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Some other disaster must be found in which I could serve the role of a casualty. If, for
instance, I had foreknowledge of some great meteor, and where it would strike...
The idea awoke an almost forgotten association. I sat up in my chair. Then, conscious that
knowledgeable minds speculated upon my every expression, I once again slumped
forlornly.
Behind the passive mask of my face, my mind was racing, recalling ancient events. The
time was too far past, the circumstances obscured. But details could be found in my great
History of Man,
I must by all means avoid suspicion. I yawned, feigned acute ennui. Then with an air of
surly petulance, I secured the box of numbered rods which was my index. I dropped one of
them into the viewer, focused on the molecule-wide items of information.
Someone might be observing me. I rambled here and there, consulting articles and essays
totally unrelated to my idea: The Origin and Greatest Development of the Dithyramb; The
Kalmuk Tyrants; New Camelot, 18119 A.D.; Oestheotics; The Caves of Phrygia; The
Exploration of Mars; The Launching of the Satellites. I undertook no more than a glance at
this last; it would not be wise to show any more than a flicker of interest. But what I read
corroborated the inkling which had tickled the back of my mind.
The date was during the twentieth century, during what would have been my normal
lifetime.
The article read in part:
Today HESPERUS, last of the unmanned satellites was launched into orbit around Earth.
This great machine will swing above the equator at a height of a thousand miles, -where
atmospheric resistance is so scant as to be negligible. Not quite negligible, of course; it is
estimated that in something less than a hundred thousand years HESPERUS will lose
enough momentum to return to Earth.
Let us hope that no citizen of that future age suffers injury when HESPERUS falls.
I grunted and muttered. A fatuous sentiment! Let us hope that one person, at the very
least, suffers injury. Injury enough to erase him from life!
I continued to glance through the monumental work which had occupied so much of my
time. I listened to aquaclave music from the old Poly-Pacific Empire; read a few pages
from the Revolt of the Manitobans. Then, yawning and simulating hunger, I called for my
evening meal.
Tomorrow I must locate more exact information, and brush up on orbital mathematics.
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The Hesperus will drop into the Pacific Ocean at Latitude 0° (X 0.0" ± 0.1", Longitude 141°
12" 63.9" ± 0.2", at 2 hours 22 minutes 18 seconds after standard noon on January 13 of
next year. It will strike with a velocity of approximately one thousand miles an hour, and I
hope to be on hand to absorb a certain percentage of its inertia.
I have been occupied seven months establishing these figures. Considering the necessary
precautions, the dissimulation, the delicacy of the calculations, seven months is a short
time to accomplish as much as I have. I see no reason why my calculations should not be
accurate. The basic data were recorded to the necessary refinement and there have been
no variables or fluctuations to cause error.
I have considered light pressure, hysteresis, meteoric dust; I have reckoned the calendar
reforms which have occurred over the years; I have allowed for any possible Einsteinian,
Gambade, or Bolbinski perturbation. What is there left to disturb the Hesperus! Its orbit
lies in the equatorial plane, south of spaceship channels; to all intents and purposes it has
been forgotten.
The last mention of the Hesperus occurs about eleven thousand years after it was
launched. I find a note to the effect that its orbital position and velocity were in exact
accordance with theoretical values. I believe I can be certain that the Hesperus will fall on
schedule.
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