Contact - Carl Sagan [89]
"If we use aerodynamic braking, it's cheaper to send a kilogram to Phobos or Deimos than to the far side of the Moon," Bobby Bui volunteered.
"Where the hell is Fobuserdeemus?" Kitz wanted to know.
`The moons of Mars. I was talking about aerodynamic braking in the Martian atmosphere."
"And how long does it take to get to Phobos or Deimos?" Drumlin was stirring his cup of coffee.
"Maybe a year, but once we have a fleet of interplanetary transfer vehicles and the pipeline is full-"
"Compared with three days to the Moon?" sputtered Drumlin. "Bui, stop wasting our time."
"It's only a suggestion," he protested. "You know, just something to think about."
Der Heer seemed impatient, distracted. He was clearly under great pressure-alternately avoiding her eyes and, she thought, making some unspoken appeal. She took it as a hopeful sign.
"If you want to worry about Doomsday Machines," Drumlin was saying, "you have to worry about energy supplies. If it doesn't have access to an enormous amount of energy, it can't be a Doomsday Machine. So as long as the instructions don't ask for a gigawatt nuclear reactor, I don't think we have to worry about Doomsday Machines."
"Why are you guys in such a hurry to commit to construction?" she asked Kitz and Drumlin collectively. They were sitting next to each other with a plate of croissants between them.
Kitz looked from Honicutt to der Heer before answering: "This is a classified meeting," he began. "We all know you won't pass anything said here on to your Russian friends. It's like this: We don't know what the Machine will do, but it's clear from Dave Drumlin's analysis that there's new technology in it, probably new industries. Constructing the Machine is bound to have economic value-I mean, think of what we'd learn.
And it might have military value. At least that's what the Russians are thinking. See, the Russians are in a box. Here's a whole new area of technology they're going to have to keep up with the U.S. on. Maybe there's instructions for some decisive weapon in the Message, or some economic advantage. They can't be sure. They'll have to bust their economy trying. Did you notice how Baruda kept referring to what was cost effective? If all this Message stuff went away-burn the data, destroy the telescopes-then the Russians could maintain military parity. That's why they're so cautious. So, of course, that's why we're gung ho for it." He smiled.
Temperamentally, Kitz was bloodless, she thought; but he was far from stupid. When he was cold and withdrawn, people tended not to like him. So he had developed an occasional veneer of urbane amiability. In Ellie's view, it was a molecular monolayer thick.
"Now let me ask you a question," he continued. "Did you catch Baruda's remark about withholding some of the data? Is there any missing data?"
"Only from very early on," she replied. "Only from the first few weeks, I'd guess. There were a few holes in the Chinese coverage a little after that. There's still a small amount of data that hasn't been exchanged, on all sides. But I don't see any signs of serious holding back. Anyway, we'll pick up any missing data swatches after the Message recycles."
"If the Message recycles," Drumlin growled. Der Heer moderated a discussion on contingency planning: what to do when the primer was received; which American, German, and Japanese industries to notify early about possible major development projects; how to identify key scientists and engineers for constructing the Machine, if the decision was made to go ahead; and, briefly, the need to build enthusiasm for the project in Congress and with the American public. Der Heer hastened to add that these would be contingency plans only, that no final decision was being made, and that no doubt Soviet concerns about a Trojan Horse were at least partly genuine. Kitz asked about the composition of "the crew."
"They're asking us to put people in five upholstered chairs. Which people? How do we decide? It'll probably have to be an international