I have learned a second reason to avoid hyperdrive too near a star or planet.
The first reason is that the matter density is too great. A micro-jump might terminate with part of the ship in space already occupied. Too great a difference in intrinsic velocities can cause damage. In "The Three-Cornered Wheel," the nuclear fusion unit of the spaceship, What Cheer, was damaged and the merchants were stranded on the planet, Ivanhoe. Arriving in space already occupied is a hazard also faced by HG Wells' Time Traveller.
The second reason is that gravity might desynchronize the quantum jumps. (p. 345) Why should it? And why should that matter as long as the jumps continue?
In "Hunters of the Sky Cave," Dominic Flandry goes hyper in the Solar System and, in "Lodestar" Nicholas van Rijn goes hyper near the sun of Mirkheim but they have fine-tuned engines which somehow cope. Hyperdrive is surely hazardous in the globular cluster in "Starfog"?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I think the hyperdrive was hazardous for the Kirkasanters of "Starfog," because they were using a clumsy, experimental, first generation FTL space ship.
Ad astra! Sean
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