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Back The Long Sunset Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Prologue
  5. 1.
  6. 2.
  7. 3.
  8. 4.
  9. 5.
  10. 6.
  11. 7.
  12. 8.
  13. 9.
  14. 10.
  15. 11.
  16. 12.
  17. 13.
  18. 14.
  19. 15.
  20. 16.
  21. 17.
  22. 18.
  23. 19.
  24. 20.
  25. 21.
  26. 22.
  27. 23.
  28. 24.
  29. 25.
  30. 26.
  31. 27.
  32. 28.
  33. 29.
  34. 30.
  35. 31.
  36. 32.
  37. 33.
  38. 34.
  39. 35.
  40. 36.
  41. 37.
  42. 38.
  43. 39.
  44. 40.
  45. 41.
  46. 42.
  47. 43.
  48. 44.
  49. Epilogue
  50. About the Author
  51. Copyright

“They were trying to move a planetary population. So, they couldn’t have gone far.” He looked around. “Anyone object?”

Derek Blanchard, Extract from Notebook, Intended for Autobiography

I’ve always thought there was nothing in my life I wanted more than to share a lunch with members of an advanced species. That’s not going to happen, I guess. But at least, I’d very much like to get a look at the kind of world they’d select for themselves. The ice world is going to become one of the great cosmic mysteries. Did they survive? Eventually, we are going to have to track down what really happened. We can do it now, or we can leave it for someone else.

—Wednesday, April 9, 2256

19.

In a world that is usually boring when it is not painful, intelligence can be measured as a capacity to find amusement, or at least distraction.

—Gregory MacAllister, “Options,” Baltimore Sun, February 2, 2249

It’s not that difficult,” Hutch told Beth, who’d come onto the bridge and was sitting beside her. “They’d have been looking for an F, G, or K class star. As close as possible. With a planet in the habitable zone.”

“I’ve got that,” said Beth. “But you said the disadvantage of the Locarno is that it only works effectively when we know how far the target is. Right?”

“That’s correct.”

“If we start guessing how far these stars are, aren’t we going to run out of fuel?”

“We would if we did it that way.”

“So what way are we going to do it?”

“We’ll measure the distance to the candidate stars.”

Beth looked out at the sky. “Exactly how do we do that?”

“It’s not hard. We do a parallax.”

She smiled. “Sounds intriguing.”

“At the moment, Barry’s using the telescope to do a spectral analysis of every star we can see. That’ll narrow them down to the ones that could support a living world. The F, G, and K types. Once we have that, we’ll do the parallax.”

“Which is what?”

“We measure how much a star’s position shifts when we look at it from two different locations. Back in the old days, they measured a star’s angle and waited six months for the Earth to get to the other side of the sun. That moved the observer three hundred million kilometers. Then they did a second measurement to determine how much the star’s angle had changed. The more distant the star, the less the change.”

Wally frowned. “We don’t have the resources to hang out here for another six months.”