“VIsAR manufactures composite impressions from data originated in different places and delivers them as a total package,” Eesyan replied. “It can combine visual, tactile, audile, and other details of an environment with data synthesized from monitoring the neural activity of other persons linked into the system, and provide each individual with a complete, personalized impression of being in that environment and interacting physically and verbally with the others. Hence we can visit other worlds, travel among other cultures, convene for meetings in other star systems, and make visits to artificial worlds out in space. . . and be home in an instant. We do move around physically to some degree, of course, for example in recreation or for activities that require physical presence, but for the most part our long-range business and travel is conducted via electronics and gravitics.”
The surface continued curving over and brought them out into a wide circular gallery that looked down over a railed parapet on a fairly busy plaza of some kind a level below. Between the flowing curves and surfaces enclosing the space from above, they could see part of the floor of the arcade that they had been walking along a few minutes earlier. At least, it had seemed like a floor at the time. But by now they were beginning to get used to that kind of thing.
“When we first sat down inside that plane at McClusky, all my senses went haywire for a while,” Lyn said as she thought back. “What was that all about?”
“VISAR tuning in to your personal cerebral patterns and activity levels,” Eesyan told her. “It was making adjustments until it obtained correct feedback responses. They vary somewhat from individual to individual. The process is a one-time thing. You could think of it as somewhat like fingerprinting.”
“Porthik,” Hunt said after they had continued for some distance in silence. “That stunt you pulled on me right at the begin-
ning-you’ve been getting some mixed-up stories about Earth, and you needed to check them out. Right?”
“It was extremely important, as Calazar will explain,” Eesyan answered.
“But was it necessary?” Hunt queried. “If VISAR can access symbolic neural patterns directly, why couldn’t it have simply pulled whatever it wanted to know straight out of my memory? That way there wouldn’t have been any risk of wrong answers.”
“Technically that would be possible,” Eesyan agreed. “However, for reasons of privacy such things are not permitted under our laws, and VISAR is programmed in a way that restricts it to supplying primary sensory inputs to the brain and monitoring motor and certain other terminal outputs only. It communicates only what would be seen, heard, felt, and so on; it does not read minds.”
“How about the others?” Hunt inquired. “Do you have any idea how they’re getting along? I wouldn’t exactly recommend your welcoming ceremonies as the best way of making friends.”
Eesyan’s mouth puckered in the way that Hunt had long ago recognized as the Ganymean equivalent of a smile. “You needn’t worry. They haven’t all been getting to the bottom of VISAR as quickly as you did, so some of them are still a little confused, but apart from that they’re fine.”
The confusion had been intentional, Hunt realized suddenly. It was a deliberate measure calculated to defuse any animosity left lingering as a result of the initial shock tactics. Eesyan’s showing up to escort them to wherever they were going was no doubt part of the plan too. “It didn’t seem quite like that when I talked to Chris Danchekker on the phone a few minutes before you arrived,” he said, grinning to himself as he caught the expression on Lyn’s face.
“As a matter of fact, you and Professor~ Danchekker did have comparatively hard rides,” Eesyan admitted. “We’re sorry about that, but the two of you were unique in that you both possessed firsthand knowledge of certain events connected with the S/iapieron that we were particularly anxious to obtain. The experiences of your companions were more in the nature of discussions concerning their various specialized fields. Their accounts corroborated one another’s perfectly. It was very illuminating.”
“What happened with you and Chris?” Lyn asked, looking across at Hunt.