'We consider this to be something nearer the direct line of descent
toward modern man than anything previously studied. Many fossil
finds have been made on Earth of creatures that represented various
branches of development from the early progressive apes in the
general direction of man. All finds to date, however, have been
classed as belonging to offshoots from the main stream; a specimen
of a direct link in the chain leading to Homo sapiens has always
persistently eluded us. Here, we have such a link.' Unquote." The
image of Hunt reappeared. "We can be fairly sure, therefore, that
among the terrestrial life forms left to develop on Minerva were
numbers of primates as far advanced in their evolution as anything
back on Earth.
"The faster evolution characteristic of Minerva thus far, was
repeated, possibly as a result of the harsher environment and
climate. Millions of years passed. On Earth a succession of manlike
beings came and went, some progressive, some degenerate. The Ice
Age came and moved through into its final, glacial phase some fifty
thousand years ago. By this time on Earth, primitive humanoids
represented the apex of progress-crude cave dwellers, hunters,
makers of simple weapons and tools chipped out of stone. But on
Minerva, a new technological civilization already existed:
the Lunarians-descended from the imported stock and from the same
early ancestors as ourselves, human in every detail of anatomy.
"I won't dwell on the problems that confronted the developing
Lunarian civilization-they're well-known by now. Their history was
one long story of war and hardship enacted around a racial quest to
escape from their dying world. Their difficulties were
compounded by a chronic shortage of minerals, possibly because the
planet was naturally deficient, or possibly because it had been
thoroughly exploited by the Ganymeans. At any rate, the warring
factions polarized into two superpowers, and in the showdown that
followed they destroyed themselves and the planet."
Hunt paused again at this point to allow another period of
consolidation for the audience. This time, however, there was
complete silence. Nothing he had said so far was new, but he had
formed a set selected from the thousand and one theories and
speculations that had raged around Navcomms for as long as many
could remember. The silent watchers in the theater sensed that the
real news was still to come.
"Let's stop for a moment and examine how well this account fits in
with the evidence we have. First, the original problem of Charlie's
human form. Well, that's answered: He was human- descended from the
same ancestors as the rest of us and requiring nothing as unlikely
as a parallel line to explain him. Second, the absence of any signs
of the Lunarians on Earth. Well, the reason is quite obvious: They
never were on Earth. Third, all the attempts to reconcile the
surface geography of Charlie's world with Earth become unnecessary,
since by this account they were indeed two different planets.
"So far so good, then. This by itself, however, does not explain
all the facts. There are some additional pieces of evidence which
must be taken into account by any theory that claims to be
comprehensive. They can be summarized in the following questions:
"One: How could Charlie's voyage from Minerva to our Moon have
taken only two days?
"Two: How do we explain a weapons system, consistent with the
Lunarian level of technology, that was capable of accurate
registration over a range extending from our Moon to Minerva?
"Three: How could the loop feedback delay in the fire-control
system have been substantially less than the minimum of twenty-six
minutes that could have applied over that distance?
"Four: How could Charlie distinguish surface features of Minerva
when he was standing on our Moon?"
Hunt looked out from the screen and allowed plenty of time for the
audience to reflect on these questions. He stubbed out his
cigarette and leaned forward toward the camera, his elbows corning
to rest on the desk.
"There is, in my submission, only one explanation which is capable
of satisfying these apparently nonsensical requirements. And I put
it to you now. The moon that orbited Minerv~a from time immemorial
up until the time of these events fifty thousand years ago
-and the Moon that shines in the sky above Earth today-are one and
the same!"
Nothing happened for about three seconds.
Then gasps of incredulity erupted from around the darkened room.
People gesticulated at their neighbors while some turned
imploringly for comment from the row behind. Suddenly the whole
theater was a turmoil of muttered exchanges.
"Can't be!"
"By God-he's right!"
"Of course. . . of course. . .
"Has to be. . ."
"Garbage!"
On the screen Hunt stared out impassively, as if he were watching
the scene. His allowance for the probable reaction was well timed.
He resumed speaking just as the confusion of voices was dying away.
"We know that the moon Charlie was on was our Moon- because we
found him there, because we can identify the areas of terrain he
described, because we have ample evidence of a large-scale Lunarian
presence there, and because we have proved that it was the scene of
a violent exchange of nucleonic and nuclear weapons. But that same
place must also have been the satellite of Minerva. It was only a
two-day flight from the planet-Charlie says so and we're confident
we can interpret his time scale. Weapons were sited there which
could pick off targets on Minerva, and observations of hits were
almost instantaneous; and if all that is not enough, Charlie could
stand not ten yards from where we found him and distinguish details
of Minerva's surface. These things could only be true if the place
in question was within, say, half a million miles of Minerva.
