Starquake.pdf

large asteroids and six small ones.
The monopoles from the factory condensed the asteroids until they were almost the density of the
neutron star itself. Using the gravity interactions between the two larger asteroids, Otis and Oscar, the
humans and their computers played a game of celestial billiards that placed the six smaller asteroids in a
circular formation in synchronous orbit over the East Pole of the star. Then, using Otis as a gravitational
elevator, Dragon Slayer and its crew was hauled down to join them.
Once in orbit, the crew began to map Dragon's Egg. They expected to learn many interesting scientific
facts about this dense visitor to their Solar System, but they also found something they had never
expected.
Life!
Life on the surface of a neutron star!
The alien creatures, the "cheela," were dense—as dense as the crust that covered the white-hot star. The
tiny bodies of the cheela, a little larger than sesame seeds, weighed as much as
a human, since they were made of degenerate nucleonic material. The life processes of the cheela used
interactions between the nuclear particles in the bare nuclei that make up the cheela, while life on Earth
uses electronic interactions between the electron clouds of the atoms that make up humans. Because
nuclear reactions take place a million times faster than electronic reactions, the cheela thought, talked,
lived, and died a million times faster than the humans in orbit above them.
When Dragon Slayer first took up its position over the East Pole, the cheela were little more than
savages and were awed by the laser mapping beams sent down from the middle of the strange star
formation floating motionless in their sky. They raised a huge mound temple to worship the new Gods.
The humans saw the temple and started sending simple picture messages, one pulse per second. Within
less than a day the cheela had developed their technology to the point that they were able to send their
first crude, handmade signals to the Gods above them, at 250,000 pulses per second. The humans, finally
realizing the immense time difference, worked as rapidly as they could, but nearly a generation went by
on the surface of the neutron star before the human laser pulses answered the crude flare signals sent by
the cheela below. The human crew used the slower science instruments such as the laser radar mapper
for human-to-cheela communication, while the computer dumped the contents of the ship's library
directly from the Holographic Memory storage cubes through a high-speed laser communicator to the
surface below.
Chief Scientist Pierre Carnot Niven watched as Chief Engineer Amalita Shakhashiri Drake inserted the
first of the 25 library HoloMem cubes,A to AME, into the communications console.
"A complete education, from Astronomy to Zoology," Pierre mused. "Alphabetical order may not be the
best way to teach someone, but in this case it's the fastest."
For half a day the humans were the teachers for the cheela. In that 12 hours, 60 cheela generations
passed. These were prosperous generations for the cheela, with the manna of knowledge pouring from
the heavens keeping the previously warring clans on the star busy and at peace. After the first half day,
the cheela had surpassed the human race in technological development and it was now time for the
humans to become the students. Despite their tired bodies and their bewilderment
over the rapidity of events in the past day, the humans continued to work diligently at their various