Free The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman Page A

intended recipient right now.
    Jana smiled innocently to the
Captain as he returned, but fortunately he was preoccupied with the handheld
display that he carried.
    After several seconds of holding
her breath in fear, she finally relaxed; apparently she’d gotten away with the
little misdeed.
    A worn-out old crewman peered into
the control room.
    “ Excuse me, Sir, ” the scarred and grizzled pirate
beckoned, “ we have the men prisoners. ”
    Captain Gristle waved them into
the cramped room.
    The elderly crewman led the
downcast chain gang consisting of four of her colleagues from the Lab into the
pilothouse. The first was an unlucky janitor who happened to be in the
Containment Facility when the kidnappers had forced their entry.
    Jana studied the others with
dismay.
    Her gifted assistant Erik seemed
to have suffered some sort of breakdown; his terror-stricken eyes leapt around
with swirling incomprehension. A chubby teenage intern stared pleadingly at
her; the poor fellow had arrived at the Lab about a week before the
catastrophe. The last of the miserable lot was Ramesh, a haphazardly grad
student who had helped out with her research. He grinned briefly in recognition
as he was pulled roughly past her.
    The old pirate prodded the
shackled newcomers into a tight group around Jana.
    Boz appeared at the hatchway and
nodded to Gristle, “ It ’ s ready. ”
    The Captain rubbed his chin
hesitantly before operating several switches on the control panel. An alarm
sounded for several seconds before a faint whirring pervaded the Butin Belle .
    When a green indicator flashed,
Captain Gristle looked up at the hapless hostages, “ With that task complete, we can get on with other misdoings. ” He surveyed the tattered group. “ I hope that the cruise has been
a pleasant one. ”
    “ Well.... ” Ramesh started.
    Jana shook her head in alarm and
he stifled any further comment.
    Gristle glared at the man before
continuing, “ You are now slaves and you will be treated as such.
Misbehavior on your part will result in torture or death. ” He balled his fist and struck Ramesh hard in the stomach.
    The young man doubled over in
agony.
    The others watched in horrified
silence.
    “ Shortly, ” Gristle continued, “ you will be transferred onto the Xenon Lightning where you will
beginning producing several items required by our employer. ”
    Bosco chuckled cynically at the
hatchway.
    The Captain stared ominously at
Jana, “ I expect nothing less than your full cooperation. ”

17. News Item: New speed standard
announced
    Dateline: 6th of July, 2445; Free City, Earth
    With spacecraft speeds climbing
ever higher and a confusing hodgepodge of systems to measure that velocity
still persisting from the early days of space travel, The Free City Standards
Committee has announced a new and definitive benchmark for indicating
spacecraft speeds.
    Upon the hoped for universal
adoption of the standard, gone forever will be such arcane and archaic
nomenclature such as kilometers per second, knots, parsecs per year or even the
ancient miles per hour still used in the backwaters of the Outer Reaches.
    After years of exhaustive study
and no small amount of machinations, the Committee announced that the standard
of spacecraft speed measurement will be Astronomical Units per year or more
simply AU/yr.
    Some variation of Astronomical
Units have been used by Astronomers since the time of the ancient Greeks.
Nearly all young students of the sciences in Free City know that an
Astronomical Unit is the approximate mean distance from the Sun to the Earth,
or a little less than 150 million kilometers.
    The new system easily accommodates
the leisurely lunar escape velocity of 0.8 AU/yr, the customary traveling speed
of most space freighters at about 16 AU/yr and the blistering velocities of the
newest fast interceptors of over 45 AU/yr.
    If approved by the Warlord
Syndicate and the Free City Spacecraft Authority, the new standard will take
full effect