[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Wyarel?" Mildred asked. "I mean, I can actually feel myself breathing more
deeply up here, which I'm sure I'm really not doing. From what you've said, it
must be VISAR doing things inside my head. How much else of what's inside
there can it pull out?"
"You don't have to worry," Hunt told her. "In principle, yes, it could. But it
doesn't. The Thuriens have strict codes about things like privacy. Unless a
user specifically instructs otherwise, VISAR is limited to supplying primary
sensory data and monitoring motor and a few other terminal outputs only. It
communicates only what you'd see, hear, feel, and so on if you were there. It
doesn't read minds."
"Well, that's good to know, anyway."
They floated immaterially like cosmic gods above a world that Danchekker had
discovered before and insisted on visiting again. It described a complex orbit
about a double star to produce conditions so extreme that its surface
alternated between being ocean and desert. Nevertheless, it supported a range
of astonishing life forms that were able to adapt, including a part-time fish
that dissolved its bone structure and morphed into a lizardlike sand dweller
when the dry part of the cycle approached. They visited a newly born world
that was still an incandescent cauldron of lava flows and outgassing instantly
lethal in reality, but with just enough of the flavor imparted by VISAR to
give them an idea of it. They stared in awe at an immense Thurien space
construction thousands of miles in extent that formed part of one of the
mass-conversion systems consuming burnt-out stars, from where energy was
beamed through h-space to create the interstellar transport ports. They saw a
world of vapors and canyons, where the population lived on artificial islands
floating in the sky; a fairyland city carved out under an ice crust; and an
extraordinary football-shaped world that spun about its short axis with its
ends protruding beyond the atmosphere, where it was possible after an enormous
climb that required life-support gear to jump off and be in orbit.
Finally, they found themselves inside what to Hunt and Danchekker were the
familiar surroundings of the Command Deck of the ancient Ganymean starship,
Shapieron. This was the vessel that had left the Solar System at the time of
pre-Lunarian Minerva, before the Ganymeans migrated to Thurien, and returned
only a few years ago, when Hunt and Danchekker were at Ganymede. The
half-mile-high tower of once-gleaming metallic curves, pitted and discolored
now as a result of its enforced exile, currently stood on the outskirts of a
city called Shiban, on Jevlen. The exiles from the distant past had found
Page 44
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
adjusting to Thurien practically as difficult an experience as it was for
Terrans. But they had found themselves a niche supervising the rebuilding of
Jevlenese society after its deterioration and final collapse under the
previous regime. Since the Ganymeans were interacting via Thurien
neurocouplers, too, the "meeting" could as easily have taken place anywhere.
But for reasons of nostalgia and old time's sake, everyone concerned had
preferred to make it their old ship.
* * *
Garuth, who had been the commander of the Shapieron mission, greeted his two
old friends and their guest warmly. With him were Shilohin, the female chief
scientist, Rodgar Jassilane, the ship's engineering chief, and Monchar,
Garuth's second-in-command. The Ganymeans from old-time Minerva were taller
than Thuriens on average, not as dark in hue, and their crown coloring was
less vivid. Also in attendance was ZORAC, the ship's controlling AI, an early
precursor to VISAR, now coupled into the Shiban net to stand in for the
decommissioned JEVEX.
The first topic that the Ganymeans wanted to hear about, of course, was the
latest on the Multiverse project. Thuriens had no concept of secrecy, and
bulletins detailing progress were produced regularly, but Garuth and the
others wanted to hear Hunt and Danchekker's personal account. Hunt was able to
fill them in on the fine structure of Multiverse segments and consequent
ethereal passage of objects propagating through them, which he had learned
himself only hours previously from Eesyan. The question again arose of how
anything could be halted and stabilized so as to remain in one reality that a
coherent picture could be derived from.
