The Stars Came Back Read Online Free
Author: Rolf Nelson
didn’t like the guys giving the orders. I’m a teacher now. Well, was… My sister is on Niven. Her husband needs some help. I was headed that way and things went off the rails…
Bipasha: Yes, lots of plans getting changed these days.
Helton: Isn’t that the truth.
A waiter shows up with a tray to serve them dinner.
INSET - The plate put before Helton only has the barest resemblance to what he ordered.
Bipasha: (Eyeing the plate before her uncertainly) This is vindaloo?
Helton: Hmmm. I’m sure it’s edible, even if it isn’t quite what you had in mind.
They both tentatively take a bite of their respective dishes, and look at one another, then simultaneously make a face and shrug as if to say “eh, OK, but nothing to write home about” and keep chewing.
FADE TO BLACK
FADE IN
INT - DAY - Starliner dining room
Most of the food has been eaten, people chatting at their tables, except Liner Engineer, who sits tiredly in his seat being ignored, and ignoring most of his food.
A man, Lag, approaches the table. He’s wearing a conservative, somewhat Edwardian dark suit with brass buttons, a high collar shirt, jacket, and vest, looking like a well-to-do businessman: short hair, no whiskers, mid 40s, broad shoulders and powerfully built.
Lag: ( Indicating a chair between the Doc’s Wife and Bipasha, across from Liner Engineer) Is this taken?
Chorus from the table: Oh, not at all/Please be my guest/Have a seat/Welcome.
Lag: Ah, thank you. Sorry I’m late. Always more details. ( Half to himself as he picks up the menu) Hmmm, what are the choices?
Everyone else goes back to their conversations while Lag looks over the menu reader, makes a couple of rapid selections and sets it down. He then turns to Bipasha and is about to speak when the ship’s announcement system chimes, and the familiar calm female voice comes on.
Announcer: (OC) May I have your attention, please… Navigation has informed the Captain that due to a change in the regional subspace conditions and news our schedule will be somewhat altered.
A collective groan rises from the around the dining room. The passengers listen attentively and exchange looks.
Announcer: (OC) We still expect to arrive in Niven on the scheduled date. We will be detouring through a swirl headed our way, stopping briefly at a transfer station point outside of Eldari to exchange passengers, then continuing to Balltic and Niven. Ship time will be approximately five days, universal time about seventy-two hours plus a short time at Eldari for transfers. We will be arriving at the Eldari transfer point in about ninety hours. That is all.
The dining room erupts in murmurs of excitement, confusion, and relief, depending on the person.
Senator: (To the table) I don’t understand; we’ll be on the ship for five days, but we will arrive at Niven in only three? And we won’t get to the transfer for ninety hours? That doesn’t make any sense.
Lucreti a Trask: Yes, that’s impossible… how can we get there before leave?
Helton: No, we won’ t.
Liner Engineer looks acutely at Helton. The others at the table look at Helton curiously.
Helton: The details of FTL are complicated of course, but the basic idea isn’t. Universal time, how time passes in the conventional universe where we usually live, passes as a pretty constant rate everywhere. According to the clocks on Niven and where we just left, we’ll arrive in -system in three days. But time moves differently in subspace, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but always forward, depending on a lot of things: what kind of drives you have, what sort of gravity wells you pass, which way subspace is blowing, and-
Doc Wife: Subspace blows?
Helton rearranges a few things on the table, clearing out things from the centerpiece, putting a carafe at one end and a bauble from the centerpiece near the other. While he does this, he explains:
Helton: Yes. There are twenty-two dimensions, as you may have heard. Three
Bipasha: Yes, lots of plans getting changed these days.
Helton: Isn’t that the truth.
A waiter shows up with a tray to serve them dinner.
INSET - The plate put before Helton only has the barest resemblance to what he ordered.
Bipasha: (Eyeing the plate before her uncertainly) This is vindaloo?
Helton: Hmmm. I’m sure it’s edible, even if it isn’t quite what you had in mind.
They both tentatively take a bite of their respective dishes, and look at one another, then simultaneously make a face and shrug as if to say “eh, OK, but nothing to write home about” and keep chewing.
FADE TO BLACK
FADE IN
INT - DAY - Starliner dining room
Most of the food has been eaten, people chatting at their tables, except Liner Engineer, who sits tiredly in his seat being ignored, and ignoring most of his food.
A man, Lag, approaches the table. He’s wearing a conservative, somewhat Edwardian dark suit with brass buttons, a high collar shirt, jacket, and vest, looking like a well-to-do businessman: short hair, no whiskers, mid 40s, broad shoulders and powerfully built.
Lag: ( Indicating a chair between the Doc’s Wife and Bipasha, across from Liner Engineer) Is this taken?
Chorus from the table: Oh, not at all/Please be my guest/Have a seat/Welcome.
Lag: Ah, thank you. Sorry I’m late. Always more details. ( Half to himself as he picks up the menu) Hmmm, what are the choices?
Everyone else goes back to their conversations while Lag looks over the menu reader, makes a couple of rapid selections and sets it down. He then turns to Bipasha and is about to speak when the ship’s announcement system chimes, and the familiar calm female voice comes on.
Announcer: (OC) May I have your attention, please… Navigation has informed the Captain that due to a change in the regional subspace conditions and news our schedule will be somewhat altered.
A collective groan rises from the around the dining room. The passengers listen attentively and exchange looks.
Announcer: (OC) We still expect to arrive in Niven on the scheduled date. We will be detouring through a swirl headed our way, stopping briefly at a transfer station point outside of Eldari to exchange passengers, then continuing to Balltic and Niven. Ship time will be approximately five days, universal time about seventy-two hours plus a short time at Eldari for transfers. We will be arriving at the Eldari transfer point in about ninety hours. That is all.
The dining room erupts in murmurs of excitement, confusion, and relief, depending on the person.
Senator: (To the table) I don’t understand; we’ll be on the ship for five days, but we will arrive at Niven in only three? And we won’t get to the transfer for ninety hours? That doesn’t make any sense.
Lucreti a Trask: Yes, that’s impossible… how can we get there before leave?
Helton: No, we won’ t.
Liner Engineer looks acutely at Helton. The others at the table look at Helton curiously.
Helton: The details of FTL are complicated of course, but the basic idea isn’t. Universal time, how time passes in the conventional universe where we usually live, passes as a pretty constant rate everywhere. According to the clocks on Niven and where we just left, we’ll arrive in -system in three days. But time moves differently in subspace, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but always forward, depending on a lot of things: what kind of drives you have, what sort of gravity wells you pass, which way subspace is blowing, and-
Doc Wife: Subspace blows?
Helton rearranges a few things on the table, clearing out things from the centerpiece, putting a carafe at one end and a bauble from the centerpiece near the other. While he does this, he explains:
Helton: Yes. There are twenty-two dimensions, as you may have heard. Three
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