3001 The Final Odyssey

chapter 31 Nursery
MISS PRINGLE RECORD

Well, Indra - Dim - I hope that came through in good shape - I still find it hard to believe. All those fantastic creatures - surely we should have detected their radio voices, even if we couldn't understand them! - wiped out in a moment, so that Jupiter could be made into a sun.

And now we can understand why. It was to give the Europs their chance. What pitiless logic: is intelligence the only thing that matters? I can see some long arguments with Ted Khan over this - The next question is: will the Europs make the grade - or will they remain forever stuck in the kindergarten - not even that - the nursery? Though a thousand years is a very short time, one would have expected some progress, but according to Dave they're exactly the same now as when they left the sea. Perhaps that's the trouble; they still have one foot - or one twig! - in the water.

And here's another thing we got completely wrong. We thought they went back into the water to sleep. It's just the other way round - they go back to eat, and sleep when they come on land! As we might have guessed from their structure - that network of branches - they're plankton feeders...

I asked Dave about the igloos they've built. Aren't they a technological advance? And he said: not really - they're only adaptations of structures they make on the sea-bed, to protect themselves from various predators - especially something like a flying carpet, as big as a football field...

There's one area, though, where they have shown initiative - even creativity. They're fascinated by metals, presumably because they don't exist in pure form in the ocean. That's why Tsien was stripped - the same thing's happened to the occasional probes that have come down in their territory. What do they do with the copper and beryllium and titanium they collect? Nothing useful, I'm afraid. They pile it all together in one place, in a fantastic heap that they keep reassembling. They could be developing an aesthetic sense - I've seen worse in the Museum of Modem Art... But I've got another theory - did you ever hear of cargo cults? During the twentieth century, some of the few primitive tribes that still existed made imitation aeroplanes out of bamboo, in the hope of attracting the big birds in the sky that occasionally brought them wonderful gifts. Perhaps the Europs have the same idea.

Now that question you keep asking me... What is Dave? And how did he - and Hal - become whatever it is they are now?

The quick answer, of course, is that they're both emulations - simulations - in the Monolith's gigantic memory. Most of the time they're inactivated; when I asked Dave about this, he said he'd been 'awake' - his actual word -for only fifty years altogether, in the thousand since his - er - metamorphosis.

When I asked if he resented this takeover of his life, he said, 'Why should I resent it? I am performing my functions perfectly.' Yes, that sounds exactly like Hal! But I believe it was Dave - if there's any distinction now.

Remember that Swiss Army knife analogy? Halman is one of this cosmic knife's myriad of components.

But he's not a completely passive tool - when he's awake, he has some autonomy, some independence - presumably within limits set by the Monolith's overriding control. During the centuries, he's been used as a kind of intelligent probe to examine, Jupiter - as you've just seen - as well as Ganymede and the Earth. That confirms those mysterious events in Florida, reported by Dave's old girl-friend, and the nurse who was looking after his mother, just moments before her death... as well as the encounters in Anubis City.

And it also explains another mystery. I asked Dave directly: why was I allowed to land on Europa, when everyone else has been turned away for centuries? I fully expected to be!

The answer's ridiculously simple. The Monolith uses Dave - Halman - from time to time, to keep an eye on us.

Dave knew all about my rescue - even saw some of the media interviews I made, on Earth and on Ganymede. I must say I'm still a little hurt he made no attempt to contact me! But at least he put out the Welcome mat when I did arrive...

Dim - I still have forty-eight hours before Falcon leaves - with or without me! I don't think I'll need them, now I've made contact with Halman; we can keep in touch just as easily from Anubis... if he wants to do so.

And I'm anxious to get back to the Grannymede as quickly as possible. Falcon's a fine little spacecraft, but her plumbing could be improved - it's beginning to smell in here, and I'm itching for a shower.

Look forward to seeing you - and especially Ted Khan.

We have much to talk about, before I return to Earth.

TRANSMIT

STORE

V - TERMINATION

The toil of all that be

Heals not the primal fault;

It rains into the sea,

And still the sea is salt.
- A. E. Housman, More Poems