Starfarers by Vonda N McIntyre

Author:Vonda N McIntyre [McIntyre, Vonda N]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nautilus, Science Fiction, Metaphase, Transition, Vonda N. McIntyre, ebook, Fantasy, Starfarers, Book View Cafe
ISBN: 9780553563412
Google: s_6wAAAACAAJ
Amazon: B009C83YN6
Barnesnoble: B009C83YN6
Goodreads: 263022
Publisher: Spectra
Published: 1989-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The solar sail drew Starfarer beyond the orbit of the moon.

During its construction, the starship held steady in the libration point leading the moon. With the sail deployed, Starfarer accelerated out of its placid orbit. Each imperceptible increment of velocity widened and altered its path.

Because the starship took longer to circle the Earth in its wider orbit, the moon began to catch up to it. Soon it would pass beneath Starfarer, and the ship would use the lunar passage to tilt its course into a new plane.

As the orbit increased in complexity, the logistics of transport to Starfarer would become more difficult and more expensive.

In the middle of Starfarer’s night, Iphigenie DuPre set in motion the interactions of gravity and magnetic field and solar wind to tilt the starship out of the plane of the lunar orbit.

The angle would grow steeper and the spiral wider: the sail plus the effect of traveling past the Earth and the moon would soon drive the ship toward a mysterious remnant of the creation of the universe, a strand of cosmic string that would provide Starfarer with superluminal transition energy.

Starfarer prepared for lunar passage. Afterward, it would be well and truly on its way.

o0o

Grangrana was making breakfast. Victoria could smell biscuits, eggs, a rice curry. Coffee.

Coffee? In Grangrana’s house?

Victoria woke from the dream. She was on board Starfarer; Grangrana remained on Earth. The straight up-and-down sunlight of morning, noon, and evening reflected from the porch. Nevertheless, she smelled breakfast.

Satoshi, beside her, half opened his eyes.

“Is that coffee?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Your friend Feral can stay if he wants,” Satoshi said, and went back to sleep.

Victoria smiled, kissed the curve of his shoulder, tucked the blanket around him, and slid out of his bed.

In cutoffs and one of Satoshi’s sleeveless shirts, Victoria went out to the main room. Stephen Thomas was up and dressed, in flowered cotton Bermuda shorts and a purple silk shirt. Victoria remembered rising partway out of sleep in the middle of the night when he left Satoshi’s room and returned to his own.

Victoria dodged around Stephen Thomas’s still.

“Good morning.”

“Hi.” The circles beneath his eyes had faded. He looked better this morning, not as shaken as after the party. But if he had thought of what to do about Griffith, he made no mention of his plans.

“Morning.” Feral set a pot of tea in front of Victoria as she sat down.

“This is a real treat for us, Feral,” Victoria said. “But you don’t have to make breakfast every morning.” The pleasure of having breakfast cooked and waiting gave her mixed emotions. She missed having a family manager, but it seemed disloyal to enjoy it when someone else did the tasks Merit had always smoothly, almost invisibly, taken care of.

“I know. I like to cook.” He grinned. He had mobile, expressive lips that exposed his even white teeth when he smiled. “And everything I made this morning will reheat. Satoshi can sleep in if he wants to.”

“Speak of the devil,” Stephen Thomas said.

Satoshi arrived wrapped in his threadbare bathrobe, his wet hair dripping down his neck.

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