; ; Roberts replied, "Don't even mention it -- same as last ; month. Anybody got any cards?" None had a deck.
; ; "You'd think a nation that can send rockets to the moon... ; why don't they hire some NASA engineers to run this railroad?" ; said Klein. The question had been asked before; no one answered.
; ; Hobart was looking out the window. "The power outage seems ; pretty widespread. It's really dark out there. I can't remember ; when I've seen so many stars."
; ; "Damned environmentalists," muttered Benson, glancing out ; the window, "blocking the construction of nuclear power plants." ; The other three didn't comment; they'd heard it before.
; ; Hobart still looked through the glass. "You know, as my ; eyes get dark-adapted, I can see even more stars, zillions of ; them. I didn't realize..."
; ; "They've been there all along. You just couldn't see them, ; because of the glow in the sky from all the city lights."
; ; "With all those stars out there, there must be some with ; planets, and some of those planets might have intelligent life. ; Don't you think so?"
; ; Benson folded the paper, useless in the gloom, and said, ; "The odds probably aren't much better than one in a million that ; any given planet will have life on it." Hobart looked ; disappointed. "But if it helps, Hobart, there are billions of ; stars out there, so, statistically, intelligent life is a near ; certainty."
; ; "Oh, yeah?" said Roberts. "Howcum they haven't contacted ; us?"
; ; "Good question," replied Benson. "The government spends ; millions on the SETI program -- the search for extraterrestrial ; intelligence. They listen on all the likely radio frequencies. ; Nothing yet."
; ; "Typical incompetence," said Klein.
; ; "Stupid waste of money," said Roberts. "Why should they ; talk to us? Do we talk to them?"
; ; "We've been beaming TV soap operas into space for decades," ; said Hobart, hopefully.
; ; "But if there's life out there, it could be a thousand light ; years away. Even if they heard us -- slim chance -- and even if ; they bothered to reply -- another slim chance -- it would still ; be another couple thousand years before we could hear them," ; countered Klein.
; ; "There's UFO's," said Hobart optimistically.
; ; "You say!" hissed Roberts. "I don't believe in 'em."
; ; "Most unlikely," commented Benson. "Physical travel between ; the stars... most unlikely. With the expansion of the universe, ; every star racing away from every other star ... it's not like ; sending sailing ships to the New World."
; ; "Even if we grant," said Klein, "that there might be ; intelligent life out there, we'll probably never know it. SETI ; is a waste of money."
; ; "Who cares?": Roberts.
; ; "I care," said Hobart. "Think of what we could learn." ; Hobart contemplated the stars a while longer, while the others ; sat quietly, a picture of boredom. "You know, I read a story ; once, about somebody or other's cat. The idea is that when an ; event happens that can't be observed, all possible outcomes ; exist. If you don't know whether the cat is alive or dead, it's ; both. So there could be alternate universes, alternate worlds. ; Here, we fly in jets; there, they still have tri-motors. Here ; democracy won; there, fascism rules. There could be a thousand ; alternate worlds."
; ; "That's absurd," said Benson. "It's a theoretician's pipe ; dream. Unobserved events happen all the time, at an atomic ; level. Every second, they'd generate more alternate universes ; than there are atoms in our own universe. In the blink of an ; eye, there'd be billions of stalled commuter trains with bored ; passengers idly speculating on whether intelligent life exists ; out there among the stars. I can't take it seriously."
; ; "I can see lights!" said Hobart excitedly, "They're ; restoring power." Seconds later, the lights came on in the car, ; and the train accelerated. Benson went back to reading the ; paper. Roberts and Klein tried to sleep. Hobart was thoughtful. ; Could there be intelligent life out there, among the stars? ; Other civilizations? Lost in thought, she idly twitched her tail ; and scratched the scales of her snout. ; ;