“Sure you do. That’s exactly what Jeffries told me you intended.”
“I was angry.”
“A lot of people were angry,” said Tighe. “I would have been angry if I’d had time to think about it. Bugs on a space station, as dependent as we are on computers. Some people are crazy.”
“That’s part of the reason I’m here. I think we need a set of ground rules for emergencies.”
“We have ’em. I followed them.”
“Then we should rethink them. Abruptly shutting down power to the science modules has its consequences.”
“I know all about them,” said Tighe. “Unfortunately, the only way to cut off the computer terminals from the mainframe was to go to auxiliary power.”
“That is entirely my point,” Jaeckle said slowly, carefully. He seemed to be planning each word as he spoke. “Your only move was to disconnect the terminals which, through no fault of your own, necessarily cut off power to the science modules. That being the case, you should have warned us.”
“There was no time for any warnings.” ‘
“Dr. Ramsanjawi informed me that the download occurred at two A.M. and was discovered at eight. That’s six hours, Dan,” said Jaeckle.
“Dr. Ramsanjawi, huh?” said Tighe. It wasn’t the first time that Jaeckle had proposed a novel way of running the station after consulting with the Indian scientist.
“We both decided that an extra few minutes would not have been critical. It would have saved a month’s work in his case and my television broadcast.”
“Your goddamn show,” muttered Tighe.
Jaeckle put on a diplomatic smile. It made his gaunt, high-domed face look almost like a death’s skull. “Look, Dan. I know you were dead set against the Mars module becoming a part of the station. And I know you hate the idea of my TV broadcasts.”
“I think that this station could accomplish much more in the way of terrestrial research if we didn’t have to coordinate our orbits for TBC.”
“But we are accomplishing things,” said Jaeckle. “Trikon, the Mars Project. Just the fact that the first commercial industrial space station exists at all is a blessing. It is a toehold in the heavens for every man, woman, and child on Earth.”
Tighe rubbed wearily at his eyes. On Earth, Jaeckle’s stentorian voice and skill at popularizing science commanded thousands of dollars in lecture fees and enthralled millions. On the station, he had lost none of his penchant for making speeches.
“But it is not enough,” continued Jaeckle. “If we are to establish bases on the moon, if we are to travel to Mars, we need the backing of the people. We must beat them into a frenzy of scientific interest, the way it was in the sixties. We can’t have them asking why billions of dollars are being shot into the sky rather than spent on Earth. You and I know the reality. But they don’t. That is why the power-down was so critical.”
“How the hell did we get from our toehold in the heavens to this morning’s incident?” asked Tighe.
“There were millions of people tuned to their sets this morning when Carla Sue and I were explaining the importance of exercise,” said Jaeckle. “Halfway through the script, the screen cut to black. The vice-president in charge of programming has been trying to reach me like mad. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to tell him. They were caught completely unaware in New York.”
“‘Good Morning, World’ will survive,” said Tighe.
“Sure it will. But will the Mars program? Millions of people thought the show was cut because of ineptitude.”
“Close. It was pure stupidity,” said Tighe. “Are you now about to tell me I should have waited until your broadcast was over?”
“Of course not. But the warning would have made a difference,” said
Jaeckle, “I could have informed the studio, then put our situation into perspective for the audience. The dedicated scientists, the brave crew, the station commander faced with a critical decision. It would have been great drama.”
“We’ve got enough drama up here,” Tighe grumbled. “Whoever stole those files still has the damned bugged disk.”
“Drama sells,” said Jaeckle, unperturbed. “All it would have taken was a warning and a two-minute delay of the power-down. Who knows how many millions of dollars it would have generated for the space program?”