Queen Of Angels 3 Moving Mars by Greg Bear

Author:Greg Bear [Bear, Greg]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-05-16T11:45:28.266000+00:00

�Long before then, everybody will know. There will be a balance. Look, Casseia, this is irrelevant��

�I don�t see that,� I muttered.

�It�s irrelevant because the knowledge is here and it won�t go away.� His face fell into an expression of weariness. �There is no peace, no end to the new and frightening in this life.�

I bit my tongue to keep from saying, Philosophy comes late, Charles.

�I know,� he continued. �I�ve thought about this for years. What happens if we complete the theory, I asked myself, and find a way to get into the Bell Continuum. To manipulate descriptors. We all worried about it.�

Leander came back and sat, looking between us. �Do we have any agreement?� he asked.

I laughed weakly and shook my head. �Bad dreams,� I said.

Charles said, � �O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.� �

�We think of that quote a lot,� Leander said, settling into his seat. �The universe is bounded in a nutshell. Distance and time mean nothing, except as variations in descriptors. Knowing that, we could be kings of infinite space.�

�And the bad dreams?�

Leander�s expression abruptly grew stern, even sad. �Charles put me up front because I look the part and because bureaucrats respond to me better. That doesn�t mean I can be circumspect all the time. We�re in this together, Miss Majumdar. You can stand on your high mountain and accuse us of naivet�nd intellectual hubris and tell us nothing we haven�t pondered a thousand times in private.�

�Don�t assume, Stephen,� Charles said. �Casseia isn�t so simplistic.�

Leander controlled himself with visible effort, smiled brightly and falsely, and said, �Sorry. I happen to think that focusing on �bad dreams� points to a lack of imagination.�

�Why didn�t the President come with you?� Charles asked. �This should have taken precedent.�

�There�s a major problem. If she doesn�t solve it, the cloth might unravel, and there will be no constitutional government to decide what to do with your work. She trusts me to tell her what happens.�

�She�s afraid, isn�t she?� Charles said.

I sniffed.

�I saw it in her eyes,� Charles said. �She�s human-scale. She�s not comfortable with this kind of immensity.�

I nodded. �Perhaps.�

�What about you? Can you overcome your fear and look with a child�s eyes?�

�Don�t expect too much, too soon, Charles,� I said.

The test area had been equipped with a temporary shelter for twenty people, built by arbeiters the day before. Four of the Olympians�Leander, Charles, Chinjia, and Royce�were present, Chinjia and Royce having flown in even before the shelter was finished to prepare their apparatus.

The landscape around the site was as barren as I remembered from vids seen in areological studies in second form. Melas Doras had none of the drama of the sulci, none of the color of Sinai, no fossils, no minerals�

An hour after we arrived, the scientists we had chosen to witness the demonstration flew in on yet another shuttle. Ulrich Zenger and Jay Casares were avid supporters of the constitution, with impeccable academic credentials.

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