Fred Hoyle - The Black Cloud

“I don’t think there would be any real difficulty. He won’t mind waiting six months for a bigger and better telescope.”

Kingsley put more logs on the fire, and settled back in his chair.

“Let’s stop fencing around this proposition,” he said. “You want me to allow myself to be fastened up in a cage, albeit a gilded cage. That’s the compromise you want from me, a pretty big compromise too. Now we ought to give some thought to the compromise that I shall want from you.”

“But I thought that’s just what we’ve been doing.”

“It was, but only in a vague sort of way. I want everything quite clear-cut. First, that I be empowered to recruit the staff to this Nortonstowe place, that I be empowered to offer what salaries seem reasonable, and to use any argument that may seem appropriate other than divulging the real state of things. Second, that there shall be no , I repeat no, civil servants at Nortonstowe, and that there shall be no political liaison except through yourself.”

“To what do I owe this exceptional distinction?”

“To the fact that, although we think differently and serve different masters, we do have sufficient common ground to be able to talk together. This is a rarity not likely to be repeated.”

“I am indeed flattered.”

“You mistake me then. I am being as serious as I know how to be. I tell you most solemnly that if I and my gang find any gentlemen of the proscribed variety at Nortonstowe we shall quite literally throw them out of the place. If this be prevented by police action or if the proscribed variety are so dense on the ground that we cannot throw them out, then I warn you with equal solemnity that you will not get one single groat of co-operation from us. If you think I am overstressing this point, then I would say that I am only doing so because I know how extremely foolish politicians can be.”

“Thank you.”

“Not at all. Perhaps we can now come to the third stage. We need pencil and paper for this. I want you to note in detail, so that there can be no possibility of any mistake, every item of equipment that must be in place before I move in to Nortonstowe. Again I repeat that the equipment must reach Nortonstowe before I do. I shall not accept the excuse that there has been an unavoidable delay and that something or other will be coming along in a few days’ time. Here, take this paper and start writing.”

Parkinson took long lists back to London with him. The following morning he had an important discussion with the Prime Minister.

“Well?’ said the Prime Minister.

“Yes, and no,” was Parkinson’s answer. “I’ve had to promise to fit the place up as a regular scientific establishment.”

“That’s no disadvantage. Kingsley was quite right in saying that we need more facts, and the sooner we get them the better.”

“I don’t doubt that, sir. But I would have preferred it if Kingsley were not likely to be quite so important a figure in the new establishment.”

“Isn’t he a good man? Could we have got someone better?”

“Oh, as a scientist he’s good enough. It’s not that which worries me.”

“I know it would have been far better if we had had to work with a more amenable type of person. But his interests seem to be pretty much the same as ours. So long as he doesn’t sulk when he finds he can’t get out of Nortonstowe.”

“Oh, he’s quite realistic about that. He used the point as a strong bargaining counter.”

“What were the conditions?”

“For one thing that there are to be no civil servants, and no political liaison except through me.”

The Prime Minister laughed.

“Poor Francis. Now I see what the trouble is. Ah well, as for the civil servants that’s not so serious, and as for the liaison, well we shall see what we shall see. Any tendency to make salaries — er — astronomical in magnitude?”

“None at all, except that Kingsley wants to use salaries as a bargaining counter to get people to Nortonstowe, until he can explain the real reason.”

“Then what is the trouble?”

“Nothing explicit that I can put my finger on, but I’ve got a sort of general sense of uneasiness. There are lots of small points, insignificant severally, but worrying when put together.”

“Come on, Francis, out with it!”

“Put in its most general terms, I’ve a feeling that it’s we who are being manoeuvred, not we who are doing the manoeuvring.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I really. On the face of it everything looks all right, but is it? Considering the level of Kingsley’s intelligence, wasn’t it just a bit too convenient that he took the trouble to register those letters?”

“It might have been a college porter who posted them for him.”

“It might have been, but if it was, Kingsley ought to have realized that the porter would register them. Then the letter to Leicester. It almost looked to me as if Kingsley expected us to intercept it, as if he wanted to force our hand. And didn’t he rough-house poor old Harry [the Home Secretary] just a bit too much? Then look at these lists. They’re incredibly detailed, as if everything had been thought out in advance. The food and fuel requirements I can understand, but why this enormous quantity of earth-moving equipment?”

“I haven’t the least idea.”

“But Kingsley has, because he’s already given a great deal of thought to it.”

“My dear Francis, what does it matter how much thought he has given to it? What we want to do is to get a highly competent team of scientists together, to isolate them, and to keep them happy. If Kingsley can be kept happy with these lists, then let him have the stuff. Why should we worry?”

“Well, there’s a lot of electronic equipment down here, an awful lot of it. It could be used for radio transmission purposes.”

“Then you strike that out here and now. That he can’t have!”

“Just a moment, sir, that isn’t the whole story. I was suspicious about this stuff, so I got some advice on it, good advice, I think. The position is this. Every radio transmission takes place in some form of code, which has to be unscrambled at the receiving end. In this country the normal form of coding goes by the technical name of amplitude modulation, although the B.B.C. has recently also been using a somewhat different form of coding known as frequency modulation.”

“Ah, that’s what frequency modulation is, is it? I’ve often heard people talking about it.”

“Yes, sir. Well, here’s the point. The type of transmission that this equipment here of Kingsley’s could give would be in a quite new form of code, a code that could not be unscrambled except by a specially designed receiving instrument. So although he might wish to send some message nobody could receive it.”

“Short of having this special receiver?”

“Exactly. Well now, do we allow Kingsley his electronic equipment or not?”

“What reason does he give for wanting it?”

“For radio astronomy. For observing this Cloud by radio.”

“Could it be used for that purpose?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Then what is the trouble, Francis?”

“It’s just that there’s an awful lot of it. Admittedly I’m not a scientist, but I can’t swallow that this mass of stuff is really necessary. Well, do we let him have it or not?”

The Prime Minister thought for a few minutes.

“Check this advice of yours carefully. If what you’ve said about the coding turns out to be right, let him have it. In fact this transmission business may turn out to be an advantage. Francis, so far you’ve been thinking of all this from a national point of view — national as opposed to international, I mean?”