The Engines of God Read online

  Frank Carson never did take the job with the Academy’s personnel division. And despite his resolution after the deaths of Maggie Tufu and George Hackett, he returned to Beta Pacifica III, where he headed the Working Group for six years. He received full credit for leading the original expedition, and ranks in his own lifetime with Champollion, Larimatsu, and Wald. He married Linda Thomas, from the Temple mission, and is now the father of two redheaded girls. He is also Chairman of the Margaret Tufu Foundation, which provides research grants and educational aid to budding mathematicians.

  Tourists at the Academy in Washington, D.C., often visit the George Hackett wing of the main library. A striking photograph of Hackett, superimposed over a copy of the Casumel script which he helped rescue at Quraqua, dominates the west wall.

  Maggie Tufu’s brilliant account of the search for the meaning of the inscription at Oz, Philological Aspects of Casumel Linear, was published several years ago to unanimous acclaim. Edited by Janet Allegri, it is already recognized as a mathematical classic.

  Allegri is now teaching at Oxford.

  Priscilla Hutchins continues to pilot the Academy’s ships. She has established a reputation of her own, and people meeting her for the first time are always surprised to discover that she is not quite as tall, or as beautiful, as they had expected. That comes later.

  —David Emory