James Hogan - Entoverse

“What do you think of a Thurien starship?” Jassilane asked.

“Impressive-but a bit overwhelming,” Hunt confessed. “You know, Rod, when all’s said and done, I think I prefer your old ship on the parking lot back there at Geerbaine.”

“Me, too,” Jassilane agreed. “Technology that you grew up with is always more comfortable, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Definitely,” Hunt said.

“That’s why we never bothered adapting more of the sensor network in PAC to work with VISAR,” Garuth said. “We experimented with the small part that you know, but old-time Ganymeans like us don’t really take to it. The Thuriens can have virtual travel. We prefer to stick with ZORAC.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Hunt said.

Garuth extended an arm to indicate the general surroundings, then singled out the passage by the security guard’s desk. “This is the part of PAC that I normally inhabit. The staff here simply call it the Ganymean offices. So now you know where to find us.”

“Where will we be working?” Hunt asked. “I assume that since we’re officially here as an UNSA scientific group, we’ll have some office space or something. It’s a bit of a messy situation, I know, but Gregg didn’t exactly give anybody a lot of notice.”

“Naturally,” Shilohin said. “We’ve found some space for you on one of the levels lower down, where we run some other work of our own.”

“Maybe the best time to see it would be later,” Garuth suggested. “Del can take you to your quarters in the residential sector now to freshen up, and we can all meet for, lunch in, say…” He made a vague gesture.

“About an hour?” Hunt suggested.

“Fine,” Garuth agreed. “And then we’ll show you the lab area when you’re all together.”

The Ganymean planetary administration employed numerous scientists, both Jevlenese and Thurien, in connection with various aspects of its work, some of whom were based within PAC itself. The area that had been designated the “UNSA labs” was a segregated section approached through a single entrance, on a floor of offices, workshops, laboratories, and other workrooms in the lower part of the complex.

The general working area consisted of a large room with a wide lab bench taking up the center of the floor, smaller benches by two of the walls, and several desks with computer workstations. A graphics table took up part of the third wall, and alongside it was a generously equipped imaging and processing system. A short passage led to several smaller offices, and another door from the passage doubled back into a second laboratory situated alongside the main area. There was also a direct interconnecting door between the two. All in all the place was well fitted and furnished, with plenty of storage space and instrumentation.

“What do you think?” Garuth asked as the Terrans walked around like prospective buyers inspecting a house.

“It’s marvelous,” Hunt said. “How many of us did you expect? You could house half a Goddard department in this.”

“Officially you’re here to study Ganymean science,” Del Cullen said. “You might as well be comfortable and make it look good at the same time. And, who knows, there might be more coming later.”

“Oh, I’m not complaining,” Hunt assured him.

Another room, off the side of the main area across from the second lab, contained several Thurien neurocoupler recliners. “So you’ll have full access to VISAR,” Shilohin explained. “We have an i-space link direct into PAC.”

“But the regular facilities around PAC are managed by ZORAC?” Duncan asked.

“Yes. There’s a direct line back to the Shapieron. The ship has an onboard i-space connection, too. So ZORAC and VISAR can communicate directly.”

They came back out of the coupler room. Sandy went on through into the smaller lab, where she activated a terminal and began talking to ZORAC about something. In the main area with its central worktable, Danehekker wandered around, checking closet space, looking in drawers, and activating a couple of screens. “Most satisfactory,” he pronounced. “I must say, you seem to have gone to an inordinate amount of trouble for us.”

“Not at all,” Garuth assured him.

Danchekker rubbed the palms of his hands together and looked about. “It’s all very splendid and lavish for just the four of us.”

“Plenty of room if you find you need extra help,” Cullen said. Hunt saw that Duncan was about to make another wisecrack, no doubt about the company that Hunt had reappeared with from the city, and silenced him with a warning look.

And then Sandy’s voice came through the open interconnecting door from the adjoining lab. “Hello, out there?”

“What is it, Sandy?” Hunt called back.

“ZORAC has a call for Professor Danchekker. Shall I leave it on here?”

Danchekker looked at Hunt bemusedly. “What? Already? But we’ve barely arrived, for God’s sake. Who could it possibly be?”

“One way to find out,” Hunt said.

Frowning, Danchekker went through into the next lab. Hunt sent Duncan a puzzled look. Duncan shook his head and shrugged. “Don’t ask-”

“Arghh!”

The scream that came back through the open doorway was one of pure, animal terror. Danchekker bolted back into the room, white-faced. He looked imploringly at Hunt. “It can’t be, not here… Vic, you’ve got to do something.”

Hunt strode through the door and found Sandy, looking at a loss, standing to one side of a live display screen. On it, the face of Ms. Mulling from Goddard confronted him frostily.

“Ah, Dr, Hunt,” she observed. “I distinctly saw Professor Danchekker there a moment ago. Could you call him back, please? There are some questions concerning certain records that he left, and it is most imperative that I speak with him.”

Hunt fought back the urge to burst out laughing. “Er, I think he’s been called away,” he said. “His assistant is here, though. Couldn’t she help?”

Ms. Mulling sniffed disdainfully. “Very well. I suppose so.” Hunt moved out of the viewing angle and gave Sandy an encouraging wink. Then he went back into the main lab. “Don’t worry, Chris,” he said cheerfully to Danchekker, who had sunk onto a stool.

“We’ll take care of it if this keeps up. It’ll probably be some time before we go back.”

“What makes you imagine that I intend to?” Danchekker replied miserably.

The team spent the rest of the day relaxing, adjusting to local Jevlen time, and catching up on their rest. The next morning, Hunt and Danchekker met with Garuth and Shilohin in Garuth’s suite in the Ganymean offices. The items of equipment and other effects that they had brought from Earth had arrived, and Sandy and Duncan were busy getting things organized in the UNSA labs. The two Ganymeans summarized what they had learned after six months with the Jevlenese.

“We thought we might draw a lesson from the dismantling of socialism on Earth,” Garuth said, speaking from behind his huge Ganymean desk, which was also an elaborate console. “It seemed that the JEVEX dependency here could be thought of as analogous to the over dependency that developed there on the too-protective state.”

“A lot of people on Earth have been saying the same thing,” Hunt commented.

“But simply unhooking them from JEVEX doesn’t seem to be the answer,” Garuth went on. “Or at least, not enough of an answer. It seems to work for some of them. Those are the ones who are finding what needs to be done and doing it. That was how we hoped the majority would react, more or less as happened on Earth.”

“But they turned out to be relatively few,” Shilohin said.