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atmosphere, we were less certain of our ability to keep everything
sufficiently under control; the balance was very delicate." She looked
directly at the questioner. "A scheme along the lines you suggest was in fact
proposed, but mathematical models indicated that there was too high a risk of
destroying the greenhouse effect completely, and so of guaranteeing the end of
life on Minerva even more quickly. We are a cautious people and do not take
risks readily. Our government threw the idea out."
She remained silent and allowed them time to think of other possibilities.
Danchekker didn't bother to raise the notion that they might have tried
importing terrestrial plant life as an attempt at introducing a compensatory
mechanism. He already knew full well that the Ganymeans knew nothing of such a
venture. Presumably that solution had been tried after
Garuth's expedition had departed. Further analyses by his scientists and
discussions with ZORAC had indicated if that had been the objective of the
exercise, it would not have succeeded anyway -- a point that would surely not
have escaped the Ganymean scientists at the time. For the moment this event
was still as much a mystery as ever.
Eventually Shilohin spread her arm wide as if appealing to a class of children
who were being a little slow that day. "Logically it's very simple,"
she said. "If we left the carbon-dioxide level to rise, we would die.
Therefore we could not allow it to rise. If we prevented the rise, as we could
have done, there would have been too much of a risk of freezing the whole
planet solid because the carbon dioxide kept Minerva warm through the
greenhouse effect. We needed the results of the greenhouse effect to keep us
warm because we were a long way from the Sun. Hence, we wouldn't need it at
all if we were nearer the Sun, or if the Sun were warmer."
Some of the faces in front of her remained blank; some suddenly looked
incredulous. "It's easy then," a voice called from near Hunt. "All you had to
do was move Minerva in a bit or heat up the Sun." He meant that as a joke but
the Ganymean began nodding her head in imitation of the human mannerism.
"Exactly," she said. "And those were the two conclusions we arrived at too." A
few gasps of amazement came from various parts of the room. "Both
possibilities were studied extensively. Eventually a team of astrophysicists
convinced the government that warming up the Sun was the more practicable.
Nobody could find a flaw in the calculations, but, as always, our government
was cautious and elected not to blow a wad on fooling around with the Sun.
They wanted to see some proof first that the plan would work...Yes, Dr. Hunt?"
She had noticed his hand hail raised to attract attention.
"Could you give us a few details on how they proposed to do such a thing?" he
asked. "I think even the idea of contemplating something like that has
astonished a few of us here." Mutters of agreement from all around echoed his
sentiments.
"Certainly," she replied. "The Ganymeans, as most of you know by now, had
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developed a branch of technology that is not yet understood in your own world
-- a technology based on the principles of artificially generating and
controlling the effect termed 'gravity.' The proposal of the Ganymean
astrophysicists involved placing three very large and very powerful projectors
in orbit around the Sun, which would concentrate beams of space-time
distortion -- 'gravity intensification' if you like, although that describes
the effect of the process rather than its nature -- at the Sun's center.
Theory predicted that this would induce an increase, effectively, in the Sun's
self-gravitation and produce a slight collapse of the star, which would cease
when the radiation pressure again balanced the gravitational pressure. At the
new equilibrium the Sun would radiate more strongly and, provided that all the
right quantities were chosen, would just compensate for the loss of Minerva's
greenhouse effect. In other words we could now risk tampering with the carbon-
dioxide level since, if we blew it and we started to freeze, we could put
things right again by adjusting the solar constant. Does that answer the
question sufficiently, Dr. Hunt?"
"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?"
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"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." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
