Tau Zero, Chapters 3 and 4

The spaceship Leonora Christine leaves Earth orbit at the beginning of Chapter 3 of Poul Anderson's Tau Zero (London, 1973) and starts to leave the Solar System at the end of Chapter 3.

By the end of Chapter 4, we have met ten of the fifty crew members, including Nilsson who has proved the oscillating universe, which will be crucial to the novel, and Williams who had conspired against the Covenant.

Reymont, whose opinions we respect, had said earlier that the peace of Stockholm has granted stability but not progress and, of course, will not last. For once, though, we will not see what happens to society because we will be entirely concerned about what is happening to the cosmos.