by John Lumpkin
It wasn't easy or cheap: Typically, about a quarter of Valkyries didn't survive the trip, lost to high-speed collisions with interstellar dust. And no nation had managed to build a Valkyrie that didn't break down after nine or ten light-years' travel, so reaching distant stars required accessing a series of lily pads, usually dim red dwarf systems without hope of habitable worlds.
Hirasaki and his successors also learned that wormholes were funny, fragile things, and they came with rules. It was as if the universe only grudgingly allowed them, and took every opportunity to attempt to make them go away. To prevent wormholes from collapsing, nations were forced to keep their wormholes in space and distant from one another.
For example, they could collapse if you only used them in one direction. Mass must be conserved on both sides, so a 10,000-ton freighter going from Sol to Sirius would eventually need to be balanced by an equal mass going in the other direction. Outside each mouth of a wormhole was a robot tug that pushed ballast – usually rocks mined from a nearby asteroid – into the guidance rings, which formed a weak electromagnetic catapult to propel it through. Typically, a single ship wouldn’t destabilize a balanced wormhole; however, a fleet in a hurry might if it didn’t wait for the tugs to take load-balancing measures. Occasionally, newer wormholes would temporarily prohibit transit while waiting for a delivery of new ballast mass on the far side. This was one reason to keep wormholes out in space: On a planetary surface, differences in air pressure, gravity and other factors at each mouth would draw stray matter from one side to the other, and, over time, crash it.
Many of the remaining restrictions on wormhole travel extend from what most believe is a universal law: “Thou shalt not travel back in time!” But that isn’t quite accurate. The real law is more particular: “Thou shalt not be able to travel back in time to interfere with your own past.”
Thanks to the time dilation effects of traveling at high velocities, a robot Valkyrie could conceivably reach a five-light-year-distant destination star in just three years in its own time frame, potentially opening up a new colony two years early! The wormhole-crossing colonists would leave their origin in 2105, but arrive in 2103. Wormhole theory said this should be fine, as long as they were unable to pass stock tips from the future to everyone else in 2103. Going back through the original wormhole would put them in 2105 again, so they would need a loop of other early-arriving wormholes to attempt to pass people or information to influence their own past.
However, the moment anyone tried to build such a loop, some or all of the wormholes collapsed, just as wormhole theory predicted. But what didn’t mesh with the theory was the fact that every Valkyrie that had tried to take advantage of time dilation had lost its wormhole anyway, even when no offending loop was created! After the loss of several early Valkyries, everyone took care to set up a wormhole link using a synchrotron that kept the stay-at-home wormhole mouth at the same speed as its counterpart on the Valkyrie. They stayed in synch, neither ahead nor behind each other in time. But physicists struggled to explain why any and all out-of-synch wormholes still collapsed. Their chief theory involved infinitesimally small, primordial wormholes arrayed around the galaxy, which interfered with the manufactured wormholes. But no one had found any.
The mystery deepened in the 2120s when a malfunctioning Japanese Valkyrie deposited its wormhole at the red dwarf AT Microscopii B three months before its counterpart at the origin had fully decelerated. The wormhole pair should have crashed, and it ultimately did, but only a month later, after the Japanese breeder ship entered the system and tried launching another wormhole toward a nearby star with an existing European wormhole. It was several years until AT Microscopii B was reopened, this time with in-synch wormholes. The breeder ship was quickly located, as were the bodies of the crew. They had starved to death.
Enlarged mouths from different wormhole pairs were also territorial: They could destabilize if they passed within several million kilometers of each other, as even small differences in the velocities of close wormholes could create an out-of-synch loop and thus a time machine. This effect prevented you from sending a wormhole through a wormhole or mounting a wormhole on a regular ship. Earth’s stellar nations kept their wormholes distant from one another, often at Lagrange and Trojan points where they could anchor mass for ballast.
FL Virginis (Wolf 424, Gliese 473) – Binary red dwarfs (M5, M7) with a moderately eccentric orbit that averages 3.2 AU distance. The B star (the “true” FL Virginis; the designation is now routinely applied to the entire system) is a significant flare star and an astrogation hazard within 2 AU.
The system is administered by the United Nations Space Agency and has a population of 19 (2137). The Alfa KH event, from Wolf 359, opened in 2086 and is located in the leading Trojan point of Marble, the second planet of the A star. The Bravo KH event, to Wolf 498, opened in 2092 and is located in the L-5 position of Marble, and the larger of its two terrestrial moons, Pea. Marble has a mildly eccentric orbit that averages a distance of 0.23 AU from the A star. The planet is 11 Earth masses and is an ice cloud Jovian.
