Timescape. Part 19

Distantly, through double windows, he heard the hum of London's traffic. Where was he, anyway?

3 6 Gregory Ben fordGuy's Hospital, perhaps? He remembered more clearly now. It had come on him veryuddenly. He had felt fine going home. He had waked after an hour's sleep, feeling vaguely nauseated, and had got out of bed. The clenching paralysis seized him after a few steps. He remembered lying curled on the bedroom floor, unable to call out, hardly daring to breathe. Sarah, of course, was out. He supposed he might have died if it had been the housekeeper's night off, too.When he woke, he felt more lucid. His head pulsed with a slow ache. He rang for the nurse. It was a different one, an Indian girl this time. He knew he was better when he found himself trying to gauge the size of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s under the starched uniform."How are you feeling now, Mr. Peterson?" sheasked in a sing-song voice, bending over him.

"Better. What time is it?"

"It's half-past five now.""I'd like my watch back. And I'm hungry. I could manage something very light.""I'll see what's allowed," she said and left the room silently.He struggled into a sitting position. The nurse trotted in again with a radio and a note."You had a visitor, Mr. Peterson," she said, smiling.

"She wouldn't stay, but she left this. And you can have some broth. It'll be up presently."He recognized Sarah's large graceful loops and 'flourishes on the envelope and opened the note.

Ian--What a terrible bore for you. Can't stand hospitals soI won't.visit, but I thought you could use this radio. I'm leaving for Cannes Friday. Hope to see you before then. If not, give me a ring. III probably be home Wednesday evening. Bye bye. Sarah.

He screwed it up and dropped it in the wastepa-per basket. He turned on the radio, a neat little battery one, There seemed to be nothing but music 3 ?.anywhere. He looked automatically at his watch and realized he wasn't wearing it. What time had the nurse said it was? His stomach gurgled loudl Three pips suddenly interrupted the music."This is the BBC Radio Four," a woman's voice announced, "and here is the 6 o'clock news. First, the headlines: Fifty people are dead tonight after violent rioting in the streets of Paris. A United Airlines flight from London to Was.h.i.+ngton crashed early this morning, killing everyone on board. The bloom spreading across the Atlantic Ocean has advanced miles in a day. The World Council has approved an Energy Plan despite a veto by the OPEC countries. Power failures lasting over sLx hours caused factories to shut down in the Midlands today. The Test match at Lord's cricket ground was canceled today as ten members of the Australian team have been hospitalized with food poisoning. Tomorrow's weather: sunny in patches, increased chance of storms." A pause. "Rioting French students were joined by workers today in Paris ..."Peterson did not listen. He felt light and unsteady.

The nurse came in with a tray. He signaled her to leave it on the bedside table. Something in the news had disturbed him and he wasn't quite sure what it was. It must be the news of the bloom. And yet he felt no reaction as he ran that past again."United Airlines flight 347, London to Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., encountered turbulence on its approach to Dulles airport and crashed in late afternoon. Transmissions from the pilot were garbled. There seem to have been seizures of both pilot and copilot in the moments before the crash. Witnesses said the plane appeared to explode as it struck the trees. There were no survivors. This latest in a series of airline disasters has--"Jesus! His palms were sweating. He pressed the buzzer for the nurse. She did not come at once. He held the b.u.t.ton down and shouted "Nurse!"She came in hurriedly, leaving the door open.

3 "What's the matter now? Why, you haven't even touched your broth."'q)amn the broth. What day is this? Is it Wednesday?""Yes, it is. But are you--""I want a phone. Why isn't there a phone in here?"'2t was taken out so you wouldn't be disturbed."

"Well, get it back.""I don't know if I'm supposed to do that ..."''What's going on here?" The first nurse bustled in again."Sister, Mr. Peterson is asking for a ph9ne in here.""Oh no, we don't need that. Don't want you to be disturbed, do we?""I'm being disturbed now," he shouted. "Get me a phone!""Now, now, Mr. Peterson, we can't have that ..."

"Listen, you stupid c.u.n.t," he said clearly and tensely, "I want a phone in here right now or I'll have you fired!"There was a shocked silence and the two women backed from the room, eyeing him warily. He lay back, shaking. Through the door, which they had left open, he could hear moaning.Presently an orderly brought in a phone and fPolugged it in. Peterson took a sip of water andught the rising nausea. He dialed his secretary'snumber.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1963.

