A Hop, Skip and a Jump (Family Law Book 4) by Mackey Chandler

Author:Mackey Chandler [Chandler, Mackey]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2017-08-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

"Why make such a fuss about a minor simplification in form?" Born protested. "If the gravitation constant cancels out in the equation, you know it is there. The sort of fellow who makes sure the ship actually jumps when the captain commands it doesn't care about the elegance of the full expression. It's probably less confusing to him to have two symbols less among what are already too many of the dreary things confusing him.

"It no longer describes reality," Musical objected. It was obviously an emotional issue for him. It offended him.

"OK, it no longer describes possible realities," Born allowed with an offhand flip of his hand, as if he were throwing the point away. "It describes our reality that gravity is constant."

"No! It describes a special case. One that I'm not even sure it true outside limited locality. Gravity is certainly variable in at least one case. We temporarily alter gravity with mechanisms for our ships and space stations," Musical protested.

Born looked very skeptical. "A rotating frame of reference which accelerates a mass around a fixed point is not truly gravitational."

"Of course it's not. Do you think I'm an idiot? I'm not talking about spinning things. We have a mechanism that produces a pseudo-gravitational field. It has spinning parts, of exotic material, but it isn't a centrifuge. See? I know the proper word for that sort of machine."

"Well, we don't have such a thing," Born informed him.

"You do now," Musical insisted. "We sold gravity plates to the Little Fleet. I imagine they have torn a few apart and are figuring out the best way to produce and sell them. Here, if you don't believe me the easiest way is to show you. The Dart is in orbit. Somebody has to be on duty even if it isn't underway. If they don't have the deck plates activated they can turn them on for you."

Musical called the ship and didn't even need his call to be transferred. It opened on a Badger lounging in a big powered chair that had to be an acceleration couch on the command deck. A panel behind him appeared to be the back of a com console. The fellow had a cup in his hand, probably the local coffee they were enjoying, while they could, where it was relatively cheap. He said something to Musical in Badger who replied, and then he considered the Derf he had on the slit screen with narrowed eyes.

"I don't speak Derf, but I have fair English," he offered Born. "Technician Musical informs me you really do wish to speak to me. He assures me he didn't connect here at random. Since I've only had one com call all shift, which was from a drunken Derf waving a coupon for a honey ham pizza, I welcome a call. I couldn't help him. Do you really speak the Human language too?"

"Yes, I can use English too," Born assured him. "No few Derf do now."

"In that case, Greetings," the Badger said, saluting him with his cup.

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