Every Man's Fantasy Ch. 17

On his first day back in camp, however, he collected Freya and Krupa and dandled them on his knees, giving Annela and Dipti the chance for some much-needed rest. Sharne, Dagma and Urulla sat quietly beside him on the benches by the campfire, suckling, burping or cuddling their daughters.

Back from foraging, Tamar skipped up to tell him her hopes for the coming celebrations.

Despite being sixteen and on the verge of womanhood, no one was more excited than Tamar, not even Pepi, the most excitable girl on Samothea.

Having never been to the Cloner Fair, Tamar was almost beside herself with anticipation, hopping from one foot to the other as she told Ezra what she'd already told everyone else, many times over.

"I'm going to try every dish of every cook. I'm going to dance every night in every tribe's style of dancing. I'm going to climb the hill behind the Cloner City, to see the tents laid out with the flags of all the tribes flying in the wind. That's a beautiful sight, isn't it, Ezra?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"I'm too old to dance around the maypole, I know, but I'll supervise the younger children."

"I understand," he said, "and, if it so happens that enthusiasm for the dance makes some of the little ones fall over, then you couldn't be blamed if you joined in to help them, could you?"

She smiled knowingly at him.

"And I'll meet the Miners - every single one of them! They're the tribe I was born into. I haven't seen them since I was too small to remember. And, and, and ..."

Even Tamar had to run of breath sometimes, but Ezra waited patiently for the eager girl to unload all her hopes onto him.

"... and I'm going to hug Wildchild so hard she'll burst!" Tamar finished triumphantly.

He laughed and had a good look at his young friend.

Tamar had grown another couple of inches that year. She'd overtaken Carlin and caught up with Annela. All the growth seemed to have occurred in her legs, however, which were long and bony. Curves were still to come.

The girl had swapped her long dress for a short grey fabric skirt and a faded chequered blouse. She used her cloak only for the cold mornings and nights. Her bow was usually slung over her shoulder and Wildchild's knife was tied in its holster around her waist.

Despite having the knife, Tamar had let her hair grow all year, in anticipation of 'Haircut Day' at the Cloner Fair. Her thick golden tresses fell to the middle of her back, framing a face of perfect angular beauty, graced by huge brown eyes that focussed with unstinting enquiry onto a world of mystery and delight.

If there were brief moments when Ezra missed Earth and his family, so that neither his children nor his bedmates were sufficient comfort, then he just had to think of the innocently curious Tamar asking her questions and his joy would return. Even more than his loving bedmates, Tamar was one who could always reconcile him to his exile on Samothea.

He beckoned her over and kissed her cheek, saying: "I love you, Tamar. Don't ever change."

8The Samothea Project

Besides the financial backers at the university, the Samothea Project consisted of Danielle as team-leader; the engineers of HyperStar Japan and Oakshott Industries, Danielle's brilliant students, Rosa Silverstein and Li Qu Yuan, Jonathan Wright (working remotely from CalTech on Earth) and Herman, taking whatever time he could spare from his own advanced mathematical studies to help where he could.

While they waited for the prototype engine to be tested, Danielle wrote combined papers with Rosa and Li on long-distance low-cost hyperspace travel using communication through the plume. She, Rosa, Li and Jonathan Wright wrote another combined paper on configuring the hyperspace beacon. At the request of HyperStar Japan, they kept publication back until they were assured of the engine's success.

The Japanese company was paranoid about copyright theft and preferred to work in secret rather than apply for a patent and let the world know about the radical new design. Danielle had to agree, especially when it turned out that HyperStar were working twice as quickly on the engine than any other company would, trying to make a successful prototype before the secret got out.

Conceived by men, designed by expert systems and built by robots, each iteration of the engine took only a week to assemble and was immediately sent out for a month of testing. The first two prototypes exploded on launch. Prototype three launched but didn't come back. Prototype four was a success and, true to plan, jumped ten light-years to a good-size star, unfurled its solar panels and constructed the return beacon, which powered up properly. There was joy all around a few hours later when the new engine bounced out of hyperspace a few hundred miles from its starting-point.

