The Winds of Change and Other Stories

by Isaac Asimov

  He said, 'Hello, Elaine. Have I kept you waiting long?'

  'According to the clock - fourteen minutes, sir.'

  Janos laughed briefly. He was a large man with eyes that smiled, sometimes, even when his lips didn't. His greying hair was crew cut, quite out of fashion, and it made him look older than the fifty he probably was.

  'Come in, Elaine,' he said. 'Sit down.'

  She sat down, accepting the use of the first name quite naturally, even though she had never spoken to the chairman before. On a world like Gamma, where nearly everyone knows nearly everyone - why not?

  Janos sat back on the swivel chair in his large room -larger than any private room Elaine had ever seen before -and said, 'It's interesting that you should tell me you've been waiting fourteen minutes. Shouldn't you have simply said you waited only a little while?'

  Elaine said, 'I think precision in small things can be important.'

  'Very good. I'm glad you feel so for it is what I need of you. - Your grandparents came from the United States region of Earth, didn't they?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'And you've retained your American heritage, I suppose?'

  'I've studied Earth history at college. American history was included - but I'm a Gammaperson.'

  'Yes, of course. So are we all. But you're a particularly special Gammaperson since you're going to save us all.'

  Elaine frowned slightly. 'I beg your pardon--'

  'Never mind that now. I've got ahead of myself. Since you are of American descent, I am sure you know that the United States was founded in 1776.'

  'Yes. This year is their Tricentennial.'

  'And that the United States was founded out of thirteen individual states. Also that there are now thirteen separate and functioning worlds in the Lunar Orbit; eight of them here in the L-5 position trailing the Moon, and five in the L-4 position preceding the Moon.'

  'Yes, sir. And a fourteenth is under construction in L-4.'

  'Never mind that. The Orbital World, Nu, was hastened, and the one now under construction, Xi, is being slowed, so that all through 2076 there will be thirteen Orbital Worlds, and not fourteen or twelve. Do you see why?'

  Elaine said, dryly, 'Superstition?'

  Janos said, 'Your sharpness cuts, young woman, but I do not bleed. The matter is not superstition. It's a matter of taking advantage of sentiment. The United States is the most important single region of the Earth Federation and if they are ready to vote for the establishment of an independent Federation of Orbital Worlds, this will be the year to do it. Combine the Tricentennial with the number thirteen and they couldn't resist, could they?'

  'I can see there would be the impulse.'

  'And independence for us would be useful. The Earth Federation is a conservative force that limits our expansion. Once we are no longer tied to Earth, the Orbital Worlds could adjust to fit each other's economy more efficiently. We could outgrow these narrow limits in the Moon's orbit and head out for the asteroid belt where we would become a major force in human history. Do you agree?'

  'Those who know seem to think so.'

  'Unfortunately there are strong forces on Earth against independence. Then, too, even though almost every Orbital Worlder is for independence, not all of them are for union. - What do you think of the Other Worlders, Elaine? You meet them constantly in your work.'

  Elaine said, 'People are people, sir. But Other Worlders have different ways and I find them - unsympathetic at times.'

  'Exactly. And they find us - unsympathetic. And rather than have union, many of the people of the Worlds would refuse independence. Elaine, it's up to you to give us union.'

  Back to that, thought Elaine. She said, 'What have I to do with it?'

  'Listen,' said Janos, gently, 'and I'll explain. Those on Earth who are opposed to independence count on the hostility between the Orbital Worlds and do their best to increase it. What if some sabotage takes place here on Gamma, which is the strongest force for union in the Orbit? What if it is serious sabotage and it seems that some particular Other World is responsible? Anti-union sentiment would rise in Gamma and there would then be little likelihood of independence this year. Afterwards, with the magic of '76 no longer pulling for us, it might not come for many years.'

  'We must guard against sabotage, then.'

  'Right! And so we do. That's where you come in. There are five people coming to Gamma. Ordinary tourists, apparently. There are many more than those five, of course, but it is those particular five, one from each of five different Orbital Worlds, who interest us. One of our agents on Earth - we have them, you know--'

  'Everyone knows. Especially Earth, I think.'