GORDON WAS WALKING DOWN THE HALLWAY, ON HIS.way back to the lab, when he overheard the remark.

Two full professors were talking in low voices.

"---and as Pauli said, it isn't even wrong!" one finished as Gordon approached. They saw him and instantly fell silent. Gordon knew the story. Pauli was a prominent, highly critical physicist in the first half of the century. He had remarked, about a scientific paper, "This work is so bad it's not even wrong."

Meaning, it began and ended in midair; it was so badly formulated it could not be tested. Gordon knew instantly they were talking about him. The Life article had done its work. When he reached the end of the hallway there was more murmured talk behind him and then a final bark of laughter.'

Penny brought home a copy of National Enquirer and left it out for him to see when he came in late. On the front page was a headline, NUCLEAR CALL FROM 3 ? o OUTER s.p.a.cE and beneath it, Prominent Scientists Contact Other World. There were two photographs of Saul and Gordon, evidently by the Life photographer.

Gordon threw it in the trash without reading it.

At the beginning of cla.s.ses there was a pa.rty for the physical sciences faculty, to mark the opemng of the new Inst.i.tute for Geophysics building. The staff sterilized the bowl of a fountain on the lawn outside.

Hugh Bradnet and-Harold Urey filled it with a potent mix of vodka and fruit juices. Gordon had thrown his invitation away with the usual university news notices; Penny discovered it and insisted they go. He wanted to get some rest, but her nagging made him pull on his lightest jacket and, for the first time, skip wearing a tie. In California such details were unimportant. Penny sported a floppy tan straw hat--"For dress-up," she said. Behind it she could 'hide a fraction of her face. This sense of added mystery rekindled in him an interest in her. He realized that he had been going through the motions these last few weeks, saddled with lecture preparations and spending most of his time with the NMR rig.

This knowledge shocked him. The zest of their beginnings was seeping away. The abrasions between them were rubbing off the cosmetic illusions.He spoke to several members of the Physics Department, but struck up no interesting conversations.

Penny found some literary types but he was un-moored, wandering from one knot of academics to another. The English Department people already seemed drunk, quoting modern poets and ancient movies. There were bright, airy people there' he'd never seen, goy princes, blond and unbearably self-a.s.sured, the sort of people who had refrigerators. full of yogurt and champagne. He saw a visitor trom Berkeley in the crowd, tall and well dressed, a n.o.bel winner of some years back. Gordon had met him before.

He wedged himself into the crescent of people $ 7 !.around the man and, when the n.o.bel laureate's eyes s.h.i.+fted to hiffi, he nodded. The eyes pa.s.sed on. No nod, nothing. Gordon stood, plastic cup in hand, gla.s.sy smile on his face. The eyes came by again. No pause, no flicker of recognition. Gordon backed out of the chattering crescent, face reddening. Maybe he didn't recognize me, Gordon thought, walking away.

He got himself another cup of the vodka. On the other hand, maybe he did."Good booze, eh?" a man said at his elbow. "Try to say 'spectroscopy' three times, real fast." Gordon tried the exercise, and failed. The man turned out to be named Book, and indeed, he did look bookish. He was from General Atomic and proved to be far friendlier than the university people. They stood under a sign that proclaimed, IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A TEACHER. None of Book's levity penetrated Gordon's mood. Vodka, however, began to relieve the world of its awful concreteness. He began to see the point in goys drinking so much. Book went off somewhere and Gordon drifted into conversation with a visiting particle physicist, Steingruber.

Both of them shared a deepening appreciation for the vodka. They began to discuss the ageless topic, women. Gordon made several p.r.o.nouncements about Penny. In a curious way he did not quite understand, Gordon inverted their roles, so that Penny had been the s.e.xual student initiated into the adult world by himselL the sophisticate from New York.

