'It certainly was.'
'Well, there have been some famous attempts to do this with the arts. Of course such lists can't establish absolute eternal values, but they're interesting and show how tastes change from age to age.'
'The last list I saw it was on the Earth Artnet only a few years ago was divided into Architecture, Music, Visual Arts... I remember a few of the examples... the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal... Bach's Toccata and Fugue was first in music, followed by Verdi's Requiem Mass. In art the Mona Lisa, of course. Then not sure of the order a group of Buddha statues somewhere in Ceylon, and the golden death-mask of young King Tut.
'Even if I could remember all the others which of course I can't it doesn't matter: the important thing is their cultural and religious backgrounds. Overall, no single religion dominated except in music. And that could be due to a purely technological accident: the organ and the other pre-electronic musical instruments were perfected in the Christianized West. It could have worked out quite differently... if, for example, the Greeks or the Chinese had regarded machines as something more than toys.
'But what really settles the argument, as far as I'm concerned, is the general consensus about the single greatest work of human art. Over and over again, in almost every listing it's Angkor Wat. Yet the religion that inspired that has been extinct for centuries no one even knows precisely what it was, except that it involved hundreds of gods, not merely one!'
'Wish I could have thrown that at dear old Rabbi Berenstein I'm sure he'd have had a good answer.'
'I don't doubt it. I wish I could have met him myself. And I'm glad he never lived to see what happened to Israel.'
END AUDIO.
There you have it, Indra. Wish the Grannymede had Angkor Wat on its menu I've never seen it but you can't have everything...
Now, the question you really wanted answered... why is Dr Ted so delighted that I'm here?
As you know, he's convinced that the key to many mysteries lies on Europa where no one has been allowed to land for a thousand years.
He thinks I may be an exception. He believes I have a friend there. Yes Dave Bowman, or whatever he's now become...
We know that he survived being drawn into the Big Brother Monolith and somehow revisited Earth afterwards. But there's more, that I didn't know. Very few people do, because the Medes are embarrassed to talk about it...
Ted Khan has spent years collecting the evidence, and is now quite certain of the facts even though he can't explain them. On at least six occasions, about a century apart, reliable observers here in Anubis have reported seeing an apparition just like the one that Heywood Floyd met aboard Discovery. Though not one of them knew about that incident, they were all able to identify Dave when they were shown his hologram. And there was another sighting aboard a survey ship that made a close approach to Europa, six hundred years ago...
Individually, no one would take these cases seriously but altogether they make a pattern. Ted's quite sure that Dave Bowman survives in some form, presumably associated with the Monolith we call the Great Wall. And he still has some interest in our affairs.
Though he's made no attempt at communication, Ted hopes we can make contact. He believes that I'm the only human who can do it...
I'm still trying to make up my mind. Tomorrow, I'll talk it over with Captain Chandler. Will let you know what we decide. Love, Frank.
STORE
TRANSMIT INDRA
21 Quarantine
'Do you believe in ghosts, Dim?'
'Certainly not: but like every sensible man, I'm afraid of them. Why do you ask?'
'If it wasn't a ghost, it was the most vivid dream I've ever had. Last night I had a conversation with Dave Bowman.'
Poole knew that Captain Chandler would take him seriously, when the occasion required; nor was he disappointed.
'Interesting but there's an obvious explanation. You've been living here in the Bowman Suite, for Deus's sake! You told me yourself it feels haunted.'
'I'm sure well, ninety-nine per cent sure that you're right, and the whole thing was prompted by the discussions I've been having with Prof. Ted. Have you heard the reports that Dave Bowman occasionally appears in Anubis? About once every hundred years? Just as he did to Dr Floyd aboard Discovery, after she'd been reactivated.'
'What happened there? I've heard vague stories, but never taken them seriously.'
'Dr Khan does and so do I I've seen the original recordings. Floyd's sitting in my old chair when a kind of dust-cloud forms behind him, and shapes itself into Dave though only the head has detail. Then it gives that famous message, warning him to leave.'
'Who wouldn't have? But that was a thousand years ago. Plenty of time to fake it.'
'What would be the point? Khan and I were looking at it yesterday. I'd bet my life it's authentic.'
'As a matter of fact, I agree with you. And I have heard those reports...'
Chandler's voice trailed away, and he looked slightly embarrassed.
'Long time ago, I had a girl-friend here in Anubis. She told me that her grandfather had seen Bowman. I laughed.'
'I wonder if Ted has that sighting on his list. Could you put him in touch with your friend?'
'Er rather not. We haven't spoken for years. For all I know, she may be on the Moon, or Mars... Anyway, why is Professor Ted interested?'
'That's what I really wanted to discuss with you.'
'Sounds ominous. Go ahead,'
'Ted thinks that Dave Bowman or whatever he's become may still exist up there on Europa.'
'After a thousand years?'
'Well look at me.'
'One sample is poor statistics, my maths prof. used to say. But go on.'
'It's a complicated story or maybe a jigsaw, with most of the pieces missing. But it's generally agreed that something crucial happened to our ancestors when that Monolith appeared in Africa, four million years ago. It marks a turning point in prehistory the first appearance of tools and weapons and religion... That can't be pure coincidence. The Monolith must have done something to us surely it couldn't have just stood there, passively accepting worship...'
'Ted's fond of quoting a famous palaeontologist who said "TMA ZERO gave us an evolutionary kick in the pants". He argues that the kick wasn't in a wholly desirable direction. Did we have to become so mean and nasty to survive? Maybe we did... As I understand him, Ted believes that there's something fundamentally wrong with the wiring of our brains, which makes us incapable of consistent logical thinking. To make matters worse, though all creatures need a certain amount of aggressiveness to survive, we seem to have far more than is absolutely necessary. And no other animal tortures its fellows as we do. Is this an evolutionary accident a piece of genetic bad luck?
'It's also widely agreed that TMA ONE was planted on the Moon to keep track of the project experiment whatever it was and to report to Jupiter the obvious place for Solar System Mission Control. That's why another Monolith Big Brother was waiting there. Had been waiting four million years, when Discovery arrived. Agreed so far?'
'Yes; I've always thought that was the most plausible theory.'
'Now for the more speculative stuff. Bowman was apparently swallowed up by Big Brother, yet something of his personality seems to have survived. Twenty years after that encounter with Heywood Floyd in the second Jupiter expedition, they had another contact aboard Universe, when Floyd joined it for the 2061 rendezvous with Halley's Comet. At least, so he tells us in his memoirs though he was well over a hundred when he dictated them.'
'Could have been senile.'
'Not according to all the contemporary accounts! Also perhaps even more significant his grandson Chris had some equally weird experiences when Galaxy made its forced landing on Europa. And, of course, that's where the Monolith or a Monolith is, right now! Surrounded by Europans...'