The Kronian hearings had been in progress for two days, staged in the conference theater of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's new building on New York Avenue. The active participants fell into three broad categories: the Kronian delegation and Terran scientists from various places and disciplines who supported their position; specialized committees representing the prevalent scientific opinions on Earth in such areas as Solar System astronomy, recent geology, Ice Age chronology, climatology, cultural mythology, and the other subjects under debate; and an assortment of political advisors and delegates concerned with the policies that would come out of it allpotentially international in scope, although it seemed agreed that the lead set by the United States would be generally followed. The move to have two of Hu's scientists from JPL added to the astronomy committee had been contested on the grounds that it would produce internal divisiveness. The committee chairmanHerbert Volerhad concurred and upheld the previously agreed arrangement.
These groups occupied three sections in the front part of the auditorium. The dais facing the room had been furnished with a panel table to accommodate the group concerned with the current topic, and a podium for a principal speaker. Some seats and tables in the center at the front were reserved for the current AAAS president, Irwin Schatz, a physics Nobel Laureate, who was nominally hosting and chairing the event, along with several officials from major scientific agencies and their administrative assistants. The rows across the middle were taken up by journalists, science correspondents, and reporters. The remainder of the hall was by invitation only for anyone with the right connections who had managed to get a pass. Since the event had as much to do with world policymaking and public opinion as with science, there were lots of cameras and microphones around.
Although the work that Keene and Jerry Allender had been involved in was not scheduled for discussion until the third day, they had been present from the beginning. Keene recognized a number of familiar faces from his dealings over the years and was able to catch up on events with some of them in the chat room between formal sessions. Also, he noticed Leo Cavan putting in an intermittent presence, usually in a seat to the side of the hall or standing near one of the doors.
So far, the floor had largely been ceded to the Kronians to recapitulate the work that had led them to their conclusions. Practically all of the material they cited had been available before, butapart from the more sensational items that the media had been popularizing since Athena appearedfragmented among specialized journals and for the most part obscure. Gallian had wanted it all consolidated for the record, and there were really no grounds on which that could be denied. They went over the parallels between ancient accounts of terrestrial disruptions and violent celestial events, and the implied connection with cataclysms written into the geological and biological records. They pointed to the evidence for major disturbances to both the Moon and Mars in recent times as showing that the upheavals on Earth had been caused by some external agency, and hence the cherished notion of a stable and orderly Solar System was in error. Finally, they recounted the reasons for supposing that agency to have been an earlier Athena-like object ejected from Jupiter, which had since evolved into the planet Venus.
Reactions had grown more animated and vociferous as the two days went by. The Kronian appeals to ancient records and mythologies had elicited mainly pointed silences as the establishment scientists' way of registering their disapproval. They didn't think that this had any place in a scientific debate of the twenty-first century, but courtesy required that the Kronians be permitted a hearing if that was the way they insisted on playing it. The review of recent geological and biological catastrophes initiated more lively responses, not so much of denial that the evidence existedfor that much was generally acceptedbut more of resistance to the suggestion that it testified to something universal and global rather than the unconnected, localized events that the mainstream theories still clung to. There was louder protest at revisions the Kronians wanted made to accepted historical chronologyfor example, bringing forward the date for the ending of the last ice age, and doing away with the Greek 1200 to 700 B.C. "Dark Age" conventionally held to have separated the Helladic from the Hellenic periods. This, the Kronians asserted, had never happened but resulted from a misalignment of Greek and Egyptian chronologies stemming from faulty nineteenth-century research. The points of dispute were tabled to be covered during the specialized sessions later.
