metal-bearing ores might be found there. If this turned out to be
so, within decades the Moon could become an enormous spaceship
factory, where parts prefabricated in processing and forming plants
on the surface would be ferried up for final assembly in Lunar
orbit. The economic advantages of constructing deep-space craft
here and from Lunar materials, without having to lift everything up
out of Earth’s gravity pit to start with, promised to be enormous.
Next, Hunt visited the huge radio and optical observatories of
Giordano Bruno on Farside. Here, sensitive receivers, operating
fully shielded from the perpetual interference from Earth, and
gigantic telescopes, freed from any atmosphere and not having to
contend with distortions induced by their own weights, were pushing
the frontiers of the known Universe way out beyond the limits of
their Earth-bound predecessors. Hunt sat fascinated in front of the
monitor screens and resolved planets of some of the nearer stars;
he was shown one nine times the size of Jupiter, and another that
described a crazy figure-eight orbit about a double star. He gazed
deep into the heart of the Andromeda Galaxy, and out at distant
specks on the very threshold of detection. Scientists and
physicists described the strange new picture of the Cosmos that was
beginning to emerge from their work here and explained some of the
exciting advances in concepts of space-time mechanics, which
indicated that feasible methods could be devised for dcforming
astronomic geodesics in such a way that the limitations once
thought to apply to extreme effective velocities could be avoided.
If so, interstellar travel would become a practical proposition;
one of the scientists confidently predicted that man would cross
the Galaxy within fifty years.
Hunt’s final stop brought him back to Nearside-to the base at
Copernicus near which Charlie had been found. Scientists at
Copernicus had been studying descriptions of the terrain over which
Charlie had traveled and the accompanying sketched maps; the
in-formation contained in the notebook had been transmitted up from
Houston. From the traveling times, distances, and estimates of
speed quoted, they suspected that Charlie’s journey had begun
somewhere on Farside and had brought him, by way of the Jura
Mountains, Sinus Iridurn, and Mare Imbrium, to Copernicus. Not
everybody subscribed to this opinion, however; there was a problem.
For some unaccountable reason, the directions and compass points
mentioned in Charlie’s notes bore no relationship to the
conventional lunar north-south that derived from its axis of
rotation. The only route for Charlie’s journey that could be
interpreted to make any sense at all was the one from Farside
across Mare Imbrium, but even that only made sense if a completely
new direction was assumed for the north-south axis.
Attempts to locate Gorda had so far met with no positive success.
From the tone of the final entries in the diary, it could not have
been very far from the spot where Charlie was found. About fifteen
miles south of this point was an area covered by numerous
overlapping craters, all confirmed as being meteoritic and of
recent origin. Most researchers concluded that this must have been
the site of Gorda, totally obliterated by a freak concentration of
meteorites in the as yet unexplained storm.
Before leaving Copernicus, Hunt accepted an invitation to drive out
overland and visit the place of Charlie’s discovery. He was
accompanied by a Professor Alberts from the base and the crew of
the UNSA survey vehicle.
* * *
The survey vehicle lumbered to a halt in a wide gorge, between
broken walls of slate-gray rock. All around it, the dust had been
churned into a bewildering pattern of groo$es and ridges by
Caterpillar tracks, wheels, landing gear, and human feet-evidence
of the intense activity that had occurred there over the last
eighteen months. From the observation dome of the upper cabin, Hunt
recognized the scene immediately; he had first seen it in
Caidwell’s office. He identified the large mound of rubble against
the near wall of the gorge, and above it the notch leading into the
cleft.
A voice called from below. Hunt rose to his feet, his movements
slow and clumsy in his encumbering spacesuit, and clambered through
the floor hatch and down a short ladder to the control cabin. The