LT. COL. GREAVES: That Spaceship X was traveling at a greater velocity
than the _Camaraderie 17_, and that its orbit considerably exceeded
our own. However, owing to the eccentricity of our orbit, the two
trajectories were approaching, and would parallel each other before,
during, and slightly after apogee, during which time the two spacecraft
would be close enough to each other to permit a boarding attempt.
* * * * *
SEN. LARCH: Will you describe Spaceship X for us, Colonel Greaves?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Yes. It was roughly cylindrical in shape, and
constructed of a dead-black, nonreflective metal. Only one viewport
was visible to us--a small one just aft of the lock--and this viewport
proved to be the only one the ship possessed. Perk and I estimated
the vessel's length at about five hundred feet, its breadth at about
eighty-five feet, and its depth--as I said, it was only roughly
cylindrical--at about fifty feet. In view of later developments,
I think it safe to say that these estimates were close to being
one-hundred percent correct.
SEN. LARCH: Are you positive that they are your original estimates,
colonel? Are you certain that you did not revise them in order to
substantiate the conclusion you arrived at after boarding the vessel?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Those are our original estimates.
SEN. KUELL: Senator, may I have a word?
SEN. LARCH: Please proceed, Senator Kuell.
SEN. KUELL: Colonel Greaves, I'm sure you realize what a grave bearing
yours and Commander Perkins' discovery can have upon religious beliefs
throughout the world should the conclusion you arrived at prove to be
correct. Therefore, I'm sure that you won't take it amiss if I press
this matter of dimensions a bit further. Now a cubit, as all of us
present are well aware of, represents the length of the human arm from
the end of the middle finger to the elbow--a matter of from eighteen to
twenty-two inches. We have, in other words, a variation of five inches.
Hence three hundred cubits, broken down into feet, varies from four
hundred and fifty feet to five hundred and fifty feet; fifty cubits,
broken down into feet, varies from seventy-five feet to ninety-one and
one half feet; and thirty cubits, broken down into feet, varies from
forty-five feet to fifty-five feet. Now, if we calculate the average of
each of these sets of figures, we arrive at the following dimensions:
length--five hundred feet; breadth--eighty-three and one fourth feet;
and depth or height--fifty feet. Does it not strike you as being
highly significant, Colonel Greaves, that yours and Commander Perkins'
estimates should have thus fortuitously approximated--and two cases
actually have coincided with--these figures, and isn't it reasonable to
assume that you revised your true original estimates so that they would
accord with your subsequent theory as to the nature of Spaceship X, and
that the actual dimensions of Spaceship X may be altogether different
from those which you ascribe to it?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Again, I can only say that the estimates I gave you
were our original estimates. We had no need to revise them and we would
not have revised them even if the need had arisen.
SEN. KUELL: Then why weren't they radioed back to central control
coincidentally with your announcement that you had sighted--and I
use your own words--'what appears to be a spaceship of stupendous
proportions'? Why were they withheld until after you had re-boarded the
_Camaraderie 17_?
LT. COL. GREAVES: They were not withheld in the sense that you
imply. Perk and I simply decided that it would be better to wait
until we approached Spaceship X more closely before radioing in a
detailed description, but when the time came, we were so busy making
preparations for boarding that we forgot the matter completely.
SEN. KUELL: Thank you, colonel. Please proceed with your questioning,
Senator Larch.
* * * * *
SEN. LARCH: Tell me, Colonel Greaves--why were you and Commander
Perkins so determined to board Spaceship X?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Because we knew that this would be our only chance.
The difference in the two orbits was such that the forthcoming
juxtaposition of the two craft could not occur again for weeks and
possibly months and consequently could not occur again at all since our
flight was limited to three orbits. In addition, there was the strong
possibility that Spaceship X, owing to the nonreflective nature of the
metal of which it was constructed, might never be relocated. It had,
after all, gone undetected up till now. We felt that the situation had
all of the earmarks of a heaven-sent opportunity, and that it would be
a shame not to take advantage of it.
SEN. LARCH: Did it not occur to you that the vessel might be an
advanced Vostok model of some kind, and that it might be manned?
LT. COL. GREAVES: We knew without even having to discuss the matter
that while the Russians would have been capable of building such a
ship, launching it with their present boosters would have been out of
the question.
