alchemist’s dream. Rather,
OUT AND SLIGHT UP we change rock into useful
(clear rock pile) metals.”
123 00,00,0 -098 1.0,1.0,1.7
124 00,00,0 -098 1.2,1.2,1.8 While VOICE OVER talks,
125 00,00,0 -098 1.4,1.4,1.9 the Tamers are filling the
126 00,00,0 -098 1.7,1.7,1.9 machine’s hopper with rock.
127 00,00,0 -098 2.1,2.1,1.9
128 00,00,0 -098 2.7,2.7,2.0 “The Westinghouse Mass
129 00,00,0 -098 3.5,3.5,2.0 Spectrograph has an inside
temperature so high that
HOLD THIS this rock is broken down
CONFIGURATION TO into individual molecules.
143 00,00,0 -098 3.5,3.5,2.0 It is able to sort through
these molecules and collect
SLOW SKEW those of any given element.”
(to other side of machine)
144 -096 (SAFETY NOTE: During
145 -094 this skew the holo team
146 -092 must be careful. Y-axis
147 -090 cameraman must wear
148 -088 thermal armor, as he comes
149 -086 within two meters of the
150 -084 machine’s exhaust beam.)
151 -082
152 -081 At t =156, one of the
153 -080 Tamers sets the machine’s
154 -079 controls.
155 -078
156 -077 (t =156) “Here, the
machine is being set to
HOLD SKEW TO produce the element silver.
161 -077 3.5,3.5,2.0 (BEAT to t = 173) “It will
process all that rock in
approximately fifteen seconds.”
FASTER SKEW, SLOW
SQUEEZE & DROP
162 -066 3.3,3.3,1.9
163 -055 3.1,3.1,1.8
164 -044 2.9,2.9,1.7
165 -033 2.7,2.7,1.6
166 -022 2.5,2.5,1.5
167 -011 2.3,2.3,1.4
168 000 2.1,2.1,1.3
169 011 1.9,1.9,1.2
170 022 1.8,1.8,1.1
171 032 1.8,1.8,1.1
172 042 1.8,1.8,1.1
173 052 1.8,1.8,1.1
174 060 1.8,1.8,1.1
175 067 1.7,1.7,1.1
176 073 1.6,1.6,1.1
177 077 1.5,1.5,1.1
178 080 1.4,1.4,1.1
179 081 1.3.1.3,1.1
180 082 1.2,1.2,1.1
181 082 1.1,1.1,1.1
182 082 1.0,1.0,1.1
183 082 0.9,0.9,1.1
184 082 0.8,0.8,1.1
HOLD THIS (t = 188) The nugget
CONFIGURATION TO appears in the output
187 082 0.8,0.8,1.1 hopper.
BLUR SQUEEZE VOICE OVER: “Silver!
188 082 0.3,0.3,1.1 (BEAT to t = 191) “Or
any other useful metal.
HOLD THIS “Tamer engineers will
CONFIGURATION TO use these metals to build
197 082 0.3,0.3,1.1 tools. . .”
CUT TO: (t = 198) “Tools to build
STOCK AED CUBAGE the machines for geoformy.
44/5398/0329-0345 (Tamer “And the elements to go
using lathe on surface of into those machines will
unimproved planet) FADE TO: also come from the
214 HOLD STATIC Westinghouse . . . Mass
REPLAY OF t =30 TO Spectrometer.”
219-221 SLOW FADE TO (t = 214) VOICE OVER:
STOCK AED CUBAGE
79/4760/0000-0008 (Lush “And given a year or
landscape, double sun in sky) two…
(DEFIANTLY)
CUT TO: “or ten-or fifty-“
230 (BEAT to t = 221) “There
STOCK WEST CUBAGE will be a new world where
PR001/0000-0010 men can live.
(Westinghouse sigil in front of
deepspace background. (BEAT to t = 226)
18°/sec. skew.) “Another fresh start for humankind.”
232 KEY IN
WESTINGHOUSE (t = 230) VOICE OVER:
ANTHEM “Westinghouse.
239.240 FADE OUT.
(t=232)“Building better worlds…
(t=234)“For you.”
25 – Carry the Seed
(From Sermons from Science by Theodore Lasky, copyright © 2071, Broome Syndicate. Reprinted from the Washington PostTimes-Herald-Star-News, 25 November 2071:)
. . . the original plan, which was to use the LMT to set up automatic geoformy apparatus on one of the terrestrial companions of 61 Cygni A. People would then be transported to the new world by a so-called “generation ship.”
Take a cylindrical asteroid about ten kilometers long; hollow it out and geoform the inside. Spin it slowly, end over end, to produce artificial gravity. Give it a propulsion system and aim it at 61 Cygni, with several thousand people aboard. Depending on which design you used (i.e., how much money you could put into the project), the trip could last anywhere from twenty years to a thousand.
Hence the name. Generations, dozens of them, could be born and die along the way.
A woman named Jerry Kovaly made this cumbersome arrangement unnecessary.
Dr. Kovaly was a biologist in charge of the life sciences phase of geoformy on 61 Cygni A, in the late 2030’s. (It was she who coined the term “xenasthenia” to describe the sudden weakness and disorientation a Tamer feels back on earth, if he’s eaten food grown from another planet’s soil, when the alien molecules slingshot out of his body.)
61 Cygni A was an easy planet to geoform; people could walk unprotected on its surface almost from the start. It was the first planet whose native plants proved edible; it was the first planet on which a human child was conceived.