FL Virginis is chiefly noted as a transit star between Sol and the International Ring. It is two systems downstream from Sol, and three systems upstream from Entente (Beta Comae Berenices IV) and Commonwealth (Beta Canum Venaticorum IV). Some He-3 and deuterium extraction takes place at Marble to serve the fuel and remass station at one of the planet’s asteroid satellites.
Beta Canum Venaticorum (Chara, Asterion, Chang Chien Si, Gliese 475) – Singular yellow dwarf (G0) located 27 light-years from Earth. Widely noted as a solar analog, BCV is slightly younger (age 4.05 billion years) and poorer in metals (96 percent of Sol). Its system includes five rocky major planets and three gaseous major planets, all in near-circular orbits. The system is best known for its fourth planet, Commonwealth, which is habitable by humans.
The system’s Alfa KH event, from DG Canum Venaticorum, opened in March 2110, precipitating colonization of Commonwealth under the authority of the United Nations Space Agency. The Bravo KH event, from Gliese 450, was opened by China in August 2110. The outbound Charlie and Delta KH events, to GJ 1151 and Hussey 644, opened in 2115 and 2119, respectively. The Delta KH event is administered by Brazil and Israel, whose colony worlds lie beyond.
The planetary refueling station at the L-4 position with Commonwealth’s terrestrial moon, Rodrigo, named for the planet’s first colonial governor. Rodrigo is large enough to hold a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. Commonwealth also has two moons that are captured asteroids.
Commonwealth was discovered by long-range telescope in 2065 and confirmed to have an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere in 2090.
The planet’s wide temperate belt is dominated by a single large continent in the early stages of dissolution, similar to the breakup of Pangaea on Earth 200 million years ago. Much of the interior of the continent is frigid tundra, too distant from the moderating influence of the planet’s great ocean. But along the coasts, the continental dance and the movement of ancient glaciers have carved a vast array of lush valleys into the landscape. Far at sea are two massive hurricanes; Scylla and Charybdis, (Categories 6 and 4, respectively, in the expanded Saffir-Simpson scale). Much like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, they are permanent features. There is no evidence they have ever made landfall. These are the locations of the only known forms of life evolved to live entirely within a storm system.
Commonwealth is classified as a Terran Gaean world. It has a well-developed ecosystem that includes multicellular life, including complex plants and animals. It is also a source of natural petroleum, particularly in the dangerous inland regions.
The primary predator in the habitable coastal and fjord regions was described by the first colonists as a “rolling fang” – an armored, wolverine-sized pack hunter that lives on the clifftops. They attack grazer animals by rolling themselves into balls and plummeting down hillsides, crashing into the herbivores, often knocking their prey over and stunning it. The fangs then unroll them
selves and strike.
Fortunately for the colonists, Commonwealth’s life evolved using a different set of proteins, leaving Earth-life indigestible to the rolling fangs. Occasionally, though, a fang pack has mistaken a group of humans or their herd animals for the native cuisine, and attacked. Ranching on Commonwealth is therefore a precarious job at times.
Another unique animal is several species of airborne “Monties,” which propel themselves in a manner similar to hot-air balloons.
The current population is estimated at 2.1 million. Overruling China’s protests, the U.N. designated Commonwealth for “open” colonization in 2110. Citizens of any nation were allowed to immigrate under an international lottery system, and the world would be run under a single, U.N.-designed republican government. Social scientists hoped to create a truly mixed world, free from nationalist, ethnic and religious strife.
The design failed. Less-than-hoped-for investment in the petroleum sector reduced economic opportunities, and ethnic and religious identity groups began agitating for increased autonomy from the central government. In 2125, an unidentified group bombed and destroyed the main assembly building in Unity City, which set off a nearly planet-wide civil war.
Today, the U.N. has no presence on the planet, although the agency still administers the Alfa and Charlie KH events in the system. An estimated 45 states of various sizes exist on the planet. A few have achieved a measure of stability and are seeking formal recognition as nations; most are ruled by warlords or not at all.
Weapons imports are prohibited by United States law. Travel to Commonwealth is not advised for any person.
11 Leonis Minoris – Binary consisting of a yellow dwarf (G8) and a red dwarf (M5) in a highly eccentric orbit located 36 light-years from Earth. The G8 A star is a mild flare hazard; check with astrometeorology sources for any current Notice to Astronauts. The A component, “Leo” has three planets, all rocky, in near-circular orbits; the M5 B companion, known as the “Cub,” has a single Jovian planet. The yellow dwarf’s third planet, Sequoia to American officialdom and Kuan Yin to everyone else, is habitable by humans. The low number of planets is attributed to the eccentricity of the stars’ orbit around each other; their closest approach prevents stable orbits exceeding 1.3 AU around either star.
