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.Hell, he didn't know.And not even the computer would be able to tell himbecause there were so many unknown factors, such as the proportion of theship's mass lost to the Slug blasters, the irregular shape of the airlockopening, the degree of smoothness of its metal.He made calculations with pencil and paper.He would have to move the shipwith extreme precision.A light-hour short of the proper distance put him too far from the sun for itto power the communicator, a light-hour beyond put him in the sun's flamingwhite heart.One light-hour out of eight point six light-years wasapproximately one part out of seventy-five thousand.He would have to move theship with an accuracy of point aught three centimeters one hundredth of aninch.One hundredth of an inch!He laid the pencil back down, almost numbly.He could never open and close anairlock and move a mass of thousand of tons with an accuracy of a hundredth ofan inch.The very thought was wildly fantastic.Page 97ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe was already far closer to Sirius than he would be if he tried to get anycloser.And that was over eight light-years from it.He looked at the chronometer and saw the hands had already reached 13:20.Thirty-three minutes left to him.Sirius was near soon it would be in the bowof the ship and Sirius was eight point six light-years away.How could he move the ship a certain distance accurate to one hundredth of aninch? He couldn't.The answer was blunt and ugly: he couldn't.He got up and walked across the room, feeling like a man who had in quicksuccession been condemned, reprieved, recondemned.He had been projected intoa situation for which he had had no preliminary training whatever; had beenmade sole custodian and operator of a computer and a space warp shuttle thathe had never before been permitted to touch.He had used the sound but not atall brilliant mind nature had given him to solve the riddle of the paradoxesand learn where he was and where he wanted to go.He had done quite well hehad solved every problem of his survival and the shuttle's delivery except thelast one!He passed by the shuttle and stopped to rest his hand on the bright, silveryfocal ball.The solar system would be deep inside the ball; the atoms of theball larger than Earth, perhaps, and far more impalpable than the thinnestair.The Slug cruisers would be in there, infinitesimally tiny, waiting forhim to return.No faulty reasoning.The solar system was as it had always been, notdiminished in size and not really in the ball.It was only that two differentpoints in two different dimensions coincided in the ball.He saw the answer.He did not have to move the ship to Sirius he had only to move the ball!* * *There would be little time, very little time.First, to see if the warpshuttle was portableIt was.When he unfastened the clamp that held it to the stand it lifted upfreely, trailing a heavy cable behind it.He saw it was only a power supplycable, with a plug that would fit one of the sockets in the bow of the ship.He left the shuttle floating in the air, leashed by the cable, and went to thecomputer.Next, he would have to know if Sirius would be fully in the shipHe switched the computer on and typed:DETERMINE THE DISTANCE FROM THE CENTER OF THE WARP SHUTTLE'S FOCALBALL TO THE SPACE WARP POSITION OF SIRIUS AT 13:53, BASING YOURCOMPUTATIONS ON THE EXPANDING-SHIP THEORY.It gave him the answer a moment later: 18.3496 METERS.He visualized the distance, from his knowledge of the ship's interior, and sawthe position would be within the forward spare-parts room.Next, to learn exactly where in that room he should place the shuttle.Hecould not do so by measuring from the present position of the shuttle.Themost precise steel tape would have to be at exactly the right temperature forsuch a measurement to be neither too short nor too long.He had no such tape,and the distance from the focal ball was only part of the necessary measuring:he would have to measure off a certain distance and a precisely certain anglefrom the purely imaginary central line of the ship's axis to intersect theoriginal line.Such a measurement would be impossible in the time he had.He considered what would be his last question to the computer.The hand wastouching the zero and his question would have to be worded very clearly andsubject to no misinterpretations.There would be no follow-up questionspermitted.He began typing:IT IS DESIRED THAT THIS SHIP EMERGE INTO NORMAL SPACE ONE LIGHT-HOURTHIS SIDE OF SIRIUS AT 13:53.THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED BY MOVING THE WARPPage 98ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]