SEN. LARCH: But it did occur to you that the vessel might be manned by,
shall we say, extra-terrestrial intelligences?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Yes it did. As a matter of fact, we were convinced
that it must be manned by beings of some sort--until we got close
enough to see the meteor holes in the hull. We knew then that while it
might once have been manned, it was manned no more--save, perhaps, by
dead men. We also knew that in order for it to have suffered that many
meteor penetrations, it must have been in space for millennia.
SEN. LARCH: You assumed this latter contingency--isn't that what you
mean, colonel? You couldn't possibly have known it for a certainty.
LT. COL. GREAVES: Granted. But later developments bore us out.
SEN. LARCH: Let's get down to those later developments, shall we?
Suppose we start from the moment you radioed the news of your discovery
back to central control. What did you do then?
LT. COL. GREAVES: We estimated when juxtaposition would occur and how
long it would endure, then radioed the information back to central
control together with the information that this was the only time
during our flight that it could occur. Finally we requested permission
for one of us to board the other craft.
SEN. LARCH: I understand that you stated that in view of the fact that
the ship was unmanned and that its attitude was relatively stable, the
danger involved would be negligible. Was this entirely true, colonel?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Entirely. As you know, senator, orbital rendezvous
have been achieved many times, both by this country and by the Soviet
Union, and in several instances actual transference has taken place.
The instance in question seems dangerous merely because the rendezvous
was fortuitous rather than planned. Fortuitous or not, however, it
posed no unusual problems, and there were two possible means of entry
virtually staring us in the face.
* * * * *
SEN. LARCH: During your press interview, you referred to one of these
entry points as a 'boat bay'. Will you elaborate further?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Yes. It was a large recessed area in the hull where
the auxiliary craft used by the passengers and the crew when they
disembarked had been moored. A lock gave onto this area, and I was
reasonably certain that I could burn my way into the ship with the
small acetylene torch that was part of the _Camaraderie 17's_ hardware.
This seems a rather naive assumption on my part in the light of the
analysis of the fragment of metal I brought back, but I had no way of
knowing at the time that the hull, however susceptible it might be
to meteors, was utterly impervious in a number of other respects. In
any event, as matters turned out I didn't have to use the torch, for
the boat-bay lock had been improperly sealed by the last person to
disembark.
SEN. NICHOLSON: Senator Larch, I would like to have the floor for a few
moments.
SEN. LARCH: Very well, Senator Nicholson.
SEN. NICHOLSON: To return to this sample piece of metal you brought
back with you, Colonel Greaves: During your press interview you
described it as 'a fragment of gopherwood'. In all honesty, colonel,
don't you think that this was a rather flippant and ill-considered
remark, and that by making it, you lent undue credence to what was--and
is--at best, an exceedingly tenuous theory?
LT. COL. GREAVES: I do not consider the remark to have been either
flippant or ill-considered. I was asked what I thought the metal was,
and I gave an honest answer. Furthermore, my immediate superiors agree
with me. Gopherwood has never been identified, and the term could very
well refer to the alloy that went into the construction of Spaceship X.
SEN. NICHOLSON: I shudder to think of the blow our international
prestige will receive should the scrolls you brought back with you
fail to validate your conclusions. Our space program will become the
laughingstock of the entire world. I simply cannot understand why
greater secrecy was not employed in this matter.
LT. COL. GREAVES: Too much of the story had already been made public
through radio and television coverage to make denying it practicable.
In any event, I'm certain that the scrolls will provide the necessary
proof. According to Dr. Noyes, they contain similarities to one of the
early Mediterranean alphabets, and this certainly suggests that the
descendants of whoever wrote them must have had something to do with
the development of that alphabet.
SEN. LARCH: Do you have any further questions, Senator Nicholson?
SEN. NICHOLSON: Not for the moment--no.
SEN. LARCH: I will proceed then. You and Commander Perkins are of equal
rank, Colonel Greaves. May I ask how you ascertained which of you would
do the boarding after authorization to do so came through?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Flipping a coin was out of the question of course,
and we had no straws or matches. Finally we agreed that since our wives
were of similar build and height, each of us would write down his
wife's weight on a slip of paper, and that the one of us whose wife
weighed the most would do the boarding. We promised to be completely
honest about this. I won by a margin of three pounds.
SEN. LARCH: I see. And have you apprised your wife of this ... ah ...
_modus operandi_?
LT. COL. GREAVES: As a matter of fact, I have not.
SEN. LARCH: A wise decision indeed. And now, colonel, will you tell us
what you did and what you found after boarding Spaceship X?
