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