Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Part Thirteen, Chapter Three - Inconsistently Hard Light

As Gris speeds home, looking forward to his brand-new dancing girl, he spots a unique opportunity - a herd of camels being led home by a donkey.  The jackass cuts in right in front of the other jackass, spooking the humble beast of burden and sending the camels scattering, while Gris laughs uproariously.

According to Sunday Today, this book is a "relentless page-turner."

Next Gris drops by Faht Bey's office at the International Agricultural Training Center for Peasants, delivering a stack of construction contracts and demanding thirty thousand more lira.  But fatso takes ten thousand for himself, explaining that he had to pay out of pocket to send Gris' dancing girl back to Istanbul after she made such a commotion upon arriving.  Gris is furious that his driver said he authorized the return, and that he'll be missing out on some dubiously-consensual sex.  His car dies on the way home, and when he finally makes it he finds that the driver isn't around to answer for his actions.

So with nothing better to do, more HellerVision.

Heller spent the morning jogging up and down the base's corridors with weighted sacks to compensate for Earth's lower gravity.  Then he equips some "spikes," sets of little drills strapped to a climber's wrists and feet that allow them to scale sheer surfaces, and climbs around the inside of the cavernous hangar to take rock samples.  He's concerned about earthquakes, you see.

When Heller reaches the top of the hollowed-out mountain fastness, he complains to himself about how much Apparatus facilities stink, and why they never properly air the places out.  He asks the hangar chief if he can shut off the "electronic illusion" of the mountaintop to let some fresh air in that evening, but is told that the equipment is so old that the "off" switch is immobile.

I'm grateful for this, as there isn't much to say about the rest of the chapter.  So: "electronic illusion."  Hubbard never bothered to explain what the hell he's talking about, but my best guess would be that there's a hologram of a mountain peak to disguise the vertical hangar entrance.  Now, as constructs of cunningly-arranged light sources, holograms are not known for their solidity, or ability to block air flow.  Indeed, Prince Caucalsia passes right through the "electronic illusion" while landing without incident.

So, seasoned science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, how can a spaceship move through a hologram but not air currents?


Back to Chapter Two

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