"Logically, the only explanation is that both moons were one and
the same. We've been asking for a long time whether the Lunarian
civilization developed on Earth or whether it developed on Minerva.
Well, from the account I've given, it's obvious it was Minerva. We
thought we had two contradictory sets of information, one telling
us it was Earth and the other telling us it wasn't.
But we had misinterpreted the data. It wasn't telling us anything
to do with Earth or Minerva at all-it was telling us about Earth's
or Minerva's moon! Some facts told us we were dealing with Earth's
moon while others told us we were dealing with Minerva's moon. As
long as we insisted on introducing, quite unconsciously, the notion
that the two moons were different, the conflict between these sets
of facts couldn't be resolved. But if, purely within the logical
constraints of the situation, we introduce the postulate that both
moons were the same, that conflict disappears before our eyes."
Shock seemed to have overtaken the audience. At the front someb
ody
was muttering, "Of course. . . of course. . ." half to himself and
half aloud.
"All that remains is to reconcile these propositions with the
situation we observe around us today. Again, only one explanation
is possible. Minerva exploded and dispersed to become the Asteroid
Belt. The greater part of its mass, we're fairly sure, was thrown
into the outer regions of the Solar System and became Pluto. Its
moon, although somewhat shaken, was left intact. During the
gravitational upheaval that occurred when its parent planet broke
up, the sateffite's orbital momentum around the Sun was reduced and
it began to fall inward.
"We can't tell how long the orphaned moon plunged steadily nearer
the Sun. Maybe the trip lasted months, maybe years. Next comes one
of those million-to-one chances that sometimes happen in nature.
The trajectory followed by the moon brought it close to Earth,
which had been pursuing its own solitary path around the Sun ever
since the beginning of time!" Hunt paused for a few seeonds. "Yes,
I repeat, solitary path! You see, if we are to accept what I
believe to be the only satisfactory explanation open to us, we must
accept also its consequence: that until this point in time, some
fifty thousand years ago, planet Earth had no moon! The two bodies
drew close enough for their gravitational fields to interact to the
point of mutual capture; the new, common orbit turned out to be
stable, and Earth adopted a foundling it has kept right up to this
day.
"If we accept this account, many of the other things that have been
causing problems suddenly make sense. Take, for example, the excess
material that covers most of Lunar Farside and has been shown to be
of recent origin, and coupled with that, the dat-
lug of all Farside craters and some Nearside ones to around the
time we're talking about. Now we have a ready explanation. When
Minerva blew up, what is now Luna was sitting There right in the
way of all the debris. That's where the meteorite storm came from.
That's how practically all evidence of the Lunarian presence on
Luna was wiped out. There's probably no end to remains of their
bases, installations, and vehicles still there waiting to be
uncovered-a thousand feet below the Farside surface. We think that
the Annihilator emplacement at Seltar was on Farside. That suggests
that what is Farside to Earth today was Nearside to Minerva; hence
ft makes sense that most of the meteorite storm landed where it
did.
"Charlie appears to have referred to compass directions different
from ours on the Lunar surface, implying a different north-south
axis. Now we see why. Some people have asked why, if Luna suffered
such an intense bombardment, there should be no signs of any
comparable increase in meteorite activity on Earth at the time.
This too now makes sense: When Minerva blew up, Luna was in its
immediate vicinity but Earth wasn't. And a last point on Lunar
physics- We've known for half a century that Luna is formed from a
mix of rocky compounds different from those found on Earth, being
low in volatiles and rich in refractories. Scientists have
speculated for a long time that possibly the Moon was formed in
another part of the Solar System. This indeed turns out to be true
if what I've said is correct.
"Some explanations have suggested that the Lunarians set up
advanced bridgeheads on Luna. This enabled their evident presence
there to be reconciled with evolutionary origins on Minerva, but
raised an equally problematical question: Why were they struggling
to master interplanetary space-flight technology when they must
have had it already? In the account I have described, this problem
disappears. They had reached their own moon, but were still some
ways from being able to move large populations to anyplace as
remote as Earth. Also, there is now no need to introduce the
unsupported notion of Lunarian colonies on either planet; either
way, it would pose the same question.
