The Ganymean engineers announced that the ship beneath Pithead would provide the parts needed to repair the drive system of the Shapieron and that the work would take three to four weeks. A shuttle service between Pithead and Main came into being as technicians and scientists of both races cooperated in the venture. The Ganymeans, of course, directed and carried out the technical side of the operation while the Earthmen took care of the transportation, logistics, and domestic arrangements. Parties of UNSA experts were invited aboard the Shapieron to observe the work in progress and to stand in spellbound fascination as some of the mysteries and intricacies of Ganymean science were explained. One eminent authority on nuclear engineering from Jupiter Five declared later that the experience made him feel like "an unapprenticed plumber #146;s mate being shown around a fusion plant."
While all this was going on, a team of UNSA specialists at Main worked out a schedule to give ZORAC a crash course on terrestrial computer science and technology. The result of this exercise was the construction of a code-conversion and interface system, most of the details of which were worked out by ZORAC itself, to couple the Ganymean computer directly into the communications network at Main and thus into the computer complex of J5. This gave ZORAC, and through it the Ganymeans as well, direct access to J5 #146;s data banks and opened up a mine of information on many aspects of the ways of life, history, geography and sciences of Earth #151;for which the aliens had insatiable appetites.
One day, in the communications room of the Mission Control Center at UNSA Operational Command Headquarters, Galveston, there was consternation when a strange voice began speaking suddenly and unexpectedly over the loudspeaker system. It was another of ZORAC #146;s jokes. The machine had composed its own message of greeting to Earth and injected it into the outgoing signal stream of the laser link from Jupiter.
Earth was, of course, clamoring to know more about the Ganymeans. In a press conference staged specifically for broadcast over the world news grid, a panel of Ganymeans answered questions put to them by scientists and reporters who had traveled with the J5 mission. A large local audience was expected for the event and, since none of the facilities available at Main seemed to be large enough, the Ganymeans readily agreed to the idea of holding the event inside the Shapieron. Hunt was a member of the group that flew down from Pithead to take part.
The first questions concerned the concepts and principles behind the design of the Shapieron , especially its propulsive system. In reply, the Ganymeans stated that the speculations of the UNSA scientists had been partly right, but did not tell the whole story. The arrangement of massive toroids containing tiny black holes that spun in closed circular paths did indeed generate very high rates of change of gravity potential which resulted in a zone of intense space-time distortion, but this did not propel the ship directly; it created a focal point in the center of the toroids at which a trickle of ordinary matter was induced to annihilate out of existence. The mass-equivalent appeared in the form of gravitational energy, though not in any way as simple as the classical notion of a force directed toward a central point; the Ganymeans described the resultant effect as resembling "a stress in the structure of space-time surrounding the ship. . . ." It was this stress wave that propagated through space, carrying the ship with it as it went.
The idea of being able to cause matter to annihilate at will was astonishing, and that the annihilation should result in artificial gravity phenomena was a revelation. But to learn that all this merely represented a means of bringing under control something that went on naturally anyway all over the universe. . . was astounding. For this, apparently, was exactly the way in which gravity originated in Nature; all forms of matter were all the time decaying away to nothing, albeit at an immeasurably slow rate, and it was the tiny proportion of basic particles that were annihilating at any given moment that gave rise to the gravitational effect of mass. Every annihilation event produced a microscopic, transient gravity pulse, and it was the additive effect of millions of these pulses occurring every second which, when perceived at the macroscopic level, produced the illusion of a steady field. Thus, gravity ceased to be something static and passive that existed wherever a quantity of mass happened to be; now, no longer an oddity standing apart, it fell into line with all the other field phenomena of physics and became a quantity that depended on the rate of change of something #151;in this case, the rate of change of mass. This principle, together with the discovery of a means of artificially generating and controlling the process, formed the basis of Ganymean gravitic engineering technology.
