Fred Hoyle - A for Andromeda

“It’s a whole lot more formulae for bio-synthesis,” she said. “Fleming thinks it’s asking for a new experiment, and I think he’s right.”

“More monsters?” Reinhart asked into the telephone.

“Possibly. But it’s much more complicated this time. It’ll be an immense job. We shall need a lot more facilities, I’m afraid, and more money.”

He made another attempt to see Osborne and was summoned, to his surprise, to the Ministry of Defence.

Osborne was waiting in Vandenberg’s room when he arrived. Vandenberg and Geers were also there: it looked as though they had been talking for some time. Geers’s brief case was open on the table and a lot of papers had been splayed out from it and examined. Something harsh and unfriendly about the atmosphere of the room put the Professor on his guard.

“Rest your feet,” said Vandenberg automatically, without smiling. There was a small strained pause while everyone waited for someone else to speak, then he added. “I hear you’ve written off another body.”

“It was an accident,” said Reinhart.

“Sure, sure. Two accidents.”

“The Cabinet have had the results of the enquiry,” Osborne said, looking down at the carpet.

Geers coughed nervously and started shuffling the papers together.

“Yes?” Reinhart looked at the General and waited.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” said Vandenberg.

“For what?”

Osborne looked at him for the first time. “We’ve got to accept a change of control, a general tightening-up.”

“Why?”

“People are starting to ask questions. Soon they’ll find you’ve got this living creature you’re experimenting on.”

“You mean the R.S.P.C.A.? It’s not an animal. It’s just a collection of molecules we put together ourselves.”

“That isn’t going to make them any happier.”

“We can’t just stop in the middle—” Reinhart looked from one to another of them, trying to fathom what was in their minds. “Dawnay and Fleming are just starting on a new tack.”

“We know that,” said Geers, tapping the papers he was putting back into his brief case.

“Then—?”

“I’m sorry,” said Vandenberg again. “This is the end of your road.”

“I don’t understand.”

Osborne shifted uneasily in his chair. “I’ve done my best. We all fought as hard as we could.”

“Fought whom?”

“The Cabinet are quite firm.” Osborne seemed anxious to avoid details. “We’ve lost our case, Ernest. It’s been fought and lost way above our level.”

“And now,” put in Vandenberg, “you’ve written off another body.”

“That’s just an excuse!” Reinhart rose to his small feet and confronted the other man across the desk. “You want us out of it because you want the equipment. You trump up any kind of case—”

Vandenberg sighed. “It’s the way it goes. I don’t expect you to understand our viewpoint.”

“You don’t make it easy.”

Geers snapped his brief case shut and switched on a small smile. “The truth is, Reinhart, they want you back at Bouldershaw Fell.”

Reinhart regarded him with distaste.

“Bouldershaw Fell? They won’t even let me in there.”

Geers looked enquiringly at the General, who gave him a nod to go on.

“The Cabinet have taken us into their confidence,” he said with an air of importance.

“This is top secret, you understand,” said Vandenberg.

“Then perhaps you’d better not tell me.” Reinhart stood stiffly, like a small animal at bay.

“You’ll have to know,” said Geers. “You’ll be involved. The Government have sent out a Mayday—an S.O.S. They want you all working on defence.”

“Regardless of what we’re doing?”

“It’s a Cabinet decision.” Osborne addressed the carpet. “We’ve made the best terms we can.”

Vandenberg stood up and walked across to the wall-map.

“The Western powers are deeply concerned.” He also avoided looking at Reinhart. “Because of traces we’ve been picking up.”

“What traces?”

“Notably from your own radio-telescope. It’s the only thing we have with high enough definition. It’s giving us tracks of a great many vehicles in orbit.”

“Terrestrial?” Reinhart looked across at the trajectories traced on the map. “Is that what you’re all worried about?”

“Yeah. Someone on the other side of the globe is pushing them up fast, but they’re out of range of our early warning screen. The U. N. Space Agency has no line on them, nor has the Western Alliance. No-one has.”

Geers finished it for him. “So they want you to handle it.”

“But that isn’t my field.” Reinhart stood firm in front of the desk. “I’m an astronomer.”

“What you’re doing now is your field?” Vandenberg asked. “It develops from it—from an astronomical source.”

No-one answered him for a moment.

“Well, that’s what the Cabinet wants,” said Osborne finally.

“And the work at Thorness?”

Vandenberg turned to him. “Your team—what’s left of it—will answer to Dr. Geers.”

“Geers!”

“I am Director of the Station.”

“But you don’t know the first thing—” Reinhart checked himself.

“I’m a physicist.” said Geers. “I was, at least. I expect I can soon brush it up.”

Reinhart looked at him contemptuously. “You’ve always wanted this, haven’t you?”

“It’s not my choice!” said Geers angrily.

“Gentlemen!” Osborne neighed reprovingly.

Vandenberg moved heavily back to his desk. “Let’s not make this a personality problem.”

“And Dawnay and Fleming’s work?” Reinhart demanded.

“I shan’t ditch them,” said Geers. “We shall need some of the computer time, but that can be arranged—”

“If you ditch me.”

“There’s no kind of slur on you, Ernest,” Osborne said. “As you’ll see from the next Honours’ List.”

“Oh damn the Honours’ List!” Reinhart’s small fingers dug into his palms. “What Dawnay and Fleming are at is the most important research project we’ve ever had in this country. That’s all my concern.”

Geers looked at him glintingly through his spectacles. “We’ll do what we can for them, if they behave themselves.”

“There are going to be some changes here, Miss Adamson.”

Judy was in Geers’s office, facing Dr. Hunter, the Medical Superintendent of the Station. He was a big bony man who looked far more military than medical.

“Professor Dawnay is going to start a new experiment, but not under Professor Reinhart’s direction. Reinhart is out of it.”

“Then who—?” she left the question in the air. She disliked him and did not wish to be drawn by him.

“I shall be responsible for administering it.”

“You?”

Hunter was possibly used to this type of insult; it raised only a small sneer on his large, unsubtle face.

“Of course, I’m only a humble doctor. The ultimate authority will lie with Dr. Geers.”

“Supposing Professor Dawnay objects?”

“She doesn’t. She’s not really interested in how it’s organised. What we have to do is put things on a tidy footing for her. Dr. Geers will have the final jurisdiction over the computer and I shall help him with the biological experiments. Now you—” he picked up a paper from the Director’s desk—“you were seconded to the Ministry of Science. Well, you can forget that. You’re back with us. I shall need you to keep our side of the business secure.”

“Professor Dawnay’s programme?”

“Yes. I think we are going to achieve a new form of life.”

“A new form of life?”

“It takes your breath, doesn’t it?”