Factors
The current tau of interstellar atoms with respect to the ship;
compressed lengths in her own measurement caused by that tau;
the shrinking cosmic radius.
I do not fully understand this but, because of those three factors, the ship, no longer weightless, moves at a significant fraction of one gravity:
"...across the outermost abysses of interclan space." (p. 172)
Are "...the outermost abysses..." those nearest to the cosmic edge or furthest from the centers of clans?
Bursts of acceleration caused by passages through galaxies are increasingly frequent and batter the ship. Could any artifact not designed to cope with such forces survive them? The ship cannot stop before the universe ends.
Anderson has prepared a way to continue the narrative, the lives of his characters and the future history of what I have called the "Swedish timeline." He has told us twice in the text that, in this timeline, the cosmos is cyclical. The references are back there somewhere. Reymont announces:
"'I propose we go on to the next cycle of the cosmos.'" (p. 174)
Whether they succeed or fail, they will at least be more alive trying to do this. There is something in common with The High Crusade. There also I saw that Anderson was taking his characters as far as they could go but I did not expect that it would be all the way.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! It's better to at least try, even if you fail, than to apathetically do nothing and die whimpering.
Sean
Sean,
If we try, we might fail. If we don't try, we will fail.
Paul.
Paul: yup, precisely. There's no downside to trying, since the worst that can happen is that it kills you... and not trying will -certainly- kill you.
Gentlemen,
Exactly! The only caveat I would make is I don't know how ** I ** would do or behave in such a crisis. Wimp out or die at least TRYING?
Sean
I don't think you can talk about "a cosmic edge", so even if the universe were contracting (and time weren't reversing, as I read once might be the case), You can't "kinda hang out as a cosmic wallflower in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe" playing it safe... Nice idea at the time, though.
Trying: as our friends at Despair.com say-
"Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk..."
All kidding aside, IMHO IF there's some hope- TRY!
If there's no hope- TAKE THE *UC***S WITH YOU!
If there's no hope and no *UC***S- GO OUT WITH THE BIGGEST BANG YOU CAN, RAISED MIDDLE FINGERS ALL AROUND!
Cheers,
kh
Kaor, Keith!
I agree with the sentiment and principle you enunciated!
Sean
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