"Would it be feasible to create some kind of complementary M-wave that
interferes destructively everywhere except at the target distance?" Shilohin
wondered aloud. "Would that preserve the transmitted object as a standing
resonance? It would probably still extend through many segments . . . but so
what? Maybe you could fine tune your connection to any one of them." Nobody
could argue with the thought, certainly; but just at the moment, it was purely
abstract.
"It's an interesting idea. I'll bounce it off Eesyan," was all Hunt could
offer in reply.
"You're still firing blind, though," Jassilane pointed out. "You called it a
'target.' But there's no form of feedback to identify one." He looked around.
"You see what I mean? Suppose you wanted to send . . . oh . . ." he waved a
hand, "the orbiting relay that this other universe sent to you. It seems to
have appeared where and when it was supposed to. How did the senders know how
to get it to where they wanted it?"
"I don't suppose we know enough about the Multiverse structure to preprogram
the device to recognize features it's looking for?" Monchar ventured. "Like
terrain-following flyers."
Hunt shook his head. "It depends too much on the way change occurs from one
segment to the next gradually or abruptly. And that varies with the MV
dimension you move in. You could have practically stasis going one way, and
total discontinuity if you choose another a single quantum event being
magnified, maybe, and triggering a transition to an entirely different
reality. We have no idea how to model effects like that."
"To get where you want, you need a map. But you have to be there to draw one,"
ZORAC commented.
"Does this mean you're about to deliver one of your profound insights, ZORAC?"
Hunt asked it.
"No. Just my take on the situation."
"Thanks."
There was not a lot more to be said on that for now. The talk shifted to the
work of Garuth and his administration on Jevlen. The program was progressing
well, with the Jevlenese getting over their total dependency on JEVEX and
Page 45
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
learning to mange their own affairs competently. Hunt had noticed from some of
the outside views showing on the Command Deck's display screens that the city
was looking cleaner and in better shape than the run-down, decaying condition
it had been in when he last saw it. He wondered what Garuth and his people
would do when their task here was complete. It seemed a question best not
brought up at a time like this. But the Shapieron was not decommissioned or
stood down from being launch capable in any way. It had played key roles in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
Wyarel?" Mildred asked. "I mean, I can actually feel myself breathing more
deeply up here, which I'm sure I'm really not doing. From what you've said, it
must be VISAR doing things inside my head. How much else of what's inside
there can it pull out?"
"You don't have to worry," Hunt told her. "In principle, yes, it could. But it
doesn't. The Thuriens have strict codes about things like privacy. Unless a
user specifically instructs otherwise, VISAR is limited to supplying primary
sensory data and monitoring motor and a few other terminal outputs only. It
communicates only what you'd see, hear, feel, and so on if you were there. It
doesn't read minds."
"Well, that's good to know, anyway."
They floated immaterially like cosmic gods above a world that Danchekker had
discovered before and insisted on visiting again. It described a complex orbit
about a double star to produce conditions so extreme that its surface
alternated between being ocean and desert. Nevertheless, it supported a range
of astonishing life forms that were able to adapt, including a part-time fish
that dissolved its bone structure and morphed into a lizardlike sand dweller
when the dry part of the cycle approached. They visited a newly born world
that was still an incandescent cauldron of lava flows and outgassing instantly
lethal in reality, but with just enough of the flavor imparted by VISAR to
give them an idea of it. They stared in awe at an immense Thurien space
construction thousands of miles in extent that formed part of one of the
mass-conversion systems consuming burnt-out stars, from where energy was
beamed through h-space to create the interstellar transport ports. They saw a
world of vapors and canyons, where the population lived on artificial islands
floating in the sky; a fairyland city carved out under an ice crust; and an
extraordinary football-shaped world that spun about its short axis with its
ends protruding beyond the atmosphere, where it was possible after an enormous
climb that required life-support gear to jump off and be in orbit.