The real objections and choruses of "No!" "Never!" "Rubbish!" began when Gallian, Sariena, and several of the other Kronian delegates began challenging traditional notions of the origin, age, stability, and recent history of the Solar System. This, of course, was the Terran party line orchestrated by Voler finally emerging. The reality of Athena couldn't be denied, but it was acceptable only as a freak event that would never occur again in the timespan of humankind. To suppose that it could be the latest instance of what in fact was the normal scheme of things, meaning that just about everything that had been believed for centuries would have to be torn up and discarded, was inconceivable. Again, according to the rules, points of dispute and contention were supposed to be deferred until later sessions; but this time the mood of the room had reached the point where frayed tempers and wounded egos wouldn't wait, and matters boiled over. The media had a bonanza, capturing red-faced, spluttering professors hurling pejoratives from the floor, the AAAS president pulping a file folder on the edge of his table as he shouted for order, and Sariena at the podium, quiet and dignified, waiting while one mêlée after another erupted and subsided. In all this, it seemed to Keene that Voler played more a role of egging things along and loudly adding to the controversy rather than acting as any kind of moderating influence. It was in keeping with the significance of the Kronian affair to the career ambitions that Cavan had described. Seldom did anything become a focus of the political-scientific community's attention like the current issue, and Voler was making sure to keep himself at center stage.
Eventually, matters spiraled to the inevitable clash over the origin of Venus. Gallian began summarizing ancient astronomical and mythological accounts again but was interrupted by astronomers protesting that this material was irrelevant and demanding that the proceedings be confined to science. Gallian handed over to Vashen, who presented evidence for a young planet along the lines Salio had described to Keene. Despite Schatz's pleas for them to defer until later, several attendees rose to insist that the hypothesis was unnecessary since the accepted theory explained everything adequately. This led to the Kronians making comparisons with Athena, which was countered by reassertions that Athena was a totally different kind of object, moving in a class of orbit that Venus could never have possessed. Sariena contradicted this, stating that data collected over the past ten months by Kronian space probes showed a change in the electrical properties of the space medium sufficient to invalidate conventional models, and that calculations based on the revised model showed that orbits could indeed be circularized in the way postulated, within the requisite time frame. This caused something of a stir until Tyndam, the deputy chairman of the astronomy committee, no doubt following directions, called for the subject to be ruled inadmissable. At this point, Gallian jumped to his feet to protest that nothing pertinent could be excluded from a scientific debate and challenging the other side for a justification. Tyndam's reply was that the claim was unverifiedthe equivalent of hearsay in a court of lawand had no standing as scientific evidence until either confirmed or contradicted by independent studies. The intransigence of this ruling caused some surprised mutterings. Sariena rose again and retorted hotly that the results had been verified, and the people who had conducted the corroborative study were right hereshe indicated where Keene and Allender were sitting. Gallian demanded to the chair that they be heard. With curiosity mounting all round, and feeling himself under mounting moral pressure, Schatz, clearly with some reluctance, agreed.
Voler's position was most vulnerable here, and he took it upon himself to defend it personally, assuming more the role of a trial lawyer, it seemed, than a delegate at a scientific conference, by coming out from his seat to address the dais from the floor immediately in front of the chairman's table. Keene was at the podium at this point, having just finished describing his part in organizing the computations conducted at Amspace. Allender, Sariena, Gallian, Vashen, and Chelassey, a mathematician with the Kronian group, were at the table to his left, looking out over the hall.
Voler began, "So this wasn't part of any research protocol agreed with the Kronian scientists from the outset. It was decided at a cocktail party after the Osiris arrived here. Have I got that right?"
"That's correct," Keene confirmed. He was getting irritated. Maybe that was the idea. It couldn't have been agreed any earlier; the first results had only just come in from Saturn. Voler knew that.
"The data files were in the Osiris's computers. You passed on the codes for accessing them so that the calculations could be repeated at Amspace."
"Yesat least, it was arranged by my business partner and a mathematical physicist employed by our company. Just the original raw data. We had no prior knowledge of what the Kronians' results had been. The solutions computed at Amspace are in full agreement with them. My colleague, Dr. Allender, has complete details of the protocols and procedures." Keene couldn't keep himself from adding, "If you're questioning the competence of Dr. Allender and his staff, their method and setup were worked out in conjunction with Professor Neuzender at Princeton, a specialist in celestial dynamics whose name I have no doubt is familiar to you."
Voler stared for a few seconds and then nodded distantly, his mind seemingly on a different track. "Oh, I have no doubt as to the abilities of the people involved, and I'm sure that their computations were done validly. I've known Gary Neuzender for years, and if he's given his approval I'll grant the results provisional status." He paused again and turned away briefly before resumingclearly for effect, and succeeding in getting the room's attention. "But it isn't the quality of the computations that concerns me, Dr. Keene. After all, the outcome of a computation can be no more valid than the data that it's based on; isn't that so? And in this case, you've just told us that all of the alleged data came from one source only, and a source, moreover, that has a significantto put it mildlystake in the outcome. Isn't that so?"
