Time Out of Place
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"The Endurance was not the only attempt to leave the Solar system using relativistic technologies," Waldo replied after a few moments, "Although it was among the first, of course. The records of your departure were unclear, or perhaps just lost; certainly you did a good job of evading the pursuit you so feared. And, you will already have gathered that you are not the first such craft that we have intercepted." Waldo paused, sweeping the room with his eyes, then went on. "But few arrived at their intended destination. Oh, some did, much against the odds, which were with hindsight even lower than you estimated. But many did not. Some suffered catastrophic engineering failures: fusion reactor explosions or failures of the inertial suppression units or structural disintegration. For these unfortunates, there was nothing we could do." The huge room was entirely silent, the crew of the Endurance perhaps realising just how close we all had been to sudden death. "Others suffered social failures," Waldo went on, "Rebellions and mutiny amongst the crew, disagreements over the form of government, or which faction or person was to be the leader. Sometimes these factional disagreements led to bloody rebellions or attempts to destroy or disable their craft. We have encountered at least one drifting hulk, crew all dead, engines destroyed." People in the audience glanced at one another, some with guilty looks on their faces; I wondered just how close the Endurance had come to this particular fate. "Some craft we intercepted before they arrived at their intended destination, as we did with yourselves," Waldo went on, "Others we found trying to establish themselves in a new solar system. In every case, the colonists were at great risk of failure. The new colonies were too small, too susceptible to accidents, to technical failures, to be reliably viable." This was a recognised risk even to the planners of the original mission. A situation with too few people, too few resources, made it supremely difficult to make a self-sustaining colony, while the technology to support complete self-sufficiency was too new, too untested to be entirely reliable. After all, back on planet Earth, colonists attempted and failed repeatedly to establish their new society on a different continent, and they were only a few thousand kilometres away from others of their kind. "For all of these groups, these missions, we have encountered, we made the same offer, the offer I am about to put to you," Waldo went on, "We propose to direct you to a solar system with a star not unlike Sol in most respects, including an Earth-like planet orbiting in the Goldilocks zone - temperature not too hot, not too cold, just right - with a large satellite not entirely unlike the Moon." He hesitated, looking around the conference room. "You can live on the planet, at least in some places, with little or no technological assistance. We are confident that you have the understanding, and the technology, to handle the diverse biology there." Again he paused, looking somewhat abashed. "It is a world we have modified - only a little, you understand - to be suitable for you all," he went on hesitantly, "Or, you could live in the space around it. There are billions of asteroids and iceballs for you to mine - just like your original plan." There was a sudden surge of muted conversation, murmuring running all around the room. Waldo held up his human hand for attention. "So, what we recommend is that you return to the Endurance," he said, "We will insert you on a trajectory which would allow you to decelerate under your own power to rendezvous with the planet." The screens lit up again, showing a montage of beautiful planetary scenes interspersed with shots taken from space. A sales pitch, obviously, I thought, although a very good one. Rex took half a step forward. "None of you need go," he said in his deep voice, "Any or all of you can return to Earth with us. You can take individual decisions, or put it to a vote - whatever decision-making process you collectively think appropriate. It is up to you." The murmuring got louder again. "But," Rex boomed, "There is a time limit." Another voice spoke up, again from the back of the room. I could not immediately put my finger on the name of the speaker. "Why is there a time limit?" she demanded. Rex glanced at Waldo, who smiled wanly. "As I said, the Endurance is not the only craft in a desperate position. There are still others still out there. The Yelcho was specifically designed and built to undertake this kind of mission: it has a unique combination of capabilities. It is our only spaceship capable of doing this." Waldo shrugged, then went on, "Why else would we bother to build a ship capable of accelerating at tens of gravities while lugging along a hugely inefficient compensator for relativistic inertia, since our normal mode of interstellar transport is what you would call 'faster than light', although of course that isn't really quite true." The best minds - scientists and engineers - amongst the Recovered had struggled to understand even the outlines of their FTL drive technology and the physics behind it. As far as I could see, it was based on some kind of space-warping capability, allowing a spaceship to accelerate in a space where distances were somehow much shorter. "We need to intercept another craft, another departure later than yours, which is of course heading in a very different direction," he replied, "There are indications that it is in distress. If we are to intercept it, we will need to leave in the next eight-to-sixteen days." Rex's great head swung to and fro, taking in the entire room. "You should all think about your options, very seriously. Now, any more questions?" Afterwards, in private conversation with Waldo, interspersed with much crying on my part, I asked him: "Should I stay?" He took both my hands in his; I was struck once again how his mechanical hand was just as warm and soft as his other one. "Katrina," he said, "Of course I would be delighted if you were to come with me, to explore old Earth, and other planets too. But you would always be at risk of a catastrophic physical and mental breakdown of the kind which afflicted poor Tony Ruggiero, and many others. I would not want to have that on my conscience." With tears once again in my eyes, I agreed that it would be for the best if I left on the Endurance in the next few days.
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Part 5