Steingruber accepted this as only reasonable. Gordon came to see that Steingruber was indeed a fine fellow, capable of profound insight. They had another drink together. Steingruber pointed to a blond standing a short distance away and asked, "What is your opinion of that one there?" Gordon peered at her and p.r.o.nounced, "Pretty cheap looking. Yeah." Stein-gruber looked at Gordon sharply. "She's my wife." In a moment, before Gordon could frame a suitable reply, he was gone.Lakin came by, smiling amiably. He was with 3 7 2 Bernard Carroway. "I have heard that you are repeating Cooper's experiment," Lakin said without preamble."Who did you hear that from?""I could see for myself."Gordon took his time. He had a swallow from his cup and discovered it was empty. Then he looked at Lakin. "f.u.c.k off/' he said very clearly. Then he walked away.He found Penny in a crowd gathered around Marcuse. "The newly appointed Communist-in-Residence?"

Gordon asked when he was introduced.

To his surprise, Marcuse laughed. A black woman graduate student standing nearby did not think anything was amusing. It developed that her name was Angela and that the revolution was not going to be brought about by people at c.o.c.ktail parties; this was all Gordon could get out of the conversation, or at least all he could remember. He took Penny's hand and wandered away.Jonas Salk was off in a corner. Gordon debated trying to meet him. Maybe he could find out how Salk felt about Sabin--who had really developed the vaccine? An interesting question, indeed. "A parable of science," Gordon muttered to himself. "What?"

Penny asked. He steered her instead toward a pack of physicists. Some nagging voice within bid him to shut up, so he let Penny carry their fraction of the conversation. People around him seemed distant and vague. He tried to decide if this was due to him or due to them. The eternal relativistic problem. Maybe Marcuse knew the answer. Some Frenchmen asked Gordon about his experiments and he tried to sum up what he believed. It proved surprisingly difficult.

The odd thickness of his tongue had gone away, but there remained the. problem of what he himself thought was true. The Frenchmen asked about Saul.

Gordon sidestepped the question. He tried to keep discussion focused on the results of his experiments.

"As Newton said, 'I frame no hypotheses'--at least, ?.not yet. Ask me only about data." He went off in search of moirb vodka, but the fountain bowl was empty. Sadly, he took the last of the crackers and pt. When he returned, Penny was standing a little distance away from the Frenchmen, staring out at the view of La Jolla and the satiny glow of the sea. The Frenchmen were speaking French. Penny seemed angry.

He tugged at her and she came along, glancing back.She insisted on driving them home, though Gordon could see no reason why he should not. Going past the beach clubs and rambling private homes, Penny said, "Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds," with sudden vehemence.

"Huh? What?" She grimaced. "After you wandered off they said you were a bungler."Gordon frowned. "They said that to you?""No, silly. They started speaking Frefich. They a.s.sumed that of course no American understands an-other language."Oh.""They called you a fake. A fraud.""Oh.""They said everybody was saying that about you."

"Everybody?""Yeah," she said sourly.

CHAPTER THiRTY-FOUR.

OCTOBER 7, 1963.

IT CAME UP OUT OF THE NOISE SUDDENLY. ONE MINute the scope showed hash and Gordon was tinker-ing with a new band-pa.s.s filter, a recent circuit he'd breadboarded to cut through the noise. Then, abruptly, the NMR curves began to warp and change.

He stared at the scope, unmoving. It was 11 p.m.He brought his hand up to his lips, as if to mask a cry. The jiggling lines went on. It occurred to Gordon that he might be hallucinating. Fie bit his fing. er.

No, the ragged lines remained. Quickly, suppressing his excitement beneath the urge to be precise, he began to take data.

ACTION OF ULTRAVIOAMSLDUZ SUNEYDUFK OM CHAINS AP-.PEARS TO r.e.t.a.r.d DIFFUSION IN SURFACE LAYERS OF.AMSUWLDOP BUT GROWTH.RA 18 5 36 DEC 30 29.2.RA 18 5 FCDUEL 30 29.2.

'.RA 18 5 36 DEC 30 29.2.EFFECTS DIATOM ENZYME INHIBITED B NETWORK CHAIN RE-.

3 7 5.

PRO ATTEMPT TO CONTACT YOU WITH T CHYONIC BEAM.

WREDOPRL AL 'IINT SOURCE CAN VERIFY RA 18 5 3MCDU.DEC 30 29.2 RDUTFKIGLP ASLDURMFU CAMBRIDOLR '.CAMBRIDG DIATOM BLOOM GHTI3PDM ASANATH DEC 30 29.2.

THIS VIOLATES NO CAUSAL POSTULATE UNDER WHEELER-FEYNMAN.

