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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Twelve hours after leaving Earth, the Vishnu was five hundred million miles
past the mean orbit of Uranus.
By the internal clocks of most of the passengers it was the small hours of the
morning, and the mess area of the Terran section was quieter than it
had been earlier. Gina and the four from UNSA were still up, occupying a
couple of tables pulled together, where they had been joined by the
schoolteacher from Florida, whose name was Bob, and two of the Disney World
marketing executives, Alan and Keith.
"Wasn't there something about an ancestor of modern horses?" Duncan Watt was
saying to Danchekker. "It had stripes, suggesting that striping could be an
inherited potential of all horse types. So there really isn't any such group
as zebras at all? They could all be more closely related to the horse lines
than to each other." They were talking about the investigations that
Danchekker had conducted on specimens of early mammals from Earth's late
Oligocene period, which had been discovered in the wrecked Ganymean ship found
on Ganymede, before the Shapieron's appearance.
"Mesohippus," Danchekker supplied. "Yes, indeed -- which makes it not as
complex a characteristic as one might imagine. Several separate lineages could
then have acquired stripes independently, which would make the zebras simply
realizations of a developmental path common to all members of genus Equus. It
becomes even more interesting when one considers the chromosome counts, where
a distinct correlation is seen to occur between...
Duncan nodded as he sat with his arms wedged across his chest. He looked a
little glazed and seemed content to let Danchekker carry on doing the talking.
Across the other table, Bob, the teacher, and the two Disney World executives
were into politics.
"Maybe Ganymeans are instinctively what socialist idealists try to turn humans
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into," Bob said. "But since it comes naturally to Ganymeans, nobody has to try
and make them anything they're not. So it works."
"He's got a point," Al declared, turning to Keith. "We're a competitive
species -- a competitive economic system fits our nature. Whether you like the
thought of it or not, we work for what we are gonna get out of it, not the
other guy. That's the way humans are. The only way you can try to change them
is through force. And people don't like that. That's why all these fancy ideas
about molding human nature don't work. They can't work."
Sandy pushed herself back in her seat and yawned. "I've just had three hectic
days that I think have caught up with me," she announced. "Sorry, but
I'm going to be the first one to break up the party. So I'll see you people
tomorrow, wherever. The other side of Pluto, I guess."
"Yes, get some rest," Danchekker said. "I should, too, for that matter.
You've certainly been busy. We didn't give you much notice."
"Don't forget that chip you wanted me to borrow," Gina reminded her as she
stood up.
"If you want to stop by my room, I'll let you have it now," Sandy said.
"What chip's that?" Hunt asked, turning from the conversation between
Danchekker and Duncan.
"Some tracks of Jevlenese music that I collected together," Sandy said.
"Some of it's really wild stuff."
"Vic likes music," Gina said as she rose. "I don't know if what you're talking
about would be his style, though. That was a Beethoven score that you had
pinned up on the wall at your place, wasn't it, Vic?"
"Observant," Hunt complimented. He took a sip of his drink. "Did you know that
his dog had a wooden leg?"
Gina looked uncertain. "Whose?"
"Beethoven's. That was where he got his inspiration -- when it walked across
the room." He raised a hand to conduct an imaginary orchestra. "Dah-
dah-dah-dum...Dah-dah-dah-dum. See?"
Gina shook her head, smiling hopelessly. "Are all the English insane? Or did
you take a class in it?"
"Come on, let's go," Sandy murmured. "They're all past the crazy hour."
"No, but you have to work at it," Hunt said. He waved a hand at them both and
grinned. "We'll see you two at breakfast, then." The rest of the group added a
chorus of goodnights.
Gina and Sandy left the room and headed toward the cabins. "Guys and alcohol,"
Gina said. "I didn't want to be left that outnumbered."
"I know the feeling," Sandy agreed.
"Are we turning into old maids, Sandy?" Gina asked jokingly. "Six men back
there, and the two girls leave together. Perhaps we really are as bad as they
tell us."
"You speak for yourself. I meant what I said: I'm exhausted."
"Duncan was giving you looks."
"I know."
"Not your type?"
"Oh, Duncan's okay. We've known each other since Houston. But you know what
they say about keeping the complicated side of life separate from your work. I
think it's good advice."
They reached the door of Sandy's cabin, which she opened with an unvoiced
command to VISAR. Inside, she picked up a briefcase, set it on the bureau top,
and took out a flat box of the kind used for carrying storage chips. "How
about a coffee before you go?" she asked Gina.
"Why not? Make it black, no sugar." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]