Exclamations of astonishment greeted the statement. Keene couldn't believe his ears. Voler had as good as directly questioned the Kronians' honesty. He shook his head, momentarily befuddled. "What are you trying to suggest, that the data weren't real . . . ? That they'd been faked or something?" he asked incredulously.
Voler raised both arms in an empty-handed gesture. "I'm simply pointing out that these results which we are being asked to accept depend wholly on data that we have no way of verifying, supplied from a single source at the last moment; and that source hardly qualifies as a disinterested party. One cannot but be struck by how conveniently these results accord with the case that's being argued, yet are incompatible with just about everything hitherto believed. An extraordinary coincidence, wouldn't you agree? Extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary proof. And you're saying it should be accepted purely on assurances."
Farther along the table to the side of the podium, Gallian was on his feet again, his face livid. "What kind of suggestion is this? We came here in good faith, believing this would be a debate of evidence, not an examination of our motives. Are we being called criminals now? Exactly what is Professor Voler insinuating?"
Keene had already seen Fey, sitting with a mixed group of people a couple of rows back from the front. She had a satisfied look, as if this whole thing had a personal dimension to it somehow and was settling some old scores. Keene had recovered sufficiently to think coherently again, perhaps, if not quite coolly. The audacity of the double standard being applied was staggering. After all the things that had been going on presumably with Voler's approval, if not actually under his direct instigation, he was now questioning the integrity of the Kronians? Keene couldn't swallow it. He had warned Fey that he was in a position and of a mood to expose what had been going on, and he had asked her to convey the message. Either she had ignored him, or Voler had. Well, Keene told himself, there would never be another opportunity like this.
He raised his head to address the whole floor. "This has gone far enough. If there were sound scientific reasons for questioning the claims that the Kronians are making, then of course this conference would be the place to hear them. But instead, it appears it's being turned into a forum for making accusations that can only be described as scandalous." Cries of "Hear, hear!" came from a few scattered places. Encouraged, Keene gripped the edges of the podium and looked around. "Very well. If that is the way it's to be, then let's have the full picture of things that have been happening, not unsupported insinuations or speculations about what might have happened. I would have preferred it if these matters had been referred to a more appropriate quarter." Around the room, heads were shaking; others exchanged mystified looks. "However, since we have been turned in this direction, let's talk about scientists I can name who have been intimidated by threats to their careers from voicing convictions to which years of intensive work have brought them; or about suppression of opposing views from the mass media by direct intervention to cancel already scheduled events at the last moment. Let's talk about actual censorship of publishing conducted through organized boycotts and letter campaigns. . . . And I remind you all again, I'm referring to things that have taken place, not exercises in fancy about what might have." Finally, Keene brought his eyes back down to where Voler was still regarding him from the floor, and pointed a finger. "And now the same person whose influence I can show as central to all the things I've just listed can stand here and make these kinds of allegations? . . ." Keene raised his hands in a brief appeal.
"I take it we're referring to this wealth of evidence that would prove conclusive if the scientific community and the world at large were permitted to share it without prejudice. Is that it?" Voler fired up at him.
"Thank you. I couldn't have put it better," Keene acknowledged.
Voler seemed unfazed by Keene's remarks but stood with his arms folded confidently. " `Censorship.' `Suppression,' " he repeated. "Our colleague, Dr. Keene, is quick in his use of strong words. We are accused of intervening in the activities of the media. But since when have the mass media constituted the proper channel for scientific discourse? It seems to me that what we've been seeing is more a case of the other side attempting to shortcut the regular process in order to create a jury of public opinion. When that happens, it's inevitably because the case is incapable of withstanding rigorous scrutiny. Seen in that light, our actions would be more accurately described as moving to prevent the public from being stampeded into graphically and emotionally portrayed beliefs on the basis of suspect claims and half-baked evidence. Well, isn't that what we have scientific institutions for? We've been reminded ceaselessly over recent months of the importance of the decisions that will be made as a result of these hearings. Very well, I'll reiterate it. Let us be mindful of them."
