Fisher could not keep his face from falling into lines of misery.
Wendel made a small sound and moved closer to him, placing an arm around his unresponsive shoulder. ‘Oh, my dear, you know the situation. You must face it.’
Fisher said in a choked voice, ‘I know. But they may have survived. Isn't that true?’
‘They may,’ said Wendel with a slightly synthetic lilt to her voice, ‘and if they have, so much the better for us. As you pointed out, it would then be easy to locate them through their radiational output. And more than that-’
‘Yes?’
‘Koropatsky wants us to bring back something that will prove we encountered Rotor, feeling that would be the best evidence that we had indeed been in deep space and returned, covering several light-years in, at most, a few months. Except- What exactly could we bring back that would be convincing? Suppose we find some drifting bits of metal or concrete. Not any bit will do. A lump of metal with nothing to identify it as Rotorian would be something we might well have taken with us. Even if we manage to find a piece that is characteristic of Rotor - some artifact that could only exist on a Settlement - it might be considered a fake.
‘If, however, Rotor were a working, living Settlement, we might be able to persuade some Rotorian to come back with us. A Rotorian can be identified as one. Fingerprints, retinal patterns, DNA analysis. There may even be people on other Settlements, or on Earth, who would be able to recognize the particular Rotorian we bring back. Koropatsky hinted heavily that we do this. He pointed out that Columbus, returning from his first voyage, brought Native Americans with him.
‘Of course’ - and Wendel sighed heavily as she went on - ‘there is a limit to how much we can bring back, animate or inanimate. Someday we may have starships as large as Settlements, but our first one is going to be a small and, by later standards, a primitive thing, I'm sure. We might be able to bring back one Rotorian; more than one would be more than we could handle, so we'll have to pick the right one.’
‘My daughter, Marlene,’ said Fisher.
‘She might not want to come. We can only take someone who's willing to return. There's bound to be one among the thousands, perhaps even a large number, but if she doesn't want to come-’
‘Marlene will be willing to come. You let me talk to her. Somehow I'll win her over.’
‘Her mother might not wish it.’
‘Somehow I'll talk her into it,’ said Fisher stubbornly. ‘Somehow I'll manage.’
Wendel sighed again. ‘I can't let you live with that thought, Crile. Don't you see that we can't take your daughter back, even if she is willing to come?’
‘Why not? Why not?’
‘She was one year old when she left. She has no memories of the Solar System. No-one in the Solar System could identify her. There are very unlikely to have been any records that could be checked independently elsewhere in the system. No, we would have to have some middle-aged person at the least, and one who has visited other Settlements or, better yet, Earth.’
She paused and then said tightly, ‘Your wife might be suitable. Didn't you once tell me that she took part of her education on Earth? There would be records and she would be identifiable. Though, to be honest, I would much rather take someone else.’
Fisher was silent.
Wendel said, almost timidly, ‘I'm sorry, Crile. It's not as I would wish it.’
And Fisher said bitterly, ‘Just let my Marlene be alive. We'll see what can be done.’
21. Brain Scan
‘I'm sorry,’ said Siever Genarr, looking down his long nose at mother and daughter with an expression that seemed to beg their pardon even without his words. ‘I had told Marlene that this job was not a very busy one and then almost immediately thereafter we had a kind of minicrisis with our power supply and I found I had to delay this conference of ours. The crisis is over, however, and wasn't much to begin with, now that we can view it in hindsight. Am I forgiven?’
‘Of course, Siever,’ said Eugenia Insigna. She was clearly restless. ‘I won't say it's been an easy three days, though. I feel that every hour we stay here increases Marlene's danger.’
Marlene said, ‘I don't fear Erythro at all, Uncle Siever.’
Insigna said, ‘And I don't think Pitt can do anything against us on Rotor. He knows that, or he wouldn't have sent us here.’
Genarr said, ‘And I will try to play the honest broker and satisfy you both. Whatever Pitt can or cannot do openly, there is a great deal he can do indirectly, so it's dangerous, Eugenia, for you to let your fear of Erythro lead you to underestimate Pitt's resolve and ingenuity. To begin with, if you return to Rotor, you will be doing so against his emergency ruling and he can imprison you or send you into exile on New Rotor or even send you back here.
‘As for Erythro, we don't dare underestimate the danger of the Plague either, even though it seems to have died out in its virulent early form. I am as reluctant to risk Marlene as you are, Eugenia.’
And Marlene whispered in exasperation, ‘There's no risk.’
Insigna said, ‘Siever, I don't think we should carry on this discussion of Marlene in her presence.’
‘You're wrong. I want to do it in her presence. I suspect that she knows better than either of us what she ought to do. She is the caretaker of that mind of hers and it is our job to interfere with her as little as possible.’
Insigna made an inarticulate sound in her throat, but Genarr went on, a quality of remorselessness entering his voice: ‘I want her in this discussion because I want her input. I want her opinion.’
Insigna said, ‘But you know her opinion. She wants to go out there, and you're saying that we must let her do what she wants to do because she is somehow magical.’
‘No-one said a word about magical, or about simply letting her go out. I would like to suggest we experiment, with all due precautions.’
‘In what way?’
‘To begin with, I would like a brain scan.’ He turned to Marlene. ‘Do you understand, Marlene, that that's necessary? Do you have any objections?’
Marlene frowned slightly. ‘I've had brain scans. Everyone has had brain scans. They don't let you start school without a brain scan. Any time you have a complete medical examination-’
‘I know,’ said Genarr gently. ‘I haven't completely wasted these last three days. I have here’ - and his hand came to rest on a stack of computer strips at the left end of his desk - ‘the computerization of every single brain scan you've ever had.’
‘But you're not telling everything, Uncle Siever,’ said Marlene calmly.
‘Ah,’ said Insigna with a touch of triumph. ‘What is he hiding, Marlene?’
‘He's a little nervous about me. He doesn't entirely believe my feeling that I'm safe. He's uncertain.’
Genarr said, ‘How can that be, Marlene? I feel quite certain about your safety.’
But Marlene said with a glow of sudden enlightenment, ‘I think that's why you waited three days, Uncle Siever. You argued yourself into being certain so that I wouldn't see your uncertainty. But it didn't work. I can still see it.’
Genarr said, ‘If that shows, Marlene, then it's only because I value you so highly that I find even the slightest risk unpleasant.’
Insigna said angrily, ‘If you find even the slightest risk unpleasant, how do you suppose I feel, as a mother? So in your uncertainty, you obtain brain scans, violating Marlene's medical privacy.’
‘I had to find out. And I did. They're insufficient.’
‘Insufficient in what way?’
‘In the early days of the Dome, when the Plague struck again and again, one of our concerns was to devise a more detailed brain scanner and a more efficiently programmed computer to interpret the data. This has never been transferred to Rotor. Pitt's exaggerated desire to hide the Plague led him to resist the sudden appearance of an improved brain scanner on Rotor. It might have given rise to inconvenient questions and rumors. Ridiculous, to my way of thinking, but in this, as in many other things, Pitt had his way. Therefore, Marlene, you have never been properly brain scanned and I want you to have one on our device.’