  Janos put his head back as though to focus on her more efficiently. He said, 'You have a way of saying these things that I like. - One of our agents got a message to us, badly garbled unfortunately. An Earthman is coming to Gamma, a skilled saboteur, and he's coming as an Orbital Worlder. The message should have told us the particular disguise he would be assuming, but that was the garbled part.'

  'I suppose you can't check with your agent because he is now dead.'

  'Unfortunately, he is. We did what we could to interpret the message and what we extracted could apply equally well to five people, at least four of whom are surely respectable Other Worlders and one of whom may be an Earthman in disguise.'

  'Refuse entry to all five, sir. Or let them in, arrest them all, and examine each thoroughly.'

  'But if we do that we offend the Other Worlds in question and run the risk of doing just what the sabotage would do.'

  'Once you locate the saboteur, your actions would have been satisfactorily explained.'

  'If they believe us. Then, too, the message was sufficiently unclear to leave it a distinct possibility that none of the five is a saboteur; that all are legitimate.'

  'Well, then, what is it you would have me do, Janos?'

  Janos settled back in his chair and for a moment his shrewd eyes once again weighed her quality. He said, 'You're a tourist guide and you're used to dealing with Other Worlders and with Earthpeople. What's more, your record shows you to be rather formidably intelligent. I'll see to it that those five are assigned to you for an official tour of Gamma; they can't refuse such a tour without being impolite; so impolite as to give us an excuse to hold them. You'll be with them for several hours, Elaine, and all you have to do is to tell us which one is the imposter - or perhaps that none of them is.'

  Elaine shook her head. 'I don't see how that can be done. Whichever it is must have practised for the task.'

  'Undoubtedly. I would suppose he had visited the Other World of which he is pretending to be a citizen; speaks, looks, and acts like one; has the proper papers and so on.'

  'Well, then?'

  'But nothing can be done perfectly, Elaine. Find the imperfection. You have been on the various worlds in question. You know Other Worlders.'

  'I don't think I can--'

  'If you fail,' said Janos forcefully, 'we may have to fall back on cruder methods and risk offending the Other Worlds. Or we may hang back, if you tell us there is no imposter, or take useless action if you spot the wrong one. and then who knows how much damage the sabotage may do to Gamma - quite apart from the failure of union. You must not fail.'

  Elaine's lips pressed tightly together. She said, 'When does this start?'

  'They're coming tomorrow. They'll be landing at Pier Two on the other side of the world.' His thumb jerked upwards in the almost inevitable gesture, and Elaine's eyes moved briefly upwards in just as automatic a response.

  It was natural enough. Gamma, like all the Orbital Worlds, was a doughnut-shaped structure, a torus. In Gamma's case, the hollow torus within which the population lived was somewhat over two miles across. One could travel about three and a half miles along the hollow curve of the torus to reach the other side of the world, or cut upwards through one of the three spokes that linked opposite sides of the torus.

  Elaine remembered an Earthman laug
hing once at the Orbital habit of talking about the other side of the 'world' in reference to the other half of the torus, but why not? Gamma was surrounded by space, just as Earth was.

  Janos interrupted her train of thought. 'You'll have to do it, Elaine.'

  She said, 'I'll try to do it, sir.' 'And you mustn't fail.'

  2

  Elaine's two-room apartment was in Sector Three, and had the great advantage of being near the Centre of Performing Arts. (She had had a youthful dream of being an actress but had lacked the voice for it - yet she still enjoyed being bathed in the atmosphere of the theatre.) At that moment, as she prepared for the rise to Pier Two, she wished earnestly that her voice had been better and her talents more marked - so that she would not now be a tourists' guide with an impossible task facing her.

  She was dressed neatly. Her uniform fit snugly and she looked efficient - as she always did. She made an effort to look empty as well. It occurred to her that if she appeared to the five tourists to be too curious, too knowing, she would surely learn nothing. In fact, if she seemed too probing, she might also seem too dangerous to a desperate man. Someone prepared to sabotage a world would not hesitate to deal sternly with one young woman.