Approving murmurings came from the floor this time. Keene felt the foothold that had seemed so solid starting to slip. Gallian, still standing, was looking confused. Voler couldn't be turning this around. "No!" Keene threw out over the hubbub. "This is not something out of the tabloids. We turned to a public forum precisely because the institutions that Professor Voler puts such trust in have refused to see the facts in front of them." He extended an arm sideways. "The Kronians are scientists as competent as any in this room. The evidence they're asking us to look at is as solid and verifiable as anything in your own laboratories."
"Yes, we've just looked at an example of it," Voler remarked derisively.
"You didn't! You're refusing to look at it!" Keene shouted.
"Based on data that no one this side of Saturn has seen; allegedly obtained from probes whose very existence we have to accept on faith. You call that verifiable?" Voler taunted.
"What you are insinuating is inexcusable!" Gallian protested again, recovering his voice and rallying with Keene.
"We brought you a lot more than just the data from the probes," Sariena said from beside Gallian. Her face seemed flushed, even with her dark complexion. It was the first time that Keene had seen her registering anger. "Tangible evidence that you can hold in your hand. Was that supposed to be `alleged'? Did we imagine it? Is that not verifiable enough for you, Professor Voler? Tell us. What else would it take to convince you?"
Voler raised his head sharply and swung to face the hall in a way that said they had just heard something important, so that by the time he turned back toward the dais the room had fallen quiet. There was something triumphant in his manner, as if he had been leading up to this moment all along. Keene sensed that some unexpected turn was about to take place.
"Ah yes, the tangible evidence," Voler repeated. He surveyed the room again, and then walked back to where he had been sitting, while the Kronians exchanged questioning frowns. Voler stooped to lift into view a large cardboard box about two feet along a side and set it down on the table. From it he produced an object wrapped in black cloth, which he uncovered and held aloft to reveal as what appeared to be a broken flake of brown rock, perhaps an inch thick and roughly the size of a dinner plate but with one straight side terminating at a distinct corner. "I assume we're talking about these." The Kronians looked horrified. Gallian started to protest, but Voler waved his other hand. "Oh, don't worry. This is just a plastic replica. The originals are in safekeeping, naturally." He moved back below the dais and turned to face the hall again. Sariena caught Keene's eye but Keene could only shake his head.
"Some of you know about these already," Voler said. "A public announcement was due to be made this week, so I don't think I'll be giving anything away if I bring the essence of it forward a little. Briefly, this is one of a number of objects that, we are told . . ." he paused and turned his head to look up at Keene pointedly for a moment " . . . were discovered in the ice of Saturn's moon, Rhea, around six months ago. They are clearly artifacts from an intelligent culture, and several of them carry samples of a distinct written script and other symbolic markings. . . ." Astonished gasps began breaking out immediately, but Voler raised his voice and concluded, "Holographic images were sent ahead for experts here on Earth to examine, and the actual articles were delivered a matter of days ago. They are offered as proof that the configuration of the Solar System was once very different from what we know todayonce again apparently corroborating in a striking fashion the claims that the Kronians have come here to put to us."
This time the flurry of voices took some time to die down. Voler moved back and rested casually against the edge of the dais while he waited. When he had the room's attention again, he half-turned to look up at the podium. "Would you describe your relationship with our Kronian guests as cordial, Dr. Keene?" he inquired. Once again, he seemed to have projected himself into the role of a lawyer conducting a trial.
"Well, yes, I suppose you'd say so," Keene agreed. He had no idea where this was going.
"Friendly, perhaps? You were in communication for many months. You and certain members of their scientific group got to know each other quite well, I understand."
"I guess so. That's natural enough for people who share professional interests. What of it?"
"Ah yes, sharing professional interests. Your interests are tied pretty tightly to whether or not the case that the Kronians are arguing is accepted, isn't it? And the interests of Amspace Corporation, with whom your company does the bulk of its work. If Earth were to initiate a large program of long-range space development in the way we are being urged, then not only would the future of the Kronian colony be assured but the prospects for success and fortune of both yourself and Amspace would be permanently guaranteed. Isn't that so?"
