Descending Road - THE SLING by Dana W. Paxson

THE SLING

2414 CE, Launch Day Minus Eleven Hundred Forty Seven

“My name is Deng Yi, and this is your Starship Post-Arrival Training Program. You have all been assigned to the starship Tompuso.” The Landing Phase instructor floated before Miriam, Allan, and nearly five thousand others in Hau Ren‘s vast orbital training bay a few hundred miles above Earth. A tinge of Sinese tone in his speech gave his use of Share, their Anglo-based common tongue, a decidedly musical flavor.

"‘Tompuso' is a word meaning a person of great spiritual power who has been transformed into a feature of the landscape, like Mount Mao up on Oberon at Uranus. Your destination’s called ‘Opo Bira Lima', that means ‘the Owner’s place’ in Sulawesi. It’ll be your new home. Getting to Opo Bira Lima will take you ten thousand years of cold sleep. Give or take a millennium.”

The slow gasp from the crew trainees hanging in the shadowy, strut-mazed bay sounded like a distant, venting hatchdoor. No matter how often Miriam heard the count of years, it always thrilled her. She fumbled for Allan‘s hand; his arm circled her waist.

Deng Yi continued, “You already know there are six hundred ships being readied. We could take centuries to launch all six hundred. Why try to get it all done in five years?

“We have a priceless chance that may never come again. An L-type star, a brown dwarf called Thorin 74 is coming to visit us.” He gestured at a huge screen; the trainees goggled at an orbital diagram of the Solar System.

“A brown dwarf is a failed star, one that never kindled its fusion engines in the first place. It gets warm, and then cools off until it’s just a big ball of inert hydrogen. Thorin 74 is moving relative to the Sun at a speed of about 400 miles per second. It will pass within the orbit of Neptune somewhat over three years from now.

“For better or worse, Thorin is angling into the Solar System from about fifty degrees above the plane of the Earth‘s orbit, and will pass on the far side of the Sun from all the planets except Uranus. From near Uranus we will launch two hundred ships of the Hau Ren fleet, timed to meet Thorin as it passes by.

“We will use Thorin 74 as a gravitational sling, on a scale we could never have imagined with Jupiter or Saturn. Your ship has the mass of a sizeable asteroid. It will take a trajectory as close to Thorin as we dare, and Thorin will fling you outward towards your destination at a speed well above our original plans. Many of your fellow ships will undergo a similar treatment, each in its own direction outwards. By robbing Thorin of a little momentum and giving it to our starships, we save immense amounts of fuel load. The benefits will be apparent in the increase of payload we can afford as a result.”

Allan‘s arm tensed beside Miriam. He called out, “Wait a bit. A brown dwarf is about a tenth of a solar mass. What’ll its gravity do to the planetary orbits?” A few voices murmured in agreement with the question.

Deng Yi responded too quickly, with words clearly rehearsed many times. “We have no reason to believe that any planet except Uranus will experience significant orbital alteration due to the passage of Thorin 74. The computed changes in the Uranus orbit indicate an immediate minor increase in orbital eccentricity and a minor increase in orbital angle with respect to the mean orbital plane of the other planets. Long-term modeling shows no meaningful change in any other planetary orbit.”

“But what about minor planets and NEOs?” a woman called. The volume of gabble rose.

Deng Yi raised his voice. “We will address further questions on this subject later. There are major concerns you must face on your voyage. Let me tell you about them.”

Story List	SURPRISE ME	Author Page
USER SURVEY	PUZZLE ME	MAKE ELM MARK

HOVER Lucida Bright BARE	HOVER Lucida Bright FULL	HOVER Palatino Linotype BARE
HOVER Palatino Linotype FULL	HOVER Times New Roman BARE	HOVER Times New Roman FULL
PAD Arial BARE	PAD Arial FULL	PAD Lucida Bright BARE
PAD Lucida Bright FULL	PAD Times New Roman BARE	PAD Times New Roman FULL


	THE SLING 2414 CE, Launch Day Minus Eleven Hundred Forty Seven “My name is Deng Yi, and this is your Starship Post-Arrival Training Program. You have all been assigned to the starship Tompuso.” The Landing Phase instructor floated before Miriam, Allan, and nearly five thousand others in Hau Ren‘s vast orbital training bay a few hundred miles above Earth. A tinge of Sinese tone in his speech gave his use of Share, their Anglo-based common tongue, a decidedly musical flavor. "‘Tompuso' is a word meaning a person of great spiritual power who has been transformed into a feature of the landscape, like Mount Mao up on Oberon at Uranus. Your destination’s called ‘Opo Bira Lima', that means ‘the Owner’s place’ in Sulawesi. It’ll be your new home. Getting to Opo Bira Lima will take you ten thousand years of cold sleep. Give or take a millennium.” The slow gasp from the crew trainees hanging in the shadowy, strut-mazed bay sounded like a distant, venting hatchdoor. No matter how often Miriam heard the count of years, it always thrilled her. She fumbled for Allan‘s hand; his arm circled her waist. Deng Yi continued, “You already know there are six hundred ships being readied. We could take centuries to launch all six hundred. Why try to get it all done in five years? “We have a priceless chance that may never come again. An L-type star, a brown dwarf called Thorin 74 is coming to visit us.” He gestured at a huge screen; the trainees goggled at an orbital diagram of the Solar System. “A brown dwarf is a failed star, one that never kindled its fusion engines in the first place. It gets warm, and then cools off until it’s just a big ball of inert hydrogen. Thorin 74 is moving relative to the Sun at a speed of about 400 miles per second. It will pass within the orbit of Neptune somewhat over three years from now. “For better or worse, Thorin is angling into the Solar System from about fifty degrees above the plane of the Earth‘s orbit, and will pass on the far side of the Sun from all the planets except Uranus. From near Uranus we will launch two hundred ships of the Hau Ren fleet, timed to meet Thorin as it passes by. “We will use Thorin 74 as a gravitational sling, on a scale we could never have imagined with Jupiter or Saturn. Your ship has the mass of a sizeable asteroid. It will take a trajectory as close to Thorin as we dare, and Thorin will fling you outward towards your destination at a speed well above our original plans. Many of your fellow ships will undergo a similar treatment, each in its own direction outwards. By robbing Thorin of a little momentum and giving it to our starships, we save immense amounts of fuel load. The benefits will be apparent in the increase of payload we can afford as a result.” Allan‘s arm tensed beside Miriam. He called out, “Wait a bit. A brown dwarf is about a tenth of a solar mass. What’ll its gravity do to the planetary orbits?” A few voices murmured in agreement with the question. Deng Yi responded too quickly, with words clearly rehearsed many times. “We have no reason to believe that any planet except Uranus will experience significant orbital alteration due to the passage of Thorin 74. The computed changes in the Uranus orbit indicate an immediate minor increase in orbital eccentricity and a minor increase in orbital angle with respect to the mean orbital plane of the other planets. Long-term modeling shows no meaningful change in any other planetary orbit.” “But what about minor planets and NEOs?” a woman called. The volume of gabble rose. Deng Yi raised his voice. “We will address further questions on this subject later. There are major concerns you must face on your voyage. Let me tell you about them.”