“What?”
“Here is a short feature that’s just been released by the syndication department of EVM.”
Michaelmas rubbed his face and the back of his neck; the heel of his hand massaged surreptitiously behind his right ear. “Proceed,” he said unwillingly, and Domino went to the audio track of a canned topical vignette for sale to stations that lacked feature departments of their own.
“Ask the World,” said a smooth, featureless, voice-over voice. “Today’s viewer question comes from Madame Hertha Wieth of Ulm. She asks: ”What are the major character differences between astronauts and cosmonauts?“ For her provocative and interesting question, Frau Wieth, a mother of four lovely children and the devoted wife of Stationary Engineer Augustus Friedrich Wieth, will receive a complimentary shopping discount card, good for one full calendar year, from the Stroessel Department Stores, serving Ulm and nearby communities honorably for the past twenty years. Stroessel’s invites the world’s custom. And now, for the reply to our viewer’s question, Ask the World turns to Professor Henri Jacquard of the Ecole Psychologique, Marseilles. Professor Jacquard:”
“Merci. Madame Wieth’s question implies a penetrating observation. There are significant psychological differences between the space fliers of the United States of North America and those of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. For example, let us compare Colonel Walter Norwood to Major Pavel Papashvilly.”
Domino said : “Now this is over stock portraits of the two. Then it goes to documentary footage of Norwood walking to church, Norwood addressing a college graduating class, Norwood riding a tour bicycle through a park, Papashvilly ski racing, Papashvilly diving from a high tower, Papashvilly standing in a hospital and talking enthusiastically to a group of amputees, Papashvilly flying a single-place jet, Papashvilly driving at a sports-car track. Bridgehampton; that’s some of your footage, there.”
“Well, at least we’re making money. Go on.”
“Colonel Norwood,” Professor Jacquard said, like most other American astronauts, is a stable person of impeccable middle-class background. He is essentially a youthful professional engineer whose superior physical reflexes have directed him to take active roles as a participant in carefully planned and thoughtfully structured engineering studies. He is an energetic but prudent researcher, inclined by temperament as well as extensive training to proceed always one step at a time. His recent mishap was clearly no fault of his own, and a thousand-to-one misfortune. His invariable technique is to follow a reliable plan which he is always ready to revise appropriately upon discovery of new facts and after sufficient consultation with authoritative superiors. In sum, Colonel Norwood, very like many of his “good buddies” fellow astronauts, is a startlingly European man, belying any provincial notion that North American males are all thinly disguised cowboys.
“On the other side of the coin is the cosmonaut programme of the Soviet Union. In the days of independent flight, Soviet space efforts were marked by unexpected changes of schedule, by significant fast-priority overhauls and in some cases major engineering transformations of supposedly finalized equipment. The Soviet Union remains the only nation which has suffered fatalities as a direct result of flight in space. Some of these were ascribable to equipment failure. Other unplanned mission events, if one is to judge from numerous incidents of exuberant behaviour while in flight, may well be laid to a certain boisterousness, which is not to say recklessness, on the part of cosmonauts over the years. There are those who say that taken as a whole, the Soviet cosmonautics programme was characteristically uncertain of its engineering and insufficiently strict in selecting flight personnel. It is of course an oversimplification to ascribe such qualities to Major Papashvilly simply because he comes to his position as a result of nomination by the Soviet cosmonaut command. But it could not be denied that the Soviet Union would naturally bring forward the individual who seemed most fitted to their standards.”
“Elan,” Professor Jacquard Summed up, “is often a praiseworthy quality. In fact, there are times when nothing else will suffice to gain the day.”
Domino said: “This is over shots now of horsemen jumping pasture fences in the Georgian mountains.”
“From his racial background, Major Papashvilly finds himself hereditarily equipped to concentrate all his powers on a single do-or-die moment,” Jacquard said. “Should such a moment arise, an individual of this type may very well succeed despite sober mathematical odds. One must be fair, however, and point out that individuals of Major Papashvilly’s type are frequently marked by the presence of one or more minor injuries at all times. In some cases, persons who suffer many small discomfitting accidents as a result of their life-styles are said in the educated world to have an ”accident-prone character“. I hope, Madame Wieth, that I have answered your question in a satisfactory manner.”
“Thank you, Professor Henri Jacquard, of the Ecole Psychologique, Marseilles, replying to the question by Madame Hertha Wieth, of Ulm. Tomorrow’s question on Ask the World is ”How does one recognize one’s ideal mate?“ and will be answered by Miss Giselle Montez of the American Warbirds entertainment.”
Michaelmas rubbed his eyes. “EVM is originating this?”
“Yes.”
“Gervaise have anything to do with it?”
“No. There’s a routine memo from the programming director: ”Want astro item today. How about this from my question backfile?“ And there’s a routine memo from an assistant, bucking the top memo down to the assignment desk and adding, ”How about that Jacquard person for this?“ The rest of the process was equally natural. They did rush it out, of course, but you would if you wanted to be topical.”
“It’s the slant that bothers me.”
“Yes.”
“You think they’re tiptoeing up on an anti-Pavel campaign in the media.”
“I had that thought when I reviewed it, yes. Now I am examining Major Papashvilly’s surroundings very carefully. I have found what I believe to be at least one instance of tampering.”
“You have.” Michaelmas sat perfectly still, his hands dangling between his knees, his face stupid. Only his eyes looked alive, and they were focused on God knows what.
“Yes. He’s in his apartment; they want him somewhere out of the public eye. I have been conducting routine surveillance, as instructed. I am in full contact with his building environmental controls and all his input and output connections. Everything appears to be operating routinely. Which now means I must check everything. I am doing so, piece by piece. A control component in his nearest elevator is fraudulent. It appears normal, and functions normally. It responds normally to routine commands. But it’s larger than the normal part; I can detect a temperature variation in its area, because it slightly obstructs normal airflow. I’ve managed to get the building systems to run a little extra current through it, and I find its resistance significantly higher than specification.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. But the extra portions, whatever they are, do not broadcast, and are not wired into anything I can locate. I think it is a wireless-operated device of some kind, designed to be activated ok signal from some source which cannot be directly located until it goes on the air. Since I don’t know the component, I have no means of blocking that signal, whatever it is and whatever it might make that component do.”
“And so?”