The nightmare of hyperspace stasis ended. We were all thrown forward as Pathfinder returned to the normal universe; hopefully, the same universe from which we had left Earth. The windows were full of stars. Anna and Chan were working on their consoles, trying to establish exactly where we were, while I checked all the ship’s systems to ensure we had no mechanical or electronic failures. Mary was looking at the record of the spolding drive, searching out any anomalies.
‘Do we know where we are?’ asked Bill.
‘Might take a while to find out,’ said Chan. ‘Some of the Aquarius stars are still in front of us, but the constellation is distorted, so that could mean we are some way beyond Trappist-1.’
‘Give us some time, Bill,’ said Anna. ‘I’m looking behind us for the Trappist-1 system. With any luck, we should be able to target Herade or Arctur from here and get ourselves back on track.’
‘Who’d like some coffee?’ asked Bill. There was a general positive chorus, so he and Stroya unstrapped and headed aft to make the drinks.
After an hour, I’d confirmed that all ship’s systems were working optimally. ‘Systems are fine. Any idea what happened, Mary?’
‘Just two more checks to make, but I think I know. Give me a couple of minutes,’ the astrophysicist replied.
We’d all finished our coffee pouches when Mary unstrapped and turned to face us from her console. ‘I can see what happened. Glad we had the fail-safe to stop us. When Chan targeted Herade, she had no idea that Trappist-1 would occult Herade at the very moment we were to pass through that location.
‘The star, being directly in our path caused the target planet to be ignored and we carried straight on. No one’s fault. Don’t know how we could allow for it. The chances of it happening are negligible. We’d already built in a system to prevent us from coming out of the dark universe into a planetary body or star and that may be what stopped us being destroyed.’
‘We’re about forty light years beyond Trappist-1,’ said Bill.
‘Should be,’ said Mary.
‘Sorry to disappoint,’ said Anna, ‘but I’ve just located Trappist-1 and it is over one hundred light years away.’
‘Eh? That can’t be right,’ said Mary, peering at Anna’s screen which showed the starfield we’d come from.
‘See,’ said Anna. ‘Sol is barely visible and none of the Trappist-1 planets is targetable.’
Mary and Anna hunched over the screen and looked at various stars closer than Sol and Trappist-1. ‘That’s not good,’ said Mary. ‘What’s up front, Chan?’
‘The gas giant 91 Aquarii is just ten light years in front of us. That means we’re at least one-forty light years from Earth,’ said Chan. ‘It does have a targetable planet.’
‘Let me see,’ said Mary, who pulled herself over to the Chinese woman’s console.
‘How could we have travelled a hundred and forty light years in a hundred and eighty-eight minutes if forty light years takes ninety-three?’ asked Stroya.
‘Worrying question,’ said Mary, continuing to work with Chan.
I looked at other nearby stars on my console. There were none with visible planets, but 91 Aquarii was not a promising system. It comprised a triple system. From Earth, it had been worked out that there was one gas giant planet orbiting the main star. I hooked up the Celestron to the spolding device but could see no others, although it looked as if the planet had at least one rocky moon. Perhaps it had its own system like Jupiter?
‘None of this looks good,’ said Mary. ‘It seems as if the spolding system time dilation shortens the further you go. If you remember, we calculated that the time taken in hyperspace to reach Trappist-1 should have been one hundred days based on the time from Earth to Mars. If the time dilation shortens in relation to distance travelled, that would explain the problem we’ve just experienced.’
‘But the whole idea in restricting the journey time to a hundred and eighty-eight minutes was so that we could spold back to the missed target,’ said Bill.
‘Yes,’ said Mary, ‘but now we know it doesn’t work like that. It shows how novel the spolding drive is. We still don’t understand the physics of it fully.’
‘So, we can’t get back,’ said Bill.
‘Not directly. Even Jupiter doesn’t show up at this range,’ said Anna.
‘Anna, Chan and I need time to work the problem. Peace and quiet, please,’ said Mary.
‘I’m going to search other nearby systems,’ I said.
Bill and Stroya left the bridge for the communal area.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘I really don’t like that idea,’ I said.
‘But, Mark,’ said Mary, ‘we know we can target the gas giant and it’s the closest target to us.’
‘It’s the triple star system which worries me. The gravitational effects could be huge. What’s wrong with this simpler system I’ve found? It too has a gas giant,’ I said.
‘But it’s further away from Trappist-1. If we’re going to get back to Herade, we need to ensure we always head in that direction. Let’s get ourselves into a stable orbit around the 91 Aquarii planet and look more intensely for something closer to Trappist-1,’ said Mary.
‘What do you two think?’ I asked of the two pilots.
‘I’m with Mark,’ said Anna.
‘I think Mary’s right. It is closer to Trappist-1,’ said Chan.
‘I’m the expert,’ said Mary. ‘I should have the casting vote.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘There is no point having specialists on board if I don’t follow their advice. 91 Aquarii it is.’
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Mary and Chan set up the systems ready for the jump, then we all enjoyed a nutritious lunch before climbing back into our couches to launch ourselves towards the triple star system of 91-Aquarii.
‘Three, two, one, go!’ said Chan, and we were, once more, in the frightening stasis of spolding.
The journey was short, just twenty-two minutes. We were thrown forward in our seats as it came to an end. Deafening klaxons greeted our arrival.
The computer screamed, ‘WARNING! LETHAL RADIATION! GRAVE DANGER! LETHAL RADIATION! WARNING! LETHAL RADIATION! GRAVE DANGER!’