This account caused consternation among the scientists from Earth who were present. Hunt voiced their reactions by asking how some of the fundamental laws of physics #151;conservation of mass-energy and momentum, for example #151;could be reconciled with the notion of particles being able to vanish spontaneously whenever they chose. The cherished fundamental laws, it turned out, were neither fundamental nor laws at all. Like the Newtonian mechanics of an earlier age, they were just approximations that would be repealed with the development of more precise theoretical models and improved measurement techniques, similar to the way in which careful experiments with light waves had demonstrated the untenability of classical physics and resulted in the formulation of special relativity. The Ganymeans illustrated the point by mentioning that the rate at which matter decayed was such that one gram of water would require well over ten billion years to disappear completely #151;utterly undetectable by any experiment that could be devised within the framework of contemporary terrestrial science. While that remained true, the established laws that Hunt had referred to would prove perfectly adequate since the errors that resulted from them would make no practical difference. In the same way, classical Newtonian mechanics continued to suffice for most day-to-day needs although relativity provided the more accurate description of reality. The history of Minervan science had shown the same pattern of development; when terrestrial science had progressed further, no doubt, similar discoveries and lines of reasoning would lead to the same reexamination of basic principles.
This led to the question of the permanency of the universe. Hunt asked how the universe could still exist at all let alone still be evolving if all the matter in it was decaying at the rate that the Ganymeans had indicated, which was not slow on a cosmic time scale; there ought not to have been very much of the universe left.
The universe went on forever, he was told. All the time, throughout the whole volume of space, particles were appearing spontaneously as well as vanishing spontaneously, the latter process taking place predominantly inside matter #151;naturally, since that was where there were more of them to vanish from in the first place. Thus the evolution of progressively more complex mechanisms of creating order out of chaos #151;basic particles, interstellar clouds, stars, planets, organic chemicals, then life itself and after that intelligence #151;formed a continuous cycle, a perpetual stage where the show never stopped but individual actors came and went. Underlying it all was a unidirectional pressure that strove always to bring high levels of organization from lower ones. The universe was the result of a conflict of two opposing, fundamental trends; one, represented by the second law of thermodynamics, was the tendency for disorder to increase, while the other #151;the evolutionary principle #151;produced local reversals by creating order. In the Ganymean sense, the term evolution was not something that applied only to the world of living things, but one that embraced equally the whole spectrum of increasing order, from the formation of an atomic nucleus from stellar plasma to the act of designing a supercomputer; within this spectrum, the emergence of life was reduced to just another milestone along the way. They compared the evolutionary principle to a fish swimming upstream against the current of entropy; the fish and the current symbolized the two fundamental forces in the Ganymean universe. Evolution worked the way it did because selection worked; selection worked because probability worked in a particular way. The universe was, in the final analysis, all a question of statistics.
Basic particles thus appeared, lived out their mortal spans, and then vanished. Where did they come from and where did they go to? This question summed up the kinds of problem that had existed at the frontier of Ganymean science at the time of the Shapieron #146;s departure. The whole universe perceived by the senses was compared to a geometric plane through which a particle passed, to be observable for a while as it made its contribution to the evolving histories of the galaxies. But in what kind of superuniverse was this plane embedded? Of what kind of truer reality was everything that had ever been observed just a pale and insignificant shadow? These were the secrets that the researchers of Minerva had been beginning to probe and which, they had confidently believed, would eventually yield the key not only to practicable intergalactic travel, but also to movement in domains of existence that even they were incapable of imagining. The scientists from the Shapieron wondered how much their descendants had learned in the years, decades, or even centuries, that had elapsed after their departure from Minerva. Could the abrupt disappearance of a whole civilization have a connection with some undreamed of universe that they had discovered?
The newsmen present were interested in the cultural basis of the Minervan civilization, particularly the means of conducting everyday commercial transactions between individuals and between organizations. A freely competing economy based on monetary values seemed incompatible with the noncompetitive Ganymean character and raised the question of what alternative system the aliens used to measure and control the obligations between an individual and the rest of society.