* * * * *
LT. COL. GREAVES: As I mentioned earlier, the boat-bay lock had
been improperly sealed. Consequently I had no trouble opening it.
The inner boat-bay lock proved to have been improperly sealed also,
and I concluded from this that the action in both cases had been
deliberate--that Spaceship X had not only been abandoned, but that
it had been abandoned in such a way as to make future use of it
impossible. After entering the ship proper, I found myself in a short
passageway. I floated along it, pulling myself forward by means of
this protuberance and that and propelling myself, whenever possible,
by pushing against the bulkheads with my feet. There was no light
save for an occasional ray of starlight seeping through the meteor
perforations, and my only effective means of illumination was the
electric torch I had brought with me from the _Camaraderie 17_. It
left much to be desired. Presently the passageway gave into a large
chamber which, judging from its rows of bolted-down benches and its
centrally located dais, was a meeting hall of some kind. I did not
linger there--Perk and I had estimated that at most I had only fifteen
minutes to carry out my explorations--but turned, and proceeded aft,
entering another passageway, this one much higher and longer than the
first. On either side, compartments were arranged in tiers, and each
of the tiers above deck-level was fronted by a catwalk. I entered
several of the compartments and looked around, but I saw nothing in
each case but a bunk-like bed and a small chest. The beds were bare,
and the chests were empty. Continuing on down the passageway, I came
to another chamber, this one, judging from its bolted-down tables and
benches, and the utensils drifting about, a combination dining room
and galley. Again, I did not linger. My primary interest was the power
source that had once propelled, illuminated and heated the ship, and
had provided it with artificial gravity, and I reasoned that I would
find this source in the stern. I was right, but before I located it I
came to still another chamber. This one was huge, and it was filled
with cages. All of them were empty, but they set me to thinking. For
one thing, there were hundreds of them. For another, they ranged in
size from tiny to titanic. For another, each of them struck me as
having been built to accommodate not one animal, but two or more. I
remembered the innumerable meteor penetrations, and the great age they
implied. I remembered that in the vacuum and in the absolute zero of
space, corrosion and decay are unknown and that under such conditions
objects can be preserved for millennia. I remembered the dimensions of
the ship. It couldn't be, and yet--
SEN. LARCH: Please confine your account to what you saw and what you
did, Colonel Greaves.
LT. COL. GREAVES: Very well. The chamber housing the power source, when
I finally located it, proved to be quite small. The source itself was
an ion motor. It had been thoroughly and deliberately smashed, and both
its condition and its advanced design prevented me from being able to
tell very much about it, but I _could_ tell, nevertheless, that while
it had been capable of powering the ship in space, it could never have
launched the ship from a planet, assuming that said planet's gravity
approximated Earth's. Launching a ship the size of that one took some
doing, and I take off my hat to the technicians who accomplished it.
SEN. LARCH: They just might have built the ship in space, you know.
LT. COL. GREAVES: I have reason to believe otherwise, but if they had,
I'd still take my hat off to them.
* * * * *
SEN. LARCH: All of which indicates, does it not, that we are dealing
with a race of people scientifically superior to our own.
LT. COL. GREAVES: It does.
SEN. LARCH: Then, assuming for the moment that your theory is valid,
doesn't it strike you as highly improbable that the sole survivors of
so scientifically advanced a race would, immediately after landing on
Earth, take up primitive husbandry?
LT. COL. GREAVES: No, it does not. I think that in undertaking the
voyage to Earth, the passengers and the crew of Spaceship X meant to
leave far more behind them than the natural catastrophe--probably a
tectonic revolution--that had occasioned their exodus. I think that
they meant to leave behind them a way of life which they had come to
loathe because it had supplied them with false gods, and I think that
once they landed on Earth and dispersed, they threw this way of life
over their shoulders and deliberately reverted to the thoughtworld and
the religious cosmogony of their remote ancestors. In other words, I
think that they used the natural disaster that forced them to migrate
to another planet as an excuse to begin all over again, and that they
burned their bridges behind them so that they would _have_ to begin all
over again. Probably they blew up the auxiliary craft, or lifeboat,
and every technological gadget it contained the very same day they
landed.... Earth, in those days, must have seemed like a promised land
indeed. Green, fertile, relatively unpeopled.... They had no way of
knowing, probably, that inter-marriage with the natives would soon
decimate their average life-expectancy.
