Poole had to go almost down on his knees so that he could peer up at the sky. He had thought himself beyond surprise, but the spectacle of two suns left him momentarily speechless.
'What's that?' he gasped, when he had recovered his breath.
'Oh – haven't you been told? That's Lucifer.'
'Earth has another sun?'
'Well, it doesn't give us much heat, but it's put the Moon out of business... Before the Second Mission went there to look for you, that was the planet Jupiter.'
I knew I would have much to learn in this new world, Poole told himself. But just how much, I never dreamed.
5 – Education
Poole was both astonished and delighted when the television set was wheeled into the room and positioned at the end of his bed. Delighted because he was suffering from mild information starvation – and astonished because it was a model which had been obsolete even in his own time.
'We've had to promise the Museum we'll give it back,' Matron informed him. 'And I expect you know how to use this,'
As he fondled the remote-control, Poole felt a wave of acute nostalgia sweep over him. As few other artefacts could, it brought back memories of his childhood, and the days when most television sets were too stupid to understand spoken commands.
'Thank you, Matron. What's the best news channel?'
She seemed puzzled by his question, then brightened.
'Oh – I see what you mean. But Professor Anderson thinks you're not quite ready yet. So Archives has put together a collection that will make you feel at home.'
Poole wondered briefly what the storage medium was in this day and age. He could still remember compact disks, and his eccentric old Uncle George had been the proud possessor of a collection of vintage videotapes. But surely that technological contest must have finished centuries ago – in the usual Darwinian way, with the survival of the fittest.