thing for units of length and distance? If so, and if they could
find a reference to Charlie’s height among his papers, the simple
process of measuring him would allow them to work out how many
Earth meters there were in a Lunarian mile. Since they abeady had a
figure for the planet’s surface gravity, its mass and mean density
should follow immediately.
This was all very exciting, but all it proved was that a world had
existed. It did not prove that Charlie and the Lunarians originated
there. After all, the fact that a man carries a London street map
in his pocket doesn’t prove him to be a Londoner. So the work of
relating numbers derived from physical measurements of Charlie’s
body to the numbers on the maps and in the tables could turn out to
be based on a huge fallacy. If the diary came from the world shown
on the maps but Charlie came from somewhere else, then the system
of measurement deduced from the maps and tables in the diary might
be a totally different system from the one used to record his
personal characteristics in his papers, since the latter system
would be the system used in the somewhere else, not in the world
depicted on the maps. It all got very confusing.
Finally, nobody claimed to have proved conclusively that the world
on the maps wasn’t Earth. Admittedly it didn’t look like Earth, and
attempts to derive the modern distribution of terrestrial
continents from the land areas on the maps had met with no success
at all. But the planet’s gravity hadn’t been all that much
different. Maybe the surface of Earth had undergone far greater
changes over the last fifty thousand years than had been previously
thought? Furthermore, Danchekker’s arguments still carried a lot of
weight, and any theory that discounted them would have an awful lot
of explaining to do. But by that time, most of the scientists
working on the project had reached a stage where nothing would have
surprised them any more, anyway.
“Got your message. Came straight over,” Hunt announced as Lyn
Garland ushered him into Caldwell’s office. Caidwell nodded toward
one of the chairs opposite his desk, and Hunt sat down. Caidwell
glanced at Lyn, who was still standing by the door.
“It’s okay,” he said. She left, closing the door behind her.
Caldwell fixed Hunt with an expressionless stare for a few seconds,
at the same time drumming his fingers on the desk. “You’ve seen a
lot of the setup here during the past few months. What do you think
of it?”
Hunt shrugged. The answer was obvious.
“I like it. Exciting things happen around here.”
“You like exciting things happening, huh?” The executive director
nodded, half to himself. He remained thoughtful for what seemed a
long time. “Well, you’ve only seen part of what goes on. Most
people have no idea how big UNSA is these days. All the things you
see around here-the labs, the installations, the launch
areas-that’s just the backup. Our main business is up front.” He
gestured toward the photographs adorning one of the walls. “We have
people right now exploring the Martian deserts, flying probes down
through the clouds of Venus, and walking on the moons of Jupiter.
In the deep-space units in California, they’re designing ships that
will make Vegas and even the Jupiter Mission ships
look like paddleboats. Photon-drive robot probes that will make the
first jump to the stars-some seven miles long! Think of it- seven
miles long!”
Hunt did his best to react in the appropriate manner. The problem
was, he wasn’t sure what manner was appropriate. Caldwell never
said or did anything without a reason. The reason for this turn of
conversation was far from obvious.
“And that’s only the beginning,” Caidwell went on. “After that, men
will follow the robots. Then-who knows? This is the biggest thing
the human race has ever embarked on: USA, US Europe, Canada, the
Soviets, the Australians-they’re all in on it together. Where does
a thing like that go once it starts moving, huh? Where does it
stop?”
For the first time since his arrival at Houston, Hunt detected a