The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online

literally forever, since it would no longer need any fuel. The only practical limit to speed would, paradoxically, be that which the early aircraft had to contend with – the friction of the surrounding medium. The space between the stars contained appreciable quantities of hydrogen and other atoms, which could cause trouble long before one reached the ultimate limit set by the velocity of light.
    The quantum drive might have been developed at any time after the year 2500, and the history of the human race would then have been very different. Unfortunately – as had happened many times before in the zig-zag progress of science – faulty observations and erroneous theories delayed the final breakthrough for almost a thousand years.
    The feverish centuries of the Last Days produced much brilliant – though often decadent – art but little new fundamental knowledge. Moreover, by that time the long record of failure had convinced almost everyone that tapping the energies of space was like perpetual motion, impossible even in theory, let alone in practice. However – unlike perpetual motion – it had not yet been proved to be impossible, and until this was demonstrated beyond all doubt, some hope still remained.
    Only a hundred and fifty years before the end, a group of physicists in the Lagrange 1 zero-gravity research satellite announced that they had at last found such a proof; there were fundamental reasons why the immense energies of superspace, though they were real enough, could never be tapped. No one was in the least interested in this tidying-up of an obscure corner of science.
    A year later, there was an embarrassed cough from Lagrange 1. A slight mistake had been found in the proof. It was the sort of thing that had happened often enough in the past though never with such momentous consequences.
    A minus sign had been accidentally converted into a plus.
    Instantly, the whole world was changed. The road to the stars had been opened up – five minutes before midnight.

III – South Island

10. First Contact

    P erhaps I should have broken it more gently, Moses Kaldor told himself; they all seem in a state of shock. But that in itself is very instructive; even if these people are technologically backward (just look at that car!) they must realize that only a miracle of engineering could have brought us from Earth to Thalassa. First they will wonder how we did it, and then they will start to wonder why.
    That, in fact, was the very first question that had occurred to Mayor Waldron. These two men in one small vehicle were obviously only the vanguard. Up there in orbit might be thousands – even millions. And the population of Thalassa, thanks to strict regulation, was already within ninety per cent of ecological optimum …
    “My name is Moses Kaldor,” the older of the two visitors said. “And this is Lieutenant Commander Loren Lorenson, Assistant Chief Engineer, Starship Magellan. We apologize for these bubble suits – you’ll realize that they are for our mutual protection. Though we come in friendship, our bacteria may have different ideas.”
    What a beautiful voice, Mayor Waldron told herself- as well she might. Once it had been the best-known in the world, consoling – and sometimes provoking – millions in the decades before the End.
    The mayor’s notoriously roving eye did not, however remain long on Moses Kaldor; he was obviously well into his sixties, and a little too old for her. The younger man was much more to her liking, though she wondered if she could ever really grow accustomed to that ugly white pallor. Loren Lorenson (what a charming name!) was nearly two metres in height, and his hair was so blond as to be almost silver. He was not as husky as – well, Brant – but he was certainly more handsome.
    Mayor Waldron was a good judge both of men and of women, and she classified Lorenson very quickly. Here were intelligence, determination, perhaps even ruthlessness – she would not like to