The Ganymeans confirmed that their system had functioned without the motivational forces of profit and a need to maintain any kind of financial solvency. This was another area in which the radically different psychology and conditioning of the Ganymeans made a smooth dialogue impossible, mainly because they had no comprehension of many of the facts of living that were accepted as self-evident on Earth. That some means of control was desirable to insure that everybody put into society at least as much as he took out was strange to them; so was the concept that any measure of a "normal" input-output ratio could be specified since, they maintained, every individual had his own preferred ratio at which he functioned optimally, and which it was his basic right to choose. The concept of financial necessity or any other means of coercing somebody to live a life that he would not otherwise follow was, to them, a grotesque infringement of freedom and dignity. Besides that, they seemed unable to understand why it should be necessary to base any society on such principles.
What then, they were asked, was there to prevent everybody becoming purely a taker, with no obligation to give anything in return? That being the case, how could a society survive at all? Again the Ganymeans seemed unable to understand the problem. Surely, they pointed out, individuals possessed an instinct to contribute and one of the essential needs of living was the satisfaction of that instinct; why would anybody deliberately deprive himself of the feeling of being needed? Apparently that was what motivated the Ganymean in place of monetary incentives #151;he simply could not live with the thought of not being of any use to anybody. He was just made that way. The worst situation he could find himself in was that of having to depend on society for his wants without being able to reciprocate, and anybody who sought such an existence deliberately was regarded as a social anomaly in need of psychiatric help and an object of sympathy #151;rather like a mentally retarded child. The observation that this was regarded by many on Earth as the ultimate fulfillment of ambition reinforced the Ganymean conviction that Homo sapiens had inherited some awful defects from the Lunarians. On a more encouraging note they expressed the view, based on what they knew of the last few decades of Man #146;s history, that Nature was slowly but surely repairing the damage.
By the time the conference had finished Hunt found that all the talking had made him thirsty. He asked ZORAC if there was anywhere nearby where he might get a drink and was informed that if he went out through the main door of the room he was in, turned right and followed the corridor for a short distance, he would come to an open seating area where refreshments were available. Hunt ordered a GTB and Coke #151;the latest product of the fusion of the two cultures and an instant hit with both #151;and left the mкlйe of producers and technicians to follow the directions and pick up the drink at the dispensing unit.
As he turned and cast an eye around the area to look for a suitable seat, he noted absently that he was the only Earthinan present. A few Ganymeans were scattered around singly or in small groups, but most of the places were empty. He picked out a small table with a few unoccupied chairs around it, sauntered across and sat down. Apart from one or two slight nods of acknowledgment, none of the Ganymeans took any notice of him; anyone would have thought it an everyday occurrence for unaccompanied aliens to wander around their ship. The sight of the ashtray on the table prompted him to reach into his pocket for his cigarette pack. Then he stopped, momentarily puzzled; the Ganymeans didn #146;t smoke. He peered more closely at the ashtray and realized that it was standard UNSA issue. He looked around. Most of the tables had UNSA ashtrays. As usual the Ganymeans had thought of everything; naturally there would be Earthmen around with the conference that day. He sighed, shook his head in admiration and settled back into the huge expanse of upholstered luxury to relax with his thoughts.
He didn #146;t realize Shilohin was standing nearby until ZORAC spoke in his ear with the voice that it reserved for her. "Dr. Hunt, isn #146;t it? Good afternoon."
Hunt looked up with a start and then recognized her. He grinned at the standard salutation and gestured toward one of the empty seats. Shilohin sat down and placed her own drink on the table.
"I see we seem to have had the same idea," she said. "It #146;s thirsty work."
"You can say that again."
"Well. . . how do you think it went?"
"It was great. I think they were all fascinated. . . . I bet it #146;ll cause some pretty lively arguments back home."
Shilohin seemed to hesitate for a second before going on. "You don #146;t think Monchar was too direct . . . too openly critical of your way of life and your values? Those things he said about the Lunarians for example. . ."
