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Morelli launched into a vivid account of the possibilities of gravitic
engineering that he never tired of discussing, especially with Aub. The
questions poured out incessantly all through lunch, all of them positive,
imaginative, and obviously prompted by genuine desires to learn more.
"Could there be a way of focusing artificial gravity into some kind of beam
that could be directed remotely," General Perkoffski asked Clifford at one
point, "so that you could direct it at a target?"
"It's too early yet to say," Clifford replied. "What did you have in mind?"
"I was wondering if you could use it to disorientate a missile's inertial
guidance system," Perkoffski said. "It wouldn't need to be too powerful."
"Say, I never thought of that angle," said Arwin Dalby, who had been following
from the opposite side of the table. "A localized gravity beam...if it was
possible, I wonder how strong you could make it and how localized."
Clifford was about to reply when Robert Fuller broke in: "To hell with
screwing its guidance system. If you can make the beam strong enough, why not
simply pull the whole damn missile down?"
"Or even stop it from getting off the ground in the first place?" Dalby
suggested. "You know...the more I think about this, the more I like it."
"Perhaps we could even bring down an ORBS satellite," General Straker joined
in. "That would really be something to shout about." He reflected on the idea
for a moment, then had another thought. "Or maybe bend space-time to divert it
away into space permanently. How about that?"
For the first hour after lunch the visitors saw the GRASER running and crowded
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four at a time into the monitor room to sit spellbound in front of the display
screen of the detector. The image did not tell them much, but the very thought
of what it meant was enough to keep them speechless for many minutes.
After the demonstrations, they returned to the Conference Theater to listen to
Aub. Morelli had devoted most of his time to recounting the history of events
and developments that had culminated in the then current state of the art. Aub
allowed himself to plunge ahead and speculate on some of the
things that might follow.
"The GRASER that you have all just seen produces a strong output of hi-
waves," he said. "In other words, it's a transmitter. The detector that you've
looked at is a receiver." He gazed around the room, inviting them to fill the
rest in for themselves.
"We've got both ends of a communications system," someone observed after a
second or two. The visitors were joining in and interacting -- a good sign.
"Yes indeed," Aub agreed, nodding with satisfaction. "But this communication
system is unlike anything that's ever been dreamed of before. It uses a
transmission medium that is utterly undetectable by any means known to
contemporary science. Also, there is no means known to contemporary science by
which any disturbance can be impressed upon that transmission medium." He
dropped the formal language that he had been using up to that point and put it
another way: "Nobody else in the world has a way of listening in on it or a
way of talking through it."
"Completely espionage-proof," Franz Mueller commented, nodding vigorously.
"The perfect military communications vehicle...absolute security."
"And jam-proof," Perkoffski added. "That's what you were getting at, isn't it,
Dr. Philipsz? There'd be no way anybody could jam it...or even interfere with
it?"
"Just that," Aub confirmed.
"That's all I need to hear," Perkoffski remarked with a smile. "Just tell me
where to sign for a system like that. I'm sold."
"But more than that," Aub resumed. "It also has zero transmission delay,
remember. Now imagine what we could do if we could add control functions --
feedback, that is -- to the data-communications capability that we've been
talking about. Now, I'm sure you can all see immediate possibilities for a
feedback control technique that has zero time delay in the loop over any
distance!" He paused again to let them think about it. After a second or two,
low whistles of surprise came from the audience. Excited muttering broke out
on one side.
"Long-range space probes!" a voice exclaimed suddenly. "Holy cow, we could
monitor them and control them in real time from right here on Earth --
interactively."
"That means that Earth-based computers could be used for all kinds of things
involving fast-response processing in remote places," a second came in.
"How about a Mars-Rover being driven directly by a PDP64 sitting right here? I
don't believe it!"
"Yes, that's the kind of thing I had in mind," Aub said when the buzzing had
died down. "But why shouldn't we look a little further ahead than that as
well...just for a second? Suppose I were to suggest that one day the arrival
of the first robot starship might be witnessed and controlled from a mission -
- supervision center here on Earth...second by second, as it was actually
happening, light-years away!" He surveyed the wide eyes around him. "Why not?
The basic techniques to do it are already with us. You've seen them today."
Before they could recover, Aub used the large screen to bring up again the
hi-wave image of Earth that they had seen that morning.
"And finally, think about this," he said. "That image was generated from a
kind of wave that emanates from every object in the universe, large or small,
to a greater or lesser degree. Visualize then what it might look like if we
were to develop ways to refine the image, to resolve more detail --
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details of the surface, for instance. Suppose we could select any part of the
surface and zoom in instantly on any place we chose or any place above the
surface...or below it or maybe on the Moon..." Aub reeled off the
possibilities slowly, one at a time, dangling each for a few seconds
tantalizingly before the mind's eye of his listeners. The expressions on their
faces told him they were with him all the way.
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