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发信人: by (春天的小懒虫), 信区: SFworld
标  题: 2010 (42)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Wed Oct  6 15:18:37 1999), 转信

                       PART VI
                 DEVOURER OF WORLDS

                            42
            The Ghost in the Machine

`I'm  sorry,  Heywood - I don't believe in ghosts. There must
be  a  rational  explanation.  There's nothing that the human
mind can't account for.'
  `I  agree,  Tanya.  -  But  let  me  remind you of Haldane's
famous  remark:  The  Universe  is  not only stranger than we
imagine - but stranger than we ran imagine.'
  `And    Haldane,' Curnow   interjected   mischievously,   `was
a good Communist.'
  `Perhaps  so,  but  that  particular  saying  can be used to
support  all  kinds  of  mystical  nonsense.  Hal's behaviour
must be the result of some kind of programming. The ...
personality  he  created  has to be an artifact of some kind.
Don't you agree, Chandra?'
  That  was waving a red flag in front of a bull; Tanya had to
be   desperate.  However,  Chandra's  reaction  was  surpris-
ingly  mild,  even  for  him.  He  seemed  to be preoccupied,
as  if he was indeed seriously considering the possibility of
another computer malfunction.
  `There   must   have   been  some  external  input,  Captain
Orlova.  Hal  could  not  have created such a self-consistent
audiovisual  illusion out of nothing. If Dr Floyd is reporting
accurately,  someone  was  in  control.  And in real time, of
course, since there was no delay in the conversation.'
  `That   makes   me  number-one  suspect,' exclaimed  Max.  `I
was the only other person awake.'
  `Don't  be  ridiculous,  Max,' retorted  Nikolai.  `The audio
side would have been easy, but there's no way that apparition
could   have  been  arranged,  without  some  very  elaborate
equipment. Laser beams, electrostatic fields - I don't know.
Maybe a stage magician could do it, but he'd need a truck-
load of props.'
  `Just a moment!' said Zenia brightly. `If this really hap-
pened, surely Hal will remember and you could ask . '
  Her voice died away as she saw the glum expressions
around her. Floyd was the first to take pity on her embar-
rassment.
  `We tried that, Zenia; he has absolutely no recollection of
the phenomenon. But as I've already pointed out to the
others, that doesn't prove anything. Chandra's shown how
Hal's memories can be selectively erased - and the auxiliary
speech-synthesizer modules have nothing to do with the
mainframe. They could be operated without Hal knowing
anything about it...' He paused for breath, then launched
his pre-emptive strike.
  `I admit that this doesn't leave many alternatives. Either I
was imagining the whole thing, or it really happened. I
know it wasn't a dream, but I can't be sure it wasn't some
kind of hallucination. But Katerina's seen my medical re-
ports - she knows I wouldn't be here if I had that sort of
problem. Still, it can't be ruled out - and I won't blame
anyone for making it their number-one hypothesis. I'd
probably do the same.
  `The only way I can prove it wasn't a dream is to get some
supporting evidence. So let me remind you of the other
strange things that have happened recently. We know that
Dave Bowman went into Big Bro - Zagadka. Something
came out, and headed for Earth. Vasili saw it - I didn't!
Then there was the mysterious explosion of your orbiting
bomb -
  `Yours.'
  `Sorry - the Vatican's. And it does seem rather curious
that soon afterward old Mrs Bowman died very peacefully,
for no apparent medical reason. I'm not saying there's any
connection,  but  -  well,  do  you know the saying: Once is an
accident;  twice is a coincidence; three times is a conspiracy.'
  `And  there's  something  else,  Max  interjected  with  sud-
den excitement. `I caught it on one of the daily newscasts - it
was   only  a  small  item.  An  old  girlfriend  of  Commander
Bowman's claimed she'd had a message from him.'
  `Yes - I saw the same report,' confirmed Sasha.
  `And   you   never   mentioned   it?'   Floyd  asked  incredu-
lously. Both men looked slightly abashed.
  `Well,  it  was  treated  as a joke, said Max sheepishly. `The
woman's  husband  reported  it.  Then she denied it - I think.'
  `The  commentator  said  it  was  a publicity stunt - like the
rash  of  UFO  sightings  around  the  same  time.  There  were
dozens   in  that  first  week;  then  they  stopped  reporting
them.'
  `Perhaps  some  of  them  were  real.  If it's not been wiped,
could  you  dig  that item out of ship's archives, or ask for a
repeat from Mission Control?'
  `A   hundred   tales   won't   convince   me,  scoffed  Tanya.
`What we need is solid proof.'
  `Such as?'
  `Oh   -   something  that  Hal  couldn't  possibly  know,  and
that  none  of  us  could  have  told  him. Some physical - er,
manifes... manifestation.'
  `A good, old-fashioned miracle?'
  `Yes,  I'd  settle  for  that.  Meanwhile, I'm not saying any-
thing  to  Mission  Control.  And  I  suggest  you do the same,
Heywood.'
  Floyd  knew  a  direct  order  when  he  heard  it, and nodded
in wry agreement.
  `I'll  be  more  than happy to go along with that. But I'd like
to make one suggestion.'
  `Yes?'
  `We  should  start  contingency  planning.  Let's  assume that
this warning is valid - as I certainly do.'
  `What can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. Of course,
we can leave Jupiter space anytime we like - but we can't
get into an Earth-return orbit until the launch window
opens.'
  'That's eleven days after the deadline!'
  `Yes. I'd be happy to get away sooner; but we don't have
the fuel For a higher-energy orbit...' Tanya's voice trailed
away into uncharacteristic  indecision. `I was going to
announce this later, but now that the subject has come
up... '
  There was a simultaneous intake of breath, and an instant
hush from the audience.
  `I'd like to delay our departure five days, to make our
orbit closer to the ideal Hohmann one and give us a better
fuel reserve.'
  The announcement was not unexpected, but it was
greeted with a chorus of groans.
  `What will that do to our arrival time?' asked Katerina, in
a slightly ominous tone of voice. The two formidable ladies
regarded each other for a moment like well-matched adver-
saries, respectful of each other but neither willing to give
ground.
  `Ten days,' Tanya answered at last.
  `Better late than never,' said Max cheerfully, trying to
ease the tension, and not succeeding very well.
  Floyd hardly noticed; he was lost in his own thoughts.
The duration of the trip would make no difference to him
and his two colleagues, in their dreamless sleep. But that was
now completely unimportant.
  He felt certain - and the knowledge filled him with help-
less despair - that if they did not leave before that mys-
terious deadline, they would not leave at all.

