A Simple Truth Read Online Free PDF Page B

to himself.  Perhaps he might not disappoint the cunning old fox after all.
    Perhaps he might even exceed his expectations.
     

 
    4     O ne G igahertz
     
     
    Geoff North stroked his chin pensively.
    "Everything OK ?" e nquired Sergio.
    "I don't know.  Try to find Jean for me would you?  I'd like her to check these figures."
    Sergio left the control room feeling a little annoyed.  It wasn't his job to act as messenger boy but as the newest arrival and youngest member of the team he frequently found himself in this role.  It was Dag Fransson's shift at the communication console and he looked up on hearing Sergio's question.
    "What's up Geoff?  Malfunction?"
    "No ... I don't think so ," he replied slowly, "but these co-ordinates are a bit unexpected if they are genuine."
    Since Lincoln's departure the Mendeleev staff had not been idle.  It was to be expected that one of Procyon's planets would be the true signal source so in response to a suggestion from Jean Forsyth the team set about finding its position.  Unfortunately the Big Ear could not locate the source precisely, but the number three instrument could.  It was an interferometer, a number of widely separated radio telescopes working together, and capable of pinpointing the source to within fi fty million kilometres of the star.
    They intended to plot its movement over a period of time to establish its orbit and gain some clues as to the surface temperature, light intensity and so on, and use these as a basis for predicting the main features of the aliens' world.
    "According to these figures the source is just under six seconds of arc distant from the star laterally , giving it a minimum distance of about three billion kilometres and probably a lot more ."
    Dag stretched out in his seat, placed his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.  This was his usual thinking position.  He was not an electronics expert or particularly conversant with the finer points of interferometry so he could not suggest any sources of error that Geoff himself would not already have considered.  Instead he mulled over the implications of its being a genuine reading.
    " Well let's see now, " he began, thinking aloud, " Procyon ' s a hotter star than the sun so the source planet is likely to be further out than the earth is from the sun, but t hat 's a very long way out indeed, especially as it's a double star system.  Not only would it get almost no heat or light from the star, i ts orbit would very likely be unstable .  Perhaps it's colonised, or maybe it's just a n orbiting transmitter."
    "Mm .. . mm ," muttered Geoff, deep in thought and not really listening.
    At that moment Jean Forsyth arrived, followed closely by Sergio.  She was given the story and immediately set about making a detailed system check.
    "I hope you get it sorted out soon, only five days to blackout remember ," remarked Sergio.
    They didn't need to be reminded.  The mystery star was hurtling towards the horizon with dismaying speed.
    "We'll s ort it out Sergio.  Don't worry," r eplied Jean sharply.  Sergio was beginning to realise that problems did not improve Jean's sense of humour or tolerance to flippancy.  He shot a glance of mock injury towards Dag who winked back knowingly.
    Three quarters of an hour later Jean declared the number three system sound.  "Right, l et's get some more measurements.  H ow much longer to the next transmission?"
    "About ten minutes ," replied Geoff checking his watch.
    She carried out the alignment, cut in the autoseeker , and announced that the system was ready.  Twelve minutes later the now familiar message rang out through the control room.  Within the first second the analysis computer had done its work and the readout presented the co-ordinates.
    "Hey, look at this ," gasped Geoff in surprise.  The others didn't immediately see the reason for his reaction so he passed the printout recorded earlier to Jean.  Dag and Sergio were still perplexed