telescopes. “You may wonder-as I did-how he ever hoped to get such a gigantic project started. He planned a simple demonstration, which he was certain would provide enough evidence to prove his theories.
“He was going to launch two equal, massive weights in exactly opposite directions, each towing a fine wire, several hundred kilometers long. When the wires had been completely deployed, the weights would be jettisoned—and he would have a simple dipole antenna, perhaps a thousand kilometers long. He hoped that he could persuade the Solar Survey to do the experiment, which would be quite cheap, and would certainly produce some results of value. Then he was going to follow it up with more ambitious schemes, shooting wires out at right angles, and so on….
“But I think I’ve said enough to let you judge for yourselves. There’s much more I’ve not had time to transcribe. I hope you can be patient, at least until after the Centennial. For that, as you are well aware, is what I really came for—and I have work to do …. 9”
“Thank you for your moral support, Bob,” said Duncan when he and His
Excellency the Ambassador for Titan had emerged into the bright sunlight of
Virginia Avenue.
“I never said a word. I was completely out of my depth. And I kept hoping that someone would put the question I’m stiff anxious to see answered.”
“What’s that?” Duncan asked suspiciously.
“How did Helmer think he could get away with 09)
“Oh, that,” said Duncan, mildly disappointed; this aspect of the matter seemed so unimportant now. “I think I understand his strategy. Four years ago, when we turned down his project for a simple long wave detecting system-because we couldn’t afford it, and he wouldn’t say what he was really driving at-he decided he’d have to go directly to Earth and convince the top scientists there. That meant acquiring funds, somehow. I’m sure he hoped that he’d be vindicated so quickly
that we’d forget any minor in281 fraction of the exchange laws. It was a gamble, of course, but he felt it so important that he was prepared to take risks.”
“Hmm,” said the Ambassador, obviously not too impressed. “I know that
Helmer was a friend of yours, and I don’t want to speak harshly of him. But wouldn’t it be fair to call him a scientific genius-and a criminal psychopath?”
Rather to his surprise, Duncan found himself bristling at this description.
Yet he had to admit it contained some truth. One of the attributes of the psychopath-a term still popular among laymen, despite three hundred years of professional attempts to eradicate it-was a moral blindness to any interests but his own. Of course, Karl could always produce a very convincing argument that his interests were for the best of all concerned.
The Makenzies, Duncan realized with some embarrassment, were also skilled at this kind of exercise.
“If there were irrational elements in Karl’s behavior, they were at least partly due to a breakdown he had fifteen years ago. But that never affected his scientific judgment; everyone I’ve spoken to agrees that Argus is sound.”
“I don’t doubt it-but why is it important?” -I’d hoped,” said Duncan mildly, “that I’d made that clear to our invisible friends.”
And I believe I have, he told himself, to at least one of them. His most penetrating questioner was certainly one of Terra’s top radio astronomers.
He would understand, and only a few allies at that level were necessary.
Duncan was certain that someday they would meet again, this time eye to eye, and with a pointed lack of reference to any prior encounter.
“As to why it’s important, Bob, I’ll tell you something that I didn’t mention to the Committee, and which I’m sure Karl never considered, because he was too engrossed in his own affairs. Do you realize what a project like
Argus would do to the Titan economy? It would bring us billions and make us the scientific hub of the Solar System. It might even go a long way to solve our financial problems, when the demand for hydrogen
starts to drop in the ‘80’s.” 282 “I appreciate that,” Farrell answered dryly, “especially as my taxes will go toward it. But let nothing interfere with the March of Science.”
Duncan laughed sympathetically. He liked Bob Farrell, and he had been extremely helpful. But he was less and less sure of the Ambassador’s loyalties, and it might soon be time to find a replacement. Unfortunately, it would again have to be a Terran, because of this infernal gravity; but that was a problem Titan would always have to live with.
He could certainly never tell his own ambassador, still less the Argus
Committee, why Karl’s brainchild might be so vital to the human race. There were speculations in that Minisec-luckily, there was no hint of them in the sketchbook-which had best not be published for many years, until the project had proved itself.
Karl had been right so often in the past, seizing on truths beyond all bounds of logic and reason, that Duncan felt sure that this last awesome intuition was also correct. Or if it was not, the truth was even stranger; in any event, it was a truth that must be learned. Though the knowledge might be overwhelming, the price of ignorance could be-extinction.
Here on the streets of this beautiful city, steeped in sunlight and in history, it was hard to take Karl’s final comments seriously, as he speculated about the origin of those mysterious waves. And surely even Karl did not really believe all the thoughts he had spoken into the secret memory of his Minisec, during the long voyage to Earth…. But he was diabolically persuasive, and his arguments had an irresistible logic and momentum of their own. Even if he did not believe all his own conjectures, he might still be right.
“Item one,” he had murmured to himself (it must have been hard to get privacy on that freighter, and Duncan could sometimes bear the noises of the ship, the movements of the other crew members), “these kilohertz waves have a limited range because of interstellar absorption. They would not normally be able to pass from one star to another, unless
plasma clouds act as waveguides, channeling them over greater distances. So their origin must be close to the Solar System.
“My calculations all point to a source-or sources -at about a tenth of a light-year from the Sun. Only a fortieth of the way to Alpha Centauri, but two hundred times the distance of Pluto… No man’s land-the edge of the wilderness between the stars. But that’s exactly where the comets are born, in a great, invisible shell surrounding the Solar System. There’s enough material out there for a trillion of those strange objects, orbiting in a cosmic freezer.
“What’s going on, in those huge clouds of hydrogen and helium and all the other elements? There’s not much energy-but, there may be enough. And where there’s matter and energy-and Time-sooner or later there’s organization.
“Call them Star Beasts. Would they be alive No -that word doesn’t apply.
Let’s just say-“Organized systems.” They’d be hundreds or thousands of kilometers across, and they might live-I mean, maintain their individual identity-for millions of years.
“That’s a thought. The comets that we observe are they the corpses of Star
Beasts, sent sunward for cremation? Or executed criminals? I’m being ridiculously anthropomorphic-but what else can I be?
“And are they intelligent? What does that word mean? Are ants intelligent-are the cells of the human body intelligent? Do all the Star
Beasts surrounding the Solar System make a single entity-and does It know about us? Or does It care?
“Perhaps the Sun keeps them at bay, as in ancient times the campfire kept off the wolves and saber-toothed tigers. But we are already a long way from the Sun, and sooner or later we will meet them. The more we learn, the better.