Galileo's Dream - Kim Stanley Robinson 11 стр.

Dont be so sure your companion has your best interests here, no matter that you are the great martyr to science.

Galileo, not liking the sound of that, said quickly, What do you think my interests here are?

The same as anywhere, she said with a sly smile. Your own advancement, right?

In the midst of a fierce harangue at his foes, the stranger looked over and noticed the woman and Galileo in conversation. He stopped arguing with the others and wagged a finger at her. Hera, he warned her, leave him alone.

She raised an eyebrow. You are not the one to be telling people to leave Signor Galileo alone, it seems to me. This was still translated to Galileo in Tuscan.

She raised an eyebrow. You are not the one to be telling people to leave Signor Galileo alone, it seems to me. This was still translated to Galileo in Tuscan.

The stranger frowned heavily, shook his head. You have nothing at stake here. Leave us alone. He returned to addressing the entire group, which was now quieting to hear what was going on.

This is the one who began it all, the stranger boomed, while in his other ear Galileo heard the womans voice in Tuscan, saying, He means, this is the one I chose to begin it all.

The stranger continued without further sotto voce commentary from the woman he had called Hera. This is the man who began the investigation of nature by means of experiment and mathematical analysis. From his time to ours, using this method, science has made us what we are. When we have ignored scientific methods and findings, when the archaic structures of fear and control have reexerted themselves, stark disaster has followed. To abandon science now and risk a hasty destruction of the object of study would be stupid. And the result could be much worse than thatmuch worse than you imagine!

You have already made this argument, and lost it, a red-faced man said firmly. The Europan interior can be investigated using an improved clean protocol, and we will learn what we have wanted to learn for many years. Your view is antiquated, your fears unfounded. What you did on Ganymede has damaged your understanding.

The stranger shook his head vehemently. You dont know what youre talking about!

I am only affirming what the scientific committee assigned to the problem has already said. Whos being unscientific now, them or you?

A general debate erupted again, and under its noise Galileo said to the tall woman, What is it that my patron and his allies want to forbid?

She leaned in to him to reply, in Italian again. They dont want anyone to dive into the ocean under the ice here. They fear what might be encountered there, if I understand the Ganymede correctly.

Then a group of men dressed in the blue shade of clothing came bouncing down the steps on the other side of the amphitheater. A senator dressed in the same color gestured at them and cried at the stranger, Your objection has already been overruled! And you are breaking the law with this incursion. Its time to put a stop to it. He shouted up at the newcomers, Eject these people!

The stranger grabbed Galileo by the arm and hustled him in the other direction. His allies closed behind them, and they raced up the steps two at a time. Galileo almost tripped, then felt himself being lifted by the people on each side of him. They held him under the elbows and carried him.

At the top of the steps, out of the hole of the amphitheater, they could suddenly see across the expanse of the blue city again, looking cold under its green-blue ceiling, the people on its broad strada so distant they were the size of mice. To the ships, the stranger declared, and took Galileo by the arm. As he hustled Galileo away, he said to him, Its time to return you to your home, before they do something we will all regret. Im sorry they would not listen to you. I think if you had been able to judge the situation, you would have sided with us and made our point clear. Ill call on you again when I am more sure you will be listened to. You are not done here!

They came to the broad ramp rising out of the city, through its gates and onto the yellowy surface. People dressed in blue stood in their way, and with a roar the stranger and his group rushed at them. A brisk fight ensued, and Galileo, staggering in the absence of his proper weight, dodged around little knots of brawlers. If he had been dreaming, he would have happily started throwing punches himself, for in his dreams he was much more audacious and violent than in life. So it was a measure of how different this was from a dream, how real it was, that he held back. He wasnt even sure which side he should have been supporting. So he skidded through the fray as if on the frozen Arno, waving his arms as needed to restore his balance. Suddenly in his gyrations, the stranger and another man snatched him up by the arms and hustled him away.

Some distance from the melee, the strangers companions had set up the big spyglass, and were making final adjustments to it. It was either the same one that had stood on Galileos terrace, or one just like it.

Stand next to it, please, the stranger said. Look into the eyepiece, please. Quickly. But before thatbreathe this first

And he held a small censer up and sprayed a cold mist into Galileos face.

