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OCTOBER 1983 $2.50

SPECIAL FEATURING ANNIVERSARY JOHN GLENN COLLECTOR'S GERARD O'NEILL ISAAC ASIMOV \A»lii [•] JOHN UPDIKE ART BUCHWALD FRANK DRAKE ROBERT SILVERBERG TRACY KIDDER orvirui VOL. 6 NO. 1 OCTOBER 1983

EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EXECUTIVE EDITOR: DICK TERESI GRAPHICS DIRECTOR- l-RA,\< DEVINO ART DIRECTOR: ELZABE"- WOODSON

CONTENTS PAGE

EARTH Environment Douglas Starr -8

M:ND Behavior Tim Whitaker 20 BREAKTHROUGHS Technology Anthony Liversidge 26

EXPLORATIONS Travel Susan Lichtman 28

LIFE Biomedicine Peter Korn 30

ARCHITECTURE The Arts Vicki Lindner 34

BOOKS The Arts Tracy Kidder 38

THE BODY Health Albert Rosenfeld 44

.-.-: -:C al INTELLIGENCE Computers Peter J. Ognibene 46

CONTINUUM Data Bank 51 THE CONQUEST OF SPACE FIRST WORD Opinion Bob Guccione 6

KIDS IN ORBIT Space Barbara Rowes 22

THE RIGHT STUFF Film Mitch Tuchman 36

ZERO-G LAB Article Ben Bova 60

SPACE ARKS Article James E. Oberg 78

JOHN GLENN Inlerview Darnel S. Greenberg 126

CONQUEST OF SPACE Article Gerard K. O'Neill 158

THE FUTURE OF SETI Stars Frank D. Drake 206

MULTIPLES Fiction Robert Silverberg 72

PLANET SEEKER Article Leah Wallach 86

THE MANY FACES OF ADAM Pictorial Di-Maccio 100

AMAZING SUPERSTUFF Article Richard Wolkomir 108

BOROVSKY'S HOLLOW WOMAN Fiction Jefi Duniemann and 116 Nancy Kress

DURING THE JURASSIC Fiction John Updike 134

FLASHBACKS Pictorial Dava Sobel 140

THE ROBOTS OF DAWN Fiction Isaac Asimov 148

CARRION COMFORT, Part II Fiction Dan Simmons 166

ANTIMATTER -. UFOs, etc. 171

COMPETITION RESULTS Theories Scot Morris 210

GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 224

LAST WORD Humor Art Buchwald 226

PjdIics Michel Tcberevkotf is in the OMNI (ISSN 0149-S711)is sbyOim 9. POSTMASTER: Sen. vanguard of his profession as an advertising photographer, is-eiooO'.iNi is His mania tor perlection and his creative use of fantastic, images result in arresting, exotic photos.'this picture is US.AFO, anOCanac 'epreser-'ative of v/hat artist the BOO- 532-1272. The pl " calls his "bowl period.

A OMNI '' . :

determined to advance science, peace, .:!.; .:..: V and mlaliecfuai prosperity in cur weld

., ,..- !;: ,; . ! (i . cam swing a presidential eiectionl. This is

<": permanent manned space station a'facf the piesent admioislfafion might; ':

/naar Mure ! Licgq: dear m mind where, issues 6- such funda- :' .'. i : s : : indeed. This next e O! id technological

srepm American- i ii. space devolopmem. is' . an Amen'i an.sp ... • . I', i: ,. s .:. r. i. :„ alive are-concerned. since the: Soviet space oro^am .. : i in i been men produ:

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i ..: ' ' i! .; !, I.' col ! five il-an ir- the last decade; yet. five .

! ! : vears aoo, when weintroduded our first' id Spirited heyday. issues thoro were signs at double. NASA;:

Ar oft'!c=ai declaration . ot i ';. ! ":: supped-- .VI: . ) . end u i :^S

iViei ." .':.: . . she shuttle's n-.am engines repeatedly

! -' . . i, , ma! . .; ,!, a:led and its heat-shieid. hies leif. like

rsqjires -would oe adhin.c iribuiolo the auiumn leaves. After tlie- welf-intent.oned . in space agency this, "is- twenty : filth Asilomar Conference three years earlier. II would biotechnology was the ralih that moved us ;o crQaie'Om.m 'Ou-d'.rr.ris. thai neediessly ii'turded

live years. ago this month. ou: -hhibi-ed much valuable research.' '.'

'. ., Whi l iliori, so. which 'i '.,!.'. 'I :i ':!' ; ii il :

: ; graphic-beauty: lo g vo science and cgy. w as siili iioundedng inits infancy

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the- . FIRST ieor-nOiOgy copular voioeihey pad 'an ir!! , It ;.., fj is e

' and sirice 1978 : hewevsr suggest tim A;vm-

'.' '!!' unders.tai-.c ! the : : mii n! c lis i :...'"; be regaining i not and the qualify LJUDRD o! the scienrfic acid sharpening. :fs product ve edge. Such .,!,. philosophical . !' .., !! an! product: as in; unu By Bob Guccione the world we I've in. Add to cod a.i anc human -growth honrione are being entertainingly, wifheui fiio prohibitive produced inabundance by genet icaliy

; '-. ,. , !'.! '! !,.. I ,!,!. | .. wNo major new'space -I ! i engirieered baoiena. anc monoolona!

'- ' nor. io other sconce i.'iiuivvVss : venture has been undertaken |-;o;r; ;;e soon io nder : ? -H:hi- E O: i :',:.. hear" dice !Si since- the shuttle We knew, too. how to accomplish our And person

goal, how lo imb ' . ' :j ,1| ;! '..: program was begun. Now is wntors whose own Or . interests a: and exparided ef'iciency io oi:: dally work,, -.the ti'mefor-a -he frontiers of scier.ee. who conic routines as well as lo our thought ' ' : : -. -new'' commitment to space* unrave with fElfjst id ei thus i processes themselves. asm =he complexify of stapling new Only space development, perhaps the- id' am; who OiCij-'i so.m-H.nlcaie hat most universally visible oralHechnoscgt- .

' ";i .: i !: other; cai Ponsler;,. nas fa!;en bohinc. Whereas. probing interviews wd.h the premier we may hove seen wondrous pictures

' researchers emu v simian e-s cf oli cay. ol Saturn a:id Jupiter, and althrouigfi riie

In: . e le ; nest ir; ar! and science space shuttle has now proved itself

' capatvc of h'^ng- ocmi-eruiai setelliies '. ' ,C. Clarke erne- James Micnene- Reno into orbih these triumphs are the worK rviagnite and Ware ;;' Chagall— decause in p'oduct I

1 .'Ullf...!/,! i! ,il o' ! ' !:.' !'. ..,. .:'! v OVv i art and science one inds tinman muths undertaken since the shuttle program

thai ordinary journalism :s p-owe-less- was oegnn. It is timo long past time- to express And in the iMs'the tor coiivoifmeid end : a new to space

:;., ., ,. . '-Q- i :..!, dynam hg ,i 3 oriel moment wo hoped that the humamty dial really 'nailers. commitment would be made on Jufy- Not' at" all to so/prise -," '962 " !:' our heweve- a wl"ii i !. i : eeieb'ated the return of ;ne shLitfio-.- coulci Omn; novo; survive. Scenes. Went Columbia from its fma: 'est flight by the ur-versal declaralion. was rul speaking pi '"esfaPiishlng a mci-e per ma- .! 'commercla" enough to Supper: i , a in , „ :.; ;,. : no, major consumer magazine: -m acsior: has followed the Presidents '.' This. Of?" wfj'.js do'l.ierori over one year ago:

proves otherwise. Having mere, man '. Administrator Now Beggs believes that' :

5 million re 1- ' ,•: u: II at last be made,

n >.. le-1 endorses e tha sci: ii -reslder" Reagan, ho thinks, will finally

. ' be as ling a: e; ' e-i ie-r- restore a'Hilhblown American program of ! . ! :;:• i si . deu- space development:-- a program that

' ..,. ' Ship I",., n , . ; ., ,., .mi;-! scientifically, mildaniy, economically, and. .

readi r's a if . in t; y represent course of human history Five rnifNon 'the most orolilabie inyestment of American',

; intelligent- . '-eaders : e res*. j r pes ever undertaken.

' qua! :y ' m,d the U :. it'is id'tho:

.. . can beeo ,i cy this anniversary issue.QO-

''...' : ^ : r" DNTRIBUTOK DrmruiBU!

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from Robots of Dawn, Isaac the postwar euphoria of the Fifties, O'Neill unveils a cost-effec"A'e plan for excerpt The begins on page 148, Invisionaries expounded endlessly about building factories in space. In "Space Asimov's new novel, conquering space. But the fulure they Arks for the 21 st Century" (page 78), In "Multiples" (page 72), Robert Silver- plight of a painted was a sketchy one, an outline not James E. Oberg. a NASA specialist in berg describes the young lives in society where yet colored in by reality. Magazines of orbital rendezvous, describes the next woman who a personalities at will. the time displayed fantastic cone-shaped generation ot spaceships. And in "Zero- people can split their editorial part of "Carrion Comfort," rockets—with gargantuan tail fins— G Lab" (page 60), former Omni The second begins aiswit.QwaK'i*® W-us sfej.Tba "casvals" director Ben Bova details the future of a novelette by Dan Simmons, Kress Jeff of Mars seemed within reach. Spacelab 1, the manned scientific on page 156. And Nancy and present a moving high-tech Today, as this fifth-anniversary issue of laboratory that is scheduled to ride the Duntemann Hollow Omni proves, we have more than blue- space shuttle Columbia into orbit this fall. story, "Borovsky's Woman," beginning 116. sky dreams and fantasies. We have You'll also hear what it would be like on page Omni's preliminary blueprints for the ships of to have a space activist in the White Also in this issue, Frank Kendig, first executive editor, reviews the state exploration. And so this issue's theme— House . . . from none other than presi- of science journalism (page 51). Freelance the conquest of space— is no space dential candidate Senator John Glenn (D- research. cadet's fantasy but a hard-nosed vision Ohio). The former astronaut is the subject writer Dava Sobel updates the since of what we can do with the technology of this month's Interview (page 126). Omni has covered 1978 (page within our grasp. The writers and experts Our fifth-anniversary issue also offers 140). America's foremost humorist, Art on a who have contributed to this special some very special fiction. "During the Buchwaid, reports in Last Word Tracy Kidder. issue have one thing in common: They Jurassic" (page 134) is a charming tantasy strange UFO incident. And know we can reach the stars. from John Updike, America's chief chron- Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul profiles an exciting In "Conquest of Space" (page 158), icler of the cocktail party. At this affair, of a New Machine, Princeton University physicist Gerard K. however, all the guests are dinosaurs. An new science writer (page 38). DQ

10 OMNI Dnnrui _L H ATHY KEETON m OMNI PUB LICATlGNS INTERNAT THE CORPORATION conjirviunjicMTiDnjs ^ Keelort (pjes/oen Anthony .bL EDITORIAL EtJilorinChiei Guccione; Execul Teresi; Manaa

Pamela We- A Touching Future detailed. Merely substitute the aroma of

£,*«*. Boot- .. I would like to offer a positive note for the certain controlled drugs for the explosive future that Barbara Rowes described in vapors during the described conditioning her article "Techno-Kids" [May 1983]. process. Use of the rat patrol will be Rowes made no mention whatever of simplicity itself: Just let them run free in a something that such trend analysts as secured customs area where suspects John Naisbitt have observed for several are temporarily confined. One look at 3W Yoi years, namely that paralleling the high- a hoard of onrushing rodents, squeaking 23-5965 Tel (2)2)496 tech evolution of our society is a trend that hilariously as their pleasure centers Jon, 2 Brambe Roat is being referred to transmit increasing pulses of impending 14 9PS as "high-touch." i5-6181,TBle Our society is increasingly conscious of ecstasy, will be enough to unhinge even ART diet, physical fitness, human needs, the most seasoned drug runner.

DeVino and persona! interaction F. W. Chesson

Ass! r" i D,,-«:i Rowes painted a bleak future for the Waterbury, CT H Chan; Art rid fhoi 1 - Pnoto Edi Technology Age. I am inclined to believe

: Assc that our future promises extraordinary Bull Talk ohn Mulh; A growth in human potentials to balance the In response to the article "Seeing Red," man; Art Ass rapid changes in technology. by Eric Mishara [Continuum, July 1983], ADMINISTRATION

J. L Morgan I am surprised that a magazine of the Bloomington, MN scientific stature of Omni continues to perpetuate a myth. Bulls do not charge at

And Now for Something Completely a red cape because it is red. Bulls, like Differenl all bovines, are color-blind. They see only

I would like to comment on Ted Mann's in shades of black, white, and gray. The

Last Word, which appeared in the March reason a bull charges at a red cape is 1983 Omni. The answer to his search because of the movement of the cape. By for a replacement for the late "Gerbil the time a matador faces a bull, the

Gang" of dope-detecting animals is animal has been leased into a state of

contained elsewhere in the same issue, rage by the picadors. They run at it,

as I'm sure other readers noted. shout, wave their arms, and prick it with But first a word in defense of the intelli- sword points. Any old Kansas farm girl, ADVERTISING gence of the tortoise. The common wood like me, can attest to the fact that

turtle, or tortoise, of England ranks when a bull is it will at dale; V.PIDite New enraged charge N.Y. Mgi.: L high on the roster of reptilian reason. This anything that moves, including a cape iron Scot!; Mil was determined by one Dr. Tinkepaugh, being flapped in its face. f'.Rogei McCi who studied the maze-learning ability Donna Mansell of the wood turtle (Clemmys insculpta) Kansas City, KS and concluded that the creature ranked

right up there with the rat, which is usually Correction accorded high marks on the rodent-I.Q. In the article "UFO Update" [Antimatter,

scale. Only in the time-factor tests was the May 1983] I am quoted as saying that the

scurrying Rattus rattus superior. I once Rev. Harrison E. Bailey's photographs

owned a wood turtle, named Torby, "showed no trace of a hoax." This is Road East, westpon, Ci. 06B80, T that was quick to learn to crawl out of the incorrect. What I actually said was, 'South, 1707 H St.. N.W.. Washinqli 20006, Ti backyard goldfish pool and accept "Enlarged examination trace of (202) 298-6050; Wesf- shows no Angeles, Calif. 90024, Tel. (213) 624- finger-held goodies, including such any extraneous marking-effects damage

9831 ; U.K. S Europe, 2 Bramber Road. London W14 delicacies as meatloaf and strawberries. or alteration to the images," which is 9P8, England, Tel. (01) 385-6181, Teles No. 919865 But enough of this, and back to the a very different thing. FOREIGN EDITIONS problem at hand. The solution sought by Cyril Permutt St-. V.R-IForeign Editions: John Evans; Japan: Obun- Mann has already been mentioned in Director sha Company: Ltd., '55 Yokodera-Cho. Shinjuku-Ku, - Tokyo 162 my previous paragraph; it is the rat. In the Bureau for the Investigation OCTOBER Confinuum section of the March issue of Paranormal Photographs the training of the "Rat Patrol" is fully London, England DO FDRUfUl

In which the readers, editors, and Look Again problems in the space program. Some correspondents discuss theories and The suggestion made by professor Robert of my statements, used as counterpoints speculation arising out of Omni. Readers Lee to blind all criminals as a form of to Hans Mark, were either taken out of are encouraged to debate views and punishmeni and/or 'ehabili'ation in context or juxtaposed incorrectly.

pose questions to Omni, the scientific "Visionary Punishment" [Antimatter, July First, it is no longer true that the Reagan community, and the science-fiction 1983] is outrageous and insulting. As Administration "has been nothing but

establishment. I The opinions published a blind person, thought I had heard all negative." It was, but as a result of

are not necessarily those of the editors. the misconceptions about blindness education and, I believe, perception of

and blind people, but this one takes the public interest, it has become more

AIDS and Morality cake. There are so many false implications positive, if not enthusiastic, for some Baruj Benacerrai [Interview, July 1983] behind this suggestion, and the results exploration initiatives. Administration has brought breath a of fresh air to the could be so damaging that. I felt it could officials have proposed the important emotion-muggy AIDS debate. As a family- not go unanswered. Venus Rada' Vlaopmg mission as a new loving, nonpromiscuous, quasi-religious First, the sugges! or implies that by start, have spoken favorab y of the Solar gay man, I'm particuiarly irritated by blinding criminals, either temporarily or System Exploration Committee (SSEC) the current spate of articles linking AIDS permanently, they would no longer be report which calls for a core program of with God's punishment of homosexual able to commit a crime and, if they did, approximately eight planetary missions "perversion." I'm also angry as hell that could be easily apprehended. This would in ten years —and have also issued it's taken the spread of the disease into appear logical, because the public has statements in favor of a steady, active the heterosexual segment of our popula- the misconception that blind people space-science program. tion fo elicit any concern at all from the cannot do much of anything, let alone The second point of disagreement is community at large. commit crimes or with them. Well, get away that I do not feel the shuttle is too expen-

I would like to thank Benacerraf for blind people do commit crimes and get sive to use for science. The shuttle is treating the problem as a medical,, and away with them as well. fine; its planning was a disaster. A more not a moral, one. Second, the suggestion leaves the orderly development, with expendable Rand Lee reader with the impression that if such a launch vehicles would have been better

" Key West. FL policy were implemented, fewer crimes for science, exploration, and all of NASA.

would be committed. Why would this be? The suggestion thai Mark is for the Sex Wars The public fears blindness, and it has really big "breakthrough" missions of So the battle of the sexes rages on, even been shown in national that the surveys space exploration, while I am for the in the of pages Omni. I read the letters loss of one's eyesight is thought to be the modest ones, is ludicrous. Mark's citing in Forum [April 1983] expressing female worst thing that could happen to a of the Mars Sample Return is obfuscation. amusement and anger over slights to person short of dying. This is because An excellent sample-return mission could. the "fairer sex," and the letter filled with blindness has always been pictured initiated if , be tomorrow NASA wanted male at the that outrage presumption as something frightening and terrible. to propose it. NASA hasn't even supported could ever women aspire to be as great Blindness is not frightening or terrible. It an advanced missions-study program as men. I have to admit to being amused, can be reduced to the level of a simple for a Mars mission in four years. Bova is a little saddened, and very much nuisance if the individual has good training correct in quoting my statement that dismayed at the self-righteous arguments and a positive attitude about himself. A we need modest but scientifically neces- from both camps. blind person can live as full and mean- sary missions of the SSEC core program. Okay, there so have been,slights, ingful a life as his sighted neighbors. If Mark sees no "advantage" to these, I" mistakes, and insults on both sides. But Finally, if such a suggestion were can introduce him to 1.000 scientists and isn't it time to suspend these hostilities? undertaken, the- public would begin to 100,000 members of the Planetary Intelligent people have come to the view all blind people as criminals. We do Society who do. Bova is wrong in conclusion that war is an unreasonable not need another negative stereotype suggesting that I'm against more ambitious alternative. Isn't it possible that figurative hung around our necks. projects. I emphatically urge this nation war is just as senseless? Are Omni David Robinson to undertake greater missions of explora- readers, who claim higher intelligence, Omaha tion now that will serve as landmarks intelligent enough to begin a motion for our society in the future. for peace between the sexes? It seems A Modest Proposal Louis Friedman about time -to stop this nonsense. Ben Bova's.article [Space, June 1983] Executive Director Marquita Cook quoted me accurately enough but left the The Planetary Society Danville, VA wrong impression about some of the Pasadena, CAOO 14 OMNI —

BEF THREAT EARTH By Douglas Starr

assignment was a science emigrating to Israel. He was working for says Volfson. Moreover, the equipment The Visit the Israeli environmental ministry at the includes leaky, primitive pipes with manual reporter's dream: the top environmental labs, learn as time when, reading about Western valves rather than the automatic-shutoff much as possible about the nation's Europe's support for the Siberian gas models used in Alaska today. Volfson pollution problems, and come up with pipeline, he saw that no mention was writes that one oil leak ran for 12 days into some solutions. Months later, after travel- made of environmental threats. And so the once-pristine Siberian Ob river ing thousands of miles and interviewing now, drawing on his past research as before technicians contained it with float- hundreds of scientists, laypeople, and well as volumes of scientific papers ing barriers. And he cites a Soviet study officials, Zev Volfson had his story, an smuggled from the Soviet Union, he has showing that 2 million to 4 million tons of I expose ot government blindness and released another body of work. oil per year were lost to Siberian stupidity. Unfortunately, that's where his This recent series of articles, which marshes," rivers, and lakes. "The project problems began: Volfson worked identify Volfson as ihe infamous Komarov, is exacting a heavy toll on the Siberian at the government television station describe the pipeline as a catastrophe environment," he concludes. "The in the Soviet Union. in the making. That catastrophe begins, government is willing to exploit Siberia's "They would only let me use ten to he says, with the geologists, who drive. oil and gas at any cost." military thai fifteen percent of what I had gathered," across the .fragile permafrost in Yet damage pales beside a problem recalls Volfson. And so, while presenting vehicles. They leave "thousands of miles Volfson says could reach far beyond the "sanitized," optimistic version of his of tundra split by straight yellow stripes," Soviet borders, creating significant report tor Soviet public TV, he quietly which soon erode into ugly, jagged damage throughout Europe and Asia. wrote under the pseudonym of Boris ravines. Then come the shoddy The problem involves a climatic phenom- Komarov about what he had really seen. construction camps, where raw sewage enon called the albedo effect, which For six months he labored in his pollutes the ground while flaring gas occurs when the earth's surface reflects Moscow apartment, then gave copies to blackens the sky. Whole forests are de- excess sunlight, making the ground two or three friends. Friends gave copies stroyed as heavy-equipment operators increasingly cold. The more dark to other friends, and within a year a make way for the pipes. "It's practically surfaces — like brush, cropland, or trees copy had been smuggled to West impossible to reforest the land once that are destroyed, the theory goes, the

Germany, where it was published in forests on the permafrost are destroyed," more land area there is that reflects German and Russian. Finally in 1980. light and heat. The result is a decrease in three years after Volfson had written it, The the area's temperature. If enough vegeta- Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union tion is destroyed, some scientists claim, was published in the United States. temperatures might plummet The book startled American research- around the world. ers; Never had environmental problems According to Volfson, that's just what in the-Soviet Union been portrayed, in will happen if the Russians continue such a sweepingway. Komarov described to build the pipeline. Each year Soviet the city of Lertingorsk, for example, engineers cut about 150 square miles of whose residents breathed air tainted by Siberian forest to lay pipes and roads 440 times the USSR's national standard for over vast stretches of swamp. The practice lead. He wrote about the once-thriving removes large areas of heat-absorbing Sea of Azov, now a "latrine ... for the vegetation, opens the region to winds, industrial south," And he wrote about the and increases the reflectivity of the now- chemical slag heaps covering an area barren ground. The process, says the size of "1.7 Belgiums." Volfson, may trigger a feedback loop The book, frequently compared with similar to those thai triggered Ihe ice ages Silent Spring, presented a tantalizing tens of thousands of years ago. It could puzzle: Who could have written this even spawn a new Siberian ice sheet insider's account, and who had access and throw a crop-killing chill over Europe to such widespread confidential informa- as well. As proof he cites a Soviet study tion? Surely it must have been a dissi- indicating a half-degree chilling over dent ministry official. at least 200,000 square miles in Siberia- That mystery would have remained the first sign, he says, of global disaster. unsolved if not for some news/reports "This generation of Europeans and

Volfson read last year, after quietly Siberian pipeline: an ecologi succeeding generations," he warns, "will I

J8 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 107 :AU- IOLOGY ruiiruD By Tim Whitaker

^^ ^^k aybe the possibility of most crucia see al exchange? What with one another in the off-Earth environ- ! I encountering extraterrestrials would alien society be like? How would ment; the constitution of nonhuman I U I no longer strikes you as a we react to the extraordinary challenge intelligent societes. or defining what alien bizarre fantasy. Maybe you are comfort- "they" would present us by their very cultures might be like; and the ramifica- able with the idea that other beings inhabit existence, confirmed at last? tions of human contact with extraterrestri- other worlds— if not in our solar system, These questions are not just idle als, or how to handle public reaction then somewhere in the galaxy. But have musings but' the core of a' new discipline to an actual encounter. you really considered whai confact with called exosociology. It is a small field, Professional response to Yinger's call these creatures might be like? unpopular in the extreme, even though it for action was limited and guarded at I'm not talking about contact as radio has as its center of interest the social first. "Most sociologists have a negative astronomers have defined it: long-disiance aspects ol life in space: from human view of space exploration in general," communications with orders of intelli- contact with extraterrestrial societies to explains Alan Hill, of Furman University. gence that live impossibly far away. That the experience of living in space- in South Carolina. "They know we ought to brand of encounter entails no awkward In 1974. some ten years after Carl think systematically about space devel- confrontations, jus! radio transmissions Sagan anci others had established opment, but they don't want their profes- traversing ihe light-years. exqbiology as a legii'^ate f eld of space sion to get its hands dirty."

Nor do I mean contact as exobiologisis science, sociologist Richard E. Yinger, Even so, the Seventies saw enough see it; first collecting organisms from of Palm Beach Junior College, in Florida, activity in exosociology— research, another world and subsequently enacting introduced the term exosociology. "It symposia, presentations — to prove that carefully enforced quarantine measures, we were going to study life in space," the field's exponents had an important lest one life form inadvertently infect. Yinger says matter-of-factly, "then it contribution to make. Darlene Thomas, for infest, or destroy Ihe other. made sense that we would study society example, an anthropologist who was

I have in mind true social contact. in space." In his definition of this new then affiliated with Lock Haven State Earihling meets exfatenestr al not in a science, Yinger included three subdis- College, in Pennsylvania, conducted War of the Worlds scenario but as envoys ciplines: the social aspects of human classroom experiments to assess the of peaceable states. Who would we space exploration and colonization, or emotional reaction to extraterrestrial choose to be our ambassador in this understanding how people would interact contact. She asked her students to create "space creatures"— to describe their biological and psychological makeups. Then she arranged a sequence of simulated contact situations, with some pupils playing the creatures, so the students could test their reactions to the situation. Ominously, by the third simulated contact Ihe students deemed the space creatures to be hostile. In fear, they fired at them with "zap guns." This kind of antag-

onism is precisely what the science of exosociology seeks to avoid.

Hill credits science-fiction writers with having mace the best attempts to date 1 to conceive of societies made up of intelligent creatures that have natures different from our own. "Bui," says Hill, "science-fiction writers for the most part are not sociologists and usually do not attempt to explore systematically the consequences of human constants becoming variables when other intelligent societies are encountered." In other words, anthropologists vis ting human societ es for ihe first time are at least

, What do you say alter you say !'i-:ii'- rx!>:ioc"yogws assured of a few familiar elements: 30 OMNI By Barbara Rowes

could make to space exploration, NASA mass and muscle strength, and even Someday it could be the ultimate class trip. With little lunch pails is not yet ready to lift off the recent possibly cessation of bone formation," in hand and parental permis- graduates of Sesame Street. "Eventually observes Dr. Goldwater. sions reluctantly signed, five-year-old kids are bound to go," O'Donnell pre- For brief space trips. Goldwater says, future astronauts would actually ride the dicts, "but I don't think you'll see a five- "children should adapt quickly to new action course of the space shuttle Chal- year-old up there flying solo for at least environments such as weightlessness. lenger for a first-grade space Odyssey. the next one hundred years." And at least from a neurological per- "Since there are only seven seats aboard Still, at Ames, space scientists are spective they should be able to resdapi the shuttle and a couple of astronauts slowly gearing up for the children's flights quickly to Earth after a shuttle flight." and mission specialists are bound to go of tomorrow. A first major step in this Bui not every child watching the reruns along, we couldn't fly a whole first-grade direction has been taken by research of Star Trek will be eligible to follow the class," says William O'Donnell, spokes- scientist Emily Morey-Holton, who has in- footsteps of Captain Kirk into space, man for the National Aeronautics vestigated the effects of weightlessness "We're going to interview potential candi- and Space Administration. "I guess we'd on the bone formation of young rats. Zero dates to make sure they are mature have to carry one kid at a time." g is potentially dangerous for immature enough," O'Donnell promises. "You will Since June 21, when a NASA advisory animals, because weightlessness might have to undergo psychological or mental council recommended sending civil- disrupt growth patterns, she says. testing whether you are a kid or not. ians—-including educators — into space, "We don't really know the effect on We don't want to take anybody along who at least one key issue has remained young human beings, since we haven't will get too excited under stress." unresolved. Will the United States be the done spaceflight simulations on children According to Sharp, a psychologist, first to shoot kids into orbit? Well, muses yet," observes Dr. Danielle Goldwaier, some children four and live years old O'Donnell, "we haven't said we're not NASA physician. On missions of long appear to be born astronauts. "They are taking kids. We've not set any age limits." duration there is some evidence raising naturally cool in crisis, sensitive to new Far away in Mountain View, California, at concern about the sustained health of experiences, and capable of integrating NASA's Ames Research Center, at least the young. "Long-term exposure to their strange encounters in a dynamic

one key visionary in the space agency weightlessness might lead to a decrease context. And I think we will be able has long been dreaming of flying kids in in cardiac output, decrease in muscle to identify these children out of a class- space. It isn't a Steven Spielberg-style room. It is like discovering young Arthur fantasy or the framework for a great new Clarkes." In fact, many kids of this breed video game, but a creative approach are already rising to the surface. to exploration by one of NASAs most imag- Over the years, kids have written inative administrators. "The idea is to thousands of letters to NASA. The majority start them off very young in space and want only the kid stuff— photographs maybe twenty years later send them and printed information. "But a few have up again," projects Joseph Sharp, deputy really impressed me," admits Sharp, director of life sciences at Ames. "If who is notoriously cool himself. "They you actually launch a four- or five-year- have written again and again over the old aboard the space shuttle and tell him years asking probing questions and of- I there's a good chance he will be going fering suggestions that reflect an intense up when he gets older, you will create the involvement in the space program." time and inspiration to develop sensitive -Children aren't the only crusaders for perceptions and a more meaningful putting children in orbit. A young mother understanding of the world. By nature, from Palo Alto, California, recently wrote kids are inquisitive and receptive to new NASA: "I have a three-year-old son experiences. They may come up with who is determined to become an astro-

refreshing insights more worldly adults naut. . . . What I would like to find out have- never even thought oi. To discover is what information or material you have totally the human dimensions of space, we- available for grammar-school children need to fly not only people at the age of and what activities you have available for thirty-five but the little people of this kids at your center. planet at the age of five." "I realize three sounds awfully young,

While Sharp has long been convinced but I am planning ahead to the day of the invaluable contribution children when kids blast off." So is NASA. DO. 22 OMNI — —

MILKIN BREAKTHRDUEH5 By Anthony Liversidge

will conned some 54 buildings Pick up a home videophone, call standard microwave network can carry. Synapz two-way to an Arab business- Yet, Gruenberg claims his microwaves on two sites, eventually replacing an man trekking across the Sahara, can accommodate as much complex aging underground cable system and and send him a printout of the latest information— computer data, voice and opening up two-way mobile communica- stock prices or sales projections. video signals— as cable. And Synapz will tions over the dozens of acres at the 1,000 times less than existing Sunnyvale, California, plant. In a joint It'll be possible soon if the prototypes use power of a new communications system patented microwave systems, he says. project with Telescan, a Canadian by an ex-IBM engineer work as he Gruenberg's idea for milking greater company, Broadcom is also building a in southern predicts. And in the near term, the system use from microwave frequencies depends TV installation to serve an area developed by sixty-five-year-old Elliot on setting up electromagnetic resonance Ontario. Investors have already put some I Gruenberg could replace much of between senders and receivers. The $600,000 into Broadcom, betting that the tangle of newly installed two-way principle is at work when a soprano sings Synapz will connect them to future profits. TV cables with a single clean, neat a note matching the natural resonating NEW PRODUCTS new microwave network. frequency of crystal, which quivers in Microwaves — radio waves with response. Operating in the microwave A new watch from Seiko Time Corpora- speech-synthesis chip comparatively short wavelengths— are range, roughly 1 billion cycles per second, tion contains a currently in wide use, for example, for Gruenberg's components resonate to to store and play back a message up to relaying telephone calls or data commu- transmitted signals —and send back eight seconds long. What's the point? nications with satellites. But Gruenberg's' signals of their own, forming a powerful Now you can tell your watch to tell you system, code-named Synapz. has and narrow connecting beam. The central phone numbers, addresses of appoint- several advantages over existing micro- antenna, or "node," automatically ments, or other useful— albeit terse watch also includes a wave links, he claims. It will allow as switches from one subscriber to another. information. The many as 3.000 users in any small area to The company Gruenberg heads, regular alarm function. Keeps time, too. I operate on virtually the same frequency, Broadcom, is currently installing a proto- ($195, from Seiko Time Corporation, instead of having to use different type of the system for Wesiinghouse's 640 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10019.) frequencies, as existing systems do. marine division, which makes ships' That's up to 120 times more users than a propulsion units and other large gear. Nissan Motors, maker of the popular Datsun car, has just introduced what

it claims are the world's first rain-detecting windshield wipers. The trick: A sensor attached to the engine hood reacts to the

first drop of rain by sending an electrical

jolt to the windshield-wiper motor. ($37, without installation, from Nissan Motor Company, Ltd., 17-1 Ginza " 6-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.)

Someday, tiny, cheap dish antennas may be sprouting from rooftops around the world, receiving signals directly from a new generation of supersatellites. But in the meantime Regency Electronics has

come up with a small — it not miniature

dish that it says performs as well as today's 12-foot models. Invented by Howard Taylor, of Stanford University, the 90-inch dish has a deep design engineered to maximize the reception of signals transmitted on the C-band frequency broadcast by current-day satellites. ($1,495, from Regency Electronics, Inc.. 7707 Records Street, wo-way telephone, computer, or TV links. Indianapolis, IN 46226. )DCI NEWZEAIAND'S RING OF FIRE EXPLORMTIOrUS By Susan Lichtman

pierced sever geyse's. The most Steam rises from (he Rotorua call il) your first s:op. This Ihermal reserve, is by countryside like milky vapors which is owned by New Zealand's famous is Pohutu (the Maori word for big punctuating the region's rolling native Maoris, boasts more than 500 splash or explosion), which shoots water to violently 15 to 30 meters skyward for periods green hills and valleys, it is a site both springs, which vary from cold breathiakingly beautiful and eerie once boiling .caldrons. Some are crystal clear; of 20 minutes to three hours. Nestled in traditional Maori one realizes these white clouds emanate others plop with seething mud. Much of this visual paradise is a not from a local paper mill but from the Ihe water, particularly that discharged village, where natives can be seen bathing, and cleaning in the ground itself, which is still wrenching by geysers, contains a high silica cooking, They're not from a series of volcanic explosions that content, which builds up large limitless supply of hot water. took place 100,000 years ago. multicolored cones and terraces. the only ones who take advantage of the thermal reserve, however. Local hotels The Rotorua district, on New Zealand's Geysers, the number-one attraction at nature's turnace to provide North Island, is situated along a volcanic Whaka, are the result of groundwater have lapped central heating for their fault line that runs 150 miles, from Mounl that percolates down lo meet molten rock hot water and Rotorua attracts visitors trom Ruapehu north to White Island, in the Bay- lying in pockets beneath the basin. guests. And

it the to the waters of Plenty. Billed as New Zealand's "Ring When water hits this magma, becomes around globe who take Never mind of Fire," most would agree that this is superheated, and together with hot tor therapeutic reasons. Ihe of rotten eggs that the world's premier holbed of thermal gases it escapes to Ihe surface. Geyser pungent odor city. You'll get to it activity. North Island's vast geothermal behavior is. affected mainly by the supply pervades the used in local fields consisi of oozing, bubbling, spouting ot heat and the level of the water table. once you've soaked the spas' sulfur pools, which lakes of sleam sel against a backdrop But it's also determined by barometric soothing radium and natural springs. of lush, rugged terrain, Yet these unbridled pressure, wind, air temperature, deposition are all fed by nearby however, forces of nature are valued not merely of silica, and occasional earth There is nothing soothing, Tikitere, 16 for their beauty. movements. All Ihese components change about a thermal reserve With an eye toward future energy with time, which explains the ever-rnutat- kilometers north of Rotorua. This volcanic needs, petro-poor Kiwis aren't about to .ing behavior patterns of the geyser. area, also known as Hell's Gate, takes Flat, its from an old Maori legend. let this vital resource evaporate in a Whaka plays host to Geyser a name cloud of steam. The Wairakei power green, yellow, and white silica terrace that Overcome by domestic strife, Maori herself station, which was designed to harness princess Huritini reputedly threw raw geothermal energy, supplies both into one of the boiling pools rather than wrath. North arid South Island with 192 endure her husband's She was

mother, cried out, I megawatts of electricity. discovered by her who tere tiki." or "Alas, here Although it's been only in this century "Aue, e nei taku that geothermal reserves have been floats forever my precious one." The transformed into a practical source of name Tikitere is derived from this phrase.

. of power, interest in nature's own steam and Tikitere resembles the Badlands of hot water has roots deep in the fossil South Dakota. It is not pretty. Clouds record. Paleontologists hypothesize that steam rise from "The Inferno," a black, of water that bubbles arthritic dinosaurs eased themselves graphite-laden body 3° boiling. There is no inlo warm-water springs to soothe their fiercely, C above white aches. And long before mankind hit upon greenery to soften the crags of the civilized notion of cooking or the pumice deposited here 40,000 years ago despite the mastery of fire, boiling water trom the by a raging avalanche. And waterfall in the earth was used to soften roots and presence of the only hot Tikitere is a vegetables for ealing. In the written record, Southern Hemisphere, ot use of geothermal water for its reputed desolate wasteland. A stark reminder therapeulic and medicinal benefits dates how cruel Mother Nature can be. Valley, just back to the ancient Greeks. Later, battle- The Waimangu Thermal a is heavenly weary Roman legions built bathhouses 45-minute drive from Tikitere, around hot^springs. compared with Hell's Gate. It looks like bearing as its The city of Rotorua, located at the . a tropical rain forest, rainbow. southern tip of Lake Rotorua, is consid- welcome mat all the colors of the ered the gateway to geyserland: with The Waimangu Thermal Valley was in Mount Tarawera Whakarewarewa (or Whaka, as the locals t: a hotbed oi thermal activity. created 1886 when 28 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 164 IRRORSOFTHEWOMB

By Peter Korn

J^^k sudden, awful clarity overtook many expoMK believe this lengthy three infants with stunted or missing #•^Ijean Harbeson one day in compilation is far from complete. limbs — normally a rare birth defect. He m »1976, when she read a poster Unlike carcinogens, most teratogens was also aware that each of the mothers tacked to a hospital wall. The sign produce little reliable data through testing of these children had taken thalidomide. requested that women who had taken on laboratory animals. The dissimilarities It is such coincidences that provide any of a number of listed drugs during in the gestations of Homo sapiens and the foundations for the science of pregnancy contact Children's Orthopedic other species are too vast. Thalidomide. teratology. Small wonder that the field Hospital, in Seattle, as part o! a research for example, has little effect on the has progressed so haphazardly, with project. On that list was Dilantin, a drug offspring of mice and rats. Yet the range myriad suspected teratogens commonly used by epileptics to control of deformities found in the children of still languishing in the twilight zone seizures. Harbeson. an epileptic, had mothers who took thalidomide to combat of nonacceptance. taken Dilantin throughout her pregnancy. nausea during their first trimester reads A two-year study by the American Her shattered life, the unrelenting trauma like a nightmare of disfigurement. The Society of Anesthesiologists shows an of over two years, now had an problem was not merely the number increased rale of heart defects and other

identifiable cause. of it people affected, but the numbers it deformities in children born to women Harbeson had been living in a hellish did' not affect. Only about 5 percent who work in operating rooms, as well as psychological no-man's-land ever since of the women who took the drug produced to children whose fathers — but not giving birth to two retarded children. children with defects. Like so many other mother—serve as operating-room Doctors and social workers from the teratogens, thalidomide might never personnel. Residual anesthetic gases are Madigan Army Medical Center, in Tacoma, have been idenlified as a potential threat thought to be the cause. failed had to recognize the children's to the fetus if it were not for the Perhaps the most widely prescribed problems, their blaming arrested observations of an astute doctor who by antinauseant for pregnant women is development first on the Harbesons' chance linked a series of seemingly Bendectin: An estimated 25 percent of confining " mobile home and later on a lack unconnected medical events. the women in this country take the drug ol maternal nurturing. Within the span of a few months, during pregnancy to combat morning Seven years later, in February 1983, obstetrician William McBride, of Sydney, sickness. Although some doctors are U.S. district court judge Jack Tanner Australia, had the misfortune of delivering convinced it too is a teratogen, others awarded the Harbesons more than consider the reports insubstantial. $330,000 in the first wrongful-life, « The courts, which have hundreds of wrongful-birth lawsuit successfully fought Bendectin cases in adjudication, have in this country's court system. Dilantin yet to decide. With medical experts in was the cause of the retardation, the turmoil over the evidence, when court ruled. The doctors who treated should the public be warned? Harbeson before and during pregnancy Sam Pemberton, the attorney who had erred in allowing her to take the represented Jean Harbeson and her drug during term. But more important husband, believes that informing the than the findings or the award was the public about the latest research is at the wording of the lawsuit itself. Wrongful-life, heart of the legal issue surrounding wrongful-birth. The court's ruling stated, teratogens. He maintains his wrongful- essentially, that a life, or in this case, two life, wrongful-birth lawsuit boiled down lives, should never have been conceived. to the fact that, before conceiving, The temptation is great to label this a Harbeson had asked her doctors about the horror story, both because of what we've consequences of taking Dilantin during found out and what we're not finding out. pregnancy. The doctors failed to tell her Today Dilantin is one of 30 known tera- about the reports that had begun to togens environmental agents that the surface on Dilantin. If Harbeson had not medical profession recognizes as the asked that question, Pemberton insists, cause of birth defects. Other proven she would not have had a case. teratogens include radiation, androgenic "The question is not whether it was a hormones (testosterone, progestogens], risk the patient could bear," Pemberton rubella and other viruses, DES. pesticides, maintains, "but whether she was given industrial solvents, alcohol, and perhaps the necessary information so that she most notorious of all, thalidomide." Yet could decide what to do." 30 OMNI COMT'NUEDONPASE812 — —

ARCHITECTURE THE ARTS By.Vicki Lindner

name of the destination is architecture and art— the large grids of labyrinth, an ancient maze of subterranean Theonecitv, A labyrinthian maze of connected squares called wall fragments. palaces that had fascinated the artist

"unfathomable complexity," "Then I asked myself the obvious for years. "I was contained as a bug is its spiral of intercellular hives covers a question. Where did the wall fragments contained if you put it in one hand and square 675 miles on each side between come from? If they came from buildings, cover it with the other." Insley thinks he the Mississippi River and the Rocky the buildings must be in a city; if you saw onecity's Theater Space, the Mountains. "Jetubes" encased in translu- have a city, you must have a civilization, concourse between Over and Under cent walls take inhabitants to Over Build- religion, and mythology," or, as he calls it, Buildings, where citizens circulate and ings, where they live in sky chambers, "The Greater Context." pubtic meetings are held, "but I couldn't and Under Buildings, where computers Fortunately, Insley was not required to define it at that time." mastermind the city's commerce. Crimi- dream up The Greater Context himself: It took Insley ten years to assimilate nals are confined there, too, eliminating onecity presented itself to him. "I don't like sufficiently the information he'd received one another in "mental structures" not the term vision," he says. "It's so preten- to draw the city's comprehensive plans, further unlike video games, called the Theaters tious, but I definitely got a glimpse of While he waited he received of Death. In a central field lies the Abstract something, a contact with this place. For communications, continued painting wall

Building— the Opaque Library— housing a minute I slipped elsewhere." The fragments, which he learned were the city's mythological secrets. Here contact occurred in Insley's second New facsimiles of those in the Opaque Library, curious visitors from other centuries spy York studio, a dismal "architectural and began drawing a series of the on mystery but see only beams of light sieve" on the Bowery, with crumbling Abstract Buildings that lie on the city's penetrating the slits in the building's shell. floors, hanging pipes, and cracked floor- outskirts and are used for religious Built by nomads who fled our present- boards— hardly the setting for Utopian functions. "I didn't just sit down and design day metropolises, which self-destructed inspirations, What Insley saw was an an entire city." he declares. "From my into nonfunctioning husks, onecityIs Interior space, cavernous, mottled gray point of view cmec--y is real. I guess r "buried" somewhere in the future, and its and brown, with dust filtering down in the it had better be ea: Would l spend so potential ruins are being slcwly explored. dim illumination from a grid of light at much time or no — 3? The set for a science-fiction thriller, or the top. Part of a building was above him, How did this chimerical reality come to a mad architect's Utopian dream? one- and part below—much like the Egyptian exist? 'Anyone who lives in New York is city is neither of these, but is instead a aware how rapidly it's deteriorating," series of paintings called wall fragments Insley says. "I envision that our urban meticulcus ink drawings of abstract infrastructures crumble away. They don't architectural projects —and three- disappear, but they cease to function, dimensional models in Masonite and and only the factories continue to work, wood. Their creator is Will Insley, who That would be the only condition where I has been "receiving information" abo-Jt can foresee onecitv. which houses an his city for years, writing it down in entire country, could come about." poetic treatises and depicting it in an for When the city comes about, however, galleries and museums. is an intriguing problem. In his writings As an architecture student at Harvard's Insley states that it is a future civilization,

School of Design. Insley began to seek but he often describes it as a ruin, or a a vocation "less located in the practical major archaeological discovery, Visitors to world," He found himself doodling designs the Opaque Library, for example, must that appeared to be plans for a city hike across a wilderness known as the the first evidence, he now says, that one- Inner Field and camp in the devastated city existed—and studying cities of building's shell. "I first thought that onecity the past. After a stint in the Army Insley existed in science-fiction time," Insley was delighted to drop the practical for says, "but this began to seem too good, and began painting, "always aware simplistic, onecity exists in the potential. that what was happening in the painting If you equate potential with future— all wasn't right. Finally," Insley says, "it right— but potential to me is a more open is myth, and mythol- occurred to me that if 1 kept operating as word, onecity about an artist while thinking as an architect ogy exists outside of normal time, in a it would help me, and it did," In 1963 he kind of all-time. The idea is bigger than produced his first successful synthesis of Insley: His city houses an entire country. just one temporal location. In any case, CONTINUED ON PAGE 222 THEAET5 By Mitch Tuchman

Wars Remember the scene in whjsh the three accounts of the of the chubby 'droid R2-D2 in Star newspaper and Early Strikes Back? look down on the Witch's dottle making of the movie version and The Empire for us, the viewers, if not yet The reporters were nol in a questioning demonstrate of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff possess screenwriter-director Philip for themselves, that they already the filmmakers' quest for mood. If emphasized rescuing Dorothy. "I've Kaufman stated that he was interested in the right stuif for verisimilitude. The press featured stories get in there," says Wolfe's story but. not his style, that got a plan how to the casting of actors who resembled Tom on "I'll in there for lor the press. No the Scarecrow smartly. go astronauts, the search for vintage was good enough the or no Wicked suggested that the story and style Dorothy, Wicked Witch aircraft and the manutacture of fine one the Cowardly Lion roars. Demon- inseparable. If Kaufman assured Witch," replicas when the real stuff could not be were itself, was the "right stuff" was an ineffable strating virtue, not virtue found, and the incorporation of period them that the Wolfe's book, as it has been for pilots, then it was just theme of documentary footage partly an quality of test — most of his writing. budgetary choice. that, ineifable, hardly worth defining. aesthetic, partly a disser- reporters the astronauts From his Cold War-era doctoral Somewhat credulously the reporters tallied II to the of American Writers: appeared to be characters in pursuit of tation, The League the aircraft, space suits, ground-support Scarecrow, Communist Oraumzaiiona: Activity Among equipment, and miscellaneous parapher- manly virtue, somewhat like the and the Tin Man at American Writers, 1929-1942. to the assembled to get The Right the 'Cowardly Lion, nalia being secularizing a of The Wizard of Oz. the present, Wolfe has been heality is also a star, said Trie- the outset Stuff right, the themselves were somewhat like sacred theme popularly known as New York Times headline, capturing an reporters ' religious Wizard, simplifying the complicated Protestant Ethic. In its original, era isn't so easy, Roiling Stone commiser- the Ethic holds that mythologizing the mortal. In short, the version the Protestant ated. Not one of these articles and much from the God alone chooses who among us will join questioned the purpose of amassing press had nol changed in Heaven; can neither foresee it in the days of Him we these Space Age mementos or pondered way Wolfe portrayed Still, does and Project Apollo. nor influence His choice. who the relationship between hardware and Project Mercury ostentatious piety The Indeed the astronauts did seem, in the not flatter God with history. Was it any more significant in for clues? Surely rather like Dorothy's companions and examine his life Right Stuff to duplicate the rivets in a book, those who demonstrate the greatest of 'in the land of Oz— but near the end, Mercury capsule than it was in Return accumulation of blessings in this life are the details not the beginning, of their journey. tne jeCjj to duplicate exactly most likely to be blessed in the next. Wolfe's secular version, never more explicitly stated than in The Right Stuff, is a paean to rampant self-promotion as the motor of postwar American society. Time and again Wolfe compares the astronauts with "believing Presbyterians of a century before who used to probe their own experience to see if they were truly among the elect." Even defining, the right stuff, Wolfe makes clear that "there [was not] a (est to show whether or not a pilot had this righteous quality. There was, instead, a seemingly infinite series of tests" meant to manifest the hallowed attribute over and over again "in a cause that means something to thousands, to a people, a nation, to humanity, to God."

This is why the pious John Glenn, more than any other of the first seven astro- nauts, stands at the center of Wolfe's book. "There was no contradiction whatsoever," Wolfe writes, "between the Presbyterian faith and ambition, even invisible director Kaufman. ambition grand enough to suit the the screenplay, except a NASA recruiter, says right stuff. Claims CONIINUEDONPAGE 146 — —

THE ART5 By Tracy Kidder

the past few years I've fell before you can leave your message- others'. He has more than the usual For your finally feel of uneasily aware that while olher When turn comes, you endowment nerve endings. The son of

writer friends of mine sat in like saying to his tape recorder. "Mark, I a prominent New York publisher, he the library or conducted interviews over hate to interrupt this tune I was whistling came of age in the Sixties and was lunch, Mark Kramer was holed up in when I called. I know you'd want to hear working as a left-wing loumahst when he

it operating rooms. He was watching right to the end, too." He has a way got a sudden fright. "When I was twenty- surgery and contemplating surgeons. of watching you from the corners of his ihree. a bump crawled onto my hip," And now he has come out of those eyes; sometimes he even manages to he writes at the beginning of Invasive places with an arresting book, Invasive convince you that he's forgotten you're Procedures. He believed that the lesion,

Procedures; A Year in the World of there. I have known him for eight years, yet "the surfaced knuckle of some buried

Two Surgeons. It may be unique in in his company I still occasionally feel fist," was mortal, even after his surgeon medical literature. that a jujitsu move has been pulled on told him that it was benign. He doesn't Patienls have written nolable books, me— a subtle touch to my elbow that is burden the reader with the information, but but such works have often lapsed into about to land me on my nose. But a he went through a little scrape with death sycophancy toward doctors. Doctors little discomfort now and then seems a and rebirth After that first encounter themselves often write books, but they're small price to pay for Kramer's company. with surgery, he moved to the country usually composed in the manner of He tells marvelous stories, about himself to the Berkshires and a farm on the military memoirs. And the extensive liter- as a rule. He is generous toward would-be cold, north side of a hill —and he ature of medical sociology won't keep writers, and among friends he is a quiet proceeded to become a different sort of many people up all night reading. Kramer, gift giver. He's a gregarious soul above all. writer than he had been. He wrote a however, has written a reporter's book. He seems to know everyone within a series of essays, which Knopf eventually Surgeons often sound like generals; 50-mile radius of his house, and he finds collected in a charming volume called Kramer sounds like a war correspondent reasons to value all his acquaintances. Mother Walter and the Pig Tragedy. and a brilliant one. Although he begins He talks kindly of people behind their He published ~:~:i-^ : ^ce; Vst in an with the story of an operation he under- backs, more kindly than to their faces. underground newspaper in Boston, but went as a young man, he quickly turns Kramer has a well-developed sense of they were very different in style and away from his own eerie, painful memories human vulnerability, both his own and flavor from the standard tare in such and comes back to watch surgery with journals, being neither strident political all his wits about him. He watches articles nor breathless rock reviews. surgeons perform a wide variety of His stuff was gentle, witty, affectionate, repairs, from installations of pacemakers and if a little romantic, not sloppily so. to amputations. He doesn't condescend About the time he began to visit to his readers as doctors often do to their operating rooms. Kramer left his farm patients, and he doesn't assume that and moved to town. During the book's surgeons are heroes. I came away from long construction, he separated from his this book firmly convinced that Kramer wife. \ think that he has softened in his knows a great deal about what surgeons personal manner and his writing—but do—and sometimes a tot more than softened only in the sense of smoothing they about why they do it. rough edges. In approaching his subjects, Kramer lives on a quiet street in he seems to have abandoned old Northampton, Massachusetts, not far preconceived notions and judgmental from the campus of Smith College, where tendencies. In his previous writings, he teaches writing. He is thirty-nine but he has portrayed technology as a large looks younger. He's lean and firm of and usually villainous force, in Invasive jaw, and the black hair that he still Procedures he approaches technology on possesses is shiny. No one would mistake its strongest ground. Sooner or later him for an athlete — indeed, he likes to boosters of modern technology always describe himself as "duckfooted"-— invoke the great and recent advances in but he radiates good health and good the medical arts; Kramer found that he cheer. Also, on .occasion, something else: could not wholly disagree. "I guess When you call Kramer on the phone I've changed my view of what's possible he's not in, listen to and you must a few in politics," he says. "Even before, I minutes of music of his own choosing Revealing the person behind the mask. was a wistful free-market capitalist 38 OMNI CONTINUED ON PAGE 208 . —

POLIO REVISITED THE EDDY By Albert Rosenfeid

vaccine itself. (Even such longtime live- ^^k n "Internationa! Symposium on synthetic virus vaccines that are made vaccine advocates as Nobelist Frederick #«^» Poliomyelitis Control" in the from just the protein. C. Robbins accepted this judgment at # »year 1983? Have we not, for American children got their first Salk the symposium, though Sabin himself did nearly three decades, been celebrating shots in 1955, and that was the beginning sizable Yet, to vaccin- not.) Some of these victims filed the conquest of polio? Or was it of the end of the epidemic. lawsuits, and the vaccine manufacturers. really conquered alter all? ologists of the Fifties the killed vaccine as well as the medical profession, Yes and no. In most of the Western was only a stopgap while Sabin repeatedly urged a reluctant government world, the once-fearsome epidemic has (supported, like Salk, by the March of to indemnity them. Meanwhile, year after been virtually eliminated, thanks to two Dimes) prepared his live-virus vaccine. year. Jonas Salk pointed to one stark eftective vaccines, the Salk and the When that came out, in 1961-62, the fact: In the few countries, such as Finland. Sabin. But, unlike smallpox, polio has polio rate had already dropped by more Sweden, and Holland, that used only never been eradicated worldwide. than 90 percent. Nevertheless, the vaccine, there were no cases of Throughout the Third World, where large whole nation was drummed out to be killed (except tor a few obvious imports). populations have never been vaccinated, revaccinated on those Sabin Oral potio settle, he argued, for any? But the paralytic polio runs unchecked. Sundays, reassured that now, with an Why die had long since been cast for the There are other reasons, too, why polio easy swallow and nary a needle prick, we iive vaccine. is back in the news— reasons that drew could count on long-lasting immunity. At the Washington conference, however, me to Washington. DC, to an international Thus the Sabin vaccine became the it cfear that the live vaccine polio symposium organized by the vaccine of choice for the United States, the became simply isn't working in many regions Fogarty International Center of the National Soviet Union, and most other nations. notably in tropical and subtropical Asia Institutes of Health. JOnas Salk and Any American physician who wanted the and Africa because of some mysterious Albert Sabin, the eponymous heroes oi killed vaccine had to order it from its — interfering factor in the human gut. In the vaccines, were there. So was an lone manufacturer in Canada. And why India thousands have been paralyzed eminent assemblage ot virologists and would any doctor want lo do that? multiple doses ot the live vaccine. vaccinologists, many of whose names Well, there were reasons. A handful of despite occupied Gaza, Israeli doctors now loom large in the history of polio. polio cases kept cropping up, most of in both vaccines just to be sure. In a curious way, this conference, them directly attributable to the live use reason tor the Salk vac- devoted to discussing ways to immunize The second coming-in-from-the-cq!d the world's children, became a quiet cine's recent of the killed rerun of an old debate. That controversy is a new, improved version Developed by Dutch engineer- has often been glibly billed as Salk vaccine. Wezel and versus Sabin or as injected versus oral microbiologist A. L. van manufactured by the Institut Merieux, in vaccine, but it goes deeper than that, It

it pilot-tested in such really revolves around a near-dogma that France, has been Senegal and Upper Volta. until recently dominated mainstream places as claims, it seems to virology: that only a live vaccine can Contrary to earlier than the live: In fact. provide reliable and lasting immunity require fewer doses may provide lifelong against any viral disease. Convictions so a single dose strongly held do not die easily. immunity. True, it still must be injected, but the Dutch and Merieux are now able A little history is in order. What Salk set to incorporate it into the same shot that out to do, while still working on influenza, vaccinates against diphtheria, tetanus, in the early Forties—and herein may and whooping cough. lie his major scientific contribution—was lands to prove (hat totally inactivated viruses Though scientists from many could provide effective immunity, His testified on behalf of both vaccines, the enterprise made even better sense when conference had a single rallying call: the needless tragedy of mass paral- immunologists discovered that it is not Stop polio the virus's infectious nucleic-acid core but ysis. "We now have two good longtime polio-vaccine its harmless protein overcoat that vaccines," noted stimulates the body to make antibodies. specialist Alexander D. Langmuir, now That means that a killed-virus vaccine, retired from the U.S Center for Disease problem is to get them with its DNA inactivated, should work just Control. "The how from thecoid. into the world's children. "DQ fine. It also presages an era of totally n 44 OMNI — —

;OMPUTERIZED FLIGHT MRTIFOML inJTELLIEEQJCE

By Peter J. Ognibene

^^^fc y the turn of the century, the landings, rec/ec: their courses, and The new computer system called I^^S patois oi the air-traffic controller talk them through airborne emergencies. Automated En Route ATC, or AERA, will ^h^w the calm, concise flow of words Last June that system saved 23 people change all that. Direct routing, takeoff from the tower to a plane in flight after an electrical fire knocked out the clearances, midcourse corrections, may become a dead language. flight instruments of an Air Canada DC-9 weather updates, airport holding patterns, In its place will be an even more concise and filled the cockpit with smoke. His emergency maneuvers—these and exchange, in the form of digital vision obscured, the pilot focused on an many other functions will be taken over messages between airborne and ground- old-fashioned instrument called a horizon by computer. Aircraft will maintain their half based computers. Pilots and controllers indicator to keep Ihe wings level while, of the electronic data link with something will read those messages in the cockpit an ATC controller spoke calmly over the called a Mode-S transponder. An on- and tower without a word spoken between radio with Ihe copilot, telling him when to board beacon known as TCAS (for Traffic them. Proponents of the new technology turn and helping him adjust his rate of Alert and Collision Avoidance System) say it will replace the patchwork quality of descent from 33,000 feet to a safe landing will warn pilots of potential (or impending) the current air-traffic control (ATC) system in Cincinnati. (Unfortunately, 23 other midair collisions and instantly compute with seamless efficiency. Critics suggest passengers died from smoke inhalation.) explicit evasion tactics. that a fully computerized system could So the system can work well. Though the technology of Mode-S and turn into a real-life version of a video- But the current ATC technology is far TCAS seems well within reach, not arcade game, with no chance for a replay from perfect. Instead of taking direct and everyone in the aviation community is if something goes wrong. fuel-efficient routes, for instance, pilots gung ho about them. The military believes The ATC system in use today is a must fly to their destinations in segments the TCAS antenna could degrade the hodgepodge of electronic, human, and laid out according to tixed radio nav- aerodynamic characteristics of its high- mechanical links. IBM 9020 computers .gator beacons. performance fighters. Many private pilots run the programs, or software, that keep Why? The IBM 9020s aren't fast oppose Mode-S and TCAS because aircratt safely separated in flight; air- enough to provide direct routes and they believe the cost (several thousand traffic controllers on the ground use radar still keep track of all the aircraft flying dollars) is an unnecessary investment for and radio to clear pilots for takeoffs and under Instrument Flight Rules, or IFR. their type of flying (low and slow). Thanks to their lobbying, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not require light planes operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) to install either device. So while every commercial airliner would carry TCAS, most private planes would not. And thai situation may create a whole new set of problems. Unlike radar,

TCAS works only when ail aircraft have it.

If a light plane without the device wandered into restricted airspace, the

airliner would be unable to detect it. How can the FAA tolerate such a gap in coverage? "The airspace belongs to the users, and the mission of the FAA is to control— but not to interfere with —the free use of the airspace," says Valeric K. Hunt, director of the FAA's Advanced Automation Program Office. Yet he acknowledges: "We're going to come to the situation where all aircraft will have to be controlled. Eventually traffic densities will pass the point at which it's safe to allow uncontrolled VFR aircraft to penetrate controlled airspace." The FAAs goal is an electronic brain coruTinjuunn

WHAT WE LEFT OUT

^BT few days after the first issue of Omni went on sale smaller incomes, the scarcity of places to publish, and the nar-

in 1978 I received a tetter from the editor of another row range of stories acceptable to editors. Holography was one publication. The letter said succinctly: "Congrat- of those stories, with its promise of 3-D everything. Never has ulations. It's nice to see a magazine about sci- so much paper been spent explaining a technology that so far ence that does not include Carl Sagan, Barry Commoner, or has produced little more than trinkets The monarch butterfly Margaret Mead." With all due respect to Drs Sagan and Com- was another, proving again that even editors like animals, The moner and the late Dr. Mead. I was proud of that letter. Not long appeal of the Glomar Challenger, the research ship that in- after it arrived, Dick Teresi. now executive editor of Omni, added formed us that the continents are in fact adrift beneath our feet stories about holography, the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, (although we needn't worry about it for several million years), is and the voyages of the Glomar Challenger to the list of things harder to define, but Challenger's voyages were reported not included in that first issue of Omni. everywhere. So was any experiment, however tentative, sug- What Sagan, Commoner, and Mead held in common with gesting that anything —from peanut butter to asbestos—was holography, the monarch butterfly, and the Glomar Challenger bad for your health. (I sold many of these stories myself, some back in the dim, dark past of 1978 kind of was a Good House- of them several times, which is something I'll have to answer for keeping Science Seal of Approval from the popular press. For when I finally confront the great belt sander in the sky.) two starting with decades, the Sputnik scare, editors seemed Omni changed the picture entirely. Almost before the ink on to hold the opinion that science was important, perhaps vitaliy the first issue dried, imitators started springing up like weods. important, but dull. After all, who knew any scientists? They Scientists only found in the gray pages of technical journals didn't play celebrity tennis or endorse products. Excepting Sa- were suddenly smiling from the covers of general-circulation gan, Commoner, Mead, and perhaps handful of graying Nobel a magazines. Television increased its science coverage—wit- laureates, the man on the street couldn't name a single one. ness Sagan's Cosmos—and newspapers started devoting en- Moreover, science was difficult, complicated, of it and most was tire sections to it. Suddenly there were so many popular science about things all, you couldn't see or touch. And worst of some- publications that The New Yorker ran a cartoon showing a cor- body was sure to yell at you if you got it wrong. ner newsstand that displays nothing but science magazines: it The complexity of things scientific particularly was trouble- is manned by a pipe-smoking vendor in a white lab coat. some to the popular press. In I those days, borrowed from C. R The publishing world discovered almost overnight that not Snow, frequently claiming that the world was made up of two only were there a lot of people who understood how a refrig- kinds of people—those who understand how a refrigerator works erator worked, but they made up a responsive and lucrative and those who don't. Publishers and editors, for the most part, segment of the market. Moreover, a good number of people fell into the latter group, prevailing The attitude in the publishing who didn't know how a refrigerator worked seemed to decide community seemed to suggest that committing great swatches that perhaps they should. Science journalists who were starving of Dante's Inferno to memory was considerably more important in the pre-Omra'days began selling everything that spurted from than understanding the thermodynamics of the place. The press their word processors; and sports reporters, fashion writers, took a timid, sometimes even frightened, approach to science, and other scientific sorts rushed in to take up the slack. It made characterized by an almost religious reliance on professional for interesting reading, if nothing else. journals. One of the best-selling magazines in the country, for When I left Omni the magazine was a precocious toddler. It example, refused to report any medical story that had not first has grown considerably since then and, I think, aged well. Here's appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. looking at you, kid.—FRANK KENDIG Science journalists through the Sixties and into the Seventies a were clubby lot, bound together by small numbers and even Frank Kendig was Omni's founding executive editor. "

coruTiruuufin

the would-be thief is found lying unconscious, just eight feet from the door. Th( Four a.m' The terrorist has foam is almost gone. made his way past a formi- Farfetched? The U.S. dable alarm system to Department of Energy has the storage room, where he recently filed for a patent on hopes to retrieve a few just such a system: a liquid pounds of fissionable mate- concentrate that generates rial for a homemade nuclear foam, which in turn ex- bomb. Crossing the thresh- pands to 500 times its origi- old, he flicks on the light. nal volume. Developed by

Suddenly, as if some chemist Peter B. Rand giant washing machine had and colleagues at Sandia

overflowed, the room fills National Laboratories, in with a soapy, slippery foam. Albuquerque, New Mexico,

Disoriented and finding it the foam is released from hard to breathe, the intruder a generator at the rate places one hand over his of 35,000 cubic feet per face and gropes through the minute. Intended mainly for bubbles: in seconds his the protection of nuclear feet slip from under him and facilities, it fills an entire he falls, his head striking building in seconds. a nearby wall. Hours later, Until now, says Rand, Virginia, tackled when security guards cau- foams of this type retained the problem by flying a tiously enter the room, only 50 percent of their When aircraft engineers sensor-filled F-106 into bubbly state after 30 min- replace weighty metal thunderstorms, Richmond utes, The Sandia foam, bodies with carbon fiber and himself helped focus light- on the other hand, remains epoxy materials, airplanes ning onto a 40-foot-high, stable for up to six hours, will be lighter, faster, and fusel age -shaped cylinder in allowing security guards to vastly more efficient. But the New Mexico mountains. seal off areas and search there's a catch: The new "Protecting these newer- while thieves are deterred. materials in the skin of model planes," says Rich-

Moreover, he adds^ "the an aircraft will also make it mond, "boils down to one foam obscures vision, vulnerable to lightning. thing —shielding technol- clouds hearing, and impairs When lightning flashes by ogy." That means develop- breathing," And because a plane, explains physicist ing special housing foi one of the prime ingredients Richard Richmond, of the electronics, lining a is a detergent like dish- Wright-Patterson Air Force composite body with metal-

washing liquid, an intruder Base, in Ohio, it can play lic strips to divert high- is likely to slip, havoc with electrical and current surges, and spray- Rand emphasizes that computer systems', Older ing aircraft panels with a the foam is just a "deter- planes' metal acts as a thin aluminum coating.

rent," Still, terrorists might be shield, blocking out the un- Some of the wiring, he overwhelmed unless they wanted electrical surges. adds, might-even be re- bring gas masks, suction Graphite and plastic do not. placed with fiberoptics, shoes, and a pump. To close this technologi- since light-beam signals — Rick Boling cal loophole, Richmond would be unaffected. says, researchers are —Marcia Bartusiak "Real generosity toward the studying the Way an aircraft tuture lies in giving all to responds when lightning "All of life is a dispute over Antiterrorist suds are the the present," strikes. Scientists from the taste and tasting." latest in nuclear security. —Albert Camus NASA-Langley Research —Friedrich Nietzsche 53 OMNI —

More than 100 prisoners partment of Agriculture, have graduated from the suggests treating them with course so far, says instructor chemicals Another antidote Lee Cook. Most were quickly might be the introduction snapped up by such firms of competing bacteria as Fireman's Fund Insur- to stem the growth of the ance Company, Western frost-causing organisms. Pacific Railroad, and Bank Geitz adds that in some of America. Several gradu- instances we'd want to ates have even been of- increase the quantity of fered jobs before their frosty bacteria. To prevent release. — Bill Wallace drought and produce rain, he explains, we've got to 'The function of the expert have ice crystals form in the to be more right buds. Without plants and r people, but to be their protein-producing more sophisti- bacteria, the result is an asons." endless cycle of drought —David Butter and deforestation —as in the Sahal region of Africa.

San Quentiri ex-convictlprogrammer Bruce Cape: When it c By reintroducing the ice- to rehabilitating inmates, COBOL sure beats license-plate making. nucleating bacteria, Geitz concludes, we might bring and hands-on experience Old Jack Frost may turn rain and vegetation, restor- each day. out to be a bacterial "dis- ing such regions to fertility. 'A few other prisons have ease" of plants, according While inmates at most similar programs, but none to agricultural scientists.

other penitentiaries work in are as complete as this And if their hunches pay otf, laundries and license- one," says Stanley Rani, one there's a cure for the frost plate factories, convicts at of two instructors at the damage that now costs California's tough San prison. "We are realty pi- North American farmers j Quentin prison are learning oneers in the field." lions of dollars a year.

the latest in computer- Rahi says only one of Chilly air, it s< programming skills —and every 19 software-course the only factor finding greater success graduates returns to prison for the formation when they return to the out- after Ihree years; the sys- ice crystals side world than corrections tem-wide average is two out a catalyst ar

officials ever dreamed ol three. "Our record is form. Water, for instance, possible. much, much better than that may form ice crystals more The project working this of most other prison rehabil- rapidly in the presence of wonder is a two-year-long itation programs," he adds. dust and other impurities. prison course in COBOL, a 1 As part of the course, And, according to meteorol- versatile programming inmate to ogist Geitz, frost , students are put Conrad

language used extensively . work solving real program- in forests and fields forms in business applications. ming problems lor various around tiny molecules The course is highly re- ' tax-supported agencies. probably proteins—pro- stricted. It only accepts 36 | One recent software pack- duced by common plant

students at a time and ! age created by inmates bacteria called Pseudo- has a year-long waiting list i for the U.S Navy, for in- monas syringae and Erwinia for admission.. It's also : stance, is such a smash that herbicola.

plenty tough. Inmate stu- it has been adopted by To rid crops of the deadly dents receive as many the Army and is being con- frost. Geitz, who works for as eight hours ol instruction sidered by the Air Force. the Alberta (Canada) De- —

coruTiruuurui

had been instrumental OWNEBS in developing the cell line in question. Do patients who donate Meanwhile, Ivor Royston, tissue samples from their head of the California re- bodies to medical science search team, said the alle- own part of the resulting gation was "completely

research product? Yes, says false," Finally, it came to Dr. Hideaki Hagiwara. who light that Hagiwara's father last year took cells from was president of a Japanese a University of California pharmaceutical company laboratory—without permis- interested in patenting sion — to treat his cancer- the cell line. stricken mother. (The cells, Deciding against a legal known as hybridomas. battle, the parties involved produce specific antibodies reached an agreement that attack only the cancer out of court: Patent rights

cells, leaving all other tissue go to the University of unharmed.) Hagiwara in- California, and the Japanese sisted that part of the new firm is licensed to use the cell line belonged to his cells in Asia. Nonetheless, if your children come down with throat infection after throat original question remains infection, you might consider running a strep culture on Rover. family because tissue from the his mother's cervix had ominously unanswered:

"I thought this was proba- been used to develop it in Do patients who contribute bly a fluke,' Copperman the first place. flesh and blood to research of the product years. I University of own part If you suffer from chronic notes. "But over the At first the result? sore throats, you mighi began to ask people whose California managed to keep made as a

1 ' Baker want to visit the veterinar children constantly had the incident out of the —Sherry ian —because your dog sore throats whether they news. But then the plot may be the problem had a pet," Out of 100 and the publicity—thick- "If I had to choose between of recurrent sore claimed that pain and nothing I would So claims Stuart M. Cop- i cases ened: Hagiwara perman. a Long Island throats in a household with while doing postdoctoral always choose pain." pediatrician who became a pet, he found that 40 work -at the university, he —William Faulkner aware of the link between percent of the family pets animal and human strepto- (including dogs, cats, and coccal infection some 20 even birds) had a strep years ago, while working as infection. His findings were an Army physician. A strep- reported in the New York throat epidemic hit his State Journal of Medicine. Army post, and patients Copperman emphasizes were treated routinely with that he is anything but antibiotics. In one family, antipei: "I think animals are however, the seven children great. We have a dog in came down with sore throats my family, and we hug and repeatedly. In desperation, kiss him, I'm not saying the doctor finally ran people should get rid of their

a throat culture on the pets. But if someone has family dog, and the test a recurrent sore throat and showed a positive strep human contacts have been infection. After the pet was eliminated as the source, treated with antibiotics, then it's a good idea to the family's sore throats bring the family pet in for Cancer cells, magnified 11.000 times: Who owns test-tube lite- promptly cleared up. tests."— Sherry Baker patients, doctors, or institutions? The controversy lingers. Volkan says, especially when they harbor strong but Alice grieved to see her mixed emotions toward formerly robust grandfather the deceased. Mourners like waste away to a skeletal Alice may adopt a physical 99 pounds on his deathbed. trait ol the loved one, while After he died, Alice began others may hide away a to eat like a bird— until ceremonial "linking ob- her weight, too, dropped to ject"— the watch worn by 99 pounds. the dead person or the

It took Dr. VamikVolkan, teacup he was holding when a psychiatrist at the Blue he died, for example. "It Ridge Hospital, in Char- casts a magic, eerie spell lottesville, Virginia, to unravel that keeps the dead person the problem. For Alice, he within reach," the psychia- discovered, 99 pounds had trist explains. become a magic number, To help these troubled a symbolic link to the mourners, Volkan has de- grandfather she had loved vised what he calls regrief and feared. Unable to come therapy. A course of regrief to terms with his death, therapy helped Alice admit she was stuck in an emo- her contradictory feelings tional limbo —and hers was toward her dead grand- not an isolated case. father, for Instance, and she the wings of 40 more ducks Bereavement plunges began to eat normally and confined them to cages. many people into a state of again. In other cases, the "Egbert Was a Lucky "We found that those crip- "complicated mourning." mourner's linking object is Duck" is the title of a report ples placed in a pen with systematically stripped by wildlife biologist Fred unlimited food and water of its emotional power. Dur- Van Dyke published in had a healing rate of twenly- ing therapy one patient Wisconsin Natural Re- two percent." Van Dyke ritually burned her dead sources magazine not long says; "so in certain hunting mother's nightgown—which ago. But Egbert's luck has areas it's feasible to collect she had kept hidden in a been small comfort to angry wounded ducks and care paper bag— in order to readers. for them." resolve her conflicts. Egbert was one of 34 Outrage followed, "Let's But not all linking objects wild ducks that Van Dyke hope that the author's indicate pathological be- anesthetized, crippled, and sadistic streak fades," wrote havior, the psychiatrist- then set loose in a Wiscon- one reader, "before he points out. "All of us have sin marsh. Egbert, whose can cripple deer to study links, like grandmother's wing was snapped, was the car kills, or before he can wedding dress," he says. lone survivor; the others move on to people." "Some people even create died from starvation or in But the Research Animal their linking objects. They attacks by predators. Resources Committee of

write poems and books. It was all part of a pri- the University of Wisconsin They build the Taj Mahal." vately funded research at Madison refused to —Susan Tyler Hitchcock project that Van Dyke con- condemn the study. Ac- ducted as a graduate cording to committee chair-

"But I doubt that the maga- student at the University ot man Bernard C. Wentworth,

it zine /Omni./ will last. . . . Wisconsin to find out ex- could help save wounded

It was flawed way back at actly what happens to ducks waterfowl, establish new conception. The result is too that are wounded by hunt- hunting regulations, and feeble to live very long." ers who can't shoot straight. eliminate 4 million cripplings —Stewart Brand, 1979 Van Dyke even broke a year.— Eric Mishara 55 "

CDRJTiniuunn

in the works for Tampa and Orlando, Florida; Ocean Former Canadian para- City, New Jersey; Cleveland; trooper Jean St.-Germain Knoxville, Tennessee; and wanted to leach his family San Diego. In addition, skydiving without making investors recently acquired them lake the risk of jump- a franchise for Japan. ing from a plane. So he To date, thousands of installed a DC-4 engine and people donning jump suits, airplane propeller beneath knee pads, earplugs, gog- the grated floor of a 52-foot- gles, and crash helmets high padded chamber in have tried indoor skydiving. his backyard, near Montreal. Fliers, called aeronauts, The whirling prop blades receive 15 minutes of "pre- create powerful vertical ;-r-jC!ion before winds, allowing St, -Germain stepping from a platform

j and his kids io float, soar, into the 80- to 125-mile-per-

itagia us. and glide without fear of a hour column of air. Holding single scratch. a spread-eagle position

. jlar air- psychosis were five times American entrepreneur ; to the greater on the blocks where Marvin Kratter tried St.- see photo), aero- the mental patients resided Germain's invention in 1980, _: and, with practice, soar dive. To Schizophrenia could be a than on adjacent streets. found it a "euphoric" expe- and er simply conlagious disease. That, Crow admits there must rience, and promptly I squirms into an upright position. at least, is the opinion of be a genetic basis to schiz- boughl the international resistance to British psychiatrist T. J. ophrenia. But. he insists, franchising rights. Dubbed ess Crow, who proposes that genes alone can't account Flyaway, the first U.S. ver- Ihe wtnd of indoor the psychosis may actually for the disease's occur- sion recently opened to whence be triggered by a virus. rence. Writing in the British enthusiastic crowds in Las Hying has been compared trampc The infectious agent, he medical journal The Lancet, Vegas. Other Flyaways are ng on a adds, could be transmitted Crow points out that when from schizophrenics to one twin suffers from schiz- "genetically susceptible" ophrenia, chances are people with a proclivity for less than 50 percent that the disorder. his identical sibling will also "The idea that schizo- develop the disorder, But phrenia is linked to a virus if the twins are living to- is certainly a controversial gether during the time the one." notes Crow, a staff disease strikes one of them, member at the Northwick the other is likely to come Park Hospital, in Harrow. down with the illness, too, "But there are several "These findings suggest studies that are consistent either that both twins are with that idea." exposed to an [infectious] According to a Soviet agent at the same time," study, tor instance, schizo- Crow states, "or that such phrenia in one Moscow an agent is passed from neighborhood increased twin to twin."—Sherry Baker significantly when schizo- phrenics moved into the "/ don't mind your thinking area's brand-new apartment slowly; I mind you publishing buildings. In fact, says taster than you think." The- Flyaway experience: A former paratrooper's indoor-flying Crow, new cases of the —Wolfgang Paul! method offers the exhilaration of skydiving, without the risks. 56 OMNI —

that it often inspires re- these sensations are ulti- peated jumps. mately registered as electri- To what extent do people cal signals in the brain. acfually get hooked on So, thought brain researcher giving blood? "Our informa- Jean-Louis Huve, why not tion is strictly anecdotal," decode the brain waves Piliavin notes. "It's clear that corresponding to a fish's some people do feel a perceptions and get a need to give blood regularly, reading of its habitat? possibly to experience the To do that, Huve's team positive mood swing follow- at Pierre and Marie Curie ing donation. University, in Paris, planted "I'm one of those people." electrodes in a trout's she adds. "I give blood brain— coupled to a tiny every eight or ten weeks. transmitter that sent the sig-

And if I can't do it— if I nals to a computer for get to the blood-donation analysis. The result? A site and it's olosed. for cheap, exquisitely sensitive

example— I feel really, really i pollution monitor: Huve's and floating weightless in diately before and after mad."— Sherry Baker trout can inform him which space. Skydivers claim it is giving blood. The responses of several pesticides and remarkably close to free were matched to the num- herbicides is polluting its fall. Others liken the experi- ber of times donors had tank, down to ten billionths ence to flying in a dream. given blood and how often A French scientist has of a gram per liter. While no one has com- they planned to give in come up wiih a scheme for —Debora MacKenzie

! pared the exercise value of the future. The result? The turning a trout's brain into a indoor flying to jogging more a person gave handy pollution alarm. "In baiting a mousetrap or swimming, Flyaway rep- blood —and the more nega- Fish have a keen "smell" with cheese, always leave resentative Jerry Digney tive he felt before giving for whatever is dissolved room for the mouse." says that the activity burns ' the more frequently he in their surroundii —Saki up calories and is definitely experienced a positive I aerobic. According to mood swing immediately | Kratter, indoor flying may afterwards. even grow Into a true sport. The warm glow reported Already, experienced fliers by some blood donors instructors learning may relief and are | be from acute to walk backward up walls anxieties felt before t and combine somersaults donation procedure with dives.— Sherry Baker Piliavin explains. as donors continue to i blood, negative reactions prior to puncture become less intense, while positive People who donate blood feelings experienced after- on a regular basis may be ward grow stronger Piliavin seeking a pleasurable, compares the act to para- possibly addictive, high. chuting from an airplane:

That, at least, is the Initially the thought of | jump-

conclusion of University of : ing is associated with fear.

Wisconsin psychologist i But once the jump is com- Jane Allyn Piliavin, who pleted; the experience asked 12,000 donors to de- can produce such feelings scribe their feelings imme- I of relief and exhilaration " — coruTiruuurm

,£NC¥ LUNG around for a few years, most SPRAY emergency-room doctors

aren't aware it exists.

It's a typical night in the "We have published big city. The emergency about twenty papers on it," room at Big City General Greenberg says, "but Hospital is crammed with unfortunately lots of doctors patients, mostly victims don't bother to read scien- of accidents and random tific literature."— Eric Mishara violence.

Suddenly a patient goes "The more I think about it, into shock, and his heart there is something futile, stops beating. Frantically a mediocre, even (I am doctor searches for a vein, tempted to say) foppish any vein, in which to inject about speech By contrast, epinephrine, a drug that how the gravity of nature literally restarts Ihe heart's and her silence startle you." contractions, But the pa- —Johann Wolfgang tient's veins are collapsed; von Goethe so as a last resort the According to Gustafson, doctor injects the lifesaving Douglas firs tested at seven drug directly into the heart different locations in west- by sticking a large needle Scientists at the University ern Washington showed through the chest wall of Washington have cooked no slowing of growth when an extremely risky proce- up a spicy surprise for planted with the garlicky dure. The patient is saved, animals that damage forest pellets, but even the hungri- but the same result could and fruit trees: a time- est rabbits and deer were have been achieved much m release capsule that gives repelled. The International more safely with a fast the trees garlic breath. Paper Company planted lung-spray technique. The pellets, containing a 10.000 garlicky Douglas fir With that technique, the compound of the chemical seedlings in Oregon, and a lifesaving drug is sprayed selenium, are planted with number of private timber directly into the lungs the trees, protecting them companies are now studying through a plastic tube in- for three to five years until the pellets as a potential serted down the patient's they're too tall for deer repellent for other commer- throat, explains Philadelphia to munch. cial tree species. The Envi- physician Michael Green- Capsules a half-inch in ronmental Protection berg, who invented the diameter are first filled with Agency is aiso investigating procedure. "Drugs are ab- the compound dimelamine the use of the pellets for sorbed very, very quickly in selenite. explains chemical fruit trees and grapevines. the lungs," Dr, Greenberg engineer and project scien- Humans can detect says, "because they have a tist Donald Gustafson. The the garlic odor on a warm large surface area and a pellets are gradually dis- day, Gustafson adds, but rich supply of blood," solved by rainwater, ab- people generally don't find The American Heart As- sorbed by the roots, and the smell overpowering. sociation recommends taken up into the tree. The —Joel Schwarz the lung-spray technique for tree then eliminates the use with a variety of emer- compound as dimethyl sel- "If l do not believe as you gency cardiac-care drugs, enide, "the very same gas believe, it proves that you do and it would probably your friends complain about 'not believe as I believe, save thousands of lives after you've eaten spaghetti and this is all that it proves. each year. But even though with garlic bread." —Thomas Paine the technique has been 58 OMNI .

BY BEN BOVA

"The bone-rattling roar and vibration of liftoff suddenly died away. . .

He was no longer plastered up against his seat, but touching it only lightly, almost floating in it. reslrained only by his harness, It was the

fourth time he had felt weightlessness. . . . When he reached the PHOTOGRAPHS BY DON SPARKS .

laboratory hatch he slowly rotated, like a minum cylinder, about a yard shorter than best chance in the history of space explo- Spacelab 1. They are assisted by mission nations (see "Uncorking Ariane," Space, The most significant thing about Space- ration for doing science in just the specialists Owen Garriott and Robert Par- . . of St. Louis. space September 1983), has swimmer doing a lazy rollover . and Charles A. Lindbergh's Spirit ESA spent roughly lab, though, is that it is a working scientific ker, who hold doctorates pushed himself inside. ... His arms tended It's about 15 ieet in diameter, comparable way it is done on the ground. And the in electrical en- $1 billion on the Spacelab program. Ac- laboratory in orbit, manned by scientists gineering astronomy, to float out, but they touched the equip- to the size of a small transport plane. And launch of the mother ship bearing Space- and respectively. tually they have built two modules, one of who are in communication with each of the Garriott is a veteran ment racks on either side of the narrow as presaged in fiction, most of its interior lab will mark several other beginnings. of the Skylab 3 mis- which has been purchased by NASA. Each scientists who designed the 69 different sion; this is Parker's first orbital flight. central , is filled with instrumentation and electron- •For the first time NASA is bringing foreign Pi- module is designed to flown at least passageway. . be 50 experiments aboard the lab. Human beings scientific into loting Columbia is the veteran John Young, "The laboratory was about the size and ics: It carries roughly five tons of nationals space. Although the Soviet times; so 100 missions can be carried out at the controls will be ready to alter an ex- commander of Columbia's shape ol the interior of a smatl transport gear. Unlike the airpiane. though, it doesn't Union has orbited" 'guest cosmonauts" from 54-hour maiden over the lifetime of the modules. periment here, fine-tune a measurement in fly its Orbiting kilometers almost every nation in the Soviet bloc, and voyage April 1981, and Brewster Shaw, For the first time in pfane. . . . Nearly its entire length was taken on own. 250 the quarter-century there, and take immediate advantage of a one of the new generation of shuttle up by instrument racks, control equip- (about 150 miles) high, Spacelab 1 rides even a French "spacionaule," Ulf fvlerbold, astro- history of NASA, astronauts will- provide change in conditions or environment. Until nauts. It will be the first time the shuttle ment, and the computer, humming almost in the payload bay of the shuttle Columbia, of West Germany, will be the first non- has blood samples while working in orbit. The now virtually all space science has been carried a six-man crew. inaudibly behind light plastic panels." drawing some 7.5 kilowatts of electricity American to fly a NASA mission, fvlerbold procedure breaks a venerable taboo done by automated equipment or— at fuel cells relying is no mere guest astronaut, however. Like • Another of Spacelab's firsts is that the against puncturing I wrote those lines almost 15 years ago, from the shuttle's and on an astronaut's body best—equipment tended by astronauts laboratory module itself for a science-fiction story. Today they are the shuttle's life-support system. Byron Lichtenberg, of MIT, he is a working and roughly half while in space. The samples may help pin who were not actual research scientists. of the experimental equipment .a fairly good description of Spacelab 1 the But this blunt, wingless, and engineless scientist. The two men are called payload flying with down the currently uncertain causes of the (That was the case on Skylab, sometimes it were built by the European first manned scientific laboratory to go into cyiinder--scheduled to debut at about the specialists, and they are responsible for Space Agency spacesickness that debilitates many crew confused with Spacelab. Skylab was a 117- (ESA). A consortium of 11 space. The lab itself is a 24-foot-!ong alu- time you read this— offers researchers the running some 69 experiments aboard West European members during their first days in orbit. foot-long orbiting laboratory supporting ' TO FIND THE RIGHT SHOE, Y0UD0N7 HAVE TO GO TO THEENDS OF THE EARTH.

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three-man crews o! astronauts until it was many has 21 experiments aboard; France, where manned operations are directed. snagged by the atmosphere and broke up 13, the United States. 12; Great Britain, 6; The Marshall Center is often called "the over Australia on July 11, 1979.) This has Italy, 4; Austria, Belgium, and the Nether- house that von Braun built," because it was restricted the scientific studies that can be lands' 3 each; and Japan, Switzerland, there, on the grounds of the U.S. Army's accomplished in space, because auto- Sweden, and Spain. 1 apiece, Redstone Arsenal, that Wernher von Braun rocket engineers devel- mated equipment can do only what it has Merbold, a quietly intense solid-state and his team of first satellite, Explorer been programmed to do. It is impossible physicist from the Max Planck Institute for oped the American tor researchers to change the program- Metals Research, in Stuttgart, thinks that I. Later, after NASA had been created and to Ameri- ming in mid-mission to take advantage of the international aspect of the Spacelab the Apollo program raced send new, unforeseen opportunities. program is its most important feature. cans to the moon, von Braun built the huge Even automated probes as sophisti- "Working with scientists from so many Saturn boosters that rattled the city of cated as the Viking landers on the surface different countries widens your personal Huntsville like a minor earthquake when of Mars or the Voyager spacecraft that horizons," he says. "You find that, despite their mighty engines were tested. journeyed out to Jupiter and Saturn are national differences, people in research are Because of the delays in the shuttle's first flight, year's training hia- limited in this way. The Viking i lander, for pretty much the same everywhere. And there was a example, has fallen silent on the plain of they become friends." tus, when the scientists were able to return Chryse after six years of faithfully sending But there have been differences and to their normal lives at home campuses. pictures and other data back to Earth. problems during Spacelab's ten-year-long Meanwhile the scientists designing the NASA engineers fear that the reason for gestation. Most of the difficulties stemmed experiments for Spacelab were using the itself. to and often redesign— Viking's silence is that the lander inad- from the delays in the space shuttle extra time refine— equipment. While waiting for the shut- vertently turned its communications an- NASA originally expected to fly the first their tenna away from Earth and is now beam- Space ! ab mission in 1980, and they invited tle to get off the ground, NASA had to jug- tech- ing data into deep, empty space and scientists to design experiments to be flown gle dozens of different human and cannot receive fresh Instructions from then. The scientific communities of West- nological equations. The man who had to keep all the exper- Earth. If a human were present, such a mi- nor problem would be resolved quickly. iments and experimenters in line with the engineering requirements of spaceflight Without human intervention Viking I is now Charles "Rick" Chapell, a plasma useless, even though its equipment should was at Marshall continue to function for years to come. physicist who wears two hats QThis blunt, Marshall's solar-ter- The advent of human scientists in space SFC. Chapell, chief of may well mark the end of a debate that has wingless, and engineless reslr al phys cs Division, is also the mission scientist for Spacelab 1 racked the space program for more than cylinder offers 20 years. Many scientists have argued bit- Most of the managers for such pro- terly that the billions of dollars NASA has researchers the best chance grams as Spacelab have come up through engineering ranks; dealing with missions- as Apollo • NASAs spent on such manned . for doing and the space shuttle would have pro- scientists from a dozen nations and many science in space just different disciplines isn't easy for them. duced more results if the money had been spent on unmanned scientific probes. the way it "Typically a group of engineers will view a group of scientists as a roomful of Now, with real-time scientific research the ground^ is done on Chapell says being done in orbit, this old schism may chaos unmanaged chaos." begin to heal. The next generation of sci- in his soft, calm Southern drawl. entists may look forward to working in "The engineers tend to view the scien- tists make space aboard Spacelab or one of its de- as people who are way out—who scendants. NASA will also be placing the impossible demands and are never satis- little fright on the Space Telescope in orbit within a few years, em Europe and the United States were also fied. So there's a bit of opening a new dimension in space-borne invited to select researchers who would go engineering-management side about what research for astronomers. aloft with the Spacelab. the scientists are likely to do— how do we "The exciting thing about Spacelab." The scientists reacted with enthusiasm, bring them into order?" says payload specialist Lichtenberg en- and soon NASA was sifting through hun- Chapell's job has been to bring the sci- thusiastically, "is that we are the begin- dreds of proposals for experiments. From entists and engineers together so that goal nings of a new breed, the first generation these NASA- selected the 69 to be flown Spacelab can accomplish the major of scientists who are going into orbit." aboard Spacelab 1, plus others to be flown of its first mission: to demonstrate that the for Lichtenberg has devoted his entire life on follow-up missions. laboratory will be useful doing many of scientific to being a scientist in space, Turned on by Of the dozens of hopeful scientists who different kinds flexible re- reading science fiction as a youngster, he wanted to go. into orbit, the American com- search in orbit. decided that to become an astronaut, he munity finally settled on Lichtenberg and As Chapell kept Spacelab plans and had to be a jet pilot first. After serving in Michael Lampton, a physicist from the Uni- personnel in order, a new problem sud- the Air Force as a fighter pilot and flying versity of Cahforn. a at Berkeley, whose main denly cropped up in space, threatening that F-4s in Vietnam, he went to MIT, where he interests are X-ray and ultraviolet astron- fundamental goal. received degrees in mechanical engi- omy. The Europeans picked Merbold as Doing science in "real time" means that neering and biomedical engineering. He well as Wubbo Ockels, a nuclear physicist the payload specialists in the orbiting lab- is a member of MIT's research staff, not a at the University of Groningen, the Neth- oratory are to be in constant communica- NASA employee, and makes his home in erlands. Lampton and Ockels trained, as tion with the principal investigators who

Massachusetts, where he still flies with the backup payload specialists, with Lichten- designed each of the lab's many experi- Air National Guard. berg and Merbold. ments. The aim is to have data rain down experimental If Spacelab truly marks the end of the The four scientists left their homes to be- continuously from the lab's tensions between research scientists and gin training in 1978, expecting to fly in two equipment and the payload specialists to In NASAs manned space programs, it also, years. They spent most of tne.r training time the scientists on the ground. return, the marks the beginning of a new era of inter- either at NASA's Marshall Space Flight principal investigators would be able to talk national cooperation. Scientists from a Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, the prime directly to the payload specialists and make dozen nations have produced the experi- site for the Spacelab mission, or at the changes in the experiments, taking advan- of the they are receiving and any ments that went into Spacelab 1 . West Ger- Johnson Space Center, near Houston, tage data es OMNI could they do real- lose any bits [of data]," he says. changes in the conditions aboard the lab would be usable. How without the all-important Thomas is a serious, careful engineer or in space. In the past communications time science orbit the prin- who has worked his way up through the from orbiting vehicles have come in bursts communications link from to ranks to head the Spacelab program. A lasting only as long as spacecraft are in cipal investigators?.

: ng veteran of the Saturn and Skylab pro- touch with a ground-tracking station. Thealternat ve8 fac NASAs manage- scrub grams, he wants to be able to prove that The real-time communications link was ment were few and grim. One was to flexible, 1 until TDRSs Spacelab will be a reusable, and to have been provided by two tracking and the Spacelab launch both functioning economical facility for valuable scientific data relay satellites (TDRS). But the first were in their proper orbits and of delays, that research in orbit. TDRS almost failed to achieve its proper well. But after Ihree years Spacelab program ESA has spent roughly $1 billion on orbit, and the second was never launched. might- have killed the Spacelab, and NASA has put in nearly a The TDRSs are carried into low-Earth or- altogether. The scientisfs who had waited together might sim- comparable amount toward ground facili- Pit aboard the space shuttle, then injected for NASA to get its act ties, launching costs, and personnel. Fac- into geostationary orbit, 22.300 miles aPove ply have given up hope and dropped out like these, Thomas is the kind the equator, by a booster rocket called the of the program. ing numbers of practical engineer who knows how to interim upper stage (IUS). On the sixth The second alternative was to try to do corner when it can be shaved. shuttle mission, this past April, the first as much of ihe research as possible aboard shave a National Air and Space TDRS was deployed from the Challenger's the orbiting lab, recording results, as in Standing in the in Washington, DC, is a fully payload bay with no trouble. But the IUS previous missions, and skipping' real-time Museum, real article, which malfunctioned shortly after leaving the communication to scientists on the ground. equipped Skylab, the served as backup to the one launched in shuttle and failed to boost the satellite into No one wanted that. get would itself have gone into orbit the geostationary orbit. Ingenious NASA The third alternative was to try to 1973 and failed. engineers gradually nudged the TDRS up along with one TDRS and to make up the if the first Skylab had additional record- One of the most popular exhibits at the to its proper orbit, using built-in 45-caliber difference by packing the Skylab vehicle has also be- maneuvering thrusiers that deliver one ing equipment aboard Spacelab. NASA museum, car- come popular with Thomas and his engi- pound of thrust each. By July the space chose that option. The laboratory now neers. They have raided it several times agency announced that the first TDRS was ries a sophisticated tape recorder that can that is now installed in functioning properly. store 32 million bits of data. Each time the for equipment Spacelab, including spark-free air-circu- But the malfunction of the IU.S caused spacecraft- comes within range of the one. will be lation fans, special cleated shoes that al- NASA to postpone the launch of the sec- orbiting TDRS, the stored data the astronauts to clamp their feet to the ond TDRS indefinitely. And that sent a squirted to the satellite and relayed in a low despite the zero-gravity condi- tremor through the Spacelab program. dense batch to the ground. lab's floor tion in orbit, and a large high-optical-qual- Only half of the communications relay John Thomas, the Spacelab program of- ity window that has been placed in Space- system was working. In fact, for many fice manager at NASA/Marshall, claims that forward natch. weeks during April and May, the Spacelab this compromise will allow the mission to lab's scientists will be able to photograph team was not even sure that the first TDRS accomplish its scientific goals. "We will no! The the earth and the stars through that win- dow without leaving the shirt-sleeve safety of the laboratory module. All of this problem solving and prepa- ration will reap extraordinary rewards, NASA hopes, after thefirst scientists clam- ber through a 3.5-foot-wide aluminum tun- nel from Columbia's living quarters to Spacelab and begin their weightless re- search. Among their first subjects for in- vestigation: the astronauts themselves. The debate about whether crew mem- bers in space ought to be subjects of med- ical research has smoldered since the start of the Mercury program and the selection of the original seven astronauts. Drawn from the ranks of hotshot jet jockeys, these fighter pilots and test pilots always viewed medical doctors with trepidation. M.D.'s w'ere always the guys who redlined a pilot, declared him unfit for flying duty because of slightly high blood pressure or some other reason the pilots found unworthy. With that kind of background, the astronauts cooperated only grudgingly with NASAs medical specialists and steadfastly re- fused to allow themselves to become guinea pigs — especially while on a com- plex mission in space. have had ty/iss***— The medics, on the other hand, to face all the challenges of understanding how the human mind and body react to prolonged periods of zero gravity. (Ac- tually, NASA specialists refer to "micro- gravity," pointing out that zero gravity is

1 "They're calling ahead for reservations' What do / say? not really attained in orbit, because the spacecraft itself exerts a microscopic gravitational influence over the crew inside with cross hairs i'o onablc 'osearchers to eyeballs. Blood samples are taken before, it. For anyone but a specialist, however, track eyeball rotation). They have swal- during, and after the flight to see whether zero gravity is close enough to the truth.) lowed heavy water, deuterium oxide, which there are any changes in the count of red

Astronauts have become ill when under- disrupts the sense of balance. And they and white cells. In addition, white blood going weightlessness. Despite the exhila- have given blood samples. cells will be grown in a culture medium to ration and sense of freedom that zero g All these tests are designed to explore see if weightlessness affects their ability to brings, there have been plenty of cases of the workings of the vestibular system in- ;gh; bacterial infections. what the media now call spacesickness. side the ear, the human body's natural bal- But the life-sciences experiments aboard

Dr. William B. Lenoir, mission specialist ancing system. Spacesic-mess is sopsr Spacelab 1 are not restricted to studying aboard the fifth shuttle flight, in November ently the result of conflicting signals from the problems of human physiology. Other 1982, was one of the lirst medical doctors the vestibular sysieu: and the eyes. In zero experiments will study the effects of to experience that malady. gravity your eyes may be telling your brain weightlessness and radiation on cell "It's not like seasickness at all," he said. that you are standing right side up, but growth. Bacteria, sunflower seeds, and

"It's really nothing more than a wet burp." your vestibular' system is tolling your brain fungi will all be examined in an effort to

"You just feel sort of lousy." anofher as- that you're falling I ke a leac we ght dropped learn whether plants can determine which tronaut reported "It's like you're coming from the top of a very high building. These way is up in a zero-gravity situation, and down with the flu; you don't quite feel up conflicting signals are suspected to be the how the 24-hour circadian rhythm of ter- to doing the work." cause of the slightly groggy, grumpy, restrial organisms may change in space. While this upset feeling usually disap- drained, and ursclllod stnio characteristic Four other major areas of research will pears after a day or so in orbit. NASA's ot spacesickness. make up the rest of Spacelab's work. medics are still working hard to pin down The tests on the ground provided a Astronomy and solar physics: Tele- the causes of spacesickness. Once they baseline measurement of the astronauts' scopes, cameras, and other detectors can understand the malady's cause, they leel physiology. The tests will be repeated examine the sun and stars without hin- they may be able to produce a cure— or aboard Spacelab. under zero-g condi- drance from the earth's blanket of cloudy, at least a palliative. tions, to compare results. turbulent air. Several investigations will look So one of the major areas of investiga- Experiments developed by American, at very faint sources of ultraviolet light and tion on the Spacelab 1 mission is the life German Italian. Bctish. and Swiss scien- X rays, wavelengths that do not reach sciences, and the payload and mission tists include the use of television cameras ground-based instruments at all. Another specialists will be both investigators and and sensors attached to the astronauts' .group of experiments will make precise experimental subjects. bodies to monitor body motions and ori- measurements of the sun's output of en- For months the crew members and their entations. Each member of the lab crew ergy, which astronomers call the solar con- backups have s..ib|ectec themselves to all wears a small tape recorder on his belt to stant, flecent research has indicated that sorts of tests: They have been spun on ro- collect data on heartbeat rate, electrical the constant may be subject to minute fluc- tating chairs while wearing contact lenses activity in' the brain, and motions of the tuations. Since the earth's weather de- pends on the energy beamed from the sun, these new measurements will have an im- portant impact on efforts to understand and predict global weather. Space-plasma physics: The "vacuum"

of interplanetary -pace is actually filled with a very thin electrified gas. Physicists call

it a plasma. A ghostly solar wind blows from the sun, sending atomic particles hurtling past the earth at speeds of 1.000 miles per hour or more. Magnetic storms on the sun travel through this plasma and affect the earth's magnetic field, causing auroras and sometimes disrupting radio and telephone communications and even knocking out e'ectrical power cables. A half-dozen experiments on Spacelab

1 will probe this space plasma. Japanese and French experiments, for example, will fire electrified particles— electrons and ions ; into the earth's magnetosphere (a region, extending thousands of miles into space, dominated by the earth's magnetic field so that charged particles are trapped

in it) to create temporary, artificial auroras. Atmospheric physics and Earth obser- vations: From- its perch 155 miles above the surface, Spacelab can examine the composition, temperatures, and motions of the gases that make' up the earth's at- mosphere. Instruments will study our plan- et's landmasses and water surfaces on a global scale. A large-film camera will take high-resolution photographs that can be used for unprecedentedly precise map- making, and microwave radar will allow detailed observation of the earth's sur- face, even through cloud cover.

CONT-NUFfiONr'AGF Kjfi aMWBi

BY HOBCRT SILVERBL RC

the place a crazy house of dizzying retraction: mirrors on the ceiling." mirrors on the walls, nirrors in the angles

walls met the ceiling and the floor,

even little eddies of mirror dust PAINTING BY BEATE BROMS out "What's your now-name?" he asked. periodically blown on gusts of air through Instead of going to the bar, she moved serenely the switchers on the floor, 'Judy," the room so that all the bizarre distortions, among herself, "I'm Van." iracturings, and dislocations of image that found an open space, centered "Hello, Van." were bouncing around the place would looked toward the mirrors on the far side apart, feet planted flat, "How about a brandy? Steady you up a from time to time coalesce in a shimmering of the room. Legs turning globe little more." haze of chaos right before your eyes. Col- shoulders forward, A don't drink." ored globes spun round and round over- splashed waves of red and violet light, "I over into her "Never?" head, creating patterns of ricocheting light. splintered a thousand times expected upturned face, "Vixen does the drinking," she said, It was exactly the way Cleo had Cleo. You are "Ah. The old story. She gets the bubbles, a multiples club to look. Go. Go. Go, Go. You are get her hangovers, l have one like that She had walked up and down the whole Judy. You are Vixen. You are Lisa. Go. Go. you too, only with him It's Hunan food, He ab- Fillmore Street strip, from Union to Chest- Go. Go. Cascades of iridescence sweep- of her soul, battering at solutely doesn't give a damn what lobster nut and back again, for half an hour, peer- ing over the rim walls of identity. Come, enter, drown in hot and sour sauce does to my digestive ing at this club and that before finding the the her her back the way switch me. You are Cleo and system. I hope you pay courage to go inside one that called itself me, split me, Lisa. You are Cleo she deserves," Skits. Though she had been planning this Judy. You are Vixen and Lisa. Go. Go. Cleo smiled and said nothing. night for months, she found herself para- and Judy and Vixen and Go, Her eyes were He was watching her closely. Was he in- lyzed by fear a! the last minute: afraid they Her head was spinning. terested, or just being polite to someone would spot her as a fraud the moment she blurring, The room gyrated around her. of her depth in a this it? Was she splitting? Was she who was obviously out walked in, afraid they would drive her out Was the capacity strange milieu? Interested, she decided, with jeers and curses and cold, mocking switching? Maybe so. Maybe Vixen in even her. and all He seemed to have accepted that laughter, But now that she was within, she was there everyone, stuff at face value. it would take was the lights, the mir- felt fine— calm, confident, ready for the time that herself. rors, right ambience, the will. Be careful now, Cleo warned of her life, the Trying to pile on convincing-sounding de- There were more women than men in the tails when you don't really know what you're club, something like a seven-to-three ratio. about is a sure way to give yourself Hardly anyone seemed to be talking to talking away sooner or later, anyone else, Most stood alone in the mid- The thing to do, she knew, was to estab- dle of the floor, staring into the mirrors as ZShe was alone lish her credentials without working too though in trance. hard at it; sit back, listen, learn how things Their eyes were slits, their jaws were in the bed. She felt a really operate among these people. slack, their shoulders slumped forward, confusion surge of "What do you do up there in Sacra- their arms dangled. Now and then, as some dislocation, remembered mento?" combination of reflections sluiced across and "Nothing fascinating." with particular im- ' their consciousnesses after a moment 1 "Poor Judy. Real-estate broker? pact, they would go taut and jerk and wince where she was and how "How'd you guess?" as if they had been struck. Their faces real-es- "Every other woman I meet is a would flush, their lips would pull back, their she happened to tate broker these days. What's Vixen?" eyes would roll, they would mutter and be there, sat up, blinked.^ "A lusti." whisper to themselves; then after a mo- "Not much of a livelihood in that." ment they would slip back into stillness. Cleo shrugged. "She doesn't need one. Cleo knew what they were doing. They The res! of us support her." were switching and doubling, Maybe some "Real estate and what else?" of the adepts were tripling. multiples eti- ' sure that multiple. I Cleo She hadn't been Her heart rate picked up. Her throat was I am many. I am am talking alter- I l-am— quette included about one's very dry. What was the routine here? she switching to Vixen. am Judy, and nate selves. But she had come prepared, wondered. Did you just walk right out onto Wo, / am Cleo. Cleo. "Lisa's a landscape architect. Cieo's into the floor and plug into the light patterns, I am I getting sick, software. We all keep busy," or were you supposed to go to the bar first I am very dizzy, and am He's de- Cleo, as I have "Lisa ought to meet Chuck. a for a shot or a snort? and I am Cleo and only mon horticulturalist, Partne r in a plant-rental She looked toward the bar, A dozen or always been. I am Cleo and only Cleo, and and fall outfit—you know, huge dracaenas so customers were sitting there, mostly I am going to down. philodendrons for offices, so much per men, a couple of them openly studying her, month, take them away when they start giving her that new-girl-in-town stare, Cleo "Easy." he said, "You okay?" looking sickly. Lisa and Chuck could talk returned their ga?e evenly, coolly, blankly. "Steadying up, I think, Whewl" palms and bromelaids and cacti all night," Standard-looking men, reasonably attrac- "Out-of-iowner, eh?" "We should introduce them," tive, thirtyish or early fortyish, business "Sacramento. How'd you know?" floor. all know "We should, yes." suits, conventional hairstyles: young law- "Too quick on the Locals "But first we have to introduce Van and yers, executives, maybe stockbrokers- better. This place has the fastest mirrors in successful sorts out for a night's fun, the the west. They'll blow you away If you're Judy," there 'And then maybe Van and Cleo," he said, kind of men you might run into anywhere, not careful, You can't just go out and you've got to phase She felt a tremor of fear. Had he found Look at that one— tall, athletic, curly hair, grab for the big one— her out so soon? "Why Van and Cleo? glasses, Faint, ironic smile, easy, inquiring yourself In slowly, You sure you're going to Cieo's not here right now. This is Judy ayes. Almost professorial, And yet, and be okay?" you're talking to." yet— behind that smooth, Intelligent fore- "I think so," Easy!" head, what strangenesses must teem and He was the tall man from the bar, the "Easy, But she was unable to halt, "I can't de- boil! How many hidden souls must lurk and athletic, professorial one, She supposed caught her before she had actually liver Cleo to you just like that, you know. jostle I Scary Tempting. he had felt She does as she pleases." Irresistible,' - fallen, since she no bruises. against her "Easy," he said, 'All I meant was, Van Cleo resisted, Take it slow, take it slow, His hand rested easily now in common. Van's right elbow as he lightly steered her toward and Cleo have something into software, too," Copyright © 7983 by Agberg, Ltd. a table along the wall. 74 OMNI Cleo relaxed. With a little laugh she said, "Poor Van." "I can keep control of her when we're only Cleo, and that, knew, all she made the up one of his other identities. That was the whether he was still Van at all. "Yes. Poor Van." Then he leaned for- doubling. Come on, take me through the "Oh, not you, too! Isn't everybody nowa- difference. She seemed to be able to fake main thing that multiples came to these "You didn't switch, did you?" said, his tone softening, "You mirrors." I were something in ward and it days? But thought you well enough. She could make up a Judy, clubs to do. No longer were all their various "Doubled. Paul's with me now."

professor I shouldn't made that crack "You be careful now. San Francisco mir- the academic world. A university know. have a Lisa, a Vixen, assign little corners of her identities forced to dwell in rigorously sep- "Paul?" that." about Van meeting Cleo. Thai was very rors aren't like Sacramento ones. You've personality or something like to each, give them voices of arated compartments of their minds. With "Paul's from Texas. Geologist, terrific "I AtCal." tacky of me." already discovered that." their own, facial individual am, expressions, the aid of the mirrors and lights the skilled poker game, plays the guitar. " Van smiled, "I'll "Software?" "It's okay. Van. I didn't take it seriously," watch my step this time. Shall we go identities. Standing before her mirror at able briefly ones were to fuse two or even and it was like a shifting of gears. In a "In a manner of speaking. Linguistics. "You seemed to. You were very upset." out there?" home, she had managed to convince her- three of their selves into something more deeper, broader voice he said. "And I sing

actually. field is the "Well maybe at first. But then I saw you "Sure," he said," self. Metalinguistics, My She might even be able to convince complex. When he comes back here, she real good too, ma'am. Van's jealous of that floor language of language— the basic sub- were just horsing around." As they began to move out onto the him. But as the swirling lights careened off thought, will he be Van plus X. And I must because he can't sing worth beans. Are thirty neural of communi- '"I still shouldn't have said it. You were a slender, T-shirted man of about infinities - sets, the coordinates the of interlocking mirrors and pretend to be Judy plus Vixen. you ready for a refill?" our brains absolutely right: This is Judy's time now. came toward them. Shaven scalp, bushy cation, the underlying programs came slaioming into the gateways of her She readied herself for that. Judy was "You bet," Cleo said, sounding sloppy, here, that's fine. It's medallions, boots. Very San use, the operating systems. Mind as com- Cleo's not and just Judy mustache, reeling soul, the dismal fear began to rise easy. Judy was mostly the real Cleo, the sounding Vixenish.

1 Francisco, very frowned at Cleo puter, computer as mind. 1 can get very want to get to know." gay. He in her that she could never truly be one of real-estate woman from Sacramento, with it," "You will." she said. "But you can meet and stared straightforwardly at Van. boring about these people after all, however skillfully she Cleo's notion of what it was like to be a His apartment was nearby, a cheerful, too, Lisa introduce "Ned?" he said. "I don't find the mind a boring subject." Cleo. and and Vixen. I'll imitated them in their intricacies. multiple added in. And Vixen? Cleo imag- airy, sprawling place in the Marina district.

to the whole crew. I don't mind." Van scowled and shook his head. "No. "I don't find real estate a boring subject. you Was it so? Was she doomed always to ined her to be about twenty-three, a Los The segmented nature of his life was im- sure of Not now." Talk to me about second mortgages and "You're that?" stand outside their irresistible world, hope- Angeles girl, a one-time child tennis star mediately obvious: The prints and paint-

"Sorry. Very sorry. I should have real- triple-net leases." "Suie." lessly peering in? Too soon to tell — much who had broken her ankle in a dumb prank ings on the walls looked as though they our shaven-headed flushed "Talk to me about Chomsky and Benja- "Some of us are very secretive about ized." The man too soon, she thought, to admit defeat. and had never recovered her game after- had been chosen by four or five different hurried away. min Whorf," she said. alters." and At least she didn't fall down. She took ward, and who had taken up drinking to people, one of whom ran heavily toward "Let's go," Van said to Cleo. His eyes widened. "You've heard of Ben- 'Are you?" Cleo asked. the punishment of the mirrors as long as ease the pain and loss. Uninhibited, un- vivid scenes of sun- not." jamin Whorf" "Sometimes. Sometimes she could stand it, and then, not waiting predictable, untidy, fiery, fierce: all the rise over the Grand linguistics. "I you'll meet some This time she found it easier to keep her "I majored in comparative don't mind. Maybe for him to leave the floor, she made her things that Cleo was not. Could she be Canyon, another to Knowing he was nearby That was before real estate." of mine tonight." She glanced toward the balance. that way— carefully, carefully, walking a tight- Vixen? She took a deep gulp of her drink Picasso and Miro. "I center floor. "I think I've steadied up helped. But still the waves of refracted light "Just my lousy luck," he said. get a of the rope over an abyss— to the bar. When he. and put on the Vixen face: eyes hard and someone else to pounding in, pounding in, pounding chance to find out what's hot in the. shop- now. I'd like to try the mirrors again." came head had begun to stop spinning she or glittering: cheek muscles clenched. delicate, impressionist talk "Switching?" in. The assault was total: remorseless, im- ping-center market and she wants to dered a drink, and she sipped it cau- Van was leaving the floor now. His way views of Parisian "I'd like bring placable, overwhelming. had to strug- about Whorf and Chomsky." "Doubling," she said. to She tiously. She could feel the alcohol extend- of moving seemed to have changed: He street scenes

can the drinking, and I gle against the throbbing in her chest, the "I thought every other woman you met Vixen up. She do ing itself inch by inch into her bloodstream. was stiff, almost awkward, his shoulders and flower mar-

talking. Will it bother if she's in her temples, the wobbliness these days was a real-estate broker. Talk can do the you hammering It calmed her. On the floor Van stood in held high, his elbows jutting oddly. He her this pleasure for to them about shopping centers." here, too?" of knees. And was trance, occasionally quivering in a sud- looked so different thai she wondered "They all want to talk about Whorf and "Won't bother me unless she's a sloppy them? This was a supreme delight? den, convulsive way for a fraction of a sec- Chomsky. More intellectual." drunk. Or a mean one." But they were multiples, and she was ond. He was doubling, she knew: bringing

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ten-month trip to Mars is gines will work, and then the nuts," argues physicist solar system — and Earth— Ai Robert Bussard. In- won't look quite the same. stead, he proposes a space The duration of the trip— not voyage lasting a mere three the distance — has long been weeks at the turn of the cen- the true measure of geo- tury. "This is the way to do it," graphical separation on Earth. he continues, "with point-to- Years-long Renaissance voy- point travel times equivalent to ages around the world can those of the Old West." now be made at leisure in a Despite today's retreat in few months, and hurriedly in farsighted national space 40 hours. Transatlantic excur- commitments, there is no lack sions today are a matter of of ideas for future interplane- weekends, not months And as tary-spaceship propulsion. flight times shrink, our percep- They range trom Franklin tion of the world changes. We Chang's "ion drive with an af- grow less insular. As we con- terburner," to Rod Hyde's la- trol the travel time, we become ser-pulsed fusion drive, to masters of the space.

Robert Forward's multidimen- So it will be with space itself: sional fascination with anti- The new generation of long- matter-annihilation drive. {A haul ships will change our per- preliminary version of Hyde's ceptions of other planets. design is the centerpiece of an Within a generation or two, hu- artist's conception of future mans will grow up with a sense ships, at left.) All of these, as of dominion over once-for- well as others, might work bidden territories. The solar when the time comes for really system itself will take on the serious interplanetary truck- manageable dimensions of a ing. It's safe to suppose that Renaissance world. at least some of the unstream- Last spring Pioneer 10 de- lined but sophisticated en- parted the solar system after PAINTING BY PAUL LEHR —

increase the ex- particles. The exhaust column, or plume coasting up and out for 11 years. Had the crease engine efficiency, chamber temper- a core of plasma and its outer sleeve of spacecraft been able (o maintain the high haust velocity, increase an exhaust material inert gas—has more bulk than plasma acceleration lhat characterized its first ten ature, and use as light thrust than a preferably hydrogen gas. alone. So it provides more minutes of flight, the trip would have taken as possible— rockets simple plasma rocket. The amount of inert about a week. Standard liquid-fueled military change the bulk Isp of about 250 seconds, which gas can be controlled to The time will come when voyages to Mars have an of the fuel and the specific impulse. The part of a year. they can maintain for several minutes. The no longer consume the better bulk— and shuttle's main engines, burning liq- plume would have highest With the right kinds of engines, people space of more than slowest flow—when first ignited. could get from here to there and back again uid hydrogen, have an Isp feature of fire for more than eight "I consider the number-one within the span of a summer vacation. 450 seconds and this concept the variable specific im- Some simple calculations can demon- minutes. Nuclear rockets using fission to able to deliver BOO to pulse," Chang says. And the second major strate the true point-to-point temporal di- heat hydrogen were exhaust plume is cooler seconds of Isp in ground tests in the feature is that the mensions of the solar system, if engine 1 ,000 inert tens of min- in its outer borders— in the sleeve of power were no longer a limiting factor. late Sixties, in burns lasting The key or electric propulsion, of- gas— than in the plasma center. Since human beings will be aboard future utes. Ion drive, or more, for advantage of such a system: The cooler spaceships, a ship's acceleration should fers an Isp of 10,000 seconds plasma from end, but with all the layer of inert gas insulates the probably be limited to the force of gravity weeks or months on kiss. the rocket nozzle, which otherwise would surface, or one g. The flight plan push of a butterfly's on Earth's but the semi mythical solar- melt. Neither of fhe features is original, would probably call for continuous thrust- The engine of is. need an Isp of 1 their combination building up speed to the halfway point, system spaceship would ing, pioneered work question is. How do In addition. Chang has then flipping the craft around and braking million seconds. The interaction " million? There are a great in the computer modeling of the the destination. we make it to a to sur- few ot which - of the plasma jet with the inert material With such an engine, a manned space- many possible answers, only a ' rounding it. "Film cooling"— cooling the ship could reach the moon in three hours will turn out to be right. nozzle containing the plume with an outer and 40 minufes, inslead of the three days gaseous sleeve —has been seen before in needed by Apollo astronauts: With such rocket designs, but not over such extreme an engine, a manned spaceship could temperature ranges. reach Mars in 55 hours, instead of the ten The result is an engine that may be able months it took the Viking robots. And with ^Voyages to Mars to propel both interorbital space tugs as such an engine, a manned spaceship could well as fast interplanetary probes, with sig- reach the edge of the solar system in 16 will no longer take the nificantly larger payloads than is possible days, instead of the decade needed by part of better with current systems. Pioneer. With such an engine, even the year. With the right "In a lot of this sfuff, I'm still a Lone nearby stars come within planning range. a Ranger," Chang admits. "We don't have all That may be asking for the impossible, kinds of engines, the numbers worked out yet." But with the at least for the next century, But even an peopie could get there and help ot a graduate student at MIT, and with engine capable of a mere 1 percent of serious interest from NASA's Jet Propul- gravitational force would be ex- back within Earth's Rocket spaceship sion Laboratory and the Air Force traordinarily fasi. It could get a vacation.^ a summer Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, to the moon in 35 hours and to Mars in Chang has seen the concept evolve from three weeks— remarkably rapid trips in an idea to a plan for laboratory testing of terms of today's space technology. And plume stability. such engines are almost certain to be- Testing could come within a year or two. come feasible within a few decades. orbital confidence in a pro- Following that, Chang envisions an Blueprints for these engines are now 'To demonstralc system- per- engine, based on his design, attached to being drawn up. The designers share one posed new rocket-propulsion willing to ride a platform in the space shuttle's payload purpose: Get from here to there and back haps a specialist should be Chang along is indeed a propulsion re- bay— perhaps with astronaut as quickly and cheaply as possible—and on it, And there also happens to be an as- to assist in the test. before the- next century is halt over. searcher who a Someday, upon arriving at a gas-giant Spaceship-engine power, like any other tronaut: Franklin Ramon Chang, Costa could physicist who is a. member of planet, a vehicle with such an engine element in the statistical universe, can be Rican-born scoop up atmospheric gas— hydrogen measured and quantified. Numbers can be the NASA astronaut corps. Scientist-astronauts (now called mission would be ideal —and use it as the inert gas applied to it, and equations can simulate been encour- for the return trip. (At launch, from orbit the way one rocket functions compared specialists) have always their outside sci- around the earth, the ship would carry ma- with another. Central to all such engineer- aged by NASA to pursue for along with their flight training. terial to make all the plasma needed ing calculations is the concept of the spe- entific work picked as an astro- the whole journey.) "The engine will work cific impulse of a spaceship engine. Oddly For Chang, .who was working on the re- with just about any gas, if tuned properly," enough, the unit of measurement of this naut in 198b and is Chang asserts. quantity— abbreviated Isp (Impulse, spe- search program for a 1985 Spacelab mis- outside work primarily has been The current limiting factors are associ- cific) and pronounced "eye-ess-pee"—is sion, that while ated with the engine's electrical-power seconds of time. a propulsion idea- he first developed researchers. source, which creates and. expels the The specific impulse is the duration, in working with MIT with an after- plasma jet, Chang foresees first the use of seconds, of how long one pound of fuel "Basically it's an ion drive hybrid- nuclear reactors. Under current technol- can provide one pound of thrust. burner" explains Chang. Called a engine, the rocket takes an ogy, the reactors could allow the engine to In more precise engineering terms, Isp plume-plasma high-temperaturerplasma gener- operate with an Isp ranging from 500 sec- is equal to exhaust velocity of burned fuel ordinary system de- onds (not much better than chemical sys- from the rocket nozzle, divided by the ac- ator and couples- it to.a nozzle around tems—but the engine could use almost celeration of gravity {small g) and by the sighed -to inject inert gas in-a, sleeve atmos- anything for propellani, even gas snatched molecular weight of the expelled material. the plasma jet. Plasma, the natural (with from the upper atmospheres of giant Furthermore, exhaust velocity is in turn phere of stars, is a superheated gas thousands of planets or Titan) to 5.000 seconds for really proportional to the chamber temperature. temperatures in the tens of of charged serious interplanetary trucking. The strategy for rocket designers: to in- degrees' Kelvin) composed 30 OMNI "This is not fusion power," Chang is quick field (see "Firepower Plant," February hold up a sample of such a carefully rid- to 'point out. "But if we knew how to do 1983). In Forward's system, the solar en- dled sail during a mission and measure its fusion power it would work even better." ergy would do the pumping. And the re- actual sunlight push and air drag. And when fusion drives are built, they may sulting electric current would be used to There are, of course, other propulsion be advanced versions of his hybrid-plume provide power ior other methods of pro- possibilities. Fusion energy is the most ob- design. Chang, who is now thirty-one, may pulsion— for example, expelling plasma in vious. Fusion rockets would depend on the help build them—and ride them. Chang's drive. By itself, the solar-pumping energy released when the nuclei of hydro-

While science-fiction spaceships tend system is not a propulsion device. But it gen atoms are forced —by lasers, for ex- to zoom through Hollywood skies in what promises to make other schemes requiring ample—to unite into heavier nuclei. "It's might be called the belch-fire mode, there large power sources much more effjcient. worth looking at," Forward suggests, "once are likely to be other technologies for in- A second idea is a light sail full of holes. it gets going — but it hasn't yet. It is defi- terplanetary travel or for important seg- "I invented it." Forward says, "although nitely a viable technique." ments of such travel. Freeman Dyson thought of it, too." Light Rod Hyde certainly thinks so, too. Hyde So as not to miss a trick with potential sails —pushed through space by the light is a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore nonpbvious space-propulsion break- energy from stars—have already been Laboratory, in California, working on laser- throughs of the next century, the Air Force's shown to have highly attractive, super- induced fusion for commercial power gen- rocket lab recently funded a series of study long-haul cargo-carrying ability, even eration. But Hyde is also interested in fu- contracts. One of the grant recipients was without improvement. Perforating a large ture spaceship-propulsion designs. He has Robert Forward, of the Hughes Research "solar sail" (Forward prefers the term light helped conduci several advanced studies

Labs, in Malibu, California. Forward sail since "I intend to push it with other along those lines and this month will be promptly took a year's leave of absence to energy sources, such as laser beams") presenting a report to the International As- examine new ideas for extracting, storing, could cut its mass by 90 percent while not tronautical Federation annua! convention or using energy in space. reducing the sunlight pressure — as long in Budapest. "Once laser fusion works on "I collected about sixty ideas," Forward as the holes are smaller than the wave- Earth." Hyde says, "it becomes trivial to tells Omni, "of which I looked carefully at length oi light. build a spaceship." twenty-six." And from them he chose sev- The holes might provide another advan- The interplanetary spaceship Hyde en- eral that he thought deserved serious ad- tage, Forward says. In Earth orbits below visions is a 1 ,000-ton space freighter to haul ditional investigation. 1.000 kilometers, light sails cannot be de- cargo throughout the solar system at 0.1- One idea involves using solar energy ployed because of the retarding effect of g acceleration. "That's two weeks to Mars, collected in space to run a mobile electric- collisions with air molecules. But a perfo- five weeks to Jupiter, and twenty-five weeks power generator based on MHD princi- rated sail might not be nearly as suscep- to Pluto," Hyde notes. "The trajectories ples. MHD— for magnetohydrodynamic— tible to interference: Air molecules would aren't very sexy— almost just straight lines." is a system to collect the electric power pass through the holes while sunlight would But the payload fraction— the percentage that develops in a flow of gas as it is bounce off. Forward suggests a space- of the total weight taken up by the pay- pumped at high speed through a magnetic shuttle experiment as soon as possible to load —very definitely is sexy, at least to spaceship designers. It's about 50 per- cent, by Hyde's calculations.

Laser-induced pulse fusion is the key. That concept itself got its impetus from the seminal Orion scheme for a spaceship propelled by exploding hydrogen (fusion) bombs. Orion was the vision of physicists Freeman Dyson, Ted Taylor, and others working in the Fifties at the California lab- oratories of the General Atomic Company. Their hope was to put men on Mars by

1965. In the version that may well fly, the explosions are much smaller and much more frequent ("tens per second" is all Hyde can say), and they are to be caused not by detonating bombs but by the igni- tion of tiny pellets by aimed lasers. The desired results: Mass is expelled from the engine at very high velocities, and appro- priate mixtures ot pellet material can pro- duce appreciable thrust levels.

Work is progressing on high-energy la- sers for possible military applications on Earth, and Hyde believes the high-energy beams will become attractive for use in op- erational fusion-power plants. The next step is to adapt the plants for space. "There is no market for such a rocket now." says Hyde. But the practicality of this

rocket, if widely known, could contribute to a demand for one in coming decades. According to Arthur C. Clarke, prophets $^J4j^7 of technological progress tend to be over- optimislic in the short run and underopti- mistic in the long run. One of the reasons

"Lst'S see. At 20 cents per ounce, your weekly salary will be . science seers are too conservative about

the distant future is that they fail to allow — .

lor occasions-, quantum leaps in knowl- bootstrap. Concludes Fin;; sard: "We see it ment. So far only irio r'rnt:e,t amount ot such edge by people like Chang, Forward, and as rationally possible with the physics we material has been handled. Robert Bussard. know and with the engineering we know. The best spaceship-propulsion tech- Currently Bussard, a physicist in La Jolla, It's Just time and money." nique would be to mix small amounts of

California, is working on what he calls a Or maybe not. Hyde argues that Bus- antimatter with much larger amounts of an Riggatron Fusion Tokamak, a trademark sard's continuous magnetic fusion would inert propellant, such as liquid hydrogen. name tor a revolulionary new fusion-power not be nearly as efficient as Hyde's plan "This arrangement should produce spe- generator. It's a small device to contain fu- for a pulsed-tusion engine. cific impulses in the range of several sion reactions within a field emanating from "The weight of the shielding for the su- hundred thousand to several million sec- superconducting electromagnets—mag- perconducting magnets is one objection." onds," Mueller noted. Therefore, "short- nets operating at such low temperatures Hyde complains. That weight would lower duration solar-system voyages can be ac- that they offer almost no electrical resist- the power-to-weight ratio of the system, cut complished readily if antimatter can even- ance. Bussard says the Riggatron "makes acceleration, and lengthen trip times. Cur- tually be manufactured and handled in cheap steam and cheap neutrons and rently there is no way to resolve the issue quantities of a few hundred kilograms." produces energy at a cost equivalent lo a among fusion researchers. Learning to make even these small quan- two- or three-dollar barrel ot oil." But whichever camp is right, fusion alone tities, though, is an immense challenge. By the end of the Eighties, Bussard ex- may not be the most powerful way to pro- Research into fusion power and into pects to be working wil'n experimental units, pel future spaceships. The most potent fuel beam weapons has importance for anti- and within five years after thai, the first now imaginable is antimatter. Reactions as matter research, 'too', Ultimately the artifi- commercial power plants should be avail- particles ot antimatter meet particles ot cial production of antimatter will require able. "If that works," he says, "we can push normal matter release up to 1 ,000 times as specialized particle accelerators of very it to work on deuterium-deuterium reac- much energy per unit of fuel mass as in a high currents and voltages. The electrical tions alone, with higher efficiencies." typical nuclear-fusion reaction. As a power requirements alone are huge.

(Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen with spaceship fuel, antimatter does have Members of the BIS, who produced the twice the mass of ordinary hydrogen.) Daedalus starshio design in the mid-Sev- Bussard goes on; "If we let plasma leak enties, are not staggered by these prob- out past magnetic diverters and mix it with lems—they are intrigued by them. The hydrogen, we have a spaceship drive." original plans for Daedalus, named after Various combinations of Isp and thrust-to- the mythical inventor, called for pulsed-fu- bUpon arriving weight ratios are possible with this contin- sion propulsion. A recent issue of the BIS uous-drive system, he asserts. The peak at a gas-giant planet, journal was entirely devoted to antimatter propulsion (September 1982), and it con- efficiency would be about 6,000 to 7,000 a vehicle with seconds, and thrust about 20 percent of tained such papers as "Concepts for the the engine's weight. such an engine could Design of an Antimatter Annihilation "For a spaceship, that's ten times the scoop up Rocket." "The Cryogenic Confinement of gravity out here by Earth: Antiprotons for Space Propulsion Sys- force of the sun's atmospheric gas so it's a 'high thrust' system even though tems." and "Design Considerations for the acceleration is only several milli- and use it Relativistic Antimatter Rockets." The pa- gees"—about 0.1 foot per second per pers were highly technical and excruciat- for the return trip3 second. "Because of the [large] size .of the ing in mathematical detail, but they were fusion device, we would have to build a solid speculation, not science fiction. five-thousand-ton spaceship," a compar- One design for an antimatter factory in atively huge craft, Bussard says. "But it d.eep space uses solar collectors 300 kilo- could get to Mars in twenty days with a meters on a side to produce a power flux payload fraction of twenty-five percent." drawbacks: No ore is cor tain how to trans- 100 times the current power output of the

Bussard's group ligures that the transpor- form it into propulsive force. No one knows entire world. At an efficiency ot 0.1 per- tation cost ot moving cargo and people how to store it safely. Nor— strike three?— cent, a high-energy proton beam would be from low-Earth orbit to low-Mars orbit would are scientists sure of practical ways to used to. manufacture one kilogram of an- be only a few dollars per pound. manufacture antimatter. timatter every month. At Mars the spaceship could use its fu- But the techniques are no longer un- "The sun pours 1 .3 grams of raw energy sion-power plant to generate electricity and imaginable. Speaking to spaceflight en- per day through every square kilometer of separate water (found inside the moonlet thusiasts of the British Interplanetary So- space," noted Robert Forward recently. "If Phobos) into hydrogen and oxygen, This ciety (BIS) in November 1982, former NASA we can convert even a small part of that electrolysis would create all the hydrogen Deputy Administrator George Mueller as- energy into antimatter, then we become propellant needed for the homeward leg. serted that recent developments in nu- lords" of the solar system. How soon could this be done? Bussard clear physics had made the technology "If we can do better, then we become " is optimistic: "We'll have deuterium-deu- marginally conceivable at last; "I am not tourists to the star worlds terium reactions running in the mid-Nine- predicting that an antimatter space drive Mueller concurs: "Because of its un- ties on the ground. Within ten years we will propel us to Alpha Centauri in the next matched capacity to carry available en- could have an engine. If anybody wanted twenty years," he admitted- "But I. am say- ergy in concentrated form, antimatter lo build a spaceship, twenty-five years from ing that the science of antimatter has ad- should be expected to figure prominently now we could have such a machine." vanced to the stage that it merits serious in space propulsion for the twenty-first The advantage of fusion, Bussard points consideration indeed. century. Even modest progress with anti- out, is in the energy bonus. Any electrical "The technology of producing antimat- matter propulsion would revolutionize travel propulsion system uses electricity to expel ter with particle beams is under develop- across the soiar system." propellant, with varying levels of effi- ment at numerous high-energy-particle Such revolutions are doubtlessly com- ciency. The Riggatron drive would use laboratories around the world," Mueller ing,. With such engines, even the mind- electricity to drive a fusion reaction. That pointed out, referring in particular to the numbing millions of miles between planets reaction in turn-makes 20 times the energy European Center for Nuclear Research can be overcome, and the solar system needed to support the fusion — a bonus of (CERN), near Geneva, and to the United spanned by travel times of weeks or power used to expel the propellant. So the Stales' Fermilab. Antiparticles can be cre- months—can assume the dimensions of a ship pulls itself along by its own nuclear ated and then stored in magnetic confine- rich, enticing frontier.DO 84 OMNI A rugged individualist of astronomy, Charles Kowal is the PLANET SEEKER

BY LEAH WALLACH

steel temples In a few hours the massive domes of Mount Palomar Observatory, within will of extraterrestrial vision, will rumble open. The huge telescope eyes jeer through slits at the expanding universe in which we live. south- The California Institute oi Technology's observatory, situated 120 miles i/'m not really that interested in black holes and quasars. They're so speculative.^

was what he was going to do when he grew east of Los Angeles, is perched atop a up. The only child of a Buffalo steelworker, chain of lovely lilac-tinged hills, where the Kowal was enchanted by pictures ot nebu- dry and windless weather minimizes the lae, galaxies, and stars. While in elemen- scattering of photons, or light "particles." tary school, he attended astronomy classes The photon-triendly weather is the point: at Buffalo Museum ot Science and built Snapshots made by recording the arrival the three telescopes there. "By the time I got of light images from long ago and far away to high school," he explains, "it was an ab- give us all the information we will ever have solute certainty that I would be an astron- about much of the cosmos. Housed in Pal- omer." During his junior year at USC he omar's four giant domes are four of the bicycle pilgrimage to Palomar, most powerful photon gatherers on the made a pushing the bike the last 20 miles uphill planet. Surrounding them is a self-con- just to see one of those special places tained colony composed of the mainte- where people "do astronomy." nance staff, technical personnel, and their As a senior, instead of applying to grad- families. Visiting scientists eat and sleep uate school, he wrote to tour observatories in a gabled farmhouse-style building, af- asking it they wanted a non-Ph.D. assist- fectionately called the monastery. Top as- ant. Of the tour, three offered him jobs. He tronomers from all over the world apply accepted a position with a childhood hero, every year for (he privilege ol staying at Sandage. at the Car- Mount Palomar and using the observato- cosmologist D. Allan negie Institution Mount Wilson Observa- ry's magnificent telescopes for a few days. Angeles. There Kowal Seated around the monastery dinner ta- tory, near Los learned to use a photoelectric photometer ble this afternoon are seven highly es- measure the brightness and color of dis- teemed doctors of astronomy—and Mr. to tant stars. From Mount Wilson he went to Charles Kowal. A tall, thin man of forty-two, (California Institute of Technol- with a ruddy complexion, chipmunk Caltech spent a year assisting Swiss cheeks, and remarkably alert eyes, Kowal ogy), where he astrophysicist and supernova expert Fritz slouches at the dinner table, head jutting supernova search Zwicky had forward attentively. Thinning hair and a At the Palomar dinner table, while the Zwicky in a conducting at Palomar since 1936. thickening paunch confirm his age, but other astronomers talk, Kowal listens. "I can been the conver- Kowal then moved on to the Mees Ob- there is still something boyish about him: learn more listening to dinner servatory, in Hawaii, where he took time- an appealing youthfulness in the way he sations at Palomar than I ever did at lapse photographs of the sun. But he found cocks his head like a curious squirrel to school," he explains. "Here people talk solar work unsatisfying. It involved too listen and in his smile, which is a little de- about what they're actually doing." physics and too much teamwork. tached and, like his wit, a hint sly. Doing, and getting results, is what has much

to Kowal. He has some- "There wasn't anything I could do as an Kowal is the only astronomer there with- always counted life. individual," he explains. "I wanted to make out a graduate degree and the only person thing of the entrepreneur's approach to did things his a mark on the world; still do. Also, I don't not on a university faculty. He is interested "He went his own way and Gibson Reaves, one of his pro- like *to be supervised, and I don't like to in what he calls "doing astronomy." by own way," by 1966 he was back at which he means observing the heavens. fessors at the University of Southern Cali- supervise." So Caltech searching for supernovas, first with And he does that extraordinarily well. In his fornia (USCL recalls. "He once did a proj- Zwicky and then with Wallace L. W. Sar- 20 years as an astronomer, he has found ect in a research course to see whether he who headed the supernova search 81 supernovas, one of them the second could find a plate-filter combination that gent, program after Zwicky's retirement. brightest discovered in this century. He has would decrease the effect of smog. Most It supernova search that intro- discovered a thirteenth and possibly four- students wrote up everything they did—all was the Kowal to the two instruments he teenth moon of Jupiter; he has spotted nu- the procedures. Charlie turned in a half- duced later to make his many discov- merous asteroids and comets; and he has page report giving only the results; so it would use Schmidt reflecting tele- found a mysterious and intriguing object didn't look like he had done much. We had eries: the 48-inch blink microscope. named Chiron. Recently he has single- to give him an oral exam and pry out of scope and the Kowal says ot the handedly taken on a problem that has en- him what he did. He had done a tremen- "It's my telescope," Palomar's two largest tele- gaged some of the best minds and equip- dous amount of very nice work." Schmidt, scopes, the 200-inch and the 60-inch, are ment of modern astronomy: the search for It was-the work of a young man who had planets, "Basically I hated it," ideal for studying single objects a tenth planet. 'In 1979 the National Acad- little use for school. —

it stars, galaxies in detail. The 48-inch emy of Sciences awarded him the presti- Kowal says simply. He tolerated for four — the smaller 18-inch scope are gious James Craig Watson Medal, for con- years, only because he had to become an Schmidt and large regions of the sky. tributions to the science ot astronomy. astronomer. He knew from boyhood that used for surveying —

small elec- Each uses a round mirror to bring light into gins photographing as soon as it gets dark. little optical telescopes with a correct the a line focus and a lens to correct for dis- He prepares the plates in a darkroom and tronic device that is able to tortion. The 48-inch, a remarkable map- inserts them in the Schmidt. The night as- tracking automatically, ping instrument, was used in the Fifties to sistant 'uses special controls to point the After a long night of observing, Kowal do a sky survey, a photographic chart of telescope in the general direction desired returns to the monastery at dawn for a few he will all the stars visible from Palomar, The chart and set it to move with the earth's rotation. hours sleep. After the noon meal, in developing and ex- is still a standard reference tool. Because the Schmidt has no viewing lens, be back the dome, Because human eyes cannot perceive Kowal sights in on his target through one amining plates. After-dinner more obser- light below a certain threshold, astrono- of the two 19-inch refracting telescopes at- vations begin. Five days of this (the max- mers also use electronic or chemical eyes tached to the 48-inch, and then he makes imum time Caltech will ordinarily allow an with the giant telescopes. The 200-inch fine adjustments, astronomer to observe) is exhausting —and scope, for example, uses charge-coupled Once the 48-inch scope is positioned Kowal loves it. devices (CCDs), arrays of silicon chips correctly, Kowal opens the shutter and Bui the most important part of his work containing thousands of light-sensitive waits— fifteen minutes, two hours, or what- isn't taking photographs; it's analyzing elements that release an electron when ever exposure time he needs to find what them. Frequently astronomers have taken struck by a photon. The resulting electric he is looking for. He will repeat this pro- pictures of important objects they never impulses are then used by a computer as cedure over and over and over again all discovered, simply because they didn't data bits. Since CCDs cannot be made night, running downstairs between shifts notice anything different on the plates. large enough for wide-angle work, the 48- in the telescope room to bathe the plates Examining the pictures is hard labor of thor- inch telescope is equipped with photo- in developing chemicals. another kind; it requires meticulous touch of in- graphic plates especially developed by It is far from comtortable work. On a win- oughness, endless patience, a Kodak for astronomers. Before using them, ter night, with the dome open, it can get tuition, and a touch of art. While still at the astronomers bake the plates in a special very cold by the telescopes, and when the observatory Kowal scans each photo- oven that contains a mixture of nitrogen Schmidt is angled in certain directions, the- graph with a magnifying glass to spot any and hydrogen gas. This baking process only way an astronomer can look through unusual objects that should be rephoto- increases the plates' sensitivity to light the optical scope is either to lie flat on his graphed immediately. Later, back at Cal- "a black art," Kowal says. back, scrunch up on his knees, or stand tech, he reexamines them, using a device Photographing the universe with these perched on a ladder for hours. Kowal has called the blink microscope. The blink mi- to alter- plates and the Schmidt is drudge work that made the job a little easier than it used to croscope allows the astronomer requires an almost athletic ability to sus- be. The main tracking control for the 48- nate rapidly between two magnified pic- tain a high level of physical energy and inch scope is not that accurate, and as- tures of the same piece of sky and compare mental concentration over long periods of tronomers used to stay cramped under the each, point by point. Some of the images lime. Kowal possesses such stamina to a guide scope during the long exposure time in the photos turn out to be so faint that remarkable degree. to make periodic corrections. Kowal, with someone looking for the first time won't

When the weather is good, Kowal be- the help of a graduate student, rigged the even see them. All the images must be matched, paired. One unpaired image could represent a transient object (a planet) or a new event (a supernova). Spending eight hours a day in a darkroom comparing hundreds of photographs is very demanding, very un- stimulating, and very productive. By studying thousands of photographs this way, Kowal has found 80 supernovas. Many bordered on invisibility, but one was the brightest seen in more than 40 years.

It was so bright that when he first saw it, on May 14, 1972, Kowal couldn't believe

his luck. It must be a passing asteroid, he told himself. To make sure, he went over to the 200-inch telescope and asked the as-

tronomer there to focus on the object. It

was no asteroid. It was a supernova, ten times brighter than the entire galaxy in

which it was found. And it was a Type I. There are two kinds of supernovas. Type

I is rarer, brighter, much longer lasting, and

less understood than Type II. A Type II su- pernova has a half-life, losing half its brightness every 55 days. The supernova found by Kowal was visible for almost two years, long enough for scientists to study

its spectra and begin to determine its chemical composition, temperature, and evolution. "The 1972 supernova has pro- duced more information than any other su- pernova discovery," says Sargent, of the

supernova hunt. (It was also the last major discovery made during the program, which ended in 1983.)

- During his supernova years, Kowal was also applying himself to more personal projects. One was girl chasing, which he discoverers in this elite field, tober 1977 he found something unusual. A did as enthusiastically and systematically In the early Seventies Kowal received tiny trail on two of his photographs indi- as he pursued sky objects. Kowal wanted his first taste of celebrity, when he discov- cated a slow-moving body well beyond the to meet women who shared his belief in ered another moon of Jupiter. Some as- asteroid belt. When the discovery was an- traditional family relations, and he wanted tronomers have theorized that the two outer nounced, the press almost immediately is- to Iravel; so he prepared for trips to Japan groups of Jovian satellites are leftovers of sued stories about a possible tenth planet. and Italy by beginning pen-pal corre- a collision between two asteroids cap- It soon became evident, however, that the spondences with women there. In 1969, a tured by the giant planet. When two ob- object was relatively small and moved in a month after he arrived in Naples, he mar- jects crash they usually break into a few more elliptical path than planets do. What- ried one ot his correspondents. Today Ko- big chunks and lots of little piec.es. For that ever it was, it wasn't a planet. wal lives with his wife and daughter and reason Kowal suspected that Jupiter might Object Kowal, as it was first called, pet while rat in the San Gabriel mounlains, have many very small moons. measures some 320 kilometers in diame- near Pasadena. He likes the area's pri- In 1974 Kodak developed a more sen- ter, about the size of the larger asteroids vacy, and he devotes his spare time there sitive photographic plate, and it finally be- or of Phoebe, one of Saturn's moons, which to quiet- pleasures: hiking and reading, came to possible look for such small it resembles in surface composition. Ko- mostly about computers these days. moons. In September of the same year, wal decided to rename the object Chiron, About the time he met his wife, Kowal Kowal discovered Jupiter's thirteenth after the wise centaur, so that if similar found the next area where he could do his moon, the first reported since 1951. He bodies were found they could be given business: the region of space near Earth. named it Leda. The following. September other centaur names. In 1968 Brian G. Marsden, of the Smith- he found what appeared to be another The only thing certain about Chiron is sonian Astrophysical Observatory and moon, 2.5 times fainter, it but slipped be- fhat it couldn't have originated where it is Central Bureau for Astronomical Tele- hind Jupiter before an orbit could be es- now; its orbit is too unstable. It may have grams, had written Kowal, giving the pre- tablished. It has been lost ever since. been ejected from the asteroid zone by dicted positions of several lost asteroids In the wake of the moon di encounters with Jupiter, then with Saturn. and comets and asking him to keep a look- It could also be the first discovered mem- out for them, (Marsden's office monitors ber ol a second asteroid belt or a belt of short-lived astronomical and phenomena Saturnian comets. Marsden believes that alerts astronomers to their appearances.) it, Pluto, an asteroid called Hidalgo, and Comets and some asteroids are tricky ob- possibly Phoebe are all the same kind of jects. They have quirky orbits and are vis- */ can learn object but with different kinds of orbits. So ible only when they are near Earth. They more listening to the dinner far Chiron remains a solitary object, in a often disappear before positions enough class all its own. conversations at When Chiron comes have been collected to figure out where to nearer to the earth in 1995 it will be pos- find them again. Palomar than I ever did sible to learn more about it. It should tell

"Marsden knew I was at the forty-eight- at school. us something about comets and asteroids inch a lot and it is that perhaps the best and about how objects move from one telescope in the world for searching Here people talk tor part of the solar system to another (see something whose position you don't " know about what "The Chiron Mystery," Stars, June 1983). exactly," Kowal recalls. "At first I did it as they're Kowal's next discovery was of an en- sort of favor actually doing.J a for him. Then I got emotion- tirely different kind. He came across an ar- ally hooked. I'm not really that interested ticle in the magazine Sky and Telescope in black holes and quasars such. and that listed all the dates when one planet They're so speculative: the theories change had passed in front of another. He noticed every six months. But asteroid or an comet there were only two instances when Jupi- is there or it's not. It's something I can look staff reporter from Time magazine ap- ter had moved in fronf of Neptune: once in for by myself, here at this telescope. I So peared at Kowal's door. He zoomed in on 1613 and again in 1702. This particularly

thought, Here is a place I where can make the fact that Kowal's Caltech office was in interested him because he had long been my own contribution." the basement, down with all the instru- intrigued by irregularities in Neptune's or- Asteroids and comets are also interest- ments, and that he was not a professor. He bit. He thought it was possible to dig out ing because analyses tell of them can us pressured Kowal to express some resent- some information about the planet's mo- much about the history, chemistry, and ment over his situation. "I was totally put tion from historical records. mechanics of the solar system. Kowal was off," Kowal recalls, "and gave facetious "I figured that anybody who had been especially intrigued by a group called answers to everything," One went: "This observing Jupiter would have seen Nep- Apollo asteroids, which are interesting for building is like an ocean liner. All the pro- tune as well," Kowal says. "There might be another reason— they are the celestial ob- fessors are up there on the promenade a huge quantity of material frqm 1702 be- jects most likely to collide with Earth. It was deck promenading. The engine room is cause back then every principality in Eu- an Apollo asteroid, some believe, that was where all the work gets done." The "real" rope had a telescope. But in 1613 maybe responsible for the extinction of plant professors and still quote the remark rather half a dozen people in the world had tele- animal life 65 million years ago. fondly. Nevertheless, they have a healthy scopes. Galileo was one of those people." Most asteroids stay in "the asteroid bell, regard for the engine room; most of them So Kowal enlisted the aid of Stillman between Jupiter and Mars, but Apollos work down there themselves. It's obser- Drake, a historian of. science at the Uni- move nearer to the sun in sharply tilted or- vation that makes astronomy a science, not versity of Toronto, A Galileo specialist, bits that cross our own. They are thought merely an exercise in mathematical my- Drake could translate the Latin in Galileo's to have been knocked -free by collisions thologizing, and all astronomers, even the notebooks and interpret the seventeenth- with other asteroids or by being bounced " armchair theorists, know it. century astronomer's measurement sys- off the gravitational fields of Jupiter or Mars. As a result of his impressive record, Ko- tern. Kowal went over the data and found Caltech geologist and planetoiogist wal began getting more time to work on that 233 years before its official discovery Gene Shoemaker believes that there are his own projects; so he decided to begin date, 1846, the Renaissance stargazer had over 2,00Q..Earth crossers that are larger a systematic survey of the whole solar sys- seen Nepiune—twice. than a kilometer, but to date only 53 of them tem. "I wanted to start from scratch and The discovery was an important one for have been found. Five of the 53 were found find everything that's unusual to be found," the history of science. "I was more proud by Kowal, making him one of the leading he says. "I have grandiose ideas." In Oc- of my Galileo work than anything else," he says, "because it was completely out of adding, "He's extremely confident." It's an See how much more my field. I found something that even the odd combination of qualities— Kowal's mix Galileo experts had overlooked." of quality modesty and pride— but it goes with his your salary Last January Kowal started a new proj- values, which are the old-fashioned Amer- will in ect: mapping !he entire northern sky for ican business values: self-reliance; inde- buy our Exquisite* the Space Telescope, which will need ac- pendence, achievement through hard curate Diamond Department. star positions to orien! itself. He has work. His confidence is that of a self-made also taken on another complex project: man whose commitment to excellence is computing Neptune's orbit, highly personal. "Someone once com- The only way to make absolutely sure mented, 'Charlie thinks he's the greatest any orbit is correcl is to observe a com- astronomer in the world,' " Sargent says. plete revolution. The problem with Nep- "But I've never seen it. Charlie knows what tune is thai it has a period of revolution of he knows —and what he doesn't know." $999 165 years and was discovered only in 1846; What he knows and doesn't know is of *Referenee Price $1,5 so a complete journey around the sun has interest to others. His business has be- nol yet been observed. It seems impossi- come more competitive lately. The aster- ble to compute an orbit that fits all the data oid theories of extinction, Kowal's own dis- or to predict the position of Neptune ac- covery of Chiron, and renewed interest in curately. About every ten years astrono- the tenth planet have recently attracted new mers must recalculate the orbit to accom- researchers, some of them self- promoters. modate new observations. Another "I've never heard him say anything critical problem is that two seemingly accurate of anybody," Sandage notes, "though observations from the eighteenth century competitors who are publicity seekers have don't jibe with post-1846 observations. "It moved into this field—and that must hurt seems that we are not modeling the sys- him r They do their science in the public tem properly," explains Kenneth Seidel- press; Kowal does his science as a sci- mann, director of the Nautical Almanac, at entist, and he is respected among profes- the Naval Observatory, which has been sionals for it." That respect gives him the monitoring the planets for years. The ob- kind of security and self-assurance no servatory puts out a yearly Astronomical Ph.D. could bestow. "A lack of a degree Almanac, which astronomers use to find isn't a handicap for what he does," Sar- heavenly bodies. Its Nautical Almanac of- gent says. "By the time somebody's done fice is presently reviewing the orbits of both something, no one asks about qualifica- Uranus and Neptune. tions. The problem is getting started." Some astronomers attribute irregulari- Kowal got started in 1961 as a research ties in Neptune's orbit to observational er- 'assistant. He went from there to associ- rors, but the Naval Observatory doesn't ated scientist, and he is now Caltech's sci- " accept that explanation. Thomas van Flan- entist astronomer— a member of the dern and Robert Harrington have investi- professional staff, not the faculty. Though gated theories postulating that the pertur- Kowal doesn't want to be a teacher any bations are caused by a cloud of comets, more than he wanted to be a student, he's a passing dark star, or a black hole; these not altogether content with his position. For theories, however, don't fit the dala. Some example, he has never had more than a suspect that a tenth planet is the most likely one-year contract with Caltech (he has had explanation. Van Flandern and Harrington 20 of those). "They could do more," he says have analyzing been data to get an esti- dryly, "but the main thing is being able to mate of the size, distance, orbit and of the do the work I like." body that could cause the irregularities. Kowal isn't sure what work he will be A little over a year ago Kowal ambi- doing next. The Space Telescope survey tiously set out alone to work on the same will be completed by the end of this year. problem the Naval Observatory is tackling Late in 1984 the 48-inch scope will be with its highly trained staff and state-of- committed for several years to a second the-art computers Palomar sky survey on which Kowal will Kowal now has what he believes is a probably work. That leaves the Schmidt good orbit for Neptune. "It has taken me free for other projects in 1984 only. He fourteen months to get this far." he ex- hopes to have completed further work on plains, "because much of the time I was Neptune's orbit by October 1983, when More fine jewelry for less. just learning how to do orbits." Kowal likes proposals'for observation time in 1984 will bridal sets are available a( picking project a in a field he knows noth- be received. He talks about unraveling the <** ing about and then competing with the ex- mystery of Neptune's orbit in the same a*=3K= perts, because "it's more satisfying when manner he works with the telescope—rap- gagjF-yf^Pr.f it works out." Starting from scratch is his idly but surely, with a controlled excite- m* favorite "I still 1 phrase. identify myself with ment. "It's going to be another round of amateurs," says. he learning from scratch," he says. "A tenth That remark is not meant to be self-den- planet would be the simplest explanation. igrating. There Isa proud amateur tradition It may not be the only explanation, or nec- in astronomy, especially in nineteenth-cen- essarily the true, one, however. And I have tury England, where many important con- a lot of competition— Ihe Naval Observa- Kin i"i tributions to. the science were made by tory, IRAS [the infrared astronomy satel- gentlemen amateurs. Kowal is part of that lite]." He smiles, adding with modest con- nonius LaBelUfs heritage American-style. "He's an un- gjgkn, — fidence, "but if I don't find a tenth planet. assuming guy," Shoemaker saysbf Kowal, I'll find something else along the way. "DO HODon gStiSr BEST —

his touch, his kisses, the teel of his skin. And then there were the fragmentary And now this complete indifference. No. ones, some of whom didn't have names, MULTIPLES bis And only a funny way of speaking or a little rou- Not his kisses, not touch. Van's. Van was not here now: There was a differ- tine they liked to act out. kets. A sun room container; the biggest ent tenant in Van's body, someone she did She got to see very little of his other and healthiest houseplants Cleo had ever not know in any way and who had no mem- selves, though. Like all multiples he was involuntary seen. Another room was stacked with ories of last night's embraces. / saw the troubled occasionally by Hal while technical books and scholarly journals, a entry in our book . They left memos for one switching. One night"he became third was equipped with three or four another. Cleo shivered. She had known they were making love, and another time gleaming exercise machines. Some of the what to expect, more or less, but experi- he turned into Dave for an hour, and there

rooms were fastidiously tidy, some impos- encing it was very different Irom reading were momentary flashes of Henry and

sibly chaotic. of the furniture was about it. She fell almost as il she had fallen Nicholas. Cleo perceived it right away . Some stark and austere; some was floppy and in among beings trom another planet. whenever one of those switches came: His overstuffed. She kept expecting lo find But this is what you wanted, she thought. voice, his movements, his entire manner roommates wandering around. But there Isn't

chimed in on the choruses, deliberately off- tor.by a little yellow magnet shaped like a ing up Paul to play the guitar and sing or that key. But then Paul went away, and it was ladybug. dwi-h ionighi atchezmichel'you Dick to recite sonnets, but when he did Van who sat close beside her on the couch. AND ME AND Wl 10 K:\:.".VS WHO ELSE CALL ME the Van identity always remained present He wanted to know things about Judy, and and dominant. It appeared that he was able he told her a little about Van, and no other to double at will, without the aid of mirrors selves came into the conversation. She was and lights, at least some of the time. He sure that was- intentional. They- stayed up had been an active and functioning mul- late, Paul came back toward the end tiple for as long as he could remember- very '•Though Van might of the evening to tell a tew jokes and sing since childhood, perhaps even since a soft late-night song, but when they went have control of the shared birth— and he had devoted himself through she was with Van. Of the years to the task of gaining mastery into the bedroom, body most of the that she was certain. over his divided mind. And when she woke in the morning she time, he still had no idea All the aspects ot him that she came to had basically attractive personali- was alone. She felt a surge of contusion what any of his meet and dislocation, remembered atler a mo- ties; They were energetic, stable, purpose- alternate selves were up ment where she was and how she hap- ful men who enjoyed life and seemed to pened to be there, sat up, blinked. Went to. He had to know how to go about getting what they Though they were very different into the bathroom and scooped a handful depend on fancy footwork.^ wanted. of water over her face. Without bothering people, she could trace them all back to dress she went padding around the readily enough to the underlying Van from apartment looking for Van. whom, so she thought, they had all split. She found him in the exercise room, us- The one puzzle was Nat. the market op- ing the rowing machine, but he wasn't Van. erator. It was hard for Cleo to imagine what He was dressed m ight leans and a white that was the begnrng. She saw him he was like when he was Nat— sleazy and T-shirt, and he looked somehow younger, every night tor the next ten days. Generally coarse, yes, but how did he manage to leaner, jauntier. There were fine beads of they met at some three-star res'riu'-yn: had make himself look fifteen years older and sweat along his forehead, but he did not a lingering, intimate dinner, went back to forty pounds heavier? Maybe it was all seem to be breathing hard. He gave her a his apartment. One mild, clear evening they done with facial expressions and posture. cool, distantly appraising, wholly asexual drove out to the beach and watched the But she never got to see Nat, And gradu-

until ally it oversimplifica- look as though it was not in the least un- waves breaking on Seal Rock well past she realized was an usual for an unknown naked woman to ma- midnight. Another time they wandered tion to think of Paul and Dick and Ned and terialize in "the house and he was alto- through Fisherman's Wharf and somehow the others as mere extensions of Van into

gether undisturbed by it. "Good morning. acquired three bags of tacky souvenirs. different modes. I'm Ned. Pleased to know you." His voice Van was his primary name -she saw it Van by himself was just as incomplete was higher than Van's, much higher than on his credit card one night—and that as the others. He was just one of many that Paul's, and he had an odd, overprecise seemed lobe.h'S mam identity, too, though had evolved in parallel, each one autono- way of shaping each syllable. she knew there were plenty of Others. At mous, each one only a fragment of the Flustered, sudceny seif- conscious and first he was reticent about that, but on the whole. Though Van might have control of wishing she had put her clothes, on before fourth or fifth night he. told her that he had the shared body a greater portion of the leaving the bedroom, she folded one arm nine major selves and s.xteen minor ones. time, he still had no idea what any of his over her breasts, though her nakedness Besides Paul, the geologist, Chuck, who alternate selves were up to while they were did not seem to matter to him at all. "I'm was into horticulture, and Ned, the gay one, in command, and like them he had to de- Nat, the on guesses. 'ancy footwork, and such Judy. I came with Van." Cleo heard about stock-market pend plunger-- fifty fat, a for- notes and messages as they bothered to "Yes. I know. I saw the entry in our book." he Was and made Smoothly he pulled on the oars of the row- tune every week, and divided his time be- leave behind in order to keep track of ing machine, leaned back, pushed tor- tween Las Vegas and Miami Beach; Henry, events that occurred outside his con- ward. "Help yourself to anything in the the poet, 'who was shy and never liked any- scious awareness. "The only one who fridge," he said". "Make yourself -at home. one to read his. work; Dick, who was study- knows everything is Michael, He's seven

Van left a note for you in the kitchen," - ing to be an actor; Hal. who once taught years, old, as smart as a whip, and keeps She stared at him; his hands, his. mouth, law at Harvard; Dave, the yachtsman: and in touch with all of us all the time." his long muscular arms. She remembered Nicholas, the cardsharp. "Your memory trace." Cleo said. 94 OMNI —

said, she had grown up outside the herself, between one eye blink and the next, Van nodded. All multiples, she knew, had she are climate of acceptance of the divided per- in the arms of a strange man. "Who one alter with full awareness of the doings 7 " blurted, rolling sonality that prevailed in San Francisco, you?—where am I she of all the other personalities — usually a active subculture of multiples had away and pulling herself into a fetal ball. child, an observer who sat back deep in where an existed openly for years. In her isolated "I'm Judy's friend," Van said. the mind and played its own games and great She stared bleakly at him. "So she's up emerged only when necessary to fend oft existence, unaware that there were a others of her kind, she had at first to her tricks again." some crisis that threatened the stability of many herself the victim of a serious He looked pained-, embarrassed, solic- the entire group. "He's just informed us that regarded as for moment disorder. It only recently, she itous. She let him wonder a he's Ethiopian," Van said. "So every two mental was understand whether he would have to take her back to or three weeks we go across to Oakland told him, that she had come to overwhelming advantages of life as a her hotel in the middle of the night.Then to an Ethiopian restaurant that he likes, and the multiple: the richness, the complexity, the she allowed a mischievous smile to cross he flirts with the waitresses in Amharic." experiences that a Lisa's face, allowed Lisa's outraged mod- "That can't be too terrible a chore. I'm fullness of talents and to enjoy. That was esty to subside, allowed Lisa to relent and told Ethiopians are very beautiful people." divided mind was free to Francisco. That relax, allowed Lisa to purr ''Absolutely. But they think it's all a big why she had come San eagerly to all that "Well, as long as we're here already— joke, and Michael doesn't know how to pick was why she listened so what did you say your name was?" up women anyway. He's only seven, you he was telling her about himself. He liked that. He liked Vixen, too—wild, know. So Van doesn't get anything out of She was cautious, too, in manifesting her multiple identities. She wished she did sweaty, noisy, a moaner, a gasper, a kicker it except some exercise in comparative lin- own and thrasher who dragged him down onto guistics and a case of indigestion the next not have to pretend to have other selves. brought forth now and the floor and went rolling over and over day. Ethiopian food is the spiciest in the But they had to be with him. thought he liked Cleo, too, again, if only to maintain Van's interest in She world. I can't sfand spicy food." notoriously indifferent though that was harder to tell, because "Neither can I," she said. "But Lisa loves her. Multiples were aloof, baroque, to singletons. They found them bland, Cleo's style was serious, it. Especially Mexican. But nobody ever They inscrutable. She would switch quickly from said sharing a body is easy, did they?" overly simple, two-dimensional. through wanted the excitement of embracing one one to another, sometimes running another, or two or all four in the course of an hour. Wine, she She knew she had to be careful in ques- person and discovering Lisa, him said, induced quick switching in her, She tioning Van about the way his life as a mul- three. So she gave him she gave the Judy-who-was- let htm know that she had a few other iden- tiple worked. She was supposed to be a Vixen, she gave him Cleo-who-was-someone-else, tities, too, fragmentary and submerged. multiple herself, after all. But she made use Cleo and the in She hinted that they were troubled, deeply ot her Sacramento background as justifi- and she slipped from one to another a un- . neurotic, self-destructive: They were cation for her areas of apparent ignorance seemingly involuntary and unexpected der control, she said, and would not erupt of multiple customs and the everyday me- way, often when they were in bed. controlled, straitlaced. to cause woe for him, but she left the pos- chanics of multiple life. Though she too had Lisa was calm, hovering over them to add spice to known she was a multiple since childhood. She was totally shocked when she found sibility the relationship and plausibility to her role. pleasure in It seemed to be working. His her company was evident. She was begin- ning to indulge in little fantasies of moving down permanently from Sacramento, rent- ing an apartment, perhaps even moving in with him, though that would surely be a strange and challenging life. She would be living with Paul and Ned and Chuck and the rest of the crew, too, but how won- drous, how electrifying. Then on the tenth day he seemed un- characteristically tense and somber She asked him what was bothering him, and he evaded her. and she pressed, and fi- nally he said, "Do you really want to know?" "Ofc urse,

t bothers me that you aren't real, Judy." She caught her breath. "What the hell do you mean by that?" quietly, "You know what I mean," he said sadly. "Don't try to pretend any longer There's no point in it,"

It was like a jolt in the ribs. She turned away and was silent a long while, wondering what to say. Just when everything was going so well, just when she was beginning to believe she had car- ried off the masquerade successfully. "So you know?" she asked timidly.

"Of course I know. I knew right away." She was trembling. "How could you tell?" "A thousand ways. When we switch, we change. The voice. The eyes. The mus- cular tensions. The grammatical habits. The brain waves, even. An evoked-potential test

shows it. Flash a light in my eyes and I'll "

the bay, in a town give off a certain brain-wave pattern, and sonalities brought forward into a healthy His clinic was across She spent two days Ned will give off another, and Chuck still functional state went to him also. Those called Moraga. another. You and Lisa and Cleo and Vixen whosejife as a multiple was a torment of undergoing further tests, then three days medication. "Simply an anticonvul- would all be the same. Multiples aren't ac- schizoid confusions instead of a richly re- taking the explained cheerily. "To tors, Judy. Multiples are separate minds warding contrapuntal symphony gave sant," nurse within the same brain. That's a matter of themselves to Dr. Burkhalter to be healed, build up your tolerance." for scientific fact. You were just acting. You and in time they were. And in recent years "Tolerance what?" Cleo asked. to for "The birth trauma," she said. "New selves were doing it very well, but you couldn't he had begun develop techniques possibly have fooled me." what he called personality augmentation. will be coming forth, and it can be uncom-

. for a little while." "You let me make an idiot of myself, then." Van called it "driving the wedge." fortable "No." "He can turn a singleton into a multiple?" The treatment began on Thursday. Elec- — She "Why did you— how could you Cleo asked in amazement. troshock, drugs, electroshock again. heavily sedated. It felt like a long "I saw you walk in that first night, and "If the potential is there. You know that was it's partly genetic: structure of a mul- dream, but there was no pain. Van visited you caught me right away. I watched you The brain is fundamentally different from her every day. Chuck came too, bringing go out on the floor and fall apart, and I tiple's singleton's. hardware just isn't the her two potted orchids in bloom, and Paul knew you couldn't be multiple, and I won- a The

if her call, dered, What the hell's she doing here 7 Then same, the cerebral wiring. And then, the sang to her, and even Ned paid a

along, usually in But it was hard for her to maintain a con- I right stimulus comes I felt I went over to you. and was hooked. childhood, usually but nol necessarily versation with any of them. She heard something I haven't ever felt before. Does feverish that sound like the standard old malarkey? traumatic, the splitting takes place, the voices much of the time. She felt dislocated, at times she was sure But it's true, Judy. You're the first singleton separate identities begin to establish their and and woman who's ever interested me." territories. But much of the time multiplicity she was floating eight or ten inches above "Why?" is never generated, and you walk around the bed. Gradually that sensation sub- nearly He shook his head. "Something about with the capacity to be a whole horde of sided, but there were others as odd. The voices remained. She learned how to you—your intensity, your alertness, maybe even your eagerness to pretend you were hold conversations with them. In the second week she was not allowed I caught. I a multiple— I don't know. was visitors. didn't matter. was caught hard. And it's been a wonder- to have That She had plenty of company even when ful week and a half. I mean that."

it warning, "You don't have to be," he said. and still he was uncertain. "It is not a black- happened came without and and-white matter," he said several times, when she returned to awareness after- The therapist's name was Burkhalter, and frowning, scowling. He was a multiple him- ward she felt a sharp discontinuity of mem- suddenly found his office was in one of the Embarcadero self, but three of his selves were psychia- ory, not knowing how she towers. To the San Francisco multiples trists; so there was never any real problem herself in Ghirardelli Square or Golden Gate

if that the other self community he was very close to being a about his office hours. Cleo wondered if Park or wherever was deity. His specialty was electrophysiolog- he ever went to himself for a second opin- had taken their body, ical integration, with specific application fo ion. After a week of testing she was sure But she was happy. And Van was happy multiple-personality disorders. Those who that she must be a hopeless case, an in- with her, One night in the second week, carried within themselves dark and dia- tractable singleton, but Burkhalter sur- when they were out, he switched to bolical selves that threatened the stability prised her by concluding that it was worth Chuck—Cleo knew it was Chuck coming of the group went to him to have those_ the attempt. 'At the very worst," he said, on, for now she always knew right away selves purged or at least contained. Those" "we will experience spontaneous fusing in which identity had taken over—and he who sought to have latent selves that were a few days, and you will be no worse off said, "You've had a marvelous effect on ever like submerged beneath more outgoing per- than .you are now. But if we succeed—" him. None of us have seen him 93 OMNI " this before- -so contented, so fulfilled- said good-bye :a Paul who gave her a hug "I hope it lasts. Chuck." and wept a little with her, and she went "Of course it'll last! Why on earth back to Sacramento. "Tell him not to call,"

: shouldn't it last?" she said. A clean break's the best." She It didn't. Toward the end of the third week had been in San Francisco two months, Cleo noticed that there hadn't been any and it was as though those two months enlries in her memo book from Noreen for were the only months of her life that had several days. That in itself was nothing had any color in them, and all the res! had alarming: An alter might choose to sub- been lived in tones of gray. merge tor days, weeks, even months at a There had been a mar In the real-estate

lime. 3iji 'I was likely that Noreen, so new office who had been telling her for a cou- to the world, would remain out of sight so pie of years that they were meant for each long? Lin-lin, the little Chinese girl who had other. Cleo had always been friendly evolved in the second week and was Cleo's enough to him; They had done a few skiing memory trace, reported that Moreen had weekends in Tahoe the winter before; they gone away. A Few days later identity , an had gone to Hawaii once; they had driven

named Mattie came and went within three down to San-Diego, But she had never felt hours, like something bubbling up out of a anything particular when she was with him. troubled sea. Then Nanette and Katya dis- A week after her return she phoned him appeared, leaving Cleo with no one bul and suggested that they drive up north to her nameless, siren-voiced alter and Lin- the redwood counlry for a few days. When lin. She was fusing again. The wedges that they came back she moved into the con- Dr. Burkhalter had driven into her soul were dominium he had just outside town no! h;j ding ner m no insisiec on oneness It was hard to find anylh-ng wrong with and was integrating itself; she was revert- him. He was good rati. r ce and attractive ing to the singleton state. he was successful, he read books and ;iked "All of them are gone now." she told Van good movies, he enjoyed hiking, rafting. disconsolately.

"I know. I've been watching it happen." ing do.vr- r»0 8te c8y during the opera "Is there anything we can do? Should I season to take in a performance or two. go back to Burkhalter?'" He was getting toward the age where he She saw the pain in his eyes. "It won't was thinking about marriage- and a family, do any good." he said. "He told me the He seemed very fond of her. chances were about three to one this would But he was flat she thought. Flat as a happen. A month, he figured; thai was cardboard cutout; a sirgie'on a one-brain, about the best we could hope for. And a no-switch. There was only one ot him. we've had our month." anc mere always would be. It was hardly "I'd better go. Van." "Don't say that." "No?"

"I love you. Cleo."

"You won't. for , - Not much longer' noiposso.vte ? o„- ;i r

He tried to argue with her, to tell her that On a dnzziy a'te-noon In ea'lv N it didn't matter to him that she was a sin- ber she packed a suitcase and drove down gleton, lha! one Cieo was. worth a whole to San Francisco She checked into one ol raft of alters, that he would [earn to adapt the Lombard Street motels showered, to life with a singleton woman. He could changed, and walked over to Fillmore nol bear the thought of her leaving now. So Street. Cautiously she explored the strip she stayed: a week, two weeks, three. They from Ghesthut down to Union, from Union ate at .their favorite reslaurants. They back to Chestnut, The thought of running strolled hand in hand through the cool eve- into Van terrified her. Nol tonight, she nings. They talked of Chomsky and Whorf prayed. Not tonight. She went past Skits, and even of shopping centers. When he did noi go in, stopped outside a club called was gone and Paul or Chuck or Hal or Dave Big Mama, shook her head, finally entered was there she wenl places with them if they one called The Side Effect. Mostly women wanted her to. Once she went to a movie inside, as usual, but a few men at the har, with Ned, and when toward the end he felt not too bad-looking. No sign ot Van. himself starting to switch she put her arm She bqught herself a drink and casualty around him until he regained control so that s":.ickuo a conversation with a short, curly- he could see how the movie finished. haired, artistic- coking type But it was no good. He wanted some- "You come here offer?'' he asked. thing richer than she could offer him: the "First time. I've usually gone to Skits." switching, the doubling, the complex un- "I think I remember seeing you .here 0" dertones and overtones ol other person- maybe not." alities resonating beyond the shores of She smiled. "What's your now-name?" consciousness She cou c! not give him that. "Sandy.-Yours?"

He was like one who has voluntarily blind- Cleo drew her breath down deep into folded himself in order to keep a blind her lungs. She- felt a kind of lightheaded- woman company. She knew she could not ness beginning to swirf behind her eyes. ask him to-live like thai forever. Is this what you want? she asked herself. And so one afternoon when Van "was Yes. Yes. This is what you wan!. somewhere else she packed her things and "Melinda." she said'.DQ 3fe THE MANY FACES OF ADAM

rage with pseudovisionary delusions." V , ,. "get beller." You cannot know the magnitude of the problem.

WmWSMSWeffllBBa . organ ot pure self-rumination. (These findings,

of Applied Neuromythology, are firmly 1 red relics of the so- ist is an archaeologist of the (•-—- come. If my outer flesh peels and my internal organs

EXT BY JUDITH HO(

are take into account the useful scientific stud- flights thai the I wo Soacelab modules could carry out. And capable of making. ies that such a station scientific community is hesitant to back "This first mission shows that you can do the expensive program for a space sta- science in a lot of different disciplines," a new, Space- scientist Chapell. He says tion, when the far-less-expensive Spacelab Ts orbit is tilted 57" with re- notes mission been iunded be- will take on "dedicated mis- lab missions have not spect to the equator, a much higher incli- that Spacelab which individual flight fo- yond the first four flights. nation than most American missions. This sions" in each "The scientific community," he believes, cover more ot Ihe cuses on one or, at most, two.scientific dis- will enable scientists to space such mission, scheduled for "will hold off on its total support for a earth's surface with their instruments. The ciplines. One until follows through on its Astro 1. It will be d.evoted station NASA Europeans are particularly anxious to pho- 1986, is labeled astronomical studies includ- support for Spacelab missions." tograph and map their own countries, most primarily to — uncertain future for Space- ing observations of Halley's Comet. Despite the of which lie well above 40° latitude. The not yet the budget lab, Chapell believes that the program is higher-inclination orbit will also allow the But NASA has made Spacelab beyond those forcing NASA to bring together all Its tal- plasma physicists to observe aurorat ef- commitment to use "We, as an agency, have in- ents and capabilities. fects close to the north and south geo- four missions. Spacelab," Cha- "Can NASA effectively merge manned magnetic poles. vested a lot ot money in and science?" Chapell asks oper- pell says, "yet the follow-on program is not spaceflight Materials sciences: The ability to manned : really have solid laid Out." rhetorically. "Can we ate in zero gravity may be the key to future v is doing evolve into a perma- spaceflights whose sole purpose industrial operations. In zero g, liquid so- Could Spacelab "A space good science? It requires the whole NASA mix more uniformly, containers are nent scientific station in orbit? lutions people, the would be great." Chapell says. "I system—the communications not needed to hold, and possibly contam- station people— all of to have a manned platform that shuttle people, the launch inate, materials; crystals grow larger and would love continuously and then does them—to work together." uniformly, lubricants spread over looks at the sun more demonstration of magnetosphere Spacelab 1 is the first surfaces more easily, and such biological active experiments in the conditions."" Cha- this interlinking of manned spaceflight and specimens as blood cells and hormones under different solar down at the space science on such a scale. Even can be separated more easily for analysis. pelts platform would also look atmosphere and watch weather systems. though missions beyond 1986 have not Spacelab 1 carries an integrated set ot fur- in NASA, this It been firmly set motion by other materials-processing "That would be great," he says. "And naces and research get tremendous support irom the opening of a new era in scientific equipment to run more than 30 studies of would show how sci- cannot long be denied. zero-gravity crystal growth, chemistry, public, because you could continuously monitoring the With two modules capable of carrying metal forming, and fluid behavior. entists are ihe next 20 years. earth's environment." out flights for at least to propel space But, Chapell claims. NASA's studies of Spacelab appears ready Spacelab 1 is the firs! of four planned applications often do not science into the twenty-first century.DQ Spacelab missions— a far cry from the 100 space-station

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feel the devas'alirg conseouences of So- viet policy in Siberia." Could Volfson be right? A Soviet em- bassy spokesman declined to comment on the pipeline, saying that Soviet environ- mental policy is clearly described in his government's laws and publications. Those documents—gleaned from U.S. State De- partmeni translations of Pravda, scientific papers, and Soviet law— indicate a grow-

ing concern for the environment and ii creased spending for pollution control. Yet, for all good intentions there. American an- alysts say Soviet pollution-control technol- ogy is less lhan adequate, and national law just isn't powerful enough to stave off the damage done- to air. water, and land.

The neglect is especially prevalent i Siberia, where well-meaning scientists are often overruled in the government's race to industrialize. "Many of the construction and operating sites we visited were e ronmental disaster areas," says an Amer- ican scientist who v sired several pipe-lay-

ing areas in 1979. "You could see oil flares spewing black smoke to the horizon," says the scientist. "They'd have breaks in their oil and gas pipelines all the time. The trees were just devastated wherever the pipe- line was laid."

Yet polluting local ecosystems is a far

cry from wreaking global havoc. American ! climatologists who have- studied the- al- bedo effect admit that; destroying vast tracts of forest could Change an area'; weather, but whether that's happening it Siberia is impossible to say. There's no question that large-scale destruction of vegetalion can cause problems, says Mi- chael Oppenheimer, senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund. "But strip-- ping trees in Siberia probably would not have a global effect." Another American scientist, who does not want his name used for fear of endangering future Soviet con- tacts, says climate is so complex that it's impossible to predict how it would be af- fected by cutting down trees. Still other re- searchers worry that another Soviet proj- ect— reversing the flow of several major Siberian rivers— will have a greater effect on climate than anything the Soviets do to Siberia's Irees. Volfson, however, sticks with his ass tion that the heating gas Europeans buy now may cost them future generations o' cold. Like many Soviet dissidents, he ar- gues that only pressure from the West wil promote changes in Soviet policy. To thai end he has sent his papers to Americar congressmen and newspapers and says he plans to come to the United States soon to make his warnings heard. "West- ALLEN free catalog erners play a part by purchasing gas from: Allen- Edmonds Shoe. Corp. the Soviets and by supplying them with EDMONDS Kc^.-.m. i.Visi-oj-i.siii 5Mm' technology,"^ says. "Years from now the -rfOO-.wS-rir^. Tciex 2(1-0021 people of the West will not be able to say we did not know."DO Brave new materials make today's alloys look like artifacts from the Stone Age AMAZING SUPERSTUFF BY RICHARD WOLKOMIR

As dreams go, George Wiener's is wild: "Boys,

I say to the guys in (he lab, make an invisible wineglass for me." Wild, yes, Impossible, no. Wiener is manager of materials science at Westinghouse's sprawling research center, in Pittsburgh. And he could have his invisible wineglass at the wave of a corporate check- book. Then the fun would start. Hehas often imagined the scene: His office is full of visiting dignitaries or a bunch of mil- itary honchos, maybe the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Nonchalantly he picks up what looks like a handful ot air. In his other hand, he displays an elegant bottle of Mouton Rothschild. As the Joint Chiefs gasp, Wiener calmly pours the claret into his seemingly empty hand. Voila! As he pours, the invisible goblet takes imFrom ceramic materials come new computers made almost entirely of glass and light**

23,000-mile string. Oth- shape (ram the bottom er new polymers may up, revealed by the red imitate organic sub- wine it contains. "Down stances; scientists talk the hatch," says Wiener, optimistically about ar- as the Joint Chiefs ap- polymer muscles. plaud vigorously. tificial They have already tai- Or maybe they faint. lored artificial skin to An invisible wineglass' protect severely burned What is wildest about people while they heal. George Wiener's dream Distinctions between is this: He can make a organic and inorganic wineglass invisible are blurring as scien- whenever he is willing to mix and match nat- spend that much of tists ural and artificial sub- Westinghouse's money. stances, atom for atom "Look, a two-hundred- Engineers and biolo- dollar invisible wine- gists are pooling their glass is okay," the sci- knowledge to create entist says. "But a new materials with as- twenty -thousand -dollar tonishing properties, invisible wineglass?" promising technological Welcome to the new changes comparable Age of Alchemy— ex- with those humanity ex- pensive but fun. And perienced in the leap able to bring to life some from the Neolithic to the of scientists' most Faust- Iron Age. In the Era of ian fantasies. Materials what it used to be. researchers, today's transmuters of matter, use electron scan- Materials Science, matter itself just isn't instance invisible wineglasses. Normally we can ning microscopes as crystal balls, and their wands are ruby la- Consider for their transparency, because their surfaces sers. At such universities as MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon, Penn- see goblets despite what if they reflected no light, not a photon'' sylvania State, Johns Hopkins, and Southern California and at reflect some light. But invisible," says George Wie- such corporations as Westinghouse, General Electric, Allied, and "Then the glass would be perfectly division have developed a Corning Glass, laboratory sorcerers are busily turning the world's ner. And, he says, researchers in his that eliminates glass's reflectivity. stuff into superstuff. Materials that Mother Nature never dreamed coating combining certain silicon compounds with alcohol,, the of are being distilled through complex technological conversions. By polymer— a heavy molecule Materials scientists are transforming metal into glass. High- Westinghouse chemists produce a Tinkertoy.s. Glass coated with this poly- technology ceramics, distant relatives of pottery or brick, are now built from subunits, like smooths submicroscopic surtace pores, reflects little employed to make a far-flung range of products: from automotive mer, which it to reduce reflections on solar cells turbocharger rotors lo artificial bones and teeth, from metal-cut- light. "We've already used cells absorb more solar radiation," says Wiener, "This ting tools to integrated -circuit substrates. Out of their laboratories, so that the can reduce reflectivity to just about zero." plastic jet planes emerge, while MX missile silos and nose cones coating the coating is cheap. To make a are being developed from the same basic graphite-fibers-in- Nearly ready for the market, its should be ab- epoxy-resin materials as such new superlightweight athletic wineglass truly invisible, however, reflectivity Wiener. That would mean optically grinding the equipment as fly-fishing poles and tennis rackets. solute zero, says expensive even for flabbergasting New computer-chip materials composed of polymers will be wineglass in a clean room, too Joint Chiefs. "It's impossible to justify," he says wistfully. hooked up to Josephson junctions to create computers of light- the about a bomber or cruise missile in- ning speed. These computers may soon mimic the complex wir- On the other hand, what aircraft, on new it; visible to radar? Such "stealth" based ing of the human brain, and perhaps one day plug right into enemy materials, coatings, and shapes, are now on the drawing boards, they'll be that compatible. with Pentagon plans calling for 100 B-1 B long-range bombers by Much new superstuff is brewed by scientists who concoct new fighter, and 110 other stealth craft (ad- polymers: substances made from enormous, complicated mol- 1986, possibly a stealth bombers) scheduled for the early Nineties. ecules. They are mixing up batches of new polymer-based ma- vanced-technology for this exercise in materials research is over $50 billion. terials strong enough to rival steel at a fraction of the weight. Some The tab materials superstuff— is pricey. But so are visionaries, in fact, dream of lightweight polymer cables that will Developing new — import an alarming number of vital ma- connect a geosynchronous satellite to Earth like a balloon on a the stakes: We must now terials, the substances upon which technology voraciously feeds. ceramic, sulfur dioxide- Previous page, left: Westinghouse scientist .vie.ids Unless we develop synthetic replacements, the country could Previa;* cage. probe thai .S eicctncaHy stimulate? try SO_ emissions find itself in a strategic stranglehold. Engineer wnft -dynamic compactor " an electromagnetic iauric.nei right: imports 22 of the 27 most important high-pre-

...... „..jng under the

i far away antispii quickly approached her, ", "*«%,. passing to the rear and Vi terrain by the most direct rou Borovsky's yoyo was a four-wheeler. The earth swung up behind her the construction zone and made blue highlights c eye of Laura's mind. t.« «. across the dull-gray "

Mikhail Borovsky would take that 3 her helmet. It slipped

particular r ;on and was gone

Laura adjusted tl her boot soles. Just enough to foot One before the other, lift, add a little friction, a little i

' swing, step. The pilot beam w If she fell outward from the rotating monocrystal steel, l-section, decimeter wide. One hundred to her left and right identical girders

glittered in the always- changing But she would not fall. Steel light. They were the primary struc- tural support of the latest, lowest level of George Eastman M Each girder w;

.lought to be completed. Where had they gone? Borovsky, ' ')er under in twice his size. PAINTING BY ETIENNE SANDORF —" —

"Love you too," he mumbled, only half- somewhere on a level swinging more than gaping, helmet tolded under. The eyes in wrists in toes of her boots conscious. "I'm gonna kill him." 1.6 g. Falling on your face could flatten her and the her. Gently your skull on E Minus Seven. Fighting could helped her lift Borovsky above her legs and By morning the bruises showed up. Bo- dock you a week's pay. Ignoring a chal- she eased his legs down into rovsky swore at his image in the mirror, The lenge could get you called a phobe. A let the slow peristalsis of her inner layers gro- draw his feet into her feet. Her ventral plates left half of his face was swollen coward. A . . . woman. Ugly purple blotches covered Where? stretched wide to clear his hips. She placed tesquely. most of his cheek and curved up nearly to Step following step, body bent forward, the Texas catheter over his penis and pulled position. surround his left eye. All across his body using ihe artificial gravity to help carry her her pelvic plate back into were bruises and scrapes from hitting the onward, Laura searched. She scanned the Wriggling slightly, she guided his.arms layers iron going down. He pressed a bruise with chatter on the CB and the bloody-murder down into her arms, where her inner one finger and jerked the finger away from band. Nothing spoke of a man in rubber did the final positioning. place and the fiery pain. hurt on E Minus Seven. Each finger was drawn into Laura watched, unmoving. The tiny, cy- Less than five hundred meters of open continuously massaged. Laura zipped and finally lindrical pod with ils watercot, its kitchen, steel remained. Far ahead Laura saw hooked her ventral plates and eased its shower, and squat toilet was very silent. something streak through the shadows to- her helmet over his head. If Borovsky fought again, if he insisted on ward the sucking stars. She followed des- For a Rabinowicz Manplifier Mark IX steel was too fighting again today perately with her eyes and saw it catch the space suit, walking empty Panic appeared in her crystalline, lay- sun beyond the great cylinder's shadow. lonely to bear. Without her man inside her mockery,' less ered machine mind, seeping outward from Four-wheeled gantry, cable, saddle: It Laura felt herself a hollow of soul the F layer at the core. Layers A through E blazed brilliant yellow for a moment and than even a woman, not worthy the for. Never were standard Manplifier equipment: sen- was gone, falling forever. Borovsky had paid so much motor, communications, memory, and His yoyo, unridden, alone. Damn the Pit! again, she said to unconscious ears. Never sory, Borovsky had paid three years' Laura broke into a run. each boot hitting again. Stay inside me. You are mine. intellect. tor the F layer that Laura so cher- the beam safely though without thought, wages unique, personal, precious — her each magnet grabbing just so much, Raw ished: layer, shared by any machine dawn broke behind her and cast lurching soul. The E could speak and reason, could have shadows against Ihe unfinished steel that stopped the panic, but it did not. Instead, ahead. The sun was beneath her feet as ^Borovsky slammed Laura could no longer stand the way she stepped from naked monocrystal onto when he stood gripping the edge of the sink in gray steel plates. the palms of his hands furious silence, she. spoke. Above was the port from which the yoyo down hard on the "You didn't have to go fight him." had fallen. She pulled herself up a ladder the table He spat into the sink. "He called me a and stepped out onto E Minus Six. A little tabletop. Across it. phobe. Maybe once I can take Maybe lighter, a little less deadly. ' Andre Wolf Lair set twice. Some people have to make noise. No sign of fleeing men. Six was a big his stein aside and stood. But he made me answer him. So I an- level, one hundred meters thick. Heavy swered," He probed a bruise on his thigh, chemical industry, she remembered. At once Simon was "What do we got for bruises?" Before her a dozen huge steel tanks wincing. on his feet, his face hard* Laura turned and searched a small cab- squatted against the floor like brooding inet beside the bed. "Hemoverithol." hens. Each was ten meters high, with a "Let's have it." ladder leading to a dogged circular hatch. Laura pressed an autoampul against his She scanned the tanks. All were alike. thigh and squeezed. save that one of the hatches had dog-han- He sighed as the needle came and went, dles twisted differently from the rest. In Slowly she stood, whole again, Up from then nodded. "How long?" moments she was at the hatch, pushing his toes the hydraulic rings pressed in blood back to- Thousands of words of medical data flew the dogs aside. smooth waves, helping his eye of Laura's mind, "Eighteen The tube was a simple pressure lock. ward his head and heart. A tiny needle past the sending a careful hours to kill the swelling. Color should be Laura pulled herself in, dogged the outer jabbed into his buttocks, afford forty-eight. I hope we can hatch, and released the inner, measure of stimulant into his bloodstream. gone in caught by a another yoyo; the spare wasn't new when With a rising rush there was sound all This was no place to be — bought it and around her. She pushed the inner hatch boss, Laura moved slowly as she climbed we time since "Nix. Rent's up, food's up—we get a new wide and found her man. from the tank. It hadbeen some yoyo and we'd default on your soul. Gimme Mikhail Borovsky lay naked in a heap, she had carried his dead weight asleep, couple months. We'll get a new one from blood leaking from his mouth, Laura cried and never unconscious. She gave the lorn a with that bastard Coyne even if I have to beat out, and for an awtul moment she lay im- rubber underwear to the Pit a venge- it out of his hide." mobile in the tube until she heard a rattling ful flick of her/hand. "Maybe- we should stay away irom the breath. She slid to his side and squeezed They went home the long way, going up slowly, Beer Tube for a few days." his wrist until her gauntlet felt, his pulse. through Six to Five and walking "He'll be laughing behind his ugly face." Drugs— he needed drugs to stir his sys- Halfway there he came around. "Let him laugh. Borovsky—" tem out of shock. "Laura," he whispered. "Don't say it." He turned to her and His rubber suit lay on the floor. Laura "I love you." she said, without breaking smiled. The smile was made lopsided by kicked it scornfully aside, reached to her her stride. his ass." the swelling in his cheek, and even when throat, and undid its latch. Quickly she "He had a metal bar shoved up whole it was not a smile to charm women eased her helmet back. She pulled her he said, and coughed. "Crapped it out on I'm too flat, too suspicious, too much of the ventral zipper down, flipping the hooks the floor, grabbed it. and that was that. smile of an outsider more used, to con- aside with her fingers as they went. Ea- "gonna kill the fugger. You watch me." hoping tempt than to love. But Laura was not a gerly she spread her ventral plates apart, "I love you," she said again, of flesh. This smile was Borov- pulled her pelvic plate forward, then pulled against knowledge that the words would woman feared sky's. It was enough. the zippers down each of her legs almost soothe ihe murderous rage she "Let me run the balalaika," Laura said. to each knee. might get him killed. The image came to her mind instantly: Bo- She lay on her back beside him, plates A world without Borovsky— 118 OMNI "

the Catholic mass. Catholics fear all Borovsky yanked his card from the clock. up to rovsky as he looked while listening to ihe Hate is a good mask for the things Borovsky grunted in greeting and returned spirits. tape of his father playing the ancient bal- you fear." brought up a playful poke lo the Amerind's midsec- alaika. The tape was all he had she's a com- Ihe clock was green. "Laura's no spirit. Hell, slum that was Deep tion. Coyne's lamp on from the crumbling Borovsky pushed against the end made Borovsky clenched his jaw and glanced puter." West London. The sad, hollow music him. was load- of the beam. Laura pushed with The change—change from under- toward the supply dump. Coyne his face crept into position in line with the tiny ing diamond cutting wheels into his En- beam neath, Laura thought. produced by the laser- hanced Leverage Manipulator. red spots of light At those times his features lost some of personal alignment network. ceased their con- Coyne looked up. Borovsky's their hardness; his eyes the new word for triggered, and a single "Maybe computer is scanning back and forth. His microwave channel stant nervous spirit for nonbelievers. whispered word came across spirit. Maybe it is a no, his mouth did nol smile, but in scornful, mouth— talk about the loan you got two over Coyne's chuckle: "phobe" I heard you parting of his lips it seemed to the small years ago. You said you bought a soul for Laura felt her man's pulse race. Quickly If would just listen— now— find peace. he suit." she squeezed his thigh and whispered in your space to the balalaika . . . leaned forward and helped Bo- "He can't even walk the Low Steel Wolf Lair "Let run the balalaika!" his ear. me rovsky move the beam to its final position. for a living. All he does is ride in that big "And get me canned? Mo, dushenka. dollops ever Together they tacked it down with That spare yellow egg. You're twice the man he We'll be late to the grind. Damn. fifty adhesive after checking it against all be." of better be okay." He turned from the sink will back muttered. "Damn. alignment spots. Borovsky leaned command on the lock con- "I'll kill him," Borovsky and tapped a and stared down at the stars him to the stars." against a pillar spare yoyo's condition read out I'll feed sole. The creeping past beneath his feet. Not the best, but the in a few crisp words. You can go home to George Eastman Nexus turned twelve "Shit, l was lonely. battery was a retread, and old at that. and your little ones twice a year. They — times over ihe course of a shift. Borovsky Leah "The balalaika and presents, and you Wolf Lair guided the longitudi- send you letters on, Laura. Shit, we're late al- and Andre "Come send them money. This up here is all the Move it." ready. in it but me. Ain't home I got. and nobody down her hand and deliber- Laura put no woman anywhere would live here and began undogging her plates. ately get smashed under this much swing. You begun as George Eastman Nexus had wait for Indians got it good. Your women to simulate stan- a single cylinder, rotating city woman bThey climbed in you in their mountains. In the no From the inner suriace, dard Earth gravity. remembers your name ten minutes after delicately suspended trees of darkness quickly, twice towers and about it a long you screw her. I thought grew toward the modular office clusters as fast as a something that would time. All l did was buy those offices the engineers and center. In nonamplified man could be on my side no matter what, just some- managers of a thousand companies thing that sounded like a woman." Laura guided an industry worth six trillion dollars climb. Borovsky pinched him hard in a very sensitive place. in gold annually. woman that was said nothing. Laura dared "But it turned out to be a Eastman grew outward as well. George worth something." from Earth-Zero swelled the in- not plead with Downward well. I was "I hear you, Mik. You say it industries preferred dustrial levels. Some to give up the chased for space. My him twenty when I signed up heavier gravity; many chemical proc- the grandfather took me aside and said, 'Wolf esses actually worked more efficiently un- Lair, do not give over your heart lo ma- der higher swing. chinery. Machines are to use and put away For other industries the heaviness was are when day is gone. Only living things necessary, but materials were cheap less worth the true heart of a man.' He is dead been nal steel beams into position ahead of the ever.since the asteroid Calliope had forget him. You years, but I will never edge, tacked them, and left them for the some towed into orbit around the moon for the You that lesson as well, I think. had welders. Wolf Lair was taller than Borov- know steerable mirrors to mine. heart; so you the men nothing worth your true than three klicks from their sky, larger than Coyne. Among It was less bought is a giant, bought a spirit. The spirit you edge of E Minus who walked the Low Steel he was pod to the. advancing loyal dog, or even and a gentle, nothing so simple as a monocrystal rings girdling East- with impeccable balance Seven. Its it man's restless ghost. I know com- His suit was much older than a dead Nexus had been in place for ten deep voice. man and will never disobey you, but little E layer tor speech forts you months. At the forefront of construction the Laura, with skill in its it. Forgive Coyne if he forgive me if I fear plates and reasoning, and- no F layer at all. The longitudinal beams and outer-deck understand or trust it. I could never and spoke, when it had fears were being welded into position amid suit had no name a spirit that lived in a machine." in Wolf Lair's own voice. Laura sensed showers of sparks. Behind the edge the to. Wolf Lair's words disturbed Laura. He piping were that Wolf Lair did not like intelligent ma- power conduits and other speeches and was not remained silent while he was not given to farther still, the floor plates, chines, -and she being laid, and fears and feelings. Borovsky worked. one to admit his heart's one meter square and removable, were and would Coyne's gh e waited to hear what Borovsky down. Laura gripped the yo- When the shift was- half over, being bolted but he said nothing. The sun on its way to Ihe supply answer, cable tightly as they rode, and felt ELM rumbled by yo's passed under their feet five more times, it passed, one of its two smaller her fingers the sizzle of old motors dump. As through and the two men worked in silence. arms twisted its four fingers into a crude in its gantry above her helmet. approximation of an ancient gesture of in- Two of the welders paused long enough avoided the returned the gesture For three days Borovsky Borovsky pass between .them, un- sult. Borovsky-quickly to let Beer Tube. At shift's end he slept, sleeping droplets. Borovsky and looKeti the other way. harmed by the molten hours at once. Laura after the egg-shaped as much as fourteen the yoyo purred on to the Wolf Lair looked waved clear, and blood and read his vital signs " of sight. "Coyne sampled his plates began. He machine until it moved out point where the floor was re- you for daily, and she knew that his body shift is a believer, Mik. I think he. hates parked it and punched in with the pairing the damage Coyne had done it and shrugged, the spirit you wear." boss. Dockedmine minutes— he Borovsky was doing Borovsky hoisted one end of the next the further damage and Laura tallied the beers he would have by continuing to work without a break for partner, beam. "Pah. He believes in his own mouth." to forgo to make it up. Borovsky's him as he slept, him walk three levels healing. Once, watching I have seen Andre Wolf Lair, thumped his shoulder as "But 120 OMNI she played the balalaika tape for herself alone, but only once. Other times she rest- Are you going through hell lessly walked the Low Steel empty, think- ing. She though! about Coyne, and about just to keepwarm? Wolf Lair, and about herself. She though! about souls. Slanding on a naked monocrystal beam above the bottomless void, she looked down and saw Rigel creeping past. The spectroscope on her instrument-blistered

helmet studied it, sent data streaming from her A sensory layer inward, Stored data raced outward from her D memory layer to intersected, com- meet it. Information met, pared, cross-referenced in a process that, methodical it seemed to Laura, was both and more than methodical, It found more in the rainbow-layered image of a star than the star had to offer But no— the handling ot data was not her soul. The pleasure, then, in that handling. Had the pleasure in her own processes been there before Borovsky had bought her a soul? No, of course not. Laura had not been there, not as she herself— only a good Ra- binawicz Mark IX Manplifier suit with a woman's pleasant voice. Mot as the watcher of her own mind, the tender holder of Bo- rovsky's body, the tireless worker who

1 Lots of longed to follow the Low Steel out to the vou're you feu! like stars and farther. Still these things were not inablazinii interno. Whichn her soul. They were things that, as Wolf you can tell your old suit air cocsn't cLtfiil^te now Lair had said, could be put away when day So get inside 'here to go. inside. was done and the work was done—all but (617)335-2740 &Compa^,&F,:vu-[:;:hi:::^r!!

122 OMNI ——

exultation of Wolf Lair's body on a steel beam hung above the stars.

It was a thing for which Laura had no name bui only a sense of patterns among

half-realized notions of what it might be like to be human. The pattern was greater than

merely being human; it was a transcen- dence of the human. It was a laying of How to slice apie. hands upon the universe with such firm- ness of grasp that the universe took a bit of the being's shape, individual and unre- peatable, because exactly that intensity and originality ot consciousness had not existed in exactly that way before, and would not do so again. Becoming unre- peatably and wholly oneself and, thus, To organize daca in an everything else that, Laura decided, was appetizing way, a manager her soul. Becoming, and knowing it. Was that what Wolf Lair had meant by could certainly use the the spirit of living things? But then why had IBM Personal Computer.

Laura not seen it among the humans them- Because it lets you create selves before that glimpse of intense still- high-resolurion color graphics ness in the outstretched body of Wolf Lair? No. the steelwalkers who had inherited un- — quickly and easily. bought souls without cost seemed unwill- Design apie chart to illustrate your slice ing to embrace anything larger than a dou- of the market, for example. ble hamburger. Their souls were asleep; Draw a bar graph that pinpoints though they ate, drank, slept, worked, and profit margins and sales trends. fought, their souls were in none of it. Why, even Borovsky Use arcs, plots, lines and boxes No. The thought froze and vanished, Bo- (in your choice of color palettes) to rovsky, troubled, flawed creature that he help make financial matters clear. was, had nevertheless caused her soul to And you can even mix text with be. He created her and redeemed her by your graphics for a labeled visual that placing himself in financial chains. Laura turned from her contemplation of Rigel to communicates more quickly. her pleasure in remembering certain an- For more eye-opening facts, visit an cient (but there myths had been no myths, authorized IBM Personal Computer retail nor pleasure in them, before Borovsky had dealer. You'll see that the quality of this bought her soul) to the joy of contemplat- computer is what you'd expect. The ing Borovsky himself. Creator. Redeemer. However limited his other horizons, he had surprise may be that it's as reached beyond himself as far as that. easy as pie to buy. ===^= =® Cherishing the thought at the center of her crystalline consciousness, Laura hur- ried back to where Borovsky was.

An argument was under way in the Beer Tube when Borovsky entered three days later. Coyne was proclaiming that E Minus Seven would be the last layer to be built around George Eastman Nexus. Borovsky tossed back Laura's helmet on its hinges. "Damn right. How could the Combine possibly build a level that Johnny Coyne couldn't stand up in?" His bulldogg face re- mained expressionless as he undogged Laura's plates, but the other men in the automated tavern laughed. Coyne glowered. "When they run out of men like me to build it, who will they get to do the work?" Andre Wolf Lair was sitting at one of the black plastic benches near the robot bar at the far end. He took a long draft from The IBM Personal Computer his carved wooden stein, wiped the foam from his lips, and laughed deeply. "When A tool for modern times they run out of men like you they will use real men, and we will work twice as fast." Coyne'dpened his mouth. Wolf. Lair leaned toward Coyne, who saw the warn- ing in the giant's eyes, and looked away. without hurrying, In his blue, working longjohns, Borovsky in: "That's because the Combine ain't and stood. At once, stepped free of Laura. She buttoned up started making 'em yet!" Weinblatt was on his feet, his face hard. and leaned against the wall among several Coyne belched loudly. He shook his head "Coyne, shut your goddamned mouth." kicked in the other suits, some like her, others mere rub- and ma'de his way to the rear of the tavern, Coyne bent over as though for the nearest ber, Laura watched Borovsky key up a beer where a dozen space suits stood or hung stomach, his stein groping paled. that he into a disposable stein at the bar and walk near the lock. He stood in front of Laura table. His face Laura saw provoked back toward Wolf Lair. and addressed the crowd with a full stein had realized what he had done: "Let them build out lo E Minus Fifteen," in his hand. a shift boss to his feet. of the Borovsky said, and took a mouthful of foam. "Ha! The expert on mech-anical women Except for the continuous drone juke, the Beer Tube was silent. Simon "I will stand after the last" man has started is right here among us! Our good friend still home, to crawl." Mik-Hayal Borovsky and his patented hol- Weinblatt was standing. "Go cooks, cleans, she Johnny," he said, and took his seat. "After two hours here I doubt any of us low woman! She she began pull- could stand in free fall," said another man. cheats at cards, she tells dirty jokes. What Coyne nodded, turned, and General laughter followed, to Laura's relief. more could a man want?" ing on his rubber suit. Among the Beer Tube's customers tonight Borovsky's face tightened. of next shift. was a shift boss, Simon Weinblatt, who was "I think that ought to be your last beer, Laura saw little Coyne to sitting with several of Borovsky's co-work- Johnny," Weinblatt said pleasantly. Wherever she and Borovsky happened ers and trading jokes with them. The man Coyne ignored him. "What more, huh? be, the yellow ELM happened to be else- was of only average height and build and Tits maybe?" He turned and made pinch- where. Nor did Coyne appear at the Beer shift. Weinblatt was seemed slight beside Borovsky and Wolf ing motions across Laura's ventral plates. Tube after But Simon to bench oppo- Lair. Like all shift bosses, Weinblatt had a "Kind of hard to get hold of, huh? Well, there, and he pointed the soft-spoken, gentle demeanor and a keen Mik's got lots of imagination." site his- as Borovsky walked in. Laura, left understanding of human motivation. When "You're making an ass of yourself. again with the other suits, edged close tensions flared, shift bosses had a way of Johnny," Weinblatt said. The grin was gone. enough to listen. showing up, quieting the situation, and "Mik, I'm worried about Coyne." Wein- making forty rough, quarrelsome laborers blatt's face was smiling, unreadable. "One cooperate and produce. Their methods of these days he's going to jump you, and could be as rough as those of the laborers. you're going to beat his brains out." Every man there had heard tales of drunk- "Would serve him right," Borovsky said, imPanic appeared en steelworkers who had defied shift eyes on the bench. "The guy is some kind bosses and found that their jobs evapo- in Laura's crystalline, of psycho." "Could be; how did this thing between rated the following morning. And there was layered machine another story, hundredthhand at least, of you two start?" a man who had traded angry words with a mind, seeping outward "I didn't start it." "I didn't say you did," Weinblatt said shift boss and shoved him to the floor- from the F layer it in only to awaken in a prison hospital bed pleasantly. "Do you know why he has at the core. Her E layer with both arms gone past the elbows. for you?" Laura saw that Weinblatt had been in- could have stopped "No. One day he just starts in." conspicuously watching Borovsky and Weinblatt waited: Borovsky, scowling, the panic, but it did notl> Coyne. When Borovsky went back to the said nothing more. Finally Weinblatt said, they're bar for a second beer, Weinblatt placed a "Some guys are up only when mak- hand on his elbow. Borovsky bent down to ing noise. They need it, like air. But Coyne listen: the man spoke quietly. "You have an is also mighty damned good with an ELM. accident at work?" Weinblatt pointed to his His replacement index is forty points own cheek. Borovsky's eyebrows rose, and "No tits. Well, how about a twat? Jesus, tougher than yours." The shift boss sipped you to go, it Laura thought he grew a little pale. There guys, she's all twat! Lookithat!" Coyne from his mug. "If one of had was still some slight discoloration from the grabbed Laura by the rim of her helmet wouldn't be him." bruise that had covered half his face. gasket and lipped it forward, pointing with "That's not fair." "Fell outta bed. No big deal." an index finger to the hollowness inside. 'A "Money isn't fair. Bear down, make some Coyne squeezed past on his way to the guy could crawl in there and get lost, which Q-points, and we'll see. Right now you have bar for yet another beer. Laura longed to is about as close as Mik's ever gonna get to bend a little. I've been doing some get Borovsky back within her and away to being inside awoman!" Coyne-released watching and some asking around. You Borov- pretty much stick to yourself, and that's from there. . Laura and faced the crowd again. Even with a raucous album playing in sky spat on the floor. Too much tension, cool. But up here it never hurts to melt in the background, Coyne appeared to have Laura thought: she could picture Borovsky a little*. You've got no wife to talk about, no heard the exchange. bashing Coyne's head flat against the floor. kids to brag about. Nobody ever hears of He laughed belligerently and poked Bo- As soon as- Coyne turned away she brought you going off to see a woman somewhere. like rovsky with his index finger. her right hand"'up and thumbed her non- You make it easy for an asshole Coyne "Fell outta bed, huh? Dreaming about existent nose at him. to single you out. Humans are pack ani-

with laughter. mals. If you don't show that you're in, the one of those Rooski women, I guess. All The room exploded Coyne Wein- muscle and three tits; a pair and a spare!" whirled around in time to see Laura's arm others will assume that you're out." Coyne doubled over laughing. Borovsky snap back to her side. blatt gave Borovsky a level stare for a few stiffened but remained silent. "Well, so she wants to be one of the boys. moments and then shrugged. "You can tell Weinblatt did not seem bothered by the Hey, babe, you can't have fun at the Beer me that's not fair either." banter. Through a grin he rejoined: 'At least Tube without putting away some yourself. "So what do I do?" it's all yours." "Starters," Weinblatt said, and shoved a he remembers to dream about women. Here, I keyed for this one, but octagonal token across the scarred After ten beers I'll bet you spend all night He lifted his stein over Laura's helmet gas- silver, making love to your handling machine." ket as though to empty the liquid into her plastic tabletop. Laura's eyes followed the Coyne shrugged as his stein filled. hollowness. token across the bench. Embossed on the "There ain't no words for the kind of women Borovsky slammed the palms of his exposed face was a stylized spiral galaxy berenice"s cluster. / dream about." hands down hard on the tabletop. Across and the words From the next table another man joined the table, Andre Wolf Lair set his stein aside "Silver lay, Mik. Anything you want. This 124 OMNI — ——

one is on me. It's my ireat. After an incredulous moment, Laura snapped her altention from Weinblatt's to- rblfschmidt ken to Borovsky's face. Her man her man— looked as impassive as ever. But Laura, who knew the meaning of every Genuine Vodka twitch in that unlovely face, saw in Borov- sky's eyes a complex reaclion; resentment and distaste and—yes— interest. The room The spirit of the Czar lurched slightly, and Laura thought some- thing had gone sour in her F level, bul then realized she was discovering something new in the bright, innermost level she knew

as her soul. If Borovsky "No thanks," Borovsky was saying. He lowered his eyes to stare at the silver to- ken. "Whorehouses give me the creeps." "Be honest, Mik. Are you queer?" "No!" Several of the other men nearby looked toward Borovsky; seeing Weinblatt's warning glare, they quickly looked away.

"I can't afford it." Borovsky said, and in his voice Laura heard the same thing she had seen in his eyes: He resented being told what to do; he was determined to re- sist; he felt scorn for the human pressure

to fit in, but he was interested. "Maybe not a silver," Weinblatt said, "but a purple quickie once a week won't break

you. I know." Borovsky nodded. The Combine always knew, to the penny, every employee's as- sets, debts, and expenses. Borovsky's ex- cuse had been a poor one, Was he trying to save face in ottering resistance so easily wrestled down? Laura longed to have Bo- rovsky look at her, but his gaze remained"

on the silver token. It was Weinblatt, in pro-

file to Laura, who seemed for a moment to flick a sidelong glance at the suits against the wall. Desolation swept through her F layer. It Borovsky— Borovsky, her man "I've never been there before," Borov- WtfZr sky said.

Weinblatt stood. "I'll take you. 1 could .use a good time myself about now." And Bofovsky was standing up. Borov- R sky was reaching for her. Borovsky, still not S meeting her many sets ot eyes, was wrig- gling into her ventral cavity, into her boots. He said nothing. And Laura, sure now that the universe was steady and the lurching continued only in her soul, could say noth- ing either. "Let's go," Weinblatt said. His leadership was legendary and his

Both ports were cast wide at Berenice's Cluster, up on E Minus Four. Loud, raucous music echoed out through the lock. Bo- Today, WolfschmidtGenuir._ ._ rovsky hesitated moment. a made here to the same supreme stan- "Come on, Mik. Relax." rds which elevated it to special appoint- Laura felt Borovsky suck in his breath, ment to his Majesty the Czar and the and they entered. Inside it was very Imperial Romanov Court. crowded, a random tessellation of polyg- airit of the Czar lives on. onal waterbeds illuminated from beneath by changing, multicolored lights. On each Wolfschmidt bed lay a woman, some naked, many draped in..shimmering cloth. More than a Genuine Vodka dozen men stood among the beds, read- ing the fee schedules and counting dollars in their heads and on their fingers. Down -*""

The first American astronaut to orbit the earth would like to be the first U.S. president to take a ride on the space shuttle irUTERV/IELAJ

Jl^^k mong John Glenn's early forays into politics was. curi- American boyish charm. At the Foreign Correspondents Club, he #^^%ously enough, a trip to Japan in the spring ol 1963. was asked how he knew the ditference between up and down in # » about 15 months after he had been the first American space. He drew a laugh when he said; "In space you can pick to orbit the earth. Lieutenant Colonel Glenn, then still in the Marine your own 'up.' "But he was grave when questioned about reports Corps, had gone to Nagasaki to board a tracking ship on which that Soviet cosmonauts had died in a space accident and was he helped to guide Major Gordon Cooper in his spaceflight in applauded when he said he fervently hoped that was not true. May. Then the Glenn family toured Japan, partly on vacation and By the time Colonel Glenn left Japan, he could have won any partly on a goodwill mission from the U.S. government. election in the country, hands down. A leading Japanese news- That was diplomacy and by nature nonpartisan, but still an paper commented; "Everything about him was openly candid." exercise in politics. By anyone's measure. John Glenn was. a stun- A year later John Glenn was out of the space program, retired ner. He learned to sign his name in a Japanese script called from the Marine Corps, and deep into real politics, partly at the katakana and startled autograph seekers, whom he accommo- earlier suggestion of President Kennedy, who had been killed by dated by the score. He met with the political and scienlific leaders an assassin's bullet in November 1963, and more at the urging of Japan, but it was the crowds of shopkeepers, clerks, and iron- of the President's brother, Robert Kennedy. Since then Glenn has workers whose "hearts he won with unlading good humor and all- evolved an agenda that James Reston, the columnist for The New PHOTOGRAPH BY RICK FRIEDMAN "

observations derfinanced campaign (everyone thought does not really know which York Times, has described as "a mixture Glenn would an easy winner). But he later will be of great importance." of the old values and the new technology." be conducted a poll of 48 Metzenbaum in Ihe primary in 197^ Last year Glenn In of the old values. Glenn is a beat terms in sci- went on to defeat American winners of the Nobel Prize quintessential American herd. He flew 59. with a well-run effort and Republican mayor of ence and found that 29 of them had re- combat missions as a Marine fighter pilot a rather colorless ceived 90 percent of their research funds in Cleveland. Ralph J. Perk. World War II and another 90 missions in Another 11 however; stumbled again in 1976. from the federal government, the Korean war, winning live Distinguished Glenn, presidential-nominating had gotten half of Jheir support from the set a cross-country At Ihe Democratic Flying Crosses. He con- he gave a keynote address that government. He asserted that he had speed record of an average of 726' miles convention, survey to counter "the mis- uninspired in content and plodding in ducted the per hour in a Navy jet in 1957 and in 1962 was assem- taken impression that the expenditure of capsule Friendship 7 Ihree times delivery. The response from the rode the ripoff lepid at best, and federal money for basic research is a around the earth and into the history books. bled Democrats was himsell out ol whatever of the taxpayer." Glenn's three orbils, which lasted 4 hours Glenn talked Carter's vice- That sense of curiosity permeates and 55 minutes on February 20, 1962, were chance he had to be Jimmy Americans continue to president. He returned to the Senate and Glenn's plea thai strictly kindergarten stuff by today's stand- agenda on the explore space. He scorned what he called But corning ten morins f.rlor the So- gradually put together an ards. Russians to reach technology 'hat nas emphasized ed- "the drag race" with the first manned orbital flight and five new viets' al- : propounded an research the exD o-;=-.ion oi space, the moon. Instead he months alter they orbited a man for 25 jcahon argument; that space should that and the control of nuclear power and arms. most classic hours, it was the first tangible evidence it there. "One rea- lo come into his be explored because is America's catch-up effort was on the right Politically, Glenn seemed son why man is driven to explore the un- Americans responded to Glenn own in 1980, when he ran for reelection track. And to master record 1.8 million votes in a known,, to reach for the pinnacle, with a frenzy of adulation unmatched since and won by a Ronald. Rea- the unfamiliar, may be that by doing so he Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic solo and state that went Republican for his future," of 450,000 votes. gains better control over he Dwight Eisenhower's return -from Ihe con- gan by a margin wrote in 1969. quest of Nazi Germany. The onetime Ma- Glenn, however, doesn't favor technol- rine jet jockey was even inviled to address ogy for technology's sake; He has been a joint session of Congress, and publicity- among the leaders in blocking the spread wise politicians angled for proximity to the of nuclear weaponry. In the Senate, where new spaceman. tiFor me to stick esteem for pertormance is slowly ac- Nol only arc his bravery and high-flying quired, Glenn has Overcome the suspicion exploits just right, for the makings of an around being the world's beneficiary of impec- that he was a freak political American hero, but his origins.are oldest, in- a long-ago space hysteria. As a junior cable as well. Glenn's roots are in Small training, secondhand member of a subcommittee with jurisdic- Town. USA—New Concord, Ohio- where tion over nuclear affairs, he was assigned his lathe' ran a plumbing business. As a astronaut hoping to look into the global implications of nu- boy, Glenn was a good student and a good for a flight when I was clear proliferation— a subject in which pol- athlete. Later he married his high-school itics, technology diplomacy and econom- sweetheart. He values his religion and fifty, would ics are tight'v intertwined. once, when asked whether he sensed God wishful thinking^ be A subcommittee staff member recalls I don't in space, said, "The God I believe in, thai Glenn "immersed himself in the sub- expect Him to be small enough that I'd run jecf and mastered the details of every cat- into Him in space." egory. When he was through, no one knew Glenn's. faith in the old values apparently more than he did." The outcome of his ef- was shaken during the turbulent days in expressing "limse'l »" the forts was the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act Vietnam. After the death of four students Glenn began of legislation for value of education back in his days as an of 1978. a landmark piece in a 1970 riot at Kent State, in northeastern you get educated, you which Glenn is acknowledged as the prin- Ohio; he was glum in a conversation with astronaut. "When fearful," he said of his train- cipal architect. a newspaper reporter. "Everyone Is losing are no longer ihe "When considering the wisdom of everything," he said, "our ing. "You fear the least what you know confidence in throughout he talks about cutting spreading nuclear technology foreign policy, our universilies. our elec- most about." Now budgets as "eating our seed the world," he wrote in 1976, "the benefil toral system- ail because ;ve haven educational pro- must be weighed against the potential changed the Ih.ngs thai needed changing. corn" and has proposed a $4 billion of a Most of .that tragedy. The benefit takes Ihe form and we haven't told Ihe people Ihe truth." gram to improve schools. disadvantaged children, but new, abundant energy source that can help Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff. would he p substantially raise their would go to fted s; udents and out- many nations based his book on John Glenn and the some g standards of living with labor-saving de- other six original astronauts: men who standing teachers. in- G.ern's favorite words, judging vices and conveniences as well as stirred the nation's deepest emotions. Among critical items in Irom his public ulicances. is curiosity. He creased food production— "They knew it had lo do with Ihe presence, political curiosity, the essential element of the years ahead. The greatest the aura, the radiation of the right stuff, the says that American civilization tragedy lies in Ihe destructive capacity of vital force of manhood that had made research, enhances same material associated living.. As soon as he the weapons-grade millions vibrate and resonate thirty-five and the standard of in into space. Glenn later wilh nuclear production," he continued, years before to Lindbergh." started his ride it placed every bit of in- his argument for the act. "Unless is Glenn's switch from space to politics, wrote. "I began to sop up under adequate controls, this material can I could and to record every however, has been filled with adversity; it formation converted to atomic weaponry by na- . I constantly—to be has taken him more than a decade to'find impression I could. talked stations when they were in tions and terrorist groups alike." the right .stuff there. He had to drop out of the ground recorder when they For those who recall Glenn from those the primary race for the Ohio Democratic range,, into a tape instruments read, faraway days of space pioneering 20 years senalorial nomination in 1964 because he weren't— about what the little he has things appeared out the win- ago, it is extraordinary how slipped in a'"bathroorn and suffered a.se- about how about what itched and changed in appearance. By virtue of po- rious concussion. Then he lost the same dow, about colors, rec- The poinl. he litical accomplishment, however, he's nomination to Howard K. Metzenbaum in where, about everything" reseaicher quite often ognized as Senator Glenn rather than ex- 1970, after running a badly organized, un- said, was thai "'he 128 OMNI —

politics? ently but better. And much of this was astronaut Glenn. Given his political ambi- things. Why did you choose Private in- lot of days here in Ihe sponsored by the government. tions, that's just as well, since for millions Glenn: There are a of dustry did a lot of it, of course, but most I back in the space I wish were of Americans under age twenty-tive or so, Senate when things that do not But let back up a bit. I've got the basic'research -the astronaut Glenn is an item from the history program. me five-year bottom-line pay- I have a three- to books and TV documentaries rather than no regrets about leaving NASA when did, was nat- off—became ihe province of government. a contemporary figure. and the progression to politics a ol the original And the government laboratories that we Apart from aerospace mementos in his ural one for me, I was the first of have in this country are literally the envy ol astronauts. I was the oldest that office, there is little about Glenn to suggest group up on of the world. flight, I was coming his previous incarnation. Now and then, group. After my that brings up the third part of the selectively employs aerospace forly-one. and they felt that uppoming And Ihough, he knowl- to those who system: free enterprise. It takes the lingo with great effect, as when at a flights on Gemini should go uni- for Apollo edge produced in government and congressional hearing, he was question- were going to be available the coming along about versity labs and turns it into products. We ing a State Department flunky on the re- mission, which we saw around as now find that we're cutting back all across laxation of nuclear-proliferation safe- a decade later. For me to stick that knowledge-producing system. guards. When perhaps 30 seconds had the world's oldest, permanent, in-training, hoping for a flight Omni: Why is this being done? elapsed withoul an answer to a volley of secondhand astronaut, beyond, prob- Glenn: For shortsighted budgetary rea- questions, Glenn softly said to the flus- when I would be fifty or was .around for sons. That's the only rationale there is, To I stuck tered witness, "Over." ably wishful thinking. it's like eating our seed corn when we to contribute whal I could me, Following is a conversation between several years higher educaiion or when we then I left. Gov- cut back on Glenn and Daniel S. Greenberg, a long- from my experience, and this country's ci.il bacK cij- support U.y research. And time observer of the Washington scene. ernment, politics, where the is coming at the very time that other na- I could play- -that has g i n g_what role of mine, going tions have recovered from ihe war and now Omni: You've come a long way in politics been a lifelong interest paper on the U.S. Senate have a larger proportion of their income from ten years in the Senate to a leading back to a term that's -discretionary, and they're plowing it candidate for the Democratic presidential into education and research. They're be- nomination. Does that suggest there's a to outdo us in both fields in certain loo? ginning right stuff in politics, being selected areas I don't see us as Glenn: There's a right stuff in any vocation, down the. tube yet, but I think all the irends quite apart from the space program. If there ^What were are wrong. We must keep feeding this was one theme that Tom Wolfe tried to fol- Qoose that lays the golden eggs. Stuti. it they low all the way through The Right they thinking of when talk David Stockman [director and When I to was that the fighter pilots, lest pilots, tried to cut of the Office of Management and Budget] astronauts of that particular period were funding for Pioneer 10? and olner acniristralion people about this, sort of the last of a breed of men and their back for budgetary Wolfe they say we have to cut machines out against the elements. . That's man's reasons, and they say that if, at a later time, was trying to say that things are now going farthest gadget out in we're in a better economic siiuation, we to be a Iqt more automated, and I think can put more money back into this. This there's a lot of validity to that. space. We stii! shows such a fundamental lack of knowl- Omni: Things are getting increasingly au- it* get information from edge about our research system that you tomated in many aspects of American life, want to Sit down and cry. Anyone who including politics. Is the old. American po- knows the first thing about research knows litical system still workable, or is it so much that you don't just pul some money in this in the grip of experts, pollsters, and com- year and get your return next year. puter analysts that it has now become an to get school. It may take as long as a decade I in high altogether new business? that I wrote when was build research teams and Omni: In many speeches, you've said that good people, to It become a new business. But Glenn: has work moving national crisis in science and laboratories, audio get the I we have a has it gone too much that way? No, It's a process that you engineering education and in our research in certain directions. wouldn't say that it has. I think we have a lay the development. Don't you think that is don't pick up one year and down lot yet to .be worked out in the way of fi- and next What were they th.iikmg of lor in- nancial support for campaigns: that has laying it on a bit- thick? tried to cut out funds for think it is. There are stance, when they become one of the most onerous parts of Glenn: Nope. I don't 10? That is man's farthest gadget one. three things in the American system that Pioneer politics. But if you run for office, that's got it out there. It's work- the way it has. Number out in space. We of the things you accept as being a re- made it develop left the number two is ing perfectly. Even ihough it has quirement of the business. Do you like hav- one would be education; information from number three is our free-enter- sdlar system, we still get ing to go out and raise money? No. But it's research: cut it oull established o.ur country it. They were going to one of the things you do in order to do the prise system. We stressed education for Omni: But you salvaged it. things you think are right for the country. with an idea 'that Glenn: Salvaged now, but the original pro- space shuttle every person. That's been fundamental. Omni: When you see the What Americans came to take root, posal was to cut it. So here -we are. going up. do you ever think that you'd like Wherever to learn from Pioneer'? I established the little schoolhouse and are we going to be aboard? they idea. But to turn off they could haven I the 'ogciest pure, flat, green-eyed the schoolmarm and, as soon as Glenn: I experience higher-education insti- man's most distant object out ihere to save jealousy. I've already volunteered to go up be developed, the going to start state of Ohio is a good a few dollars! I was even a flight. tutions- My home on bul 139 institutions o: higher edu- some public subscription or something, Omni: Then you might be the first presi- example: the decision. And it . 'Of all thai effort repeated all they finally reversed dent to go into space? cation. Out involved only a couple of million dollars a in advance. across this country came an educated Glenn: I volunteered year to receive ihe information. If some- feel confident that you can people and an educated workforce. Omni: Do you ten two, always plowed body doesn't want to analyze it for beat Mr. Reagan? And then, number we least get It. It's out of our. gross national product back years, that's okay. But at Glenn: I'll leave that to the people to de- more believe thai they were sim- mquisitiveness, and inves- there. I couldn't cide, but have you seen the polls? into research into how we ply going to turn off the receivers and nof Omni: They look pretty encouraging for tigation into the unknown and not only .differ- oven get Ihe information. you. An ex-astronaut could do a lot of could do things better— 130 OMNI —

Omni: How did you go about saving the could go up and \azz a'ound and get a see that at the outset. To use a simple ex- Pioneer program? new view of the earth. Space is a new lab- ample, many years ago some ordinary For kind that grows in garbage Glenn: We just talked about il here, and oratory. For whaP energy sources and mold—the dish bacteria in somebody over there in the administration development of new materials on beard accidentally fell into a of finally decided to put the money back. Thai the spacecraft. New properties of glass, Alexander Fleming's laboratory. And he alloys metals things thai open noticed that the bacteria around the mold was all. But for that kind of money— I don't new and — capabilities for had died oft. Fleming could not have pos- know what percent it is of the national whole new new industries Earth-resources analysis from sib/y foreseen that penicillin and our whole budget, but it isn't much— to turn off some- on Earth and thing like that showed a thorough lack of space. We're barely scratching the sur- antibiotics industry would come from that- appreciation of all things scientific. Man's face on the type of research that oan be commonplace mold. And who could have curiosity about how we can do things bet- done there. We've -cut back too far. and foreseen in those days that the effect would unfortunately we're not realizing the re- be longevity increases for most of man- . ter or differently or how we learn why things work has given us our whole standard of search potential of the shuttle or preparing kind - and Social- Security problems on the living, our civilization, control over our fu- for the follow-ups to shuttles. floor of the U.S. Senate today because of ture, better control over the forces of na- Omni: What do you think should be our longer lives that people are living? No one research ture, and hopes for making a better life for next big step in space? ever knows the value of basic everyone around this world. That's fun- Glenn: We should go to a permanently or- going in. but if history is any indication, damental, and to turn ofl that kind of re- biting space station and use the shuttle to money spent on research has a way of search to save a few dollars doesn't make transport scientists and equipment. paying off beyond anything we can see at any sense. Omni: What would be the purpose? the outset. Omni: You've been going around saying Glenn: On-board manufacture and re- Omni: Where would you apply financial first that's happening in education, too. search. Who knows what the value of that aid to American research? Glenn; Because of inadequate training, research is going to be? There's a seren- Glenn: Across the board, because it has we're wasting human capital that is vital to dipity effect in all research. It's rare that been pretty well butchered over the last the country's future. Twenty-two percent of couple of years. Our national lab system the nation's high-school-math teaching was cut back an average of twenty per- positions are vacant. Twenty-six percent of cent last year and another seventeen per- the positions are held by teachers who cent this year, We've terminated projects aren't certified for math. In the Chicago and laid off some of the most competent spent billions school system they've got one licensed wWe technical people in the world. Most of our people physics teacher for every two high schools. and two and a half decades Nobel prizes have been won by Figure after ligure like that shows we're not working in government-supported pro- getting the kind doing the job that we should be doing. The grams'. Are we going to give up that cutting Japanese, with half our population, out- research capability of leadership? That's what we're

' back on. Stockman and the President say produce us in engineers, seventy-four in space. The doing, pri- thousand to our fifty-two thousand. The that if things like this are worth purpose not for Soviets produce three hundred thousand was vate industry will do them. Thai's just pop- engineers a year. Now. the Soviets have people to go pycock. I've been on boards of directors. vote num- and I know how you vote there. You never been big in liberal arts. But the up there and jazz around3 bers indicate an area where we are begin- for a three- to five-year bottom-line payoff. ning to be very deficient. a return. It's a rare company that will take Omni: Where does this show up? on something like a fifteen- to twenty-year research project. Glenn: We see it in other countries' creat- ing the new industries that are making the Omni: Do you share the concern that the jobs, and we'll see more of that unless we someone involved m base research knows pace of scientific discovery is going be- get back into the competition. what the outcome will be. That's the reason yond our social capacity to deal with it? the Omni: Why isn't this problem of declining we do research. And space is no different Glenn: We have to be concerned about support for education and research more from that. We have a lot of things we want implications of scientific advances, but that efforts of a political issue? You're not alone in dis- to investigate. Every new thing we've doesn't mean we should lessen our ten to learn things that might help us con- cussing it, but you. certainly don't have learned in space seems to generate new much company. more questions to which we want the an- trol our future. No one now would ever say solution to cancer, I the ability to do that kind that we don't want a Glenn: I wouldn't say I'm alone, but sure swers. We have people haven't heard any groat chorus of supporl of research. But we're not doing it at the heart attacks, and stroke because level should. living to one hundred ten would give us out there. I sometimes feel like a voice in we would. the wilderness on this. It's something that. Omni: George Keyworth [presidential sci- enormous social problems. They because of my own background in aviation ence adviser] has said that a space station But that would be a problem we'd like to enormously expensive and that face. I'm not looking al scientific advances and space, 1 have seen coming. Our gov- would be

ernment is controlled largely by lawyers we're not sure we'd get anything out of it. as threats. I see them as advantages. and people who don't have much back- What's your reaction to that? Omni: You're talking about spending when antispending ground in the science area. They expect Glenn: If he could show me any scientist the country is in- an mood. that just because America has always been who was sure of what would be the out- Glenn: It would not take a lot of money to number one in these fields, we'll automat- come of his basic research, he'd have to correct these problems. That's important ically continue to be number one. But tell me that they knew the answer before to realize. And in many of these areas a preeminence is not guaranteed into the fu- hey started the research. little spending now could avoid huge costs

dollars later. for example. I spent ture unless we work at it. Omni: But five billion to ten billion Take energy, Omni: Do you have a particular concern is involved in a space station. about three years during the Carter about the decline of the space program? Glenn: But the whole space program has Administration trying to get money for re- quite productive. Some of the figures search in the alternative energy and con- Glenn: Yes, I do. I'm not tor giving the space been program a blank -check. But wespent bil- we've had from the past show that the ci- servation fields; as an objective we set- an lions of dollars and two and a half decades vilian economy has received a return of amount equal to about one percent of what getting the research capability we have in somewhere between seven and ten times the United States was paying for imported space, and that wasn't done so that people the amount spent on space. We didn't fore- oil. In the last year of the Carter Adminis- 132 OMNI * PAGE 190 . *H

FICTION

/( was a typical suburban cocktail party, with its shoptaik and a

hint of illicit sex DURING THE JURASSIC BY JOHN UPDIKE

wW Wailing for the firs! guests, the iguanodon gazed along the path and beyond, toward the monotonous cycad for- ests and the low volcanic hills. The landscape was everywhere interpenetrated by the sea, a kind of me- tallic blue rottenness that daily breathed in and out. Behind him. his wife was assembling the hors doeuvres. As he watched her. something unin- tended, something grossly solemn, in his expression made her laugh, displaying the leaf-shaped ieeth lin- ing her cheeks. Like him. she was an omithischian, but much smaller— a compsognathus. He wondered, watching her race bipedally back and forth among the scraps..of food (dragonflies wrapped in ferns, cephalopods on toast), how he had ever found her PAINTING BY ROLAND CAT —

hypsilo- ceived of as the end of Progress! / think beautiful. His eyes hungered for size: He stable, had more of a future. The though not an expert that the pivol word experienced a rage for sheer blind size. phoden, with her graceful hands and — arrived with the in this overall industrio-socio-what-have- The slegosauri, of course, were the first branch-gripping feet, incongruous pair, you-oh nexus or syndrome or whafever is to appear. Among their many stupid friends timeless crocodile—an overextended. Any competitorless object these were the most stupid, and the most but both were recently divorced. Still the cars. bloats. Personally, I miss the trolley punctual. Their front legs bent outward and iguanodon gazed down the path. gnashed Now don't tell me I'm the only one old their filmy-eyed faces almost grazed the Behind him, the conversation enough to remember them! ground; The upward sweep of their backs on a thousand things— houses, mort- boats. The iguanodon's high pulpy heart jerked was gigantic, and the double rows of giant gages, lawns, fertilizers, erosion, recipes, and seemed to split; the brontosaurus was bone plates along the spine clicked to- winds, annuities, capital gains, tennis, lasf night's coming up fhe path. gether in the sway of their cumbersome education, the day's with dis- Her husband, the diplodocus, was with ..gait. With hardly a greeting, they dragged party. Each party was consumed previous one. Their lives were her. They moved together, rhythmic twins, their tails, quadruply spiked, across the cussion of the by the hollow assurance of the threshold and maneuvered toward the bar, subject to constant cross-check. When did buoyed She paused to tear with her lips a which was tended by a minute and shape- you leave? When did you leave? We'd been huge. an clump of leaf from an overhanging paleo- less mammal hired for the evening. out every night this week. We had am- cycas. From her deliberate grace the Next came the allosaurus, a carnivorous phibious baby-sitter who had to be back iguanodon received the impression that bachelor whose dangerous aura and in the water by one. Gregor had to meet a she Knew he was watching her. Indeed, needled grin excited fhe female herbi- client in town, and now they've reduced she had long guessed his love, as had her vores; then Rhamptiorhynchus, a ptero- the Saturday schedule, it means the 7:43 to- husband. The two saurischians entered his I were saur whose much admired "flight" was in or nothing. Trains? thought they of the all. They're coming party with the languid confidence reality a clumsy brittle glide ending in an tally extinct. Not a! until the gov- specially cherished. In the ieeth of the embarrassed bump and trot. The iguano- back, it's just a matter of time iguanodon's ironic stance, her bulk, her don despised these pterosaurs' preten- ernment ... In the long range of evolution, size, enraptured him, swelled to . . Taking gorgeous sions, thought grotesque the precarious they are still the most efficient . she and fill the massive ache he carried when elongation of the single finger from which into account the heat-loss/weight ratio outward across . not there. She rolled glaciation . . was their levitating membranes were stretched, assuming there's no more is fascinating— his senses the dawn-pale underparts, the and privately believed that the eccentric Did you know— I think Ihis — reticulate skin, the vast bluish muscles archaeopteryx, Ihough sneered at as un- did you know that in the financing of those great ornate stations of the Eighties and whose management required a second From the book Mi.se. ji'l and Women, by John Nineties, those real monsters, there was no brain at the base of her spine. Updike. Copyright « ,966, t>v John Updike. Re- They weren't Her husband, though even longer, was permission of provision for amortization? printed in the United State* by weighed at all, they were financed on the more slenderly built, and perhaps Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and in the United Kingdom amortized con- less than twenty-five tons. His very manner by Andre Deutsch Ltd. "basis of eternityl The railroad was a. 1 1^J^^il;^^r]0iy^^^^ From its inceptii,.., .,,.,.,.,::, jolution, greater detail, more broadcast image, r nd correct shapes. For a picture of outstanding c

und the best they i Ask to see our pure black television receiver/ video components and speakers at your nearby Proton Dealer. For his location, call us toll-free, 800-772-0172. '1983 Proton — "

supernatural?" But the nerves of his victim lagged in was attenuated and tabescent. He had re- "How are things in the reporting the pain, and by the time the dis- I think that cat- cently abandoned an orthodox business "The supernatural? don't tant head of the diplodocus was notified, career to enter the Episcopalian seminary. egory-exists in the new theology." "W'esr-ce pas? What does exist in the the wound would -have healed. This regression— as the iguanodon feit it The drinks were flowing freely. The seemed to make his wife more prominent, new theology?" tran- mammal crept up to him and murmured less supported, more accessible. "Love. Immanence as opposed to Works as opposed to faith." that the dry vermouth was running out. The How splendid she was! For all the lavish scendence. quit work." iguanodon told him to use the sweet. Be- solidity of her hips and legs, the modeling "Work? I had thought you had the the stegosauri were Indian- unkind of putting it. I pre- hind sofa ot her little flat diapsid skull was delicate. "That's an way employers." wrestling; each time one -went over, his Her facial essence seemed to narrow, along fer to think that I've changed other's polite- spinal plates raked the recently papered the diagrammatic points of her auricles and The iguanodon felt in the unap- wall. The hypsilophoden, tipsy, perched on eyes and nostrils, toward a single point, ness a detestable aristocracy, ihe of superior size. He a banister; the allosaurus darted forward located in the air, of impermutable refine- pealable oppression suddenly and ceremoniously nibbled her ment and calm. This irreducible point was, said, gnashing, "The Void pays wages?" tail. On the far side of the room, by the he'realized, in some sense her mind: the "Ah?" nonsense? great slack-stringed harp, the compsog- focus of the minimal interest she brought "You mean there's a living in fetid nonsense." nathus and the brontosaurus were talking. to play upon the inchoate and edible green I said nonsense. Dead, his it easier for you. was drawn to them: amazed that world flowing all about her, buoying her, "Call it that if it makes He wife would presume to delay the much bathing her. The iguanodon felt himself as Myself, I'm not a fast learner. Intellectual larger creature; to insert herself, With her an upright speckled stain in this world. He humility came rather natural to me. In the nervous motions and chatter- in life, I feel scrabbling felt himself, under her distant smile, im- seminary, for the first time my ing leaf-shaped teeth, into the crevices of possibly ugly: his mouth a sardonic chasm, on the verge of finding myself." that queenly presence. As he drew close his throat a pulsing curtain of scaly folds, "Yourself? That little thing? Cefie petite for? to them, music began. His wife said to him, his body a blotched bulb. His feet were chose? That's all you're looking Have pain "The- salad is running out." He murmured heavy and horny and three-toed and his you tried pain? Myself, I have found brontosaurus, "Chere madame, vou- thumbs— strange adaptation!—were erect to be a great illuminator. Permettez-moi." to ihe lez-vous danser avec moil" rigidities of pointed bone. The iguanodon essayed to bite the veined dancing was awkward, but .even in Wounded by her presence, he savagely base of Ihe serpentine throat lazily upheld Her awkwardness, this ponderous stiff- turned on her husband, before him, but his teeth were too spe- this ness, he felt the charm ot her abundance. "Comment va le bon Dieu?" cialized and could not tear flesh. He your husband about 'Ah?" The diplodocus was maddeningly abraded his lips and tasted his own salt "I've been talking to her, they settled into good-humored. Minutes elapsed as stim- blood. Disoriented, crazed, he thrust one religion," he told as gray flank that the steps they could do. uli and reactions traveled back and forth .thumb deep into a yielding "I've given up," she said. "It's such a across his length. hove through the smoke and chatter ot the children." The iguanodon would not be deterred. par-ty'like a dull wave. deprivation for me and the "He says he's looking for himself." "It's so' selfish," she said. "The children are teased at school." "Come live with me." "Can you support me?" you." "No, but I would gladly sink under "You're sweet." "Je t'aime." "Don't. Not here." "Somewhere, then?" "No. Nowhere. Never." With what de- lightful precision did her miniature mouth encompass these infinitesimal— concepts! "But I," he said, "bull lo

"Stop it, You embarrass me,"

"You know what I wish? I wish all these beasts would disappear. What do we see in each other? Why do we keep getting together?" She shrugged. "If they disappear, we will too." "I'm not so sure. There's something about us that would survive. It's not in you and not in me but between us, where we almost meet. Some vibration, some enduring cosmic factor. Don't you feel it?" "Let's stop. It's too painful." "Stop dancing?" "Stop being." 'That's a beautiful idea, Une beile idee.

I will if you will." "In time," she said, and her fine little face precisely fitted this laconic promise; and as Ihe summer night yielded warmth to the multiplying stars, he felt his blood sym- "Mating season coming up in two weeks? Don't remind me!" pathetically cool, and grow thunderously, fruitfully slow. DO

ACROSS FIVE OCTOBERS

The year 1978 was a tumultuous one. In Jonestown, Guyana, 910 religious fanatics and their self-proclaimed rev- erend killed themselves in a macabre suicide ceremony. At the Vatican a Polish cardinal was installed as the first

And at Camp Da President Jimmy C

Mideast peace that \ fragile as the Munich acci by Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hit- ler just 40 years before. A thick antitechnology fog contin-

' ' American put i hang over the an unfair legacy frt,.,. BIONIC MAN LIVES the Vietnam years. Students who pur- PARTICLE-BEAM THE -----ice at America's WEAPONS COME OF AGE . . . AND DIES 1 as little

i months after Ronald "The and Nancy Reagan stormed the White in isre, cost more than Uni- story lion Dollar Man" and lived at the i, Omni published its lead where 360 medical oui Space Age weapons. Written by versity of Utah, technicians ' California physicist Gregory Benford, scientists and ing to duplicate man's phy; aJ . reported Dick Ter- generation of space- 1 lers.

s with a pri- tif icial kidneys, and bi

blind 1 vate glimpse ot a top-security Soviet wouid help the bioengineering was then a pri facility, where a potent new weapon, But medical science, and Omn/'s ed- the particle beam, was apparently itive for supposedly undergoing testing. Benford's report 2 criticized with science fiction, described rays of pure kinetic energy science

i inventions that could V bionic blood pum siles or burn up other nations' satel- early new by Dr. Willem Koltf, then director of lites. The Omni article called these and a weapons "planetary policemen," to Utah's artificial-organs division) na- plastic-and-metal heart designed by emphasize their strictly defensive '-"" ' Robert K. Jarvik. Four years .. It declared that particle retired dentist, Barney B. Clark la by the late Eighties ighteen months later, in f. 112 c i. President Reagan issued his lived now-famous "star wars" speech, ered to a large exte sounding a political tocsin that warned unit. The cost of his c America of its need to militarize itself $250,000. Bionics remains an experimental in space Reagan's talk not only pro- probably be years claimed a renewed American commit- science, and it will the artificial heart sees wide 1 to the defensive armament of before views use. But other areas of bionic-trans- ! but seemed to validate the plant surgery hold great medical expressed in "Zeus in Orbit," pub- for the decades ahead. lished nearly two years earlier. promise .

hmBM^^m^s

SHROUDED IN CENTUF OF MYSTERY

undergo Ihe most rigorous

i llaly with $2.5 million worth of

nize the cloth. They termine the nature ar.u „, straw-colored images—the front and back of a naked man who had appar- ently been whipped and crucified.

The shroud is said to be the burial

not out to verify the Gos-

..^.j intensely c images |-"'-,J sprung up, from Southern California to Manhattan. All of them have long lines m Hi and longer them, and then three years back home ries, Inc., a company that acquired And we predicted in 1978 that sur- in experiments and data analysis. They EMV in July. Interest in the field has )uld say the images w,ere made t

y babies idation of the linen, but they ( i our national defense leans so 'tainly a technical plain how this might have happened. heavily on computer technology. Bui

) long." Today there The blood on the shroud is very old the Japanese are hotly pursuing t are women doing just that, and there lestionably human, they avow, chips, and a $10 million appropriation

' ' >r biomolecular- sues surrounding the agreements they is in jeopardy as a result of lengthy sign with would-be parents. and hearings. FLASHBACKS

WIRES OF GLASS: THE MAKING OFDURK : IBEROPTIC SOCIEri AND SANDY

prairie in ling It all began on the Manitoba a couple of tiny to' Eustache, the Canadian go' masm

set out their prescriptions for I intelligence, eliminating depression prolonging orgasm, and so on.

"Mind Food," which brought in ; mmS deluge of 4,000 letters from our re; "* beropolis," hailed fiberopticsooa. =...- ers, was only the beginning for J *^r many of the ills that plague and Sandy, who v~* Life Extension, th jiiMili

nearly 1983 AT&T York-Washing-

fflsjm

light-wave communications. '

Mm? 1

Aiitf NETWORK

THE SEARCH THE PHARMACOPO FOR A CANCER CURE OF THE BRAIN

Back in 1980, when thousands of < liscovery of the body's internal In November 1981 Omni warned its cer patients, including the stric opiates, or endorphins (for "the mor- readers of a medical mystery that was Shah ot Iran, were desperate for in- phine within"), inaugurated a ! baffling epidemiologists nationwide.

terferon, Omni began a special r ranch of neuroscience, as > "Gay Diseases," in our Continuum on this research drug. "Cel in ' - J "An End to Pain," in F — r> mysterious

1 , suggested ary 1979. Researchers were trying to inii pneu- that interferon, the body's own virus- isolate more endorphins, taking stock fighting agent, would no! be the long- of the endopharmacopoeia. ight miracle drug against cancer. Later that year scientists identified '"' " ' predicted that the drug dynorphin," which now ap- AIDS. In two ] I as an adjunct therapy a family Of nprhans five mune deficiency syndrome has be- come a widespread epidemic and has produced enough hysteria to : ms with her 1973 the plague. Doctors, mon for protection those in danger of r svery of the brain's opi- sive infection. Interferon is more widely receptor, in ate said an Omni Interview cubation r. available for testing now, thanks to ge- in February 1982, "Our brains proba- mission. At fiiai netic engineering, and it is being used bly natural have counterparts for just suspected that elements of the gay life- )out any drug you could name." She style, such as the use of sex-enhanc- ing stimulants, could be the cause of AIDS, but this hypothesis has not held i and similar antianxiety agents up. Baruj Benacerraf, the Nobel Prize- ;husetts Gei rk their calming effects. winning immunologist, revealed in i recently that transplant recipi- A research team at the National In- t current thinking ascribes the ute of Mental Health thought it had ,„ .o an unidentified virus that at- "y occurring V the body's immune sys last analog spring when it isolated a AIDS meanwhile has killed ( protein that was bound to the Valium of its 2,000-plus victims in the United ceptor. But when the team did tests,

i failed to quell at

it. The endogenoi mophiliacs also face risks. As epi- demiologists struggle to solve one of phins, and major discoveries ; the most puzzling medical riddles of likely in the next few years. this century, no end ; '

FLASHBACKS ^w^ m

m- i*L

THE WIZARD OF SPACE A NEW ERA SEARCH FOR THE DEATH AND TIME FOR SPACE EXPLORA HORMON

of Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned theo- retical physicist, continues. From his . ..^..d of life extension. But Cambridge $3.2 billion out of pocket, and shed- u has pursued antiag- ding heat-shield tiles like a molting bird, „jientist who a na- research is endocrinologist W. and contii the space shuttle had become the unknown - — i,i„ But as Columbia His remarkable stud- lound the doctors who diagnosed a tional boondoggle. Car. l the hope of health- I for takeoff at progressive, wasting 1981, novelist James A. amyotrophic lateral sclera /eral in Michener wrote glowingly in Omni of him, in 1963, only a tew. for inaugurating a new era Shortly after "The Wizard of Space and her chances exploration. Time," one ol ihe first major profiles of space Columbia's flawless flight, from April on Hawking, : silenced the critics, and sub- 1979, the scii to 14, luent performances have restored chael, was t ne of the glory to America's cur- rently limited space program.

seventh d by Sir Isaac Challenger, completed the launching twi Newton, But whereas Newton s c shuttle flight, effortlessly culations orchestrated a universe ' orderly an in the Main Hawking's tl rsary issue goes penmems iiveu lunger, regaini filled with such chaotic youthful, thick coat and slim boc wormholes and mini-black holes. He _.._,_/ is scheduled to has having their pituitary glands ren has even confronted the cosmic fly again on August 20, and NASA meeting the September Others displayed improved immui miasma of singularity, where all of every hope of Columbia's return to Newton's classical laws break down 30 target date for Spacelab as her payloarJ. fighting cancer. and the traditional notions of space and duty—with Michener judged that shuttle oper- I trying to time fail to have meaning. utine by 1984 that to continue his studies. Although I I the 1980 Americ; what some biologists be- His timetal , might go along iiiiltlaiiViii itimistic, although his faith w

not rr this affecting story. apparently IN THE VALLEY TREATING ADDICTION: MONKEYING OF THE SILICON GIANT ELECTRIC CURE TH THE HUMAN BRAIN

' e among the i 'ildflowers of California's lush Sanla Clara Valley stands the birth- vately sing the praises of a kindly _ .ictims of stroke place of the microcomputer. In 1979, Scottish surgeon who helped them and nerve diseases. Yet, the brain first when Omni toured this sprawling break their addictions I is remarkably tolerant of trans- land (a Landsat photograph of the area oin, speed, or ti ed tissue, whether from another aove) of high-tech cone rain, trom other organs of the body,

over 100,000 Americans owned horr The use of brain-tissue trans-

compulers. The so-ca" ' NeuroElectric Therapy plants to cure paralysis or senile de-

H In September 1979 a Continuum 'ni^laaa 3" report on "Brain Graft told how sci enlists at the National nstitute of Men After contributing editor Kathleen al Health had successfully trans Wanted cells from hea hy rats into the mm brains of nine rats afflicted with a ro

:tive patients. Butgi Transplanted rat nerve cells are shown m val isyelto be forthcoming. As F — li described how Swedish doctors mmwill or paramedics n

i training. i 'JHEI1 !cj 311 OiFli |ii1i; iriiiiir iiiii,-|iiiii l il l MEGNET Foi

adult counterparts, and Club Med has l its Washington, DC, b

cation in other prevalent disorders. ^™ s

loner. Kaufman looks at astronauts and Zero, IT MAY BE NEWS TO YOU seems to see Cagney in Ceiling Bogart in FILM Stewart in The Spirit of St. Lows, 36 McQueen in .but the C0N"INUFDFROMFAGt To Have and Have Not, even His astronauts are men fighting In a way. Presby- The Blob. ego oi the fighter jock. deserve to preserve an ideal (whether we Egyptians terianism was tailor-made for people who traversing the uncharted be- well it or not), intended to make it in this world, as knew it asSnTePI in o He™»S«. explo it while all around them politicians thing because John Gienn. with his 9good journalists sut hucksters peddle ft. and ago! country-boy lace, was as ambitious as ages of the status vert it twist It into a »a, baton any pilot w'ho had oyer hauled his happy quo. (none hilarious ^s^Shepard burden of self-esteem up the pyramid." Powers to overcome sickness! roiecled prays, "Ddn t ie< me And this is why Corn s nana to the American public Means to escape poverty! fly is more Conkite lransla.es as *o first ALrlcan astronaut to happi- as "He says everything is A-OK) Knowledge to bring conseouentia in Wol'e's hstory ot the is a public affirmation ness and peace of mind! Skill SS program than the selecting of the Wolfe's right stuff df his private quest; Kaufman s is a private and genius to create a civiliza- no less' pnghT but ,a, less zealous Alan tion we still copy! These are only some of ancient Egypt's accomplishments. But, beyond physical achieve- ments was the wisdom of the Egyptian mystery schools. In (1947) Can we be induced to forg e wW An intelligent screenwriter and direclor. were daily take lor these centers of learning Kaufman whose credits include The WMe we Close Encounters > And if we can- taught the laws of life. Men Dawn Invasion 0/ the Body Searchers, and shuttles. how can «apprcie what and women were able to shape Wanderers, has earned our trust.) He not forget The Yeage^ieved their destinies! has moved Glenn oft center in his screen- «»^^gj som, Glenn, Scott CMPWBT. Wa y »» Successful living is the play and replaced him with the guiding Cooper, and Pete Slay.on braved? How ol a different vision: Charles Yeager, world's oldest art. It consists Eghts nero'Sm? The not can we experience "«" the pilot who broke the sound barrier of developing initiative, fore- hardware-that veritable orgy of accu- because his hardw sight, and the ability to com- went into the making of this because he dared"o doubt that there ao- mulatioh that bine experiences into new and film is jus.ihed was a barrier. Also central now is Alan Sy at stake when workable ideas. These laws dutifully to have us feel what%*>^««g™Zwas Sheoard the nn.'.-J nlliner who unfailingly as men with the right stuff faced the ""town, operate as pS ed ffijl to be Shot into space (in the relationship between hart- those which govern the Sun, what Wdlfe dended as a "patriotic stunt' ) That ,s That is why Kai man and planets. They were when American rockets were not ware and history Moon, it a time IL crew pr x I . by certain Egyp- .i-rt.r .r'ar, ilinh'worlhy. And Gordon , discovered pulled to- the can Wilmore, USAF Retired), tians and preserved through the reveren wiseae e in KP ' Navy A-4 Skyhawks, two Navy gethe, two Rosicrucians. scnp . mosmovg so neu Lately the ages by the Douglas A-26, one A-37. one B- too as the heir apparent to A-7s, one Si Superfor- PRACTICAL 26 'nvader, one Boeing B-29 vSfne^and his ilk tress, one 0-130 transport, one Hawker INSTRUCTION Kau man has in his own words, Siddley Hunter (modified td resemble a In your hands, this knowl- '•dreamed Its ,i th-nuch a time of his- Douglas D-558 Skyrocket), one F-4, one could alter the entire But his wayfe not necessarily Wolfe's. edge tor. (borrowed from .he its au- F-86 Sabre, two F-104S course of your affairs. The Ro- Much of the book happened only in test German air force: we noTong-ar 'W«* rmagination. It was Wolfe, not the sicrucians offer you—if you thor's Mustangs two the competition Iwo North American P-51 to break pilots, who symbolized have the courage Texans, five Lockheed T-33s one Be among peers as a towering ziggurat. It was T-6 : away from limited thinking Rocket Research Aircraft (Yeager s Wolfe not the astronauts, who spoke X-1 ex- um.ihsonian n- —these same simply never original is hangii g in ,n„ or-n,' oi the ught stuff. This was truths of life. Let this one X-15. five Army transports, pressed E chatter stilulion), turning point in your 12 Army helicopters, and one Sikorsky H- be the °So one in the screenplay, except one civilian helicopter The bulk of 34 Choctaw i life! Use coupon or write today NASA recruiter, says right stuff," accord- Air Force. Ihe opposite ol the . e iirocl rom the to Scribe: D L W ing to Kaufman "This is the Services Administration, the FBI, SWWars where they can spend the whole General &% ROSICRUCIANS '£«. (AMORC) ^SSr^kiS'-breathyfic- ffifflTf secure the altera t was done as we I to ton," says Kaufman, "that echoes reality." to Jose, California 95191, U.S.A. fre-nc.n .,„ San period 1. licks ear ., Kaufman has created his dwn space tic- secure as equipment miss ton' more mythical, if not so spiritual pumps, Scrihc DLW Wolfe's not so ideological, and- with funnels, KOSICKUCIANS i.VMOHCi class ring. Frm I The 1945 Nava Academy LVM.A so mercilessly redundanl or re- and a S„n .,,>'..' CiiLLfurnb 9SI9L S- no. place dn 20 military and .

CONTINUED F =?C'M pa-j: 4; gets there, of course, is another matte LX.BeanS thai can crunch numbers in nanosec- NEW WARES: HARD AND SOFT onds— billionths of a second—and "learn" from experience. It is an ambitious plan Unless someone enters the data, com- lhat would marry human and artificial in- puters normally remain insensitive to what's telligence. The government is taking a two- going on around them. A typical personal step approach to bring off the marriage. computer alone, for example, won't sense

First it will lilt the old programs out of its the temperature and humidity of your room;

IBM 9020s and, in effect, drop them into it can't autonomously control the environ- new computers. A few years later it will seek ment, But a new series of products ($700 state-of-the-art software for the new air- and up) from Data Translation provides traffic-control machinery. personal computers with the equivalent of "History has shown that when you re- neural connections so they can continu- place a very large system with a totally new, ously pick up information from electronic clean-sheet system in one fell swoop, suc- sensors. Lab scientists can use the de- FREE cess has a very low probability," Hunt ar- vices to collect such physiological data as gues. "One of our design goals is to 'mod- brain-wave potentials instantaneously, in Christmas Catalog ularize' the system so the is easily digital form. (Data Translation. 100 Locke hardware Features Bean favorites for men and women as Marlboro, replaceable. The software would be de- Drive, MA 01752.) well as new ideas for practical, functional gifts. veloped using a high-level language, and Quality apparel and footwear, woodburning pro- any of the computer systems on the market "Learning Concept: An Introduction to ducts, home furnishings and winter sports equip- ment. Many items of our own manufacture. We could use that same high-level language." Personal Computers" is an hour-long, five- ship promptly and pay postage. Satisfaction Willis Ware, an electrical engineer at The part videotape that starts out with basic guaranteed. RAND Corporation who has three dec- definitions of computer jargon and goes ades of experience with computers, takes on to explain such typical applications for Send FREE Christmas Catalog issue with Hunt's assessment. The FAA's home computers as word processing, two-step approach is, in his view, "drip- spread sheets, and database retrieval. An ping with technological risk for too many accompanying manual provides an intro- to Mi- reasons. Among others, I would guess that duction programming. ($99.95, from those estimates for software resources are cro Learning Concepts. 380 Lexington Av- underestimated in terms of it will ac- enue, Suite 1208, New York, NY 10017.) what L. L. Bean, Inc. tually take to develop them." I 2061 Casco St., Freeport. ME 04033 J What will happen when something goes You can turn your home computer into a wrong with AERA? Psychological siudies miniature planetarium with a book called suggest that people are reluctant to over- Celestial BASIC, by Eric Burgess. The au- rule computers in simple computations. thor tells how to program a computer lo do Send for Your Free How will the more complex challenge of everything from creating computer dis- managing hundreds of airplanes affect air- plays of constellations, galaxies, and me- Edmund Scientific traffic controllers? Will they dare to pit their teor showers to figuring out the date of the split-second judgment against the ma- next lunar eclipse. The volume contains 23 Catalog Today! chines'? Will programs that can run on the Apple II, succeeding generations be America's largest mail-order markei place ol

It r ".: whose only experience is full automation IBM PC, TRS-80, and Commodore PET, thoiisands o! unusual ::rl rase nil 'r.i .al-.ies= i !;::>

a r even have a chance to develop sound also includes calendars and an astronom- bv^t.v j;:i.:rjL ise S. SHidems. sch:::;:ls and ircusirv. judgment about air safety? ical conversion table for light-years. A report from The RAND Corporation ($13.95, from Sybex, Inc., 2344 Sixth Street. takes a gloomy view: "By depending on Berkeley, CA 94710.)DQ an autonomous, complex, fail-safe system to compensate for keeping the human controller out of the routine decision-mak- ing loop, the AERA scenario jeopardizes Pa: "P£- Hil Hi- . page 1B, Sygma, page 70, De Es Set" the goal of safety. "Ironically, the better AERA works, the . I more complacent its human managers may become, the less often they may question

. . likely _:-. ,-' its actions, and the more the system Animals page 53 bottom, i: :"::: page 54 b is to fail without their knowledge." Neal Blake, the FAAs deputy associate 56 top, OgaSnlege page 57 top, Sam C Pie's administrator for engineering, disagrees: : page -.for-—5 page 58 lop, Olga Spiegel;.,: npage 58 bottom. At::-, ::. of data-link will increase, the ' "The advent >U0. pans" :.. :; i: <: safety of the system. As we get improved ere =!a. page 108, '(:. ' . : : ::: ,.:. psaii : y-y p;i;.j» l ss. weather information and improved winds- j 1 H m»r yk si aloft information, pilots will be able lo do a

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4 ' } wiln gentle daylight. the Robotics Institute, Dr. Amadiro?" Elijah Baley, a top investigator from Earth, and the walls glowed fixed itself on Daneel "Ah, Mr. Baley." is brought to the planet Aurora to solve a Amadiro's glance At this point, a robot brought in a tray of mystery. A humaniform robot, one of only again. "A remarkable job, this humaniform still smaller pas- said. "It is astonishing how close small sandwiches and two in existence, has been murdered. Dur- robot?' he tries, none of which were familiar to Baley. ing the course of his investigation, Baley to his vest Fastolfe kepi things. And it is a He tried a sandwich and found it crunchy must interview master roboticist Kendel shame that Jander was lost. There, Fas- and not entirely unpleasant, but it was odd Amadiro, who has accused his profes- tolfe did the unforgivable." enough for him to finish it only with an ef- sional and political rival of the murder. "Dr. Fastolfe, sir, denies that he was in it with what was left any way implicated." fort. He washed down he would. Does of his water. An Auroran now appeared in the ornate "Yes, Mr. Baley of course Amadiro watched this with a kind of I implicated? Or is my im- doorway. He was tall, somewhat heavyset, he say that am your idea?" gentle amusement and said, "You must with a round face, a bulbous nose, curly plication entirely own Baley, that we Aurorans deliberately "I have no such understand, Mr. dark hair, swarthy complexion, and a smile. Baley said, question the are unusual people. So are Spacers gen- idea. I merely wish to you on It was the smile that was most notice- of in particular I Aurorans matter. for Dr. Fastolfe. he is certain you erally, but speak able. Wide and apparently unforced, it As now. We are descended from Earthpeo- revealed prominent teeth that were white have had nothing to do with what hap- of not willingly he is quite cer- ple—something most us do and well shaped. pened to Jander because we are self-selected." tain you lack the knowledge and capacity think about— but He said, "Ah, it is Mr. Baley, the famous "What does that mean, sir?" investigator from Earth, who has come to to immobilize a humaniform robot." "Earthpeople have long lived on an in- If Baley had hoped to stir things up with our little planet to show that I am a dreadful planet have drawn comment, he failed. Amadiro accepted creasingly crowded and villain, Come in, come in. You are wel- his cities that with loss of good humor, and together into still more crowded if aide, Roboticist the slur no come. I am sorry my able anthills right, Mr. Baley. Suffi- finally became the beehives and Maloon Cicis, gave you the impression that said, "In that he is kind in any ro- you call Cities with a capital C. What unavailable, he is a cautious cient ability is not to be found I would be but of Earthpeople would leave Earth and go fellow and is a great deal more concerned to other worlds that are empty and hostile about my time than I am." in order to build new societies that they He stepped to one side as Baley walked could not even enjoy in their own lifetime?" in, and tapped him lightly on the shoulder

"Rather unusual people, I suppose." blade as he passed. It was a gesture of QBaley noticed that "Quite unusual. Specifically people who friendship that Baley had not yet experi- are not so dependent on crowds of their enced on Aurora, Amadiro stared at Daneel fellows that they lack the ability to face Baley said, cautiously (was he assuming with a moment's emptiness. People who even prefer emp- too much?), "I take it you are Master Ro- look that was tiness, who would like to work on their own boticist Kendel Amadiro?" hunger. A -and face problems by themselves, rather "Exactly. Exactly. The man who intends ' almost predatory than hide in the herd and share the bur- to destroy Dr. Han Fastolfe as a political appeared on his face. It den. Individualists, Mr. Baley." force upon this planet— but that, as I hope "I see that." to persuade you, does not really make me was gone quickly society is founded on that. prove 'And our a villain. After all, I am not trying to smiling againt and he was Every direction in which the Spacer worlds that it is Fastolfe who is a villain simply be- have developed further emphasizes our cause of the foolish vandalism he commit- individuality We are proudly human on Au- ted on the structure of his own creation, rora, unlike the huddled sheep on Earth. poor Jander. Let us say only that I will dem- Mind you, Mr. Baley, I used the metaphor onstrate that Fastolfe is— mistaken." alive or dead, except for Fastolfe not as a way of deriding Earth. It is simply He gestured lightly, and the robot who bdticist, but you, I Isn't that what he says, our modest a society I find unadmirable, had guided them in stepped forward and himself. ideal," of suppose, find comforting and into a niche. master masters?" "What has this to do with the founding As the door closed, Amadiro gestured "Yes, he does." he say happened of the institute, Dr. Amadiro?" Baley jovially to a well-upholstered arm- "Then whatever does "Even proud and healthy individualism chair and, with admirable economy, indi- to Jander?" chance." has its drawbacks. The greatest minds, cated, with his other arm, wall niches for "A random event. Purely the working singly, cannot progress rapidly if Daneel and Giskard as well. Amadiro laughed. "Has he calculated they refuse to communicate their findings, Baley noticed that Amadiro stared at Da- probability of such a random event?" scientist for master roboticist. Yet even an ex- A knotty puzzle may hold up a neel with a- moment's hunger. His smile "Yes, have the if there a century, when a colleague may disappeared for that moment, and a look tremely unlikely event might happen incidents that better the odds." solution already and is not even aware that that was almost predatory appeared on his are "Such as?" there is a puzzle to solve. The institute is face. It was gone quickly and he was smil- an attempt, in the field of robotics, to intro- I hoping to find out, Dr. ing again. Baley was left to wonder if that "That- is what am duce a certain community of thought." momentary change of expression was an Amadiro. Are you the head of the Robotics "Is it possible that the particular knotty invention of his own imagination. Institute?" Baley asked. puzzle you are attacking is the construc- I am." Amadiro said, "Since it looks as though "Yes, tion of a humaniform robot?" we're in for some mildly nasty weather, let's "And its founder?" Amadiro's eyes twinkled. "Yes, that is do without the ineffective daylight we are "Correct." obvious, isn't it? It was twenty-six years ago now dubiously blessed with." "How long has it been in existence?" that Fastolfe's new mathematical system, Somehow (Baley did not follow exactly 'As a concept— decades. I have been gathering like-minded people for at least which he called intersectional analysis, what it was that Amadiro did on the control humaniform ro- Building began nine years made it possible to design panel .of his desk) the windows opacified, fifteen years. himself. ago, and active work began six years ago. bots. But he kept the system to of Dawn., by Isaac From the book Trie Robots when all the difficult tech- In its present completed form, the institute Years afterward, Copyright <& 1983, by Nightfall, Inc. Jo Asimov. nical details were worked out, he and Sar- is two years old, and there are long-range be published in the United States by Doubleday the of first plans for further expansion." ton applied the theory to design & Company, inc. To be published in the United to Daneel, then Jander. Those details were Kingdom by Granada Publishing, Ltd. "Why did you find it necessary set up 150 OMNI "

Dr. are differ- "I think I see difficulties. Amadiro." also kept a closely guarded secret. 'As the Spacer worlds today "No doubt. There are many. Which dif- "Most roboticisls shrugged and felt thai ent from Earth and from one another?" lost his joviality ficulties do you foresee, Mr. Baley?" this was natural. They could only try, indi- Amadiro, for a moment, thoughtful.. 'Actually, Mr, Baley, "If you produce humaniform robots that vidually, to work out the details for them- and looked so humaniform they can produce a hu- touch an important point. I am dis- are selves. I, on the other hand, conceived of you Spacer worlds do man society, and if they are produced with an institute in which efforts would be cussing Aurora only. The generational in both sexes, how indeed differ among themselves, and I am a spread pooled. It wasnt easy to convince other It is will you be able to distinguish them from roboticists of the usefulness of the plan, or not overly fond of most of them. clear human beings?" though I prejudiced that to persuade the Legislature to fund it to me— may be — the "Will that matter?" against Fastolfe's formidable opposition, .Aurora, the oldest among them, is also "It If such robots are too human, I want a might. but here we are." best and most successful. don't which only a few they might melt into Auroran society, be- "Why was Dr. Fastolfe opposed?" variety of new worlds of part of human family groups, and might be really valuable. I want many Au- come "Ordinary self-love, to begin with. I have millions of Auroras, and then they might not be suitable for service no fault to find with lhat, you understand. roras, uncounted pioneers." for that reason I want new worlds carved as It comes with the territory of individualism. before human beings go there. Amadiro laughed. "That thought clearly The point is that Fastolfe considers himself into Auroras call ourselves Globalists, by entered your head because of Gladia Del- the greatest roboticist in history and also That's why we marre's attachment to Jander. You see, I .considers the humanilorrn robot his own the way. We are concerned with this globe know something of your interview with that particular achievement. He doesn't want of ours— Aurora— and' no other," woman from my conversations with Gre- that achievement duplicated by a group of "Do you see no value in variety?" "If the varieties were equally good, Mr, mionis and with Dr. Vasilia, I remind you roboticists. I imagine he viewed it as a con- value; but that Gladia is from Solaria and her notion spiracy of inferiors to dilute and deface his Baley. perhaps there would be inferior, how would of what constitutes a husband is not nec- own great victory." if some, or most, are essarily Auroran in nature." "You say that was his motive tor oppo- that benefit humanity?" "I was not thinking of her in particular. I sition 'to begin with.' That means there were was thinking that sex on Aurora is broadly other motives. What were they?" interpreted and that robots as sex partners "He objects to our plans for the use of are tolerated even now. If you really cannot these humaniform robots." — tell a robot from a human being "What uses are these, Dr. Amadiro?" 4/i is indeed our "There's the question of children. Ro- "Mow. now. Let's not be ingenuous. bots cannot father or mother children." Surely Dr. Fastolfe has told you of the Glob- thought to devise some "But that brings up another point. The alist plans for settling the Galaxy?" scheme whereby robots will be long-lived since the building "That he has, and for that matter, Dr. produce babies of the society may take centuries." Vasilia has spoken to me ol the difficulties robots can - case, have to be individualists. "They would, in any of scientific advance among . that can grow long-lived if they are to resemble us." However, that does not stop me from want- and mature—at least untii 'And the children —also long-lived?" ing to hear your views on these matters." the establish Amadiro did not speak. "Very well. I —we, I should say, for they Baley said, "These will be artificial ro- people at the institute are like-minded in kind of society we want$ the bot-children and will never grow older; they this— look into the future and wish to see will not age and mature. Surely, this will humanity continuing to open newer planets create an element sufficiently nonhuman to settlement. We do not, however, want to cast the nature of the society into doubt." the process of self-selection to destroy the Amadiro sighed. "You are penetrating, older planets or to reduce them to mori- to de- "When do you start this work?" Mr. Baley. It is indeed our intention bundity as in the case— pardon me— of robots vise some scheme whereby robots can Earth, We don't want the new planets to "When we have the humaniform in fashion it. were Fas- produce babies that can some take the best of us and leave behind the with which to do So far there His grow and mature at least until they es- dregs. You see that, don't you?" tolfe's two, one of which he destroyed." — tablish the society we want." "Please go on." eyes strayed briefly to Daneel as he spoke. will hu- 'And then, when human beings arrive, "In any robot-oriented society, as in the "When do you think you have the robots can be restored to more robotic case- of our own, the easy solution is to maniform robots?" have not yet schemes of behavior." send out robots as settlers. The robots will "That is difficult to say. We "Perhaps if that seems advisable." build the society and the world, and we caught up with Dr. Fastolfe." — are "And this production of babies? It would can then follow later without the process "Even though he is one and you be best if the system used were as close of selection. We can go on to new worlds many, Dr, Amadiro?" slightly. to human as possible, wouldn't it?" without leaving home, so to speak." Amadiro twitched his shoulders "Possibly." "Won't the robots create robot worlds "You waste your sarcasm, Mr. Baley. Fas- "Sex, fertilization, birth?" rather than human worlds?" tolfe was well ahead of us to begin with, institute has been in em- "Possibly." "Exactly, if we send out robots that are and though the "And if these robots form a society so nothing but robots. We have, however, the bryo for a long time, we have been fully at differentiated it will human that they cannot be opportunity to send out humaniform ro- work for only two years. Besides, be with from human, then, when true human beings bots like Daneel here, who, while creating necessary for us not only to catch up arrive, might it not be that the robots would worlds for themselves, would automati- Fastolfe but to move ahead of him. Daneel resent the immigrants and try to keep them cally create worlds for us. Dr. Fastolfe; is good, but he is only a prototype." off? Might the robots not react to Aurorans however, objects to this. He finds some Vir- "How must the humaniform robots be " " 7 as you react to Earthpeople 7 tue in the thought of human beings-carving improved beyond Daneel's mark Baley, the robots would still be a new world out of a strange and forbid- "Obviously they must be even more hu- "Mr. by the Three Laws." ding planet. He does not see that the effort man. They must exist in both sexes, and bound - children. "The Three Laws speak of refraining from to do so would not only cost enormously there must be the equivalent of hu- generational if a harm to human beings and of obeying in human life but would also create a world We must have a spread molded by catastrophic events intosome- sufficiently human society is to be built up man beings." "Exactly." thing not at all like the worlds we know." on the planets." 152 OMNI '

form your society takes now makes ble are all on record. Available to all." "And what if the robots are so close to "The Baley said, "Does the public know?" human beings that they regard themselves me sure. 1 was told, oh my way to Aurora. "Probably not. The general public has as Ihe human beings? They might place that no distinctions are made between ro- its and is more interested in themselves above the immigrants." bots and human beings on Aurora. But that own priorities the next meal, the next hyperwave show, "My good Mr. Baley, why are you so con- is clearly wrong. It may be a wished-for flatter themselves that it the next space-polo contest, than in the cerned with all these Ihings? They are tor ideal; Aurorans next century and the next millennium. Still, the tar future. There will be solutions as we truly exists, but it does not." will be as glad to accept as. understand, "You've been here —what?— less than the general public progress in time. And we " ? plans as the intellectually minded are. by observation, what the problems really Iwo days, and you can already tell my Those object will not be numerous are." "Yes, Dr. Amadiro. It may be precisely who matter." stranger, that I can see enough to "It may be, Dr. Amadiro, that Aurorans because I'm a "Can you be certain of that?" I and will not approve of what you are planning, clearly. am not blinded by customs don't ' are not permitted to enter "Oddly enough, I can be. You un- once they understand what it is. They may ideals. Robots derstand, I'm afraid, the intensity of the prefer Dr. Fastolfe's views." Privates, and that's one distinction that is

It beings to feelings that Aurorans, and Spacers gen- "Indeed? Fastolfe thinks that if Aurorans clearly made. permits human

have toward Earthpeople. I don't cannot settle new planets directly and find one. place where they can be alone. erally,

feelings, mind you, and I am, without the help of robots, then Earthpeo- You and I can sit at our ease, while robots share those

instance, quite at ease with you. I don't ple should be encouraged to do so." remain standing in their niches, as you see." for "1 think have- that primitive fear of infection; I don't Baley said, "It seems to me that that Baley waved his arm toward Daneel.

smell I don't attrib- makes good sense." that human beings, even Aurorans, will al- imagine that you bad; that "Because you are an Earthman, my good ways be eager to make distinctions and to ute to you all sorts of personality traits

I think that and not preserve their own humanity. As soon as I find offensive; don't you Baley. I assure you that Aurorans would implications of your yours are plotting to take our lives or steal find it pleasant to have Earthpeople the Aurorans see the the large majority of Au- swarming over the new worlds, forming plan they will turn against you." our property— but have all these attitudes. It .may not some sort of Galactic Empire and reduc- "Mr. Baley, do you think you have dis- rorans close to the surface, and Aurorans ing the Spacer worlds to insignificance or covered a secret? That I have told you be very themselves to be very polite to even extinction." something that our world does not already may bring individual Earthpeople who seem harm- "But the alternative to that is worlds of know? That my plans are dangerous but to the test and all their I less, but put them humaniform robots, building quasi-human that I blab them to every newcomer? hatred suspicion will emerge. Tell them I talk to and societies and allowing no ttue human imagine you may think that if you some that Earthpeople are swarming over new beings among themselves. There would long enough, I will surely produce the Galaxy, and gradually develop a robotic Galactic Em- verbal folly that you will be able to make worlds and will preempt for ever they will howl for Earth's destruction." pire. Surely Aurorans would prefer a hu- use of. 1 am not likely to. My plans "Even if ihe alternative to that were a man Galactic Empire to a robotic one." 'more humaniform robots, for robot fami- society?" "What makes you so sure of that?" lies, and for as human a culture as possi- robot-controlled "Certainly. You don't understand how we feel about robots. We are familiar with them. We are at home with them." "No. They are your .servants. You feel superior to .them and are at home with them

only while that superiority is maintained. If you are threatened by an overturn, by hav- ing them become your superiors, you will react with horror." "You say that only because that is how Earthpeople would react." "No. You keep them out of the Privates.

It is a symptom." "They have no use for those rooms. They have their own facilities for washing and they do not excrete. Of course, they are

not truly humaniform. If they were, we might not make that distinction.". "You would fear them more," 'That's foolish," said Amadiro. "Do you fear Daneel?" Baley's silence was eloquent, and Ama- diro pursued his advantage. "Right now," he said, "you are unmoved by the fact that Giskard is standing, silent

and unresponsive, in an alcove, but I can

tell by small examples of body language that you are uneasy because Daneel is doing so, too. Ypu feel he is too human in appearance to be treated as a robot. You don't fear him because he looks human." ."1 am an Earthman. We have, robots," said Baley, "but not a robot culture. You cannot judge from my case." "What case can you judge from, then?

"t'rn sorry, my dear. It was the old ticker." You are only guessing. To me it seems ob-

vious that if a robot is human enough he " —

Earth will merely be Earth and never any- if it becomes necessary. be accepted as human. Do you de- will kill you, would thing more, she will be of no concern to us. fact "Surely you don't mean that." proof that / am not a robot? The mand Giskard With the Galaxy at our disposal, we will not "I dp," said Baley. "Daneel and human is enough. In the end, that I seem their world. We The First Law, begrudge Earthpeople one is have orders to protect me. will not worry whether a new world we with would even be disposed to make Earth as in this respect, has been strengthened settled by Aurorans who are actually hu- people as job, comfortable a world for her all the skill Dr. Fastolfe can bring to the tell difference. But- man if no one can the robots must choose between harm would be practical. robot— Aurorans either way." If my human or hand, Mr. Baley, if Auror- harm to me, Earthman though "On the other faltered. He said, un- to you and Baley's assurance what Fastolfe asks, and allow Earth I ans will choose to harm you. imag- do learn how I am, they nvinci rig ly, "What it you never co out settling parties, then it won't are well aware that Dr. Fastolfe is to send construct a humaniform robot?" ine you to long before it will occur to an increasing not very eager to ensure your well-being." be "Why wouldn't we?" Earth will take over the Amadiro chuckled, and a grin wreathed number of us that that any number of mediocri- "It may be Galaxy and that we will be encircled and his face, "I'm sure you're right in every re- ties do not add up to one genius." hemmed in. We will be doomed to decay Mr. Baley, but it is good to have you said, shortly, "We are not me- spect, Amadiro death. After that, there will be nothing I and so. You know, my good sir, lhat am may yet find it prof- say didcrities. And Fastolfe own quite kindly feeling to- recording this conversation, and I'm.. glad I can do. My itable to come in with us." able to with- will erase ward Earthmen will not be it. It possible that Dr. Fastolfe so." of is "I don't think stand the general kindling of Auroran sus- but I as- :| last part of this conversation, will not enjoy being without the | do. He picion and prejudice. It will then be very It is clear from what you our sure you I won't. in the Legislature, and when power bad for Earth. move ahead, have said that he is quite prepared to de- plans for settling the Galaxy truly concerned "So if, Mr. Baley, you are he vise a robotic way of doing harm to me— his opposition does not stop us, that and for your own people, you should hope even killing me, if he can manage that will join us." Fastolfe does not succeed in foisting upon I plan any it cannot be said that will win," said Baley. whereas "I don't think you planet his very misguided plan, You physical harm to him whatever. Which of this you think that somehow this "Because should be an ally of mine. Think about it." exonerate Fas- investigation of yours will Amadiro was smiling as broadly as ever, tolfe and implicate me." but it was all wolf now. "Perhaps." Baley and his robots followed Amadiro Amadiro shook his head. "My friend, if 1 out of the room and along the corridor. anything you could do would thought that IWhatifthe "You must understand, my good Mr. still I sitting and spoil my plans, would be afi- on, "thai I am quite an are so close to Baley," he went waiting for destruction?" robots cionado of Earth and its culture. It is not are not, You are doing everything beings "You human the most popular of subjects on Aurora, you can to have this investigation aborted. particularly it fascinating. I am themselves but I find confi- that they regard would you do that if you were Why interested in Earth's history, the days when would get in the human dent that nothing I could do as Interstel- it had a hundred languages and your way?" beings? They might then lar Standard had not yet been developed. "you can get in my "Well," said Amadiro, you, by the way, on your May I compliment demoralizing some of the members place themselves way by own handling of Interstellar? institute. You can't be dangerous, of the above the immigrants^ "This way, this way," he said, turning a I'll put annoying. So, if 1 can, but you can corner. "We'll be coming to the pathway- to the annoyance— but I'll do that an end simulation room, which has its own weird reasonable fashion, even gentle fashion. in beauty, and we may have a mock-up in actually dangerous— If you were operation. Quite symphonic, actually. But case?" "What could you do in that your handling of Inter- I was talking about I think you have and impris- us is the villain. Mr. Baley? "I. could have you seized Auroran su- then, that this stellar. It is one of the many don't think established that, and I think, evicted. I oned until you were concerning Earth, that Earth- place to end the interview." perstitions Aurorans would worry overmuch about is a good swal- people speak an all-but-incomprehensible Earthman." He rose, still smiling, and Baity, I might do to an what of Interstellar. lowing hard, stood up as well. version Baley said, "You are trying to browbeat "I've tried reading Shakespeare," he Amadiro said, "I still have one thing to me, and that won't work. You know very our said, with a confidential air, "but I can't read however. It has nothing to do with well you could not lay a hand on me with say, him in the original, and the translation is little contretemps here on Aurora—Fas- my robots present." help believing that the curiously flat. I can't that tolfe's and mine. Rather, with your own Amadiro said, "Does it occur to you with fault lies with the translation and not robots within call? What problem, Mr. Baley," I have a hundred with Dickens and Shakespeare. I do better would yours do against that?" "My problem?" problem. Tolstoy, perhaps because that is prose, al- could not harm me. They "Perhaps! should say Earth's 'All hundred of the characters are, in feel very anxious to save though the names Earthmen and I imagine that you cannot distinguish between unpronounceable. folly, because both cases, within the meaning poor Fastolfe from his own Aurorans. I am human a "What I'm trying to say, Mr. Baley, is that think that it will give your planet of the Three Laws." you I what I really am. want expansion. You are quite wrong, I'm a friend of Earth. "They could hold you quite immobilized, chance for it. you understand?" He arsy-versey, to use a vulgar expres- is best for Do without harming you, while your robots were rather at Baley, and again the wolf showed across in some of your plan- looked destroyed." sion I've come in his twinkling eyes. "Giskard heard you, et's historical novels." "Not so," said Baley. oblige you, Dr. Ama- afraid I cannot your "I'm not familiar with the phrase," said "I'm if make a move to summon and you business, and I diro. I must be about my will have you immobilized, Baley, stiffly. robots, Giskard questions to ask of either the situation reversed. have no further very quickly, and once that hap- "I mean you have He moves else here. Let me go, sir, or when my view wins out in the Leg- you or anyone will be helpless, even if You see, pens, your robols for help." not I will ask my robots islature—and note that I say when and you manage to call them. They will under- "You had but to express the wish. I will Earth will be forced to remain in her stand that any move against me will result if— the nearest exit, and if ever you own planetary system. Aurora will have the take you to in harm to you." return and' you may expansion, and of establishing are on Aurora again, Giskard will hurt me?" prospect ol "You mean that you. have the tour I promised "DO empire. If we then know that "To protect me from harm'' Certainly. He an endless 156 OMNI —

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Perhaps it's the performance Or perhaps it's the convenience of one of the new Sony cassette decks which is enhanced by Sony's unique such features as feather-touch controls. at your nearest audio dealer. And sim- LaserAmorphous'" heads and advanced Alinear tape counter that displays actual ply listen to what ^j /™\"|\T"V" Dolby *G-noise reduction— that earns elapsed time in minutes and seconds. THE ONE AND ONLY The leading expert on space colonies unveils his plan for building in orbit by 1992 CONQUESTfactories OF SPACE

BY GERARD K. O'NEILL

nually. The raw materials to feed 5fc^- that cannot be There are limited short-term so- Trends would come from reversed make the lutions to some of the world's that industry of moon. Lunar decades ahead very major problems. But the only vi- the surface the materials would be separated dangerous— potentially cata- able long-term solution is to be- pure elements in high orbit, strophic—here on our planet. gin using the energy and ma- into / **-**: lie where constant sunlight would Our land area and mineral re- terial resources that beyond the energy for extracting sources are limited and can our finite planet— in space itself. supply metals and fabricating them into never be extended. They are That will be a healthy develop- finished products. At first many being pressed more and more ment for another reason: It will workers for that industry severely by a world population draw us outward, encouraging of the settlement of space. would remain on Earth, moni- that will double in 40 years and the human toring and controlling robotic rise to three times today's pop- For those who already look to- will machines through radio and ulation 30 years after that. ward the space colonies that television links. A few, mainly We human beings are prob- result from space industry, the highly skilled troubleshooters, lem solvers by nature, and our immediate question is, What would live in orbit for duty tours response to thosa threats should form will that industry take? way contin- of six months or more. not be a wringing of hands but If research under The initial products of indus- an exploration of the ways to ues to meet Its goals, we could try In space will be solar-power solve serious resource and en- establish a substantial Industry giant arrays that col- vironmental problems, We must in high orbit, 200,000 miles satellites, before the end of lect the bountiful sunlight of high find unlimited low-cost energy above Earth, it en- this century. Within decades the orbit and convert to radio and make It available to every- industry ergy, That radio energy will then one, not just the nations favored products of space conversion 1 million tons per be sent to Earth for with large fuel reserves. And we could exceed to electricity, ultimately provid- must tap mineral resources to year— small compared to the but ing our civilization with all the sustain new Industries without great industries of Earth power we need, with- damaging Earth's environment. worth more than S100 billion an- electrical PAINTING BY JOHN BERKEY —

three flow of materials. More Department o; Energy (DOE) spent our polluting planet Earth's biosphere. milted without the $15 million to explore the been than five years ago power at a level of 100 years and about Up until now, of course, there has by radio waves concept. About two thirds of the funding one valuable product of commercial kilowatts was transmitted just environmental-impact studies. over a'distance of one mile in tests at Gold- went into activities in space: informalion. Satellites While that transmission Somewhat to its own surprise the DOE equipped with sensors produce data on stone, California. scaled up by 10,000 to found no serious environmental impact large-scale weather patterns, including would have to be level of from the transmission of energy by radio satellites orbiting just 100,000 times to reach the power tropical storms. And clean electric-generating station, the beams. There are two reasons for the Earth's atmosphere use sensitive a typical above of the radio require no new physics. The en- bill of health, First, the intensity television cameras to take pictures of the feat would the as the in- ergy beam would be larger in area but beam was only about same land. From that detailed imagery com- be more intense. tensity of sunlight. Second, at the fre- puters can pick out subtle color changes, would not have to packets of 15 years ago Peter Glaser, of the quency of the radio waves, the which indicate the presence of oil, metals, Some in physics terms, the Arthur D, Little international consulting energy in the beam— and fresh or salt water beneath the earth's Massachusetts, quanta—were only 0.001 percent as strong surface. Satellites also relay information company, in Cambridge, energy from space. as those of sunlight and therefore much from one ground location to another or to suggested transmitting tissue. There fitted with solar cells could too weak to damage living continents. There are now more than Large satellites entire danger to geostationary orbit. There had never been a question of these satellites, and more of them be located in 100 of receiving antenna convert sunlight to radio waves, humans, because the rocket into orbit every month. they would back to the earth. would be mounted on posts above ground success of informalion satellites which could be beamed The enclosure. But sense. Sunlight is an in- level and inside a fenced and. the dearth of any other space indus- The idea made prevent birds or insects from fundamental tense, reliable resource in high orbit, avail- no one could try—can be explained by a DOE-spon- hours per day during most of the flying through the beam. The fact. Information has great value, but it able 24 found that the radio in spring and autumn is a sored experiments weighs nothing. The cost of launching a year. Only the in an- geostationary array eclipsed and then only waves had no effect on birds. And satellite from the earth to geostationary or- other experiment no effect was found on bit (an orbit in which a satellite stays at a even so subtle a natural phenomenon as fixed point in the sky as seen from Earth) pattern of bees. of the dancing is currently about $18,000 per pound Despite the fundamental attractiveness satellite weight. But once a satellite is up solar-power satellite, it was shot down information of the there, it can produce or relay i If research by the National Research Council (NRC) for virtually nothing- For such established of the National Academy of Sciences. The information products as telephone mes- continues to meet its goals, we NRC's negative conclusion resulted from sages or TV program time, a relay satellite could establish its analysis of economics. With evidence can pay back its entire cost of manufacture fresh in a- substantial industry in high of escalating shuttle-flight costs and launch in a year or less. mind, the reviewers concluded that the su- As soon as we look beyond the area of orbit before the end pershuttles could never operate as inex- information, though, commercial oppor- of this century. The products pensively as the people at NASA hoped. tunities in space become far more limited They also refused to believe that solar cells, because we are up against the costs of of space could the basic energy-conversion mechanisms into orbit. Rates to low- lifting raw materials 1 million tons a year* exceed lor power satellites, could ever be made Earth orbit for shuttle cargo range from cheaply enough. The NRC study con- $1,250 per pound lo $11,000 per pound. cluded that power satellites could proba- The low figure is for high-density cargo in bly be built and would probably be ac- bulk. The high figure is more typical of ceptable environmentally, but that they shuttle payloads so far and applies to with of than 40 min- could never compete economically complex low-densily objects, of which sat- for predictable periods less midnight. ccal or nuclear electric power, ellites are the prime example. Any product utes each view that entire sad history, played Glaser's good idea never In my : of materials that must be brought Unfortuna:cly. made a clas- and the problem lies out over more than a decade, was from Earth on the shuttle, processed in or- gained acceptance, of asking the wrong question with its friends as well as its enemies. NASA sic example bit, and returned to Earth for sale must in- getting a useless answer. Although I its aerospace contractors latched on and clude that high price of lift as an item in its and wonderful reason believe the power-satellite concept is fun- production cost. Pharmaceuticals, which to the Glaser plan as a Engi- damentally sound, NASAs approach lo has targeted for early commercial for a massive new space program. NASA with monster ver- making it happen collided head-on production, are among the lew products neers drew up designs fpr shuttle—wholly reusable space basic physics. The energy cost of lifting a on Earth that sell for such rarefied prices. sions of the ol power satellite into geostationary orbit is is lo planes that could carry payloads sev- If the industrialization of space play the bot- tons. The giant rocket planes huge because we on Earth are at a significant role in the total economic pic- eral hundred well that is 4,000 miles were to weigh 20,000 tons at liftoff—ten tom of a gravity it compete in one of the major ture, must NASAs de- times as much as today's shuttle. deep. Fighting gravity forced markets onEarth. It cannot do so in most working on NASA study signers into two traps. One, the direct cost of the new, high-technology markets, in- Companies a little solar-power of lift, was obvious. The other was cluding electronics and robotics, because contracts drew up plans for Because the designers had be manufactured satellites that would be as light as possi- less apparent. such products couldn't proposed could be lifted from to fight those high lift costs, they more efficiently in the space environment ble. Their components satellites by using complex, Earth in those giant supershuttles and as- lightening the than in factories on Earth. exotic, equally costly in orbit. The program planners costly designs and there is large-scale market for sembled Yet one solar flights per materials. For example, in converting which space industry makes sense: en- worked up aschedule of several to electricity, they had to use light- information, can b e trans- day for the huge rocket planes. That energy ergy, which, like expensive pure- schedule would have had to be main- weight but extremely Editors' note: Gerard K. O'Neill is a physicist at crystal silicon solar cells. They could not tained for a year if even one power satellite )";<:c&.on Ur.iversi 1:,'. president ol the Space expensive amorphous- were to be installed. use the much less Studies Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey, arid would During the Seventies many studies of silicon solar cells, because those a leading advocate of industry in space. O'Neill's Nor carried out. In have been heavier per watt of power. presented a per- solar-power satellites were 1976 book, The High Frontier, turbogenerators, comprehensive investigation, the could they use heavy suasive argument tor colonization of space. the most 160 OMNI second just oulside the into solid, durable spheres. The electricity from sunlight con- in Princeton, New Jersey, producing lunar soil University campus. The institute would transport the spheres of centrated by mirrors, though that would Princeton from thousands to a point in high orbit above the moon, A relatively simple, low-tech- is supported by donations have been a soil into pure for nor accepts third would process the lunar the energy-conversion of members; it neither asks nology solution to and composites. And Ihe an- government money. Unlike most space-re- elements, alloys, problem. But if NASA got the wrong does not agitate fourth would fabricate those industrial ma- swer by asking the wrong question, what lated organizations, SSI terials into finished products, The prod- for governmental action. Instead, it has Is the right question? for directly ucts would be the heavier, simpler com- is, is taken on the responsibility The right question, I suspect, What engineering ponents of more pilot plants identical to the design for a solar- funding basic scientific and the simplest, lowest-risk could grow SSI in a relatively first. In that way space industry that could be made out of research. That has kept power satellite eight compared with most other geometrically, 1, 2, 4, 8 . . ., through materials already at the top of Earth's grav- low profile doublings, until 256 pilot plants would have materials space-related private groups, but it has ity well? We have a large mine of consistent. Our been built. That scheme would provide us also made it effective and there, and it has already been assayed up capacity to build organization's purpose: to find a practical with sufficient industrial more carefully than all but a few mines on solar-power satellites. of the moon. approach lo satellite power and the more Earth. The mine is the surface were industry, beginning The results of the SSI workshops project, we know that the general goal of space From the Apollo journal conquest of the high published in two articles in the material of the lunar surface is about 30 the peaceful human Astronautics and Aeronautics. According weight, 20 percent sili- frontier. percent metals by billion we held a se- to those articles an investment of $7 and 40 percent oxygen. The metals Soon after SSI's formation, con, over a five-year period, com- workshops to develop a cost-effec- or $8 billion silicon are just right for building a so- ries of and investment that built the for the development of space in- parable to the lar-power satellite, and oxygen is Ihe "gas- tive plan workshop ground rules Alaska pipeline, would be enough to pro- oline of space," constituting about 86 per- dustry. The satellite per year. staying within the limitations of the duce about one power cent of the weight of rockel propellant. included power satellite could be sold to a na- which can lift only about 29 tons of Each Continuing to ask what we hope are right shuttle, devel- tion or a utility for about $10 billion. And we should explore methods for cargo to orbit on each flight. We questions, earth with continu- scenario for space industry through each could supply the building solar-power satellites from lunar oped a ous electric power equal to the output of within Ihe limitations of the space- those workshops. materials The potential world plants, remote-controlled and small ten nuclear plants, shuttle transportation system. Pilot satellites that undersell enough to be Iransporled by today's rock- market for power In the past five years one organization func- coal and nuclear-power plants is well over quietly and effectively ets, would carry out ihe key industrial has been working course of transport, extraction of pure $200 billion a year. During the those right questions and to arrive tions; material to ask reasoned that two and fabrication of finished prod- our workshops, we also at sensible answers. The organization, elements, other products, less complex than power 1977, with the help of ucts. The pilot plants would be of several which I founded in short would scoop up lunar-surface satellites, could be marketed in the friends, is the Space Studies Insti- kinds. One some ' term: liquid oxygen, for use as rocket pro- sinter it with heat and pressure tute (SSI), a nonprofit corporation located soil and pellant, and raw lunar soil, excellent for shielding orbital space stations and fac- tories from cosmic radiation. In a separate research effort, Hannes Alfven, an adviser to SSI, suggested that there might be asteroidal material trapped in the earth's orbit around the sun by the combined gravitational forces of those two

bodies. It was easy to calculate the energy cost of retrieving that material, and it was very low— about 0.05 percent of the en- ergy cost for lifting materials out of Earth's gravity well to the same high orbit. It was tar more difficult to decide whether aster- oids in that orbit could have remained trapped since the formation of the solar system, given the perturbations of all the other planets. Under an SSI grant to Princeton University, Scott Dunbar studied the problem mathematically and con- cluded that despite all perturbations, as- teroidal materials could very probably still be within Earth's orbit. Dunbar received his Ph.D. from Princeton on the basis of that research. Then he received an NRC fel- lowship to work with Eugene Shoemaker and Eleanor Helin, at Caltech, in part to search for that material with the large Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar. Whether the raw materials for space in- dustry come from the moon or from trapped asteroids, they must be separated into pure elements for most industrial uses. In 1981 SSI made a substantial grant to Rockwell International, the builders of the space shuttle- Under thai grant Rockwell's Rob- ert Waldron measured the key reactions —

pilot-plant stage. And SSI will soon be re- for separation oi lunar minerals into pure EXPLDEATIOrUS questing proposals from aerospace com- aluminum, iron, titanium, silicon, oxygen, COM II NU ED FROM B solar-power satellites that can and other elements. Waldron's results, now panies for leaving 15-kilometer rift in its materials. If we at SSI erupted, a a final report, indicate be built from lunar being written up as became the maintain our research schedule, by 1987 destructive wake. This fissure that a processing plant in space or on the publish a consistent, log- thermal valley. could process roughly 100 times its we'll be ready to moon another violent explosion plan for establishing large-scale In 1917 yet in each year and that very ical overall own weight soil a crater space. rocked the area, giving birth to few chemical materials would have to be industry in high-vol- that has become the world's largest boil- to keep such a When the road to productive, brought from the earth flanked industry has been paved by ing lake. The Waimangu Caldron, processing plant running. ume space cliffs, rises and falls 10 kind, it will be time for ac- by huge steaming Although our energy cost for bringing- research of that Nations or groups of corporations are meters per month. materials Irom the moon to an orbital in- tion. that stage. The rest of the valley is more quiescent. would be only 5 percent of the among the possible players at dustrial site gurgle over the Warbrick order to minimize risks, they will choose Small springs cost of bringing them from Earth, we would In Terrace, a collage of rust, yellow, and moss- trans- products that the marketplace will still want still need a machine to carry out that by the fusion of min- five to ten years after investment begins. green hues caused port. For the past several years SSI has techno- eral deposits and algae. The Emerald Pool, of the "mass-driver," Given the pace of change in our funded development majestically; society, only the most general a crater 40 meters deep, sits an electromagnetic catapult. In a mass- logical off its plume, it dis- energy, rocket propellants.and like a peacock showing driver, electric current is pulsed through products— stations and plays cool, green waters. wire, generating a mag- lunar soil for shielding space coils of aluminum also on dis- satisfy that condition. That Nature's vivid complexion is This field accelerates a moving colonies—will netic field. Wonderland, just a SSI has targeted these three as the play at the Waiotapu coil of wire, called a "bucket," which car- is why miles south of Waimangu. Make sure material most viable products ol space industry. On few ries a sphere of sintered lunar Lady Knox scale, a nation or a con- you arrive at 10:15 am. to see about the size and weight of a base- the fastest lime that's the wife of a former sortium of industries could pick up the SSI Geyser (named after ball. The material Ihen leaves the bucket Zealand governor) spew her spray 20 plan run with it in 1987. That would New and accelerates toward its destination, a and at the meters into the sky. high orbit above the moon. result in productivity in space precise point in formed by the 1886 level by 1992. II Waiotapu was also Ihe sintered lunar material enters a 100,000-ton-per-year There large number of slowly SSI will broaden, eruption, evident by the simple collector that has a closed cy- events go more very turquoise lakes. But the jewel deepen, and buitress its plan by con- craters and lindrical tube at one end. Pool demonstration ex- of Waiotapu is the Champagne and The mass-driver work took a big step structing larger-scale investment op- adioining terraces. Fed by a spring, this 1983, when Les Snively, ot periments, until finally the. forward in May carbonic acid. tempting that a major pool contains high levels of Princeton, completed the newest model portunity becomes so all sides, cre- itself to the A sinter rim has formed on according to a computer- investment source will commit Mass-Driver III— pale-orange perimeter. development of space industry. ating a glittering, program that I had written. Mass- design multihued terraces, ex- will be the first to Behind the pool of a I cannot be sure who Driver III models the first half-meter en- quisite in their delicate lacework patterns, operational lunar machine, which create wealth out of the constant solar fully palette. the abundant materials waiting meld like colors on an artist's 160 meters long. It is a erg'y and would be about Zealand's scenic of Earth's gravity well. But While feasting on New simple device consisting of 20 circular drive for us at the top in mind that there's a prac- that ihe first group that succeeds splendor, keep diameter and I am sure coils, each 40 centimeters in the south- imitators. Whether the tical side to this landscape. On bicycle tire. Stacked will soon have its about as thick as a an- Japa- ern tip of the Rotorua district lies yet another, they form a hollow first program is led by Americans, against one gleams with aluminum Europeans, or Russians, within a few other valley; this one cylinder. Inside the cylinder the bucket coil nese, that flash intermittently with billow- short years all the major space powers will pipes is free to move. When currents are dis- the scale of ing clouds of steam, the drive coils in a pre- compete in production. When charged through power sta- large enough This, the site of the Wairakei sequence, they produce strong industry in space becomes cise time activity at work. the presence of thousands of tion, shows geothermal magnetic fields that accelerate the bucket to demand more than 60 steam wells, or bores, people in high orbit for long periods, it will Here it the centerline of the and also guide on extracting high- devote some of the productivity to sprout from the valley floor, cylinder. Funclioning at a fraction of full pay to steam, which is transported sev- the building of space colonies for workers pressure power, Mass-Driver III gave its payload pipeline to turbine gen- families. Those colonies, in the eral kilometers by carrier an acceleration of 1,100 g, enough and their transformed into electricity. mile in circumference, erators and from a standstill to 250 miles per hour form of spheres one lo go hundred thousand New Zealand- will rotate slowly to provide Earth-normal Two in 0.01 second. Full-power tests sched- ers, both on North and South Island, ben- year should see the ma- gravity for their residents. The space col- uled for later this less efit from this clean energy, which costs design onists will grow their own food and derive chine accelerate a payload to its power. the sea of to produce than hydrogenerated That acceleration will bring all the energy they need from goal of 1 ,800 g. environmentalists that sunlight. By the middle years of Despite cries from the payload carrier from a standstill to 300 constant exploitation is drying up the next century the first beachhead in geothermal miles per hour in 0.007 second. the geysers, developments are al- will have grown to include thou- region's Building on its successful track record, space under wav to build O'naaki, a second of such colonies, each with a lan- ready SSI will be funding second-generation de- sands drawn from power plant, in the Broadlands Fields, key research areas during guage and a cultural heritage velopment in northeast of Wairakei. Earth. Travel between Earth and which are 20 miles the next several years. Now that Mass- a nation of The recent discovery of offshore gas, how- of the its colonies will be as common by then as Driver III has proven the accuracy ever, delayed this project, much to the international travel is today. It will be a has computer program by which it was de- frag- disappointment of thermal advocates. used to extend happy development for our tired and signed, the program will be environ- when humanity's drive toward Whatever the outcome of this design to the lull length of the lunar ile planet the steamy fireworks at conquest is redirected mental dispute, the machine, or 160 meters. The acceleration production and little sign of fizzling out in outward onto that high frontier. DO Rotorua show of Mass-Driver 111 is enough to bring pay- the near term. So long as New Zealand's loads to a speed -of 5,400 miles -per hourj Ring of Fire continues to smolder, this nat- the escape speed from the moon, within The Space Studies Infinite can be reached by remains of the best free 08540. Member- ural spectacle one 160 meters. In addition, chemical-sep- mail al Box 82. Princeton, NJ just shows on Earth. DO aration technology will be brought to the ship is $15 per year. 164 OMNI ts m

FICTION

Melanie and Nina have played their deadly game for years. Melanie wants to stop, but will Nina let her? CARRION COMFOR BY DAN SIMMONS

M.n the first part of Carrion Comfort, three elderly people meet in Charleston, South Carolina, to tally up their scores in a gruesome game. The three are users, who telepathically manipulate unsus- pecting people into unspeakable acts—murder, suicide, ***$fe assassination. Melanie Fuller announces her intention to quit playing. Nina Drayton, her longtime friend and rival, seems to take the news with equanimity

Morning. Bright sunlight through bare branches, li was one of those crystalline, warming winter days that make living in the South so much less depressing than merely surviving a Yankee winter. I had Mr. Thorne open the win- dow a crack when he in brought my breaklast tray. As I

sipped my coffee I could hear children playing in the courtyard. Once Mr. Thorne would have brought the

This is the concluding section of a Ino-part novelelle. PAINTING BY ROBIN MULLER gether different to be faced with the im- prised that Mr. Hodges isn't out today. He morning paper with the tray, but I had long reality of it. seems to be working in the yard on perative since learned that to read about the lollies always, There were few tourists. The ferry moved of the world was to dese- Saturdays." and scandals into the. placid little away from the marina and less Mrs. Hodges frowned as one of the crate the morning. I was growing and waters of the harbor. The combination of girls ran between us. Her friend came the affairs of men. I had less interested in throb of the sweater flying, "Oh, warm sunlight and the steady done without a newspaper, telephone, or squealing after her, diesel caused me to doze briefly. I awoke is at the marina already." television for twelve years and had suf- George often as we were putting in at the dark hulk of I been io counl "In the daytime?" had fered no ill effects unless one were Mr. Hodges's departure for the island fort. self-contentment as an ill thing. amused by a growing with the tour group, security-guard For a while I moved Willi's disap- work in the evening: his as I remembered I smiled silences of the lower gray hair jutting enjoying the catacomb not being able to play his vid- uniform neatly pressed, pointment at of the black lunch pail levels and the mindless singsong He was such a child. out from under his cap, eo cassettes. from the Park Service. But gripped firmly under his arm. young woman "It is Saturday, is it not, Mr. Thorne?" At and bow- as we came back to the museum, with its the tray to be taken Mr. Hodges was as leathery his nod I gestured for dusty dioramas and tawdry little trays of "A walk. legged as an aged cowboy. He was one "We will go out today." I said. away. stairs back to the outer who were always on the verge slides, I climbed the Perhaps a trip to the fort. Then dinner at of those men for Mr. Thorne io stay at walls. I motioned arrangements of retiring but who probably realized that Henry's and home. I have form the top of the stairs and moved out onto 1 to suddenly inactive would be a 'to make." be sentence. the ramparts. Mr. Thome hesitated and half-stumbled of death Only one other couple— a young pair in "Oh, yes. One of those colored men on as he was leaving the room. I paused with cheap camera and a baby in an like shift down at the storage building a act of belting my robe. It was not the day the uncomfortable-looking papoose carrier- asked George to fill in. I told Mr. Thorne to commit an ungraceful move- quit, and they work four nights were in sight along the wall. that too was getting old. him that he was too 'old to I realized he ment. pleasant moment. A midday then go back on the weekend, It was a He straightened the tray and dishes, nod- a week and storm was approaching from the west and left for the kitchen, ded his head, and still-sunlit it set a dark backdrop to the not let thoughts of aging disturb I would church spires, brick towers, and bare me on such a beautiful morning, 1 felt branches of the city. charged with a new energy and resolve. Even from two miles away I could see The reunion the night before had not gone &A movement down the movement of people strolling along the well but neither had it gone as badly as it Battery walkway. The wind was blowing in with Nina attention. might have. I had been honest below caught my ahead of the dark clouds and tossing Willi about my intention of quitting the and Something dark whitecaps against the rocking ferry and come, . Game. In the weeks and months to and sliding through the gray wooden dock. The air smelled of river they— or at least Nina—would begin to was winter and rain by nightfall. of that, but by brood over the ramifications water—something day long It was not hard to imagine that chose to react, separately or the time they onto the fort dark and shark silent. I was ago, The shells had dropped long gone. Already I together, I would be until the upper layers were little more than had new (and old) identities waiting for me jolted out of protective piles of rubble. People had Florida, Michigan, London, southern in thoughts of the past3 cheered from the rooftops behind the Bat- France, and even in New Delhi. Michigan tery, The bright colors of dresses and silk was out for the time being. I had grown parasols must have been maddening to unused to the harsh climate. New Delhi was the Yankee gunners. Finally one had fired no longer the hospitable place for foreign- a shot above the crowded rooftops. The briefly been when I resided there ers it had confusion must have been amus- but you know George. He'll never retire." ensuing before the war. ing from this vantage point. give him my best," I said. been right about one thing— "Well, Nina had movement down below caught my at- The girls running around the fountain A return to Europe would be good for me. a tention. Something dark was sliding the rich light and cor- made me nervous. Already I longed for something dark followed me to the wrought- through the gray water— of villagers near my old Mrs. Hodges dial savoirvivre the out of thoughts I jolted "Will you be going away for the and shark silent. was summer house outside of Toulon. iron gate. it as a Polaris I recognized holidays, Miz Fuller?" of the past as The air outside was bracing. I wore a but obviously still opera- "Probably, Mrs. Hodges. Most proba- submarine, old simple print dress and my spring coat. The on tional, slipping through the dark water bly." Then Mr. Thorne and I were out arthritis in my right leg had both- trace of Waves curled and rippled the sidewalk and strolling toward the Bat- without a sound. coming down the stairs; but I used ered me hull, sliding to slowly down the nar- over the porpoise-smooth walking stick as a cane. A tery. A few cars drove my father's old a white wake. There were row streets, some tourists stared at the either side in Negro servant had cut it for father young the tower. They were muf- of our Old Section, but the day was several men on the summer we moved from Greenville to houses fled in heavy coats, their hats pulled low. emerged into serene and quiet. I smiled as we Charleston. of binoculars of the yachts and sail- An improbably large pair 1 saw the masts the warm air of the courtyard. neck of one man, whom I before we came in sight of the water hung from the Mrs. Hodges came out of her doorway boats be the captain. He pointed at as we emerged onto Broad Street. assumed to into the light. It was her grandchildrenand Sullivan's Island. I acquire tickets for us, Mr. something beyond their friends who were playing around the "Please stared. The periphery of my vision began believe I would like to fountain. For two centuries the court- Thorne," I said. "I dry contact. Sounds and to fade as I made shared by the three brick seethe fort." yard had been from a distance. people live in sensations came to me as Only home had not been As is typi'cal of most who buildings. my pleasure of salt spray, proximity to a popular tourist attrac- Tension. The parceled into expensive town houses or. close the north, northwest. Anxiety notice of it for many breeze trow tion, I had not laken fancy apartments. ol sentimentality to visit oi the seated orders below. Awareness morning, Miz Fuller." years! It was an act of "Good into sight on by my in- the sandy shallows just coming "Good morning, Mrs. Hodges. A bsau- the fort now: An act brought the port side. creasing acceptance of the fact that I would on tiful day, isn't it?" someone came up be- I startled as to leave these parts forever. It is one was is that. Are you off shopping?" have "It The dots flickering at the edge of move; it is something alto- hind me. 'just for a walk, Mrs. Hodges. I'm sur- thing to plan a CONTINUED ON PAGE Ifil 168 OMNI 4 Kb/5 abducted his wife as she left her night job; then Patrick took her to his basement and began the deprogrammii

Ted Patrick is knowi step and the two worldwide ; concocted a plan. man who kidnapped Thomas abducted and deprogrammed Susan as she left one young Moonies from of her night jobs at a Reverend Moon's bank Then Patrick, Unification Church, who was paid $5,000, where he contends, led tier !o a bare room they were brain- in the basement of his washed. But most- house. He sat her on people don't know a stool under a na- about Patrick's most ked light bulb and recent battie: finding asked whether she and deprogramming knew that Blob had those who have been used center money brainwashed by the for private real-es- country's UFO cults, tate investments, Su- Patrick's involve- san mumbled no, and ment with UFO cults Patrick went on, ask- began at his San ing whether humans Diego home one needed space suits night in 1979, when to (ravel to other he gotasurprise visit planets. Susan said from Thomas Kolb- yes, and he asked if Kolb's twenty-lour- in three years at the year-old wife, Susan, UFDUPDffTE center she had ever It seems, had seen seen a space suit. flashing orange lights over their Kiel, Wisconsin, home. When she said no, he asked her how Adamski could have

Since then, she'd been going to Wisconsin's UFO Edu- met the Master without a space suit "Is it possible," he cation Cenler, where, Thomas claimed, founder Charlotte demanded, "that someone has been lying to you?" The Blob (rhymes with gtobe) had brainwashed Susan into questions went on for days, and finally, Patrick says, he thinking that she could save the world. "snapped" Susan back to reality Blob allegedly told Susan that the late George Adam- Today Susan is home, and Patrick has gone on to de- ski, a former center member, had taken flying-saucer rides program other cultists as well He saved one twenty-three- to meet the "Master"; the Master, in turn, had promised year-old who moved into the Wisconsin center after telling Adamskj that his "space brothers" would send telepathic her parents: "You don't mean anything more to me than messages teaching cenler members lo purge society of the manure on this earth." He has also succeeded In res- drugs, war, and poverty. Moreover, those who saved the cuing elderly members of "Bo and Peep," an under- world would be reincarnated on Saturn. ground UFO cult promising golden-agers a flying-saucer Lured by Btob's promises, says Patrick, Susan aban- ride to Venus and the Fountain of Youth. doned Thomas and their three-year-old daughter for a life Patrick blames the proliferation of UFO cults on movies at the center, Later she took on three jobs lo meet the tike Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., as well center's required weekly donations of $20 to $30, as well as on the government. With UFO cults around, he says, as other expected "spot contributions" of up to $100 "it's easier to cover up the real UFOs; new weapons, killer

It was at this point that Kolb ended up on Patrick's door- satellites, lasers, and missiles,"—PETER RONDINONE J

if you go back to the been caused by fright. And earliest Jewish writing, says his widow expressed the Freedman, the meaning is view that he had been Those who insist that a clear "But so many transla- kidnapped and tortured. woman's plaqe is in the tions have been influenced strangest explana- home frequently back up But the version with the biblical by the King James tion came from British their beliefs Bible, of the Bible, in which the ufologists. who said that story of Genesis The Genesis passage is misin- huge orange balls had they say, clearly states was created as terpreted, that things get been seen over Todmorden that woman " fixed in people's minds week Adamski died. a helpmate for man. the article religious- After publishing an Aliens, they claimed, had Wrong, says -language on the subject in Biblical scared Adamski to death archaeology and Archaeology Review re- main proponent of scholar David Freedman. A a of woman cre- cently, Freedman got the alien-murder theory is The image subordinate to man mixed reaction 'A Jewish Graham Birdsall. investigator ated as result of a gentleman said I wasn't for the British UFO organi- is simply the being reverent enough," he zation Contact Birdsall translation error Southern who is director relates 'And a first learned of the case from Freedman, studies at tne Baptist quoted the New a Yorkshire Evening Post of religious California Testament to show me I was story headlined did ufo kill University of explains that the wrong. But the women this man? And, he says, at Davis, in quite ezer ts usually who wrote were Interest increased when Hebrew word his Sherry Baker , happy-"— he heard subsequent re- translated in Genesis as "helper" or "helpmate" But in 1980 ports of another Todmorden One June day erect/on of artitiaal police con- the word should actually 'The Zygmunt Adamski, a fifty- UFO seen by "a power" worlds in space is inevitable stable Alan Godfrey. God- be interpreted as seven -year- old Polish-born breakthrough he'd or "a strength " And ke- i Once man's coal miner, slipped out ol frey, in fact, claimed into space has begun, it will an alien negdo. which Is usually read in Leeds. England, been abducted by he home irreversible as the eight as meaning "fit," actually be as potatoes for dinner named Joseph and to buy discovery, colonization, and lamp-headed robots; after a means "equal. ' Thus, Gen- He never returned, and countries esis says that woman was exploitation of new later his body was weird medical examination, five days the age ot great released. created as "a power equal during tound in Todmorden, a he was historical discoveries." The question ufologists to man" instead of , small town 30 miles away. —losil Shklovsky is this. as "a helper fit for man," He had died of a heart are pondering now similar attack. BUt on his head and : Did Adamski have a the neck were burns inflicted ; encounter? They say two days before the esti- answer may be yes. God- mated time of his death frey's superiors have been 1 up According to police, there attempting to cover other po- were other bizarre circum- UFO sightings by says. stances as well: Adamski's lice officers, Birdsall

' find it quite extraordi- body was lying atop a "And I than month ridge of coal six feet above nary that, less a level ground, yet there after the discovery of the shipped to were no marks to suggest body, it was that anyone had scaled Poland for burial," ivorSmullen the area And he was spot- I —

lessly clean, as if, said "/ you that Hying one officer, "he had stepped can assure from a shower" saucers, given that they doctors exist, are not constructed At the inquest " agreed that Adamski's by any power on Earth. heart attack could have —Harry S Truman "" "

his hands; the other follows, wheeling a ten-foot cross with splotches of red paint. Ron and Richard Bowser "One guy yelled to us that were abandoned at birth Jesus didn'l use a wheel," and left on the floor of says Ron Adds Richard, a cabin in the woods. They "So we told him we'd take

were found near death, off the wheel if he'd accept their vocal cords damaged Jesus into his heart and their bones malformed, At anofher parade, Rich- one doctor even said they ard found himself staring might be retarded. The down a shotgun barrel held twins felt unloved by their by a man ordering him to foster parents throughout drop the cross "t rendered childhood, and Ron tried his powers impotent in killing himself twice by the name of Jesus, and he the age of fifteen. dropped the gun and ran," But when the pair turned he says. "But it's not sixteen, things started something you want to try looking up: They began all the time." lei astronomers weight lifting, and before The Bowsers also have a working independently "This long Ron won the Mr Teen- dream. They'd like to walk is the strongest evidence age Pennsylvania body- on their hands down the yet." he says, "in favor building contest, going on steps of the Empire State giant interstellar cloud of the cloud to become a nationally Building, the Washington heading toward Earth from The gaseous interloper ranked weight lifter. Ouf of Monument, and yet-to- the distant constellation may be roughly cigar the Marines, he attended be-announced structures Sagittarius. shaped, Vldal-Madjar says, college for a year and then throughout Paris. London, Some climatologists be- and perhaps ten times joined Richard, who was Rome, and Asia "Our uassage of dense longer than its 33-light- working in a steel mill. Two motto." says Richard, "is

i if u clouds through i year thickness Traveling years later Ren fell to his that we can walk for Him our solar system could away from Sagittarius at the knees and "asked Jesus to upside down, you can walk cause ice ages; others say ' speed of about 15 to 20 enter my heart " Within a for Him right side up."

it or- such clouds could render : kilometers per second, year both Bowsers were — Scott Cramer the sun more luminous. But, might well be 0. 1 light-year dained ministers. Shortly whichever way it goes, from Earth by now. If so, thereafter they worked out a warns astronomer Alfred It will be here in about 1 ,500 performance routine that Vidal-Madjar and hie col- years But the data are consisted of walking on their leagues at the Laboratory just too skimpy for precise hands For a fee, the Bow- for Stellar and Planetary predictions, and Vidal- sers (pictured at right) Physics, in Verne res-le- Madjar admits there's a re- today preach, sing, and do Buisson. the presence of a mote chance that the cloud handstand balancing acts .11 nearby cloud could have Is no farther from Earth in churches all across "some drastic Influence on than the sun is At that dis- the country. • the terrestrial climate some- fance it would arrive by "We're the only set of « time during the next ten the year 2001. identical twins in the world thousand years.'' —Robert A. Freltas, Jr who walk upside down Direct observation of the for fhe Lord," says Ron. interstellar medium is a "Belief is not the beginning Notes Richard, "Nobody's very tricky business, says but the.end of all walked down as many steps Vidal-Madjar Nonetheless, knowledge. on their hands as we have." his group's results have —Johann Wolfgang The twins also march in been confirmed by at least von Goethe parades One walks on you are entitled to $100,000. Huftnagle first came up

There's no need tor mod- with the idea after learning t ern-day Chicken Lilties to that Fireman's Fund had worry about the sky falling, offered a one-time policy for but they might be wise to people wanting protection look out tor space debris. from the Russian satellite reen- That, at least, is the opinion Cosmos 7402 (which of Graeine Huftnagle, as- tered the atmosphere in sistant to the president February of this year). She of Complete Equity Markets, also knew that Lloyd's of written a similar Inc.. an insurance company London had Skylab's descent in Wheeler, Illinois. policy for To profit from the Impend- a few years ago. ing debris. Hutfnagle re- "But there was no policy debris cently put together a policy for all the space called Satellite Reentry that comes down,'' she ex-

Protection Premiums total plains; "so I began to do " she only $150 a year, and the some research Finally government source payoff is immense. If you are found a disabled, killed, or even who admitted that approxi- scratched by a felling satel- mately 350 pieces of space atmosphere lite, you or your beneficiary junk enter the While 95 percent collect S1 million. And if every year. the space debris misses you of this debris is burned up but lands on your property, upon reentry, 5 percent hits the earth. "It's not a se- cret," said the source, who requested anonymity "But "People have been quite interested in the record," it's not something we like Juliet Miranda, to broadcast," A new record by 600 Insists While no one has been black mountain sheep is of Virgin. "In fact, it recently United States getting a lot of air play broke into the top fifty on injured in the " British record charts by falling satellites so far, in Great Britain. the Huffnagle claims that 25 The record was the brain- The flip side, she notes sheepishly, is Around pieces of space debris have child of Richard Branson, "Rock been found on American of Virgin Records. He no- the Flock."— Sherry Baker land. "Some pieces landed ticed that the sheep on on streets The largest his aunt's farm near Norwich "In the morning when we piece they found weighed seemed to bleat in several rise from bed, although find ourselves six hundred forty pounds," varied pitches After re- surprised to more she notes, "but even a cording the sheep's voices, still alive, we are even everything small piece could do a lot sound engineers separated amazed to find left it the night of damage."— Sherry Baker out the tones that fit the just as we song Branson decided to 1 before." Landolfi "Around us are pseudo- record—appropriately —Tbmmaso events, to which we adjust enough, it was "Baa Baa with a false consciousness Black Sheep." The record's "For an idea ever to be fashionable is adapted to see these producer, moreover, is ominous, 1 afterwards events as true and real, and listed as 'Jeff Mutton." sines it must be fleecing old-fashioned." even as beautiful" Is Virgin Records j a/ways —ft D. Laing the public? —George Santayana -

proportion space-shuttle missions eraed early be- be fine-tuned by adjusting the layers. cause of the trivial degradation of an elec- of arsenic in the where supercom- SUPERSTUFF tronic-chip coating that cost a few bucks," In other laboratories the ultimate chip, their CONTINUED FHOM PAGE 112 Bauer says. "Changes on such a small puter scientists seek with miniaturized electronics can very Holy Grail, experts are coming up hard, the new silo cemes off the scale in baked instance, con- major failures." electronic anomalies. For mandrel ready for action. easily lead to crystal ductors of electricity, canon has it, are met- Composites, important as they are, are Wheremetaleieclrodesa:tach to researchers at the Allied Corpo- chips, Bauer has found deep pits. "It's fas- als. But only one marble in the materials scientist's new polymers that, cinating; metallurgists can't believe the ration have developed bag. The field is huge. As an Allied vice- impurities, act as con- degree of reaction," he says. "These are properly doped with president put it recently when his corpo- inno- pictures ever taken of this phe- ductors and open the way for such ration gobbled up Bendix to acquire that the first to make vations as organic batteries. Organic, in company's synterials technology, "Well, nomenon, because the ability refers to compounds based on in- crystals only a tenth of a micron thick, thin chemistry everything is made of materials." That mi- the element carbon, just as U.S. senators, cludes advanced electronics, today's ver- enough to examine under an electron and all other living itself new." garter snakes, azaleas, sion of the Eleusinian mysteries, in which croscope, is the hall to things are composed of carbon-based worship the chip—a fingernail-size Bauer takes his visitor down initiates compounds. r usually sil- the laboratory, where electron micro- sliceof semiconducting c ystal, carbon-based ol various types brood like idols. Polymers are organic— icon. The chip is "doped" with impurities scopes molecules are excep- In darkened room a microscope compounds whose at selected spots to increase or decrease one demon-green while re- tionally large and complicated. Polymer the electrical conductivity in these areas, screen glows lightweight and pan- their faces frog-colored, study batteries could be then etched with microscopic circuits. De- searchers, to ride in the door of craters pitting a silicon crystal's face. cake flat, tailor-made on its design and how the tiny the pending spacecraft, or substances touch, they an electric car, the hull of a wires are arranged, the chip can perform vVhi.ritvvodrVoir radio. But the or- unstable, Bauer continues. the innards of a portable a range of tasks. are inevitably ganic conductors may have more exalted Chip designers, however, have gone applications than use as batteries. about as far as they can go using silicon. "We're looking at electronic chips a step Without new chip materials— gallium ar- beyond gallium arsenide, which is the next senide is due next, and polymer materials step beyond silicon," says Smith. These are waiting in the wings— designers will •One of the chips of the future would be made, atom lace a dead end in their race for more ef- by atom, of layers of conducting and non- ficiency, more speed. But until they better space shuttle's missions conducting polymers. Smith says polymer understand how chip materials interact with ended early semiconductors would work especially well the metal contacts attached to them, de- because of the trivial with Josephson junctions, futuristic signers will be unable to exploit silicon fully, switches that work with blinding speed. The much less move on to entirely new mate- degradation result would bea "thinking" computer that rials. Thus, some scientists are now ex- of an electronic- chip mimics the human brain. "We have con- ploring the miniature world, visible only ducting polymers in our brain," Smith adds, through the highest-powered electron mi- coating that "but they're very slow—they need to be croscopes, where metal contacts thinner cost only a few bucks.^ speeded up." than eyelashes touch the crystal of an Polymer-chip research may begin soon, electronic chip. with both the Navy and Air Force consid- As all electronic devices shrink, circuits ering funding. The outcome could be as- will be only atoms big, and the purity of the tonishing. "I think we're going to see a tre- upon which the circuits are printed silicon from the biology instance, gold, stable in nature, reacts mendous response will become increasing y citical Wo sting For Smith continues, "because when house microelectronics expert Don with gallium arsenide. Other metals exist- people," like and RNA, it comes to biopolymers DNA developing a new technique ing in nature as compounds react even Hobgood is what Mother with chip material, reverting they can synthesize most of for growing ultrauniform silicon crystals, more readily which they Nature has made. I can even foresee com- using magnetic fields lo suppress con- to the original compound in copy it." wild. are always fighting puters that plug into the brain and vecting currents in the molten fluids where "exist in the We electronics is still return to ore."' he com- Although biomolecular crystals form. Meanwhile, he is discov- this tendency to the are these phenomena in its infancy, researchers' daydreams ering ways to grow crystals of gallium ar- ments. Understanding full of visions of lilliputian realms tinier than chip material. will take the engineers a giant step toward senide, the next-generation measurement "We have a situation in the micrometer, the smallest in commercial sizes. As he points out, supercomputers. engineers want used in today's solid-state circuits. The di- without such new materials computer evo- which the things electrical are ex- correspond to the reality mensions of biomolecules, though, lution would stop cold. lo believe don't pressed in nanometers, units 1,000 times of art," we now know," says Bauer. "These I consider to be works smaller than micrometers. And whereas "Professor C. Lloyd Bauer, Other materials scientists, meanwhile, declares two-dimen- to super- conventional silicon chips are photographs in his office at are taking alternate routes the spreading out chip at Car- sional wisps of material, the molecular Carnegie-Mellon University, in Piltsburgh. computer. Deborah Chung, also three dimen- : superlattices— would be a well-rounded the untrained eye Bauer's black-and- nag e-Meilon, is looking at To density an- layer-cake- s-yle. each layer an sions, which would increase its whites look less like Steichen masterworks chips buili substance other thousandfold or more. than Polaroid snapshots of the Alps in Jan- atoms-thick slice or a different special properties. The Biomolecular electronics heralds a new uary and close-ups of gravel driveways. selected. for its era of "protein engineering." Some inves- photographs, shot through elec- crystal layers are so thin thai a 5.000-layer But these creating thickness of a piece of tigators avidly entertain plans for tron microscopes, arc topographic studies stack is barely the found in the orig- that ofthinness the atoms new matter, proteins not of silicon and gallium arsenide chips in the paper. At degree cookbook. range, where "mountains" are of the'crystal align themselves either by inal submicron the together to create an Scientists at Tokyo University, on only atoms high. separating or pulling prevent other hand, are fashioning the first working these images Bauer is studying elastic quality. This seems to Using mol- Besides this ab- biomotor from the real stuff. Based on how metal contacts eat holes in chips, cracks or other flaws. can ecules from rabbit muscle, the Japanese wreaking electronic havoc. "One of the sence of imperfections, superlattices 176 OMNI metallic a ceramic and a metal, for instance, pro- prototype engine the a technique for producing have developed a dioxide con- balls, then compacting ducing a ceramiclike uranium shrink it to ninute size of a teacup; they plan to tungsten the desired shape. Re- taining natural reinforcing rods of dimensions of a pinhead. powder into "the Such materials can have searchers at the Lawrence Livermore Lab- or molybdenum." motor is built of one-molecule-thick The properties, he says. For oratory, near San Francisco, are experi- all sorts of unusual films of actin (a muscle-contracting pro- weak in one direc- mentally exploding metallic glasses into instance, they might be tein) and myosin (a muscle molecule). The tion but extremely strong in the opposite on thin, postage-stamp- useful forms. proteins are laid conduct electricity "But the transformer industry is the direction. They migtot size mica sheets, which are arranged like in direction than in Massalski, not- 1 ,000 times better one six-armed windmill. Adenosine greatest challenge," says vanes on a for ash- for stepping volt- another. "This is frontier stuff, not triphosphate, or ATP the chief energy sup- ing fhat the little devices trays," Sekerka says. "It's probably al- processes, fuels ages up and down are ubiquitous on elec- plier for all biomolecular systems, gear, in all ready in advanced-weapons Tokyo scientists got their tric power poles, in audio and the motor- The stronger yet equipment. "Millions and mil- maybe new grades of armor, brainstorm by observing the cell behavior sorts of radio Under a micro- lions of dollars are involved," he points out. less brittle." of a plant called Mitella. teacups, ordinary alternating-cur- Ceramics, the stuff of ashtrays, scope the contents of the Nitella cell swirl Connected to must mag- and bathroom sinks, have a bright future around continuously, generating a tiny rent power lines, a transformer demagnetize 120 times a sec- as substitutes for scarce metals and pe- whirlpoollike condition. On its own, the mi- netize and They will play roles hours a day, 365 days a year. troleum-based plastics. cromotor windmill will spin for a couple ot ond, 24 from fusion power to defense Because of their random structure, metal- in everything hours until the ATP fuel is depleted. Such systems. For instance, both Ford and Gen- lic glasses can make these magnetic a tiny motor, say the Japanese, could have smoothly than ordinary eral Motors are working on ceramic en- several applications, most specifically in changes far more effi- gines that can take much more heat than to pipe in min- metals can. The result is a jump in lining human capillary tubes oper- percent. Given the huge conventional engines and therefore of liquid. ciency, up to 60 ute amounts efficiencies. When transformers humming away, ate at higher thermal Only slightly less exotic than biomotors number of will your car have a crockery engine'' Per- and nanometer chips are the most imme- haps soon: The Cummins Engine Com- diate plans to upend the electronics in- pany, of Columbus, Indiana, has already dustry with new types of metals— metals built a prototype ceramic- diesel to power made of ordinary metal atoms but with the a five-ton Army truck. structure of glass. Welcome to the brave ^When it comes to Ceramics—things that are neither or- new age of "metallic glasses." ganic substances nor metals— include a "The Japanese think they can take over btopolymers like DNA, the wide range of materials. In fact, the raw the whole transformer and motor industry biologists can materials for ceramics are so wide- with metallic glasses," says Thaddeus synthesize of what spread—about 90 percent of the earth's Massalski. a Polish scientist now on the most crust— that new techniques for working faculty of Carnegie-Mellon. He pulls what Mother Nature these materials could usher in a new tech- Christmas rib- looks like a spool of silver are has made. I foresee computers nological epoch that some scientists bon from his drawer, snips off a piece with already calling the Ceramic Age. scissors, and hands it to his visitor. that plug General Electric, for instance, is manu- The material is razor thin, flexible, and into the brain and copy it3 facturing industrial parts from a silicon car- too shiny for ordinary metal. It is made, Pide ceramic that is nearly as hard and as Massalski says, by cooling a molten metal chemically inert as diamond. It's just right so fast that its atoms have no time to form for critical components in pumps, valves, a metal's usual rigid crystal structure in compressors, and other devices in power which the "grains" line up like troops per plants and chemical plants, where wear phalanx. Instead, the sud- that could save as much as $1 billion marching in The eco- United States alone. Thus, the and corrosion are problems. denly chilled atoms form an unorganized year in the metallic-glass-transformer nomic effect of such ceramic parts could mob, as glass molecules do. winner of the researcher at the Battelle should reap huge profits. be pleasant. A "Any liquid, even Pepsi Cola, will crys- race in Columbus, Ohio, says So far the Allied Corporation seems to Memorial Institute, tallize during cooling," says Massalski. complex amorphous metals, that the cost of manufacturing a "Cooling metals fast enough to avoid crys- have the lead. Allied's ceramiclike sil- have now been on the market for engine component from a tallization requires some techniques thai Metglas, nitride, one of the more expensive five years. The Electric Power Research icon are very fancy/' expensive 1,000 residential types, is 33 to 50 percent less glasses, also called amorphous institute is field-testing Metallic component of a transformers that have Metglas cores. than making the engine metals, must cool about 1 million degrees signed contracts to standard metal alloy. Fahrenheit per second. One way is to hit a Meanwhile, Allied has transformers and Other new ceramic products now on the laser, melting a pool develop metallic-glass metal sample with a daisy-wheel Electric, Westing- drawing boards range from a large. As the laser moves motors with.. Emerson only millimeters garbage-disposal device with General Electric, and a Japanese printer, a on, the pool surrenders its heat to the sur- house, teeth, and ceramic gas- Allied says its metallic glasses rugged ceramic rounding unmelted metal. In another tech- consortium. engines to ceramic computer chips gas are already at work in jet engines, heart turbine nique, says Massalski, pressurized Ceramics rechargeable batteries, car even tinier than today's chips. squirts molten metal from a crucible, out a pacemakers, microcomputers, and experts say that as new methods of work- nozzle, and onto a spinning copper wheel. engines, stereos, ing with ceramics are perfected, manufac- the wider the ribbon of other products. The more nozzles, assembling cooling processes, too, are turing will change: Instead of metallic glass that forms on the wheel. Other new ten separate parts, the entire altering the characteristics of metals. Rob- a device from Metallic glasses are exceptionally tough, and Carnegie-Mellon physicist, device will be made of ceramics Japanese firms now use them as the mag- ert Sekerka, a molded as one unit. The resulf will be a tape recorders, since they says that materials scientists are now cre- netic heads in kinds of composites by cooling molten alloys significant drop in costs for all can resist the constant abrasion caused ating wind up with complex machinery. sliding tapes. "The next stage will be at various speeds. "You may by of the new metal lined with rods of Probably the most famous to form these rapidly solidified something like one learning the belly of and bonded at the ceramics are the tiles that line materials into useful shapes," says Mas- another compound shuttles, absorbing the high heat level," says. "You can do it with the space salski. noting that MIT is currently working atomic he 178 OMNI high-precision were able to walk without a limp terlock. With the launcher, of reentries into the atmosphere, where gery and can be produced in a after four months." The joint is supposed metal components temperatures reach 2300° F. About 90 per- convergence; to lasi'a lifetime, especially in patients un- single radical cent air, the tiles are as light as butterflies. regenerate well. Westinghouse wizards have also been Their major component, ultrapure silica fi- der fifty, whose bones thallium ar- the piece de resistance in ce- working with crystals made of bers, can withstand "searing temperatures Probably function as tiny research, however, is in the realm senic selenide, which can without expanding. The tiles are so tough ramics high-tech glasses, which are used sensing devices tor light. Applications, they that you can blast them with a flame- of new to conduct laser say, will range from pollution control to ex- thrower, then plop them into ice water with- in fiberoptic devices According to Rich- beams trom point to point. Westinghouse, otic defense systems. out damage. It is superstuff, all right So of Westinghouse's among other companies, is working on new ard Hopkins, manager far, however, nobody has come up with a materials that could lead, as one silicon solar-cell materials program, the viable commercial spinoff, because the tiles fiberoptic a laser beam's fre- spokesperson puts it, to "total crystals can double are so highly engineered that using them company the crystal as optical computers made almost entirely of quency: If the beam enters for insulating picnic baskets or thermos infrared, it emerges from the other side as bottles would be like building a doghouse light and glass." Westinghouse's research green. Engineers exploit that power by using jade shingles and golden nails. Their Elsewhere at transmuting the connecting the crystal to a transducer, manufacturer, Lockheed, says the tiles will center, scientists are electric signals into a me- stuff that make the power- which converts be used, however, in defense; invisible to world's with tools as primitive as a chanical — or acoustic—vibration. As the infrared or radar, they are good for the driven screwdriver seem David Moon, who vibrations change, the crystal compresses endlessly evolving military game of hide- piece of carved antler. research, or expands, changing the velocity of the and-seek. directs Westinghouse's energy adjusting instruments that can drive ions light moving through it. Thus, by Japan has accelerated its ceramic re- tells of transducer, superstuff (electrically charged atoms) just 100 atom- the current to the search in recent years, too. And some U.S. material. engineers can electronically tune the crys- ceramics experts believe the Japanese are layers deep into the surface of a with ions this way, tal for specific wavelengths of light, working on a ceramic electric motor, made By studding a substance with no lens changes needed. possible by the ability of certain ceramic Because the system requires no cum- materials, such as barium titanate, lo give bersome lens switching, says Hopkins, the off an electrical charge when struck or dis- possibilities are enormous. For instance. torted. (That is how quartz watches work.) the crystals might monitor industrial Other uses for ceramics, under investiga- •C/A agents smokestacks for emissions by analyzing tion at various research centers, include the air with laser beams. ceramic houses that could be built in less had detailed satellite "In coal mines they could detect meth- than a week by spraying loams into forms photos of ane from that gas's particular absorption allowing the material to harden. West- and crys- a silicon-chip plant band in infrared," Hopkins says. The inghouse is working on ceramic cells to tals might even make sure your home fur- convert sunlight into electricity; ceramic in the USSR. nace is burning at its most efficient level. fuel cells (power plants that generate elec- They wanted to know how "They also have tar-out uses, like ana- tricity via chemical reactions, somewhat as lyzing video images for camouflaged batteries do): ceramic electrodes for mag- pure the tanks," says Hopkins. "In a satellite they netohydrodynamic (MHD) plants, which Soviet chips were* can analyze incoming laser beams and generate electricity by sending a gas activate a protective shutter if the beams' through a magnetic field; and sensing de- wavelengths indicate theyare designed to vices, such as a highly sensitive pollution attack and blind the satellite," detector that can sniff out sulfur dioxide Behind all this Computer Age alchemy factories and utilities. (S0 2 ) in easily ma- are powerful new tools. For instance, at project is a ce- manufacturers could produce At the heart of this last where 40 one set of characteristics Westinghouse's research center, ramic sensor that is electromechanically terials that have percent of the budget goes to materials 108). The inside but special surfaces— whatever the stimulated by S0 2 (see page science, one laboratory—devoted to re- sensor generates a direct-voltage reading engineers might like. How abouf feather weighl blocks of foam connaissance in the atomic zone— is filled that corresponds to concentrations of SO ; microscopes: Each costs insulation with a diamond-hard skin for with electron in a gas stream. Westinghouse engineers put.anything about $500,000, is old-fashioned in a year, also foresee a "home of the future," home construction? "You can and obsolete in five. With such tools, sci- equipped with ceramic sensors, that will into anything," says Moon. gun, he says, ac- entists are busily rearranging molecules. use a central computer to regulate every- The electromagnetic power to pen- Industry is watching. And so are other eyes. thing from lights to the furnace and burglar celerates ions with enough 'Afriend of mine, a researcher at a semi- alarms etrate the surface of materials to prese- commercial application conductor company, was abruptly sum- But you don't have to wait for a ceramic lected depths. One gun has already moned to a meeting recently," says a ma- ball-and-socket hip joint. In December 1982 for the electromagnetic nitrogen ions into terials scientist. "It turned out to be CIA University of California at San Francisco surfaced: "If you drive agents who had satellite photographs, (UCSF) orthopedists began implanting tungsten-carbide tools, they last longer," why." amazingly detailed, of a silicon-chip plant pottery prostheses; so far they've worked he says, "and nobody knows bombardment, in the USSR. They wanted to know how on 31 patients, ranging from twenty-one to In yet another mode of are experiment- pure the Soviet chips were." seventy. A cementless. ultrasmooth ce- Westinghouse engineers high-powered The plant's design gave the scientists ramic with aluminum oxide content, the joint ing with novel ways to use a But a reliable analysis, they said, bone growth. The pros- electric cannon or electromagnetic clues. does not inhibit month 109). This first-of-a- would require a small sample. "In a thesis is literally screwed into the pelvic "launcher" (see page the scientist. fire a small plastic projec- the agents were back," says bone, and the bone grows to fill in around kind device can Ingot, of powder at a speed "They had a ten-pound silicon the thread and groove. "It is capable of tile into a heap metal that bullet fired straight from the Ukraine." More than one-hundred L percent b incompatibility," six times faster than that of a called the scientist would not say. declares William R. Murray, chairman bf from a .22-caiiber rifle. In a process high-tech impact ot the In an electronic world built of UCSF's department of orthopedic surgery. dynamic compaction, the the materials, superpowers need superstuff. "Patients were capable of pain-free motion projectile creates a shock wave in again. the surface atoms to in- Matter may never be the same DO in the artificial hip within hours after sur- powder, causing 180 OMNI ihis one with two women and one man terpret. Then the human woman laughed bed, One of leaving it, slid toward Laura. again. "It's a living." just floor and lhat way Ihe women pul one loot on the BOROVSKY A riving. Laura hadn't seen it man laughed and slapped CONTINUED FROM PAGL '?'i before. People had to live. Sleelwalkers squealed. The ass. Music blared and mist sex: Laura know they la^keo of if her bare their leei surged a heavy, bluish needed among Nothing in the scene looked to and few had fine Rab.mowicz suits swirled. stirred into sluggish vortices as the enough, smoke, respectable Laura .anything like Wolf Lair's out- narrow ways be- like Laura. There wasa good. men stepped along the arms on the steel beam, but economic foundation 10 Berenices Clns stretched tween the waterbeds. In the have tier. Laura knew she was not mistaken. quickly. ter. But Borovsky Borovsky did Weinblatt doited his rubber suit Laura had seen :ho blonde said softly blonde's balalaika eyes- slowly. blonde on 'Jeaious. Honey?" Borovsky much more A it painted another soul. And she had recognized then drew She did not mock. Her eyes, lids a nearby bed smiled at him, because she had her own. as far as her brows, seemed sym- only aside the drapery suspended irom cords b.ue those Laura settled back against the wall in She had large pathetic and a little sad. Staring into braided around her neck. for the sliding beds sensation .of un- resignation and waited heavy swing of E Mi- eyes, Laura fell the odd breasts to which the back to her. data suddenly relating: The wom- to bring Borovsky nus Four had not been Kind Cupping a related an's reminded her of Borovsky 's bal- she lifted it toward eyes hand under one breast, The spare yoyo was dead. smiled again. alaika music. -Borovsky and Borovsky snapper. :he battery cover free about it," the blonde said. "How long since you've had a real "Don't cry and peered into the space crowded with Borovsky mut- "That's how a steelwalker is. Tin woman, woman?" Weinblalt asked. age-crusted.components. Noth- he don't care. We do whal wires and something that Laura did not think skin woman— tered ing '.ooked amiss. above the jukebox, we can." Weinblatt would catch told Laura, and poked said. "No!" "Take a look,"' he years. "No." Laura bul she did: four the cavity. Ihe blonde gave Laura their right hand into .ow. i m "Sorry." Again "I'm real," Laura said, her voice the wires aside I nudged Knowing" sad. b'ue-I'dded iook. From auras fmce's and I'm— look at them! Like puddles thai real as me eyes that rode over each finger ex- melting cranberry sauce! Eilher of us of amined the mechanism, couid outliit, outhaul, outproduce them all into Her lingers saw il and teased it out put togelher. How can you? Borovsky—" be- view from where it had been tucked Borovsky said sul- "It's not my idea," hind a voltage regulator: a carefully stepping free of her. Laura re- lenly, finally &$he had never snipped wire. it would not matter how much alized thai Hesitantly she described the wire. Bo- him, what she said, or how failed to tell Borovsky she looked at. rovsky stopped for many long seconds, one she behaved. She could not change Bo- anything he wanted hand ^ hand on the battery pack and one rovsky's mind. : screwdriver. back to hear, if he commanded hold ng a Confused and hurting, she stepped him before "He came in here: I noticed wall. Borovsky moved quickly her she would tell against Ihe : we got tied, up with Ihe trouble setting up from her, heading toward the far end away him. To refuse was to face the last beam, He didn't come out." f ignoring the blonde who fol- o the room, Borovsky and Laura checked between lowed him with charcoaled eyes. In mo- consequences the piles of steel for a place where a'man swirling mist. Ea- ments he was lost in I he too final to consider* gerness to see more melting cranberry away irom her? Laura women— or to get Laura suggested. sure, though she suspected the was not | dor'l miss nothing from him no more," from that some small wrap- latter, and took Borovsky replied coldly. "He's in here." ping of comfort. bionics inio the room and Laura said nothing. Borovsky's you?" the blonde de- the airlock a man walked "He talking to Pulse, blood pressure, mus- rubber suit. Afier glancing alarmed her. stared at the emptiness stripped oft his manded. She skin resistance this was not the misty room he smiled at the cle lension, — : helmet gaskel, at the head around above Laura s in a cold rage. her huge breast to him normal anger. He was never had nor warned. b'oncie. She raised that Laura had of the dump was a circular and looked up through her lashes. The man In one corner three meters wide, rising up from over to Ihe bed. column "Huh!" She sounded neither surprised sauntered. the floor and vanishing into the ceiling. It annoyed. "He don't like "Silver lay, stud?" nor scornful, only core that carried power purple- quic-ue You available''" The man was the conduit blondes?" center of the titan cylinder m.schievoi.sly at her down from the don't know what he likes." gunned "I the construction an the Low Steel. At shrewdly. "Why not?" to The woman looked al Laura inspection hatch. stepped bacK against the wall. knee level was the do so, Honey." Suddenly she Laura "I'll bet you that hatch on your infrared." Bo- the blonde's bed the blue mist grew "Get laughed, such an unselfconscious, friendly Around through rovsky ordered. drawn away thicker, rising in hazy walls shot laugh that Laura found herself Laura's brow saw the bed. The The wide oval eye on beside Ihe woman's with multicolored light from from the wall fo stand the hatch's handle. eagerness had left his rubber the vague smudge on waterbed. The lights beneath man in his pentagonal vacuum of E Minus Seven preserved Laura's" fee:. She kicked at it, then The from green to red, warming the suit at it shifted heat traces well. picked it up and hung it on a Laura it looked like abruptly woman's skin so that to were hands on that handle re- Its empty arms dangled help- "There uncooled metal. nearby peg. said, wishing it were not so. inside if. it was use- cently," she Laura asked softly. lessly. Without a man "Why do you do this?" grunted and grasped the han- Balalaika music. Blue- Borovsky _ "Do whal?" less. Rubber suits. -Simon Weinblatt. die-. It would not turn. men. You aren'l lidded eyes. Borovsky. . Ihese "Make . . love to Souls Souls. "Locked." Laura said, have interest in Coyne. Silver lays. — Iheir work partners. You no for you. Turn." had seen in the "For me. maybe. Not haven't bought you a soul. That was whal she their lives. They fingers iiqhteneo on ihe handle sympathetic look. Laura's don't love them." blonde's You hard. She telt the metal of the stared al the bed. The and twisled blonde gave her a long, speculative Startled, "Laura The resist and moan, then break free. The mist around the bed grew thicker and latch look. Something surfaced in her eyes, began to move away hatch swung inward. Laura had the quickness tb see darker blue. Thebed something Wriggling through the hatch took some from Laura on its cushion of air. Another but not the knowledge of humanity to i'n-

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Allow 4 weeks lor delivery clus- as it was tall; arms and legs lor form. "I hear him. He's up on the ladder as wide minutes. It had not been designed ters of hydraulic cylinders contracting and passing a man in an amplified Rabinowicz somewhere." extending in smooth, polished motions. that had been Borovsky spat something foul in his na- space suit. Laura supposed neck, the ladder with Faceless, silvered helmet without any it could tive language. He gripped Coyne's hope . . . and ached that it dangling by tiny hands and sent Laura's crest beam ruined instruments atop have been true. both and striking the helmet's sides with column were pipes and bus stabbing upward. Coyne was there, wires Inside the size, rungs, panting. Laura little sounds. Hands twice human vanishing upward in the dark- wrapped around the channels powered by a hy- smell his sour sweat drifting down guided by flesh but ness. Running among the pipes was an could draulic exoskeleton strong enough to crush ladder. Laura turned otf her suit on the stale air. aluminum reaching forward, fingers Coyne stiffened, made motions-to start rocks. Hands lights and saw the warm spots where splayed and grasping, grasping. A ma- sweating, rubber-suited hands had climbmg again. "Stop!" Borovsky screamed. Laura's chine bent on death. was life, produc- arms pulled with his arms, and the alumi- But she was not! She in her soul- ladder tore raggedly away from tivity, strength, steel! She was, rage. "Up." num of the Borovsky's again, stum- wall brackets. No time. Coyne screamed climbed in darkness quickly, twice iis lower 'They over, and Coyne cried and dropped free bled, fell to his knees, rolled as last as a nonamplified man could climb. "Eatshit!" stared in wide-eyed horror as Laura bore Borovsky said nothing, and Lauta dared of the ladder. boots struck the top of Laura's hel- down on him. not plead tor him to give up the chase. It His most delicate Her right hand caught him by the neck would do no good and would only feed the met, crushing many of her rag doll. He gurgled, instruments, including the pale-blue glass and lifted him like a rage she so feared. Borovsky slammed him oval thai imaged in the infrared. His knees eyes bulging, as "It's a mess in here," she said truthfully, and he leaped to one side. against the steel wall. trying to read the swirl of multicolored im- flexed, of E Minus Three Borovsky's hand squeezed. her infrared eye gave her. The still vicious swing ages felt her hand him but he had time to plan Horror-struck, Laura By that level the column was pressur- drew down, squeeze. ized, and warm air confused the heat traces Coyne tore at the hand around his neck, Coyne had left behind. She saw that the hammered his fists against the smooth cyl- dust on the hatch handle had not been dis- inders and the silver pistons that were turbed for sometime. She did not volunteer slowly forcing Laura's fingers together. His the information. ^Frantically Laura mouth twisted, tongue pushing to one side, Borovsky steered Laura's helmet crest struggling to let his throat breathe. Laura beam along the ladder above. "Still too raced through her options. felt his frantic heartbeat hammering in the heavy. This is E Minus Four. He lives on E mad, Borovsky was veins of his neck. And in Coyne's eyes. Minus Two. He's still climbing." — could drug under the terror and rage, Laura saw Without responding, Laura grasped the insane she something else: a soul slipping away. A rungs and climbed. him. She knew trapped and mean soul, but real— as real Two airlocks higher E Minus Three be- she had tranquilizers as the soul she had seen in the eyes of the gan. Above them locks had been removed woman trapped on the bed. A soul that in to make the column an air-return manifold. enough to make a few more heartbeats would be gone. The black mouths of air tunnels yawned on him sleep In seconds.^ Because of her. four sides, and a constant draft through "No!" she cried in Borovsky's ears. "Stop the tunnels had erased any possible heat this! You're killing him!" traces the man might have left behind. Bo- "Goddamned right! Squeeze!" Borov- rovsky scanned the four tunnels. sky grunted. "He can't be far. Damn, I've got him. I squeezed. Laura squeezed. his movements. He drew up in a ball and Borovsky I Damn." know do. raced through her op- screaming in pain as one shoulder Frantically Laura They stood in silence for tens of sec- rolled, But then he was tions. Borovsky was mad, insane—she onds. Laura gradually learned to separate slammed into the steel. running crookedly could drug him. She had tranquilizers white noise of the air tunnels up, stumbling, then the gentle Tiny tunnels, favoring his enough to make him sleep in seconds. from the general subsonic rumble created down one of the air the medpack on her hip, sobbing in pain. valves opened in life a steel habitat. With left leg and everywhere by in toward the himself in Russian. opiates pulsed down a tube panic and despair, she realized she could Borovsky swore to but Borovsky's needles in their sheaths behind his but- hear high above them the sound of a man's Laura longed not to run, her legs ran. His arms tocks. The needle—she could plunge it labored breathing. legs were running; so deadly determined rhythm: so home, the power was hers. A man Borovsky wanted to kill. swung in a formed, and with it ap- swung, too. The command could tell him where Coyne was, or hers She new: Coyne was a pathetic scarecrow, high- peared something not tell him— a sickening choice. She had fiery red, rising above the F layer in every detail by the cold lights of A clouds never failed to tell Borovsky, her man, her lighted her soul. It hovered, an imagic hear. Laura's helmet beam. His rubber suit was she called life, anything she knew he wanted to aban- representation of what would happen if tell smudged and torn, helmet long If he commanded her, she would him— himself. had only a few she disobeyed Borovsky's command refuse was to face consequences too doned to lighten He to terror and love, seconds' head start and appeared close to squeeze. Driven by final to consider. But if he found Coyne— asked herself one question: What will the. to exhaustion. As much as Laura hated she if he killed Coyne—what would Com- Borovsky if he kills? But not felt a moment of pity for him. happen to bine do to Borovsky then? Coyne; she will happen to Laura if she chose that moment to look over another: What formed a hundred times, and Coyne ' The words knew. The for two steps. kills? Now, all at once, she time she wiped them away before his shoulder, side-stumbling each inescapable, built turned away but it had consequence was sending them to her helmet speakers. She- He moaned and the bright layers of her mind and the truth was been enough. Laura had seen his face, into strained to believe that hiding the them: She with the grime of the tunnels spiderweb paths between lie knew that to believe so would smeared not a and. ravening red with tears of exertion, and abruptly would lose her soul. The be lying to herself. mixed would burn it out of her. She must Borovsky said. she saw herself through his eyes. cloud "He lives east of here," squeeze cut oui of steel and obey Borovsky's command to "He'll follow the tube. Let's go." Shaped like a man press; torso nearly or her soul would be destroyed. She must "No," Laura said, forcing the words to crushed in a magnetic 184 OMNI .

JOIN THE NATIONAL SPACE INSTITUTE They'll be here ten minutes after they find not kill or her soul would be destroyed. AND KEEP UP WITH THE SPACE AGE! She was going !o become the soulless his ugly corpse." her. From his eyes Laura death tool she had seen in Coyne's eyes. He looked at un- A grim thought appeared out ol no- saw that he was pleading for her to still one al- where: Men are judged by their maker at derstand, to forgive, to be the ways on his side. Borovsky would never the moment of their death. I am judged by it aloud, but it was there in his twisted my maker every moment that I live. say Coyne's pulse weakened. His pulse! face: He could not "take her with him, but leave her behind. Wait! Laura sent fluid into the insulating it hurt him to him. layers between Borovsky's fingers and the Laura reached to

I . outermost skin. Slowly— bul there was so "Borovsky, I . . . lied. He isn't dead. . you." Every word was a labor. "I little time— she built up a layer of fluid that tricked

I created, then WITH NSI MEMBERSHIP YOU GET... kept Borovsky's fingers from truly con- made you feel a pulse

, let it. He was still alive when you — informed ni; all ascecls of t-,;spH(:::p :g S'iivia 12:ss:.i.:s tacting the outer layer of tough synthetic. stopped a year oi Spacf World, ;heprerrii-:i vi^aiir.^ ;n span: In thn While "mo fluid 'lowed into the skin of her go of him." In that one fingers, she set her contractile layers to Borovsky's mouth opened. — opportunities i" iiMri'i'j sf-.-'ers 'tfjionH routings ==o" saw her mistake. His fists pulsing in her hand, matching the rhythm movement Laura 1 : :i via aroiinciiie-iii^ir.ivwea' J5:r;:ii:-iun si'ir; spira si>.;» .:: glared with the fury of a of Coyne's, laboring heart, In seconds the tightened, and he — access to bibliographic has been tricked into illusion was complete, and Borovsky, rage man who thinks he Steel maddened as he was, Had not noticed. The softness and then kicked in it. "Whore! — your opinion made known lo Congress you look afler I your soul pulse he- fell was wholly in Laura's skin. bitch! buy and — tlie knowledge that, through NSl,¥

— the- nation's oldes: soace -ntefesl group, 974 "I did do it." weaker, until it could barely be felt. Finally bv Dr. Wernher von Braun. Borovsky spat at her; his saliva spat- il stopped. tered her faceplate. "I wanted some- TO JOIN NOW, call loll-lree 1-300-453-7000, from "No pulse, ""she said, "He's dead." on

;in:;:n-l LJi=iri. 01 Hawaii You But I got a anywhere in the U S Alis-a. Borovsky swore and released his hand. thing better than a woman. car jSi! you' 'y'se :r MasterCard 'itus dues' $30 fo' in a corner: I'm Coyne, unconscious, loll ir a heap, face- woman anyway. Go rot rwiular iremoers faces 22-65): SIB tor Junior Members away from the leaving, and to hell with you." (under 22) and Seiiur Git zc-ns (ov?i 65) Or mile: down. Borovsky backed lurched in Laura's soul. It was fell back against the opposite wall of Something NATIONAL SPACE INSTITUTE man, not the red cloud, but like the red cloud it Suite 203W the funnel. she had never 600 Maryland Avenu "Jesus. Jesus." hurt and tore at her. Fragile— was so Washington, DC 20024 Laura's soul began assembling itself realized the sou! in her steel body fragile. As fragile, she thought, as the lacy t Hugh Downs aga "i. gathering back into the haven of her metal box. Vice-Pi innermost crystalline layer. balalaika music trapped in its Executive Director Dr. Mark Chartrand Borovsky cursed i\er again. Numb, Laura 1t was hers again —she had not killed; her that she had no! disobeyed. Bui now there was peered into his eyes. It seemed to a dirtiness to her soul that she felt might she saw nothing at all. balalaika, From never be cleared away. She couldn't bear it. Pain, any- KITTY HAWK Borovsky. trembling, backed away i'orn souls, curses— she looked away, little window to where Coyne for several steps before breaking where away, out the to and running toward the vertical duct from Ihe stars called from the Pit- horizon was the CAPE CANAVERAL which they had come. Crawling under Ihe bright-yellow ELM. lnjusl80Years! "Borovsky!" us - Tied up in a handkerchief on his water- cot lay two kilos of gold ingots. Borovsky- "Shut up." n just a- ek;h;y-year span The yellow stared at them. He was wearing his old "He's coming back. Coyne. rubber suil inside out. Ho had shaved his egg—" '" around, I"' " head and depilated Ihe stubble. Laura Laura watensd Liorovsky whip sgueezed coulci sland his behavior no longer. his face suddenly pale. "No." He to window. "No!" "Talk to me, dammit!" past the little sink the ^" that "' catch me. they'll Suspended on four motorized trucks . "What's to say? They D? w flanges on the longitudinal beams kill me. Nothing you can do." rode the was ex- "So where can you run to?" was Coyne's ELM. The main arm Ill tended forward. It was close enough now "Earth. London, I never shoulda left. Only diamond cutting wheel glinting S3»= crazy men live up here." to see the creeping sunlight. a m Earth. Laura was appalled. But still. Earth in the to congratulate OfA- on lis bth Christ! Open would beia'r from George Eastman Nexus.' "He's gonna cut us loose. Ei Borovsky tore off his rubber suit, deadliness. Borov- up fast!" theme. "Return to Space." Far from this bcxed-m ' into thebarrel-shaped shower, he ss We re also proud to an- sky would be there; she could learn to live Leaning HI wi.r nou-ce ihat. effective the - there, too. She undogged her top plates turned the water full on hot. HJ 5. 03;;, January 1984 issue. .4 're '.ts sheet from the wa- 3 i before Borovsky looked at her sharply, Borovsky pulled the C -i - t slit Ihe plastic mattress with a -F-ii b -MF CA I bribe through tered and "Forget it. Me I can maybe "cric-i-sielv re'.'isec Icma: and an coil-corded customs and. sneak down. You. no chance." paring knife. He yanked the nprovpii eci'ona ^^1 s =xp;nde:l slid immersion heater from the kitchen blister :;:.(; raue a^d content. "You can't leave me!" it water spilling out of What this adds up to is a "Like hell." and threw into the whole new anproa;" lo seruing the watercot mattress. In moments, the "But I love you!" Du- water began lo bubble into steam. Orrtach., "Would you love me better dead? WrJtK^arot Bo- shenka, here you can die for bumping a The ELM was just outside the pod. Broadway. N Y.. fil.V. 10019 Laura and was just m guy on the head and taking his money. Two, rovsky climbed into before they find him. The sealing her ventral plates when he heard lion in your nanis'a:'oL.'r'loy.' three days maybe cut into the first of the charter rale ot S51 (S5 8- Foreign) computers know. Coyne hated me. Ha! ihe diamond wheel that. four suspension supports. I Don't take no computer to tell the cops pod's Borovsky cursed and sealed Laura's face of Eastman Nexus. In ten minutes light helmet gasket. He slapped his hips, felt for would find them— as would Coyne. all his familiar tools. Coyne could not have seen them blow The pod lurched, then tipped to one side out of the pod amidst the steam, but he as the first support broke loose. Boiling was not stupid enough to assume it could water cascaded out onto the floor from the not be done. Laura imagined that he would watercoi. Steam was beginning to con- expect them to flee along the beams, and ' unuDECincMT ai\ruc\ no dense on the outside of Laura's faceplate. she watched his narrow face searching the NONRESIDENT BACHELOR, They stumbled across the skewed floor impenetrable shadows antispinward of MASTER AND DOCTORAL to the rear of the pod and opened the lock where they hid. DEGREES FOR THE door. The lock was only a barrel itself, barely Borovsky seemed to share her specu- ACCOMPLISHED INDIVIDUAL wide enough to admit Laura's bulk. Borov- lations. His arm cocked, and with a quick, Columbia Pacific University, the largest sky tapped commands into the lock con- sure motion he threw the zot wrench to an- nonresidential graduate university in the trol, securing the inner door open. tispinward. Five meters beyond them it fell U.S., has been authorized by the State ol California to grant nonresident Bachelor , Next he tore the cover off a guarded out of the shadows and caught the sun keypad and armed the explosive bolts with a metallic dazzle. Master and Doctoral degreesin numerous fields, including Business, Psychology, supporting the lock's outer hatch. Coyne saw the wrench. The ELM's mo- Engineering, Health, and Education. Inside the lock Laura heard Borovsky tors ground to life again, pulling the big Degreesareearnedthroughacombina- take a deep breath. egg antispinward. Coyne brought the up tionoffullacademiccreditforlifeandwork. "Don't you never lie to again," he big spotlight me and began scanning the experience, and completion of an indepi said softly, and tapped the key that deto- shadows only a meter beyond them. dent study project in the student's area nated the explosive bolts. The ELM crept beneath them. Its special interest. The lime involved is The sound was deafening, and the whirl- upraised robotic arm carried the glittering shortened due to accelerated, self-paced learning. The cost is under $2,500. wind of steam that blew them forward was diamond wheel not a meter from Laura's worse. Water expelled into the void burst helmet. Borovsky's body tensed inside Columbia Pacific University isattracting accomplished individuals, members of the into droplets, which exploded into steam. Laura. She knew, horrified, what he was business and professional community, Laura felt for the chain ladder's tubular about to do. desiring to design their own projects and rungs and hauled upward, blinded the As by soon as the ELM's dome passed be- receive academic acknowledgement tor rolling cloud of steam pouring out of yond the them. Borovsky and Laura dropped their personal achievements. May I send pod. Two meters overhead was the un- from the beam, down onto the back of the you more information? derbelly of George Eastman Nexus, here handling machine. R.L. Crews, M.D., President a tangle of beams to which the chain lad- Magnets in Laura's toes and. knees COLUMBIA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY der was welded. Borovsky and Laura snapped hold on the metal as they con- 1 41 SThirdSt., Suite 5710 San Rafael, CA94901 pulled themselves up among the beams. nected. Laura saw Coyne turn and open Call Toll Free USA: 800-227-1617, ext. 4HD Laura braced herself on a beam and pulled his fnouth; she felt his scream through "the California Only: 800-772-3545, ext. 4B0 the chain ladder until its welds tore loose. metal of the ELM.

They lei it drop into the steam. Borovsky crouched down and back- They felt the second pod support give ward. The multijolnted arm swung toward way. Steam continued to pour but of the them, holding its silently spinning cutoff cast-wide hatch for many minutes. They wheel. The wheel scanned back and forth felt the vibration of the ELM's trucks car- as Coyne's hands flexed in the panto- rying it forward to reach the second pair graph. As Borovsky had known, its joints of pod supports. The whine of the dia- would not allow it to reach that far back mond wheel biting into the steel carried up over the ELM's dome. through the support into the beams from Laura telt machinery energize beneath which it hung. her. Four smaller arms were unfolding from The steam was beginning to clear as the the sides of the ELM. Each carried some- third support gave way. Borovsky saw the thing deadly— an arc welder, cable nips, pod pitch crazily downward on its last thin tubing cutter, and Utility grippers. support and describe a short, fast pen- The arc welder struck and sizzled into dulum arc for several seconds. Then weight life. It had Ihe shortest range and could not and metal fatigue ripped the support from reach them; Coyne let it drop after one its bracket. The pod tumbled downward pass. The tubing cutter lunged at Laura's toward the stars with sickening speed, arm and ground against the hardened steel trailing a tattered comet's tail of steam. of one of the slender hydraulic cylinders The steam was gone, falling away from that moved her torso. Borovsky grabbed them as the pod had. Borovsky gritted his at the cutter below its wrist and twisted teeth, breathing shallowly. Laura saw hard. The bayonet latches obediently Coyne under the big glass bubble atop the opened, and the fool popped from the end

Yes, I want ELM. watching the pod vanish in the glare of the arm, leaving the blunt wrist to flail to become a member of the Hypatia Cluster. Enclosed is my check from the sun. and beat af them. While Coyne was dis- for $25.00 [special Founding Member With infinite care Borovsky pulled a zot tracted, Borovsky kicked out at the base rate for Omni readers ont/j wrench from his hip. The ELM was several ot the arm -carrying the cable nips. With Yes, I'd like more information about the meters spinward of the nest of beams to Laura's hydraulic assist in full play, the kick Hypatia Cluster. which they clung. Laura knew Borovsky bent the arm back hard against its base. was watching Coyne as desperately as she Fluid oozed from the base joint and ran was. But what could Borovsky do? greasily down the ELM's side. The arm

Coyne turned his eyes away from the twitched several times and was still, now-vanished pod and began looking The remaining arm hovered cautiously ahead. Laura and Borovsky were still In just out of reach, weaving from side to side shadow, though the sun was creeping like an attacking snake. It carried a hand spinward along the tessellated undersur- with four powerful fingers and, unlike the —

Something in the scream —something so others, the hand was too complex to be decisive and anguished that it penetrated easily removable on a bayonet base. ruiiruD mind made his eyes wide, the hand evetq his enraged — ; The fingers spread and CONTINUED l BOM PAGE 20 inside following Coyne's hand in whip to the side, to the instruments darted forward, and the use Laura's helmet. Human eyes met elec- average life span, body size, the pantograph. The steel hand grasped language, for example. We tronic and with a great wrench Bo- of some sort of of the hydraulic tubes on Laura's right eyes, one in con- smashing mallet to miss can expect no such guarantees and clamped tightly. The arm be- rovsky twisted the shoulder societies. scribe. But the action came a tacts with extraterrestrial gan hauling them forward, out over the the carbide Hill asks, "for a so- Laura did not see it. "Are we prepared," glass dome, into the range of the waiting nanosecond too late; decision. ciety in which the average body height is diamond wheel. She had already made her sixty feet? Or where there are three sexes toward Laura's helmet In an instant Laura swept away the bright The wheel swept our between her F layer and instead of two'? What would happen to and struck her faceplate obliquely with a lines of connection beliefs if were to make contact scrambled all sen- religious we of hardened glass against raging her cold outer intellect, shriek re- drew with life from beyond? We ought to be diamond. An hourglass-shaped abrasion sory paths beyond reassembly. She her innermost alizing that a clenched fist, for example— appeared where the wheel had struck and a curtain of chaos between steal her a sign of aggression on Earth — could be glanced away. self and the world that waited to went random a sign of peaceful intent elsewhere. Exo- Borovsky's one tree arm darted out and soul. The crystalline domains connections that had sociology has practical applications." took hold of the diamond wheel. Quickly and impassable; more practical applications to were gone forever, One of the pulled it down and to one taken years form Laura's strength rather immedi- is preparing us for living in space, before Coyne could work against them dragging with them the burning, side going to go soul could not em- than just visiting it. "If NASA is and pressed the wheel against the smaller ate memories that her would be ahead with establishing colonies in space," arm clamped on Laura's shoulder joint. brace. Without Borovsky she maintains Hill, "then, at the very least, they moment's touch parted the metal empty, but without her sou! she would be Only a consulting an exosociologist." Laura split herself in two, a ma- ought to be skin over the wrist joint, and the pressur- nothing. So agency has not been all that intellect that obeyed Borovsky's or- The space ized joint fluid spurted out of the narrow chine was trying to pretend we without self-awareness, and an inner receptive. "NASA cut. The smaller arm's grip went limp and ders weren't raising a legitimate issue," Yinger involuntarily open. soul that could neither touch nor be the fingers snapped science. sealed into recalls of the early days of his They scrambled back out of the reach of touched by the outside world, afraid lo talk about coloniza- F layer like the phantom "They weren't the cutoff arm. the crystalline tion of space, but they were deathly afraid Borovsky and Coyne stared at each other memories of a catatonic. sent the mallet to talk about what that would mean for all through the glass of the ELM's dome. Borovsky's space suit far that reluctance remains. spinning off into space. Laura the soul did of us." So Coyne was still in his torn and filthy rubber Sociologist Arthur Harkins, of the Uni- - it. For Laura, the soul, Eastman underwear, his neck a swollen pattern of not see vanished, hands versity of Minnesota, who coediled a 1974 his fingers flexing and Nexus vanished, the ELM purple bruises, Cultures Beyond steel vanished. The last thing exosociology anthology. working aimlessly in the pantograph. and eyes and Borovsky's eyes. the Earth, thinks his discipline's most prac- There was no sign of a space helmet she had seen was tical applications will be in high technol- dome. under the intelligence. Laura ran along a steel beam on a mem- ogy, specifically artificial "Bastard! want tools, Coyne? I show You Harkins re- the sucking stars. Her man "Humans get sick in space," you tools!" ory, high above minds us. "We have a limited ability to sur- his right hip- ran within her, and they laughed, and they Borovsky reached into microproces- told jokes in steel sa- vive. Now think how many and pulled out a carbide scribe. worked, and they locker with no fear bartenders. At night, in sors we can put into space— his belt he hefted a three-kilo mallet. loons run by robot From should really be held his body and heard of survival danger. We "No;" Laura said. "The machine is ru- their tiny pod, she concerning ourselves with what happens don't!" .him whisper words of endearment as they ined, that's enough! Please hu- only a space when machine social systems, not "Shut up!" Borovsky snapped. He made the special love that They rode their mans, are put into space. reached down and drew the point of the suit may make to her man. and pushed the "Starting in about five years," Harkins scribe heavily sidewise across the glass yoyo to the Low Steel "and lasting for the next several tall, and endlessly continues, dome. Glass splinters sparkled in the beams with a quiet man decades, NASA won't be interested in put- leaving behind a jagged watched the remembered days go by. scribe's wake, Artificial intelli- occasionally would she stop alone ting humans into space. scratch. Borovsky reached forward and Only with her gence is now so advanced that NASA will drew another gouge with the scribe, pull- on a beam and, following a star have no choice but to turn to systems with a lop- many eyes, wonder how the outer world ing it across the first gouge, making robotic actuators. And why not? If they work the glass. He positioned the had vanished on that last day. sided cross in with the to seek better than humans, we should go where the scratches But then she would turn away point of the scribe, unfascinated with now, in her crystal- flow. Sociologists are crossed, and he raised the mallet. again what reality was general and high technology in soul, hers forever. change in His hand was in her hand. When the mal- line the future is. Even more occasionally Laura would look particular. But that's where let descended and struck the scribe, Coyne And that's where the study of exosociology at two pieces of disjointment that lay in her would die. study what happens presence puzzled her; she could is going. We should "No!" Laura cried. "Kill him and you kill soul. Their man to these systems in space for hints of ex- soul you paid for!" not tell what they meant. One was a me! My soul, the would be putting ex- standing on a steel beam, arms out- traterrestrial life. That He did not hear her, or if he did, his rage tortured exul- osociology to good use." that her words didn't stretched, back straining in was so devouring can seriously other was her man, but not as Before exosociologists matter. The mallet began to descend. Laura tation. The future directions for the field, says in memories. In the sec- consider appear again and. felt it he ran with her her saw the red cloud improve societies on- of disjointment her man's eyes Yinger, they must tearing at her F layer. Borovsky would not ond piece Earth. "It is fruitless to study how we should halt the whipped around to meet hers, and the stop it. Laura could not stop it— to other societies in space if we don't in them was frozen forever. In relate mallet, drug Borovsky, drop the scribe into expression know how to relate to one another," he says. his eyes were shock, and fear, and the the Pit— nope of it would halt the red cloud. find a nonviolent res- realization of man seeing tor the "As soon as we can A machine's soul must obey; a machine's stunned a olution to conflict here on Earth, we'll really first time something beyond himself and soul must not kill, a machine's soul have something to communicate to intelli- "No!" Laura screamed again, but this greater than himself. gent beings in the universe."DO . eyes a soul, DO time not to Borovsky. In his was interest, Glenn: People respond very well, because son: It could attract greater but else seems to be speaking along could it get to the point where it inflames nobody IRJTERV/IEinJ particu- I find great attention, people? No, because it's so far in the fu- these lines. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 132 to them and larly when I tie these issues ture. It's a pattern lhat doesn't pay off to- are our kids going to morrow. Social Security ignites people be- their families: What tration the offshore-oil bill was about eighty at twenty years from now; and a lot of them are either on Social be working billion dollars, and the budget tot alterna- cause for that, or are we Security now or nearing Social Security are we setting the stage tive energy was about seven hundred sev- financial eating our seed corn for the future by not dollars -pretty close to the age, and everyone sees his own enty-six million educational affected by what's being done putting sufficient support into one-percent goal. The Reagan Adminis- future being Social Security. But the relationship areas or. research? tration came in and cut that by around sixty about future of the Omni: Do you'find time for reading any- ot anything that will between research and the percent. I can't think materials? indeterminate; you can't thing other than legislative guarantee our dependence on foreign oil country—that's but not enough. Every time it. That's the problem Glenn: Some, that research. put a dollar value on more than cutting half-a- I have you can't say thai for each we get a legislative break, Omni: Do you see private industry coming with research— lined up, and I usually make dollar spent we're going to get back two dozen books in, as the Reagan Administration said it But most of my iime cents the year after next, mak- it through one or two. to pick up activities that have been dollars fifty would, for with things I have to read investment. Yet, it usually pays is taken up dropped by the government ing it a good responsibilities. that. But it's not definite; so my legislative If we've seen off far beyond Glenn; No. Quite the contrary. do you do have time, what , can't get people fired up about it. Omni: When anything in this recessionary period, it's you Back in the early days of this country, you prefer? that one of the first things companies drop board. A lot of emphasized research in agriculture. Glenn: It goes across the are their efforts in the basic- research area. we maybe twice the things involve politics, government, Omni: And what about your other pel proj- That's why today we produce novels. The last one I as much per acre as anybody else pro- philosophy— a few ect: preventing the further spreading ot parts of the read was a few years old. and I hadn't had weapons around Ihe world? duces on similar land in other nuclear of Fire, a chance to get to it before'; Fields

I the : Glenn: When I first came to Senate I in- about the Vietnam War, 1 guess was found very little going on in the govern- terested because of my Marine back- control the flow of the kjnd of in- ment to novels. Most ground. I haven't. read many lead to weaponry. I formation that would particular of the books I read are on some picked up the issue, and the upshot of it r '-16 m I rode the F subject, usually having to do with govern- of was that, after working on it for a couple ment, foreign policy, or scientific matters. years, we passed ihe Nuc.ear Non-Prolif- recently. It's the closest Omni: Do you ever go back and take a look eration Act in 1978. We felt we had ten to thing to a at your old Mercury capsule in the Air and fifteen years to prevent the spread from_ rocket I've been in Space Museum? the half-dozen or so major nuclear supplier Glenn: I've been back a few times with capability lo na tj 0ns_those who had the lately. We made groups that wanted to go over. It's not very manufacture the very technical equipment takeoff almost that. a full-burner big. I know for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and Omni: Would you go up in it again? getting out the plutonium that could be straight up, Glenn: Oh, sure. You like io make every or the equipment used used for a bomb, at an 80° angled F-16 down flight you possibly can. I rode the to enrich- uranium up to bomb capability. Fort Worth [Texas] recently. It's the clos- a in Overall the Non-Pro I iteration Act had est thing to a rocket I've been in lor a while. perfectly, but good impact. II hasn't worked with the chief test pilot for the nu- I went up it's our effort to control the spread of plane. We made a full-burner takeoff—al- around the world. clear weapons a sev- a wonderful problem: most straight up— climbing at about The Reagan Administration has been 'world. It gives us eighty-uegree angle, which is surpluses of food. And we ship zil- enty-five- to going pretty well in the other direction, great virtually standing on the. tailpipe. We went of of it all over the world. That trying to gut the act. They have made lions tons be- up to about thirty thousand feet—you can plutonium policy thai reduce didn't happen overnight. It happened changes in minute and a cause we were curious about how plants get to forty thousand in a the safeguards. It makes you feel like the put it through its work, about the chemistry of plant nu- half— leveled off. and little Dutch kid with his finger in the dike, and sta- techniques for developing paces as far as maneuverability trying to hold back some ot these things trients, about it to about 1.65 took a lot of ex- bility checks. I took out around the world. I'm not overly optimistic high-yield hybrids. All llns it lhat eventually Mach. It's a nine g limited, and I pulled about how much we can stanch the nu- perimenting. And out of eight and a half. We did a lot the Revolution. If there's one up to about clear (low to more and more—and some- came Green research has meant of stuff, and then we came back and shot times smaller and smaller— nations, Bui we good example of what some landings with it. It's a very impres- concerned to this country, it's our agricultural system. have to keep trying. We're also back sive airplane. It was almost like being developments for The same thing has gone on in other about new technological sidearm communications, transporta- in the spacecraft again, with a What- if one of these areas—in nuclear weaponry. side aeronautics Ihe re- controller, which sits over on the right laser-isotope separation becomes tion, aeronautics^ In days having a stick search we've done has been almost ex- of the cockpit as opposed to common. If it becomes as simple and as the cockpit. That's the same clusively government research. All of these in the middle of common as some people think it will, al- in the old Mercury. examples of how we built whole new kind of system we had mosl any nation in the world that wanted a are flying time do you get in? of industry, trade, jobs— all these Omni: How much bomb-making capability could have it. patterns hundred fifty to one learned new things and Glenn: I average one We're not without progress in this field, but came because: we hours a year. I have a- them to use. Then other nations fol- hundred seventy is there enough concern in the administra- put it equipped, as tradition, Beech Baron and I have there is. lowed our lead. That's been our tion now? No. I don't think equip a little plane, like a , can with it take the chance near as you Omni: Can the government's handling of but if we break we second- miniairliner: radar, coupled autopilot for science and technolo.gy ever ignite into a of relegating ourselves not only to farther automatic approaches, and everything issue, the way, for example, class status, but perhaps much real political going any- ladder than that else possible. Anytime I'm thai protection of the Social Security "sys- down the half of the country, I Omni: What sort oi response have you been where in the eastern tem is a political issue? fly my plane. I enjoy it. It's like therapy.DO it for this rea- getting to this theme? Glenn: I would tend to doubt " " "

There was a loud rushing in my ears, darkness. A brutal tilting and the final fall

and I had to sit down or faint. My hands to oblivion. I shuddered and gripped the CARRION were clammy against the green-vinyl up- metal arm of the chair. holstery. People moved past me on their How had Nina done it? Almost certainly

It my vision fled as I turned. way to the exiis. not one of Willi's entourage. was not be- Mr. Thome was there. At my elbow. Un- Willi was dead. Murdered. Nina had killed yond Nina's powers to Use Willi's own cat's-

I in light of his failing Abil- bidden. I had opened my mouth to com- him. For a few dizzy seconds considered paws, especially mand him back to the top of the stairs when the possibility of a conspiracy—an elab- ity, but there would, have been no reason

I saw the cause of his approach. The youth orate ploy by Nina and Willi to confuse me to do so. She could have Used anyone on who had been taking pictures of his pale info thinking that only one threat remained. that flight. It would have been difficult. The wife was now walking toward me. Mr. But no. There would be no reason.'Tf Nina elaborate step of preparing the bomb, the Thome moved to intercept him. had included Willi in her plans, there would supreme effort of blocking all memory of

"Hey, excuse me, ma'am. Would you or be no need for such absurd machinations. it, and the almost unbelievable feat of Us- your husband mind taking our picture?" Willi was dead. His remains were spread ing someone even as we sat together

I nodded and Mr, Thome look the prof- over a smelly, obscure marshland. I could drinking coffee and brandy.

fered camera. It looked minuscule iii his imagine his last moments. He would have But Nina could have done it, Yes, she long-fingered hands. Two snaps and the been leaning back in first-class comfort, a could have. And the timing. The timing couple were satisfied that their presence drink in his hand, perhaps whispering to could mean only one thing. there was documented for posterity. The one of his loutish companions, The last of the tourists had filed out of

: young man grimed id ctica!y and bobbed Then the explosion. Screams. Sudden the cabin. I felt the slight bump that meant his head. Their baby began to cry as the cold wind blew in.

i looked bacf< to the submarine, but al-

ready it had passed on, its gray tower a thin stripe connecting the sea and sky.

We were almost back to town, the ferry was swinging in toward the slip, when a stranger told me of Willi's death. "It's awful, isn't it?" The garrulous old woman had followed me out onto the ex- posed section of deck. Even though the

wind had grown chilly and I had moved twice to escape her mindless chatter, the woman had obviously chosen me as her conversational target for the final stages of the tour, Neither my reticence nor Mr. Thome's glowering presence had dis- couraged her. "It must have been terrible," she continued. "In the dark and all." "What was that?" A dark premonition prompted my question. "Why, the airplane crash. Haven't you

heard about it? It must have been awful, falling into the swamp—and all. I told my daughter this morning "What airplane crash? When?" The old woman cringed a bit at the sharpness of my tone, but the vacuous smile stayed on her face.

"Why, last night. This morning. I told my daughter— "Where? What aircraft are you talking about?" Mr, Thorne cams closer as he heard the tone of my voice. "The one last night," she quavered, "The one from Charleston. The paper in the lounge told all about it. Isn't it terrible?— Eighty-five people. 1 told my daughter

1 left her standing there by the railing. There was a crumpled newspaper near the snack bar, and under the four-word head- line were the sparse details of Willi's death. Flight 417. bound for Chicago, had left Charleston International Airport at twelve- eighteen a.m Twenty minutes later the air- craft had exploded in midair noi far from the city of Columbia. Fragments' of fuse- lage and parts of bodies had fallen into Congaree Swamp, where fishermen haef found them. There had been no survivors. The FAA and FBI were investigating. ' I

him, and crossed the them. It would be almost the door behind we had tied up to the dock. Mr. Tjhorne replace most p* with courtyard toward me. One of the girls said stood by the door. welcome to leave everything behind accumu- something to him and held out the box of Nina's timing meant that she was at- the^iscarded identity that had crackers, but he ignored her. Across the tempting to deal with both of us at once. lated them. not leave. yet. street the two men continued walking. Mr. I could Not She obviously had planned it long before No, the looked Thorne handed me the large front-door key, the reunion and my timorous announce- From across the street house pocket looked / closed those I dropped it in my coat and ment of withdrawal. How amused Nina must dark and malevolent. Had sharply at him, He-nodded, His placid smile have been. No wonder she had reacted so blinds' on the second floor? There was a courtyard, and unconsciously mocked my consternation. generously! Yet, she had made one great shadowy movement in the Hodges' s granddaughter and a "You're sure?" I asked. Again the nod. mistake. By dealing with Willi first, Nina had I saw Mrs. "You checked all ot the rooms?" Nod. "The banked everything on my not hearing the scamper from one doorway to an- curb alarms?" Nod. "You looked in the base- news before she could turn on me. She^ iod irresolutely on the and sign of disturbance?" Mr. to daily stick against the black- ment?" Nod. "No knew that I had no access foolish to dither so Thorne shook his head. and only rarely left the house anymore. was — the metal of the gate, it it had been a long time My hand went to it was unlike Nina io leave anythi throat like forced to make a decision but I hesitated. Anxiety filled my chance. Was it possible that she t tired ach- bile, I was a silly old woman, and had lost the Ability completely and

house. ing from the chill, but I could not bring my- was the greater threat? sse check the emerc Returnquickly." self to open that gate. I shook my head as we the street and walked Mr. "Come." I crossed up as I watched the cabin into the gray afternoon Iji ame l blend into the gloom briskly away from the house. "We will have wind sliced at me through my tf ;oat felt exposed dinner at Henry's and return later." Only I The view of the gangplank was bli terribly not walking toward the old restaurant; tilled my ine, I found myself glanc- was I realized that tears had from the house in what 'the street, looking for Miss I was heading away Willi? He had been a pompous, blind, directionless panic, It I knew was a fool, For Nina's betrayal? Perhap: was not until we reached the waterfront only the cold wind. and were walking along the Battery wall The streets of the Old Section we*

that I began to calm down. most empty of pedestrians. Bare bi No one else was in sight. A few cars clicked together in front of the windows- amused Nina moved along the street, but to approach tine homes. Mr. Thome stayed by my side;- Yet, us someone would haVe to cross a wide, The cold air sent needles of arthritic pain "hake been. she empty space. The gray clouds were quite up my right leg to my hip. I leaned more one had made low and blended with fhe choppy, white- heavily upon father's walking stick. great mistake. By dealing crested waves in the bay. What would her next move be? 1 stopped. The open' air. and fading evening light A fragment of newspaper, caught by the with Willi first, think served to revive me, and I began to wind, wrapped itself around my ankle and Nina had banked on my not more clearly. Whatever Nina's plans had then blew on. been, they certainly had been thrown into How would she come at me? Not from a hearing the news disarray by my day-long absence, I distance. She was somewhere in town. I before she turned on me?> doubted that Nina would stay if there were knew that. While it is possible to Use some- the slightest risk to herself. No, she would one from a great distance, it would involve be returning to New York by plane even as great rapport, an almost intimate knowl- In I stood shivering on the Battery walk, person. if contact were edge of that And . the morning I would receive a telegram, I if not impossible lost, it would be difficult £ . . . terrible about

now. I courtyard star- off this old cocoon. I could do so personal Feeding imaginable, oui thai had % from the little would wait in a sate place while Mr. Thorne been a mere technical operation. Nitia,ob- ts only the girl —what : returned to the house to pick up the one viously had decided to settle oospores, ??— calling to her friend, behind. he sat the thing I could not leave Then with me, and Willi had become ar ot.if.scic ps it. The two on and opened a box of would get the car out of storage, and by to her, a minor but measurable :nreai thai tain stared intently at them the time Nina's telegram arrived I would be had to be eliminated before she co.jlo.p-o- would be iri^a's,. even managed to smile far away. It would be Nina who ceed. I could easily imagine that the and : For a starting at shadows in months own mind her choice of death for Willi'vfcujd .tent of my paranoia. to years to come. I smiled and began frame be interpreted as an act of compass'i.ori, -considered Using Mr. Thorne di- on the necessary commands. almost a sign of affection. Not so with me/ rectly: bufiheThoughtof being helpless "Melanie." would want to knowi* lhe]|f]§fl^i&suaded me. When one is in I felt that Nina me function My head snapped around. Mr. Thorne however briefly, that she was behind the complete' con lac;, the senses still best. had not spoken in twenty-eight years. He attack, In a sense, her own vanity would out are a distant thing at Wrry.' The .'thought was sent almost spoke now. be my warning. Or so I hoped. in a volition;" bearded men were "Melanie." His face was distorted immediately, I without Two I was tempted to leave side ot rictus that showed his back teeth, The knife could have Mr. Thorne get the Audi out of walking down-line sidewalk on my of was in his right hand. The blade flicked out storage, and we could be beyond Nina's the street. I crossed to stand in tront my empty, gray I into his laughing and as I stared. looked influence in an hour—away io a newjife own gate. The*, men were

over eyes, and I knew. within a tew more hours, There were' im- gesturing at each other. One looked "Melanie." portant items in the house, of course, but at me. Hurry. a pow- would Mr. Thorne came out of the house, locked The long blade came around in the funds that I had stored elsewhere 192 OMNI nothing to stop it. It erful arc. 1 could do cut through the fabric of my coat sleeve and continued into my side. But in the act me. of turning, my purse had swung with ripped The knife tore through the leaiher, through the jumbled contents, pierced my IS my lowest left IT blood above WHAT drew coat and 'Caviar in, caviar rib. The purse had saved my life. When it comes father's heavy walking stick and computer game I raised squarely in his left eye. software, this struck Mr. Thorne not make a sound. Again ige fits only He reeled but did

EATS. I IT but had your imag- he swept the air with the knife, one brand. Because Inibcom prose games stimulate two steps back and his vision was inat taken two-handed grip on the putting I took a r|»«Trc notHng ;-lse in cijfnvarc ;.ir>i:)L-oaches. luseac: of clouded. we ;nu you inside our swung sideways again, bringing funny little arcade creatures on vour screen, cane and In- rv.'ilisiic environ- an awkward chop. jiories. And we confront vou wn'n staiT.inaiy the stick around in the eye socket. I credibly, it again found the secret: We've found steps back. like ill' v\-hicl '-..II won't rind elsewhere. The took three more mag- Mr. the wav to plug our prose iyht nitu your Blood streamed down the left side of whole new pro- -. ination, aisdi-niapiiitvou into a Thome's face, and the damaged eye dimension. truded onlo his cheek. The rictal grin re- Infocom- All words. No Step up to mained. His head came up, he raised his pictures. The secret reaches of your the eye with left hand slowly, plucked out mind are beckoning. The next dimen- threw a soft snapping of a gray cord, and for you. sion is in there waiting came toward it into the waler of the bay. He ran. me. I turhed and right leg run. The ache in my , inFocom I tried to paces. 'fhe nest dimension. slowed me to a walk after twenty lungs '.Vrfcidn- i;.. hurried steps and my i-i. Int., 55 Fifteen more threatening to were out of air, my heart wetness seeping down burst. I could feel a there was a tingling— like ; my left side and )iic3T.r_.!I)U.\ KCAI'C. where an ice cube held against the skin— One the knife blade had touched me. glance back showed me fhat Mr. Thorne was striding toward me faster than 1 was moving. Normally he could have over- hard to taken me in four strides. But it is make someone run when you are Using him. Especially when that person's body is

I glanced reacting to shock and trauma. in doubt, back again, almost slipping on the slick When widely. pavement. Mr. Thorne was grinning and Blood poured from fhe empty socket stained his teeth. No one else was in sight. rail so reach for Down the stairs, clutching at the walk and as not to fall. Down the twisting lamps up the asphalt path to the street. Pole Behind flickered and went on. as I passed. yourRunes two jumps. me Mr. Thorne took the steps in

the path, I thanked God As I hurried up low-heel shoes for the boat that I had worn think seeing ride. What would an observer between this bizarre, siow-motion chase two old people? There were no observers. onto a side street Closed shops, I turned empty warehouses. Going left would take half a me to Broad Street, but to the right, from block away, a lone figure had emerged that way, no a dark storefront. 1 moved The 4>^ C-iJ>- longer able to run. close to fainting. pasl These 2t> leg hurt more than the . in my \mv vou can unlock yam future with a key from arthritic cramps ancient V.krng Rune, o ter the ever have imagined and threat- stones, each inscribed with an I could I ii your problems, and yo ur lite ust collapse me on the sidewalk. Mr. key to understanding yourself, ened to pick one of the Rune Stones, paces behind me and - reach into the elegant drawstring bag and Thorne was twenty meaning ^d^ closing the distance. quickly » ho acr- 011 1 shrink a bag— and, said Margaret^ approaching wasa tall, lor I'm future. If* like having a m The man I was appointment to see your Klines. nylon jacket. Mead, "you don't have to make an thin Negro wearing a brown was carrying a box of what looked like Available wherever books are sold or ding from He 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N,Y. 10010 framed sepia photographs. ST MARTINS PRESS, and orders Attn: FY. glanced at me as I approached (Mail orders; please enclose $21.50 and send He over my shoulder at the ap- Includes Book. Stones and Bag.) then looked parition ten steps behind. "Hey!" The man had time to shout the

single syllable and then I reached out with my mind and shoved. He twitched like a Y)u never forget poorly handled marionette. His jaw dropped, and his eyes glazed over, and he lurched past me just as Mr. Thome reached for the back of my coat. yourfirstGirl. The box flew into the air, and glass shat- tered on the brick sidewalk. Long, brown fingers reached for a white throat, Mr. Thorne backhanded him away, but the Ne- gro clung tenaciously, and the two swung around like partners. awkward dance I reached the opening to an alley and leaned my face against the cold brick to revive myself. The effort of concentration while Using this stranger did not afford me the luxury of resting even for a second.

I watched the clumsy stumblings of the two tall men for a while and resisted an absurd impulse to laugh. Mr. Thorne plunged the knife into the

other's stomach, withdrew it, plunged it in again. The Negro's fingernails were claw- ing at Mr. Thome's good eye now. Strong teeth were snapping in search of the blade

for a third time, but the heart was still beat- ing, and he was still usable. The man jumped, scissoring his legs around Mr. Thome's middle while his jaws closed on the muscular throat Fingernails raked bloody streaks across white skin. The two went down in a tumble. Kill him. Fingers groped for an eye. but Mr, Thorne reached up with his left hand and snapped the thin wrist. L : mp fingers continued to flail. With a tremendous ex- ertion, Mr, Thorne lodged his forearm against the other's chest and lifted him bodily as a reclining father tosses a child above him. Teeth tore away a piece of flesh, but there was no vital damage, Mr. Thome

brought the knife between them, up, left, then right, He severed half the Negro's throat with the second swing, and blood fountained over both of them. The smaller man's legs spasmed twice. Mr. Thorne

threw him to one side, and I turned and walked quickly down the alley, Out into the light again, the fading eve-

ning light, and I realized that I had run my- self into a dead end. Backs of warehouses and the windowless, metal side of the Bat- tery Marina pushed right up against the waters of the bay. A street wound away to

the left, but it was dark, deserted, and far too long to try,

I looked back in time to see the black silhouette enter the alley behind me.

I tried to make contact, but there was nothing there. Nothing. Mr. Thome might well as have been a hole in the air. I would worry later how Nina had done this thing, The side door to the marina was locked. The main door was almost a hundred yards away and would also be locked. Mr. Thorne emerged from the alley and swung his head left and right in search of me. In the dim light his heavily streaked face looked ak most black. He began lurching toward me.

I raised father's walking stick, broke the canvas stretched across the hear the noise. But there folded down, and reached in Please. Please lower pane of the window, Thome's knife slashed through was no movement from the office, only the cockpit. Mr, jagged shards. If there was a through the thick material. Blood-streaked hands was metallic voices from the radio. Mr. Thome the I There bottom or top bolt was dead. canvas like a shroud being paces, paused, and stepped pulled back the lock and crossbolt. My took four a simple doorknob away. jumped back to the walkway. boat in line. It was an torn He metal, but the down onto the first fingers slipped on the cold coffee. Go look! Now! open outboard, and he was back up on Forget the slid back as Mr. Thome stepped up . of my bolt second Mr. Thome stepped onto the bow inside the concrete in six seconds. The walk- behind me. Then I was was on the it rock to his weight. There had a small cabin. There was a rip- boat. I felt the bolt. boat and throwing nowhere to hide, only a tiny storage locker sound as Mr. Thome kicked open the very dark. Cold seeped up from ping It was -back up under the seat, much too small to squeeze a sound tiny hatch door, and then he was the concrete floor and there was canvas strips that held the the eighth in into. I untied the falling at on the walkway. My boat was of many small boats rising and bench. The sound of he couldn't just hear seat cushion to the I why yards away light spilled line. wondered their moorings. Fifty my ragged breathing seemed to echo in there the wild hammering of my heart. I hoped out of the office windows. had into fetal position I a and looked through the the little space. curled I shifted position would be an alarm system, but the build- Thome's leg murky Plexiglas threw behind the cushion as Mr, the marina too cheap starboard port. The ing was too old and moved past the starboard port. Now. Sud- streaks patterns. I caught toward the light as (he light into and to have one. 1 walked the Plexiglas strip not white hair through the denly his face filled forearm shattered the re- a brief glimpse of Mr. Thome's foot from my head. His impossibly wide window, and the radio was switched to an- a maining glass in the door behind me. The wider. Wow. He music echoed in the grimace grew even great kick broke oft the other station. Loud arm withdrew. A into the cockpit. to the other porthole. stepped around the long room. I slid back top hinge and splintered wood Now. stepping off the fourth boat. Wow. Wow. the office, but only the Mr. Thorne was bolt. I glanced at crouched at the cabin door. eyes, forced my ragged Mr. Thorne came out of the I closed my sound of a radio talk show tiny louvered door with I tried to brace the breathing to slow, and tried to remember impossibly distant door. Another kick. would not obey. evenings watching a bow- my legs, but my right leg right and stepped to the countless I turned to my Mr. Thome's fist slammed through the thin legged old figure shuttle down the sireet. bow of a bobbing inboard cruiser. Five and grabbed my ankle. finished his inspection of the wooden strips small, covered space Mr. Thorne steps and I was in the with sev- "Hey there!" fifth boat, a longer cabin cruiser forward cabin. I closed that passed ior a Mr. Hodges's shaky voice. His and pulled himself back It was access panel behind me and eral dark recesses, the flimsy bobbed in our direction. onto the walkway. flashlight peered out through the Plexiglas. door. My thermos. Forget Mr. Thorne shoved against the door flying Forget the coffee In the Mr. Thome's third kick sent the left left leg folded painfully. Mr. Thome's the crossword puzzle. Go look! inward, dangling irom long strips of splin- through the Mr. hand firmly held my ankle door- The sixth boat was a small outboard. tered wood. His dark form filled the with the knife not step onto shattered slats while the hand glinted- Thome glanced at it tout-did way. Light from a distant streetlight the opening hatch.. low sailboat, mast blade came through it, The sevenlh was a off the blade in his right hand.

"It's one of your students." -

"Hey—" My mind shoved. Very hard. The old man stopped. He dropped the flash- over the light and unstrapped the buckle grip of his revolver. Mr. Thome slashed the knife back and knocked out forth. The cushion was almost the of my hands as shreds of foam filled cabin, The blade caught the tip of my little finger as the knife swung back again. Hodges gripped Do it. Now. Do it. Mr. the revolver in both hands and fired. The shot went wide in the dark as the sound echoed off concrete and water. Closer, you and tool. Move! Mr, Thorne shoved again, hatch. He his body squeezed into the open released my ankle to free his left arm, but almost instantly his hand was back in the cabin, grasping for me. I reached up and turned on the overhead light. Darkness socket. stared at me from his empty eye Light through the broken shutters spilled yellow strips across his ruined face, I slid which to the left, but Mr, Thome's hand, had my coat, was pulling me off the bench. hand He was on his knees, freeing his right for the knife thrust, Wow/ Mr. Hodges's second shot caught grunted as Mr, Thorne in the right hip. He a the impact shoved him backward into but- sitting position. My coat ripped, and tons rattled on the deck. The knife slashed the bulkhead near my

ear before it pulled away, onto the Mr. Hodges stepped shakily around bow, almost fell, and inched his way the hatch the starboard side. I pushed against Mr. Thome's arm. but he contin- toward ued to grip my coat and drag me knees. The blade swung him. I fell to my back, ripped through foam, and slashed of the cushion at my coat. What was left Mr. Hodges flew out of my hands. I had stop four feet away and brace the gun on the roof of the cabin. back Mr. ThPrne pulled the blade and

sword. I could ppised it like a matador's sense the silent scream of triumph that poured out over the stained teeth like a noxious vapor. The light of Nina's madness burned behind the single, staring eye. Mr. Mr, Hodges fired. The bullet severed Thome's spine and continued on into the iupper Mr. Thorne arched back- ward, splayed out his arms, and flopped onto the deck like a great fish that had just Peen landed. The knife fell to the floor ol contin- the cabin, while stiff, white fingers the deck. ued to slap nervelessly against step forward, brace the I had Mr. Hodges — muzzle against Mr, Thome's templr above the remaining eye, and fire s The sound was muted and hollow.

There was a first-aid kit in the office the old man stand by the bathroom, I had my little finger and door while I bandaged took three aspirin. My coat was ruined, and blood had cared stained my print dress. I had never it made very much for the dress— I thought me look dowdy— but the coat had been a Small, favorite of mine, My hair was a mess. —

moist bits of gray matter flecked it I splashed water on my face and brushed

my hair as best I could. Incredibly, my tat- tered purse had stayed with me, although

many of the contents had spilled out. I transferred keys, billfold, reading glasses, and Kleenex to my large coat pocket and

dropped the purse behind the toilet. I no

longer had father's walking stick, but I could

not remember where I had dropped it.

Gingerly I removed the heavy revolver from Mr. Hodges's grip. The old man's arm remained extended, fingers curled around

air. After fumbling for a few seconds I man- aged lo click open the cylinder, Two car- tridges remained unfired. The old fool had

been walking around with all six chambers loaded! Always leave an empty chamber

under the hammer. That is what Charles had taught me that gay and distant sum- mer so long ago, when such weapons were merely excuses for trips to the island for target practice punctuated by the shrill shrieks of our nervous laughter as Nina and

I allowed ourselves to be held, arms sup- ported, bodies shrinking back into the firm support of our so-serious tutors' arms. One must always count the cartridges, leciured

Charles, as I half-swooned against him, smelling the sweet, masculine, shaving soap and tobacco smell rising from him on that warm, bright day. Mr. Hodges stirred slightly as my atten- tion wandered. His mouth gaped, and his

dentures hung loosely. I glanced at the worn leather belt, but there were no extra

bullets there, and I had no idea where he

kept any, I probed, but there was little left in the old man's jumble of thoughts except for a swirling tape-loop replay of the muz- zle being laid against Mr. Thome's temple, Ihe explosion, the

"Come," I said. I adjusted the glasses on Mr. Hodges's vacant face, returned Ihe revolver to the holster, and let him lead me out of the building.

It was very dark out. We had gone six blocks before the old man's violent shiv-

ering reminded me that I had forgotten to

have him put on his coat. I tightened my menial vise, and he stopped shaking.

The house looked just as it had ... my

God . . . only forty-five minutes earlier.

There were no lights. I let us into the court- yard and searched my overstuffed coat pocket for the key. My coat hung loose and the- cold night air nipped at me. From be- hind lighted windows across the courtyard came Ihe laughter of little girls, and I hur- ried so that Kathleen would not see her grandfather entering my house.

Mr. Hodges went in first, with the. re- volver extended. I had him switch on ihe light before I entered. The parfor was empty, undisturbed. The light from the chandelier in the dining room reflected off polished surfaces. I sat down for a minute on the Williamsburg repro- duction chair tnthe hall to let my heart rate return to normal. I did not have Mr. Hodges lower the hammer on the still-raised pistol. His arm began to shake from Ihe strain of

holding it. Finally I rose and we moved down the hail toward the conservatory. Miss Kramer exploded out of the swing- ing door from the kitchen with the heavy iron poker already coming down in an arc. The gun fired harmlessly into the. polished floor as the old man's arm snapped from the impact. The gun fell from limp fingers as Miss Kramer raised the poker for a sec- ond blow.

I turned and ran back down the hallway.

Behind me I heard the crushed-melon sound of the poker contacting Mr. Hodges's skull. Rather than run into the courtyard I went up the stairway. A mistake. Miss Kra- mer bounded up the stairs and reached the bedroom door only a few seconds after

I. I caught one glimpse of her widened, maddened eyes and of the upraised poker

before I slammed and locked the heavy door. The latch clicked just as the brunette on the other side began to throw herself against the wood. The thick oak did not

budge. Then I heard the concussion ot metal against the door and frame. Again.

Cursing my stupidity, I turned to the fa- miliar room, but there was nothing there to help me. There was not so much as a closet to in, hide only the antique wardrobe. I moved quickly to the window and threw up the sash. My screams would attract atten- tion but not before that monstrosity had gained access. She was prying at the

edges of the door now. I looked out, saw the shadows in the window across the way,

and did what I had to do.

Two minutes later I was barely con- scious of the wood giving way around the

latch. I heard the distant grating of the

poker as it pried at the recalcitrant metal plate. The door swung inward. Miss Kramer was covered with sweat. Her mouth hung slack, and drool slid from her chin. Her eyes were not human. Nei- COLUMBUS discovered America in 1492. ther she nor I heard the soft tread of sneak- ers on the stairs behind her. Some 400 years later, Jack Daniel came across Keep moving. Lift it. Pull it back—all the way back. Use bath hands. Aim it. this Tennessee cave spring. Something warned Miss Kramer. Warned

Nina, I should say; there was no more Miss

Kramer. The brunette turned to see little Our founder knew this water was perfect for Kathleen standing on the top stair, her grandfather's heavy weapon aimed and making whiskey. (It runs iron-free at 56° cocked. The other girl was in the courtyard shouting for her friend. year-round.) And he never This time Nina knew she had to deal with used anything else for the threat. Miss Kramer hefted the poker making and turned into the hall just as the pistol Jack Daniel's. From the fired. The recoil tumbled Kathleen back- way ward down the stairs as a red corsage things have turned out, we'd blossomed above Miss Kramer's left breast. She spun but grasped the railing say Columbus discovered a with her left hand and lurched down the stairs after the child. 1 released the ten- lovely country. And year-old just as the poker fell, rose, fell again. I moved to the head of the stairway. Mr. Jack didn't do badly at

I had to see. Miss Kramer looked up from her grim finding himself a spring. work. Only the.whites of her eyes were vis- ible in her spattered face. Her masculine Tennessee Whiskey • 90 Proof • Distilled aid Bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery shirt was soaked with her own blood, but Lent Motlow, Prop., Route 1, Lynchburg (Pop. 361), Tennessee 37352 still she moved, functioned. She picked up Placed in the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Goi " —

on Ihe boy. "Are you sure?" I would choose cused mouth opened little place, exactly the type the gun in her left hand. Her looked it "Mrs. Harrison," he said. His eyes another town. I rejected also. emerged like steam when visiting wider, and a sound front." two and a half blocks farther, past me. "Room 207, North old radiator, The third was leaking from an Harrison. Good God, what done over into I smiled. Mrs. ..." as the an old Broad Street mansion "Melanie I closed my eyes Suddenly the girl let out a a small hotel, expensive antiques in every a fool Nina was. thing started up the stairs for me. there. small whimper and slumped against the room, absurdly overpriced. I hurried Kathleen's friend came in through the decision. I like to think I a quick The girl moved quickly at my side. The pis- wall. made open door, her -small legs pumping. She that it was compassion, but I sometimes tol was still in her hand, but 1 had her re- took the stairs in six jumps and wrapped left useless. it over the remember that her arm was around Miss Kramer's move her sweater and carry her thin, white arms child, "What's your name?" I asked the I frequently embrace. weapon. My leg ached, and" neck in a tight her Her eyes moved girl as we hurried down the gently stroking bangs. The two went over backward, across leaned on the left and right in confusion. "Your name'." the wide stairs street. Kathleen, all the way down a whisper. The manager of the Mansard House rec- "Alicia," It was-only to the polished wood below. I to go home ognized me. His eyebrows went up a frac- "All right, Alicia. want you The girl appeared to be little more than disheveled now, Hurry, but don't run." moved her to tion of an inch as he noticed my bruised. I went down and away "My arm hurts." she said. Her lips began spreading along appearance. The girl stood ten feet one side. A blue stain was again and the shadows. to quiver. I touched her forehead cheekbone, and there were cuts on in the foyer, half-hidden in one pushed. "1'rn looking for a friend of mine," I said her arms and forehead. Her blue eyes home," I said. "Your arm brightly. "A Mrs. Drayton." "You're going blinked uncomprehendingly. remember any- The manager started to speak, paused, does not hurt. You won't Miss Kramer's neck was broken. I picked thing. This is like a dream that you will for- frowned without being aware of it, and tried up the pistol on the way to her and kicked Hurry, but do not run." I took again. "I'm sorry. No one under that name get. Go home. the poker to one side. Her head was at an left it wrapped in the registered here," the pistol from her but impossible angle, but she was still alive. is she registered under her sweater. "Bye-bye, Alicia." Her body was paralyzed, urine already "Perhaps She blinked and crossed the lobby to wood, but her eyes still blinked stained the to the bellhop. the doors. I handed the gun and her teeth clicked together obscenely. "Put it under your vest," I said. were adult voices call- I had to hurry. There

1 ing from the Hodgeses town house. The "Who is it?" Nina's voice was light. door to the courtyard was wide open. I (mMy hand went to "Albert, ma'am. The porter. Your car's out turned to the girl. "Get up:" She blinked front, and I'll take your bags down." once and rose painfully to her feet. the metal of the gate, but There was the sound of a lock clicking, lifted a tan raincoat I shut the door and I hesitated. and the door opened the width of a still- from the coatrack. secured chain. Albert blinked in the glare, con- Anxiety filled my throat It took only a minute to transfer the smiled shyly, and brushed his hair back. I tents of my pockets to the raincoat and to like bile. I was a pressed against the wall. discard my ruined spring coat. Voices were silly old woman, but I "Very well." She undid the chain and the courtyard now. calling in moved back. She had already turned and Miss Kramer and could not bring I kneeled down next to was latching her suitcase when 1 stepped seized her face in my hands, exerting myself to open that gateJ into the room. pressure to keep the jaws still. Her eyes "Hello, Nina," I said softly. Her back had rolled upward again, but I shook her straightened, but even that move was until the irises were visible. I leaned head imprint on the graceful. 1 could see the forward until our cheeks were touching. My bedspread where she had been lying. She whisper was louder than a shout. She's turned slowly. She was wearing a pink name," I said. "Nina Hawkins. "I'm coming for you, Nina." maiden before. dress I had never seen onto the wood and an older woman but very attractive. A few I dropped her head "Hello, Melanie," She smiled. Her eyes than I. Long, gray hair. Her walked quickly to the conservatory, my years younger the softest, purest blue I had ever . . an were to get the friend may have registered for her . sewing room. I did not have time the porter take Mr. Hodges's attractive, young, dark-haired lady named seen. I had key from upstairs; so I raised a Windsor — gun out -and aim it. His arm was steady. side chair and smashed the glass of the Barrett Kramer held it sorry," said the manager in a He pulled back the hammer and cabinet. My coat pocket was barely large "No, I'm folded her hands in flat one under that name with his thumb. Nina enough. strangely tone. "No left mine. registered. Would you like to leave a front of her. Her eyes never I has The girl" remained standing in the hall. your party arrives later?" "Why'?" I asked. handed her Mr. Hodges's pistol. Her left message in case Nina shrugged ever so slightly. For a "No," I said. "No message." hung at a strange angle and I won- arm to laugh. I going girl into the lobby, and we second thought she was after I brought the dered if she had broken something it if she had turned down a corridor leading to the rest- I could not have borne all. There was a knock at the door, and laugh that stairs. "Excuse me, laughed— that husky, childlike someone tried the knob. rooms and side passing porter. "Per- had touched me so many times. Instead led the girl please," I said to a "This way," I whispered, and can help me." she closed her eyes. Her smile remained. into the dining room. haps you and "Why Mrs." Harrison?" I asked. We stepped across Miss Kramer on the "Yes, ma'am." He stopped, annoyed, I some- "Why, darling, I felt owed him walked through the dark kitchen as brushed back his long hair. It would be way, tell I ever thing. I mean, poor Roger. Did I would If I not to lose the girl, the pounding grew louder, and then were tricky. was I didn't. quickly. you how he died? No, of course out, into the alley, into the night. have to act you never asked." Her eyes opened. "I'm looking' for a friend," I said. "She's And at the porter, but his aim was attractive. Blue eyes. I glanced There were three hotels in this part of an older lady but quite for to exert a with a young steady, It only remained him the Old Section. One was a modern, ex- Long, gray hair. She travels little more pressure on the trigger. pensive motor hotel some ten blocks away, woman who has dark, curly hair." darling," said Nina. "Poor rejected.it "No, ma'am. No one like thai .is regis- "He drowned, comfortable but commercial. I Roger threw himself from that steamship immediately. The second was a small, tered here." grabbed hold of his what was its name?—the one that was tak- homey lodging house only a block-from my I reached out and fo- ing him back to England. So strange. And nonexclusive forearm tightly. I released the girl and home. It was a pleasant but 202 OMNI I go to the townhouse the porter and replaced his beach. Occasionally written a letter promising I turned to he had just me pensione in Italy, south ot weapon with the ancient but well- in Paris or to my thai a terribly sad story, Mel- useless marriage. Isn't on the Adriatic. But even those revolver. For the first time I no- Pescara, think he did a thing like maintained anie? Why do you have'become less and less frequent. that the boy was not much younger trips we'll never know, will we?" ticed that? I guess an abandoned abbey in the hills, than Charles had been. His hair was al- There is I silently never will," I said. "I guess we sit and think among for- and I often go there to most- exactly the same color. I leaned the porter to pull the trigger. ordered and wild flowers. I think about and kissed him lightly on the lips. the stones Nothing. ward are four isolation and abstinence and how eacti is "Albert," I whispered, "there quickly to my right. The young I looked so cruelly dependent upon the other, cartridges left. One must always coun! the head was turning toward me. / had man's days. I tell myself I younger these cartridges, mustn't one? Go lo the lobby. feel not made him do thai. The stiffly extended and my other person, that this is because of the climate The Kill the manager. Shoot one arm began to swing in my direction. final your mouth freedom and not as a result of that of the nearest. Put the barrel in pistol moved smoothly like the tip a about the pull.it Feeding. But sometimes I dream pull the trigger. If it misfires, swinging in the wind. and weather vane of Charleston and the peo- again. the gun concealed until you familiar streets until the cords in my neck Keep I strained No! ple there. They are dreams of hunger, did not are in the lobby." stood out. The turning slowed, but sound of sing- days I rise to the We emerged into general confusion in On some stop until the muzzle was pointing at my ing as girls from the village cycle by our Nina laughed now. The sound was the hallway. face. place on their way to the dairy. On those "Call for an ambulance!" I cried. "There's in little room. very loud the marvelously warm as it Someone call for an days the sun is dear," Nina said, been an accident. "Good-bye, Melanie small white flowers growing ambulance!" Several people rushed to shines on the and laughed again. She laughed andnod- abbey, leaned against a between the tumbled stones of the into Ihe black comply. I swooned and porter. I stared ded at the content simply lo be there and to gentleman. People milled and I am fell. an empty white-haired hole as the hammer On and silence with them. peering into the room and share the sunlight another. And another, around, some chamber. And other days— cold, dark days when exclaiming. Suddenly there was the sound But on I pulled "Good-bye, Nina," I said as re- the north— I the lobby. In the the clouds move in from the raincoat of three gunshots from Charles's long pistol from of a sub- the back member the shark-silent shape wrist and renewed confusion 1 slipped down pocket. The explosion jarred my dark waters of the night. marine moving through the A small sfairs, out the fire door, into filled the room with blue smoke. whether my self-im- the bay, and I wonder a dime but as perfectly hole, smaller than nothing. I very here. posed abstinence will be- for I happy precise center o! Time has passed. am round, appeared in the of in whether those I dream my in southern France now, between wonder Nina's forehead. For the briefest second I live lo isolation will indulge in their own gigantic, Cannes and Toulon, but not, I am happy she remained standing as if nothing had final Feeding. say, too near St, Tropez. happened. Then she fell backward, re- But I am al- today. I am happy out. Henri and Claude do my It is warm dropped face I rarely go coiled from the high bed, and very hungry.OO the so alone. And I am very, in the village. I never go to forward onto the Moor. shopping a

THE FUTURE OF SETI T

By Frank D. Drake

lengthy radio search for This endorsement by the scientific the search for extraterrestrial priority to a in turn stimulated the U.S. SETI, from other civilizations. It community lite, just became a transmissions intelligent major SETI an annual rale of funding government to tinance a brilliant nova in the world of recommended NASA proposal to devote of about $2 million per year. This was program. A science. Thirty years ago it was but a $2 million per year to a long-term the first solid endorsement of expensive some dream of people beguiled by the richness evidence of extraterrestrial searches for extraterrestrial radio signals search for of the cosmos and by the idea that life a distinguished group intelligent lite flew through Congress normal handiwork. In time SETI ever made by was its of a new, by SETI tans. One of the unopposed, a reflection became the cherished project of a few not dominated enlightened attitude toward the daring people programs the report recommended was a dedicated and sometimes search the latest importance of science, and this opportunity to conduct high-quality search— using who seized the the planning sophisticated observational tech- program, which was long in the first fumbling, tentative searches in nologies—for other planetary systems stage, is well under way. lite in the universe. In the last year it for future bring? The nearby stars. Then in August What will the joined the mainstream of hardheaded around technology of SETI will improve. The our existing of last year the International Astronomical science. The lull powers of radio preeminent professional greatest obstacle lo the success of are finally being applied Union, the technology lack of sensitivity in the world, searches has not been tor our neighbors in the sky, asirbnomy organization to the quest narrow coverage of new "commission" for the search to weak signals or too and the techniques we now use are created a most imagine. Rather, it has extraterrestrial life. Thus, SETI joined the sky, as expected to become even more .for commissions dedicated been our inability to study, at any given sophisticated and more powerful in the the ranks of solar instant, a large sampling of radio- exhilarated. to such traditional disciplines as future. SETI scientists are promising other galaxies. frequency channels of the most events have made SETI a research and studies of Two recent spectrum. Over the this commission has more portion of the radio full-fledged member of the scientific Already new years a NASA program, carried 200 members from all over the next few community. First, an extensive, blue-ribbon than at the NASA Ames Research Center world and, in the summer of 1984, will out study of the needs of American the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, of hold its first meeting to coordinate and astronomy in the Eighties, the National Caltech, will produce an ingenious radio- so-called "Field individual programs of SETI research Academy of Sciences' able to throughout the.world.. spectrum analyzer that will be Committee Report." assigned a high being conducted monilor the phenomenal number of 8 million radio channels simultaneously. This amazingly sensitive instrument will be used with a number of major radio telescopes, including the 1,000-foot telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to sr~ch the entire sky for signals, especially our galaxy, , promising places in

h'.e the regions around nearby stars. Signals no stronger than those we now transmit will be detectable from distances of thousands of light-years. Once this spectrum analyzer is perfected— research effort that will require five years of experimentation— the SETI program to fully using it will take five more years exploit the analyzer's potential. And there is more. At this moment the 84-foot radio telescope of Harvard University is continuously scanning the sky for signals. Supported by private funds from The Planetary Society, it utilizes a 128,000-channei radio receiver, the brainchild of Paul Horowitz, a professor of physics. Already, Horowitz is devising ways to increase the capacity of his The SETI telescope at Arecibo: Writ tfl CONTINUED ON PAGE-215 206 OMNI I fine. Fifteen minutes after I got home was

sobbing. It was tremendously frightening

BOOK! and exciting at first; and then I- got used to

though, I had to it. If i laid off for a month, all over again." He un- masquerading to myself as a lefty. But my get reconditioned derstands this business of conditioning and vision of what's possible has been tamed, inevitability. "Blood, in surgery, is like and now I'm even more wistful. I'm not any its in the middle of a poker game. It less convinced that technology denatures money changes value," he tells you. Though oc- some of the rich opportunities for achiev- casionally mordant about the limitations of ing craft and selfhood, and there ere num- he never carps at them. bers around showing that modern medi- his two surgeons, Their flaws seem poignant. Kramer takes cine takes as many lives as it saves. But adult tone;, he puts himself in his sub- sicken a social critic of medicine and watch an shoes, and the book is richer for it. him head for the hospital. Sicken me and jects' The descriptions of operations have an that's what I'd do." People don't much like to think About his approach to the world of sur- odd effect. their own innards, but there's some- geons, Kramer- says, "I finally gave in about about surgery as Kramer wholeheartedly to my impulse to tell sto- thing comforting ! .,.:.!, :.i.,-,ii :.t.«- ,r,>.„ .j>.?.n'i!<. operations of historical describes it. The accounts of ries. I dumped whole sections sixty are much more vivid and exact than any '.:..'!,> research and sociology, about pages ' !,., ' I've read- before. Instead of squeamish- worth, from the semifinal draft. I realized ness and false horror, Kramer gives you '' that everything was there without it. I feel . ,,. . , l„ ! his eyes. His precision works as an anti- I can't island- I have to master my subject. voyeurism. The operations do not , : hop—stand on an archipelago of knowl- dote to in fact, they are engrossing. edge in an ocean of ignorance. But once horrify; dis- into The book doesn't shy away from territory, I don't tip over ION FOUNTAIN ACHIEVEMENT I know my THE the innate deficiencies of the sys- seeming like an expert. In this book I'm cussing in which surgeons work and that sur- setter, ironist. I try to tem . ' ...... : storyteller, scene

, after : "-' }'"-'' create. But !:-: !<•' *«--: - ' to . helped O: i-:;--u«. ' whisper about human sweetness and geons have better Procedures I felt evoke peevishness over moments of pub- reading Invasive before surgeons and sur- than I had about licly displayed greediness." get paid too much for Kramer has always had a gift for getting gery Surgeons may their competence, but in a surgeon no other TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH at what's buried and essential and giving ,,! .1! ,,. !, :.'; i !... : ironic virtue can be as important as compe- it the right name. Here he finds the :. . ! ,',.: seems to be a crucial, under- center of his subject: Surgeons cut, wound, tence. That book. Kramer makes and sometimes cause excruciating pain in lying message in this surgeons' impressive powers order to do good. They practice what he you see the intellectual and emotional concentra- calls "saintly aggression." The book fol- of go tion. In the end you find yourself feeling AND lows two very skillful surgeons as they MORE PRODUCTS grateful that they possess those attributes. DEALERSHIPS AVAILABLE about their morally ambiguous task. (Kra- ' surgery ; Says he's finished with :r* > '." Kramer qn

if you're worried about receiving of sharply focused, mostly nonjudgmental them. So addition to physiological narratives. Kramer achieves his main ob- psychic scars in want to look around for a jectives through artful juxtapositions; he ones, you might surgeon. According to material for itself. The personable sort of COLLECTOR WO, DC makes the speak IE "There's no reason why narrative moves from one surgeon to the Kramer, however, your surgeon to be your other, but you never forget which one is you should want friend. What you want is a fairly dull person which. In this book doctors come alive on the same procedures the page.-Kramer stows—he doesn't need who's content to do " s ' ln8 THOUSANDS SOLD and over again for more than ten and to tell you—that there is such a thing as over SATISFACTION GUARANTEED find the right m surgeons. fewer than thirty years." To With the ION FOUNTAIN COLLECTOR vol individual personality among

smell i to quickk- Teal the oittrjrcr;.:e in thft air ami surgeon, he writes, don't ask physicians The stories also make it plain that it would -md Iry it lot ^Od.iys. ireshnsss Order or.M today they will invariably re- be impossible for any human being to work recommend one; INI IN professional circumspection. refund, The ION I 0: as a surgeon and not share the "surgeon's spond with for the name of the sur- personality" well-known to every nurse in Instead, ask them For that matter, if you the country. geon they'd go to. keep you company, to' The book takes you into the surgeons want someone to CENiFR l-ib'O ! you on a M RESEARCH their childhoods, but inform and comfort and delight Doulfiar Crr'cV homes and back into PC So. 3C-5. , that touches almost everyone ,il,JS.ir:()shi-:.ipin(;p«runi1.iCf I most often you go with Kramer to their op- subject 6-;%josii O.dti^-ot- .-;t in : ^(i of eventually, I'd recommend Mark Kramer j erating rooms. He spent the better part recent works of lit- RESEARCH this book. I know of no is ION | two years in those crucibles. "When you within I CENTER TODAY!!! nonaction that are superior, and come back to the real world you may re- erary

medical literature. I know of gret what you've seen," he says. "The first the realm of belter consulting text. DO I felt no off, I thought time I saw a leg sawed )

cause of Winston Churchill's "V for victory" mentary. "Let some air out of your tires," symbol and because the first four notes of he said, "until the truck Is low enough to the symphony sound like ANSWERS TO GAMES {PAGE £24) the Morse code pass under the bridge." (dot-dot-dot-dash) for V. This problem "must be as old as the in- Gardner's friend, Dr. Matrix predicted the i. Fifth column. ner tube," said University of Oregon psy- millionth digit of pi, and digit is an ambig- j. The Fifth Dimension, chologist Ray Hyman, in a scientific paper uous word that couid include the initial 3, ~~ GET PRACTICAL on problem solving. Parts of the article were or just the digits after the decimal. The mil- reprinted in Reader's Digest, and as a re- lionth digit of pi, including the 3, Turns out 1. PACKAGE. As mentioned, the man was sult Hyman received several letters from to be 5. The millionth decimal is 1. a photographer. He had a friend take the people around the country, all claiming to package and a camera into another FIVES QUIZ room. have been the boy in the original story who The friend unwrapped the package, shot helped the trucker solve his dilemma. a. She fifth was the of the Dionne quin- several pictures of the present, rewrapped It's possible that this incident may tuplets, born to have Oliva and Elvira Dionne on the package, and gave our man an ex- occurred independently many times— or May 28, 1934, in Callander, Ontario. posed roll of film. perhaps there are just many people with b. Pente. The game is based on the The photographer processed the film creative memories. Japanese ninuki game renju, which is, in with a mailer and had the pictures sent to 4. NUTS. The man took one lug turn, based on go-mohu. nut from himself in care of his family in the Midwest. each of the other three wheels, and at- c. The five official Olympic flag colors- When he got to Michigan for the holidays, tached the spare tire. Each tire was then black, blue, red, green, and yellow—were he wrapped the box of pictures and put it held on by three chosen because nuts rather than four, which at least one of them ap- under the tree. On Christmas morning he was sufficient to keep the wheels on until pears on every national tlag in the world. opened the box and leafed through the Ihe man reached the next town. The five rings of the Olympic symbol also pictures to learn what his sister's present We have no idea symbolize whether this problem tive continents. Of the usual had been. (For your information, it turned and seven, presumably solution ever actually happened, but Antarctica isn't out to be a stone sculpture of a cat modern folklore says it counted, lhat took place on and Europe and Asia are com- 2. COOKE'S BOOKS. Cooke arranged the a country road next to a state hospital bined into and one. bookcase as a geographical map of the that an inmate watched the whole affair and d. Fencing. United States: Books aboul Maine went in suggested the borrowed-nuts solution. e. "To boldly go where no man has gone the upper-right-hand corner; books about "Why, that's brilliant!" the before." man said. "Thank Florida, in the lower-right-hand corner. youl [ never would have thought of that. f. Quintet Alaska went in the upper left, Hawaii in the Why are they keeping an intelligent man g. Five Easy Pieces. lower left, Texas in the middle of the bottom like you locked up behind that fence?" h. Beethoven's Fifth, in C minor. Called shelf, and so on. "I may be crazy," the inmate reportedly the Victory Symphony in 3'. World War II be- TRUCK. The child's solution was ele- replied, "but I'm not stupid. "DQ

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Just a theory: results of Competition #27 EDRTIPETITOrU By Scot Morris

The attraction dissipates over time: It is theory explains a lol of ^^good GRAND PRIZE-WINNER: S100 strongest when the paint is new and state of /•data or predicis a years. the poles? Because is virtually absent after seven based on current trends. Why is the earth flat at / % affairs —Eileen Clark, Azusa, CA of the constant pressure applied by the Why can't you ever find a paper clip there are wing nuts, which can be clearly seen on when you want one, and yet Great Red Spot— of the gl.obe. Jupiter's blemish— its hangers in the closet than any desk-top model always more with a wandering Harry Yearsley, Atlantic City, NJ is evidence of contact you put there? Simple: The paper clip is — heavenly body. It is a sidereal disease, embryonic form of the coat hanger, ~~ the probably brought about by the same to closet when and it migrates from desk RUNNERS-UP: $25 EACH body responsible for sunspots and no one is watching. The Western why people other solar flare-ups. to sink into the Gravity is decreasing. That's Hemisphere is expected Huotari, Zimmerman, MN taller and heavier. Gravity is —John ocean by the middle of the next century. are getting accumulated being used up at an alarming rate. Already Why? Because of the of In the Northeast, excessive salting icy National pockets of gravity absence have been weight of back issues of eventually neutral- discovered—such as the Bermuda Trian- roads in the winter will Geographic magazine. producing a you put your car ize the effects of acid rain, announced in Febru- gle and the last place This competition, for the entire area. program for the balanced pH level more such theories to keys. A worldwide ary, asked for —Suzanne Hoyle, Shutesbury, MA conservation of gravity must be under- help make sense of the world. Among beginning with the immediate ban the repeated ideas: Days are short in the taken, Safe and efficient methods of production of pole vaulting, foot stomping, and any winter long in the summer because and developed tor almost all that use excessive amounts have been cold contracts and heat expands. The other actions sources of alternative energy. These are of this precious natural resource. observation that no one ever sees a bumper-sticker —Richard Walker, idyllwild, CA being suppressed by the baby pigeon in city parks gave rise to and T-shirt industries. various theories about spontaneous Woodstock, ME used up and not being —David Clements, South pigeon generation. Several readers Gravity is being ago the Wright out the obvious tact that the replaced. A iew years pointed stations are at the high could manage to get only a Rock and soul movement of trees creates the wind. As brothers hundred pounds a few feet off end of the radio dial because of anyone can plainly see when leaves couple of faster beat (that is. higher cps, or we -can lift giant the still, wind is the ground. Today and branches are no .played on them. actually leave the earth. How frequency) of the music produced'. rockets and —Jenny A. Lambert, Mamaroneck, NY The single observation that brought the long do we have? Woodruff, Middleburg, FL most theories some 55 separate —Don — Most of the current state of world affairs of missing entries—was the phenomenon massive social-science derived the equation that is the result of a I have-finally socks. Most sockologists suggested Stanley predict experiment being conducted by occurs during the spin will allow demographers to that disappearance studying Ihe effect of accuracy the birthrate of the Milgr-am. He is sock of a pair is (a) with high cycle, when one on depression and the States. unemployment sucked into a black hole, (b) explodes to United effect that observing an actor as President become lint, or (c) enters a time warp = x g5 has on obedience to authority. In the forward in time (or into BIRTHRATE A*x 20 and is projected 2 group * D final phase, he intends to study in which case the sock turns VC the past, dynamics during a world war. up, unwashed, in the corner of the closet). —Mark S. Rater, San Bernardino, CA One reader observes that the WHERE: = fraternity parties mismatched socks are usually female— A the number of = universal forgetful constant the males escape, probably when over- S the HONORABLE MENTION appearances by Another suggested that after C = average weekly agitated. Earthquakes induce anharmonic vibrations canni- Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show mating, the female sock becomes there sold in species during stasis: Hence, widow, devouring D = the number of headache pills balistic, like the black everywhere but Lourdes. = bottles of vitamin are rains of frogs producing a litter E the number of the male and then Vironeem, Los Angeles Esold —Gus of lint balls. The question is still unresolved. Train/, Clementon, NJ await further research at MIT (the . —David J. We Intermarriage among successive Maytag Institute of Technology). pheromones generations of Ivy League alumni has two of the runners-up Automotive paint contains You will note that such that supermarket shopping carts. produced a sensory mutation are variations on a theme. attractive to CONTINUED ON PAGE 213 S10 OMNI takes kumquats for nine universally recognized by physicians, al- instance, a mother during pregnancy, and cohol would probably be most frequently days in high dose her baby has a cleft palate, what are you LI cited-. Yet Dr. Josef Warkany, an esteemed to with that information? Cleft pioneer in the field, recently coauthored an supposed do An agent England Journal of palate is a very common defect." patients may be left in the article in The New Unfortunately, causing a malformation interacts with a themselves are Medicine in which he refused to accept dark because doctors period during teratogen, instead rel- number of variables— the access to medical data alcohol as a proven sometimes denied the mother's exposure, the the substance to his "suspected" pregnancy of about a suspected teratogen. In 1972 Dr. egating oc- dosage, the genetic and metabolic makeup list. The effect is similar to what might Peter Peacock, then chairman of the De- suddenly of both the mother and the fetus, which Epidemiol- cur if the U. S. Surgeon General partment of Public Health and one suscep- announced he wasn't sure that "cigarette may or may not make either ogy at the University of Alabama, noted 17 tible. Most teratogens don't cause one smoking is dangerous to your health." cases of clubfeet among children born to easily identified defect. Thalidomide is an There is so much professional disac- helicopter pilots at the Lyster Army Hos- though in a few cases even it cord partly because concrete evidence is exception, pital, in Fort Rucker. Although the sample to result in other, less dra- by in teratology. In the late has been shown small, the incidence of the deforma- hard to come was matic deformities than the stunting of limbs. would expect Fifties and early Sixties the National Insti- tion was far higher than one same agent dur- Neurological and Communicative Coming in contact with the by chance. He suspected that the culprit tute of information from ing different trimesters or in different dos- been radiation from the radar Disorders collected might have causes different defects. Fur- 50,282 pregnant women and continued to ages usually the pilots were exposed to while flying close those thermore, exposure to a teratogen may oc- findings suffi- study the children that resulted from to the ground. The initial through the father. The project created a mas- cur before pregnancy or concerned Dr. Peacock that he se- pregnancies. ciently factors, it information. Many tera- Given so many complicating further investigate the sive data bank of cured funding to of birth information is hardly surprising that the study Peacock reports that the tologists, however, regard the correlation. But an inexact and arbi- past medical records fail defects often seems Army stonewalled his effort by not allowing as useless, since line of work. Dr. Clarren recalls a 1976 distinguish all but the most obvious of trary him access to the pilots and their medical to conference in which a brother and sister teratogen defects and rely on arbitrary or biased records. And one more possible pa- you're going with a similar congenital disorder were undetected methods and standards. "If remains international group of national system of inquiry, what raded in front of an Within the medical establishment, con- to set up a experts. "Nobody knew what was wrong The criteria will you use to determine whether currence about teratogens is rare. Smith-Lemli-Opitz syn- needs to be explored''" asks with them, but courts have spoken concerning Dilantin; a substance about two dozen drome [a genetic condilion] was sus- including witnesses in Dr. Sterling Clarren. one of yet many doctors, presented these children at syndromologists in the United States pected. They the Harbeson trial, scoff at the connection asked, 'What is this dis- lo recognize patterns of abnor- the meeting and between the drug and birth defects. If trained Smith in the audience; so mality associated with teratogens. "If for order?' Dr. was asked to name one teratogen that had been "

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work. some hard choices— to have a the project's investigative he came down, to examine the kids, and faced with off During the course of their pregnancies Smith-Lemli-Opitz child anyway; to have a child but to go he said, 'Obviously this is answering de- ' kept busy during her pregnancy and risk an these women are syndrome.' Then Dr. Opitz. who was also the drug tailed questionnaires about their expo- '1 epileptic seizure; or not to conceive in the looked at the kids, and he said, present, any environmental agents. Aftei place. But at least the choice would sures to don't think it's Smith-Lemli-Opitz syn- first their children are born, the infants are ex- the two doctors just stood have been hers. drome at all.' And meticulously by a dysmorpholo- Ironically many doctors have computers amined there looking at each other and at this recognize subtle take advantage of gist, a doctor trained to auditorium filled with thou- in their offices, but few deadly quiet birth defects and syn- that compile and update and often hidden finally someone said, the data services sands of people until Christine Kelley, the the thousands of dromes. According to Smith-Lemli syndrome. Next case.' medical information from 'Call it findings from the their way into registry's coordinator, the meantime doctors continue to pre- reports and studies that find In the into a computer that each month. exam are then fed drugs like Dilantin to women like print scribe for patterns of similarity under- far more difficult challenge for the searches Harbeson, in part because they are A Jean cases of birth defects re- medical profession, however, is isolating lying different unable to keep up with the already existing in study group. In this way, r in the first place. Since ported the evidence" about teratogens, but also be- new teratogens should possible to spot previously un- laboratory testing is of little use in identi- be cause they want to maintain what they per- '" and their detected teratogens and to provide control. find an fying harmful agents, women ceive to be professional "I evidence on suspected agents. guinea pigs. It's bad roborating paternalistic attitude among ob- children are the incredible to dispel anxieties living experiments; The registry also helps know how to treat their enough that they're stetricians: They groundless concerns. In afew worse is that nobody's collecting about some and'they'll be in charge of making what's girls, years, Kelley says, the facility plans to Glarren. "And the data. Well, almost nobody. those decisions," explains a refer- yellow house sur- publish a book that can serve as demand to change In San Diego an old, just as it took public around the country, and brown picket fence is home ence for doctors delivered, it will take rounded by a the way babies get the information on registry. it also intends to put talk about to this country's only teratogen public demand to make doctors terminals. resi- computer software for office Open since 1979, it is available to medications differently." registries will registry an- Kelley hopes that similar current in- dents of California alone. The Of course, better access to established regionally specific questions that women may eventually be formation on teratogens is essential for swers throughout the country, collecting data and have about their pregnancies and possi- preventing birth defects. If. on the morning purpose, dispensing information from all the living of Dilantin, ble dangers. It also has a second she asked about the dangers hope for clearing- experiments. It is also the best wait while he separate from' its function as a her doctor had asked her to registries information. Of the our unborn children, because Apple the words. Di- house of teratological typed into fiis-off ice anyone in women who make unsolicited appear to be the nearest thing lantin and teratogen, that first step on a 700 or so of teratology has proposed in the calls to the facility each month, approxi- the field long, tragic journey might never have been

' solutions. register themselves as part of way of long-term OQ taken. Harbeson might then have been mately'300 214 OMNI rjC'N'T-NlJF") rj I' HCW-.1 A(-JK .?C EVE ARKAS 0N THE MARK£T , nn§ ru n receiving system to scan many millions of LOOK THIS.K channels at the relatively modest cost of a GOOD. few hundred thousand dollars. Although clearly not a substitute for the NASA sys- FEW WORK THIS GOOD. tem, which is much more powerful and so- We dor'; cncle ou: selves on ":'.. phisticated, Horowitz's plan represents a at:'ac'iv8.,'._r liin^ty Alps parka is giant technological step forward. ~'~'"e pridecorr-a;" '':.;n But even with access to 8 million chan-

nels, the bottleneck in our searches will still be our limited coverage of the radio spec- trum. So why not scan 100 million chan- nels? That number can be achieved by du- plicating our present systems enough times. Ten years from now a 100-million- channel system could well be common. We

will need such systems if we are ever to tackle searches at much higher frequen- ^lly engineered cies, say those whose wavelengths are a features make .this parka very few millimeters. Those hard working. wavelengths are the 1 And yes, not bad looking. ones that carry the farthest over the radio noise of our galaxy and the big bang. For ZEPEL that reason other civilizations in the uni- Thins ulate verse may have decided to emphasize these same frequencies. We don't just By 2000 we could well succeed in our

search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. Or we could fail. What then? Strangely, the an- swer is the same in either case: We must build a truly giant radio telescope—maybe five miles in diameter—probably in space. If we fail to detect any signs of extraterres- trial intelligence, we will need a more pow-

erful telescope. And if we succeed, we will long for this larger telescope to learn more about the civilization we have detected and to discover other civilizations, whose exist- ence will be assured. After all, when Galileo used his three- FOR inch telescope to gaze at the moons of Jupiter (and learned to understand the so- lar system from that limited observation), FUTURE REFERENCE he didn't say, "Well, the job is done; no need to build larger telescopes." So it should be with SETI. Our telescopes and Moving? We need 4-6 weeks receiving systems will never be powerful notice of a change of address. Fill enough. This is true not just for SETI but in the attached form. for astronomy in general. There may well be no more proper and. New Subscription or Renewal? indeed, more noble use of the space shut- One year of Omni isS24 in the U.S. tle than to have it ferry into orbit ihe parts $34 in Canada and overseas. of a mammoth radio telescope, it would Pleose enclose- o check or money require a small army of extraterrestrial order for the appropriate amount construction workers and cooperation on and allow 6-8 weeks for delivery a global scale to attempt it, but the result Listing/Unfisting Service? would be the grandest structure that may Omni makes the ever be built by humans. By this route hu- names and addresses its manity may eventually share in the gran- of subscribers available to other deur of life throughout the galaxy. We have publications and outside com- already waited too long.OO panies. The publications and companies selected are carefully Editors' note; Frank Drake is Goldwin Smith Pro- screened for their fessor of Astronomy acceptability at Cornell University, the and director of the National Astronomy and Iono- quality' of their offers. If you sphere Center, which operates the 1,000-foot would like your name removed Arecibo radio telescope, and one of the found- from- this mailing list please-check ersotfjETI He - ' o astronomer to the try appropriate box on the to detect signdb !/t- : r. extraterrestrial civil!-, coupon. zations, as part of Project Ozma, in the early Sixties. " ruEXT Dnnrui

Magnificent and menacing, winged and earth- bound, brilliant as war paint or drab as dirt: In-

sects till every earthly habitat, from the frigid Hi- "'' malayan snowfields to the turbulent surface of \- '^4j !

poke holes in our plants. Others pollenate flowers j *h^ 1 or spin slender strands of silk. But no matter what & j ; 1 ll=™»?*#(

™ ;rm with mol- all—theuni- * • jwledgeable - |Ik X progress of astrochemistry in solvi ng the great puzzle: how random chemicals in ^ coalesce to form such a planet as Earth. Read -» in November's about the cl . \ Omni everywhere— in the core of a metei J stellar clouds, and in the chemistry

Wolfe, Frederik Pohl, Ed- , Gene WmfllmBm gelist and his daughter's

widow's life. Omni also > law's "400 Boys," an im;

' pathic gangs in a

ding to MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, if a Martian landed and spoke a language that vio- ' "universal grammar,'' humans might never

„.y. ..j in physics, slowly

, generations. Chomsky has ansformed the way linguists view language. In a revolutionary stance, he proposed that a qe- "' _ lly progrf "

behaviorism, a od and development, and he puts forth his m. ' heredity and environment and their role The yearly march to When someone loses weight, someone Iron-rodent contest: of thousands of lemmings is merely connpETiTionj else must gain it— to avoid destroying the the sea their annual triathlon. GOM'\...GDI HON' PKx- Si balance and throwing Earth out of orbit. the first leg of Dolton, IL ' —JoAnn Aulenbacber, Toledo, OH —Mark Lemont, viciims truly perceive that the color pink color green. goes with the temperature is controlled by that the detergents used Atmospheric K. Sinofsky, Concord, MA It is well-known —Amy located in bank clocks. car washing release their molecules into thermostats in MacCormack, Lawrence, KS atmosphere; water droplets coalesce —Brian The human foot originally ended in one the It pro- ac- jnd them, resulting in rain. is It only through repeated large toe. was are not caused by drivers but that detergents might provide an Traffic jams dental collisions with chair and table legs posed which obey an instinctual . for silver iodide in by automobiles, state. economical substitute it developed its present that urge to gather around an injured member —Walt Gross, Medford, Wl cloud seeding. —Lan H. Tomes, St- Paul, MN of the herd. —Michael Ekinaka. Irvine, CA Rainy weekends are caused by the exces- common nail released to the at- Burrowing behavior in the sive amounts of hot air should be added to the (Snippus ordinarius): Research in- Unflavored Jell-0 during weekly staff meetings, clipper mosphere tankers. Then, in the event of dicates that when this species is placed crude oil in committee meetings, and so on. into a desk, or a wreck, fhe spilled oil will congeal Burley, ID near sofa cushions, papers on Sue Davis. blobs— oilbergs— waiting to be with laundry in a dresser drawer, it quickly huge to a refinery. spot somewhere below where rounded up and towed attract tornadoes. burrows to a Mobile homes —Bert J. Bingel, Dover, NH —Susan Dunten, Austin, TX Most of the species on Earth are individual particles as Wonder where the rubber go fair. Florida firm entries in a galactic science The gather and slowly The EPA has announced that a an auto tire wears? They extraterrestrials contributed for the gigantic youngest alongside is probably responsible reiuvenate Proof can be found the platypus was recently swallowed amoeba and paramecia; tires may sinkholes that have any busy highway, where young eighth-grade class. cars. The firm, which a group effort by an stages of reformation. several houses and be seen in various project, and if we machined parts has been We are a postgraduate observer may also catch tires installs holes in A diliqent maker will win a schol- dumping misshapen and out-of-toerance dorYt foul up, our herdinq in the tall grass behind aban- arship. Winners will be notified in 2010. Holes into a vacant lot. The pile of waste doned service stations Cook. Escondido, CA deep. It is sus- —Lynda —Wawe Allen Tacoma holes is now over 125 feet pected that small holes have leaked into Ch^U-^mp. THEORIES OF THE UNI- the underground water supply and have GULOTTA'S This equation shows how sellers for- ' caverns. . collected to form gigantic VERSE mulate contract warranties. Ch is contract have -L McCandless, Bainbridge Island, WA 1. War, taxes, and unemployment is honor time; U is unit of cost, and mp roles in the served their most important payments. Creative evolution theory. We cannot be monthly evolution of man by giving people some- Chicago or —Michael A. Eiermann. their descended frorr monkeys ot course, thinq to talk about while they're getting monkeys left. How- ' tnere wouldn't be any haircut of every event is lot of trou- The random component but the Italians ever, God must have gone to a 2 The Jews invented guilt, determined by a gradient of three non- ble making Australopithecus fossils, ng- turned it into an art form. glorx, jick, and rates, and designing measurable substances: physical property of the universe ging isotropic decay 3 It is a qua6th. For example, excess glorx in the what he our DNA to be so similar to a chimpan- that a space traveler, moving in prevents the Cubs though evolution isn galaxy (and pitching) will invariably end zee's. Therefore, even believes is a straight line, the pennant. believe it if from winning also true true, we had probably better up right where he started This is —Martin Weiss, Springfield, IL in parts of New Jersey. it be 4. Space is pliable— not only can near an ordinary When I clap my hands curved, twisted and molded to any shape, flies away. I removed covers, the type that won't housefly, it quickly pick up pictures from the Furry toilet-seat but it can also from an experimental fly and allow the seat to stay up by itself, are part the wings Sunday comics. move. Thus, clapped my hands, but it didn't impossible of a Communist plot to emasculate all men 5. The laws of physics say it is you remove a house- I conclude that when in the Western world. The Kremlin hopes for any object to move faster than the speed preoccupied with these seat fly's wings it goes deaf. .. . . we will be so of light. Ironing a,.„„,shirt is also not so easy., —Roger Mason, New York City will go unopposed —Charlie Gulotta, Stamford. CT covers that its invasion —Peter MacKichan, Calgary, AB The destructive tides and storms along the and cold alone Clouds are very delicate, have been traced to the gastrointestinal learning, bci- California coast them. The little white Theory of i to shatter traffic to mainland have already shown that flatworms, increased tour-ship drift downward are called snow enlists pieces that activity is not severely mazes, can be fed to China, If propeller —Emily Dahlstrom, Victor, NY having been taught we may lose most of our Pacific other flatworms, which actually acquire the curtailed, original maze through coastline. plot by extra- knowledge of the Arcade video games are a Petruska, Eas! Brunswick, NJ ingestion. This explains how cannibals —Brenda terrestrials to measure human reflexes and high-scor- learned the missionary position. coordination. The recording of people to —Fred Wickham, San Francisco Competitions that challenge initials is their way of identifying the ers' come up with humorous theories lead to dangerous Earthlings who must be elimi- producing begins to grow hair several people independently invasion. As one goes bald, one nated just before .the one of which when on the shoulders and very similar ideas, any — Lewis Terman. South Salem, NY in the ears and nose, considered alone is worthy of winning. back, and other areas where it has not theories are usually disqualified au- grown before. Evidence suggests that hair These Balance-of-mass theory: explains why, most often winter, just as tomatically and the winner is whenever you have gained a few pounds, may migrate south for the something totally out to lunch. people who tell birds do. you are more likely to meet Dreves, Bellevue, WACO -Daniel G. Gall, Whitakers,iumMh** NCnc —Martin P. stories about how much weight they've lost. 21S OMNI

—" "

out is one of cause the skin of each building is a trans- the wilderness. To seek them citizens lucent material, the city glows like a "dim, the 'mythological pastimes' of the 'ARCHITECTSt digesting jellyfish" at night; during the day of the city." life in onecity might be one' can see out, and at night one can see Insley believes for the noncrim- Insley is fond of weather conditions; so a frightening experience one would n't want to know exaclly when one- in. contained, yet open inal citizens as well. "The design is very city exists. Do you really want to know when his Theater Space is fly through the dense," he says. "One is constantly you're going to die?" to the elements. ("Birds whips trapped in the so-called intelligence of the According to Insley, his wall fragments space, dust dances in the light, wind pours in.") "Air roots," or system. Some inhabitants would find it quite are artifacts, proving onecity exists. "They across, and air hollow towers, ventilate the entire city hideous to be part of a place that has such also operate in onecity as evidence that thin, on windy days emit pleasant sound ef- a total sense of form." Some of Insley's people knew it existed before, in fact, it and fects—low moans and staccato whistles. structures, too, are potentially dangerous. did. That's where it gets confusing. You "You could fall off the wall of an Abstract that will exist Unlike their deteriorating prototypes, the see, I have evidence of things artist city's infrastructures function effec- Building and drop thirty feet," The in potential in some other time. In that sense, future transit contained in says he tries not to moralize about his cre- l.traveled to the future in my mind and came tively. A jetube system in silently to all parts, ation- "The Abstract Buildings exist the back into the present with information about the city's walls speeds of things that do not work but the future.' eliminating traffic jams and pollution. Ar- wilderness it. I like to say, 'I remembered the simply are onecity's religion reflects the process of tificial valleys and plateaus created by flowerpots, and A citizens' committee in Cambridge, Insley's discovery. Inhabitants worship the buildings are planted, like buildings opens onto woods Massachusetts, proved unsympathetic to horizon line as a magical space between each chain of slogging through the amoral principles of abstract architec- earth and sky through which one may pass, and fields. "There's no get to na- ture when Insley received a National Foun- glimpse the future, then return to the pres- the suburbs in your Cadillac to Waste and fumes from dation grant to build a large component of ent to record what one has seen. Insley, ture," Insley says. contained be- onecity on a high-school site there. The inspired bylhe flat plains of Indiana, where heavy manufacturing are proposed project, a large earth mound with he was born, believes that the Myth of the interior passageways tramed in concrete, Horizon Line is a metaphor, not only for his was vetoed off to potential time because own mental journey to onecity but for the the committee feared students would race artistic process in general, which he be- up the mound and plunge into the open lieves is more mystical than intellectual. QThe city passageways, and girls exploring the in- "You don't Just sit down and make a paint- terior would be attacked by concealed ing," he declares, onecity's eternity takes exists in the potential. It is rapists, not yet confined in Cambridge to the form of eight concentric shells, indi- about myth and the Theaters of Death. cating it has a "structure and inevitability." exists outside Although onecity is designed to hold 400 Insley .professes not to comprehend the' mythology, and million souls, Insley wastes few words on Eight-Dimension-Spiral myth him- • obscure . of normal time, in the inhabitants in his writings, describing self. "I just write it down." a kind of all-time. The idea them only as "moon-spied ghosts in a tat- The configurations of onecity are as tered palace." He depicts only occasional complex as its myths. The city is com- is bigger than figures, anonymous sticks, in his models posed of 14,040 square buildings, each of location^ just one temporal and drawings. He confesses that he thinks which is 2.5 miles on a side, laid out in a of himself as onecity's population. "It's my square spiral 675 miles on a side. Insley city," he says, "a city for one person. That's receives information about "ratio theo- thing, I this the game I play. build whole ries," which enable him to compute the live the experience and then I go and in it— specific dimensions of each component on a neath the flat-earth layer of Over Building of walking around Manhattan Sunday and draw it accordingly. The ratios, he says, as a morning, when you begin to feel a different have revealed glimpses of surprising new fields. Crime in onecity is accepted and provides enter- power of the city." spacial forms: a square that is not a square: natural phenomenon Criminals are voluntarily con- Alone or not, Insley plans to inhabit his and there is a hinge. And a wave, The tainment. private metropolis for years. In his present buildings resemble towns and contain 100 fined to the Under Building of the Ninth them- studio, where filtered light, spartan con- "rooms," or neighborhoods, composed of Arena, where they gleefully prey on walls and ceilings, and a coffee table Over Buildings and Under Buildings with selves, spied upon by voyeuristic citizens crete Final show- decorated with nine arenas in the form of the Theater Space between. In the center through slits in the surface. occur, gladiator- hot-plate tiles suggest the artist's mytho- of every building are nine square arenas downs between them logical space, Insley waits for more news an architectural form with mythological style, in hydraulic lifts that can be raised combination of about his city. He painstakingly renders origins. Ceremonies take place on the sur- or lowered by pushing a masters the logic memories of his future travels on tracing face of eight of them, and museums and buttons. The fiend who sequence paper with pencil, fhen redoes them in ink. concert halls are housed below. of his buttons and completes a His midcareer show, at New York City's Although Insley insists onecity bears no of ratio-spatial changes gains control of his fall of of his opponent's. Guggenheim Museum, opens in the resemblance to "advanced architectural lift, then tries for control spatial trap 1984. The information exists in potential, planning theories" and is simply a formal If he wins he may then devise a is get it. I can't from his control he says. 'All I have to do go situation, "like a mountain, which has the that forces the loser away

I back of death row— look at all of it at once; so just come power of space alone," 'there are decided booth into a futuristic version and pieces." Upcoming details advantages, aesthetic and practical, to his a space he is powerless to escape. Insley with bits dia- in his draw- should enable him to make theoretical mythical civilization, "onecity would be like depicts the Theaters of Death Buildings, which he ferms grams of the all-important Opaque Li- . living in a movie," he says, "where all the ings of Abstract proj brary— "the most mystical of the spaces, information you're getting is about light." "frightening mental spaces. My first : known more by rumor than by anything onecity walls are translucent, not solid, and ects, starting in 1967," he backtracks,

I contin- is, ex- else. The city is bigger than am," adjustable vents filter light in a nearly si- "were the Abstraci Buildings, that with no other ues Insley, who is writing a book about his lent, dreamlike atmosphere. Building form ercises in abstract space possibili- their discovery. "It has inexhaustible dematerializes in this shifting light. The function than to exercise own meas- will, drawings of not ties. I could, and make roofs of Over Buildings are skylights, urements. These Abstract Buildings are onecity for the rest of my life."OQ screened to control light and heat. Be- onecity. They exist outside of if, buried in 222 OMNI Fives, practical problems, and a competition for everyday brilliance

By Scot Morris

Omni is five. When Mozart was our age, he wrote "Twinkle, Twinkle. Little Star." A female horse at our age changes from are a filly to a- mare. In dog years we almost middle-aged. Since Omni was born, in October 1978. Jupiter has completed less than half an orbit around the sun. Pluto about a iiftieih. and continental drift has widened the Atlantic Ocean by about seven inches. The news of our first issue reached Alpha Centauri a few months ago, and we can now report with confi- dence, that this nearesi star, some 4.3 light-years away, had not exploded by the time our first few issues were out. is A fifth birthday is special because 5 such a ubiquitous number. There are five players on a basketball team, five cards in a poker hand, five years in a lustrum, five Great Lakes, five senses, and a pair of fives in our national speed limit The fifth digit of pi is 5. The fifth term of the Fibonacci sequence is 5. fifth In geomelry (sometimes called "the science") five points determine a conic curve; and a cone may be cut by straight slices into five types of sections; circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola, and triangle. Euclid had five postulates, and the fifth of them (the parallel postulate) became perhaps the most controversial statement

in all of mathematics. There are five polyhedrons whose faces are all identical regular polygons, triangles, squares, and pentagons. These are the Platonic solids. There are just five of them, no more. In biology the number 5 crops up more than its share of times. Practically all land vertebrates have five fingers and five toes on each limb. Even the horse has

five: Its hoof is really an enlarged finger- nail of a specialized middle digit. Many a William Carlos Williams poem, The Great Figure 5, by Charles Demuth. inspired by urchins, I Saw the marine animals, including sea Art. in the Metropolitan Museum of The painting is pari at the Alired Stiegtitz collection sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, have Figure. tivefold symmetry, Most modern starfish an apple, a American columnist Martin Gardner. In arms. There are fossil remains sence of their ancestry; Cut have five remarked about Ihe inevi- pear, banana crosswise and you'll 1966 Gardner of starfish that aren'f five-armed, but they or a of computers On mathemat- see that the seeds are arranged in a table impact have all died out. until pi • ics; "It will probably not be long Most flowers have five petals, and five -pointed star. million decimals. In antici- Our favorite live story concerns a is known to a even those that' have many more, such pation of this, Dr. Matrix, the famous have an underlying fivefold remarkable prediction made by Irving as the daisy, sent a letter asking Matrix, a colleague of Scientific numerologist, has me symmetry, Many fruits show the quintes- Joshua 224 OMNI that I put on record his prediction that the real solutions to real problems. Practice 3. THE TRUCK AND THE BRIDGE. A millionth digit of pi will be found to be 5 on the problems below, then submit trucker wants to drive His calculation under a bridge but is based on the third book examples of your own. finds that his rig is one inch higher than of the King James Bible, chapter 14. 1. PACKAGE PLAN. A York New photog- the bridge's clearance. The frustrated verse 16 (it mentions the number 7, and rapher was on a cross-country drive driver pulls to the side of the road and is the seventh word has five letters), last August and stopped to see his family checking maps to combined find his shortest alter- with some obscure calculations in Michigan. His resourceful sister took nate route, when a small child comes involving Euler's constant and the the opportunity to give him his Christmas up to him and says, "Hey, Mister. I know transcendental number e." present, a package weighing about 20 how you can get your truck through." Pi was first calculated to 1 million places pounds. She explained that it would The suggestion worked. What was it? in France in 1974. The millionth digit of be much easier for him to carry the 4. NUTS. A man with a flat tire pulled his pi is 5. How could Matrix have known. package in the car to New York than it car to the side of the road. He jacked eight years earlier? Was it a lucky guess would be for her to mail it there come up the car, removed the hubcap four that came true with a one-in-ten and chance? December. He took the box with him and lug nuts, placed the nuts in the hubcap, No, it was a lucky guess that had a kept il in a closet, securely wrapped, and removed the bad tire. As he was slightly better shot at coming true: one in for the next few months. lifting the spare tire out of the trunk, five, to be exact. What was the.- "out" When December rolled around, our however, he kicked over the hubcap that Dr. Matrix used to and double his chances friend found that he would able, be after all the nuls fell down a sewer. The of getting a hit? next all, to visit his family over the holidays. town is several miles away. He could He was faced with an array of choices. A FIVES QUIZ walk or hitchhike there to buy more lug Should he take the 20-pound package nuts, but that is Here's a second-best solution. a test on our favorite number back with him on the plane so that he Can you think of anything better? this year. Identify these famous fives. could open it on Christmas morning, then Answers are on page 209. a. Who is Annette Dionne? lug it back to New York? Should he open b. In what popular board OMNI COMPETITION game does a the present before leaving for Michigan so #30: player win by getting five pieces in a row, that he GET PRACTICAL - could thank his sister for it on vertically, horizontally, or diagonally? ' Christmas morning? Or should he ' leave Is there any advantage to being brilliant? c. The official flag of the Olympics has the package unopened in his closet So you're a whiz at the problems five interlocking rings. in Name the five so as not to spoil the surprise, and then Omni's Games column. Big deal. colors and explain why they Does are significant. open il after he gets back? that mean you're d. any good at solving the Swimming, riding, shooting, running None of these alternatives are quite problems of life? . . What's the fifth . event in the men's satisfactory. Give the problem some Does the ability to handle Omm-like Olympic pentathlon? thought, and find a better solution puzzles have any connection e. The whatsoever five-year mission of the U.S.S. 2. COOKE'S BOOKS. British-born Ameri- with the ability Enterprise to get through an ordinary included orders "to explore can historian Alistair Cooke had a wall- day and to solve ordinary problems strange new worlds, to seek out new life size bookcase in which he kept books with extraordinary flair? We may be and new civilizations," and to defy about various states and regions of the biased, but we think our readers are clever grammarians by splitting an infinitive. Uniled States. When the library got very in every way. To What prove it, we invite each was the last order of business for large, he decided to organize it. How? of you to send one inspired the five-year mission? solution to a He could alphabetize the books by real-life problem. We prefer cases that f. Name a Paul Newman movie (1979). author, but he rarely wanted to find all have really happened to you, but will g. A Jack Nicholson movie (1970). the books by one author, and he could accept hypothetical ones as long as they h. Victory Symphony. never be sure that he could remember are realistic. i. In warfare, a group of secret who wrote a book he wanted about, say, Send supporters your problem and solution (less working behind the enemy's Montana or Texas. than 100 words combined), with your lines or within ils national borders. He could alphabetize by publisher, but name and address attached, to Omni j. "Up, Up, and Away" singing group. the same problems would arise—which Competition #30, 1965 Broadway, New publisher did that book about ' GET PRACTICAL Missouri? York, NY 10023-5965. All entries become He could alphabetize the books by the property of Omni; none Most of the puzzles presented will be in this state, but then where would he put books returned. The grand prize-winner will column are purely mental exercises, with about, say, New England, the Mississippi receive $100. and runners-up little or no (2-10), $25 relevance to reality. This Valley, or the Great Plains? monlh we emphasize each. Entries must be postmarked by practicality and What was his ingenious solution? November 15, 1983. DO y ;' ; ,. .

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. R9TinrKiQ ;weredhv[ng . . , . sergaael Rutch : The leader said. :ifieoyh£oad,- ;.:;: Bi.'jii . were'lon :j. :'.: ii via! ' ' ,. ;:.'...;. beeed the 'soar of engine's when fney -^he : ^eiraveiy .\ million, fqhiwears : : "> fgr evefv ' :'. " . ,.... ,...: i. asrgea^t'askec f ne coi«cl t-asieKvaost,---^.,. ' ' ' ;;,.;-,;; I .' ' .. - : ,.::: i.iheheader'shouted. 'Ma6:ew&1\Bpp'X---r.\. '-i ' lo EsrthlirKts . if, gnngo.-t! =s- poison : inimediateiy Qavecr.as&^; 'rpuch The'c11icBW : hen the fights, mthe cra-i.-whidvAas doing Redondo said.yfi Knowing the ': were f :,; ,... AST their estimation. . 250m'iies pet hoe-' by 'he runway. The spaceship.. ! down ,,.. edsdown fzippina i} : ; iiftea -ilssif :gent;v,in the a:-. Dunningand ' . . ; j: : ::'. '".: K ok but the 1$ .:. '.; I g-i -i .shOuted'to Donning. .Cui acrossthe WORD ' the. th;ngs. fh«y .ship didn't seerato bother . 'idfesert'acv^w.ecsrt iiead-!! off--"' By ArfBuchwaiciy .-; " safsniok:!^ ana giggling-.':-.-;.'.; Theooie calmly ':' .returned to the airport. .;yy;. alter blinking .'F.-ipa!t>-.vve -two officers amved. F ; na!iy, * Hi d"nd describee* . -.-Airhough-fhe..piior had never beentoEa'rh tour -times', it landed gently on a-potlioWs - to perfect; : made another . ijhe unidentified.object: -It-, his testimony^ -. ^before" he again Redcmdoyr, ; '.'the-.r.unwav.- door ofthe ship ^'as-opened iieo oiyoot e w*l-- iarndrno:- The cylindrical in deacobod if'.*; u-:Klor:' was : and the leader-pushed. us oet/Hssfafa; y ..,!... .fy : peopie;- -a wing :- he ea:0. 'Teli the for ' seriof.' shape, except from each sida-To^aebbT.: . : vfsfa, -protruding ' wM! never make war on-- : ' Si-rius protrudinff.from- " :-:;hese.:herewa^arrioto;anaohed; Two .- ;6f Earth. make war on us.'v y- , the centerO!; •" '.'Ihemvuhiessthey : :-: •; '^heefsyuIledQut Worn side/To each pf < ' each : ng w!!h-5srri'all.Gne.. i.h the- rear": Uunn the obiect, '.. ''"'' war is- not i ihe th.nasot Smos. : 'And te^ . there . • The.;lteihg;-Garne to a .these y.-e;;;-: Diiri nirsg:s'ai Gl.,' : inEarttiman'snatufefThenithespacestsip... i pulled- halt next- to an old Amy-barracks-., nuo the darw.Res.s.-"; '.ipabotinwQliunclrgdteei.froiTili The;'" .disappeared y,.y ;.!. 'hie :!,,.-; : i : '1 jif; :: m

1 , >. oui sergea'n and go! , g

. . OdnninganoRedondogof Sen-minuteS.- Then- story When Nomine haopened'for ; f .bysJk ; fb'heao!qua;iers- ihey 1 if * Jl ': .the dear at the back of the Object ." reporitolheir. captain, who bailed. the Ar:

. . : i ..: .: i- ii likea-basebaii ii was wearing something ' > :• OR'daik.covfi'aits^and^brott'ri :;. cap,-' had ;' ... . stories;.. -griiied^Theyefuck-tcfheir : y; joLei bor s ' r --.:' ftedondoiarid added. "There were tour of Mysteriousrv.both Redcndo ( patrol.: -f- were- later fired

: . '' '• .-ops! When linedd : coi^d Each car.r;ed -in .tts hands what to-fh.e Drug EntoreemenT.. i war; refened huieeokedy .. have been a laser weapon. ' '/igericv— obviously arvehoftto'teaci me;-; i - As .we -litre a Thompson £ ri ui sun. .:;' ,. ..:..., : . "approached •heiTi IshoLrtedyOon'! ' ,: -.LO.dowi-h.yFQs: ,' shoot: wbareyour inencia'.'. .... -.:,-. i-i a! a gas feid Ir-vesiiyatoie "the leaden Dunning ' - i : :.,,... , ...: : strange. :,,. ot :ths group said somethings in a as.it happened; he. mainlains;- ; the othereand then spokefe .langyaGe'te Redon.do. former Sergeant . nrxhss. come I located . We .usi'in English. BueiVJS- ..;" : o!-ie.ofyhe abandoned;; Sirn-a. Where ' .Hg now"!ives.!n in peace from- the/planet ' : Air : arihe defunct Abel Hili Force 7 said. .'You-'are./yy; ba'rraeks '.:The sergeant , 'arewe t.knQw'they'li.':y'.. : ' -.'-: Basaaish3lt&reci--Ta!^-'' : on the plane; Earth. Welcome.' roe. sipping from a.gaftop; " -Carambsi We have made a nav.iba- ratiinV'' he to'd "And-Vm-.gojng-oj.:- IbnaieHorf.theteadersaidyOur.misstoP yug-of.Biue Men w:ive . they have wafiiere until they do. And when y was to exob*s theoianef Piuto. We : to. meet-' : arrive ST. bring the wi^eie country qoinq. pronto O be who tiasThe.;. ' ,; them.'andThen'weffsee 'Wait.' thesergsanL. begged, Wfvy.nof y iasttaughon wfiomTiDQ f.; stay ande?picre curgianet^ .