* * * * *
SEN. LARCH: Wouldn't you say that you're indulging in some rather wild
surmises, Colonel Greaves?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Not at all. I think that the find I made shortly
after returning to the forward part of the ship justifies everything
I've said.
SEN. LARCH: You're referring, no doubt, to the 'dove'. Very well--go
on, Colonel Greaves.
LT. COL. GREAVES: I had some five minutes remaining when I got back
to the large hall from which I had begun my explorations, and I knew
that I would have to hurry if I expected to see the rest of the ship.
Crossing the hall, I passed through a wide entrance and found myself
at the base of a spiral companionway. I propelled myself up the metal
stairs, and a few minutes later, found myself on the bridge. The first
object my torch beam picked up was a huge viewscreen. When activated,
it must have provided a splendid view of space, but now of course the
screen was blank. Next to the screen stood a long desk, and on this
desk lay the ship's log--the metallic scrolls which had been left
behind (deliberately, I believe) and which are now being deciphered
by Dr. Noyes and his staff. In addition to the viewscreen and the
desk, the bridge contained a complex sextant, and an instrument panel
so intricate that compared to it, our panel on the _Camaraderie 17_
seemed like a primitive abacus. To the right of the panel, a doorway
opened into another sequence of compartments. As there were only four
of them and as they were obviously much more spacious than the previous
compartments I had found, I concluded that I had blundered into
officers' country. One of the compartments appeared to be considerably
larger than the other three, and believing it to be the captain's,
I looked into it first. I learned nothing beyond the fact that two
people, not one, had occupied it. I found this to be the case with the
three remaining compartments, and concluded that the four officers had
had their wives with them. Finally I returned to the bridge. I had
only two minutes to go now, and I probably would have propelled myself
straight back down the companionway (I had already taken possession of
the scrolls) if the 'dove' hadn't caught my eye. That's exactly what
I thought of when my torch beam picked up the object bracketed to the
bulkhead--a dove. A dove in flight. Investigating, I learned that it
was a streamlined telescopic camera the lens of which were probably
located somewhere in the ventral region of the hull. The 'wings' were
merely a device for centering the image and focusing the lens, while
the 'body' provided the housing for the automatic developing unit
and served as a receptacle for the finished photograph. The final
photograph to have been taken and never been removed, and it stood out
vividly in the beam of my torch. It was a photograph of an olive grove.
By now, my time had just about run out, and I removed the photograph
from the 'dove', returned to the boat-bay area, picking up a fragment
of meteor-dislodged metal on my way, and regained the _Camaraderie 17_.
SEN. KUELL: It is imperative that I interpose a few words at this
point, Senator Larch.
SEN. LARCH: Please go ahead, Senator Kuell.
* * * * *
SEN. KUELL: Colonel Greaves, I am of course familiar with this
photograph you brought back, but, while the general trend of your
reasoning is apparent to me, I cannot comprehend how so insignificant
a discovery could have set so unorthodox a train of thought in motion.
The fact that the photograph depicts an olive grove means absolutely
nothing, even when brought into juxtaposition with the concomitant fact
that the camera used in taking and developing it was shaped like a
dove. How could you possibly have arrived at the conclusion you did?
LT. COL. GREAVES: Because my 'train of thought', as you call it, was
already in motion and had been in motion for some time. The camera
and the photograph were merely the final clues in a whole series of
clues: the ship's dimensions, its obvious age, the cages, the large
compartment in the officers' section, and the three smaller ones....
With the discovery of the camera and the photograph, everything fell
into place.
SEN. KUELL: _Everything_, colonel? I can think of any number of
details that your theory does not explain. What of Xithuthros, Prithu,
and Ut-napishtim? What of Deucalion and Pyrrha? Would you have me
believe that _they_ were aboard this streamlined space-scow of yours?
LT. COL. GREAVES: In a sense they were. All versions of the legend
are based on handed-down memories of the voyage of Spaceship X from
Planet X to Earth, but the concept of space being beyond the scope of
primitive minds, the two planets were made into one, and the survivors
of the disaster were pictured not as fleeing from one planet to
another, but as sweating out the debacle in a craft that never left
Earth. The religious cosmogony which the survivors reverted to after
spreading out among the early civilized sectors of the world was
adapted in various ways, but the most authentic version, I believe,
comes down to us through Genesis, since it was in the region that later
became known as Judea that the captain of Spaceship X and his three
officers settled down.
SEN. KUELL: All of this is pure conjecture, colonel. You haven't so
much as a single fact to go on.
