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civilization. We also know a lot about Charlie, including his place of birth,
which is given on several of his personal documents as a town easily
identified on Minerva. But that doesn't prove very much. My deputy was born in
Japan, but both his parents come from Brooklyn. So until we know a lot more
than we do, we can't even say for sure that the Minervan civilization and the
Lunarian civilization were one and the same.
"It's possible the Lunarians originated on Earth and either went to live on
Minerva or made contact with another race who were there already. Maybe the
Lunarians originated on Minerva. We just don't know. Whichever alternative you
choose, you've got problems."
Alien Marine Life Traced to Minerva
Professor Christian Danchekker, an eminent biologist at Westwood
Laboratories, Houston, and also involved in Lunarian research from the
beginning, confirmed that the alien species of fish discovered among
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foodstocks in the ruin of a Lunarian base on Lunar Farside several months ago
(Times, 6 July 2028) appear to have been a life form native to Minerva.
Markings on the containers in which the fish were preserved show that they
came from a well-defined group of equatorial islands on Minerva. According to
Professor Danchekker: "There is no question whatsoever that this species
evolved on a planet other than Earth. It seems clear that the fish belong to
an evolutionary line that developed on Minerva, and they were caught there by
members of a group of colonists from Earth who established an extension of
their civilization there."
The professor described the suggestion that the Lunarians might also be
natives of Minerva as "ludicrous."
Despite a wealth of new information, therefore, much remains to be explained
about recent events in the Solar System. Almost certainly, the next twelve
months will see further exciting developments.
(See also the Special Supplement by our Science Editor on page 14.)
Chapter Thirteen
Captain Hew Mills, UN Space Arm, currently attached to the Solar System
Exploration Program mission to the moons of Jupiter, stood gazing out of the
transparent dome that surmounted the two-story Site Operations Control
building. The building stood just clear of the ice, on a rocky knoll
overlooking the untidy cluster of domes, vehicles, cabins, and storage tanks
that went to make up the base he commanded. In the dim gray background around
the base, indistinct shadows of rock buttresses and ice cliffs vanished and
reappeared through the sullen, shifting vapors of the methane-ammonia haze.
Despite his above-average psychological resilience and years of strict
training, an involuntary shudder ran down his spine as he thought of the thin
triple wall of the dome -- all that separated him from this foreboding,
poisonous, alien world, cold enough to freeze him as black as coal and as
brittle as glass in seconds. Ganymede, largest of the moons of Jupiter, was,
he thought, an awful place.
"Close-approach radars have locked on. Landing sequence is active.
Estimated time to touchdown: three minutes, fifty seconds." The voice of the
duty controller at one of the consoles behind Mills interrupted his broodings.
"Very good, Lieutenant," he acknowledged. "Do you have contact with
Cameron?"
"There's a channel open on screen three, sir."
Mills moved around in front of the auxiliary console. The screen showed an
empty chair and behind it an interior view of the low-level control room.
He pressed the call button, and after a few seconds the face of Lieutenant
Cameron moved into the viewing angle.
"The brass are due in three minutes," Mills advised. "Everything okay?"
"Looking good, sir."
Mills resumed his position by the wall of the dome and noted with satisfaction
the three tracked vehicles lurching into line to take up their
reception positions. Minutes ticked by.
"Sixty seconds," the duty controller announced. "Descent profile normal.
Should make visual contact any time now."
A patch of fog above the landing pads in the central area Of the base darkened
and slowly materialized into the blurred outline of a medium-haul surface
transporter, sliding out of the murk, balanced on its exhausts with its
landing legs already fully extended. As the transporter came to rest on one of
the pads and its shock absorbers flexed to dispose of the remaining momentum,
the reception vehicles began moving forward. Mills nodded to himself and left
the dome via the stairs that led down to ground level.
Ten minutes later, the first reception vehicle halted outside the
Operations Control building and an extending tube telescoped out to dock with
its airlock. Major Stanislow, Colonel Peters, and a handful of aides walked
through into the outer access chamber, where they were met by Mills and a few
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other officers. Mutual introductions were concluded, and without further
preliminaries the party ascended to the first floor and proceeded through an
elevated walkway into the adjacent dome, constructed over the head of number-
three shaft. A labyrinth of stairs and walkways brought them eventually to
number-three high-level airlock anteroom. A capsule was waiting beyond the
airlock. For the next four minutes they plummeted down, down, deep into the
ice crust of Ganymede. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]