Free Moon Flower by James P. Hogan

them, but on the far side of Ra Alpha. Because of the difference in periods, the place along Cyrene’s ellipse where these Points occurred progressed from one orbit to the next as Ra Alpha advanced in its slower path around Ra Beta.
    Although perigee was recognized as unique and marked the beginning of a new year for most Cyrenean cultures, the Interior Point, although shifting from year to year, was universally celebrated as more socially and celestially significant. In Yocala it was known as “Longday.” This was the day in the year when Ra Alpha began to rise on one horizon just as Ra Beta set on the opposite one, giving two full days with no darkness at all at some point in the transitions between summer and winter, and back again.
    When Longday occurred at or near perigee, summers were at their fiercest, with Cyrene close to Ra Alpha and long periods of daylight resulting from two suns on opposite sides of the sky. As Cyrene moved away from perigee, the two suns would gradually be seen to move closer together from day to day, the darkness growing longer, until Ra Beta disappeared in the glare of Ra Alpha, to re-emerge after winter, when Cyrene would again be accelerating inward and warming again. There was thus no correspondingly spectacular point to mark the antipode of Longday, when Ra Beta was in line with Ra Alpha but on the far side. However, generations of Cyrenean astronomers had fixed it from the apparent movement of Ra Alpha with respect to the background stars. It was known as “Henkyl’s Day.” Henkyl and Goruno were the Yocalan names for Ra Alpha and Ra Beta, after two rival mythical figures from ancient legends, who battle each other endlessly for control of the heavens. Henkyl’s Day occurred when Goruno was eclipsed completely and Henkyl ruled alone for a day.
    (1) Cyrene at perigree. Day of no darkness. Ra Alpha rises as Ra Beta sets. Time of maximum warmth.
     
    (2) Cyrene at quarter orbital period. Cooling. Day by day, Ra Alpha and Ra Beta are seen to move closer together from opposite sides of the sky.
     
    (3) Cyrene at apogee, halfway into orbital period.
     
    (4) Cyrene at three quarters of orbital period. Ra Beta has closed visually to Ra Alpha sufficiently to be invisible in its glare.
     
    (5) Cyrene completes one orbit. Ra Alpha has advanced 1/9 of its orbit relative to Ra Beta. The next darkness-free day will occur when Cyrene is some distance into its second orbit.



Figure 2. Motion of Ra Alpha relative to Ra Beta for one orbit of Cyrene. Cyrenes’s orbit selected arbitrarily to commence from the point where perigree falls on the line connecting the two stars.
    When Ra Alpha had made its four-and-a-half year semi orbit around Ra Beta, Longdays would have shifted to occur in the period centered on apogee. The cold resulting from Cyrene’s greater distance from Ra Alpha would then be partly offset by the presence of Ra Beta in the winter skies, giving times of both milder winters and less extreme summers, due to their experiencing longer nights. Thus an additional climatic influence existed above Cyrene’s 680-day year, which produced periods of blazing summers and harsh winters, alternating with milder versions of each over a nine-year cycle. It was known as the “novennial,” and its resulting seasons as carbayis and doroyis, which translated roughly as “hard years” and “soft years.”



Figure 3. Cycle of Ra Alpha relative to Ra Beta. Period =9.1 orbits of Cyrene about Ra Alpha, i.e. 6118 Cyrenean days. Figures give the number of 680-day orbits of Cyrene, plus additional days of the following part-orbit. Thus, Frame 2 shows Ra Alpha 1/8 of the way into its cycle about Ra Beta, which is reached after 1 orbit of Cyrene around Ra Alpha plus a further 85 days.
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    Shearer collected the plastic pack of insipid-looking cafeteria food from the dispenser, added cutlery and a cup of synthetic coffee substitute to his tray — the real thing had been withdrawn following a health