LT. COL. GREAVES: You're forgetting--are you not, senator?--that a
blow-up of the photograph of the olive grove revealed several pieces
of pottery in _good_ condition that the experts agreed dated from the
late Neolithic Period.
SEN. KUELL: You're forgetting--are you not, colonel?--that a vast
difference exists between an olive _grove_ and an olive _leaf_. And how
do you explain why these ancient voyageurs of yours brought animals
with them? More important, how do you explain what became of these
animals? Surely if they had been landed, some evidence of them would
remain, and just as surely, that evidence would have come to light by
now.
LT. COL. GREAVES: Maybe they were brought along out of compassion.
More probably, they were brought along because the survivors were
flesh-eaters. In either case, you can be certain that they were
transported from the mother-ship to Earth. As to why no evidence of
their existence has ever been found, isn't it reasonable to assume that
Planet X paralleled Earth in lower, as well as higher, forms of life?
SEN. KUELL: Only if you're trying to shore up a theory that is about
to collapse. But it will do you no good, Colonel Greaves: the text of
Genesis confutes your entire contention.
LT. COL. GREAVES: On the contrary, the text of Genesis substantiates my
contention. Let me quote one or two passages by way of illustration.
'--the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened.' This is race memory coming
to the fore in the form of an imagery so strong that it survives
translation, and with the aid of a little imagination, the passage can
be interpreted to mean that all is in readiness for the launching.
'And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth: and all the
high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered'. If you
will substitute 'distances' for 'waters' and 'over' for 'upon', you
will obtain a fairly clear mental picture of a planet fading from
sight in the viewscreen of a departing spaceship. And how about the
'stories' referred to in the building specification? '--with lower,
second, and third stories shalt thou make it'? Those weren't 'stories',
senator--they were stages. Rocket stages. The number of rocket stages
that would be required to launch a ship the size of Spaceship X into
space.
* * * * *
SEN. KUELL: I submit, colonel, that your reasoning is defective. I
submit furthermore that it is not the sort of reasoning which normal
well-adjusted Americans indulge in, and I hereby recommend to this
committee that both yours and Commander Perkins' qualifications be
reexamined at the earliest possible opportunity and that both of you be
relieved from duty until such time as it can satisfactorily be proven
that both of you have recovered from your hallucinatory experience.
LT. COL. GREAVES: But the scrolls I brought back aren't hallucinatory,
senator. Neither is the fragment of--of--yes, of gopherwood. And
certainly the photograph is real enough.
SEN. KUELL: Granted. But I have grave doubts about some of the other
items you have called to our attention. I'm afraid you're going to be
in for a rather rude awakening, Colonel Greaves, when Dr. Noyes and his
staff finish deciphering the scrolls. Gopherwood indeed!
SEN. LARCH: Excuse me, senator. I have just been handed a telegram from
Dr. Noyes. It--it would appear that they have deciphered the scrolls
already. I will read the telegram aloud: 'Deep Space Scrolls prove
Spaceship X to be Noah's Ark beyond vestige of a doubt--Noyes'.
_An extended silence._
* * * * *
SEN. NICHOLSON: I hereby resolve that this hearing be adjourned and
that a transcript of the proceedings be made public immediately.
SEN. KUELL: Gentlemen, I implore you not to act hastily in this matter.
Don't you see that if we accept Dr. Noyes' word as final, we will
be obligated to accept as fact that the concept of one God did not
originate on Earth, but somewhere out there in the wastes of space?
We will be obligated to admit that Earth was not the purpose of all
creation, but only a sort of afterthought?
SEN. HEWLETT: Gentlemen, I emphatically disagree. We are now obligated
to do what we should have done before: to really accept God as the
creator of the universe as we have come to know it. I hereby move that
we shed our geocentric cloaks once and for all and start looking upon
space not as a bête noir which circumstance and the Soviet Union have
forced us to come to grips with but as a great star-flowered sea upon
which we should have ventured long ago. That God is far beyond the pale
of our picayune conception of Him is a fact that we have known all
along but which we have refused to live with because we would have had
Him be as small and as petty as we are. Let us resolve from this moment
on that when we say 'Almighty' we mean 'Almighty' beyond peradventure
of a doubt. Gentlemen, we have roots among the stars! Let us lift off
from this dust mote on the doorstep of reality and wing our way into
the majestic hall of universe and go asearching for the planet of our
birth!
SEN. LARCH: Amen.