  She looked up as she stepped outside. There was room within the torus to allow the raising of a forty-story building at the centre, but twenty stories was the maximum allowed and ten stories was the average. The upper half of the torus was needed for the feeling of space and open air, to say nothing of allowing the entry of sunlight.

  The louvers overhead were still opening at a rate appropriate to the early morning. The large mirror that floated in orbit with Gam ma reflected sunlight inwards and this bounced off smaller mirrors into the torus. The light bathed the structures on the ground side of the great doughnut and kept the temperatures within perfectly comfortable.

  Elaine had never been on Earth, but she had read of it often enough and sometimes the even weather of Gamma made her long for just a little taste of Earth's disordered environment. Snow, especially. It was the one thing she couldn't properly imagine. Rain was something like a showerbath, fog something like steam, cold and hot like turning the proper taps in the steamrooms. - But what was snow like?

  She wondered about that as she walked to elevator-bank Three and joined the line. There was not much of a wait since she had managed to avoid the rush hour of shift-change.

  The elevator carried her up the spoke through a mile of slowly decreasing gravitation. It was the rapid rotation of the torus, one turn every two minutes, that produced that centrifugal effect that kept everyone and everything pressed against the outer side of the torus all around the doughnut with a force matching Earth-gravity. To everyone wherever he was on Gamma, the outer rim of the torus was 'down' and the central hub was 'up'. And, of course, the other side of the World past the hub was also 'up'.

  As Elaine went up the elevator, the speed with which it turned around the hub of the torus decreased, of course, and so did the centrifugal effect. She was down to less than half her normal weight by the time she passed the hospital area, where lowered gravity was useful in treating cardiac patients, respiratory cases, and so on.

  Elaine enjoyed the sensation. She had once, during college, earned tuition money by serving as a nurse's aide and she knew the low-gravity sensation well.

  Eventually, the elevator passed through the large spherical hub at the centre of the torus, its movement carefully controlled by the central computer so that no elevator collided with any other as all converged at the hub in careful alternation. At the hub, the centrifugal effect was just about zero and, for the few minutes it took to pass through, she felt weightless. This was where Gamma's power station was located and (Elaine thought sombrely) where the sabotage might take place.

  The elevator passed through the hub and then moved along the spoke that connected with the other side of the world. The centrifugal effect was increasing again, and Elaine began to get the sensation of standing on her head. With the lack of effort born of long practice, she quietly inverted herself as, one by one, did the other passengers on the elevator. All were now standing on what had been the elevator ceiling some minutes before.

  The sensation was that of moving down now, and of increasing gravitational pull. And then, when the pull had reached maximum and she was feeling (just a little regretfully) as heavy as she usually did, she was on the other side. The door opened and she stepped out. The other side of the world (she looked up briefly) was now the place where she lived.

  3

  Avoiding the rush hour, Elaine was late, which turned out to be troublesome. The other three guides, two men and a woman, were already there and clustered about the daily work sheet.

  The woman, Mikki Burdot, saw her first and said, rather waspishly, There she is.'

  Elaine's eyebrows lifted. 'Naturally. I work here.' Mikki said, 'It doesn't seem as though you do.' She walked over on the cork-bottom shoes that added two inches to her diminutive height. She pushed her regulation cap off her forehead. That might be described as a nervous habit, but it did reveal her rich mahogany hair.

  She went on. 'You've got five people there. Exactly five. How's that for hard work.'

  Elaine reached for the work-sheet copies. 'Five? That's all?'

  'Five! I've got fourteen. Hannes has ten and Robaire has twelve. Fair division? I think not.'

  'It could be', said Elaine, 'that they don't trust my work and are getting ready to relieve me of my duties.'

  'Phasing you out?' said Robaire. A dimple appeared on either cheek when he smiled, so he smiled often. 'Exactly what I said. Then you'll be stony broke, with no chance of any other position, and you'll have to marry me. Right?'