`...This is an incredible situation, Dimitri, and a very
frightening one. You're the only person on Earth who
knows about it - but very soon Tanya and I will have to
have a showdown with Mission Control.
  `Even some of your materialistic countrymen are pre-
pared to accept - at least as a working hypothesis - that
some entity has - well, invaded Hal. Sasha has dug up a good
phrase: "The Ghost in the Machine".
  `Theories abound; Vasili produces a new one every day.
Most of them are variations on that old science-fiction
cliche, the organized energy field. But what kind of energy?
It can't be electrical, or our instruments would have de-
tected it easily. The same thing applies to radiation - at least
all the kinds we know. Vasili's getting really far-out, talking
about standing waves of neutrinos and intersections with
higher-dimensional space. Tanya says this is all mystical
nonsense - a favourite phrase of hers - and they've come
closer to a fight than we've ever seen them. We actually
heard them shouting at each other last night. Not good for
morale.
  `I'm afraid we're all tense and overwrought. This warn-
ing, and the delayed departure date, has added to the sense
of frustration caused by our total failure to get anywhere
with Big Brother. It would have helped - maybe - if I could
have communicated with the Bowman thing. I wonder
where it's gone? Perhaps it simply wasn't interested in us
after that one encounter. What it could have told us, if it
wanted to! Hell and chyort vozmi! Damn - I'm talking
Sasha's hated Russlish again. Let's change the subject.
  `I can't thank you too much for everything you've done,
and for reporting on the situation at home. I feel slightly
better about it now - having something even bigger to
worry about is perhaps the best cure for any insoluble
problem.
  `For the first time, I'm beginning to wonder if any of us
will ever see Earth again.'

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