Free Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson Page A

Venetian senate—which this group somewhat resembled, in that they appeared elderly, and somehow used to authority. Many of them were women, however, or so Galileo guessed; they were dressed in the same kind of blouses and pantaloons as the men. If a northern monastery and convent had merged their populations, and could only express their wealth in the fine cloth of their simple habits, they might look like this.
    Despite the scattering of respectful bows, several among the group were now objecting to the stranger’s interruption. One woman, wearingyellow, spoke in the language Galileo didn’t recognize, and again he heard a Latin translation in his ears—Latin in a man’s voice, accented like the stranger’s. It said, “This is another illegal incursion. You have no right to interrupt the council’s session, and such a dangerous prolepsis as this will not be allowed to change the debate. In fact it is a criminal action, as you know very well. Call the guards!”
    The stranger continued to guide Galileo down the steps and onto the circular stage, until they were among the people standing there. Almost all of them were considerably taller than Galileo, and he looked up at them, amazed at their faces, so thin and pale—beautifully healthy, but manifesting signs of both youth and age in mixtures very strange to his eye.
    Galileo’s guide loomed over the protesting woman, and he spoke down to her, but addressed the entire group, in their language, so that again Galileo heard a slightly delayed translation in his ear. “Who gets to speak is only contested by cowards. My people come from Ganymede, and we assert the right to speak for it, to help determine what people do in the Jovian system.”
    â€œYou no longer represent Ganymede,” the woman said.
    â€œI
am
the Ganymede, as my people will attest. I will speak. The prohibition against descending into the Europan ocean was made for very important reasons, and the Europans’ current push to rescind that prohibition ignores several different kinds of danger. We will not allow it to happen!”
    â€œAre you and your group part of the Jovian council or not?” the woman shot back.
    â€œWe are, of course.”
    â€œBut the matter has been discussed and decided, and your position has lost to that of the majority.”
    â€œNo!” others around them cried.
    Many there then spoke up at once, and the debate quickly became a shouting match. People jostled around, contracting into knots like rival gangs in a piazza, growing red-faced with expostulation. The Latin in Galileo’s ear broke up into overlapping shouts: “Decided already—We asked him to speak!—We will have you removed!—Cowards! Anarchists!—We want the Galileo to speak to this matter!”
    Galileo raised his hand like a student in a class. “What matter do you discuss?” he said loudly. “Why have you brought me here?”
    In the pause that followed, one of the stranger’s Ganymedeans addressed him. “Most illustrious Galileo,” the Latin in his ear exclaimed, as this man bowed to him respectfully. He continued in his own tongue, which was translated in Galileo’s ear as: “—first scientist, father of physics, we here among the moons of Jupiter have encountered a scientific problem so fundamental and important that some of us feel we need someone with your original mind, someone unprejudiced by all that has happened since your time, someone with your supreme intelligence and wisdom, to help us decide how to deal with it.”
    â€œAh, well,” Galileo said. “There you have it, then.”
    One woman laughed at this. She was big and statuesque, dressed in yellow. In the midst of all the arguing, she looked partly irritated, partly amused. The others began their raucous debate again, many becoming vehement, and in the din of all the squabbling she circled around to his left