The Gentle Giants of Ganymede

Shannon reflected on these propositions for a while. 'Yes. I see,' he said finally. 'It all makes sense. And the rest everybody knows. Two isolated populations of terrestrial animals resulted #151;the one that had always existed on Earth, and the one established on Minerva by the Ganymeans, which included advanced primates. During the twenty-five million years that followed, the Lunarians evolved from them, on Minerva, and that #146;s how they came to be human in form.' Shannon stubbed his cigar, then placed his hands flat on the table and looked up at the two scientists. 'And the Ganymeans,' he said. 'What happened to them? They vanished completely twenty-five million years back. Are you people anywhere near answering that one yet? How about leaking a little bit of information in advance? I #146;m interested.'

Danchekker made an empty-handed gesture.

'Believe me, I would like nothing better than to be able to comply. But honestly, we haven #146;t made any great strides in that direction yet. What you say is correct; not only the Ganymeans, but also all the land-dwelling forms of life native to Minerva died out or disappeared in a very short space of time, relatively speaking, at about that time. The imported terrestrial species flourished in their place and eventually the Lunarians emerged.' The professor showed his palms again. 'What happened to the Ganymeans and why? That remains a mystery. Oh. . . we have theories, or should I say we can offer possible explanations. The most popular seems to be that an increase in atmospheric toxins, particularly carbon dioxide, proved lethal to the natives but not to the immigrant types. But to be truthful, the evidence is far from conclusive. I was talking to your molecular biologists here on J5 only yesterday; some of their more recent work makes me less confident in that theory than I was two or three months ago.'

Shannon looked mildly disappointed but accepted the situation philosophically. Before he could comment further, a whitejacketed steward approached the table and began collecting the empty coffee cups and dusting away the specks of ash and bread crumbs. As they sat back in their chairs to make room, Shannon looked up at the steward.

'Good morning, Henry,' he said casually. 'Is the world treating you well today?'

'Oh, mustn #146;t grumble, sir. I #146;ve worked for worse firms than UNSA in my time,' Henry replied cheerfully. Hunt was intrigued to note his East London accent. 'A change always does you good; that #146;s what I always say.'

'What did you do before, Henry?' Hunt inquired.

'Cabin steward for an airline.'

Henry moved away to begin clearing the adjacent table. Shannon caught the eyes of the two scientists and inclined his head in the direction of the steward.

'Amazing man, Henry,' he commented, his tone lowered slightly. 'Did you get to meet him at all on the way out from Earth?' The other two shook their heads. 'Jupiter Five #146;s reigning chess champion.'

'Good Lord,' Hunt said, following his gaze with a new interest. 'Really?'

'Learned to play when he was six,' Shannon told them. 'He #146;s got a gift for it. He could probably make a lot of money out of it if he chose to take the game seriously, but he says he prefers keeping it as a hobby. The first navigation officer studies up day and night just to take the title away from Henry. Between us though, I think he #146;s going to need an awful lot of luck to do it, and that #146;s supposed to be the one game that luck doesn #146;t come in to. Right?'

'Precisely,' Danchekker affirmed. 'Extraordinary.'

The mission director glanced at the clock on the dining-room wall, then spread his arms along the edge of the table in a gesture of finality.

'Well, gentlemen,' he said. 'It #146;s been a pleasure meeting you both at last. Thank you for a most interesting conversation. We must make a point of keeping in touch regularly from now on. I have to attend an appointment shortly, but I haven #146;t forgotten that I promised to show you the ship #146;s command center. So, if you #146;re ready, we #146;ll go there now. I #146;ll introduce you to Captain Hayter who #146;s to show you around. Then, I #146;m afraid, you #146;ll have to excuse me.'

Fifteen minutes later, after riding a capsule through one of the ship #146;s communications tubes to reach another section of the vessel, they were standing surrounded on three sides by a bewildering array of consoles, control stations and monitor panels on the bridge; below them stretched the brilliantly lit panorama of Jupiter Five #146;s command center. The clusters of operator stations, banks of gleaming equipment cubicles and tiers of instrument panels were the nerve center from which ultimately all the activities of the mission and all the functions of the ship were controlled. The permanent laser link that handled the communications traffic to Earth; the data channels to the various surface installations and the dispersed fleet of UNSA ships nosing around the Jovian system; the navigation, propulsion and in-flight control systems; the heating, cooling, lighting, life-support systems and ancillary computers and machinery, and a thousand and one other processes #151;all were supervised and coordinated from this stupendous concentration of skills and technology.

Captain Ronald Hayter stood behind the two scientists and waited as they took in the scene below the bridge. The mission was organized and its command hierarchy structured in such a way that operations were performed under the ultimate direction of the Civilian Branch of the Space Arm; supreme authority lay with Shannon. Many functions essential to UNSA operations, such as crewing spaceships and conducting activities safely and effectively in unfamiliar alien environments, called for standards of training and discipline that could only be met by a military- style command structure and organization. The Uniformed Branch of the Space Arm had been formed in response to these needs; also, not entirely fortuitously, it went a long way toward satisfying peacefully the longing for adventure of a significant proportion of the younger generation, to whom the idea of large-scale, regular armed forces belonged to a past that was best forgotten. Hayter was in command of all uniformed ranks present aboard J5 and reported directly to Shannon.

'It #146;s quiet at the moment compared to what it can be like,' Hayter commented at last, stepping forward to stand between them. 'As you can see, a number of sections down there aren #146;t manned; that #146;s because lots of things are shut down or just under automatic supervision while we #146;re parked in orbit. This is just a skeleton crew up here too.'

'Seems to be some activity over there,' Hunt said. He pointed down at a group of consoles where the operators were busily scanning viewscreens, tapping intermittently into keyboards and speaking into microphones and among themselves. 'What #146;s going on?'

Hayter followed his finger, then nodded. 'We #146;re hooked into a cruiser that #146;s been in orbit over Io for a while now. They #146;ve been putting a series of probes in low-altitude orbits over Jupiter itself and the next phase calls for surface landings. The probes are being prepared over Io right now and the operation will be controlled from the ship there. The guys you #146;re looking at are simply monitoring the preparation.' The captain indicated another section further over to the right. 'That #146;s traffic control. . . keeping tabs on all the ship movements around the various moons and in between. They #146;re always busy.'

Danchekker had been peering out over the command center in silence. At last he turned toward Hayter with an expression of undisguised wonder on his face.

'I must say that I am very impressed,' he said. 'Very impressed indeed. On several occasions during our outward voyage, I #146;m afraid that I referred to your ship as an infernal contraption; it appears that I am now obliged to eat my words.'

'Call it what you like, Professor,' Hayter replied with a grin. 'But it #146;s probably the safest contraption ever built. All the vital functions that are controlled from here are fully duplicated in an emergency command center located in a completely different part of the ship. If anything wiped out this place, we could still get you home okay. If something happened on a large enough scale to knock out both of them #151;well . . .' he shrugged, 'I guess there wouldn #146;t be much of the ship left to get home anyhow.'

'Fascinating,' Danchekker mused. 'But tell me #151;'

'Excuse me, sir.' The watch officer interrupted from his station a few feet behind them. Hayter turned toward him.

'What is it, Lieutenant?'

'I have the radar officer on the screen. Unidentified object detected by long-range surveillance. Approaching fast.'

'Activate the second officer #146;s station and switch it through. I #146;ll take it there.'