nothing but processed stores, we run the risk of running out of every-
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thing: food, water, and air. Mechanical recycling, as on a traditional ship, isn't efficient enough.'
'It was at that juncture that the premier asked Fraser MacKenzie for a description of the benefits to be gained from the expedition, and Fraser MacKenzie declined to offer one.
'The premier, reacting with surprise, pressed her for a more complete reply to her concerns about what the country might expect to gain from our enormous investment.
' 'Madame Premier,' Fraser MacKenzie said, 'f cannot tell you what scientific advances will result from the deep space expedition. If I could, there would be no need for us to go on the voyage at all. I could speculate,' Fraser MacKenzie continued. 'So could anyone with a minimal level of scientific literacy. But speculation is a game. The history of humanity is a record of explorations intended for one purpose that have completely different effects. People didn 'I walk east across the Bering land bridge, or sail west across the Atlantic, because they expected to find North America. We didn't go to Mars expecting to break through to superconducting bio-electronics.'
'The premier pointed out that we did go to Mars with a purpose in mind. Fraser MacKenzie agreed, and suggested that anyone who wished could access a library database and inspect half a thousand gigabytes of information on the experiments already planned for Starfarer- However. Fraser MacKenzie would not describe any benefits that would surely accrue to society on account of these experiments.
'The head of Starfarer's alien contact team offered two reasons for her refusal. The first was the pure science mode of many of the proposals. 'Science,' she insisted, 'is not meant to create useful applications of scientific knowledge.' Her second reason was more esoteric. 'A proven hypothesis may have useful applications,' Dr. Eraser MacKenzie stated. 'However, a scientist does not do an experiment to prove a hypothesis.
A scientist does an experiment to test a hypothesis. You may guess about the answer that nature might give back to you.
You may even hope for nature to give you a particular answer. But you can't know what answer you 'II get until you 've performed the experiment. If you did, or if you thought you did. you 'd be back two thousand years when experimentation was looked upon as unnecessary and vulgar, or, worse, back
STARFARERS 2 5
a thousand years when belief was more important than knowledge, and people who challenged beliefs with knowledge were burned at the stake.'
' 'The premier observed that the new president of the United Slates, Mr. Distler, occasionally behaved as if he would like to consign research scientists in general and scientists attached to Starfarer in particular to precisely that fate. Eraser MacKenzie admitted that she had, on occasion, felt singed by some of his comments. 'Science involves risks,' she explained. 'One of the risks involved is that of failure. President Distler, unfortunately, chooses not to acknowledge the possibility of risks, or of failure.' Fraser MacKenzie added that she did not expect the expedition to fail—after all, her life will be at risk if it does fail. But the risk of failure is a possibility.
'The premier then asked Dr. Fraser MacKenzie if one risk could be that Canada's investment in the starship might result in no benefits at all.
'Victoria Eraser MacKenzie replied with a single word:
'Yes.' '
Satoshi read the article, frowning, but Stephen Thomas laughed with delight.
'About time somebody said straight out that we're not up here to discover the twenty-first-century version of Tenon!'
'The Tenon hypothesyi slides down more easily.'
'No, it'll be great. People love mystery, and that's what we're heading for.'
'I wish you were right,' Satoshi said. 'But you're not.'
'Hey, Satoshi?' Stephen Thomas said.
'Hmm?'
'Does Victoria really talk like that when she's in Canada, or was it just the reporter?'
'A little of both. You've been to Vancouver with Victoria, didn't you notice she uses more Canadian and British speech habits there?'
'I noticed her accent got stronger, but I was putting most of my energy into trying to make friends with her greatgrandmother. For all the good it did me.'
'Grangrana's okay. She disapproves of the partnership in theory but she likes us as individuals.'
'She likes you. She's not so sure about me,' Stephen
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Thomas said, with his usual certainty about the accuracy of his perceptions. 'Why did the article keep calling Victoria 'Fraser MacKenzie'?'
'They don't much go for middle names—that's a British tradition, I think. They figure Victoria's got one of those unhyphenated double last names- Like Conan Doyle.
'Wonder what they'd do with my name?'
'Probably figure you didn't have any last name at all.'
Stephen Thomas laughed and hit him, light and playful, in the ribs.
The message filter suddenly beeped and started to fill up with call requests, mostly from strangers, mostly from people outside Starfarer, and mostly for Victoria. Satoshi' sifted through them.
'Good lord,' he said. 'If we call these people back, we'll use up our communications budget for the next six months.'
'Call them collect,' Stephen Thomas said. 'And tell them Victoria isn't here.'
'How to win reporters and influence public opinion, by Stephen Thomas Gregory,' Satoshi said.
The message filter in Victoria's cubicle signaled and then sang. Still half-asleep, disoriented by darkness, Victoria tried to sit up. The restraints of her sleeping web held her gently in place and she remembered where she was. A streak of light fell across her; the fabric door did not quite close.
'Answer,' she said. 'Hello?'
After the short time-delay, Satoshi spoke.
'Love, have you seen the news today?'
'I'm not even awake yet.' She was surprised to hear his voice. 'I think I slept the clock around. What time is it?
Never mind, what's up?' she said quickly, not waiting through the reply delay of Starfarer communications laser-to-satellite-to-transport and back. She did not want to waste expensive time on trivialities.
'You have a huge slug of messages from admirers of your interview,' Stephen Thomas said.
'What interview?'
'I'm not sure you can call them all admirers,' Stephen Thomas said.
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'Some are from people up here,' Satoshi told her, 'but a lot are from earth.'
Victoria waited through the delay. She and Satoshi had perfected the technique of holding two simultaneous conversations on the communications laser, letting their comments cross and recross, one exchange being held during the reply delays of the second. To his own irritation, Stephen Thomas had not quite got the hang of it. Keeping him in the discussion, Victoria restricted herself to one line of thought and talk.
'The web's reporting on your banquet,' Satoshi said.
'And your conversation with the premier. You'd better look at it. They emphasized your not wanting to speculate on what benefits Starfarer might bring back.'
Victoria fell a hot flush of embarrassment spread across her face.
'I'll read it, of course. I thought I was having a conversation, not doing an interview for the record. Nobody was introduced to me as a reporter, and who ever reports Canadian news, eh?' She sighed. 'I never met the premier before. She's honorable, I admire her. I wanted to tell her the truth, so she could understand what it is we're about.'
With growing unease, she waited out the delay. Despite her cynical remark about Canadian news, she should have realized that anything the head of Starfarer^ alien contact department said to the premier of British Columbia was fair game for reporters.
It was late and I was tired and keyed up, she told herself. And then there were those toasts . . .
