First Light by Richard Preston

Author:Richard Preston [Preston, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-81742-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

PART 3

Gadgeteers

August had come to Palomar Mountain, bringing a warm wind blowing through ferns and carrasco oaks and around the catwalk of the Hale Telescope’s dome, where a lean figure watched the sun depart. Maarten Schmidt and his quasar team had returned for a run of four nights—their second probe for quasars. In the meanwhile, Don Schneider had been working on a computer program to scan the computer tapes for quasars, but he had not scanned any tapes yet.

Inside the data room, James Gunn, Barbara Zimmerman, and Don Schneider clustered around a computer screen, trying to get the camera on the Hale Telescope to talk to them. The computer screen came to life. It said: UTILITIES … ROBOTICS … WELCOME TO 4-SHOOTER.

Zimmerman said to Gunn, “Rewind and erase, Jim.”

Gunn typed to 4-shooter: REWIND.

4-shooter said, OK.

But 4-shooter was not okay. “The tape goes out to lunch!” Gunn said. He sighed and pulled off his glasses. “What happens to it?”

“How the hell do I know?” said Barbara Zimmerman. “Try another rewind. Be sure and check the unit this time.”

REWIND, Gunn typed again.

OK, said 4-shooter.

UNIT? asked Gunn.

10 OK, said 4-shooter.

The door of the data room swung inward, and Juan Carrasco entered, holding the box of marinated jalapeños.

“Hi, Juanito,” Gunn said.

“Hello, hello,” Juan said. “Where is Maarten Schmidt?”

“Who?” Don wondered.

Juan smiled. “Doctor Maarten Schmidt.”

“Never heard of him,” Don said.

“The tall gentleman.”

“Oh, the tall gentleman. He’s out checking the weather.”

Juan put his box on a shelf, took off his hard hat, and sat at his console. Hitting switches, he started the oil pumps. He powered up a set of controls known as the phantom and the windscreen. He hit a toggle switch. The lights in the room flickered and steadied as a generator kicked in. He tapped a computer keyboard. Seven stories of steel and fourteen tons of flame Pyrex glass—the Hale Telescope—began to move slowly, visible through a window in the data room. “Just checking the weights, Jim,” he said.

Maarten Schmidt entered. “Hallo, Juan. How are you?”

“Fine, Maarten, and yourself?”

“Fine,” Schmidt said. “And the weather is looking agreeable.” Schmidt pulled a circular slide rule from his briefcase. The slide rule was about the same age as Don Schneider. Schmidt called it—in reference to the Hewlett-Packard series of pocket calculators—“my H-P Zero.” Removing his glasses and squinting at the H-P Zero, he began calculating some coordinates for the strip of sky that the team would scan tonight, looking for quasars.

The conversation turned to music.

“Somebody played the Dead Kennedys up here a while ago.”

“You won’t hear any of that stuff when Gunn is around.”

“I bet Gunn has listened to the whole Ring Cycle in prime focus.”

“Eh, probably not all of it,” Gunn said. “Italian opera is very much more preferable. Now the Verdi Requiem is the most incredible piece of music ever committed to—”

“Jim’s interest in opera is his only character defect.”

OK, said 4-shooter.

Don Schneider turned to Juan Carrasco. “We want to open the dome. Is that all right?”

“You may open,” Juan said.

Don went out onto the dome floor.

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