Inevitably, therefore, the story you are about to read is something much more complex than a straightforward sequel to the earlier novel – or the movie. Where these differ, I have followed the screen version; however, I have been more concerned with making this book self-consistent, and as accurate as possible in the light of current knowledge.
Which, of course, will once more be out of date by 2001...
Arthur C. Clarke COLOMBO, SRI LANKA JANUARY 1982
I – LEONOV
1 – Meeting at the Focus
Even in this metric age, it was still the thousand-foot telescope, not the three-hundred-metre one. The great saucer set among the mountains was already half full of shadow, as the tropical sun dropped swiftly to rest, but the triangular raft of the antenna complex suspended high above its centre still blazed with light. From the ground far below, it would have taken keen eyes to notice the two human figures in the aerial maze of girders, support cables, and wave-guides.
'The time has come,' said Dr Dimitri Moisevitch to his old friend Heywood Floyd, 'to talk of many things. Of shoes and spaceships and sealing wax, but mostly of monoliths and malfunctioning computers.'
'So that's why you got me away from the conference. Not that I really mind – I've heard Carl give that SETI speech so many times that I can recite it myself. And the view certainly is fantastic – you know, all the times I've been to Arecibo, I've never made it up here to the antenna feed.'
'Shame on you. I've been here three times. Imagine – we're listening to the whole universe – but no one can overhear us. So let's talk about your problem.'
'What problem?'
'To start with, why you had to resign as Chairman of the National Council on Astronautics.'