Analog Science Fiction and Fact - June 2013

ANALOG
Clermont’s retrofit for the scouting trip.
Hawthorne brings Rikki, Antonio, and two
kidnapped specialists: microbiology/nanotech
expert Dr. Carlos Patel, and psychiatrist
and family counselor Li Yeo, MD.
Hawthorne also brings commandeered critical
supplies, including thousands of frozen
embryos and a few artificial wombs taken
from an in-vitro fertilization clinic.
To spare billions across the solar system
from spending their final months under a
cruel death sentence, the embryo theft must
go unexplained. Hawthorne remains on
Mars to take the blame, under the cover story
of a cult stealing Clermont and the embryos
for a utopia to be built in the outer
solar system. Clermont (carrying Blake, Rikki,
Dana, Antonio, Carlos, and Li) evades
pursuit by Space Guard cutters determined
to recover the stolen embryos.
At Li’s recommendation, as a morale
builder, the six refugees rename Clermont.
They choose Endeavour, emblematic of ambition
and new beginnings. Studying their
route to Alpha Centauri, Antonio discovers a
relic of the Big Bang: a cosmic string.He confesses
that escaping the GRB is the best-case
scenario, scarcely possible within the error
margins of his observations. But there’s new
hope, from an old astrophysical speculation
that along a cosmic string the speed of light
might exceed normal.They alter course,
headed for the string, and hand off navigation
to Marvin, the shipboard artificial intelligence.The
crew enters hibernation for the
long journey, wondering if the GRB will kill
them as they sleep.
They awaken in galactica incognita, fortunate
to be alive.The cosmic string had complexities
beyond the assumptions of Marvin’s
navigational programming, as a consequence
of which they’ve been traveling for
forty-five years! Their velocity along the
string topped out at thirty-nine times (normal)
light speed.Sometimes, to prevent being
drawn into the string, Marvin had needed
Endeavour’s back-up fusion drive as well as
the DED.Their deuterium tanks are all but
drained. Bearings taken on distant pulsars
locate them on the far side of the Coal Sack
Dark Nebula, more than 700 light-years
from home.Only home is gone forever ...
While Antonio searches nearby stars for
habitable planets, Li plays mind games:
—With Antonio (whose Asperger’s Syndrome
makes any social interaction
painful), Li uses the anticipation of responsibility
for thousands of children.
—With Carlos (middle child; orphaned
young;lost among his foster family;Peter Pan
Syndrome with an adolescent fixation on
sex), Li dangles prospects of a sexual relationship.
—With Dana (retired Space Guard searchand-rescue
pilot; ever duty-bound), Li intimates
the many ways in which the captain
is unfit to found and lead a civilization.
—With Rikki (insecure, painfully aware
that she wasn’t brought along for her skills,
oppressed by survivor’s guilt), Li flirts with
Blake, Rikki’s lone anchor.
—With Blake (devoted to his wife), Li exploits
his worries about Rikki’s frame of
mind.
Li has her own unresolved issues. She
broods about: her relationship with her
mother; a messy romantic break-up; and the
scandal that almost ensued.As a California
state legislator, Mother had the connections
to suppress the scandal and save Li’s practice
and medical license. Intercession came at a
price: Li’s emigration to Mars, so as never
again to embarrass Mother. Li was ashamed
to learn that her famously liberal mother
had, in fact, a Victorian streak.
Carlos almost died during the long cold
sleep and starts drinking. He needs liquid
courage to return to the cold-sleep pod when
the only candidate world is fourteen lightyears
distant.After “only” twenty-four years
this time, Endeavour reaches the new solar
system.
The crew discusses names for planets,
moons, and geographical features. Li had,
with her typical subtlety, maneuvered Dana
into proposing this conversation—and the
debate is divisive. Names offer a way to acknowledge
aspects of human heritage, and
preferences reflect philosophical differences.
From Li’s nominations, Antonio infers an
authoritarian leaning.Does Li hope to install
the crew as the new civilization’s aristocracy?
Herself as its philosopher queen?
Li insists that they name their future
home world. Goading the crew, pushing too
hard, she is conditioning them to believe she
68 EDWARD M. LERNER