Starquake.pdf

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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
science instruments and consoles, while one after another, the HoloMem crystals in their ship's library were rewritten with new knowledge from the cheela. 06:00:00 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE 2050 Beep! Beep! Beep! Leaving Pierre Niven opened his tired eyes and awkwardly turned off the alarm on his wrist chronometer. Six hours of sleep. He rubbed his hand over his bearded chin. The beard needed a trim and there were probably a few grey hairs peeking through the brown, but there was work to do. A quick bite in the galley, then he would relieve Amalita at the communications console. Both she and Seiko were long overdue for a sleep break. He heard muffled curses from the next sleep rack as Jean Kelly Thomas struggled to put her bed up. The long day started. 06:05:06 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050 Multi-scientist Seiko Kauffmann Takahashi was on the Science Deck working with the star image telescope. The telescope looked at the neutron star with a one-meter diameter mirror in the top of the cylindrical tower of star-oriented instruments that stuck out of the "north pole" of Dragon Slayer's spherical body. The telescope brought a large, bright image down through the hollow center of the tower and focused it on the frosted surface of the star image table in the middle of the top deck. Seiko looked down at the image while the computer looked up at the same image through the array of light detectors built under the surface of the table. When the crew first arrived a little over a day ago, the star image had only a few features in it. There had been the large volcano in the northern hemisphere, and the rough, mountainous regions at the East and West Poles where infalling meteoric material collected. Now, just a day later, the star was covered with a network of super-highways connecting great cities that grew in size even as Seiko watched. Noticing something happening in the outskirts of the capital city, Bright's Heaven, she efficiently took her compact body swiftly through a set of coordinated free-fall twists that put her on the other side of the table, then took a closer look. "Abdul," Seiko said. "I would like you to observe this. There is a strange phenomenon occurring at the old Holy Temple."
Page 1 and 2: STARQUAKE Acknowledgments
Page 3: Prelude Burrowing through the dark
Page 7 and 8: Please take a rest." "Doctor Wong,
Page 9 and 10: about half a day we will be in prop
Page 11 and 12: Amalita floated over to the table a
Page 13 and 14: One of her near eyes caught him loo
Page 15 and 16: "All you need to do is shrink the h
Page 17 and 18: Pierre spoke quickly to the robotic
Page 19 and 20: slid open. He entered the security
Page 21 and 22: Slinklings, and Cold, Chilly's mate
Page 23 and 24: page and didn't like what he saw. "
Page 25 and 26: He activated a conference link and
Page 27 and 28: egg-tending fever. Every time I see
Page 29 and 30: A glowing speck swung around the to
Page 31 and 32: "If only Dragon Slayer had some mea
Page 33 and 34: "That gives us four greats of turns
Page 35 and 36: "I see someone in the back." "Brigh
Page 37 and 38: with spots of different emittance t
Page 39 and 40: Web Construction is the biggest con
Page 41 and 42: activated. "There are 144 connector
Page 43 and 44: With the X-ray illuminators in plac
Page 45 and 46: up and wait. Then there would begin
Page 47 and 48: 06:55:16 TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050 Quiet
Page 49 and 50: There was a loud clang from nearby.
Page 51 and 52: Hearing the decimal number for the
Page 53 and 54: walls made out of high quality supe
Page 55 and 56:
It was turnfeast, and Time-Circle s
Page 57 and 58:
"After the success with the three m
Page 59 and 60:
"Renegotiate them," she replied. "J
Page 61 and 62:
"Those machines produce both the an
Page 63 and 64:
millimeters away it fades into the
Page 65 and 66:
She started with the animals. Three
Page 67 and 68:
idly to the surrounding crust. She
Page 69 and 70:
06:58:07 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050 Qu
Page 71 and 72:
kilohertz gravitational radiation t
Page 73 and 74:
"We're losing it!" Heavy-Egg shoute
Page 75 and 76:
y the errant streams. Treads grippi
Page 77 and 78:
"Less than a turn," said the Comm O
Page 79 and 80:
"Our total space force consists of
Page 81 and 82:
"Bright has cursed us all!" Hohmann
Page 83 and 84:
straight toward her, moving rapidly
Page 85 and 86:
You should be able to find more cag
Page 87 and 88:
close. She could have done a good i
Page 89 and 90:
"My plan is to use the robots on Eg
Page 91 and 92:
were mixed to produce an ultra-hot
Page 93 and 94:
and gravitational waves. Status 82%
Page 95 and 96:
"There is someone muttering nearby.
Page 97 and 98:
farming class how to tell ripe nut-
Page 99 and 100:
of engineers who can fix the damage
Page 101 and 102:
Eighty turns later, Qui-Qui returne
Page 103 and 104:
They worked their way through the m
Page 105 and 106:
other two read zero. Must be breaks
Page 107 and 108:
Qui-Qui would arrive at each clan c
Page 109 and 110:
satiated, however, for he would nev
Page 111 and 112:
They charged, the mounted warriors
Page 113 and 114:
out that what was needed was a spec
Page 115 and 116:
"You must be Qui-Qui," Ferocious-Ey
Page 117 and 118:
stage' for our lander. We can store
Page 119 and 120:
"We are aware of that," said Plasma
Page 121 and 122:
"One," said Cliff-Web. "And an infi
Page 123 and 124:
field. Cliff-Web had returned to no
Page 125 and 126:
"There are flying animals on the hu
Page 127 and 128:
nothing, tor the forces were gravit
Page 129 and 130:
"We will need to have a new power g
Page 131 and 132:
"Good. Let's cut it up and haul it
Page 133 and 134:
The trade was made, with the captai
Page 135 and 136:
operation," said Power-Pack. "My se
Page 137 and 138:
"We would rather wait to taste the
Page 139 and 140:
"But she only has eight eyes now!"
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her whip-sword and urged her Swift
Page 143 and 144:
for the Taker to come again." "The
Page 145 and 146:
As if to punctuate his offer, there
Page 147 and 148:
As he flowed up over the crumbled b
Page 149 and 150:
"Focus the laser on the landing bas
Page 151 and 152:
"It has been a long time since the
Page 153 and 154:
their quirrls sparred with each oth
Page 155 and 156:
"The humans take forever to do anyt
Page 157 and 158:
"That's the last of the HoloMem sto
Page 159 and 160:
to the Science Deck. Pierre looked
Page 161 and 162:
"Hey! Look at the sightseers," Abdu
Page 163 and 164:
choose will be a better name, anobl
Page 165 and 166:
The screen on the communications co
Page 167 and 168:
This was the first time there had b
Page 169 and 170:
"Coupling experiments successful,"
Page 171 and 172:
Manager-Director/5 set up a confere
Page 173 and 174:
"The cheela are bringing them now."
Page 175 and 176:
"Mine," replied Abdul. "She's right
Page 177 and 178:
Amalita and Abdul in two segments o
Page 179 and 180:
15 min 31 g cheela generation 29 se
Page 181 and 182:
and behaves much like a young cheel
Page 183 and 184:
Ngw* 5. CI»ft-Wort Plant Upon reve
Page 185 and 186:
We wanted Dragon Slayer at a 406-ki
Page 187 and 188:
Figure 10. Gravity Catapult The wor
Page 189:
6. F. J. Tipler, "Rotating Cylinder
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