"Kronia's future doesn't need any assurance from Earth," Gallian fumed from behind the table, where he had finally been induced to sit down. "That's a pernicious myth that"
"Please let Dr. Keene answer the question," Voler requested.
Keene's patience was getting close to its limit. "Yes, it's true," he replied curtly. "So what? Exactly what are you suggesting?"
Voler straightened up and moved forward so that while still addressing Keene, he was facing the auditorium. He raised the piece of imitation tablet aloft again. "Why was the specimen only delivered two days ago? The Osiris has been here for almost four weeks. Did somebody somewhere imagine that thorough physical tests wouldn't be possible in that time? If so, they must be getting desperate. Or was it more a case of simple naiveté and inexperience in terrestrial geology?"
By now, Keene was totally flummoxed. "Look, I don't . . . What is this? Will you just tell us what"
Voler's voice resounded suddenly, cutting him off. "By every test of composition, chemistry, isotope ratios, spectral, neutron activation, and thermoluminescent analysis to which it has been subjected, the original specimen corresponding to this replica that I am holding in my hand is indistinguishable from Lower Cretaceous sandstone laid down here, on our own planet, approximately one hundred and thirty million years ago. Yet we're told it was found eight hundred million miles from Earth on a moon of Saturn. Now, how could that possibly be?"
"I . . . I . . . That's not possible." Keene shook his head.
The Kronians were in consternation. "But we brought them here ourselves," Gallian insisted. "Your analyses can't be as specific as you believe them to be."
Voler nodded and looked pleased. "Yes, I was waiting for that. Of course, the Solar System is just awash with oceans that could have laid down sandstone. Or are our experts supposed to be so inept that they mistake igneous lavas for sandstone? But fortunately, we don't have to rely solely on the word of our geologists. The script that I alluded to has been identified. It turns out to be a version of late Joktanian angular, clearly related to that found in the region of southwest Arabia and the African Horn in recent years, which is yet to be deciphered. In short, there can be no doubt that it came from the same planet that we are standing on, and the people who carved these symbols were of a culture that existed here and not out at Saturn." Voler turned to face the dais again, finally. "And how, Dr. Keene, do you explain that?"
Keene couldn't. Snippets of what Vicki had said flew disjointedly through his mind, but he was unable to assemble them into anything coherent. His thought processes had seized up. Farther along at the table, Gallian was looking dazed. "But how could it have?" he asked. "We brought them here ourselves, from Saturn."
"From the same place as the probe data, maybe?" Voler suggested, stopping short of openly jeering but evidently enjoying himself.
"Are you trying to suggest that we faked that too now?" Gallian gasped. By now, the whole floor was listening in disbelief. The reporters at the back were having a field day, some already muttering into phones. At the central table, Schatz was shaking his head despairingly. This was unprecedented.
"I'm simply asking how objects from Earth could turn up on a moon of Saturn," Voler replied. He walked back to the center table and set the tablet down on the wrapping that he had removed. Then he looked up again. "But then, of course, we don't actually have independent, verifiable evidence that they ever were at Saturn, do we?" He turned to look back at the Kronians, as if half expecting an outburst. "The only indisputable fact is that they were brought down from the Osiris two days ago by the shuttle that returned a group of Kronians to the surface after spending a rest period up there. Everything else that we are told rests totally on assurancesjust as with the data from the probes." Gallian started to rise again, his face crimson beneath his white hair. Vashen and Sariena pulled him back down, but then Voler turned away abruptly, picked up some papers from the table, and moved back to the front of the floor to look once more up at Keene. "And for that one, simple, indisputable fact, I think maybe we do have a simple possible explanation. Do you not think so, Dr. Keene?"
Keene was still trying to collect his wits. He shook his head impatiently. "I wasn't involved in any of this. I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, really? Then allow me to refresh your memory of a few things." Voler consulted one of the pieces of paper that he was holding. "The Osiris arrived in Earth orbit on Friday, May 6. On the evening of the following Monday, the Kronians held an informal reception at their suite in the Engleton Hotel, which I believe you attended. Is that so?"
"Yes, I did. What about it?"
"You weren't on the officially prepared list of guests, I see," Voler commented.
"I was invited by the Kronians directly," Keene retorted.
