coming to Earth.'
That was a game she insisted on playing, and Fisher knew his role. He said, 'Seduced you? You insisted. You wouldn't have it any other way.'
'You liar. You forced yourself on me. It was rape - impure and complex. And you're going to do it again. I can see it in those dreadful lust-filled eyes.'
It had been months since she had played that particular game and Fisher knew it came when she was satisfied with herself professionally. He said afterward, 'Have you made progress?'
'Progress? I think you can call it that.' She was panting. 'I have a demonstration that I've set up for tomorrow for your decaying and ancient Earthman, Tanayama. He's been pushing for it mercilessly.'
'He's a merciless fellow.'
'He's a stupid fellow. You'd think that even if a society doesn't know science, they would know something about science, about how it works. If they give you a million global credits in the morning, they shouldn't expect anything definite by evening the same day. They should at least wait till the next morning and give you the whole night to work in. Do you know what he said to me last time we spoke, when I said I might have something to show him?'
'No, you hadn't told me. What did he say?'
'You'd think he'd say: "It's amazing that in a mere three years you've worked out something so astonishing and new. We must give you enormous credit and the weight of gratitude we feel toward you is immeasurable." That's what you would think he would say.'
'No, not in a million years would I think that Tanayama would say anything like that. What did he say?'
'He said, "So you have something finally, after three years. I should hope so. How long do you think I have to live? Do you think I have been supporting you, and paying for you and feeding you an army of assistants and workers in order to have you produce something after I'm dead and can't see it?" That's what he did say, and I tell you I would like to delay the demonstration till he is dead, for my own satisfaction, but I suppose that the work comes first.'
'Do you really have something that will satisfy him?'
'Only superluminal flight. True superluminal flight, not that hyper-assistance nonsense. We now have something that will open the door to the Universe.'
38
The site where Tessa Wendel's research team labored, intent on shaking the Universe, had been prepared for her even before she had been recruited and come to Earth. It was inside a vast mountainous redoubt that was totally off-limits to Earth's teeming population, and in it a veritable city of research had been built.
And now Tanayama was there, seated in a motorized chair. Only his eyes, behind their narrowed lids, seemed alive - sharp, glancing this way and that.
He was by no means the highest figure in Earth's government, not even the highest figure then present, but he had been, and still was, the force behind the project and all automatically gave way to him.
Only Wendel seemed unintimidated.
His voice was a rustling whisper. 'What will I see, Doctor? A ship?'
There was no ship in view, of course.
Wendel said, 'No ship, Director. Ships are years away. I have only a demonstration, but it is an exciting one. You will see the first public demonstration of true superluminal flight, something that is far beyond hyper-assistance.'
'How am I going to see that?'
'It was my understanding, Director, that you have been briefed.'
Tanayama coughed wrackingly and had to pause to catch his breath. 'They tried to talk to me,' he said, 'but I want it from you.' His eyes, baleful and hard, were fixed on her. 'You're in charge,' he said. 'It is your scheme. Explain.'
'I can't explain the theory. That would take too long, Director. It would tire you.'
'I want no theory. What am I going to see?'
'What you are going to see are two cubical glass containers. Both contain a hard vacuum.'
'Why a vacuum?'
'Superluminal flight can only be initiated in a vacuum, Director. Otherwise the object made to move faster than light drags matter with it, increasing energy expenditures and decreasing controllability. It must end in a vacuum, too, or else the result can be catastrophic because-'
'Never mind the "because". If this superluminal flight of yours must begin and end in a vacuum, how do we make use of it?'
'It is necessary, first, to move out into outer space by ordinary flight and then move into hyperspace and stay