"And finally, an unsolved riddle of oceanography makes sense in
this light, too. Research into tidal motions has shown that
catastrophic upheavals on a planetary scale occurred on Earth at
about this time, resulting in an abrupt increase in the length of
the
day and an increase in the rate at which the day is further being
lengthened by tidal friction. Well, the arrival of Minerva's moon
would certainly create enormous gravitational and tidal
disturbances. Although the exact mechanics aren't too clear right
now, it appears that the kinetic energy acquired by Minerva's moon
as it fell toward the Sun, was absorbed in neutralizing part of the
Earth's rotational energy, causing a longer day. Also, increased
tidal friction since then is to be expected. Before the Moon
appeared, Earth experienced only Solar tides, whereas from that
time up until today, there have been both Solar and Lunar tides."
Hunt showed his empty hand in a gesture of finality and pushed
himself back in his chair. He straightened the pile of notes on the
desk before going on to conclude:
"That's it. As I said earlier, at this stage it represents no more
than a hypothesis that accounts for all the facts. But there are
some things we can do toward testing the truth of it.
"For a start, we have a large chunk of Minerva piled up all over
Farside. The recent material is so like the original Lunar material
that it was years before anybody realized it had been added only
recently. That supports the idea that the Moon and the meteorites
originated in the same part of the Solar System. I'd like to
suggest that we perform detailed comparisons between data from
Farside material and data from the Asteroid surveys. If the results
indicate that they are both the same kind of stuff and appear to
have come from the same place, the whole idea would be well
supported.
"Another thing that needs further work is a mathematical model of
the process of mutual capture between Earth and Luna. We know quite
a lot about the initial conditions that must have existed before
and, of course, a lot more about the conditions that exist now. It
would be reassuring to know that for the equations involved there
exist solutions that allow one situation to transform into the
other within the normal laws of physics. At least, it would be nice
to prove that the whole idea isn't impossible.
"Finally, of course, there is the Ganymean ship here. Without doubt
a lot of new information is waiting to be discovered-far more than
we've had to work on so far. I'm hoping that somewhere in the ship
there will be astronomic data to tell us something about the Solar
System at the time of the Ganymeans. If, for example, we could
determine whether or not the third planet from
the Sun of their Solar System had a satellite, or if we could learn
enough about their moon to identify it as Luna-perhaps by
recognizing Nearside surface features-then the
whole theory would
be well on the way to being proved.
"This concludes the report.
"Personal addendum for Gregg Caldwell . . ." The view of Hunt was
replaced by a landscape showing a wilderness of ice and rock. "This
place you've sent us to, Gregg-the mail service isn't too regular,
so I couldn't send a postcard. It's over a hundred Celsius degrees
below zero; there's no atmosphere worth talking about and what
there is, is poisonous; the only way back is by Vega, and the
nearest Vega is seven hundred miles away. I wish you were here to
enjoy all the fun with us, Gregg-I really do!
"V. Hunt from Ganymede Pithead Base. End of transmission."
chapter twenty-four
The long-awaited answers to where the Lunarians had come from and
how they came to be where they had been found sent waves of
excitement around the scientific world and prompted a new frenzy of
activity in the news media. Hunt's explanation seemed complete and
consistent. There were few objections or disagreements; the account
didn't leave much to object to or disagree with.
Hunt had therefore met fully the demands of his brief. Although
detailed interdisciplinary work would continue all over the world
for a long time to come, UNSA's formal involvement in the affair
was more or less over. So Project Charlie was run down. That left
Project Ganymeans, which was just starting up. Although he had not
yet received any formal directive from Earth to say so, Hunt had
the feeling that Caidwell wouldn't waste the opportunity offered by
Hunt's presence on Ganymede just when the focus of attention was
shifting from the Lunarians to the Ganymeans. In other words, it
would be some time yet before he would find himself walking aboard
an Earth-bound cruiser.
A few weeks after the publication of UNSA's interim conclusions,
the Navcomms scientists on Ganymede held a celebration dinner in
the officers' mess at Pithead to mark the successful end of a major
part of their task. The evening had reached the warm and mellow
phase that comes with cigars and liqueurs when the last-course
dishes have been cleared away. Talkative groups were standing and
sitting in a variety of attitudes around the tables and by the bar,
and beers, brandies, and vintage ports were beginning to flow
freely. Hunt was with a group of physicists near the bar,
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