Zaii didn’t say anything, but Shelle could see her friend’s shoulders jerking. She’s crying! Shelle thought, astonished that the unflappable Zaii could show so much emotion.
Then Shelle’s own throat began to ache and tears spilled down her cheeks. She stood up because she didn’t know what else to do. She wanted to hug Zaii, and thank April Lee, but Lee and Zaii were still clinging to one another.
After a bit, Lee relaxed her grip on Zaii, pushing her back to look into her eyes. She said, “There were eight of us on Maui, Zaii. But I’d argue that the most important member of our crew was back on Earth. The, as always, brilliant person who fed us advice and told us how to win. He contributed the most important ideas and made all the difference in the world— well, the solar system in this case. If you ask me, he dispenses the best damned advice in the whole freaking universe.”
“Who was that?” Zaii croaked, wiping at her eyes.
“Your dad, Kaem Seba. Smartest man I’ve ever known. Were I you, I’d listen to what he has to say.”
Holy shit! Her dad’s Kaem Seba?! His last name’s not Vera?! Shelle thought, hair on end. That’s why he looks familiar!
The End
Hope you liked the book!
To find other books by the author try Laury.Dahners.com.
Or his Amazon Author page
Author’s Afterword
This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that poses a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t currently thought possible. Essentially you ask, “what if” something (such as faster than light travel or time stasis) were possible, how might that change our world?
I think the rest of the science in a science fiction story should be as real as possible.
Therefore, in this story, the central question continues to be what if time stasis were possible and objects in stasis could come in any shape you could mold.
Stasis is not a new idea in science fiction. Niven’s “slavers” used it to escape from bad situations into the future. In Vernor Vinge’s The Peace War, people who threatened the authoritarian government were “bobbled” in stasis fields to get them out of the way. In both of these SF universes, the stasis fields are indestructible but—to the best of my recollection—they are only used to protect oneself from destruction (Niven) or to punish offenders by sending them forward in time (Vinge) and are always spherical. Sometimes stories by other authors offhandedly use stasis for the preservation of food or people, but they usually ignore the presumed mechanical properties. Those stories seldom delve into the other changes that would derive from an ability to stop time within a space.
This book continues to explore the possibilities of using the phenomenal mechanical properties of Stade to build towers for launching spaceships.
It looks into how Stade’s bizarre properties might be used to blunt the damage of hurricanes or even decrease their frequency.
It reconsiders the possibility of using Stade to confine atoms in order to achieve fusion, but in this case to use the extremely energetic products of that fusion, not just for energy, but directly as the reaction mass that produces the thrust of the rocket.
Finally, it looks at the possibility of aliens arriving in our solar system. It’s hard to imagine why aliens would travel across interstellar distances if they didn’t have some kind of faster than light drive, or wormhole, or jump system. Even if they had a way to jump, jumping from the edge of a system—as is often proposed in science fiction—would still be very difficult unless you had a drive that could get you to the edge of the system in a reasonable amount of time. This is my attempt to put together a story where it makes sense.
This story took me longer than others for reasons I don’t fully understand, but part of it was that I discovered an online calculator (https://www.omnicalculator.com) that makes it easy to work out accelerations and velocities and energies, etc. This let me spend an inordinate amount of time making sure spacecraft could get from place to place in the times and with the amount of fuel I used in the story.
Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Gail Gilman, Nora Dahners, H. Jeff Durham, Gerrit Jan Van Brenk, Philip Lawrence, Scott McNay, and Mike Scott; each of whom significantly improved this story.
Other Books and Series
by Laurence E Dahners
Series
The Ell Donsaii series
The Vaz series
The Bonesetter series
The Blindspot series
The Proton Field series
The Hyllis family series
Single books (not in series)
The Transmuter’s Daughter
Six Bits
Shy Kids Can Make Friends Too
For the most up to date information go to:
Laurence E Dahners website
Or the Amazon Author page
Deep Space - Hidden Terror (The Stasis Stories #6) Page 26
