Trappist-1 by Tony Harmsworth

Author:Tony Harmsworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harmsworth.net
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

15 Hyperspace Again

We thought we knew what to expect this time. The warning of being crushed or killed by shock no longer worried us. The Mars trip had seemed to last no more than a few seconds although Mary had been quite concerned that it lasted any time at all. She really thought it would have been instantaneous and had a team of astrophysicists trying to understand why it wasn’t.

Yet again, I found myself feeling as if I was glued to my couch. I couldn’t move my arms and it wasn’t owing to gravity, but something in the very environment of the ship. Again the air seemed to have congealed around our bodies. It immobilised me. I was rigidly fixed in position.

I tried to turn my head to see Mary. My head wouldn’t rotate. My entity managed to swivel my eyes left for me, I could see Mary’s hands as stationary as mine and the same with Anna to my right. Could I breathe?

I attempted to inhale – my chest rose, air flooded inwards, but again I think it was with help from my entity. I exhaled. Yes, I could breathe. I felt my heart pounding but it was nothing I hadn’t experienced during hard physical labour or at the gym. Why hadn’t it ended? At least a minute had passed according to the dashboard clock. Its electronics seemed unaffected by the stasis.

What was outside?

The windows no longer showed stars, or the moon which had been hanging in the top right of my vision when the countdown started. There was a greenish tint to the blackness of space. No flashing lights or sense of movement could be felt. To all intents and purposes, we seemed to be absolutely stationary, yet I could hear the nuclear generator whining under full power. That meant time must be passing, surely? Could a sound continue if time weren’t progressing? Wouldn’t sound cease if time did too? Anyway, the clock was definitely progressing. It passed two minutes.

I was still gripped by the irresistible force. How much time had passed? Three minutes. One scientist had said that our journey would be proportional to the actual time light took to move between our departure and arrival points. Mars was just ten light minutes from Earth and we were locked in position for a few seconds, maybe five seconds. Trappist-1 was forty light years away. I let my entity help with the mental calculation. If it were five seconds for ten light minutes, how long would it be for forty light years?

In a few seconds we had calculated the proportionate time. My God! It was one hundred and twenty days. Four months! Would I be sitting here for four months? Unable to move. Dehydration would kill me in a few days. Had Mary sentenced us all to a horrible death, staring at this greenish-black hyperspace until our bodies ceased to function? Would six decomposed corpses arrive at Trappist-1, to one day be discovered and be puzzled over by

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