From: etroup@robin.rp.csiro.au (Euan Troup, AT Parkes.)
Subject: Re: Continuing Time
Organization: CSIRO Division of Radiophysics/Australia Telescope National Facility
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 13:10:48 GMT

In article <Btq4A5.D77@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, ndj20710@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Nathan D. Johnson) writes...
>francis@dogwood.atl.ga.us (John Stracke) writes:
>>I checked last night, and he had indeed lost (or used up) the glue.
>>See page 356.  (As rare as this book is, I'm assuming there aren't
>>multiple publications of it.) He had the emblade, a spraytube of
>>fadeaway, a sonic bomb, and a spool of fineline.  No glue.
>
>>OK, what do you guys think? This would seem to make it difficult to
>>impossible to believe the hologram-of-a-wall idea, since, as someone
>>pointed out, there were too many people there not to notice a hole cut
>>in the wall (also, somebody would notice eventually, right? ;-).  The
>>voiceprint problem is the only explanation *I* can think of for
>>Trent's silence (this is the guy who, with a PKF Elite [Garon]
>>standing a few meters away, said "Catch me if you can"--not someone
>>naturally inclined to shut up).  I think I'm back to the
>>hologram-of-Trent idea.
>
>As I said, I don't have my copy of the book (they've been in Southern Illinois
>for a year now) so page references help me not at all [feel free to include
>them for the rest of the world though] I'll take your word for it on any
>contents that I don't specifically remember differently, and those to if you
>check first.
>I am not sure that the discovering of the hole would be a problem in the grand
>scheme. First of all, when the PKF first saw it, they believed it was for real,
>and subsequently returned to chasing Trent. Why would they have continued into
>the room? They couldn't walk through the wall. Second, the news was obviously
>spread relatively quickly, since the captain/pilot/whatever of the Jack of
>Shadows heard about it ( he asks Trent about it when Trent wakes up I think )
>And all that is really neccesary for the story to stick is for some outside
>person to hear it and believe it. It seems quite plausible that someone might
>have sent a message on an unsecured channel right after the incident. But there
>would be no reason for the truth,, when discovered to be announced to the
>world, so if a free-lunie hears a shocked PKFer say Trent had  walked through
>a wall, and the government, which isn't trusted on Earth, and is distrusted on
>the moon, later gives a plausable story, but only after much delay, what is
>the free-lunie to believe?
        There _is_ a problem with this scenario - There's a quote from Melissa
        duBois in the  'Exodus Bible' which says:
                "It happened as you have heard it.
                "I was there."

        So the PKF really do think Trent walks through walls. And they're the
ones who'd try to find any plausible explanation. The quote is at the beginning
of chapter 15 of the section called 'The Wall - 2069-2070 Gregorian'. (Hey -
I've just noticed a quote here which says that miracles occur only among people
disposed to believe in miracles - and the PKF are mostly Catholic - make of it
what you will, but I know that this is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this
book a lot, and I'm desperate to read the new ones. I may even consider buying
the hardcovers and bugger the balance of payments.


>The two big problems that I have with the hologram of Trent problem, which I
>will need answers to before I can consider your solution, are:
>1  Where is Trent after he leaves the elevator?
>2  Why does he make the comment about how far it is from the meeting room to
>the airlock?
>I would look at these in context more, to see if I could find a solution, but
>I don't have my copy.
>       Nate.
>

Euan Troup,     etroup@atnf.csiro.au
..mostly harmless                      Disclaimer: I frame no hypotheses.
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:11480 rec.arts.sf.science:2661