A World of Difference by Harry Turtledove Read Free Book Online Page A

that. It reminded Irv of a dentist’s drill the size of Baltimore. His teeth cringed at the very idea.
    His seat was padded and contoured, but he still felt as though he weighed tons. “Are we really sure Minerva’s gravity is only a couple of percent higher than ours?” he asked plaintively. “Or are we still decelerating?”
    “Yes, we’re sure and yes, we are,” Emmett replied, but before Irv had a chance to be relieved, the mission commander went on. “But not enough to do anything about our weight.” He sounded amused.
    Irv groaned. So did Frank.
    Sarah felt strong enough to raise an arm and point to the monitor. “We just passed something big. A castle, a temple, a barracks—”
    “Could be anything,” Irv agreed. “I wish we knew more about where the Minervans are technologically. They don’t have atomic energy and they don’t have radio, but there’s a lot of difference between where we were in 2000 B.C . and in 1890.”
    “Or in 22,000 B.C .,” Emmett put in. He enjoyed sticking pins in people to make them jump.
    This time it didn’t work. Irv had the facts to shoot him down. “No big buildings in 22,000 B.C .,” he said smugly. Then he shut up as another whatever-it-was went by on the screen. Clouds blurred the view, but he still recognized the pattern on the ground surrounding the building. “Those are fields down there!”
    “You’re right,” Pat said. “You see those grooved circles in the middle of nowhere when you fly over irrigated farms in desert country.”
    “But the lines—plow marks, would those be, Irv?” Sarah said.
    “On Earth, sure. Here, who knows?” he answered.
    “The lines aren’t straight,” she observed. “What does that mean?”
    “Maybe contour plowing. Maybe the Minervans don’t know what straight lines are. That’s what we’re here to find out.”
    Emmett said, “Yeah!” as
Athena
flew over a pair of volcanoes with glaciers snaking down from their peaks. “Those are Smaug and Ancalagon,” he added. “Now I know where we are. We need to head just a touch further east.” He made the adjustment.
    They flew lower and lower, slower and slower. As they dropped below 45,000 feet and Mach one, Emmett cut in the turbines. The engines went from a shriek to a full-throated roar. “This is your pilot speaking,” Bragg said. “Thank you for flying Minerva Air. The cabin attendants will be starting the movie shortly. Please keep your seat belts fastened.”
    “
Athena
does sound just like a 747 now, doesn’t she?” Irv said; the mission commander’s deadpan, dead perfect delivery made him realize consciously what he had been feeling in his bones. Not even a first-class seat on a big jet, though, had the padding and room this one did. On the other hand, airline passengers didn’t need so much, either.
    “How’s she handle, Emmett?” Frank asked. He had flownlight planes before he went into astronaut training, and T-38 jet trainers since. If anything happened to Bragg, he would try to get
Athena
home. Neither he nor anyone else relished the prospect.
    Bragg thought for a moment before he answered. “Depends on what you’re comparing it to. It’s no fighter, but it’s a long way from being a mildly aerodynamic brick like the shuttle, too.”
    “More like fun, or more like work?” Marquard persisted.
    “In space it’s fun. Here it’s work, but not pick-and-shovel work. White collar, you might say. I’m not really dressed for it.” Grinning, he ran his hand down the front of the blue NASA coverall.
    “Where’s
Tsiolkovsky?
” Pat asked.
    Louise Bragg checked the radar. “Well west of us, and a couple of miles higher.”
    Everyone in the cabin whooped—none of them wanted the Russians to beat them down. “In Baikonur our name is cursed, when they find out we landed first!” Irv sang, mangling Tom Lehrer in a good cause.
    “I wonder what they think of our bearing,” Louise said. “Why aren’t they calling to ask us about