China opened the system’s Alfa KH event, from GJ 1134, in orbit around Kuan Yin in 2123, precipitating Kuan Yin’s colonization by that country. China ignored claims by the United States, which had first identified the planet as potentially habitable as early as 2099. However, the United States was unable to reach the system via wormhole until 2127, when the Bravo KH event from GJ 1119 opened, in the leading Trojan point of the system’s uninhabitable second planet, Amitabha. A significant dispute over colonization rights to the planet erupted after the American wormhole opened; they were settled by the Edelman Accords of 2129, which allowed American colonization of a single continent in the northern hemisphere of the third planet. The Americans also named the continent Sequoia.
The outbound Charlie and Delta KH events, to Gliese 353 and Rho Cancri, opened in 2131 and 2132, respectively, are both operated by China. They sit in the leading and trailing Trojan points of the Kuan Yin-11 Leonis Minoris A system.
Kuan Yin orbits at an average of 0.82 AU. It is classified as a Terran Hestian world; its only native inhabitants upon human colonization were ocean-going single-celled lifeforms, some of which are responsible for the planet’s oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Surface gravity is 88 percent of Earth. The atmospheric pressure near sea level is 2.1 bars, requiring a significant adjustment for people from Earth. Carbon dioxide, in particular, reaches potentially hazardous levels at lower altitudes, necessitating use of a rebreather during extended exposure below certain altitudes. The planet’s surface is wealthy in life-assisting minerals like potassium, calcium and phosphorous, and Earth plants generally grow well there. The crust also has abundant thorium; the planet’s continuing tectonic activity is credited to the long half-life of this slightly radioactive element.
Kuan Yin has two natural satellites, Long Nu and Shan Tsai, and a faint dust ring thought to be a remnant of a smaller moon that crashed into the planet perhaps two billion years ago. Meteors striking the surface are not uncommon, although few members of the ring are large enough to be a hazard to entire population centers. However, Kuan Yin lies perilously close to a thin asteroid belt orbiting at an average of 1.09 AU from the A star. There is evidence of occasional, significant asteroid strikes in the planet’s recent history, and China keeps two orbit guard vessels on station to divert any inbound masses.
The planet is said to have only two seasons: hot and hotter, and scientists have expressed long-term habitability and climate concerns given the Cub is approaching apastron. The planet has no icecaps; indeed, only its polar regions are cool enough to be habitable year-round. Fortunately, of the planet’s five continents, four reside within those regions. It is theorized that the planet’s fast rotation (a Kuan Yin day is 16 hours long) has drawn the continental plates toward the poles.
The current planetary population is estimated at 800,000, with three quarters of them Chinese nationals. Both China and the United States maintain a relatively large military presence on the planet.
Two refueling stations are in orbit, one operated by China and the other for the United States by Simmons D&H Incorporated. In 2138, China began construction of an antimatter manufacturing station above 11 Leonis Minoris’ innermost planet; it is expected to open in 2140. Helium-3 and deuterium must be shipped in from mining operations outside the system.
John J. Lumpkin was born in 1973 in San Antonio, Texas, and educated at Texas Christian University and lately at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A former national security reporter for the Associated Press, his experience includes covering 9-11, walking the halls of CIA headquarters, and racing through Baghdad and Kabul in military convoys. He may also be the only person who has had a drink with both Donald Rumsfeld and Steve-O from Jackass (but, to be clear, not at the same time). Now a writer and teacher, he lives outside of Boulder, Colorado, with his wife Alice and their daughter Charlotte. He is working on the sequel to Through Struggle, the Stars, titled Desert of Stars. His web site is www.thehumanreach.net.
Winchell Chung, who provided the cover art for Through Struggle, the Stars, was born in 1957 in California. He started out life as a science fiction illustrator, most famously providing the iconic images of the Ogre cybertank for the eponymic wargame. He later gravitated to computer programming, and his lifelong hobby is applying the tools of science to the game of science fiction. This culminated in his Atomic Rockets web site, which is probably the most popular online term paper ever written. He lives with his wife and two adorable, insouciant black cats.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Book I: Outbound
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Book II: Homebound
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Map
Appendix I: On Wormholes
Appendix II: Selected Entries from the NSS Interstellar Factbook, 2138 ed.
About the Author
About the Illustrator
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