Hunt reflected for a moment while he drew on his cigarette.
"No, I don #146;t think so. If that #146;s the way Ganymeans see it, it #146;s much better if it #146;s said straight. . . . If you ask me, something like that has needed saying for a long time. I can #146;t think of anybody better to say it; more people might start taking notice now. Good thing, too."
"That #146;s nice to know anyway," she said, sounding suddenly more at ease. "I was beginning to feel a little worried about it."
"I don #146;t think anybody #146;s very worried about that side of it," Hunt commented. "Certainly the scientists aren #146;t. They #146;re more worried about having the laws of physics collapse around their ears. I don #146;t think you #146;ve realized yet what a stir you #146;ve started. Some of our most basic convictions are going to have to be rethought #151;right from square one. We thought we had just a few more pages to add to the story; now it looks as if we might have to rewrite the whole book."
"That #146;s true I suppose," she conceded. "But at least you won #146;t have to go all the way back as far as the Ganymean scientists did." She noted his look of interest. "Oh yes, believe me, Dr. Hunt, we went through the same process ourselves. The discovery of relativity and quantum mechanics turned all of our classical ideas upside down just as happened in your own science in the early twentieth century. And then when the things we were talking about earlier began fitting together, we had another major scientific upheaval; all the concepts that had survived the first time and were regarded as absolute turned out to be wrong #151;all the ingrained beliefs had to be changed."
She turned to look at him and made a Ganymean gesture of resignation. "Your science would have reached the same point eventually even if we hadn #146;t arrived, and not all that far in the future either if my judgment is anything to go by. As things are, you #146;ll dodge the worst since we can show you most of what #146;s involved anyway. Fifty years from now you #146;ll be flying ships like this one."
"I wonder." Hunt #146;s voice was far away. It sounded incredible, but then he thought of the history of aviation; how many of the colonial territories of the 1920s would have believed that fifty years later they would be independent states running their own jet fleets? How many Americans would have believed that the same time span would take them from wooden biplanes to Apollo?
"And what happens after that?" he murmured, half to himself. "Will there be more scientific upheavals waiting . . . things that even you people don #146;t know about yet either?"
"Who knows?" she replied. "I did outline where research had got to when we left Minerva; anything could have happened afterward. But don #146;t make the mistake of thinking that we know everything, even within our existing framework of knowledge. We #146;ve had our surprises too, you know #151;since we came to Ganymede. The Earthmen have taught us some things we didn #146;t know."
This was news to Hunt.
"How do you mean?" he asked, naturally intrigued. "What kind of things?"
She sipped her drink slowly to collect her thoughts. "Well, let #146;s take this question of carnivorism, for example. As you know, it was unknown on Minerva, apart from in certain deep-sea species that only scientists were interested in and most other Ganymeans preferred to forget."
"Yes, I know that."
"Well, Ganymean biologists had, of course, studied the workings of evolution and reconstructed the story of how their own race originated. Although layman #146;s thinking was largely governed by the concept of some divinely ordained natural order, as I mentioned earlier, many scientists recognized the chance aspect of the scheme that had established itself on our world. Purely from the scientific viewpoint, they could see no reason why things had to be the way they were. So, being scientists, they began to ask what might have happened if things had been different. . . for example, if carnivorous fish had not migrated to midocean depths, but had remained in coastal waters."
"You mean if amphibian and land-dwelling carnivores had evolved," Hunt supplied.
"Exactly. Some scientists maintained that it was just a quirk of fate that led to Minerva being the way it was #151;nothing to do with any divine laws at all. So they began constructing hypothetical models of ecological systems that included carnivores . . . more as intellectual exercise, I suppose."
"Mmm . . . interesting. How did they turn out?"
