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.He could not know where to move the ship until he knew wherethe ship was at the present.He did not believe it was in the position givenhim by the computer, and its original space warp position had certainly notbeen the one given by the computer.The computer did not have the ability to use its knowledge to explaincontradictory data.It had been ordered to compute their space warp positionby triangulation of the receding sun and stars and was not at all disturbed bythe contradicting shift of the sun into the ultraviolet.Suppose it had beenordered to calculate their position by computations based on the shift of thesun's and stars' spectrum into the ultraviolet?He asked it: WHAT IS OUR POSITION, IGNORING THE TRIANGULATION AND BASINGYOUR COMPUTATIONS ON THE SHIFT OF THE SPECTRUMS OF THE SUN AND ORIONINTO THE ULTRAVIOLET?It gave him the coordinates of a position almost two light-years toward Orion.The triangulation computations had shown the ship to be going backward at manytimes the speed of light; the spectrum-shift computations showed it to begoing forward with approximately the same speed.THIS SHIP CANNOT SIMULTANEOUSLY BE IN TWO POSITIONS THREELIGHT-YEARS APART.NEITHER CAN IT SIMULTANEOUSLY BE GOING FORWARD ANDBACKWARD.DATA ACKNOWLEDGED, it agreed.USE THAT DATA TO EXPLAIN THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE TWO POSITIONSYOU COMPUTED.DATA INSUFFICIENT TO ARRIVE AT LOGICAL EXPLANATION, it answered.ARE YOU CERTAIN THERE WAS NO ERROR IN YOUR CALCULATIONS?Page 93 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlTHERE WAS NO ERROR.DO YOU KNOW THAT IF WE DROPPED BACK INTO NORMAL SPACE, IT WOULD BEAT NEITHER OF THE POSITIONS YOU GAVE ME?It replied with the characteristic single-mindedness: DATA SHOWS OUR TWOPOSITIONS TOBE THOSE GIVEN.He paused again.He was still getting nowhere while time fled by.How swiftlyless than a hundred minutes could pass when they were all a man had left tohim.The computer was a genius with the mental initiative of a moronic child.Itcould find the answer for him but first he would have to take it by the handand lead it in the right direction.To do that he would have to know moreabout the warp.He wrote: EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF THE SPACE WARP AS SIMPLY AS POSSIBLEAND WITHOUT USING MATHEMATICS HIGHER THAN ALGEBRA.It answered at once: THIS CANNOT BE DONE.The chronometer read 12:30.He typed:THIS SHIP WILL HAVE TO RETURN TO NORMAL SPACE NO LATER THAN 13:53.ITMUST BE MOVED TO A DIFFERENT POSITION WHILE STILL IN THE WARP.DATA ACKNOWLEDGED, it replied.THIS SHIP CANNOT OCCUPY TWO POSITIONS AT THE SAME TIME.YOURMEMORY FILES SHOULD CONTAIN SUFFICIENT DATA TO ENABLE YOU TO FIND THEEXPLANATION OF THIS TWO-POSITION PARADOX.FIND THAT EXPLANATION.SUBMIT METHOD OF PROCEDURE, it answered.I DO NOT KNOW HOW.YOU WILL HAVE TO ARRIVE AT THE EXPLANATIONUNAIDED.THIS CANNOT BE DONE, it replied.He wrote, with morbid curiosity:IF YOU DO NOT FIND THE ANSWER UNAIDED YOU WILL BE DESTROYED ALONGWITH ME AT 13:53.DON'T YOU GIVE A DAMN?It answered: GIVE A DAMN IS A SEMANTIC EXPRESSION I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.CLARIFY QUESTION.He got out of the computer seat and walked about the room restlessly.Hepassed by the transdimensional viewscreen and communicator and pressed thecommunicator's signal button.A dial flickered in return, showing his signalwas going out, but there was no sound in response.If only he could makecontact with the brains in ObservationHe was umpty billion miles east of the sun and umpty billion miles west of thesun.He was racing faster than light in two different directions at once andhe was sitting motionless under the blasters of twoSlug cruisers.Another thought came to him: even if he could move the ship while in the warp,where could he go?He would have to go far beyond the outer limits of the solar system to escapedetection by the Slug cruisers.And at that distance the sun would be only ayellow star, incapable of energizing the little solar power units.He wouldnot live long after the last of the power was drained from the batteries andthe airregeneration equipment ceased functioning.He would not even dare sleep,toward the last.There were no convection currents in the air of a shipwithout gravity, and it was imperative that the air be circulated constantly.The air circulation blowers would cease functioning while the ship stillcontained pure air but he would have to move about continually to breathe thatair.Should he lie down to sleep he would smother to death in a carbon dioxidebubble of his own making.If he managed to emerge into normal space at some point just outside Earth'satmosphere, beyond range of the cruisers, his driveless ship would descend asa blazing meteor
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