FORMULATION AS LONG AS FEEDBACK IN CAUSAL.

LOOP PERMITS EXPERIMENT TO CONTINUE IMPERATIVE YOU.PEUrOR EXPTS TO CHECC MOLECULAR CHAIN XCDEURDL 18 5 36 DEC 30 29.2 TE DIFFERENTIAL AUSMP.

"ClantiAa? Is that you?" It was the st he he had-ever called her by her first name."Yes, yes, is this Gordon?""Right. I've been running parallel with you. Wereyou people on last night?""What?"''Were you running last night?""I... no, I don't... my student was making some measurements. I believed he finished about 6 o'clock.""s.h.i.+t."''What? I'm sorr55 I don't believe I can hear you correctly--""Sorry, never mind. I, ah, I was running last night around 11 p.m. and I got some anomalous resonance effects.""I see. Well, that would be 2 a.m. here.""Oh yes. Of course.""How long did the effect last?""Over two hours.""Well, let me see, the student should be in soon; itis a little after eight. Gordon, you are up. at 5 a.m.?"

"Ah, yes. I was waiting for you to get in."

"Have you slept?""No, I ... I was seeing if there was any more of thethe effect.""Gordon, go to sleep. I will talk to the student. We 3 ? 6 will run some experiments today. But you get some sleep."

"Sure, Sl.lre."

"I promise you we will do the measurements. But get some sleep, eh?"

"Good. Good. That's all I want.""Gordon, Mrs. Evelstein, she brought over the Life magazine. Why didn't you tell me? There was my softs name, big as life--as Life!---and he doesn't tell me. Weeks ago, it was, and--"

"Mom, look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Iu"

"And the National Enquirer thing, she had that, too.

That one I didn't like so good."

tie breathed sourly into the telephone receiver.

What time was it? Christ, 5 P.m. What was the Zinnes group getting?

"Look, Mom, I was asleep, I---"

"Asleep? At this hour?"

"I was working in the lab overnight."

'ou shouldn't, you'll ruin your health."

"I'm okay."

"But I wanted to say, about the Life, it was such a surprise ,."

"Mom, I've got to go back to sleep. I'm worn out."

"Well, all right. I wanted to hear your voice again, though, Gordon. I don't hear your voice so much any more."

"I know, More. Look, I'll call you in a few days." "All right, Gordon."

He hung up and went back to sleep.The Zirmes group found nothing. Gordon could not pick up the signal again. He kept checking as the week wore on. On Friday there was a department Colloquium on plasma physics, given by Norman Rostoker. Gordon went and sat well in the back.

Rostoker's first slide was: ? ?.Seven Phases of the Thermonuclear Fusion ProgramI ExuIiationII ConfusionIII DisenchantmentIV Search for the GuiltyV Punishment of the InnocentVI Distinction for the UninvolvedVII Burying. the Bodies/Scattering the AshesThe audience laughed. Gordon did, too. He wondered at which stage he was. But no, the whole message thing wasn't a directed research project, it was a discovery. The fact that he was the only person in the world who believed it made no difference. "Search for the Guilty," though, seemed to fit. He thought about it for a moment and then, in the middle of Rostoker's talk, fell asleep.

He answered the call from Ramsey's office and found Ramsey in the lab. The chemist had broken down the interweaving chain' into a plausible configuration.

Phosphorous, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon. It made sense. What was more, it fit into a cla.s.s that resembled the pesticides. More sophisticated, yesbut a clear lineal descendant. Gordon smiled, still sleepy from the Colloquium. "Good work," he murmured.

Ramsey beamed. On his way out Gordon pa.s.sed through the gla.s.s forest of the laboratory. He had come to enjoy its rhythms. The biologists down the hall had pens of animals for their tests and Gordon wandered down that way, feeling obscurely happy.

On a cart in the hallway there were trays. In 'them were heaps of gutted brown hamsters, like burst potatoes.

Life in the service of life. He walked away quickly.

His telephone rang at 6 p.m., as he was' putting pa pers and books in his briefcase for the weekend. The 3 ? 8 Gregory Ben fordphysics building was nearly deserted and the ringing echoed."Gordon, this is Claudia Zinnes.""Oh, h.e.l.lo. Have you--?"'/e have something. Interruptions." She went on to describe them."Look, ah, do me a favor? Try to break them down into patterns. I mean, I know it's late and it's, what, 9 o'clock there, but if you---""I think I understand you."