"They were hopelessly wrong," Shilohin told him. She made a gesture of emphasis. "Most of the models predicted the whole evolutionary system slowing down and degenerating into a stagnant dead end, much as happened in our own oceans. They hadn #146;t managed to separate out the limitations imposed by an aquatic environment, and attributed the result to the fundamentally destructive nature of the way of life there. You can imagine their surprise when the first Ganymean expedition reached Earth and found just such a land-based ecology in action. They were amazed at how advanced and how specialized the animals had become. . . and the birds! That was something none of them had dreamed of. Now you can see why many of us were stunned by the sight of the animals that you showed us at Pithead. We had heard of such creatures, but none of us had actually seen one."
Hunt nodded slowly and began to comprehend fully at last. To a race that had grown up surrounded by Danchekker #146;s cartoons, the sight of Trilophodon , the four-tusked walking tank, or of the saber-toothed killing machine Smilodon , must have been awesome. What kind of picture had the Ganymeans formed of the ferocious arena that had molded and shaped such gladiators, he wondered.
"So, they had to change their ideas on that subject in a hurry as well," he said.
"They did. . . . They revised all their theories on the strength of the evidence from Earth, and they worked out a completely new model. But, I #146;m afraid, they got it all wrong again."
Hunt couldn #146;t suppress a short laugh.
"Really? What went wrong this time?"
"Your level of civilization and your technology," she told him. "All our scientists were convinced that an advanced race could never emerge from the pattern of life that they saw on Earth twenty-five million years ago. They argued that intelligence could never appear in any stable form in such an environment, and even if it did it would destroy itself as soon as it had the power to do so. Certainly any kind of sociable living or communal society was out of the question and, since the acquisition of knowledge depends on communication and cooperation, the sciences could never be developed."
"But we proved that was all baloney, eh?"
"It #146;s incredible!" Shilohin indicated bewilderment. "All our models showed that any progression from the life forms of your Miocene period toward greater intelligence would depend on selection for greater cunning and more sophisticated methods of violence; no coherent civilization could possibly develop from a background like that. And yet . . . we have returned and found not only a civilized and technologically advanced culture, but one that is accelerating all the time. It seemed impossible. That was why we took so much convincing that you came from the third planet from the Sun #151;the Nightmare Planet."
These remarks made Hunt feel flattered, but at the same time he remembered how close the Ganymean prophecies had come to being true.
"But you were so nearly right, weren #146;t you," he said soberly. "Don #146;t forget the Lunarians. They did destroy themselves in just the way that your model predicted, although it looks as if they too advanced further than you thought they would. It was only the fact that a handful of them survived it that we #146;re here at all, and they only made it on a million-to-one shot." He shook his head and exhaled a cloud of smoke sharply. "I wouldn #146;t feel too bad about what your models said; they came far too near the truth for comfort as far as I #146;m concerned . . . far too near. If whatever it was that made the Lunarians the way they were hadn #146;t modified itself somehow and become diluted in the course of time, we #146;d be going the same way and your model would be proved right again. With luck though, we #146;re over that hump now."
"And that #146;s the most incredible thing of all," Shilohin said, picking up the point immediately. "The very thing that we believed would prove an insurmountable barrier to progress has turned out to be your biggest advantage."
"How do you mean?"
"The aggressiveness, the determination #151;the refusal to let anything defeat you. All that is built deep into the basic Earthman character. It #146;s a relic from your origins, modified, refined, and adapted. But that #146;s where it comes from. You maybe don #146;t see it that way, but we can. We #146;re astounded by it. Try to understand, we #146;ve never seen or imagined anything like it before."
"Danchekker said something like that," Hunt mumbled, but Shilohin continued, apparently not having heard him.
