Starquake.pdf

07:12:02 GMT TUESDAY 21 JUNE2050
While Hohmann-Transfer was busy with her scrollwork, some of her eyes noticed that one of the stars in
the sky was rapidly growing in size. She let the scroll roll up and went to the command deck as the star
grew larger and larger. By the time she got there, she could see the yellow-white speck in front of the
star. It was the last of the large interstellar exploration ships, the Abdul Nkomi Farouk. Now, all that
were left out in interstellar space were a few scout ships.
"East Pole Space Station calling Abdul," said Hohmann-Transfer. There was nearly two methturns delay
while the signal traveled across the 30 kilometers that separated them. During the wait the spinor warp
drives on Abdul were turned off and the star receded back into the heavens, while the ship stayed in orbit
around Egg.
"This is Captain Searching-Eye of the interstellar exploration ship Abdul reporting to base as ordered.
Captain Far-
Ranger and Admiral Steel-Slicer were given the last positions of our two scout ships and were still
searching for them when we left Here X-l. What is the status of things on Egg? We are all concerned."
"Terrible," said Hohmann-Transfer. "We are reduced to depending upon the capabilities of an
entertainer, and she has been able to do nothing for two dozen greats of turns. I am calling a general
meeting as soon as you get here."
The main meeting bowl on East Pole Space Station was jammed with bodies. The larger assembly
rooms elsewhere on the station were also crowded with concerned spacers watching the video links to
the main meeting bowl.
"It has now been two dozen greats of turns since the disastrous starquake destroyed civilization on Egg,"
Hohmann-Transfer began. "I have done the best I can with the inadequate support from the surface, but
the situation continues to look completely hopeless. The one engineer we had left on the surface flowed
before we could save him. We are now reduced to training our own engineers with an entertainer as the
teacher."
"She is doing a good job under the circumstances," said Cliff-Web. "The problem is that without robots
and other labor-saving machines, everyone on the surface has to spend a good deal of his time just
keeping himself alive. We give them as much advice as possible, but the two-grethturn time delay in the
communication link doesn't help."
"How much longer will it be before they will be able to get a gravity catapult into operation?" someone
asked.
"It all depends upon whether Qui-Qui can keep things under control down there and keep the classes
going," said Cliff-Web. "If she can, then by selecting out the ones most competent in gravitational
engineering and keeping them free to go to classes, we should soon have someone competent enough to
go to the gravity catapult sites at the East and West Poles and tell us how bad the damage is.If the
damage is not too bad, then it will only be another one or two dozen greats until we have trained a batch