Echoes of Earth

by Sean Williams

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 47.0 years

  Departure date: 2051.2

  Arrival date: 2151.1

  HD165401 (via Barnard’s Star)

  UNESSPRO Mission: 340

  Core survey ship: Michio Kaku

  Survey manager (civilian): Caryl Hatzis

  Distance from Sol: 77.7 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 106.6 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 49.9 years

  Departure date: 2050.5

  Arrival date: 2157.1

  Pi-1 Ursa Major

  UNESSPRO Mission: 391

  Core survey ship: Andre Linde

  Distance from Sol: 45.4 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 64.2 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 32.1 years

  Departure date: 2051.3

  Arrival date: 2115.5

  BSC5070

  UNESSPRO Mission: 992

  Core survey ship: Marcus Chown

  Distance from Sol: 67.9 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 93.8 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 44.5 years

  Departure date: 2051.1

  Arrival date: 2144.9

  BSC5148

  UNESSPRO Mission: 636

  Core survey ship: Frank Drake

  Distance from Sol: 80.3 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 110.1 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 51.4 years

  Departure date: 2050.1

  Arrival date: 2160.1

  HD194640

  UNESSPRO Mission: 835

  Core survey ship: Carol Stoker

  Primary survey world: Varuna

  Survey manager (civilian): Cleo Samson

  Survey manager (military): Donald Schievenin

  Distance from Sol: 61.8 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 85.7 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 41.1 years

  Departure date: 2051.3

  Arrival date: 2137.1

  Zeta-1/2 Reticuli (and 8869-308-1)

  UNESSPRO Mission: 805

  Core survey ship: Paul Davies

  Primary survey world: Tatenen

  Survey manager (military): Faith Jong

  Survey manager (civilian): Vince Mohler

  Secondary mission pilot: Rob Singh

  Distance from Sol: 38.4 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 55.1 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 28.3 years

  Departure date: 2050.8

  Arrival date: 2105.9

  Delta Pavonis

  UNESSPRO Mission: 416

  Core survey ship: Martyn Fogg

  Primary survey world: Egeria

  Distance from Sol: 19.4 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 30.2 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 17.8 years

  Departure date: 2051.1

  Arrival date: 2081.3

  BSC8477

  UNESSPRO Mission: 344

  Core survey ship: Anna Jackson

  Primary survey world: unknown

  Distance from Sol: 70.4 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 97.2 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 45.9 years

  Departure date: 2050.2

  Arrival date: 2147.4

  94 Aquarius

  UNESSPRO Mission: 095

  Core survey ship: Larry Lemke

  Primary survey world: unknown

  Distance from Sol: 66.0 ly

  Mission duration (Sol-relative): 91.3 years

  Mission duration (ship-relative): 43.4 years

  Departure date: 2050.9

  Arrival date: 2142.2

  APPENDIX 3

  Characteristics of Adrasteia

  APPENDIX 4

  Timetable

  APPENDIX 5

  Dramatis Personae

  Frank Tipler

  Peter Alander (generalist)

  Jene Avery (pilot)

  Lucia Benck (pilot, Chung-2)

  Chrys Cunliffe (mathematics)

  Kara De Paolis (structural engineer)

  Ali Genovese (telemetry)

  Caryl Hatzis (survey manager, civilian)

  Faith Jong (software)

  Nalini Kovistra (astrophysics)

  Owen Norsworthy (materials)

  Kingsley Oborn (biotechnician)

  Cleo Samson (organic chemist)

  Donald Schievenin (physics)

  Rob Singh (pilot)

  Jayme Sivio (survey manager, military)

  Otto Wyra (astrophysics)

  Sol System

  Lowell Correll (Urge)

  Caryl Hatzis (citizen)

  Laurie Jetz (Urge)

  JORIS (merge)

  Lancia Newark (narrative designer)

  Kathryn Nygard (Urge)

  Sel Shalhoub (Urge)

  Rob Singh (Urge)

  Matilda Sulich (activist/Gezim)

  Betty van Tran (Urge)

  Other UNESSPRO Missions

  Peter Alander (Michio Kaku)

  Peter Alander (Paul Davies)

  Ali Genovese (Frank Drake)

  Caryl Hatzis (Paid Davies)

  Caryl Hatzis (SMC, Michio Kaku)

  Caryl Hatzis (Andre Linde)

  Caryl Hatzis (Carol Stoker)

  Faith Jong (SMM, Paul Davies)

  Vince Mohler (SMC, Paul Davies)

  Cleo Samson (SMC, Carol Stoker)

  Donald Schievenin (SMC, Carol Stoker)

  AFTERWORD

  Broadly speaking, many of the places described in this book are real; we just can’t see them in such detail yet. Ensuring that known facts aren’t distorted too far is a tricky job for any science fiction writer, and there are always people who help out along the way. The authors of this book would like to acknowledge the help of a number of people in this regard. Many of them are members of either the Eidolist or the Mount Lawley Mafia (or both), and we would like to thank those two collectives for their support and advice. In particular, the many and varied talents of Dr. Damien Broderick, Simon Brown, Jeff Harris, Chris Lawson, and Jonathan Strahan deserve more than even very special thanks, but that is all we can offer in this forum. Similarly, to Kristy Brooks and Nydia Robertson we offer our deepest appreciation and gratitude for their patience and perseverance, among other things.

  Acknowledgement must go to Erik Max Harris for (to the authors’ best knowledge) first proposing a scale based on Planck units. We have adapted his ideas to suit our needs, and any errors introduced in the process are ours. Winchell Chung’s weird world of 3-D star maps was a vital source of information at many stages throughout the writing of this book. Claus Bornich is the creator of a neat program called It’s Full of Stars, which we employed extensively in the realization of the world of the Orphans series. Extensive use was also made of the following programs: DK Multimedia’s Red Shift 3 and ProFantasy’s Campaign Cartographer 2 and Fractal Terrain. Once again, the authors would like to emphasize that any factual errors found in the text are their own doing (and that we are very, very sorry).