"Our instincts are to avoid any form of danger, because of the way we originated . . . certainly not to seek it deliberately. We are a cautious people. But Earthmen . . . ! They climb mountains, sail tiny boats around a planet alone, jump out of aircraft for fun! All their games are simulated combat; this thing you call #145;business #146; reenacts the survival struggle of your evolutionary system and the power-lust of your wars; your #145;politics #146; is based on the principle of meeting force with force and matching strength with strength." She paused for a moment, and then went on. "These are completely new to Ganymeans. The idea of a race that will actually rise up and answer threats with defiance is . . . unbelievable. We have studied large portions of your planet #146;s history. Much of it is horrifying to us, but also, beneath the superficial story of events, some of us see something deeper #151;something stirring. The difficulties that Man has faced are appalling, but the way in which he has always fought back at them and always won in the end #151;I must confess there is something about it that is strangely magnificent."
"But why should that be?" Hunt asked. "Why should the Ganymeans feel that we have some unique advantage, especially with their different background? They achieved the same things . . .and more."
"Because of the time it #146;s taken you to do it," she said.
"Time?"
"Your rate of advancement. It #146;s stupendous! Haven #146;t Earthmen realized? No, I don #146;t suppose there #146;s any reason why they should." She looked at him again, seemingly at a loss for a second. "How long ago did Man harness steam? It took you less than seventy years from learning to fly to reach your Moon. Twenty years after you invented transistors half your world was being run by computers. . . ."
"That #146;s good, compared to Minerva?"
"Good! It #146;s miraculous! It makes our own development pale into insignificance. And it #146;s getting faster all the time! It #146;s because you attack Nature with the same innate aggressiveness that you hurl at anything that stands in your way. You don #146;t hack each other to pieces or bomb whole cities anymore, but the same instinct is still there in your scientists, engineers . . . your businessmen, your politicians. They all love a good fight. They thrive on it. That #146;s the difference between us. The Ganymean learns for knowledge and finds that he solves problems as a by-product; the Earthman takes on a problem and finds that he #146;s learned something when he #146;s solved it, but it #146;s the kick he gets out of fighting and winning that matters. Garuth summed it up fairly well when I was talking to him yesterday. I asked him if he thought that any of the Earthmen really believed in this God they talk about. Know what he said?"
"What #146;d he say?"
" #145;They will once they #146;ve made Him. #146;"
Hunt couldn #146;t help grinning at Garuth #146;s bemusement that was at the same time a compliment. He was about to reply when ZORAC spoke into his ear in its own voice:
"Excuse me, Dr. Hunt."
"Yes?"
"A Sergeant Brukhov wants to talk for a second. Are you accepting calls?"
"Excuse me a minute," he said to Shilohin. "Okay. Put him on."
"Dr. Hunt?" The voice of one of the UNSA pilots came through clearly.
"Here."
"Sorry to bother you, but we #146;re sorting out the arrangements for getting everybody back to Pithead. I #146;m taking a transporter back half an hour from now and I #146;ve got a couple of empty seats. Also there #146;s a Ganymean ship leaving about an hour later and some of the guys are hitching a ride on it. You #146;re on the list to go; it #146;s your choice which way."
"Any idea who #146;s going on the Ganymean ship?"
"Don #146;t know who they are, but they #146;re standing right in front of me. I #146;m in the big room that the conference was held in."
"Give me a shot, would you?" Hunt asked.
He activated his wrist unit and observed the view being picked up by Brukhov #146;s headband. It showed a group of faces that Hunt recognized at once, all of them from the labs at Pithead. Carizan was there. . . so was Frank Towers.
"Thanks for the offer," Hunt said. "I #146;ll go with them though."
"Okay. . . oh. . . hang on a sec. . ." Indistinct background noises, then Brukhov again. "One of them wants to know where the hell you #146;ve got to."
"Tell him I #146;ve found the bar."
More noises.
"He wants to know where the hell that is."
"Okay, look over at the wall," Hunt replied. "Now follow it along to your left. . . a bit farther. . ." He watched the image move across the screen. "Hold it there. You #146;re looking at the main door."
"Check."
"Through there, turn right and follow the passage. They can #146;t miss it. Drinks are on the house; order through ZORAC."
"Okay, I got it. They say they #146;ll see you there in a coupla minutes. Over and out."
"Channel cleared down," ZORAC informed him.
