No Early Birds: A Short Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

on my privacy, and that he was unduly confident I'd accept. It would have been better form to leave the drink and ask permission first, then go back for it if I granted him to visit.
    Nevertheless, he did stop well back and lift a finger like testing the wind to ask permission to approach and speak with me, as was the custom now.
    I granted his request with a nod and indicated the other end of the couch if he wish to join me. That wasn't a given and he moved a little table around and put his drink on it.
    "Aren't you Violet Collins?" he inquired.
    "I am," I readily agreed. I didn't have any reason to avoid being known. I had various times in the past. But it had been ages since I'd needed to avoid arrest or legal service. Indeed, I'd dropped the name and resumed it a few times.
    "My name is Gao Qiang," he offered politely. "We have not been introduced, but I was at a seminar on temporal issues about fifty years ago, right after I graduated traditional university. I was impressed with the certainty with which you spoke. I realize it isn't terribly polite to run veracity software on other's speech, but I assume you know it has become a common practice in the younger generation. It showed you believed what you reasoned out for the audience with deeper conviction than most of the other speakers. It left a lasting impression on me.
    "I casually inquired about your academic credentials, But I found a oddly eclectic list of classes you took in various arts and sciences. It had as much philosophy as hard science. And you taught almost as many course in the last couple centuries as you took. Are you going to observe the black hole for temporal anomalies, as I am, or for other phenomena?"
    "I'm interested in the time aspects," I agreed. "Although you didn't ask directly, I'll say my studies are mostly for my own curiosity. I wouldn't say that I've made them my life work. Neither am I interested in accumulating credits and honors from institutions or other authorities. A lot of my studies have been auditing, private tutoring or from institutions far enough in the past they no longer exist. I am quite interested in gaining knowledge."
    "Ah...You are older than I realized. Do you attribute your firm conviction to experience then?"
    "Yes, but from observing unique events which I won't make public. An anecdote is not a datum, and repeating unrelated unique events any number of times doesn't make them into data. When I have something repeatable, that won't paint me a fool to announce, then I'll be happy to tell everyone," I promised.
    "That seems like a wise course to me," Gao agreed. Then he showed surprising maturity by not prying for details or trying to make small talk, and retreated to his seat.
    * * *
    Violet found the station people were polite to her. Part of that was somebody looked up how much she contributed to the financial support of their work. They actually assigned one of the newer researchers to her for a day to guide her around, see to her needs, and help her navigate the local data system if she had any difficulty. She really didn't need anything but data access, but the woman was pleasant and her time block was assigned for the day, so Vi kept her.
    The volume of sensor data was far more than could reasonably carried by ship to a distant world. The computer Vi brought along to try to interpret the portions in which she was interested would have filled a city when she was a young woman. Even the young researcher was impressed when she realized just how expensive and powerful the little hockey puck was that Violet removed from her pocket.
    After a couple hours work she left the computer digesting the data and retreated to the station commissary with her guide to have a meal. The room was almost empty, and her guide had a very light snack, so she must be off the local shift hours.
    "Let me say what I believe your observations suggest in non-mathematical terms, and see if you agree," Vi suggested. "The way light travels from