Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

“No,” Ailiss said. “There were a good many obvious reasons why it wasn’t

advisable.”

“Maybe it wasn’t then. It’s advisable now. I threw them the question-and

they break like paperboard spoons.”

Ailiss was silent for what seemed like many minutes, though in actuality

she made a quick recovery. “Then, granted that the nomenclature should be

changedand that we’ll have to jettison those men. But what moved you to

such an extreme test in the first place, Director?”

Again that peculiar writhing shrug, which seemed to involve the Director’s

whole upper torso. If it still

52 James Blish

aroused the same revulsion in Ailiss, her expression this time didnot betray

it.

“The fact,” Ertak said grimly, “that we are going to need to use both

crews-at a minimum. Time we got down to business. Dr. Kamblin, please take

the floor.”

“Certainly,” Kamblin said. He stood, quite unruffled. He was really quite

a big man compared to Ertak, but he was older, and there did not seem to be

much drive to him. Despite his eminence in his field, many decades of

subjection to women had made him non-committal about anything that mattered

to him, a man determined only to avoid becoming involved. “The situation,

as briefly as possible, is this:

“As you~re all too well aware, the solar pulsation cycles have been getting

increasingly out of phase in the last century or so, and the solar constant

has risen by as much as a thousandth of a percentage point. Thus far, these

things haven’t much more than inconvenienced us. For example, they’ve given