"Oh yes, of course. You'd been good friends for a while, hadn't you? . . . And tell me, Dr. Keene, is it true that on that occasion, you were introduced to a certain Catherine Zetl, a paleoanthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution, who has been involved in the Joktanian excavations that have been in progress for some time now?"
"We met, yes," Keene confirmed. What did this have to do with anything?
"And how would you describe Ms. Zetl's attitude toward the Kronians and the case they are arguing?"
"I don't recall that we talked much about it."
"Oh, you didn't. Well, I have it on record that she is extremely supportive of them and critical of what she likes to call `official stodginess.' "
"Very well, if you say so. Am I being accused of something, or can we get back to what was supposed to be the business of this conference?"
Voler summarized: "So, you have been friends with the Kronians for a long time, in part because your professional interests coincide with their agenda. They arrange for you to attend a social gathering at which you meet another scientist sympathetic to their position, whose work happens to have included studying, cataloguing, and storing the very objects we have been talking about. And now let's move forward almost three weeks to May 24. On that date, isn't it true that you took part in another space mission conducted by Amspaceyour long-term business associate who shares the same interests?"
It hit Keene then where Voler was going with this. Sudden dismay jolted him and must have showed. "No," he protested.
"What? Are you saying that you didn't go on the mission launched on May 24?"
"I'm saying that what you're suggesting is ridiculous."
"I haven't suggested anything, Dr. Keene. What was the purpose of the mission?"
"I tell you this is ridiculous!" Keene said again, his voice rising.
"Please answer the question."
"What is this circus supposed to be? I came up here to describe our work in repeating the Kronian orbital calculations. Am I supposed to be on trial for something?"
The room had become solemn. "I think you should answer Professor Voler's questions," Schatz said from behind Voler, voicing the general mood.
Keene drew a long breath to calm himself. "It was to test a design of a hybrid engine," he replied.
"A chemical hybrid," Voler supplied. "This was a test of a conventional propulsion system?"
"Yes."
"But you are a specialist in nuclear propulsion, are you not, Dr. Keene? What was your role in the mission?"
"I wasn't involved in that part of it."
"Oh?" Voler feigned surprise. "There was another part? And what was that?"
"You obviously know damn well."
"Yes I do. And allow me to inform the rest of the people present here what it was." Voler turned to address the hall in general. "At the last moment, the mission was extended to include an additional phase: After completion of the hybrid trials, the Amspace craft made rendezvous and docked with the Osiris, where it remained for over twelve hours." Voler peeled off the last of the sheets of paper he was holding and held it high. "I have here a copy of the loading manifest of personal baggage items carried by the Amspace craft on that mission. It lists as an item forwarded for Doctor Landen Keene, one carton of weight fifteen point five kilos, described as containing twelve bottles of assorted wines." Keene looked across at the center table, where Voler had left the box that he had taken the replica from. "Well, let's see," Voler went on, "in my estimation that would be about the size of the box over there. So, a couple of weeks after meeting Zetl, you took a box similar to that one up to the Osiris, and lo and behold, two days later the specimens that we are told came from Rhea are shipped down, just in time for this conference. Another amazingly convenient coincidence." Voler wheeled to face Keene fully. Finally, he dropped the playfulness that he had been affecting, and his expression darkened. "Seriously, Dr. Keene, are you really expecting us to . . ."
But the rest was drowned in the rising pandemonium coming from all sides. Keene had no answer to offer anyway. Anything he tried to say would have sounded lame. The Kronians, too, were sitting in silence, stunned. Keene was vaguely aware of figures coming forward into the space below, jabbering, shouting, and gesticulating. Somehow, Cavan's face materialized out of it all. "It isn't true, Leo," Keene said, still feeling this had to be some kind of dream. "You know it didn't happen that way. I can't explain it. Where do we start with something like this?"
"I don't know either," Cavan told him. "But I think that for the time being you need to forget any more arguing with scientists. What you're going to need is a firm of lawyers."
Title: | Cradle of Saturn |
Author: | James P. Hogan |
ISBN: | 0-671-57813-8 0-671-57866-9 |
Copyright: | © 1999 by James P. Hogan |
Publisher: | Baen Books |