James P Hogan. Inherit The Stars. Giant Series #1

acknowledgment, raised his hand for silence, and stepped a pace

forward to the microphone in front of him.

“Your attention, please, ladies and gentlemen . . . Could we have

quiet, please . . .” The baritone voice boomed out of the

loudspeakers around the walls. The murmurs subsided.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” he resumed. “All

of you have been engaged for some time now in some aspect or other

of the Lunarian problem. Ever since this thing first started, there

have been more than a few arguments and differences of opinion, as

you all know. Taking all things into consideration, however, we

haven’t done too badly. We started out with a body and a few scraps

of paper, and from them we reconstructed a whole world. But there

are still some fundamental questions that have remained unanswered

right up to this day. I’m sure there’s no need for me to recap them

for the benefit of anyone here.” He paused. “At last, it appears,

we may have answers to those questions. The new developments that

cause me to say this are so unexpected that I feel it appropriate

to call you all together to let you see for yourselves what I saw

for the first time only a few hours ago.” He waited again and

allowed the mood of the gathering to move from one suited to

preliminary remarks to something more in tune with the serious

business about to begin.

“As you all know, a group of scientists left us many months ago

with the Jupiter Five Mission to investigate the discoveries on

Ganymede. Among that group was Vic Hunt. This morning we re

ceived his latest report on what’s going on. We are about to replay

the recording for you now. I think you will find it interesting.”

Caldwell glanced toward the projection window at the back of the

room and raised his hand. The lights began to fade. He stepped down

from the platform and took his seat in the front row. Darkness

reigned briefly. Then the screen illuminated to show a file header

and reference frame in standard UNSA format. The header persisted

for a few seconds, then disappeared to be replaced by the image of

Hunt, facing the camera across a desktop.

“Navcomms Special Investigation to Ganymede, V. Hunt reporting, 20

November 2029, Earth Standard Time,” he announced. “Subject of

transmission: A Hypothesis Concerning Lunarian Origins. What

follows is not claimed to be rigorously proven theory at this

stage. The object is to present an account of a possible sequence

of events which, for the first time, explains adequately the

origins of the Lunarians, and is also consistent with all the facts

currently in our possession.” Hunt paused to consult some notes on

the desk before him. In the conference theater the silence was

absolute.

Hunt looked back up and out of the screen. “Up until now I’ve

tended not to accent any particular one of the ideas in circulation

in preference to the rest, primarily because I haven’t been

sufficiently convinced that any of them, as stated, accounted

adequately for everything that we had reason to believe was true.

That situation has changed. I have now come to believe that one

explanation exists which is capable of supporting all the evidence.

That explanation is as follows:

“The Solar System was formed originally with nine planets, which

included Minerva and extended out as far as Neptune. Akin to the

inner planets and located beyond Mars, Minerva resembled Earth in

many ways. It was similar in size and density and was composed of a

mix of similar elements. It cooled and developed an atmosphere, a

hydrosphere, and a surface composition.” Hunt paused for a second.

“This has been one source of difficulty- reconciling surface

conditions at this distance from the Sun with the existence of life

as we know it. For proof that these factors can indeed be

reconciled, refer to Professor Fuller’s work at London University

during the last few months.” A caption appeared on the lower

portion of the screen, giving details of the titles and access

codes of Fuller’s papers on the subject

“Briefly, Fuller has produced a model of the equilibrium states of

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