by the image of

  Hunt, facing the camera across a desktop.

  "Navcomms Special Investigation to Ganymede, V. Hunt reporting, 20

  November 2029, Earth Standard Time," he announced. "Subject of

  transmission: A Hypothesis Concerning Lunarian Origins. What

  follows is not claimed to be rigorously proven theory at this

  stage. The object is to present an account of a possible sequence

  of events which, for the first time, explains adequately the

  origins of the Lunarians, and is also consistent with all the facts

  currently in our possession." Hunt paused to consult some notes on

  the desk before him. In the conference theater the silence was

  absolute.

  Hunt looked back up and out of the screen. "Up until now I've

  tended not to accent any particular one of the ideas in circulation

  in preference to the rest, primarily because I haven't been

  sufficiently convinced that any of them, as stated, accounted

  adequately for everything that we had reason to believe was true.

  That situation has changed. I have now come to believe that one

  explanation exists which is capable of supporting all the evidence.

  That explanation is as follows:

  "The Solar System was formed originally with nine planets, which

  included Minerva and extended out as far as Neptune. Akin to the

  inner planets and located beyond Mars, Minerva resembled Earth in

  many ways. It was similar in size and density and was composed of a

  mix of similar elements. It cooled and developed an atmosphere, a

  hydrosphere, and a surface composition." Hunt paused for a second.

  "This has been one source of difficulty- reconciling surface

  conditions at this distance from the Sun with the existence of life

  as we know it. For proof that these factors can indeed be

  reconciled, refer to Professor Fuller's work at London University

  during the last few months." A caption appeared on the lower

  portion of the screen, giving details of the titles and access

  codes of Fuller's papers on the subject

  "Briefly, Fuller has produced a model of the equilibrium states of

  various atmospheric gases and volcanically introduced water vapor,

  that is consistent with known data. To s'ustain the levels of free

  atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor, and the existence of

  large amounts of water in a liquid state, the model requires a very

  high level of volcanic activity on the planet, at least in its

  earlier history. That this requirement was evidently met could

  suggest that relative to its size, the crust of Minerva was

  exceptionally thin, and the structure of this crust unstable. This

  is significant, as becomes clear later. Fuller's model also ties in

  with the latest information from the Asteroid surveys. The thin

  crust could be the result of relatively rapid surface cooling

  caused by the vast distance from the Sun, but with the internal

  molten condition being prolonged by heat sources below the surface.

  The Asteroid missions report many samples being tested that are

  rich in radioactive heat-producing substances.

  "So, Minerva cooled to a mean surface temperature somewhat colder

  than Earth's but not as cold as you might think. With cooling came

  the formation of increasingly more complex molecules, and

  eventually life emerged. With life came diversification, followed

  by competition, followed by selection-in other words, evolution.

  After many millions of years, evolution culminated in a race of

  intelligent beings who became dominant on the planet These were the

  beings we have christened the Ganymeans.

  "The Ganymeans developed an advanced technological civilization.

  Then, approximately twenty-five million years ago, they had reached

  a stage which we estimate to be about a hundred years ahead of our

  own. This estimate is based on the design of the Ganymean ship

  we've been looking at here, and the equipment found inside it.

  "Some time around this period, a major crisis developed on Minerva.

  Something upset the delicate mechanism controlling the balance

  between the amount of carbon dioxide locked up in the rocks and

  that in the free state; the amount in the atmosphere began to rise.

  The reasons for this are speculative. One possibility is that

  something triggered the tendency toward high volcanic activity

  inherent in Minerva's structure-maybe natural causes, maybe

  something the Ganymeans did. Another possibility is that the

  Ganymeans were attempting an ambitious program of climate control

  and the whole thing went wrong in a big way. At present we

  really don't have a good answer to this part. However, our

  investigations of the Ganymeans have hardly begun yet. There are

  still years of work to be done on the contents of the ship alone,

  and I'm pretty certain that there's a lot more waiting to be

  discovered down under the ice here.

  "Anyhow, the main point for the present is that something happened.

  Chris Danchekker has shown . . ." Another file reference appeared

  on the bottom of the screen. ". . . that all the higher,

  air-breathing Minervan life forms would almost certainly have

  possessed a very low tolerance to increases in carbon-dioxide

  concentration. This derives from the fundamental system of

  microchemistry inherited from the earliest ancestors of the line.

  This implies, of course, that the changing surface conditions on

  Minerva posed a threat to the very existence of most forms of
land

  life, including the Ganymeans. If we accept this situation, we also

  have a plausible reason for supposing that the Ganymeans went

  through a phase of importing on a vast scale a mixed balance of

  plant and animal life from Earth. Perhaps, stuck out where it was,

  Minerva had nothing to compare with the quantity and variety of

  life teeming on the much warmer planet Earth.

  "Evidently, the experiment didn't work. Although the imported stock

  found conditions favorable enough to flourish in, they failed to

  produce the desired result. From various bits of information, we

  believe the Ganymeans gave the whole thing up as a bad job and

  moved out to find a new home somewhere outside the Solar System.

  Whether or not they succeeded we don't know; maybe further study of

  what's in the ship will throw more light on that question."

  Hunt stopped to pick up a case from the desk and went through the

  motions of lighting a cigarette. The break seemed to be timed to

  give the viewers a chance to digest this part of his narrative. A

  subdued chorus of mutterings broke out around the room. Here and

  there a light flared as individuals succumbed to the suggestion

  from the screen. Hunt continued:

  "The native Minervan land species left on the planet soon died out.

  But the immigrant types from Earth enjoyed a better adaptability

  and survived. Not only that, they were free to roam unchecked and

  unhindered across the length and breadth of Minerva, where any

  native competition rapidly ceased to exist. The new arrivals were

  thus free to continue the process of evolutionary

  development that had begun millions of years before in the oceans

  of Earth. But at the same time, of course, the same process was

  also continuing on Earth itself. Two groups of animal species,

  possessing the same genetic inheritance from common ancestors and

  equipped with the same evolutionary potential, were developing in

  isolation on two different worlds.

  "Now, for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, allow me

  to introduce Cyril." The picture of Hunt vanished and a view of the

  man-ape retrieved from the Ganymean ship appeared.

  Hunt's voice carried on with the commentary: "Chris's team has made

  a thorough examination of this character in the Jupiter Four

  laboraties. Chris's own summary of their results was, quote: