"Could you give us a few details on how they proposed to do such a thing?" he asked. "I think even the idea of contemplating something like that has astonished a few of us here." Mutters of agreement from all around echoed his sentiments.

"Certainly," she replied. "The Ganymeans, as most of you know by now, had developed a branch of technology that is not yet understood in your own world--a technology based on the principles of artificially generating and controlling the effect termed'gravity.' The proposal of the Ganymean astrophysicists involved placing three very large and very powerful projectors in orbit around the Sun, which would concentrate beams of space-time distortion--'gravity intensification' if you like, although that describes the effect of the process rather than its nature--at the Sun's center. Theory predicted that this would induce an increase, effectively, in the Sun's self-gravitation and produce a slight collapse of the star, which would cease when the radiation pressure again balanced the gravitational pressure. At the new equilibrium the Sun would radiate more strongly and, provided that all the right quantities were chosen, would just compensate for the loss of Minerva's greenhouse effect. In other words we could now risk tampering with the carbon-dioxide level since, if we blew it and we started to freeze, we could put things right again by adjusting the solar constant. Does that answer the question sufficiently, Dr. Hunt?"

"Yes . . . very much so. Thank you." There were a thousand other questions that he could have asked at that moment, but he decided to leave them all for ZORAC later; for the time being he was having enough trouble even trying to visualize engineering on such a scale, yet Shilohin made the whole thing sound as routine as putting up an apartment block.

"As I said a moment ago," Shilohin resumed, "our government insisted on testing the theory first. Our expedition was formed for that purpose--to carry out a full-scale trial experiment on a Sun-like star elsewhere." She paused and made a gesture that was not familiar. "As it turned out, I guess they did the right thing. The star became unstable and went nova. We barely escaped with our lives. Garuth has just told you of the problem with the Shapieron's propulsive system that resulted in the situation we have now--although we have aged less than twenty years since leaving Iscaris, on your time scale this all happened twenty-five million years ago. So here we are."

A chorus of mutterings broke out around the room. Shilohin waited for a few moments before continuing. "It's a bit cramped in here and difficult to change places. Does anybody else have any questions for me before I sit down again and hand this back to Garuth?"

"Just one." The speaker was Lawrence Foster, commander of Main. "A few of us have been wondering. . . You developed a technology that was way ahead of ours--interstellar travel for instance. So you must have explored the Solar System pretty thoroughly in the course of all that. Somebody here's taking bets that at least some Ganymeans got to Earth at some time. Care to comment on that?"

Shilohin seemed to flinch slightly for some reason. . . although it was difficult to be sure. She did not answer at once, but turned to exchange a few briefly muttered words with Garuth. Then she looked up again.

"Yes. . . you are correct. . ." The words coming through the headphones and earpieces of the listeners sounded hesitant, as if faithfully reproducing an uncertainty from the original utterances. "The Ganymeans came. . . to Earth."

A stir of excitement broke out across the room. This was something that nobody wanted to miss.

"Before your expedition went to Iscaris, I guess," Foster said.

"Yes, naturally . . . in the hundred Earth years or so before that time." She paused. "In fact a few of the crew of the Shapieron went to Earth before being recruited for the Iscaris expedition. None of them is here at the moment though."

The Earthmen were keen to hear more about their own world from beings who had actually been there long before they themselves had even existed. Questions began pouring spontaneously from all around the room.

"Hey, when can we talk to them?"

"Do you have any pictures stored away someplace?"

"How about maps or something?"

"I bet they built that city high up in that place in South America."

"You're crazy. It's not near old enough."

"Were these the expeditions to Earth to bring back the animals?"

The sudden increase in the enthusiasm of her audience seemed only to add to Shilohin's confusion. She picked up the last question, the answer to which they already knew, as if hoping for some reason that it would divert attention from the rest.

"No, there were no shipments of animals to Minerva then, neither was there any talk of such a plan. That must have happened later on. Like you, we do not know why that was done."

"Okay, but about the--" Foster stopped speaking as ZORAC sounded in his ear.

"This is ZORAC speaking only to the Earthmen; I am not interpreting for Shilohin. I do not believe that the Ganymeans really wish to elaborate further for the time being. It might be a good idea to change the subject. Excuse me."

The puzzled frowns that immediately appeared all over the room confirmed that all the Earthmen had heard the same thing: apparently the message had not, however, been transmitted to the Ganymeans, who showed none of the reactions that it would, without a doubt, have elicited. An awkward silence reigned for just a second before Foster took firm control and steered them all into calmer waters.

"These things can wait until another time," he said. "Time's getting on and we must be near dinner. Before we finish here, we ought to agree on our more immediate plans. The biggest problem seems to me to be the trouble you've got with your ship. How do you plan tackling that, and is there anything we can do to help?"

Shilohin conferred briefly with her companions and then sat down, giving a distinct impression of relief at getting out of the firing line. Her place was taken by Rogdar Jassilane, chief engineer of the Shapieron.

"We've had twenty years to figure out what the problem is, and we know how to fix it," he told them. "Garuth has described the effect of the trouble, which involved being unable to slow down the system of circulating black holes upon which the physics of the drive is based. All the time that drive was running, there was nothing we could do about it. We're able to fix it now, but some key components were wrecked and to attempt replacing them from scratch would be difficult, if not impossible. What we really need to do is to have a look at the Ganymean ship that's under the ice at Pithead. From the pictures you've shown us, it seems to be a somewhat more advanced design than the Shapieron. But I'm hopeful we will be able to find what we need there. The basic concepts of the drive appear to be the same. That's the first thing we have to do--go to Pithead."

"No problem there," Foster said. "I'll arrange . . . oh, excuse me a second . . ." He turned to throw an inquiring look at a steward, who had appeared in the doorway. "I see . . . thanks. We'll be right along." He looked back toward Jassilane. "Sorry about that, but dinner's ready now. Yes, in answer to your question, we can arrange that expedition for as early as you like tomorrow. We can talk about the details later tonight, but in the meantime, shall we all go through?"

"That will be fine," Jassilane said. "I will select some of our own engineers for the visit. In the meantime as you say, let's all go through." He remained standing while the rest of the Ganymeans hoisted themselves to their feet behind him, forming a hopeless crush at the end of the room.

As the Earthmen also stood up and began moving back to make more space for the giants, Garuth made one final comment. "The other reason we wish to see the ship at Pithead is also very important to us. There is a chance that we might find some clues there which support your theory that the Ganymeans eventually migrated to another star system. If that is true, we might perhaps find something to identify which star it was."