Star Trek: The Original Series - 082 - Federation Read Online Free PDF Page B

hands as if beseeching Cochrane. “I know what the oxygen percentage of the atmosphere is. But what did it taste like to breathe alien air? Do you think a man could live there and call it home?” Cochrane recalled the tang of that air: sere, dusty, but filled with the scent of life. After the fact, he knew he had been a fool to slip off his breathing mask even for the few minutes he had allowed himself. Computer analysis had shown the ecosystem of Centauri B II to be DNA-based with the same range of amino acids~more fuel for the fire of those who thought Earth and Mars had been deliberately seeded. There was no way of knowing vhat kind of bacteria and viruses he had exposed himself to with those lungfuls of air never before tasted by humans. But other than two days of sinus discomfort, and some stinging grit in the corners of his eyes, Cochrane had suffered no ill effects. Maybe he had been lucky. Or maybe humanity was meant to go to other worlds unencumbered.
    “Yes,” he told Brack, numbers and scanners aside. “No night for half the year, but it’s a place where people could live with no more hardship than desert equatorial regions on Earth.” “Good,” Brack said. He winked at Cochrane. “You remember the law of mediocrity?” Cochrane understood the law was a much misunderstood scientific principle, which translated to the lay public as “things are pretty much the same all over.” If chemistry behaved a certain way on Earth, then the law of mediocrity suggested that chemistry would behave the same way on a planet a thousand light-years distant, or on Earth a billion years in the past. Cochrane knew what Brack was getting at.
    “You’re thinking that if the first planet we visit in the first solar system we explore has an Earth-like planet, then the galaxy is filled with them.” Brack nodded. “And humans will be like dandelion seeds blown on the wind, filling them all.” Cochrane smiled at his friend’s grandiose dream. “You know how long it would take to establish even a single colony in another solar system—even with the superimpellor? You know how much it would cost?” Brack didn’t smile as he answered. “One billion Eurodollars.” He held up the fingers of one hand, the thumb folded in. “Four years.” Cochrane stared at Brack as the industrialist spread his arms to indicate everything around them. “Think of it, Zefram. A Christopher’s Landing-type colony. Fusion generators to begin.
    Solar and thermal in the second decade. Hospitals, libraries, self-building factories. Drone mines. Even an orbiting space platform for mapping, communication, and ship maintenance and repair. I’m assembling the modular components on the moon as we speak.” Cochrane was startled by the news, and by Brack’s audacity.
    “You were that certain I’d succeed?”
    ..lf you’ve been in business as long as I have, you learn how to pick winners.” Cochrane’s eyes narrowed. He wanted to ask exactly how long Brack/lad been in business, even though he knew from experience that that was another topic Brack didn’t like discussing. But there were other questions. “Why the hurry, Micah?” Brack thought about his answer, pursed his lips, stared up at the dome. but focused on something only his eyes could see. “In 1838, a British steamer, the Great bstern. crossed the Atlantic, Bristol to New York, in fifteen days.” He looked back at Cochrane. Cochrane shrugged. He didn’t see the point. “It was the first fully steam-powered vessel to make the crossing. Another ship arrived the same day, but it had taken nineteen days to cross from London. Now, the sailing clippers could make the crossing t’aster if the winds were right, but the Great Western moved independent of the winds and the weather. It was technology.
    Dependable. Repeatable. Fifteen days from London to New York.
    :\ trip that used to take months.” Cochrane waited. “I sense an analogy building.” Brack rubbed at his temple, as if he