Free The Engines of Dawn by Paul Cook Page A

right, Ben admitted to himself. But it didn't cool his resentment.
    One of the techs announced, "I've got a parallax focus at one thousand miles, dead ahead."
    "C-graviton expansion point?" Dr. Harlin asked.
    "Eighty miles behind us," the tech said. "We're ready to poke a hole in space on your command, Dr. Harlin."
    The tall department head nodded. "It's the pilot's call. On his mark."
    "And you're sure we can use the beta-projection point as a brake?" Captain Cleddman asked from the command deck.
    "Yes," Eve Silbarton said, switching on her own com/pager. "The black hole ahead of us and the C-graviton expansion point behind us will give us enough pull and push to get us moving toward Kiilmist 5. We'll activate a second discontinuity to slow us down."
    "Behind us," Cleddman said.
    "That's right. If we can stay outside the Schwarzchild limit of the alpha collapse point in front of us," Silbarton said, "then the thing will pull us toward it and quadruple our speed. We'll do the same to slow us down."
    Tommy Rosales whispered to Ben. "How long is the discontinuity going to stay out in front of us?"
    "Just a few seconds," Ben said. "But that's all we'll need to get us up to relativistic speeds-that is, if we don't get sucked into it directly or near enough to it to catch its gamma radiation."
    "Has anyone ever done this before?" Rosales asked nervously.
    "Only on paper," Ben replied.
    "Swell."
    "It's worse than that," Eve Silbarton said, having heard the two. "Time's going to pass us by on the outside. We're going to lose both contact and time with the rest of the Alley. But it can't be avoided."
    "How much time will we lose?" Ben asked. "Has anyone done the math on that yet?"
    "I did," Dr. Harlin said. "Depending on our top velocity, we should arrive at Kiilmist 5 in about four days. On the outside, however, we'll be out of contact for about two months."
    "Mom and Dad aren't going to like that," Tommy Rosales said.
    Dr. Harlin glanced back at their "advisors" standing at the rear of the room. "The good news is that it will give our Enamorati friends back at the Yards enough time to find us an available Engine or build us a new one."
    " If this works," Ben said.
    "That's right," the department chair said.
    "Okay," Eve Silbarton announced, scanning her monitoring board. Lights became all green across it. "I think we're ready. Let's put Mr. Hollingsdale to work."
     
     

11
     
     
    The Hollingsdale maneuver, as complicated and dangerous as it was, actually worked. The discontinuity, brought into existence and traveling well out ahead of them, stayed in place long enough to coax Eos up to the required velocity they needed to reach Kiilmist 5.
    Perhaps more politically desirable was the outcome on the High Auditor and the two Enamorati witnesses. The two aliens had agreed that Mazaru had not been violated, concluding, in fact, that the success of the maneuver was an indication of how much Mazaru approved of it.
    Which, Ben thought, was hogwash. This time, however, he kept his opinions to himself.
    Ben left with Eve Silbarton soon after that, leaving it to the human engineers and Tommy Rosales-who decided to stay behind-to explain to a couple of nosy reporters from The Alley Citizen what they had just done and why every student on board should be proud. They were part of history now.
    Ben and Eve Silbarton went straight to the gamma lab in the physics department. Ben was feeling buoyed by the experiment's success, but Eve was much less sanguine and kept silent.
    Once they were in the gamma lab and the outer door closed- several undergraduate students were in the delta lab next door working on their own projects-Eve cornered Ben. "Look," she said sharply. "We're the focus of an intense investigation by campus security and God knows who else, and we don't need any more heat right now."
    "What heat? It was our lab that got wiped out," Ben said.
    "Listen, stupid. There are people on this ship whom the administration and the Ainge would