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A World Named CleopatraPoul Anderson, Jack Dann, Michael Orgill, George ZebrowskiProduced by Roger Elwood1977Four days in the life ofA WORLD NAMED CLEOPATRA,The Serpent in Eden, by Poul AndersonThe first earthpeople to explore Cleopatra make fateful contact with the eerilyhumanlike race of reptilians who inhabit the planet.Faber-Master, by Michael OrgillIn a time of political upheaval, a celebrated artist and his son struggle overwhat it means to create, to kill, to be human.Among the Mountains, by Jack DannA small, gentle nation becomes the seedbed of violence that threatens to engulfthe entire planet.Wayside World, by George ZebrowskiOne of the last survivors of the Cleopatra col?ony dares to dream again of aninterstellar human community.Never before has an extraterrestrial world seemed as real as the planetCleopatra, in this extraordinary work of fiction. When you finish the book, youwill feel as though you have been there yourself?felt the intense ?sunshine? onyour skin, gazed at the fan?tastically sculpted mountains, suffered and rejoicedwith the people of this exotic yet strangely familiar planet.AcknowledgementsA WORLD NAMED CLEOPATRA by Poul Anderson, reprinted from The Many Worlds of PoulAnderson 1974.THE SERPENT IN EDEN by Poul Anderson, reprinted from Omega 1973.FABER-MASTER by Michael Orgill, 1977.AMONG THE MOUNTAINS by Jack Dann, 1977.WAYSIDE WORLD by George Zebrowski, 1977.?A sad spectacle (the stars). If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery andfolly.??Thomas CarlyleDEDICATIONFor Norbert Slepyan, from all the cast?aways on Cleopatra.CONTENTSIntroduction:A WORLD NAMED CLEOPATRA by Poul Anderson 9THE SERPENT IN EDEN by Poul Anderson 27FABER-MASTER by Michael Orgill 59AMONG THE MOUNTAINS by Jack Dann 111WAYSIDE WORLD by George Zebrowski 151ABOUT THE AUTHORS 187A World Named Cleopatraby Poul AndersonThe planetary system lies in Ursa Major, 398 light-years from Sol. This causescertain changes in the ap?pearance of the heavens. Northerly constellations are?spread out? and most of the familiar stars in them show brighter than at Earth,though some have left the configurations because, seen from here, they now liein a southerly direction. Fainter stars in them, in?visible at Earth, havebecome naked-eye objects. These changes are the greater the nearer one lookstoward Ursa Major. It is itself modified quite out of recogni?tion by theuntrained eye, as are the constellations closest to it. The further away onelooks, around the celestial sphere, the less distortion. Southern,constel?lations are comparatively little affected. Those near the southcelestial pole of Earth, such as Octans, keep their shapes the best, though theyexhibit the most shrinkage in angular size. Various of their fainter stars (asseen from Earth) are now invisible?Sol is too?but they have been replaced byothers which (as seen from Earth) ?originally? were northern.low, and many are only to be observed at given seasons.Under these circumstances, it may be most conve?nient for colonists to redrawthe star map entirely, making new constellations out of what they see. Orperhaps this will happen of itself in the course of generations.THE SUNThe sun was named Caesar, mythology having been used up closer to home. It isof type F7, which means it is hotter and whiter than Sol. Its mass is 1.2, itstotal luminosity 2.05 SoL The diameter is little greater, but spots,prominences, corona, and output of charged particles (solar wind) are fewer. Itis a younger star than ours, though by less than a billion years. Either becauseof this, or because of variations in galactic distribution, the proportion ofheavy elements in it and its planets is somewhat more than for the Solar System.In general, the Caesarian System is a normal one. Besides asteroids, it containseleven planets. In out?ward order, these have been christened Agrippa (small,hot, nearly airless); Antony (about Earth size, with an atmosphere, but nothabitable by man); Cleopatra (the sole terrestroid member); Enobarbus (smallerthan Earth, larger than Mars, ruddy like the latter); Pompey (a gas giant,somewhat more massive than Jupiter); four lesser giants (Lepidus, Cornelia,Calpurnia and Julia); and finally, remote Marius and Sulla (the latter reallyjust a huge comet which has never moved into the inner system). There are twodistinct asteroid belts separating Enobarbus, Pompey and Lepidus.Seen from Cleopatra, Agrippa and Antony are morn?ing or evening stars, thoughthe former is usually lost in sun glare. The latter is brilliant, itsiridescence often apparent to the naked eye as solar wind causes its upperatmosphere to fluoresce. Enobarbus glows red, Pompey and Lepidus tawny white.Pale-green