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else the Prefect's address had dealt with.)
A sign ahead blinked advertisement of a pub with pri-vacy booths. On impulse, Fenn walked in. The
room be-yond was voluptuously decorated. A couple of joyeuses gave him inviting smiles. The flawless
symmetries of their beauty must be due to biosculp jobs. For a moment he was tempted. He'd broken up
with his latest girl; her temper matched his. But no. Besides the expense, he wanted to be alone with a
beer and a screen. Get the news out of the way before he went home.
He didn't require a full-dress booth suitable for fun and games. A cubicle was plenty, and much
cheaper. When the shell had closed him off and he'd taken a first mouthful of lager, he touched for
playback.
Ibrahim, Prefect of the Synesis, appeared.  My fellow humans, wheresoever you are in the
universe " He spoke in Sinese, but Fenn found a running Anglo trans-lation easier to follow.
" certain allegations. For years these have mounted and multiplied. Incredible though they seemed,
their claims were too important to ignore. A rush to judgment would have been irresponsible. A proper
inquiry would clearly take a long time, and meanwhile, we should not raise false hopes or false fears.
Therefore the Council decided to act, but to withhold information until the truth was in hand. This
decision was unanimous, including the cybercosm's vote.
"We will release the full account of that investigation. The story is lengthy, complex, and fascinating.
Interstel-lar distances were involved. Transmission times were measured in years. Transit times for
probes to go and verify were longer. The cooperation of Proserpina would have made an enormous
difference, but I must tell you that when we requested it, the Selenarchs there were less than forthcoming.
They refused admission to our agents. They supplied no more than fragments of their exchanges with the
Lunarians of Alpha Centauri. Otherwise they let unsupported rumors continue to breed, neither
confirming nor denying anything. Under the circumstances, as you can readily understand, we had to
work separately from them. That increased the time we took, and increased public frustration and
suspiciousness. I do not say the Selenarchs hoped for this. I do say it was regrettable.
"But now at last "
Yes, he declared, the Lunarians at Centauri survived the destruction of Demeter. No real surprise.
The won-derful news was that, yes, the Terrans had succeeded in evacuating their whole population, and
new colonies flourished on three new worlds.
 Why did we not learn this at once, while it happened? Why the four centuries of hiatus in
communication with us? That is a question to which we do not yet have a clear answer. Perhaps we
never will. There appears to have been some profound mutual misunderstanding. Pro-serpina says it has
heard from Centauri that Earth broke the exchange, responding to no further messages until the colonists
finally stopped trying. The last word sent to Centauri was that Earth had changed so radically that further
communication was pointless and might cause trouble.
 That is the story we hear from Proserpina. As nearly as we can discover, it is what the Centaurians
themselves believe. Presumably the Terran colonists elsewhere do too. But" the distinguished figure
made a solemn pause "it is not true. We have retrieved all records from that period and examined them
over and over. What did Earth actually tell her distant children? It told them that society was indeed being
revolutionized, as the cybercosm reached more and more of its potential. The last message suggested,
only suggested, that communi-cation would get correspondingly difficult in the future. It would demand
patience and imaginative intelligence especially on the part of the colonists, whose own basic order of
things remained much the same as that of their ancestors.
"After a brief and somewhat incoherent response, they ceased transmitting. It was they who broke
off, who thereafter returned nothing but silence to Earth's repeated efforts at dialogue. In the end, the
Federation concluded that they did not choose to hear more.
 Why not? We can only conjecture. It may be it may be that the Lunarian lords at Centauri, and
Anson Guthrie on Demeter, did not wish new ideas, new visions, coming in to make their people question
their governance and plans. There are ample historical precedents for this."
Fenn snorted and keyed for more beer. He wanted something he could swallow.
No doubt the average person on Earth or Luna would have no difficulty with that notion. S/he had
grown up regarding the Synesis as the great, benign provider. Why should it lie? Fenn had no answer to
that himself. Yet, harking back to the age of the pioneers, he couldn't be-lieve that Guthrie would ever
have censored anything, certainly not in the service of any big social scheme. Well, granted, Ibrahim
wasn't claiming that was the case, just that it might have been. But Fenn couldn't accept that the official
agency for-interstellar communication had had the single transmitter and receiver. People in those days
were diverse and scattered across the Solar System. Surely, here and there, small private groups, even
individuals, had made their own attempts to get back in touch. It didn't take much wattage to send,
especially if you were content with narrow bandwidth and verbal messages. Receiving something
intelligible did call for a fair-sized dish and other equipment, but nothing that no amateurs whatsoever
could afford. Why had no-body gotten through? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]