He was on his way to see Calazar, at Calazar's request, and was fairly certain it was in connection with Showm. He had followed Hunt's dialogue with the probe while in a g-line conveying him through Thurios to the Government Center. That the meeting with Calazar was to be face-to-face rather than conducted virtually meant it was more than just casual or routine business. More than likely, Eesyan suspected, it had something to do with the semiannual convening of the Grand Assembly, a formal affair involving delegates not only from the Provinces of Thurien but the various dependency worlds and major off-planet habitat groupings as well, due to commence in two days time. Having known Calazar for as long as he had, Eesyan had been forming the impression for some time that Calazar had been saving something important that he intended to announce at the occasion.
Eesyan's guess was that it had to do with the proposal Showm had put to Calazar a while ago now, and brought up again at intervals since, to send a series of sophisticated reconnaissance probes back to Minerva as it existed before the Lunarian schism that led to the final, fatal war. She wanted to find out if the usual depiction of the Lunarians as a cooperative and progressive race up until that time was accurate, or just a popular myth. Supposedly, it would answer the question of whether Terran paranoia and violence were inherent parts of their nature or aberrations caused by their experiences, and therefore, conceivably, redressable. If the latter, then the Thurien policy, she argued, should be one of total commitment to compassion and working positively toward establishing Earth as a member of the galactic community, with no room for talk of shutting them off from it. "Total" commitment meant dismantling the containment option. The first time he heard this, Eesyan had been astonished. Frenua had always been one of the staunchest hard-liners.
The stream of Thurien figures that Eesyan was flowing with entered a labyrinth of ports, tunnels, and multifarious interconnecting spaces extending in all directions in the lower levels of the Center. Local gravity at any place came with the architecture, and individuals detached and merged and sped away above, below, and all around. Terrans were invariably lost in seconds. Eesyan diverted toward a shaft leading up into the main body of the building.
He was against the idea. For one thing, Frenua and the advocates she had rallied were underestimating the technical problems wildly-although this might be a difficult point to convince them of in view of the successes that had recently been achieved. Sending simple instrument packages obviously wouldn't tell them the kinds of things that Showm wanted to know. It would require accessing libraries and archives in the way VISAR had just demonstrated, and that in turn presupposed connecting into the communications system. But achieving that with a closely related version of Earth that was only six months old-and Eesyan was surprised that even that had worked-was a very different matter from doing something comparable with a Minerva of fifty thousand years ago. At least the style of technology, codes, access procedures and a whole host of other factors relating to Earth were familiar, even if some of the details differed-and resolving even those had been far from a trivial matter, even for VISAR. What they would be up against in the case of Minerva, they had absolutely no idea. Nothing about the Lunarian practices or conventions at that time was known. Thuriens were reluctant to use the word "impossible"-they had managed quite a few things in the end, in their own plodding way, that left Terrans speechless-but in this instance, Eesyan thought it came close.
But more than that, this was still basic research science into a whole new realm of physics. The focus for now should be on that. Treating it as a tool to acquire historical background information for formulating a political policy would be altogether premature in the present circumstances-and open to a lot of questioning on principle at the best of times. Even if Showm's sudden change of heart should be proved to be solidly based, and the early Lunarians were ascertained to have been peaceable, it didn't follow that the humans existing today were necessarily redeemable. Eesyan didn't think Calazar would be right to abolish the insurance that the containment option provided, and he wouldn't want to play a part in inducing him to do so. Some thought that the question as to how much was inherent in human nature has already been answered by the record of the Jevlenese-but their situation was complicated by the invasion of the Ents, and so in Eesyan's estimation it didn't count one way or the other.
And finally, as was the habit most Thuriens learned from an early age, he had tried to examine his own motives without prejudice. A large part of his attitude, he had to concede, sprang from the desire to keep Thurien science pure, the way he had been trained to, which meant exercising control. He didn't want to let it become a part of the carnival of sensationalism and celebrity that he had seen passed off as science on Earth. There were exceptions, to be sure-Hunt and his group were a notable example; were it not so, they wouldn't be here-but the extent that Eesyan had seen, both in current practice and the historical record, of evidence being blatantly manipulated to support preconceptions, or argument from theory determining what was permissible as fact, appalled him. How scientists could rationalize the defense of ideas that were demonstrably wrong in pursuit of personal gain and undue credit was beyond him. To Thuriens, science brought its own reward by adding to the understanding of reality. Publicity, fame, and accolades could only make a scientific theory popular. They couldn't make it true.
The shaft deposited him in an atrium area built around a tree growing up from the levels below, with crystal-walled galleries and corridors leading away to various halls and administrative offices. Calazar had arranged for them to meet in the chambers of the staff preparing for the Assembly, where he would be today, checking on the arrangements. An aide greeted Eesyan in the ante-room, exchanged pleasantries, and offered him refreshments, which was the customary courtesy. Eesyan declined, and the aide conducted him through to a small meeting room at the rear. As Eesyan had anticipated, Frenua Showm was there too.
"Porthik!" Calazar extended both hands-his usual ebullient self; even more so. Eesyan was at once on guard. "I trust the day finds you well."
"As much so as I find in the day. And yourself, Bryom?"
"Never better." Calazar paused while Eesyan bowed toward Showm.
"Too rare a pleasure."
"A shared one, I assure you."
"We saw the news from Quelsang," Calazar said. "Congratulations indeed, Porthik! A splendid success. And entertaining! If only more of science could be that way. Do you think we could arrange for me to talk to a different version of myself in another universe too… in some future test like that?"