Keene sat back and looked at him, amazed. They had converged totally. “Would you believe I was talking to the Kronians about just that very thing last Monday night?” he said.
“You’ve actually met them?”
“That was one of the reasons why I was in Washington.”
Salio looked impressed “And do they have any ideas?” he asked.
“Yes,” Keene answered. “I think they might.” He paused, waiting for a reaction. Salio waved for him to continue. “Well, go on. Now I’m the one doing the listening.”
“What would you say to the suggestion that the orbits aren’t always determined purely gravitationally?” Keene replied. “Suppose an event like Athena could alter the electrical environment to create a temporary regime in which charge-induced forces became significant. Mightn’t that make a difference?”
Salio didn’t answer at once but stared at him long and fixedly. “Is there some reason to suppose that’s true?” he asked finally.
“I think the Kronians might have some good reasons, yes,” Keene replied. He went on to summarize what Sariena had said about the Kronian findings and the arrangements being made in Corpus Christi to compute the implications. Naturally, Salio was intrigued. Keene promised to keep him posted on the outcome.
Back in Salio’s office, Keen finally got around to asking the question that had been his prime reason for coming to see Salio. “If Amspace were to arrange media coverage and so forth, would you be willing to go public with the kinds of things you’ve been telling me this morning?”
“I’d be happy to,” was Salio’s reply. “Wasn’t that why I got in touch with you in the first place?”
“It wouldn’t create problems with the people you work for here?” Keene checked.
“No. As I said before, as far as they’re concerned it’s just a hobby. As long as it doesn’t affect their budgets, contracts, or completion dates, no one here is going to worry too much.”
Salio offered lunch, but Keene’s flight departure time didn’t allow for it. He called for a cab to take Keene to the airport, and, to stretch his legs and get some air, said he’d accompany Keene down to the front entrance.
“So what’s your version of why so many astronomers don’t want to think about it?” Keene asked as they stood waiting. He was curious to see how Salio’s view compared with Cavan’s. “I mean, you and I don’t have a problem. If you tell the ordinary guy in the street that we nearly got wiped out by Venus once, he says `Say, that’s interesting. Tell me more.’ Why the difference?”
Salio stared into the distance. Having to ponder the psychology of such things seemed to be something he was not used to. “Maybe if your whole world is built on certainty and prestige, the thought of losing it is something you can’t face,” he offered finally. “Ordinary people accept uncertainty and insecurity every day.”
“Maybe,” Keene said. It was a thought, anyway.
Salio went on, “And in any case, it’s not true of all astronomers. There’s a lot of politics that I try not to get mixed up in. The astronomers I know out on the West Coast would like to see all this debated more openly. But the International Astronomical Union, headquartered at the Harvard-Smithsonian center in Cambridge, sets the official line. That’s where the lines and Web links from around the world come in to report observations, coordinate announcements, and so on. Its ties are to Washington investment capital and the defense establishment, both of whose horizons are conservative and Earth-centered.”
Keene nodded slowly. Cavan had mentioned Voler’s recently being nominated for presidency of the IAU. “So what happens on the West Coast?” he asked.
“There’s a kind of parallel information clearinghouse at JPL in Pasadena,” Salio said. “The IAU is primarily NSF-supported. JPL is operated for NASA by Cal Tech, which, being a private institution, gives it more autonomy. Certainly, a lot of scientists there would love to start launching stuff all over the Solar System again the way the Kronians want us to, but the catch is being tied to government money.”
“Who’d be the person to talk to out there?” Keene inquired curiously.
“The best I can think of would be a guy called Charlie Hu at JPL. He runs their communications center and big number-crunching operations. I wouldn’t be surprised if he talks to the Kronians on a direct line the same as you do, but doesn’t publicize it much. Anyhow, sure, I can put you in touch with him.”