Cascade

16 - Resurrection

16 - Resurrection

Jordan frantically pressed a sequence of buttons on his watch, and an eight minute count down began. The ship slowed towards the center of the slip array and he felt the gravitational shifts adjusting the craft’s position for the exact center of the slip sphere. Jordan clenched his fists closed, willing himself to be as still as possible. The seconds ticked away on his watch. He pressed the “initiate” button on the holo-screen and held his breath.

Nothing happened. Jordan tried not to panic.

“What do I do?” He thought. “Do I push it again?

“No, that might send me back if I already made the slip. I think. I’m not even sure. If I didn’t do it right, I may be sitting here wasting precious time, when all I need to do is press it again to actually get out of here.”

His hand hesitated before the “initiate” button.

“Wait. Don’t act too fast. You don’t know what screwing with inter-stellar travel will do. Just think for a moment. If you did make the slip, what would be different? The stars?

“No. You didn’t go far enough. They’d look the same. Unless you slipped to a location at a different angle from your start point. It’s technically a different time of the year on Reynos than it is on Silva. The visible constellations should be different.”

He looked out the window, scanning the skies.

“Great. I didn’t think to memorize the view from before. I don’t know what to compare it with.”

He looked at his watch. Two and a half minutes had already passed.

“What about the sun? I’m farther, so it should look smaller. There should be less light out her. And I should be able to see Reynos.”

Jordan looked around again, craning his neck to peer at the very limits of the window range. He saw no planet.

“Then again, if Reynos and the sun are behind me, I obviously wouldn’t see anything. Perhaps I should turn around.”

He grabbed hold of the yolk and gently tapped at the controls. The ship gave out small spurts of exhaust from the maneuvering thrusters, and the stars in sight drifted to the side. A new part of the sky swung into view. Once Jordan guessed he had swiveled about 180 degrees, he pushed the yolk the other direction to bring him to a stop.

“Nothing.” He thought. “There’s nothing before me. Just black.”

Jordan looked confused.

“Black? No stars? No sun?” His eyes shot wide. “That is the planet!” He realized. “Ok, think. How can you tell whether it’s Reynos or Silva?”

Jordan continued to think.

“Well, I could let my orbit carry me around the planet, and see if the sun looks smaller. But that would take over 40 minutes if I were still at Silva, and even more if I were orbiting Reynos. Come on. Think!” Three minutes left on the watch.

Jordan rubbed his eyes, trying to recall what he had learned in his orbital mechanics class in school. So much for remembering general education.

“Delta V, or a rocket’s change in momentum, will vary quickly when gravity is weak. I could do a timed burn, and measure my change in velocity, then use that to find out if what I’m orbiting is big or small.”

His face lit up with hope, then sank in the same moment.

“That’s no use. I still have nothing to compare it too. Assuming I did the calculations right, I’d still need to know the difference between the mass of Silva and Reynos, and let’s face it, I don’t have those memorized. I’m not even sure the slip arrays are placed at the same distances from the planets.” One minute forty on the clock.