  Elaine said, 'I've got you in mind, Robaire. Constantly! Just as soon as I'm stony broke. - Have you taken this up with Benjo Strammer? He's the one in charge of the work sheets.'

  'Yes, I did,' said Mikki, 'and he just said that's the way it was. Old--' The last word was lost in a mutter.

  Elaine said, 'All right. Look. Robaire, your twelve are mostly from Alpha, which means they'll be interested in our sports facilities, and that's your baby, right? Hannes has a lot from Mu, and they're all first generation and probably nervous about anything new, and we all know how fatherly he is.'

  'Paternal is my middle name,' said Hannes, crossing his arms over his rather narrow chest.

  'And Mikki, you've got them from Zeta, and most of the Zetans hate our guts, so they're going to need someone who looks little and helpless and very pretty. No one can hate you.'

  'The women can,' said Mikki, softening.

  'Yes, but the tourists you have are mostly men. Right? As for myself, I've got five, but they're from five different worlds. Each one is different. Each one will want to concentrate on something else, and I suspect each one is a VIP and will want special treatment and be impossible to please.' She sat back and allowed a look of melancholy to pass over her face. 'If anyone wants to change--'

  'Not me,' said Hannes. 'My little Muans need me.'

  'And my Alphans', said Robaire, 'must have someone who knows a football from a golf club.'

  Mikki said, 'I never said I wanted to change. I just wish they could even it up more.'

  Elaine nodded and went to her own small office, no larger than sufficed to hold a small desk and, this time, Benjo Strammer. He was waiting for her. His hair was richly white and wavy, and he looked at her quizzically out of eyes nested in crow's-feet. He said, 'You handled that very well, Elaine.'

  She said, 'I take it you listened, Benjo.'

  'I had to. I was a little upset. That list came down to me that way. I didn't prepare it.'

  'Then we have to take it as given. Nothing else to do.'

  Benjo said, 'But why, Elaine?'

  'Why what?'

  'Why did they make up the list for me?'

  'Didn't they tell you, Benjo?'

  Benjo shook his head and said, 'No, they didn't.'

  'I guess they didn't wa
nt you to know, then.'

  'All right, but do you know?'

  'If you're not supposed to know, you shouldn't even ask. Look, whatever it is, it's going to be touchy. Is the ship on time?'

  'It's docking now.'

  'All right, then. Could you arrange to have my five tourists separated out as quietly as possible and brought in before the rest? I think I had better see them before we get started; try to get an estimate as to how I am supposed to handle this. You know, what I said to the others was probably right. I think they're VIPs and I don't want to goof it up.'

  Benjo looked sour. 'I think it would be a lot better, Elaine, if they would cut me in on whatever's going on. If they keep me in the dark, then it's not my fault if I slip up.'

  'If it were up to me, Benjo, you could have it. Believe me when I tell you I don't want to touch this at all, whatever it is. Do you want it?'

  'It came down for you specifically, didn't it? It's your thing. And if you want to see these people, you'd better use my office. This one isn't large enough. As for me, once they come in, I'll take a walk around the World.'

  A World walk was something he did every once in a while. It kept him in shape, he said. Elaine looked down briefly at her own flat abdomen and wondered if she could rely on that as a fact of nature for much longer.

  Elaine sat on the corner of Benjo's desk, the corner nearest the door, with her arms crossed over her chest and one leg swinging. She had firmly refused to consider the problem the night before, feeling (quite rightly, she was sure) that if she did that she would spend most of the night wakeful and tense and be dim-witted today.

  Now, however, there was no excuse to put it off further.

  Problem: Five people, each from a different World. One of them might be (just might be) an Earthman pretending to be an Orbital Worlder. Assuming the Earthman knew his job, would there be any way he could give himself away? Was there something about the Orbital Worlds to which, even with practice, he could not adapt?

  The trouble was, Elaine thought impatiently, that the Orbital Worlds had deliberately mimicked Earth conditions. Each revolved at such speed as to produce Earth-normal gravities in the torus. Any Earthman would feel completely at home in this respect.