exploring range of Planet A ’ s star ’ s solar syst e m.
We ’ re supposed to know how to do that. If we can ’ t manage it, none of the other problems are going to be very important.
And so we get started on the grand quest. I don ’ t seriously believe we ’ re going to find our New Earth on the very first try. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And there ’ s a chance — small, but real — that we ’ ll find what we need right away. Both of these two planets look as though they just may be the real thing, insofar as we can tell very much about that at these distances and wi t h the scanning equipment at our disposal. What we have to do now is go out and take a close look.
***
The morning transmission. Noelle, sitting with her back to the year-captain, listens to what he reads her and sends it coursing over a gap that now spans more than twenty light-years. “ Wait,” she says. “ Yvonne is calling for a repeat. From ‘ metabolic . ’ ”
He pauses, goes back, reads again:
“ Metabolic balances remain normal, although, as earlier reported, some of the older members of the expedition have begun to show trace deficiencies of manganese and potassium. We are, of course, taking a p propriate corrective steps, and —”
Noelle halts him with a brusque gesture. The year-captain waits. She bends forward, forehead against the table, hands pressed tightly to h er temples.
“ Static again,” she says. “ It ’ s worse than ever today.”
“ Are you getting through at all?”
“ I ’ m getting through, yes. But I have to push, to push, push. And still Yvonne asks me for repeats.” She lifts her head and stares at him, her eyes lockin g on his in that weird intuitive way of hers. Her face is taut with tension. Her forehead is furrowed, and it glistens with a bright film of sweat. The year-captain wants to reach out to her, to hold her, to comfort her. She says huskily, “ I don ’ t know wh a t ’ s happening, year-captain.”
“ The distance —”
“ No!”
“ Better than twenty light-years.”
“ No,” she says again, a little less explosively this time. “ We ’ ve a l ready demonstrated that distance effects aren ’ t a factor. If there ’ s no falling-off of signal after a million kilometers, after one light-year, after ten light-years — no measurable drop in clarity and accuracy whate v er — then there shouldn ’ t be any qualitative diminution suddenly at any greater distance. Don ’ t you think I ’ ve thought about this?”
“ Of course you have, Noelle.”
“ It ’ s not as if we ’ re getting out of ear-shot of each other. We were in perfect contact at ten light-years, perfect at fifteen. Those are already immense distances. If we could manage that, we ought to be able to manage at any distance at all.”
“ But still, Noelle —”
“ Attenuation of signal is one thing, and interference is another. An attenuation curve is a gradual slope. Remember, Yvonne and I have had complete and undistorted mental access from the moment we left Earth until just a short while ago. And now — no, year-captain, it can ’ t be a t tenuation. This has to be some sort of interference. A purely local effect that we ’ re encountering in this region of the galaxy.”
“ Yes, like sunspots, I know. Perhaps when we head out for Planet A, things will clear up.”
“ Perhaps,” Noelle says crisply. “ Let ’ s start again, shall we, year-captain? Yvonne ’ s calling for signal. Go on from ‘ manganese and potassium . ’ ”
“— manganese and potassium. We are taking appropriate correctiv e steps —”
***
The year-captain visualizes the contact between the two sisters as an arrow whistling from star to star, as fire speeding through a shining tube, as a river of pure force coursing down a celestial wave guide. He sees the joining of those two minds as a stream of pure light binding the moving ship to the far-off mother world. Sometimes he dreams
We ’ re supposed to know how to do that. If we can ’ t manage it, none of the other problems are going to be very important.
And so we get started on the grand quest. I don ’ t seriously believe we ’ re going to find our New Earth on the very first try. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And there ’ s a chance — small, but real — that we ’ ll find what we need right away. Both of these two planets look as though they just may be the real thing, insofar as we can tell very much about that at these distances and wi t h the scanning equipment at our disposal. What we have to do now is go out and take a close look.
***
The morning transmission. Noelle, sitting with her back to the year-captain, listens to what he reads her and sends it coursing over a gap that now spans more than twenty light-years. “ Wait,” she says. “ Yvonne is calling for a repeat. From ‘ metabolic . ’ ”
He pauses, goes back, reads again:
“ Metabolic balances remain normal, although, as earlier reported, some of the older members of the expedition have begun to show trace deficiencies of manganese and potassium. We are, of course, taking a p propriate corrective steps, and —”
Noelle halts him with a brusque gesture. The year-captain waits. She bends forward, forehead against the table, hands pressed tightly to h er temples.
“ Static again,” she says. “ It ’ s worse than ever today.”
“ Are you getting through at all?”
“ I ’ m getting through, yes. But I have to push, to push, push. And still Yvonne asks me for repeats.” She lifts her head and stares at him, her eyes lockin g on his in that weird intuitive way of hers. Her face is taut with tension. Her forehead is furrowed, and it glistens with a bright film of sweat. The year-captain wants to reach out to her, to hold her, to comfort her. She says huskily, “ I don ’ t know wh a t ’ s happening, year-captain.”
“ The distance —”
“ No!”
“ Better than twenty light-years.”
“ No,” she says again, a little less explosively this time. “ We ’ ve a l ready demonstrated that distance effects aren ’ t a factor. If there ’ s no falling-off of signal after a million kilometers, after one light-year, after ten light-years — no measurable drop in clarity and accuracy whate v er — then there shouldn ’ t be any qualitative diminution suddenly at any greater distance. Don ’ t you think I ’ ve thought about this?”
“ Of course you have, Noelle.”
“ It ’ s not as if we ’ re getting out of ear-shot of each other. We were in perfect contact at ten light-years, perfect at fifteen. Those are already immense distances. If we could manage that, we ought to be able to manage at any distance at all.”
“ But still, Noelle —”
“ Attenuation of signal is one thing, and interference is another. An attenuation curve is a gradual slope. Remember, Yvonne and I have had complete and undistorted mental access from the moment we left Earth until just a short while ago. And now — no, year-captain, it can ’ t be a t tenuation. This has to be some sort of interference. A purely local effect that we ’ re encountering in this region of the galaxy.”
“ Yes, like sunspots, I know. Perhaps when we head out for Planet A, things will clear up.”
“ Perhaps,” Noelle says crisply. “ Let ’ s start again, shall we, year-captain? Yvonne ’ s calling for signal. Go on from ‘ manganese and potassium . ’ ”
“— manganese and potassium. We are taking appropriate correctiv e steps —”
***
The year-captain visualizes the contact between the two sisters as an arrow whistling from star to star, as fire speeding through a shining tube, as a river of pure force coursing down a celestial wave guide. He sees the joining of those two minds as a stream of pure light binding the moving ship to the far-off mother world. Sometimes he dreams
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