Chapter four

The Phases of Venus

Galileo woke lying on the ground next to his spyglass, the stool tipped over beside him. The night sky was lightening in the east, and Mazzoleni was tugging at his shoulder.

Maestro, you should go to bed.

What?

You were in some kind of a trance. I came out before, but I couldnt wake you.

II had a dream, I think.

It seemed more like a trance. One of your syncopes.

Maybe so.

On the long list of Galileos mysterious maladies, one of the most mysterious was a tendency to fall insensible for intervals that ranged from minutes to three or four hours, his muscles rigid the entire time. His physician friend, the famous Fabrizio dAcquapendente, had been unable to treat these syncopes, which in most people were accompanied by fits or racking seizures. Only a few sufferers like Galileo became simply paralyzed.

I feel strange, Galileo said now.

Youre probably sore.

I had a dream, I think. I cant quite remember. It was blue. I was talking with blue people. It was important somehow.

Maybe you spotted angels through your glass.

Maybe so.

Galileo accepted the artisans hand, and hauled himself up. He surveyed the house, the workshop, the garden, all turning blue in the dawn light. It was like something. MarcAntonio, he said, do you think its possible that we could be doing something important?

Mazzoleni looked doubtful. Nobody else does what you do, he admitted. But of course it may just be that youre crazy.

In my dream it was important. Galileo stumped over to the couch under the portico and threw himself down on it, pulled a blanket over him. I have to sleep.

Sure, maestro. Those syncopes must be real tiring.

Leave me instantly.

Sure.

Mazzoleni left and he drifted off. When he woke again it was the cool of early morning, sunlight hitting the top of the garden wall. The morning glory was a well-named flower. The blue of the sky had pale sheets of red and white pulsing inside it.

The strangers old servant stood there before him, holding out a cup of coffee.

Galileo jerked back. On his face one could see the fear. What are you doing here? He began to remember the strangers appearance the night before, but little beyond that. There had been a big heavy spyglass that he had sat on his stool to look through. I thought you were part of the dream!

I brought you some coffee, the ancient one said, looking down and to the side, as if to efface himself. I heard you had a long night.

But who are you?

The old man shoved the cup even closer to Galileos face. I serve people.

You serve that man from Kepler! You came to me last night!

The old one glanced up at him, lifted the cup again.

Galileo took it, slurped down hot coffee. What happened?

I cant say. You were struck by a syncope for an hour or two in the night.

But only after I looked through your masters spyglass?

I cant say.

Galileo regarded him. And your master, where is he?

I dont know. Hes gone.

Will he return?

I cant say. I think he will.

And you? Why are you here?

I can serve you. Your housekeeper will hire me, if you tell her to.

Galileo observed him closely, thinking it over. Something strange had happened the night before, he knew that for sure. Possibly this old geezer could help him rememberor help him in whatever might come of it. Already it began to seem as if the ancient one had always been there.

All right. Ill tell her. Whats your name?

Cartophilus.

Lover of maps?

Yes.

And do you love maps?

No. Nor was I ever a shoemaker.

Galileo frowned, then waved him away. Ill speak to her.

And so I came into the service of Galileo, intending (as always, and always with the same failure) to efface myself as much as possible.

In the days that followed, Galileo slept in short snatches at dawn and after dinner, and every night stayed up to look through his spyglass at Jupiter and the little stars circling it, his curiosity now tweaked by an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. He marked the four moons positions each night using the notation I, II, III, and IV, with I being the closest to Jupiter in the orbits he was now untangling, and IV the farthest away. Tracking and timing their movements gave him an increasingly confident sense of how long each took to circle Jupiter. All the expected signs of circular motion seen edge-on had manifested themselves. It was getting clearer what was going on up there.

Obviously he needed to publish these discoveries, to establish his precedence as discoverer. By now Mazzoleni and the artisans had made about a hundred spyglasses, but only ten of them were capable of seeing the new little planets; they became visible only through occhialini with magnifications of thirty times, and sometimes twenty-five when the grinding was lucky. (What else had been twenty-five or thirty times larger?) The difficulties in making a device this powerful reassured him; it was unlikely someone else would see the Jovian stars and publish the news before him. Still, it was best not to be slow about it. There was no time to lose.