of course Iâve heard of you.â He sat up straight in his chair. âIâm a big fan of your work.â
Which was the unvarnished truth. One of the SF authors whom he admired the most was Gregory Benford; not only did he have a superb imagination, but he was also one of the small handful of writers whose novels and stories possessed a high degree of scientific plausibility. When Murphy began writing, one of the authors whose style he had consciously attempted to emulate was Benfordâs, albeit unsuccessfully.
A dry chuckle from the other end of the line. âCall me Greg, please. And I rather like your stuff, too.â
âBut I havenât written any â¦â Then he realized Benford wasnât talking about science fiction. âOh, you mean my Analog articles.â
âYou mean youâve been published elsewhere? I havenât seen your by-line except in â¦â
âNo, no,â Murphy said hastily. âThe things Iâve done for Analog are all ⦠I mean, yâknow, Iâve tried to write fiction, but they didnât ⦠I mean, it just didnât work out.â
âThatâs too bad. Anyway, Dr. Murphy â¦â
âDavid.â
âSure. Anyway, as I was saying, the reason why Iâm calling is that Iâve just read that article about time travel â¦â
âReally?â Murphy absently picked up a paper clip, tumbled it between his fingers. âHope you liked it. I mean, I was really out in left field â¦â
âNo, no, it was really quite interesting. The premise is a bit radical, to be sure, but you managed to support it quite well. Iâm quite intrigued by the idea. In fact, I was hoping we could discuss it further. I have questions Iâd like to ask you.â
âCertainly. My pleasure.â Murphy craned his neck to glance at the wall clock near the door. âIâve got a department meeting in about a half hour, but Iâve got time before then. What do you want to know?â
âActually, I sort of hoped we could get together for lunch.â
Murphyâs eyebrows rose. âFor lunch? Today?â
âSure, if itâs not too much trouble. Iâm in town right now ⦠there was a physics conference in Baltimore last weekend, and I stayed over to visit some friends in the area. Iâm catching a flight back to L.A. this afternoon, but Iâve got some time to kill before then. Since I knew you worked at NASA, I thought Iâd give you a buzz and see if you were available for lunch.â
Odd. Murphy hadnât heard of any physics conferences being held in Baltimore, and his colleagues at Goddard were usually pretty good about keeping him informed of these things. Yet such conferences were commonplace; this one probably slipped his mind. âNo ⦠I mean, yes. By all means, Iâd love to get together with you. Where are you staying? Iâll â¦â
âI was at the Hyatt, but Iâve already checked out,â Benford said. âActually, I was thinking about dropping by the Air and Space Museum. Itâs close to you, and I donât want to take up your whole lunch hour, so why donât we meet there?â
âWell ⦠sure,â Murphy said, a little more reluctantly than he meant to sound. There was a restaurant on the museumâs fourth floor, but it wasnât anything special: a cafeteria for tourists, offering little more than cheeseburgers and pizza. If he was going to have lunch with Gregory Benford, he would have preferred a more upscale bistro. There were a half dozen good cafés on Capitol Hill where they could meet. Yet Benford was probably in a hurry; after all, he had a plane to catch later today. âThe Air and Space it is. How about twelve noon?â
âThatâs good for me. Iâll meet you ⦠how about on the ground floor, in front of the lunar lander? At twelve oâclock?â
âFine