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almost 90 degrees from the center of the window.
Chimal laughed. "That can't be," he said. "There has been a mistake. If Proxima Centauri were way over
there, out to the side, it would mean that we were going past it& "
His fingers shook as he returned to the list and checked his figures over and over again.
4
"Just look at these figures and tell me if they are true or not that's all I ask." Chimal dropped the papers
onto the table before the Master Observer.
"I have told you, I am not very practiced at the mathematics. There are machines for this sort of thing."
The old man stared straight ahead, looking neither at the papers nor at Chimal, unmoving except for his
fingers that plucked, unnoticed, at his clothing.
"These are from a machine, a readout. Look at them and tell me if they are correct or not."
"I am no longer young and it is time for prayers and rest. I ask you to leave me."
"No. Not until you have given me an answer. You don't want to answer, do you?"
The old man's continued silence destroyed the last element of calmness that Chimal possessed. The
Master Observer gave a hoarse cry as Chimal reached out to seize his deus and, with a quick snap, broke
the chain that supported it. He looked at the numbers in the openings in the front.
"186,293& do you know what that means?"
"This is close to blasphemy. Return that, at once."
"I was told that this numbered the days of the voyage, days in old Earth time. As I remember it there are
about 365 days in an Earth year."
He threw the deus onto the table and the old man snatched it up at once, in both hands. Chimal took a
writing tablet and a stylus from his belt. "Divide& this shouldn't be hard& the answer is& " He
scrawled a line under the figure and waved it under the Master Observer's nose. "It's been over 510 years
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since the voyage began. The estimate in all the books was five hundred years or less, and the Aztecs
believe they will be freed in 500 years. This is just added evidence. With my own eyes I saw that we are
no longer going toward Proxima Centauri, but are aimed instead almost at the constellation Leo."
"How can you know that?"
"Because I was in the navigation chamber and used the telescope. The axis of rotation is no longer
pointing at Proxima Centauri. We are going somewhere else."
"These are all very complex questions," the old man said, dabbing a kerchief at the corners of his red-
rimmed eyes. "I remember no relationship between the axis of rotation and our direction& "
"Well I do and I have checked already to make sure. To keep the navigational instruments functioning
correctly, Proxima Centauri is fixed at the axis of rotation. Automatic course corrections are made if it
drifts so we move in the direction of the main axis. This cannot be changed." Chimal chewed at a
knuckle in sudden thought. "Though we might now be going to a different star! Now tell me the truth
what has happened?"
The old observer stayed rigid for a moment longer, then collapsed, sighing, inside the restraining
support of his eskoskeleton.
"There is nothing that can be kept from you, First Arriver, I realize that now. But I did not want you to
know until you had come to full knowledge. That must be now, or you would not have found out these
things." He threw a switch and the motors hummed as they lifted him to his feet and moved him across
the room.
"The meeting is recorded here in the log. I was a young man at the time, then the youngest observer in
fact, the others are long since dead. How many years ago was that? I am not sure, yet I still remember
every detail of it. An act of faith, an act of understanding, an act of trust." He seated himself again,
holding a red bound book in both hands, looking at it, through it, to that well remembered day.
"We were weeks, months almost, weighing all of the facts and coming to a decision. It was a solemn,
almost heart-stopping moment. The Chief Observer stood and read all of the observations. The
instruments showed that we had slowed, that new data must be fed in to put us into an orbit about the
star. Then he read about the planetary observations and we all felt distress at what had been discovered.
The planets were not suitable, that was what was wrong. Just not suitable. We could have been the
Observers of the Day of Arrival, yet we had the strength to turn away from the temptation. We had to
fulfill the trust of the people in our charge. When the Master Observer explained this we all knew what
had to be done. The Great Designer had planned even for this day, for the chance that no satisfactory
planets could be found in orbit about Proxima Centauri, and a new course was set to Alpha Centauri. Or
was it Wolf 359 in Leo? I forget now, it had been so many years. But it is all in here, the truth of the
decision. Hard as it was to make it was made. I shall carry the memory of that day with me to the
recycler. Few are given such a chance to serve."
"May I see the book? What day was this decided?"
"A day fixed in history, but look for yourself." The old man smiled and opened the book, apparently at
random, on the table before him. "See how it opens to the correct place? I have read in it so often."
Chimal took the book and read the entry. It occupied less than a page. Surely a record of brevity for such
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a momentous occasion.
"There is nothing here about the observations and the reasons for the decisions," he said, "No details on
the planets that were so unsuitable."
"Yes, there, beginning the second paragraph. If you will permit me I can quote from memory. '&
therefore, it was the observations alone that could determine future action. The planets were unsuitable.'
"
"But why? There are no details."
"Details are not needed. This was a decision of faith. The Great Designer had made allowance for the
fact that suitable planets might not be found, and He is the one who knew. If the planets were suitable he
would have not given us a choice. This is a very important doctrinal point. We all looked through the
telescope and agreed. The planets were not suitable. They were tiny, and had no light of their own like a
sun, and were very far away. They obviously were not suitable& "
Chimal sprang to his feet, slamming the book onto the table.
"Are you telling me that you decided simply by looking through the telescope while still at astronomical
distance? That you made no approaches, no landings, took no photographs& ?"
"I know nothing of those things. They must be things that Arrivers do. We could not open the valley
until we were sure these planets were proper. Think how terrible! What would it have been like if the
Arrivers found these planets unsuitable! We would have betrayed our trust. No, far better to make this
weighty decision ourselves. We knew what was involved. Every one of us searched his heart and faith
before coming to a reluctant decision. The planets were unsuitable."
"And this was decided by faith alone?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]