“Build them here?”
Forward’s image seemed to freeze for an eyeblink’s span, then he began ticking off on his chubby fingers, “Mercury has abundant metals. Silicon is rarer than on the Moon but there’s still enough easily scooped from the planet’s surface to build hundreds of powersats. You’d save on transportation costs, of course, and you’d cut out Selene’s profits.”
“But I would have to hire a sizeable construction crew,” Yamagata objected. “And they will want premium pay to work here at Mercury.”
Forward smile almost faded. But he quickly recovered. “I don’t know much about nanotechnology; the field was in its infancy when I died. But couldn’t you program nanomachines to build powersats?”
“Selene makes extensive use of nanomachines,” Yamagata agreed.
“There you are,” said Forward, with an offhand gesture.
Yamagata hesitated, thinking. Then, “But focusing thirty laser beams on a starship’s lightsail… wouldn’t that be difficult?”
Forward’s smile returned in full wattage. “If you can focus ten lasers on a sail you can focus thirty. No problemo.”
Yamagata smiled back. Until he realized that he was speaking to a man who had lived a century earlier and even then was known as a wild-eyed theoretician with no practical, hands-on experience.
NANOMACHINES
Nanomachines?” Alexios asked the image on his office wall.
“Yes,” replied Yamagata with an unhappy sigh. “It may become necessary to use them.”
“We have no nanotech specialists here,” said Alexios, sitting up tensely in his office chair. It was a lie: he himself had experience with nanotechnology. But he had kept that information hidden from everyone.
“I am aware of that,” Yamagata replied. “There are several in Selene who might be induced to come here.”
“We’re crowded down here already.”
Yamagata’s face tightened into a frown momentarily, then he regained control of himself and put on a perfunctory smile. “If it becomes necessary to build more power satellites than originally planned, your base will have to be enlarged considerably. We will need to build a mass launcher down there on the surface and hire entire teams of technicians to assemble the satellites in orbit.”
Alexios nodded and tried to hide the elation he felt. It’s working! he told himself. I’m going to bleed him dry.
Aloud, he said to Yamagata, “Many of my team are quite distressed by nanomachines. They feel that nanotechnology is dangerous.”
Strangely, Yamagata grinned at him. “If you think
Sure enough, Yamagata heard an earnest rap on his stateroom door within a half hour of his conversation with Alexios.
“Enter,” he called out, rising from his comfortable chair.
Bishop Danvers slid the door open and stepped through, then carefully shut it again.
“How kind of you to visit me,” said Yamagata pleasantly.
Danvers’s usually bland face looked stern. “This is not a social call, I’m afraid.”
“Ah so?” Yamagata gestured to one of the plush armchairs arranged around his recliner. “Let’s at least be physically comfortable. Would you like a refreshment? Tea, perhaps?”
The bishop brushed off Yamagata’s attempts to soften the meeting. “I understand you are considering bringing nanomachines here.”
Yamagata’s brows rose slightly. He must have spies in the communications center, he thought. Believers who report everything to him.
Coolly, he replied, “It may become necessary to use nanotechnology for certain aspects of the project.”
“Nanotechnology is banned.”
“On Earth. Not in Selene or anywhere else.”
“It is dangerous. Nanomachines have killed people. They have been turned into monstrous weapons.”
“They will be used here to construct a mass driver on Mercury’s surface and to assemble components of power satellites. Nothing more.”
“Nanotechnology is evil!”
Yamagata steepled his fingers, stalling for time to think. Do not antagonize this man, he warned himself. He can bring the full power of Earth’s governments against you.
“Bishop Danvers,” Yamagata said placatingly, “technology is neither evil nor good, in itself. It is men who are moral or not. It is the way we
“Nanotechnology is banned on Earth for perfectly good reasons,” Danvers insisted.
“On a planet crowded with ten billion people, including the mentally sick, the greedy, the fanatic, I understand perfectly why nanotechnology is banned. Here in space the situation is quite different.”
Danvers shook his head stubbornly. “How do you know that there are no mentally sick people among your crew? No one who is greedy? No fanatics?”
A good point, Yamagata admitted silently. There could be fanatics here. Danvers himself might be one. If he knew this project’s ultimate aim is to reach the stars, how would he react?
Aloud, Yamagata replied, “Bishop Danvers, every man and woman here has been thoroughly screened by psychological tests. Most of them are engineers and technicians. They are quite stable, I assure you.”
Danvers countered, “Do you truly believe that anyone who is willing to come to this hellhole for years at a time is mentally stable?”
Despite himself, Yamagata smiled. “A good point, sir. We must discuss the personality traits of adventurers over dinner some evening.”
“Don’t try to make light of this.”
“I assure you, I am not. If we need nanomachines to make this project succeed, it will mean an additional investment that will strain the resources of the Sunpower Foundation to the utmost. Let me tell you, this decision will not be made lightly.”
Danvers knew he was being dismissed. He got slowly to his feet, his fleshy face set in a determined scowl. “Think carefully, sir. What does it gain a man if he wins the whole world and suffers the loss of his immortal soul?”
Yamagata rose, too. “I am merely trying to provide electrical power for my fellow human beings. Surely that is a good thing.”
“Not if you use evil methods.”
“I can only assure you, Bishop, that if we use nanomachines, they will be kept under the strictest of controls.”
Clearly unhappy, Bishop Danvers turned his back on Yamagata and left the stateroom.
Yamagata sank back into his recliner. I’ve made an enemy of him, he realized. Now he’ll report back to his superiors on Earth and I’ll get more static from the International Astronautical Authority and god knows what other government agencies.
Ordinarily he would have smiled at his unintentional pun about god. This time he did not.
Bishop Elliott Danvers strode back toward his own stateroom along the sloping corridor that ran the length of
Nanotechnology! My superiors in Atlanta will go ballistic when they learn that Yamagata plans to bring nanomachines here. Godless technology. How can God allow such a mockery of His will to exist? Then Danvers