Exhaling: "See if it fits Morse code."

A quiet laugh. "I'll see, Gordon."He asked her to call him at home and gave her the number.

"I told you last week," Penny said. "We're going Air .

Cal to Oakland Sat.u.r.day morning at ten, out of Lindbergh.""I don't remember it.""Oh, c.r.a.p. I told you.""Penn I have a lot to do this weekend. A lot to think about.""Think about it in Oakland.""No, I can't, you can tell your parents we---"

The telephone rang.

"Claudia?""Gordon? I checked and, and, you were right."A sudden hot dizzyhess swarmed over him.

"What does it say?""Those astronomical coordinates you told meabout. That's all ! have. They go on for pages."

"Great. That's just great."

''What is it, Gordon?"

"I don't know."They spoke for a few more moments. Claudia would keep their experiment running constantly. Signal strength seemed to come and go irregularly. Gordon listened, nodded, agreed. But his mind was not on the details. Instead, an odd sensation had begun 7 9.

to creep up through his legs and into his chest. He put down the-telephone after saying good night and felt the hair rise on the back of his neck. It was real.

All along he had reserved a certain possibility that he was a potzer, that the experiment was wrong, that he was finding books in babbling brooks, as Penny once joked about it. But now he knew: someone was trying to reach him.'"Gordon? Gordon, what is it?""Zinnes. New York." He looked up, dazed. "They found it."She kissed him and togethe they did a little jig.

No potzer, he. Gordon lurched around the living room, barking jubilantly ha and right! After a moment he felt dizzy and sat down. He was suddenly tired. Scratch one hypothesis, mark up one fact. But what should he do next?r nny, you're right--we go to Oakland."

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.

1998.

A BABBLE OF CONVERSATION MET PETERSON AS HE.

opened the front door. Through the entrance to the drawing room, across the stone hallway, he could seepeople talking rapidly. A burst of laughter, gla.s.ses clinking, a sugary swelling of the .new .L,ati.rhyt. he.He paused only an instant. Wimout loong ro ether side he crossed the black and white squares of marble and went up the wide curved staircase. It was generally true that people would not intercept you if you pa.s.sed by quickly, not letting anyone catch your eyes. It was perfectly reasonable that he should be there, after all; it was his town house. A guest would a.s.sume he and Sarah together were putting on this b.l.o.o.d.y party which he had forgotten, and that Peterson was tending to some domestic ch.o.r.e upstairs.He moved silently on the deep carpet and crossed the landing. The hall bathroom door showed a crack of light at the floor; probably someone inside. He would be in the bedroom long enough for it to clear, 3 a !but he should keep in mind the flow of traffic to and fro when he made his exit. He would have to go out the way he came in; to reach the rear exit through the kitchen he would have to pa.s.s through the party.He closed the bedroom door and went to the closet. A rank of overcoats effectively concealed the two suitcases from anything short of a spring house-cleaning.

He pulled them out. A bit heavy, but manageable.

He got them into position by the doorway and then gazed round. Opposite, the three long Georgian windows looked out onto a series of peaked roofs. Most buildings had dim rows of windows Ft; it was the brownout hour, he-recalled. Others were black. Zealous conservation, he wondered, or people who had left town already? No matter--he wasn't going to concern himself with such things any longer. Between the windows were full-length mirrors, framed in brown velvet which was in turn edged in black; Sarah's latest notion. Peterson hesitated, studying his reflection. Still a bit drawn, white around the eyes, but basically recovered. He had bluffed his way out of the hospital as soon as he felt able to move about. He had gone directly to his of-rice.

The Council was in a full crisis state, and no one noticed him clearing certain doc.u.ments from his files, placing a few last-minute orders by telephone, and giving certain instructions to his solicitor. Sir Martin had him in for an overview conference, and there Peterson saw his preparations were none too soon. The clouds were definitely carrying the bloom material far and wide. The cloud form was slightly different from the ocean form, but they shared the neurojacket effect Kiefer had found only a few days ago. Kiefer's data were of great use, but effective counter-measures were still a problem for the laboratories.