smarting from the thought of a major security breach’s having taken place right
under his nose. But better to have a realistic measure of Zambendorf now, rather
than later when things start getting serious, Ramelson thought to himself as he
trotted briskly down the four shallow steps outside the entrance to the library.
And Caspar would get over things in time.
Inside, Gregory Buhl and two other GSEC executives, along with Julius Gorsche of
the State Department and Kevin Whaley, a presidential aide, were waiting to
begin the meeting. The first item was a summary presented by Gorsche of Daniel
Leaherney’s latest report from the Orion. The dialogue with the Taloids had
continued to progress since the Terran landing at the city of “Genoa,” Gorsche
said. First impressions of the Taloid culture had suggested it was a collection
of autonomously interacting, sometimes warring, sometimes loosely allied,
social-political entities vaguely reminiscent of the Italian principalities and
city-states of the Middle Ages, which the names that the Terrans had given them
reflected. No further violent incidents of the kind necessitated against the
“Paduans” had occurred, and that affair did not appear to have jeopardized the
further development of constructive relationships with the Genoese. A permanent
base had been established outside Genoa, and Terrans moved about openly inside
the city itself; although apprehension and a tendency toward avoidance were
still observable among some of the inhabitants, the Terrans were succeeding
generally in gaining acceptance.
“At least our main concern has proved baseless,” Ramelson said when Gorsche had
finished. “We haven’t found ourselves confronting an advanced alien race with an
ability to threaten the mission or Earth itself.” He looked over at Buhl. “So
where does that leave us, Greg? There’s a whole world of unconventional but
highly sophisticated technology out there. Is it a potential resource that we
could use? Does it look as if we might be able to get enough of it working for
us somehow to justify the effort? If so, how much might we stand to benefit?”
“One thing at a time, Burton,” Buhl muttered, taking a moment to glance over his
notes. “The scientists there are pretty well wiped out. They’re working round
the clock, but the sheer volume of what they’re starting to uncover is
staggering enough, never mind the complexity of it. The various specialists will
be reporting separately in due course, but I’m trying to get a preliminary
summary put together for sometime in the next few days. Okay?”
“Fine,” Ramelson said.
Buhl went on, “The answer to the main question is yes—there are technologies and
processes up and running on Titan that could be centuries ahead of anything
comparable on Earth, and some of the things there are completely new
conceptually. We’ve already identified bulk nuclear transformation of elements;
total fusion-based materials processing; molecular electronics; self-improving
learning systems; intelligent, optronic, holoprocessing brains . . . and there’s
no doubt all kinds of other things yet that we’ve never even dreamed of.” He
threw up a hand. “The best guess seems to be that it all began as some kind of
alien, self-replicating industrial scheme that screwed up, possibly millions of
years ago. But whether that turns out to be the correct explanation or not,
there’s little doubt that the entire system was conceived and originated as a
high-intensity extraction, processing, and manufacturing facility dedicated to
the mass-production of industrial materials and products, and despite what’s
happened to it since, it still operates to fulfill that primary underlying
purpose.”
“In other words, if you could unscramble the glitches and get things working on
a more organized basis, you could supply just about all of Earth’s needs for
centuries from a setup like that,” Richard Snell, one of the GSEC executives,
said.
Whaley looked intrigued. “You mean it could give us a decent competitive edge
again . . . and maybe a respectable strategic margin?”
Snell smiled humorlessly. “That could qualify as the understatement of the year,
Kev.” He shrugged. “Anyone who gets to control the Titan operation doesn’t have
any competitors, or any strategic opposition. Those problems all go
away—permanently.”
A short silence ensued while the full meaning sank in. Then Whaley asked, “What
about the Taloids? Is there likely to be a problem over . . . ‘ownership