Jack Williamson by Manseed

Author:Manseed [Manseed]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-04-19T13:44:35+00:00

Megan’s office in the Albuquerque lab.

“We’ve established the technology.” Rablon, as usual, too masterful. “Automatic gene transcription into computer code. Automatic retranslation, out of that and back into new human beings, on planets where the seeds take root. What we need from you is know-how to help us get them sowed.”

Marty Rablon. Tall and lean and sallow skinned, with black-rimmed glasses and too much black hair. A genius, no doubt, but unduly arrogant about it and generally hard for him to take.

“A fabulous project if you can pull it off.”

He turned to Megan. She was easier to look at and the reason he was here. Fresh and young and lovely, as intense as Rablon about the project but fetchingly modest about her own brains and beauty, maybe unaware of how desperately she tempted him. Probably a virgin and off limits to him.

“We’ve come a long way, captain.” Warming to her eager smile, he wondered for a moment if she might lead him to break the code. “But now we need you terribly.”

“There are other astronauts.”

“We’ve checked them out, and we always come back to you.”

He frowned uneasily at Rablon. “You want to transcribe my mind?”

“Impossible,” Rablon rapped, as if that had been an idiot question. “All we want is a computer transcription of your space skills. For all those wild press reports, we can’t read minds. The scanner works indirectly, through computer analysis of the input from half a hundred channels—· everything from brain waves and unconscious muscle tensions to isotopic radiation modified by synaptic biochemistry.”

Wardian looked again at Megan. “How long does all this take?”

“Too long.” Rablon spoke for her too promptly. “Several weeks to get the computer pickups tuned to the individual brain. Sometimes longer, because the process isn’t perfect. Months more to analyze and edit what we need and filter out what we don’t.” Resting on Megan, his owlish eyes seemed possessive. “Dr. Drake was our first victim; she has spent a day or so of every week in the scanner for nearly two years.”

“A long ordeal.” She looked both apologetic and enchanting. “Minds are tricky to transcribe, and the scanner isn’t altogether automatic. We’ll need you here at least a few months.”

“I’m sorry.” Seeing the hurt on her revealing face, he hated to say it. “But I simply don’t have that kind of time.”

“If it’s money, Raven Foundation has it.” “It isn’t.” To ease her disappointment, he had to say more. “I’m an astronomer-astronaut. Half my life, I lived for space. NASA gave me just one mission. One wonderful month in the orbital observatory. No funds in sight for anything more. I resigned to fly for Delta.

“Now I’m going after what looks like a better chance.”

“Better?” Rablon seemed indignant. “Think about it,

Wardian. What we offer you is a kind of immortality. Time enough for you—a selected part of you—to reach the stars.”

“The thing I mean to do will more likely kill me.” With a shrug for Rablon, he turned back to Megan. “You’ve heard of the Solar Sail? We hope to sail it out to Mars.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.