Moon Flower by James P. Hogan Read Free Book Online

from a model or a probability forecast, but a physical manifestation generated from the backward-propagating A-wave. That state of affairs had persisted for two seconds. Then the delayed numbers had been delivered to the quantum superposition device, causing the function to happen, and the blue trace was the result. But if a precursor of the blue waveform did indeed exist within the violet fuzz, it was so buried in noise and uncertainties as to be far from readily apparent. The only indication would come from complex statistical analysis of the signals. Shearer and the others had seen this many times now, and at best the results were marginal. Technically, the correlations they were getting were significant. But convincing the rest of the world was another matter.
    Other scientists had read the papers describing the project; some had even come to see the experiments for themselves. But it quickly became apparent that their motivation was to debunk and discredit, not to evaluate, and the reports they subsequently wrote had not been favorable. Shearer often wondered if that might have been the real reason behind Wade’s sudden departure — as if Wade had kept up a brave face outwardly, reassuring them through his infectious enthusiasm that it would all work out in the end, but all the time harboring a growing disillusionment inside, until one day he decided that he just wanted out.
    And so the project had limped along on shoestring funds that the administrators had managed to wring out of an office of the state defense intelligence apparatus on the strength of deliberately exaggerated accounts that Shearer, following the precedent set by Wade, had written into the renewal applications, intimating the imminence of a method for “seeing into the future,” with juicy implications for military intelligence and political decision making. But that kind of deception was standard practice that researchers were forced to follow if they hoped to attract any attention at all. The funding authorities knew it too, and so a senseless kind of game ensued in which neither side believed the claims that were written, each knew that the other didn’t believe them, but both were required to act out the farce with straight faces and due solemnity. When the tune being called for was one that the piper couldn’t deliver, if he wanted to eat, he had little choice but to promise that it would be learned by tomorrow.
    And so they had carried on, and the experiments continued to deliver their marginal results. With Wade gone, Shearer had found himself gradually losing heart in the whole business too, and asking himself more frequently if they were reading more into what they were seeing than was there, and if the reality was as inconclusive as the skeptics said. One of the biggest pitfalls in science was the ease with which wishful thinking could distort the vision of true believers.
    Then, about a month previously, he had received a terse message from Wade saying that he wanted Shearer to come out and join him. However, this would have to be framed as a request for an assistant, and university regulations relating to equal opportunity didn’t permit someone of Shearer’s grade to be stipulated by name. Hence, Wade would have to go through the regular channels of putting through a request for a slot to be approved and applications invited; but he would make the description such that only someone with Shearer’s background would fit. Details of an opening on Cyrene had duly appeared in the professional situations-available lists, and Shearer had put in his bid. Although he hadn’t fully admitted it consciously to himself, he knew deep down that it signified his acceptance that the project at Berkeley was as good as over. He was open to the thought of starting again with something new elsewhere. He knew too that his mood had communicated itself to Rob and Merritt. None of them had come out and said so, but he could sense that they all had the