Chapter 32

It was only about three days later that MacPherson came into the bridge after a short night's sleep to find Igwanda, Heisinger, Meiersdottir and Cromartie all waiting for him.

"G'mornin'," he said, slightly surprised. They simply glared in his direction, none of them responding. He rolled his eyes. "All rrigh', ye've summa' in yer crraw," he acknowledged. "Who woul' carre t'tell me wha'?"

"Where are you taking us, MacPherson?" challenged Igwanda in a rough voice.

"Weel, noo, le's see," the captain answered, now thoroughly annoyed. He feigned a moment's forgetfulness. "Och, I rremember noo, back t' Earrt', is i' no'?"

"By way of Eden's sun?"

"Aye."

Meiersdottir cleared her throat. "Angus, I've been here twice before, and both times we left heading away from the sun, not toward it. And right now it looks like you've aimed the Ark almost squarely into it."

His face showed utter amazement. "An' ye think I've decided to suicide th' whole ship by plungin' i' inta th' starr?"

"Well... ," she said uncertainly.

Igwanda was far less dubious. "Have you?" he demanded.

MacPherson ignored him to focus on Meiersdottir. "Missus, if ye ha'e sae li'le faith in me, whyivverr did ye name me cap'n again?"

She could find nothing to say for a moment. Igwanda started to speak angrily again, but his wife laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Captain, we seem to have an inconsistency here that concerns all of us greatly," the younger woman said. "In the past ships have left Eden very differently. Can you explain that to us?"

"Ye migh' ha'e starr'ed oo' wi' tha' question instea' o' comin' a' me like I was on trrial," he replied truculently.

"Then I'll have to be a little blunt. You've already tried to scuttle this mission once, and put us in the situation we're in now. You say you've changed your views since then, and Aman­da trusted that. But have you? Can you blame us for being suspicious when we discover that you've put us on what looks to be a completely wrong course, and a dangerous one at that?"

"Ungh," he grunted. "Ye pull no punches, do ye? Bu' ye make yer poin'. 'Twas no' a thing I discuss' wi' ye, an' perrhaps I shoul' ha'e, sae I'll ta'e some o' th' blame forr tha'. Bu' th' courrse isna wrrong, i' is th'only courrse tha' can save us."

"Go on."

"Yon sun is like ivverr' itherr body in th'univerrse, i' has mass an' mass has grravi'y. Bu' a starr has mair mass, an' mair grravi'y, than almos' anything else. If we gae away frrom i' th'grravi'y pulls agin us, hol's us back, slows us doon. On th' pas' trrips i' didna ma'err, ye had plen'y o' time. Noo we mus' ge' t'worrm speed as fas' as we may orr we'll be frried by th' nova, ye see, so 'tis imporr'an' to use th'grravi'y t' help us, no' hinder us."

That silenced them all momentarily. Then Igwanda posed the obvious question, albeit in a considerably less aggressive tone.

"Do you mean this way we'll reach worm speed before we get to the sun?"

The captain shook his head. "I wish 'twerre so, bu' th' distance is too shor'. We mus' gae by th' sun an' beyon', bu' gae by i' close so as t'use th'grravi'y t' gain speed."

Igwanda looked satisfied, but Heisinger was more knowledgeable. "That doesn't make any sense," she pointed out. "As soon as we pass the sun its gravity is pulling us back as much as it's helped us. By the basic law of conservation of energy we'll lose everything we've gained."

MacPherson sighed. "Ye willna le' me make i' simple, will ye? Warren, ye'rre be'err a' this than me, will ye explain th' slingsho' to 'em?"

Cromartie, who'd been silent up to that point, simply gaped. "My God, Mac, that's what you're doing?"

"Aye. If we hi' a' jus' th' rrigh' angle i' gains fifteen hours t'worrm speed, maybe e'en a few minu'es mair. Tell 'em aboo' i' while I check courrse, 'tis a verra tigh' window." He moved toward the console; Igwanda made a tentative movement to block him but then gave way.

"Well?" said Heisinger.

"I told you, the man is king," said Cromartie. "Look, you're right as far as you took it; we don't gain a dime's worth of speed relative to Eden's sun. What we pick up going in we lose again going out. But worm speed isn't a relative, it's an absolute. It's measured against the whole universe, not just compared to one star. Got it?"

"No."

"Think of it this way. There's a fast-moving vehicle right in front of you. You time it just right and hop on. Then you hop back off. How fast are you going now? Right, you're going the same speed as the vehicle you jumped off."

"Well, of course."

"Now say you were zipping along real fast in the same direction as the vehicle before you got on, and you get on the rear end and keep zipping, same acceleration but you're now on a moving platform. Then you get to the front and zip off again. You were going x klicks an hour when you got on, the vehicle was going y klicks an hour, so when you get off you're now going x plus y klicks. You didn't slow down, and you picked up the vehicle's speed while you were on it. Make sense?"

"I suppose so," Heisinger said slowly.