Prototype five was heavier, faster and could go further. It also came back. Prototype six disappeared somewhere in the plume but before a replacement could be built, prototype seven was ready. It was a full-size model and almost full weight. It also came back successfully. Two months of tests followed, with incrementally further jumps through hyperspace and successful returns.

In the latest test, the prototype leapt four-hundred light-years in one go and returned undamaged. These were by far the furthest single hyperspace jumps in history and used only a fraction of the fuel that the two or three conventional jumps over the same distance would have required; not to mention the time saved by not having to take star-readings and re-calculate for each jump.

It had taken just over a year to prove the Samothea Project was viable and success made everyone impatient to try the real thing. Everyone except Danielle, however, who more than anyone felt the incentive to reach Samothea quickly; yet she wanted more data and more tests. It was her reputation that was at stake, of course; but, more importantly, the chance for a full-scale rescue from Samothea, if her brother was still alive, would be diminished if too many attempts failed.

None the less, when the financial backers at the university complained about the expense of making progress in such small steps, and suggested leaping all the way to Samothea in one go (insisting that, after all, this is what the Samothea Project was all about, what it was named for), Danielle allowed herself to be persuaded.

So far, all the tests had been conducted by HyperStar Japan using their own beacon, getting the trajectory data from Danielle and her team. A jump to Samothea needed a larger beacon, however, which meant hiring time on a commercial rig. Oakshott Industries would arrange this but it would mean letting the secret out in public.

It was time to invite the press to the launch and submit the papers for publication. Danielle agreed to this as well.

Two weeks before the scheduled launch, however, after the trajectory and fuel-load were already calculated, double-checked and triple-checked, Danielle realised something was missing. She gathered her team and said:

"The comms probe has no transmitter."

"It's a commercial probe," Li explained. "We lightened it by taking out all redundant equipment, including the burster."

"Which made sense for all previous missions," Danielle agreed. "Even a four-kilogram transmitter and dish drastically affects the calculations and adds grievously to the fuel burden; but on our test runs, we needed only to measure our location and calculate the return pathway. Now we're going all the way to Samothea, we need to be able to transmit, just in case someone is listening."

Everyone agreed.

"So how long to re-calculate the pathway and fuel load?" Danielle asked.

Rosa had been tapping at her computer tablet.

"Can we delay the launch?"

"I'd rather not," Danielle said. "The press has been invited."

"How much will the transmitter weigh and how much energy will it use?" Rosa then asked.

Li had approximate answers and Rosa tapped some more. Li turned to his tablet as well.

"About a week," Rosa said, "if we get exact details of the weight-difference today and set the computers working immediately."

"I agree," Li said. "I can get you the exact weight, Rosa."

"All right. Go ahead you two, but keep your working completely separate. I want to compare your answers. Meanwhile, I'll do my own calculations. I'll tell HyperStar to fix the burster back in; and I'll compose a message to transmit. Off you all go."

Two weeks later, the whole team, including engineers and scientists, was present at the launch. Jonathan Wright took a special trip out from Earth. Roger took a break from publicising his video-film and came to give Danielle his support.

They were in the control-room on a survey ship near the array of large commercial beacons belonging to Capella SpacePort. Screens stood all around them, showing computer read-outs and video links to the beacon and the traveller with its hyperdrive motor and payload.

Rosa and Li each sat at a console in front of an array of screens. Five members of HyperStar Japan's engineering team crowded around another console. Stephen Oakshott was following the action from Earth on a remote video link. Danielle carried a small tablet and went from screen to screen, checking on her students, the hyperdrive engineers and the beacon team. Jonathan stood to the rear, taking an over-view. Roger came and stood by him and Jonathan gave him a commentary on what was going on.

At first, Danielle had been a little worried about how her husband and Jonathan would get on, with the wicked side of her nature secretly hoping for a little jealousy from Roger, just to tease him. It was a pleasant disappointment for her, therefore, when Roger and Jonathan instantly clicked and seemed to act as if they were old friends.

All the reports were good. The beacon would be turned on first. It was a small commercial beacon, only four-hundred metres across, that Jonathan and Li had configured. The beacon was empty at the moment. One could see the stars through its metal circle. Soon, however, it would contain the plume that would envelope the traveller in hyperspace.

