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Thomas, this is the most exciting time of my life. We can finally compare
notes with your people . . . It s like opening up a whole new universe. Come
on. Let me show you what we re doing. Her walk had a youthful bounce despite
the higher than Seiner-normal gravity.
Mouse s eyebrows rose questionably. McClennon shrugged. Come on. Before she
changes her mind.
A horde of people were at work in a nearby chamber, where hundreds of folding
tables had been arrayed in long rows. Most were burdened with artifacts,
papers, or the tools of the scientists and their helpers. To one side
technicians were busy with communicators and a vast, waist-level computer
interface.
Consuela explained, The people at the tables are examining and cataloging
artifacts. We brought along several thousand laymen to help explore. Whenever
they make a find, they notify comm center. We send an expert to examine the
site. The confab over there is an ongoing exchange with your Lunar dig people.
The people at the console are trying to reprogram Stars End s master brain so
it can deal directly with human input.
You found a key to the builder language? Thomas asked.
No. That will come after we can talk to the computer.
You just lost me. That sounds backwards.
It works like this: The starfish commune with the machine. They relay to our
mindtechs. The mindtechs relay to our computer people. They build parallel
test programs. Communications send them down. Our computer people here try to
feed it back to the master brain. The starfish read the response and feed it
to the mindtechs again. And round the circle. The idea is to help the
computers develop a common language. So far we ve only managed a pidgin level
of communication. We think we re on the brink of breakthrough, though.
Math ought to be a snap, Mouse said. It s got to be the same all over the
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universe. But I can see how you d have trouble working toward more abstract
concepts.
Unfortunately, we re using a non-mathematical interface, Consuela replied.
The starfish aren t mathematically minded. Their conscious concept of number
is one-two-three-many.
Thought you said they were smart, Tommy.
Consuela said, They are. But theirs is an intuitive rather than empirical
intelligence. But we re making headway. When our computers can link . . .
Be careful, McClennon admonished. Be very, very careful.
Why?
This is the boss machine, right?
So the fish say.
Okay. That makes it big and powerful. It might be playing games with you.
It s insane.
Come on, Mouse protested. How can a machine go crazy?
I don t know. I do know I was in Contact during the first battle. I got a
little direct touch. It was plain out of its micro-electronic mind. I d be
afraid it could use its capacity to seize control of my own command
computers.
He s right, Captain. Thomas, we know. It s a real problem. Most of the
starfish are riding herd on its psyche. Only a few are helping communicate. It
seems to have several psychological problems. Loneliness. A god complex. A
deeply programed xenophobia and bellicosity . . . It is, after all, the
directing intelligence of a weapons system.
A defensive weapon, McClennon suggested. Mouse laughed at this. But think
about it. Is Stars End a pyramid?
I don t understand.
I m going to wander around, Mouse said. Don t run off without me, Tommy,
I won t. By pyramid I mean it serves the same function as Old Earth s
Egyptian pyramids.
A tomb? I don t think so. The idea isn t new, but it s been mostly a
metaphor.
Assume the builders knew . . . You don t have all the data. He explained
about the centerward race and his suspicion that the builder race had been
fleeing it. Okay. They come to the end of the road. There s nowhere to run,
unless they jump off for the Magellanic Clouds. I think they gave up. I think
they stopped, built themselves a pyramid, put their treasures inside, and died
out.
Miss el-Sangra smiled. A romantic theory that fits the known facts. And a
few you ve conjured up, I think. Ingenious, Thomas. I suppose we ll be able to
answer you when we complete contact with the master control.
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A boyhood incident came to mind. He had discovered independently, so far as
he could discern later that A squared plus B squared equaled C squared. He had
been excited till he had explained it to a friend. The friend had laughed and
told him that Pythagoras had crossed the finish line thirty-five hundred years
ahead of him.
He felt the same deflation now.
I hear you and Amy broke up.
Yes. I didn t realize you knew.
She called yesterday. She was very depressed about it.
She took something personal that wasn t.
That was the feeling I got. Her story was one-sided, but I got the
impression you were trying to do what was right for everybody.
I tried. I don t know how successful I was.
You two shouldn t have gotten involved in the first place. Landsmen and
Seiners don t speak the same language. I ve been with them thirty-six years
and I still have problems.
We were both looking for something. We were too eager to grab it.
I ve been through that, too.
Help her, will you? I never meant to hurt her.
I will. And don t feel so guilty. She s more resilient than she pretends.
She likes the attention.
I thought you were friends.
She was a lot more than a friend for a while, Captain. Till she met Heinrich
Cortez.
Oh.
Hey, Tommy! Mouse bore down on them like a mini-juggernaut. Come here. He
about-turned and steamed a reverse course.
Excuse me, Consuela. He chased Mouse down. What?
Mouse stopped. I just talked to a gal who s doing the same thing for the
Fishers that we re doing for Beckhart. She was pissed. These clowns, some of
them, have been here for ten days. The Fishers have eight thousand people down
already. And they haven t even started looking at weapons systems. They don t
even care. All they want to do is collect broken toothbrushes and sort old
bones.
They ll get to it, Mouse. You ve got to give them a chance to let the new
wear off. And they ve got to get a dialogue going with the master control. If
they manage that, it ll save time. In the long run. The machine can redesign
the weapons for us. That would save ripping the old ones out of here, orbiting
them, then building ships around them.
Mouse calmed himself. Okay. Maybe you re right. But I still don t like to
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seeeverybody doing something else when weapons are the reason we re all here.
What if the weapons technology requires other preexisting technologies?
What do you mean?
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