"Sorry about that," Hunt said to Shilohin. "We #146;ve got company on the way."
"Earthmen?"
"Bunch of drunks from up north. I made the mistake of telling them where we are."
She laughed #151;he could recognize the sound now #151;and then, slowly, her mood became serious again. "You strike me as a very rational and level-headed Earthman. There is something that we have never mentioned before because we were unsure of the reactions it might produce, but I feel it is something that we can talk about here."
"Go on." Hunt sensed that she had been giving some thought to whatever the matter was while he had been talking to the pilot. He detected a subtle change in her manner; she was not quite conveying that the topic was one of strict confidence, but that how he chose to use the information would be left to his own discretion. He knew his own kind better than she did.
"There was an occasion when the Ganymeans resorted to the use of willful violence. . . deliberate destruction of life."
Hunt waited in silence, unsure of what kind of response would be appropriate.
"You know," she went on, "about the problem that Minerva was experiencing #151;with the carbon-dioxide level rising. Well, one possible solution presented itself immediately #151;simply migrate to another planet. But this was at a time before there were any ships like the Shapieron . . . before we could travel to other stars. Therefore we could contemplate only the planets of the Solar System. Apart from Minerva itself, only one of them could have supported life."
Hunt looked at her blankly; the message had not quite registered.
"Earth," he said with a slight shrug.
"Yes, Earth. We could move our whole civilization to Earth. As you know, we sent expeditions to explore it, but when they sent back details of the environment that they found there, we knew that there could be no simple answer to Minerva #146;s problems. Ganymeans could never have survived amid such savagery."
"So the idea was abandoned then?" Hunt suggested.
"No . . . not quite. You see, the whole terrestrial ecology and the creatures that formed part of it were thought by many Ganymeans to be so unnatural as to constitute a perversion of life itself #151;a smear upon an otherwise perfect universe that the universe would be a better place without." Hunt gaped at her as what she was saying began to sink in. "A suggestion was put forward that the whole planet be wiped clean of the disease that infested it. Terrestrial life would be exterminated, and then Minervan forms would be substituted. After all, the supporters of the scheme argued, it would be simply playing the game by Earth #146;s own rules."
Hunt was stunned. After everything that had been said, the Ganymeans could actually have been capable of conceiving a scheme like that? She watched and seemed to read the thought in his mind.
"Most Ganymeans opposed the idea, instinctively, totally and without compromise. It was completely against their basic nature. The public protest that it provoked was probably the most vigorous in our whole history.
"Nevertheless, our own world was in danger of becoming uninhabitable, and some members of the government took the view that they had an obligation to investigate every possible alternative. So, in secret, they set up a small colony on Earth to experiment on a local scale." She saw the questions forming on Hunt #146;s lips and held up a hand to forestall them. "Don #146;t ask me where on Earth this colony was or what methods they employed to do the things they were sent there to do; I have great difficulty in speaking about this at all. Let us just say that the results were catastrophic. In some regions the ecology collapsed completely as a consequence of the things that were done and many terrestrial species became extinct during what you call the Oligocene period for this reason. Some of the areas affected remain deserts on Earth to this day."
Hunt didn #146;t know what to say, so said nothing. The things he had just been told were shocking not because of the means or ends that they implied, which were all too familiar to humans, but because they were so unexpected. For him the conversation was a revelation and a staggering one at that, but no more. For the Ganymean, he realized, it was traumatic.
Shilohin seemed somewhat reassured by the absence of any violent emotional response on his part, and so continued. "Not surprisingly, the psychological effects on the colonists were equally disastrous. The whole sorry affair was quietly ended and filed away as one of the shabbier episodes of our history. We prefer to try and forget about it."
A babble of human voices interspersed with laughter came from further along the corridor. As Hunt looked up expectantly Shilobin touched his arm to retain his attention for a moment longer.
"That, Dr. Hunt, is the real reason why we feel too ashamed to talk about the Oligocene Earth and its animals," she said.