Li was checking the measurements one last time while Rosa lined the traveller up with the beacon, giving it a fifty-mile run up to build speed. The engineering team did a last check on the hyperdrive motor before it was ready to be launched.

Danielle said: "Are we all ready?"

There was a chorus of "Yes, Doctor Goldrick."

"We know what we're looking for? Li?"

"Yes, Doctor Goldrick: 18.03581 seconds to the reflection boundary."

"Then you can count us down when we're in the plume."

-- "What's the reflection boundary?" Roger asked Jonathan in a whisper.

"It's a measure of the relativistic time-lag for a signal through the hyperspace plume. It's equivalent to (but not the same as) how far we would have travelled in normal space."

"I'm glad I asked," Roger said.

Jonathan laughed.

"Just watch the timer on that big screen in the middle. If it ends up more than 18.03581, then we've over-shot or been deflected by an anomaly. If it's less than 18.03581 seconds, then we've undershot."

"How bad is undershooting or overshooting?"

"It depends: we have lots of leeway built in, just in case there are strong anomalies." --

"Danielle, the motor is working fine," Rosa reported. "The traveller is ready to launch."

"Li, when you're ready."

Li gave the order to turn on the plume. The beacon flashed pink for a second and was no longer empty. A purple field grew in the circle, bulging out into a lens-shape. Lines of force flickered across its surface. Golden light streaked around the circumference of the beacon.

"Plume secure, Doctor Goldrick," said Li.

"Well done," said Danielle. "Rosa, you can launch when you're ready."

"Yes, Danielle."

Rosa checked her console one last time then punched the button to kick the hyperdrive engine into life. Blue streaks criss-crossed the cone-shaped wave-guide and hid the craft in a white haze. The signal from the video feed flickered and there was a flash as the traveller accelerated almost instantly, clearing the distance to the beacon in seconds and disappeared into the plume, leaving a hollow whirlpool in its wake, which fluctuated at its edges.

Everyone held their breath, except Li, who counted out the seconds, reading from the large central monitor:

"Eighteen seconds to the boundary ... fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, ..."

The seconds ticked away, slowly.

"Automatic course adjustments, Rosa?" Danielle asked.

"Negligible, the signal hasn't wavered."

Small pink flashes spiralled across the whirlpool.

"... seven, six, five ..." Li intoned.

"Almost there, almost there," Danielle whispered to herself.

"... three, two, one! That's the reflection boundary!" Li exclaimed as the clock on the big screen stopped at 18.0354 seconds and a pink flash crossed the face of the beacon. Then the purple lens shrank to nothing, leaving the stars visible again through the metal ring.

"That's plume-collapse!" Li reported. "The traveller is out of hyperspace. We're there!"

There was a big cheer and everyone clapped, hugged or shook hands. Danielle herself was caught up in the excitement. She sought out Roger and kissed him unprofessionally.

However, Rosa was staring at her display. She tried to say something to Danielle but there was too much noise. Jonathan had also gone quiet, looking at the timer. He grabbed a tablet and began to punch numbers into it.

Released by Danielle, Roger noticed Jonathan looking concerned.

"What's wrong," he asked.

"We overshot by 3 microseconds," Jonathan said.

"Is that bad?" Roger asked.

"It shouldn't be. I'm trying to work out what distance in normal space it relates to."

Other people were also going quiet. Li had returned to his console and was working hard with the numbers. The celebrations waned and, at last, Rosa's voice became audible.

"It faded," she said. "The signal faded."

"I concur!" Jonathan said loudly and that shut up the last of the talkers.

Danielle looked at the read-outs and Rosa's results.

"Damn! You're right!" she said. "Li, do you get that as well?"

"Yes, Doctor Goldrick."

"Rosa, how gradually did the signal fade? Did we veer?"

-- "What's going on?" Roger asked Jonathan, who had stopped tapping his tablet and stood waiting for the computer to give him a result. Blocks of numbers flashed over the screen, descending in a stream of busy calculation.

"If the traveller bounces out of hyperspace on a straight trajectory," Jonathan explained, "then the plume will collapse abruptly, leaving a straight-line signal. Our plume faded out, which suggests that the traveller was changing direction or decelerating when the plume collapsed."

