Page 12 - Tales Apocalyptic and Dystopian

The Stars Impel

Minu appeared taken aback by this blunt question. She fumbled
with the console.
“I don’t know how to express what you call ‘aspects’. But the
computer did analyze the date and sidereal time of every native
Euflorian birth in conjunction with the observed personality variables
of those individuals. Those patterns were examined both from the
heliocentric and geocentric frames of reference; the geocentric
yielded better chi-square numbers.”
“And that brought you here, as much as a desire to leave no stone
unturned?” Jay Trovu’s voice was gently mocking.
“Yes, although we do not give much credence to those results. The
sample is so small that the statistics could be meaningless.”
The astrologer stared at her.
“My dear young woman: what you have there is the foundation of
Euflorian astrology, not a computational anomaly. But don’t expect a
quick fix, not from me or any other self-proclaimed high priest of
occult wisdom. It will take at least a dozen generations for your
computers to come up with anything as useful as the ancients arrived
at after thousands of years of crude but painstaking research.
Whatever subtle gravitational or electromagnetic forces (pardon my
use of antiquated terminology) influence the formation of personality
at birth are present on Eufloria as well as Earth, primarily the sun and
moon. But the astronomical configuration is not the same; therefore,
the interaction of those forces across the ecliptic plane as the
ponderable bodies cycle through their regular orbits cannot be the
same.”
Yarsis frowned again. Her long strong fingers remained poised
above the ComPort’s controls.
“Perhaps there is some truth to that. Perhaps those as-yet
unknown patterns cause a corresponding fluctuation in personality
types among humans born on Eufloria. But those types are quite
extreme: the amount of variation is so great that had anything similar
occurred on Earth it would have been impossible for science to
ignore.”
Jay Trovu moved his head slowly back and forth.
“Now, there I can’t help you, either. But I can propose two
possibilities, both with disturbing implications for your program of
colonization. First, the influences on Eufloria may simply be too

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