Imperial Earth

The boilers were shapeless, crumpled masses, but the engines themselves were in surprisingly good condition. Duncan looked with awe at the giant connecting rods and crankshafts, the huge reduction gears. (But why on earth did the designers use piston engines and turbines?) Then his admiration was abruptly tempered when Commander Innes gave him some statistics: this mountain of metal developed a ludicrous forty thousand kilowatts! He remembered the figure that Chief Engineer Mackenzie had given for Sirius’ main drive; a trillion kilowatts. Mankind had indeed gone a long way, in every sense of the phrase, during the last three centuries.

He was exhausted when he had climbed back up the alphabet from G to A deck (one day, Commander Innes promised, the elevators would be running again) and was more than thankful when they settled down for lunch in the First

Class Smoking Room.

Then he looked at the Menu, and blinked:

RMS. “TITANIC”

April 14, 1912

LUNCHEON

Consomme Fermier Cockie Leekie Fillets of Brill Egg A I’Argenteuil

Chicken A la Maryland Corned Beef, Vegetables, Dumplings FROM THE GRILL Grilled Mutton Chops Mashed, Fried, and Baked Jacket Potatoes Custard Pudding Apple Meringue Pastry

BUFFET

Salmon Mayonnaise Potted Shrimps Norwegian Anchovies Soused Herrings Plain & Smoked Sardines Roast Beef Round of Spiced Beef Veal & Ham Pie Virginia & Cumberland Ham Bologna Sausage Brawn Galatine of Chicken Corned Ox Tongue Lettuce Beetroot Tomatoes

CHEESE

Cheshire, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Edam, Camembert, Roquefort, St. Ivel, Cheddar

Iced draught Munch Lager Beer 3d. & 6d. a Tankard

“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” said Calindy. “We’ve done our best, within the limits of the synthesizers, but we don’t even know what half these items were. The secret of Cockie Leekie went down with the ship, and perhaps it’s just as well. But we do have a substitute for the Munich

Beer.”

Duncan would never have given this ordinary, unlabeled bottle a second thought had he not noticed the extreme care with which it was carried. He looked questioningly at his hostess.

“Vintage ‘05, according to the wine steward’s records-1905, that is. Tell me what you think of it.”

With one bottle to forty guests, there was just enough to get a good taste.

It was port, and to Duncan seemed just like any other port; but he was too polite to say so. He made vague mumblings of appreciation, saw

that Calindy was laughing at him, and added, “I’m afraid we don’t have much chance of studying wines on Titan.”

“Titan,” said Commander Innes thoughtfully. “How very appropriate.”

“But hardly a coincidence. You can thank Cal Miss Ellerman.”

“You’ve no seas on Titan, have you?”

“Only small temporary ones. Of liquid ammonia.”

“I couldn’t live on a world like that. I can’t bear to be away from the sea more than a few weeks. You must go to the Caribbean and dive on one of our reefs. If you’ve never seen a coral reef, you can’t imagine it.”

Duncan had no intention of following the Commander’s advice. He could understand the fascination of the sea, but it terrified him. Nothing, he was sure, would ever induce him to enter that alien universe of strange beasts, full of known dangers that were bad enough, and unknown ones that must be even worse. (As if one could possibly imagine anything worse than the maneating shark or the giant squid…. ) People like Commander

Innes must indeed be mad. They made life interesting, but there was no need to follow their example.

And at the moment, Duncan was too busy trying to follow Calindy-without much success. He could appreciate the fact that, having’ some fifty people to deal with, she could give him only two percent of her time; but when he tried to pin her down to a meeting under less hectic circumstances, she was curiously evasive. It was not that she was unfriendly, for she seemed genuinely pleased to see him. But something was worrying her-she was holding him at arm’s length. It was almost as if she had been warned that he was bringing deadly Titanian germs to Earth. All that he could extract from her before they parted was a vague promise that she would contact him “just as soon as the season is over”-whatever that might mean.

Enigma Associates had not disappointed him, but their vice-president had left him puzzled and saddened. Duncan worried at the problem

throughout the thirty-minute ride in the vacuum subway back to 181 Washington. (Thank God the van Hyatts were staying in New York-he would not appreciate their company in his present mood.)

He realized that there was nothing he could do; if, like some lovesick suitor, he persisted in bothering Calindy, it would merely make matters worse. Some problems could be solved only by time, if indeed they could be solved at all.

He had plenty to do. He would forget about Calindy…. With any luck, for as much as an hour at a time.

AKHENATON AND CLEOPATRA