Finally, they found themselves inside what to Hunt and Danchekker were the
familiar surroundings of the Command Deck of the ancient Ganymean starship,
Shapieron. This was the vessel that had left the Solar System at the time of
pre-Lunarian Minerva, before the Ganymeans migrated to Thurien, and returned
only a few years ago, when Hunt and Danchekker were at Ganymede. The
half-mile-high tower of once-gleaming metallic curves, pitted and discolored
now as a result of its enforced exile, currently stood on the outskirts of a
city called Shiban, on Jevlen. The exiles from the distant past had found
Page 44
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
adjusting to Thurien practically as difficult an experience as it was for
Terrans. But they had found themselves a niche supervising the rebuilding of
Jevlenese society after its deterioration and final collapse under the
previous regime. Since the Ganymeans were interacting via Thurien
neurocouplers, too, the "meeting" could as easily have taken place anywhere.
But for reasons of nostalgia and old time's sake, everyone concerned had
preferred to make it their old ship.
* * *
Garuth, who had been the commander of the Shapieron mission, greeted his two
old friends and their guest warmly. With him were Shilohin, the female chief
scientist, Rodgar Jassilane, the ship's engineering chief, and Monchar,
Garuth's second-in-command. The Ganymeans from old-time Minerva were taller
than Thuriens on average, not as dark in hue, and their crown coloring was
less vivid. Also in attendance was ZORAC, the ship's controlling AI, an early
precursor to VISAR, now coupled into the Shiban net to stand in for the
decommissioned JEVEX.
The first topic that the Ganymeans wanted to hear about, of course, was the
latest on the Multiverse project. Thuriens had no concept of secrecy, and
bulletins detailing progress were produced regularly, but Garuth and the
others wanted to hear Hunt and Danchekker's personal account. Hunt was able to
fill them in on the fine structure of Multiverse segments and consequent
ethereal passage of objects propagating through them, which he had learned
himself only hours previously from Eesyan. The question again arose of how
anything could be halted and stabilized so as to remain in one reality that a
coherent picture could be derived from.
"Would it be feasible to create some kind of complementary M-wave that
interferes destructively everywhere except at the target distance?" Shilohin
wondered aloud. "Would that preserve the transmitted object as a standing
resonance? It would probably still extend through many segments . . . but so
what? Maybe you could fine tune your connection to any one of them." Nobody
could argue with the thought, certainly; but just at the moment, it was purely
abstract.
"It's an interesting idea. I'll bounce it off Eesyan," was all Hunt could
offer in reply.
"You're still firing blind, though," Jassilane pointed out. "You called it a
'target.' But there's no form of feedback to identify one." He looked around.
"You see what I mean? Suppose you wanted to send . . . oh . . ." he waved a
hand, "the orbiting relay that this other universe sent to you. It seems to
have appeared where and when it was supposed to. How did the senders know how
to get it to where they wanted it?"
"I don't suppose we know enough about the Multiverse structure to preprogram
the device to recognize features it's looking for?" Monchar ventured. "Like
terrain-following flyers."
Hunt shook his head. "It depends too much on the way change occurs from one
segment to the next gradually or abruptly. And that varies with the MV
dimension you move in. You could have practically stasis going one way, and
total discontinuity if you choose another a single quantum event being
magnified, maybe, and triggering a transition to an entirely different
reality. We have no idea how to model effects like that."
"To get where you want, you need a map. But you have to be there to draw one,"
ZORAC commented.
"Does this mean you're about to deliver one of your profound insights, ZORAC?"
Hunt asked it.
"No. Just my take on the situation."
"Thanks."
There was not a lot more to be said on that for now. The talk shifted to the
work of Garuth and his administration on Jevlen. The program was progressing
well, with the Jevlenese getting over their total dependency on JEVEX and
Page 45
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
learning to mange their own affairs competently. Hunt had noticed from some of
the outside views showing on the Command Deck's display screens that the city
was looking cleaner and in better shape than the run-down, decaying condition
it had been in when he last saw it. He wondered what Garuth and his people
would do when their task here was complete. It seemed a question best not
brought up at a time like this. But the Shapieron was not decommissioned or
stood down from being launch capable in any way. It had played key roles in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]