Cornelia can oc?casionally be seen without instruments.THE PLANETCleopatra moves around Caesar in an orbit of slight eccentricity, at an averagedistance of 1.24 astronomical units. Its year is 1.26 times that of Earth, about15 months long, and the sun in its sky has only 0.87 the angular diameter ofours. Nevertheless, because of its brightness, Caesar gives Cleopatra 1.33 timesthe total irradiation that Earth gets. A larger proportion of this energy is inthe shorter wavelengths; Caesar appears a bit more bluish white than yellowishwhite to human vision. The lesser appatent sin is not particularly noticeable,since no prudent person looks anywhere near it without eye protection, let alonestraight at it. Shadows on the ground tend to be sharper than on Earth and tohave more of a blue tinge. All color values are subtly different, though onequickly gets used to this.Theoretically, the mean temperature at a given lati?tude on Cleopatra should besome 20?C higher than the corresponding value for Earth. In practice, thedif?ferent spectral distribution and the atmosphere and hydrosphere, modifythings considerably. Cleopatra is warmer, and lacks polar icecaps. But then,this was true of Earth throughout most of its existence. Even at the equator,some regions are balmy rather than hot, while the latitudes comfortable to manreach further north and south than on present-day Earth. People simply avoid thefurnace-like deserts found here and there.They also take precautions against the higher level of ultraviolet light,especially in the tropics. Again,, this poses no severe problem. One can safelysunbathe in the temperate zones, and do so well into the polar regions insummer. Usually there is no undue glare of light; the more extensive atmosphere(vide infra) helps in scattering and softening illumination. Winter nights areusually ornamented by fantastically bright and beautiful auroras, down to lowerlatitudes than is the case on Earth?in spite of Cleopatra?s strong magneticfield. To be sure, solar-atmospheric interference with radio and the like canget pretty bad, especially at a peak of the sunspot cycle (for Caesar, about 14Earth-years long, as opposed to Sol?s 11). But once installed, lasertransceivers aren?t bothered. ?Cleopatra is smaller than Earth. In terms of the latter planet, its mass is0.528, its radius 0.78 (or 4960 km at the equator), its mean density 1.10 (or6.1 times that of water), and its surface gravity 0.86. This last means that,for example, a human who weighed 80 kg on Earth weighs 68.5 here; he himselfsoon adjusts to that?though he is well advised to maintain a lifetime program ofphysical exercise to avoid various atrophies and circulation problems?butengineering is affected. (For instance, aircraft need less wing area but groundvehicles need more effective brakes.) An object falling through a given distancetakes 1.07 ,times as long to do so as on Earth and gains?0.93 the velocity; apendulum of given length has 1.14 the period; the speed of a wave on deep wateris 0.93 what it is on Earth.Standing on a flat plain or sea, a man of normal height observes the horizon asbeing about 7 kin off, compared to about 8 on Earth?not a terribly strikingdifference, especially in rugged topography or hazy weather.Despite its lesser dimensions, Cleopatra has quite a terrestroid atmosphere. Infact, the sea level pressures on the two planets are almost identical. It isthought that this is due to the hot, dense mass of the planet outgassing morethan Earth did, early in their respec?tive histories, and to the fact that, eversince, the strong magnetic field has helped keep too many molecules from gettingkicked away into space by solar and cosmic ray particles.Air pressure drops with altitude more slowly than on Earth, because of the lowergravity. On Earth, at about 5.5 km the pressure is one-half that at sea level;but on Cleopatra, one must go up 6.35 km to find this. Not only does thatmoderate surface conditions, it ex?tends life zones higher, and offers morepossibilities to flyers both living and mechanical.There having been less tidal friction acting on it through most of itsexistence, Cleopatra spins faster than Earth: once in 17 hr 21 m 14.8 s, orabout 17.3 hr or 0.72 Earth diurnal period. Its year therefore lasts 639 of itsown days, give or take a little bit because of trepidation, precession, etc.The axial tilt is 28?, somewhat more than Earth?s. However, the climate of highlatitudes is not necessarily more extreme on that account Certainly winters areless cold. It is the difference in the length of seasons?a fourth again asmuch?which is most important. Like?wise, the seasonal variation of day and nightlengths is more marked than on Ear... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]