Deception Point Page 76

corked turned. Whats that supposed to mean?Why couldnt the modify and cooling event have occurred here on earth artifici each(prenominal)y? Rachel asked. The rock candy could have been blasted by a slush-hydrogen engine and then(prenominal) rapidly cooled in a cryogenic freezer.Corky st bed. Manufactured chondrules?Its an idea.A ridiculous one, Corky replie, flashing his meteorite sample. Perhaps you forget? These chondrules were irrefutably dated at 190 million historic period. His tone grew patronizing. To the best of my k pre movelyledge, Ms. Sexton, 190 million years ago, nobody was running slush-hydrogen engines and cryogenic coolers.Chondrules or not, Tolland thought, the evidence is piling up. He had been silent without delay for several minutes, deeply troubled by Rachels freshlyest revelation about the fusion crust. Her hypothesis, though staggeringly bold, had opened all kinds of new doors and gotten Tolland thinking in new directions. If the fusion crust is explain able what new(prenominal) possibilities does that present?Youre quiet, Rachel said, beside him.Tolland glanced over. For an instant, in the muted deading of the plane, he saw a softness in Rachels eyes that reminded him of Celia. Shaking clear up the memories, he gave her a tired sigh. Oh, I was just thinking She smiled. About meteorites?What else?Running done all the evidence, trying to figure out whats left?Something like that. any(prenominal) thoughts?Not really. Im troubled by how much of the selective information has collapsed in light of discovering that insertion shaft beneath the scrap.Hierarchical evidence is a brook of cards, Rachel said. Pull out your direct assumption, and boththing gets shaky. The location of the meteorite find was a primary assumption.Ill take. When I arrived at Milne, the administrator told me the meteorite had been put inside a primitive matrix of three-hundred-year-old ice and was more dense than any rock found anywhere in the area, which I took as logical proof that the rock had to fall from space.You and the rest of us.The midrange nickel content, though persuasive, is apparently not conclusive.Its close, Corky said nearby, apparently listening in.But not exact.Corky acquiesced with a reluctant nod.And, Tolland said, this never before seen species of space bug, though shockingly bizarre, in reality could be nothing more than a very old, deepwater crustacean.Rachel nodded. And now the fusion crust I hate to say it, Tolland said, glancing at Corky, but its starting to feel like theres more negative evidence than positive. cognition is not about hunches, Corky said. Its about evidence. The chondrules in this rock are decidedly meteoric. I agree with you both that everything weve seen is deeply disturbing, but we cannot neglect these chondrules. The evidence in favor is conclusive, while the evidence against is circumstantial.Rachel frowned. So where does that get off us?Nowhere, Corky said. The chondrules prove we are dealing with a meteorite. The simply question is why someone stuck it under the ice.Tolland wanted to believe his wizs hold up logic, but something just felt wrong.You dont look convinced, Mike, Corky said.Tolland gave his friend a bewildered sigh. I dont know. Two out of three wasnt bad, Corky. But were crop up to one out of three. I just feel like were absentminded something.90I got caught, Chris harpist thought, feeling a chill as he pictured an American prison cell. Senator Sexton knows I lied about the PODS software.As the PODS section manager escorted Gabrielle Ashe back into his office and unappealing the door, he felt his hatred of the NASA administrator grow deeper by the instant. this evening harper had learned just how deep the administrators lies truly ran. In sum to forcing Harper to lie about having make believeed PODSs software, the administrator had apparently dumbfound up some insurance just in case Harper got cold feet and decided not to be a team p layer. raise of embezzlement, Harper thought. Blackmail. Very sly. After all, who would believe an embezzler trying to push aside the single greatest moment in American space write up? Harper had already witnessed to what lengths the NASA administrator would go to save Americas space agency, and now with the announcement of a meteorite with fossils, the stakes had skyrocketed.Harper paced for several seconds around the widetable on which sat a scale model of the PODS satellite-a cylindrical prism with quadruplicate antennae and lenses behind reflective shields. Gabrielle sat down, her dark eyes watching, waiting. The nausea in Harpers gut reminded him of how he had felt during the infamous conjure up conference. Hed put on a lousy show that night, and everyone had questioned him about it. Hed had to lie again and say he was feeling ill that night and was not himself. His colleagues and the press shrugged off his lackluster performance and quickly forgot about it.Now the lie had have back to haunt him.Gabrielle Ashes expression softened. Mr. Harper, with the administrator as an enemy, you will claim a powerful ally. Senator Sexton could well be your only friend at this point. Lets start with the PODS software lie. Tell me what happened.Harper sighed. He knew it was condemnation to tell the truth. I bloody well should have told the truth in the first place The PODS launch went smoothly, he began. The satellite settled into a perfect polar orbit just as planned.Gabrielle Ashe looked bored. She apparently knew all this. Go on.Then came the trouble. When we geared up to start searching the ice for density anomalies, the onboard anomaly-detection software failed.Uh huh.Harpers words came faster now. The software was supposed to be able to rapidly examine thousands of acres of data and find separate of the ice that fell outside the range of normal ice density. chiefly the software was looking for soft spots in the ice-global warming indicators-but if it stumb led crosswise other density incongruities, it was programmed to flag those as well. The plan was for PODS to scan the cold Circle over several weeks and identify any anomalies that we could use to throwaway global warming.But without functioning software, Gabrielle said, PODS was no good. NASA would have had to examine images of every square inch of the Arctic by hand, looking for trouble spots.Harper nodded, reliving the nightmare of his programming gaffe. It would take decades. The situation was terrible. Because of a mar in my programming, PODS was essentially worthless. With the election coming up and Senator Sexton be so critical of NASA He sighed.Your mistake was devastating to NASA and the President.It couldnt have bob up at a worse time. The administrator was livid. I promised him I could fix the problem during the next shuttle mission-a simple matter of swapping out the silicon chip that held the PODS software system. But it was too little too late. He sent me home o n leave-but essentially I was fired. That was a month ago.And thus far you were back on television two weeks ago announcing youd found a work-around.Harper slumped. A terrible mistake. That was the day I got a dread(a) call from the administrator. He told me something had come up, a possible way to hold open myself. I came into the office immediately and met with him. He asked me to hold a press conference and tell everyone Id found a work-around for the PODS software and that we would have data in a few weeks. He said hed explain it to me later.