It hadnt occurred to me to wonder whether the ship might have been the real target of the snatch, and that we tourists might have been mere inconveniences to be casually shoved out of the way. If that were so, it might help to explain our present
surroundings but it raised other questions.
So who might want to hijack a Titanian spaceship? I asked.
Niamh Horne didnt answer that, but several other pairs of eyes flickered in Lowenthals direction.
Im flattered that you think me capable of such cleverness, he said, but the Earthbound have had a thousand opportunities to board Outer System ships during the last century, while misfortune brought about a dramatic increase in traffic.
Excelsior has had many other visitors from the outer system, Davida was quick to put in. It would not have been necessary to awaken Adam Zimmerman to create an opportunity to steal a spaceship, had we the slightest interest in such a theft. She seemed defensive, though, and I could understand why. If the Outer System didnt know yet that Child of Fortune had been stolen, that was probably because they still thought that it was exactly where it was supposed to be: docked with Excelsior. Perhaps it was.
Adam Zimmerman leaned forward, clearly signaling an intention to speak. Perhaps it was only the fact that hed kept such a low profile until now that made everyone else give way immediately, or perhaps he really did exercise a charismatic authority over all kinds of posthumans. Perhaps Im being stupid, he said, softly, but is there any possibility that the pictures relayed to me after the alarm sounded were, in fact, an accurate record of what was happening to us?
Adam Zimmerman had been born into a world that knew nothing of Virtual Experience, and had only lived long enough to see the technologys first faltering steps before he was frozen down. He didnt have the suspicious reflexes that the rest of us had learned as we learned to walk and talk: the reflexes which said that anything experienced in a Virtual Environment had to be reckoned a mere phantom of the imagination until prove otherwise.
No one was in a rush to take charge of Adams disenchantment, and it was left to Christine Caine to provide the answer. It was just a show, she said. Third rate space opera. Even Ive seen better. It cant have been true.
If thats the case, the man who stole the world replied, still speaking with carefully contrived mildness, why bother showing it to us, especially if the real target was the ship and our presence aboard it merely an inconvenience? Why lie so transparently or at all?
He had a point.
Thats a good question, Mortimer Gray put in, echoing my own thought. Why tell us that we were being pursued and kidnapped by aliens of a kind whose nonexistence we have every reason to suppose, given that we could not possibly believe it?
I could have believed it, Adam pointed out.
If Zimmerman had been the prime target of the snatch, I thought, the whole show might have been put on purely for his benefit but if someone had intended to deceive him, they surely wouldnt have let him join this conference. Alices remark about the situation not being of her choosing had implied that we had been foisted on our present custodians, so there might be several different agendas in conflict here. Maybe everyones plans were going awry, unraveling under some pressure that we hadnt yet identified.
The tape was intended to confuse us, Niamh Horne opined.
If so, Lowenthal said, pensively, it suggests that whoever designed and used it has something to gain from our confusion. In fact, everything about our present circumstances suggests that we are being deliberately confused. Why?
Perhaps were not the only ones who saw the tape, Niamh Horne put in. Perhaps the lie is bigger and bolder than we imagine, intended to confuse anyone searching for Child of Fortune or for us.
How difficult would it be to find a spaceship once you knew that it had gone astray? I asked, not knowing whether it was a stupid question.
Not difficult, in theory, Niamh Horne answered, although it would be a great deal easier if the ship or someone aboard it were able to send out a distress call. We do try to keep track of all the sizable chunks of matter in the solar system, but its an impossible task. There are too many microworlds cutting loose from their orbits, too many spaceships hopping back and forth in every direction, and too many dirty snowballs raining in from the Oort most of which are continually being nudged this way or that so that interested parties can try to scoop them up. Artificial photosynthetics can turn all kinds of objects matt black in no time at all, and bouncing photons off distant objects isnt much use as a locator if the targets switched orbits by the time the signal reaches you. An object that appeared
as if out of nowhere, or even one that turned up in an unexpected place, might not be detected for months or years which would leave a wide margin of opportunity for its subsequent disappearance. Even if every human and mechanical eye in the outer system were looking for Child , shed be very difficult to find once Excelsior had lost track of her. I dont know how big this thing is, but the same probably applies if no one actually had an eye on it before we arrived here, itll be very difficult to detect.