Contact - Carl Sagan [127]
"You mean you've been secretly assembling an identical copy of the Machine in Japan?"
"Well, it's not exactly a secret. We're testing out the individual components. Nobody said we can only test them one at a time. So here's what Yamagishi-san and I propose: We change the schedule on the experiments in Hokkaido. We do full-up systems integration now, and if nothing works we'll do the component-by-component testing later. The money's all been allocated anyway.
"We think it'll be months-maybe years-before the American effort gets back on track. And we don't think the Russians can do it even in that time. Japan's the only possibility. We don't have to announce it right away. We don't have to make a decision about activating the Machine right away. We're just testing components."
"Can you two make this kind of decision on your own?"
"Oh, it's well within what they call our designated responsibilities. We figure we can catch up to where the Wyoming Machine was in about six months. We'll have to be much more careful about sabotage, of course. But if the components are okay, I think the Machine will be okay: Hokkaido's kind of hard to get to. Then, when everything is checked and ready, we can ask the World Machine Consortium if they'd like to give it a try. If the crew is willing, I bet you the Consortium will go along. What do you think, Yamagishi- san?"
Yamagishi had not heard the question. He was softly singing "Free-Fall" to himself; it was a current hit song full of vivid detail about succumbing to temptation in Earth orbit. He did not know all the words, he explained when the question was repeated.
Unperturbed, Hadden continued. "Now some of the components will have been spun or dropped or something. But in any case they'll have to pass the prescribed tests. I didn't think that would be enough to scare you off. Personally, I mean."
"Personally? What makes you think I'm going? Nobody's asked me, for one thing, and there are a number of new factors."
"The probability is very high that the Selection Committee will ask you, and the President will be for it enthusiastically. C'mon," he said, grinning, "you wanna spend your whole life in the sticks?"
It was cloudy over Scandinavia and the North Sea, and the English Channel was covered with a lacy, almost transparent, cobweb of fog.
"Yes, you go." Yamagishi was on his feet, his hands stiffly at his sides. He gave her a deep bow.
"Speaking for the twenty-two million employees of the corporations I control, very nice to meet you."
She dozed fitfully in the sleeping cubicle they had assigned her. It was tethered loosely to two walls so she would not, in the course of turning over in zero g, propel herself against some obstacle. She awoke while everyone else seemed to be still asleep and pulled herself along a series of handholds until she found herself before the grand window. They were over the night side. The Earth was in darkness except for a patchwork and sprinkle of light, the plucky attempt of humans to compensate for the opacity of the Earth when their hemisphere was averted from the Sun. Twenty minutes later, at sunrise, she decided that, if they asked her, she would say yes.
Hadden came up behind her, and she started just a little. "It looks great, I admit. I've been up here for years and it still looks great. But doesn't it bother you that there's a spaceship around you? See, there's an experience no one's ever had yet. You're in a space suit, there's no tether, no spacecraft. Maybe the Sun is behind you, and you're surrounded on all sides by stars. Maybe the Earth is below you. Or maybe some other planet. I kind of fancy Saturn myself. There you are, floating in space, like you really are one with the cosmos. Space suits nowadays have enough consumables to last you for hours. The spacecraft that dropped