As the spaceship Muddlin' Through escapes from the planet Babur, Falkayn asks the computer Muddlehead when they can go hyper:
"It shouldn't be long. They were already high in the gravity well of Mogul and climbing upward fast in Babur's. Soon the metric of space would be too flat to interfere unduly with fine-tuned oscillators; and once they were moving at their top faster-than-light psuedovelocity, practically nothing ever built had legs to match theirs." (VI, p. 108)
This passage is written as if from experience even though we do not know whether it will be possible to build "oscillators" that can generate "psuedovelocity" in flat space.
The Hermetian fleet approaches Mirkheim:
"'Navigation reports we are one light-year from destination.'" (VII, p. 111)
"About three hours till arrival, at their top psuedospeed..." (VII, p. 113)
This information should enable readers with knowledge of astronomical distances to calculate travel times for journeys within the volume of space covered by the Polesotechnic League.
Adzel wants to say a prayer for their enemy, Sheldon Wyler, killed by friendly fire during the first part of the trader team's escape. Falkayn replies, "'Later. First we've got to escape.'" (VI, p. 107)
Practicalities first; spirituality second. Even if prayer does not benefit Wyler, it is necessary for the living that they respect the dead.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And after the first rush of what urgently needed to be done after Brevet Commander Flandry and his surviving crew had escaped from the wrecked "Asienneuve" had been handled, Flandry led the funeral service for the crewman who had died while descending to Dido in THE REBEL WORLDS.
Another example of practicalities first, prayer second.
Happy New Year! Sean
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