What fascinated the cosmologists—and began to infect Clifford as well the more he talked with them—was the prospect of a new and revolutionary cosmological model. It was purely hypothetical at that stage, but somebody on Luna had suggested that if the quasars had ceased to exist now, and if the expansion had stopped as a consequence, and if creations turned out to predominate in the balance, a new epoch of quasar formation might be induced. This gave rise to a new picture of cosmology in which phases of quasar formation and expansion alternated with phases of galaxy manufacture . . . for ever. Thus the notion of a continuous “Wave Model” of the universe was born, superseding, if it could be proved, both the Steady State and the Big Bang models. It required neither the singularity in the laws of physics that characterized Big Bang and about which a number of leading physicists still felt uneasy, nor for the universe to appear the same at all times, as was required by Steady State but which observation had shown to be manifestly untrue.
All in all, there was a lot of exciting work already lined up waiting for Mark II.
But as Mark II neared completion and the first tests of its subsystems commenced, world events cast a deepening shadow over the project. Anti-West policies intensified in South America, threatening closure of the Panama Canal, and the Urals border war escalated to include the use of massed tanks and ground-attack aircraft as regular features. The long-drawn-out civil war in Burma finally died out as the revolutionary factions effected a shaky compromise and took over the country, while the exhausted remnants of the rightwing government forces retreated to seek sanctuary in neighboring India. Soon India itself became the object of renewed border pressures from both east and west as Chinese and Afrabs resurrected long-standing grievances. Hong Kong, having been reduced to a state of economic impotence and famine by a systematic stranglehold of sanctions and blockade, was taken over uncontested. Within three days, China announced its claim for Taiwan.
* * *
“Yeah, I know it’s a pain, Brad, but that’s the way it is,” Morelli said across his desk. “It’ll only take, say, a day at most. Get a couple of the team to give you a hand with it.”
“But . . .” Clifford waved the wad of forms that Morelli had given him in front of him. “What is all this crap? I haven’t got a spare day. . . .” He glanced down at the schedule sheet attached to the front. “Inventory of Capital Equipment Advanced . . . Projected Purchase Breakdown . . . Accumulated Maintenance Debits . . .” Clifford looked up imploringly. “We’ve never had anything like this before. What’s going on all of a sudden?”
Morelli sighed and scratched the side of his nose.
“I suppose Washington is trying to bring it to our attention that they’ve poured a lot of hardware into this place and it’s costing them a lot of bucks,” he said. “I think maybe it’s a little reminder that they haven’t seen much in the way of results yet . . . you know how they work—subtly.”
“This won’t help get results,” Clifford fumed. “It’ll just soak up time.” He halted for a second, then continued. “Who says we’re not getting results, anyway? We’ve solved the secondary-radiation problem . . . untangled the cosmic background problem . . . postulated new k-conservation principles. That’s what I call results.”
“I know,” Morelli agreed, holding up a hand. “But it’s not what they call results. Remember, we sold them on supercommunications and superradar and all kinds of other superstuff? That’s what they’re waiting to see.”
“Aw, but hell . . .”
“I know what you’re gonna say, Brad, but don’t say it.” Morelli placed his hands down in a gesture of finality. “They’re paying for the tunes, and I guess we have to play. Fill it in as they ask and keep it short, okay? Like I said, get some people to help you and I bet you can clear it up in half a day.”
“Bureaucrats!” Clifford snorted to himself as he closed the door behind him and began walking down the corridor. Washington, it appeared, was not wildly excited about quasar distributions or Wave Models of the universe.