Fire Time Read Online Free Page B

I’ve gotten since, and talking with visitors here – mainly, they see it as a disaster to their special cause, to the whole planet. If nothing else, the supplies they need are being pinched off. Let the affair go on awhile, and they won’t be able to get any stuff for their projects. At the worst possible time, too.’
    ‘Ah.’ Dejerine blew a smoke ring and followed its progress through squinted eyes till it had dissipated. ‘We come to what I want from you. Information. Background. Advice. The care and feeding of Ishtarians and of the small but venerable scientific-altruistic colony which the Exploratory Consortium maintains among them. Anything you can tell. You see, my orders were cut last week. Nearly all of my waking hours and half my sleeping ones have gone to getting my command organized, and will until we leave, which is soon. I suppose it would be indiscreet to tell a junior officer how much high-level sperm I receive–’
    Seeing Conway’s bemusement, he stopped. ‘Uh, sperm, sir?’ the younger man asked.
    ‘What, you haven’t heard? You are an innocent. Standard Procedure, Entropy Reaching Maximum. The point is, you are my single chance to learn about my objective. Ignorant as I am, I could do every kind of harm, perhaps actually compromise my mission.’
    ‘But – you’re educated, you’ve been around in space–’
    ‘Oh, yes, yes, yes,’ Dejerine said impatiently. ‘I understand the celestial mechanics of the Anubelean System. I know a little something about the natives of Ishtar, including their unique biological situation.’ He drew breath. ‘Planets where men can walk around in shirt sleeves are fewenough that everybody alive between the ears can at least name you those we know. By the same token, however, they’re thinly scattered. Our main involvements are with races and bases closer to home. Also, never forget, any planet is a whole world, too big and complicated to comprehend.
Bon Dieu,
man, I live on Earth and I can’t describe its littoral ecology or the dynastic history of China or what the current squabble in the Kenyan Empire is about!’
    He dropped cigar in ashtaker, slammed his drink down next to it, and from the table snatched the book on Ishtar. ‘I have been studying this, for instance.’ His words came quick and harsh. ‘The latest published, ten years old. Neatly assembled information.’ He flopped it open, more or less at random, and thrust it under Conway’s nose. ‘Observe.’
    The left page:
    ANUBELEA B (Bel)
    Type:
G2, main sequence
    Mass:
0.95 Sol
    Mean diameter:
1.06 Sol
    Mean rotation period:
0.91 Sol
    Luminosity:
0.98 Sol
    Effective temperature:
5800° K.

    Note:
Asteroids are distributed semi-randomly, due to the companion stars. For complete orbital data, see Appendix D. For fuller description of planets of B other than Ishtar, see Chapter XI.
    The right page:
    ANUBELEA B III (Bel III)
    ISHTAR
    Elementary parameters Earth (E) = 1.0
    Mass:
1.53 E
    Mean equatorial diameter:
1.14 E = 14,502 km.
    Mean density:
1.03 E = 5.73 H 2 O.
    Mean surface gravity:
1.18 E = 1155 cm/sec 2 .
    Sidereal year:
1.072 E = 392 Terrestrial days = 510 Ishtarian days.
    Rotation period:
0.775 E = 18 h 36 m 10.3 s.
    Axial inclination:
1.14 E = 28° 3′.2.
    Mean irradiation (from Bel only):
0.89 Sol/Earth.
    Mean angular diameter of Bel:
1.03 Sol/Earth = 33°.
    Mean sea-level atmospheric pressure:
1.12 E = 850 mm Hg.
    Normal % atmospheric composition by volume:
N 2 76.90, O 2 21.02, H 2 O 0.35, A 1.01, CO 2 0.03, + misc.
    Water/land surface ratio:
1.20 E = 2.94:1.
    Satellites
Mean orbital radius, km.
Sidereal period, hours
Mean equivalent diameter, km.
Mean angular diameter
I
(Caelestia)
2.40 × 10 4
8.34
188
38′
II
(Urania)
7.35 × 10 4
44.61
265
13′.5
    Note:
Both moons being of irregular shape, especially I, diameters and angular diameters as seen from Ishtar are calculated for equivalent spheres. For fuller information and discussion, see Chapter III .
    ‘What’s there