"And what significance does changing direction or decelerating have?"

"We hit something," he said simply. "The only question is, did we hit something hard, like a moon, soft like a gas-giant, or was the traveller deflected by a strong gravitational field?"

"How can you tell?"

"A hard impact means a rapid deceleration. A soft impact means a slow deceleration and a gravity field means an acceleration, not a deceleration. That would most likely be survivable."

"I see. Which is it?"

"I'm not sure yet." --

Danielle was working with Rosa, measuring the rate at which the signal faded and the angle of the last contact between traveller and plume.

"All right," Danielle announced to a silent audience. "Preliminary results - very approximate - but we think the traveller veered and decelerated as a result of the overshoot. I'm afraid we missed the target. Li, do you concur?"

"Yes, Doctor Goldrick."

"Jonathan?"

His computer finally reached a conclusion. He projected the calculations onto the main screen.

"I get a one-light-year overshoot and a hard impact," Jonathan said.

"Smart-arse," Danielle said looking over his work.

"I'm afraid Doctor Wright is correct," she announced sadly. "Ladies and gentlemen: the traveller overshot, hit something solid and is lost."

There were mixed feelings all around. The celebrations had been premature but not entirely unearned: after all, the engine worked.

"Hello, Goldrick? Are you saying the probe is destroyed?"

This was Stephen Oakshott, via his video link. Their conversation was delayed half a minute.

"Yes, Stephen. It probably hit an asteroid or a moon. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You got to Samothea, didn't you? You jumped two-thousand light-years for less fuel and in less time than it would take me on the regular shuttle from Earth to Capella. That's an amazing achievement. I say we go ahead and try again as soon as possible. You've all done brilliantly! Cheap, fast, long-distance hyperspace travel now exists and it's all down to you."

"I'm glad you're so sanguine, Stephen, though it's thousands of your money down the drain."

"The best investments are always risky, Goldrick. The hyperdrive motor and the new guidance system both work. We got to Samothea, or thereabouts. We can use the data to send more probes much more accurately. It's not a perfect triumph but it's enough. I'm authorising the press release. Let the galaxy know that the Samothea Project is a success!"

******

In fact, the traveller hit the planet Samothea itself, not an asteroid or a moon. The same anomalies in hyperspace that deflected Ezra's ship directly into the path of Samothea also deflected the traveller from its course. It was the extra weight of the transmitter that made the calculations inaccurate and steered it toward the nearest gravitating object.

The traveller emerged from hyperspace twenty miles above the planet. At 35,000 mph, it had no time to set up the return beacon or unfurl the solar panels before it hit the atmosphere and burst into flames.

Everyone on Samothea heard the crack, like a thousand lightning strikes all hitting at once. The Woodlanders travelling to the Cloner Fair saw a flash of light over the sea and heard the crackling roar of what seemed to be a meteorite burning up in its descent. Something like an orange furnace streaked across the sky, spitting flames and leaving a dense grey tail of smoke, which feathered out as strong winds in the stratosphere fluffed up the particles.

The trail of smoke and the angry roaring stopped over the mountains east of the forest. The missile fell to earth and gouged out a huge hole, painting a mushroom of smoke, dust and ice on the eastern horizon.

"What was that?" Tamar asked Ezra as they walked across the plain.

"I don't know," he said, somewhat thoughtful. "Probably a meteorite."

It was all anyone talked about the rest of the way to the Cloner City and it was an interesting topic of conversation at that year's Fair, being seen by everyone who wasn't indoors.

******

Danielle took comfort in knowing the traveller reached Samothea, even if it was destroyed, though she regretted the lost opportunity of perhaps finding out what had happened to her brother by picking up a comms signal or even a distress call from his ship.

She needn't have fretted. The project was far from a disaster. In the few moments between emerging from hyperspace and burning up in the Samothean atmosphere, the comms probe did what it was designed to do. It transmitted Danielle's message on a range of terrestrial channels and emergency bands.

One of Ezra's escape pods was sniffing the emergency bands and picked up the probe's transmission. Now a green light flashed on its control panel, alerting anyone who passed that there was a message from another world waiting to be read.