condition of his people, and their need to find somewhere to land their ship in order to recuperate and appraise their situation.
Throughout the proceedings, a running commentary on both sides of the conversation was radioed back to the crew remaining on the bus, whose Ganymean relay gave Shannon and the others on the bridge of the 15 a minute-by-minute report of what was happening.
Even before Garuth had finished speaking, Shannon had contacted Ganymede Main Base and instructed the commander there to begin preparations to receive a shipload of unexpected and very weary guests.
chapter seven
“One of the other Earthmen has just instructed me to get lost and switched his unit off,” ZORAC said. “I could only do that by taking the Shapieron away into space and I’m certain that he didn’t intend that. What did he mean?”
Hunt grinned to himself as he allowed his head to sink back into the pillow while he contemplated the ceiling. He had been back on board Jupiter Five for several hours and was relaxing in his cabin after a strenuous day while experimenting further with his Ganymean communications kit.
“It’s an Earth saying,” he replied. “It doesn’t mean what the words mean literally. It’s what people sometimes say when they’re not interested in listening to somebody. Probably he was tired and needed to sleep. But don’t you say it when you talk to Earthmen. It conveys irritation and is a little insulting.”
“I see. Okay. Is there a word or phrase for a saying that doesn’t mean what it says literally?”
Hunt sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily. Suddenly he had nothing but admiration for the patience of school
teachers. –
“I suppose we’d call it a figure of speech,” he said.
“But surely speech is formed from words, not figures, or have I made a mistake somewhere?”
“No, you’re right. That’s just another saying.”
“A figure of speech is a figure of speech then. Right?”
“Yes. ZORAC, I’m getting tired too. Could you save any more questions about English until I’m ready for it again? There are some questions I’d still like to ask you.”
“Otherwise you’ll instruct me to get lost and switch off?”
“Correct.”
“Okay. What are your questions?”
Hunt hoisted his shoulders up against the end of his bunk and clasped his hands behind his head. After a moment’s reflection, he
was ready. “I’m interested in the star that your ship came from. You said that it had a system of several planets.”
“Yes.”
“Your ship came from one of those planets?”
“Yes.”
“Did all the Ganymean people move from Minerva and go live on that planet a long time ago?”
“No. Only three large ships went and their carried-ships. Also there were three very large machines that propelled themselves like spaceships. The Ganymeans went there to test a scientific idea. They did not go there to live. All came back in the Shapieron but many have died.”
“When you went to the star, where did you travel from?”
“From Minerva.”
“Where were the rest of the Ganymean people-the ones who didn’t go with you to the star?”
“They remained on Minerva, naturally. The work to be done at the star needed only a small number of scientific people.”
Hunt’s incredulity could no longer be contained. The thing that he had been beginning to suspect for some time was really true.
“How long ago was it when you left the star?” he asked, his voice catching slightly as he formed the words.
“Approximately twenty-five million Earth years ago,” ZORAC informed him.
For a long time Hunt said nothing. He just lay there, his mind struggling to comprehend the enormity of what he had learned. Just a few hours before he had been standing face to face with beings who had been alive long before the species called Homo sapiens had ever begun to emerge. And they were still alive now, and had been through the unimaginable epochs between. The very thought of it was stupefying.
He did not imagine for one moment that this could represent anything like a normal Ganymean life span and he guessed it to be the result of relativistic time-dilation. But to produce an effect of such magnitude they must have sustained a phenomenal velocity for an incredible length of time. What could possibly have induced the Ganymeans to journey the vast distance that this implied? And, equally strange, why should they willingly inffict upon themselves what they must have known would be a permanent forfeiture of their world, their way of life and all the things that were