Blish,James – And all the Stars a Stage

lower in pitch the faster we go away from the source,” Kamblin said. “But

it will mean a good deal more than that to us

And all the Stars a Stage 87

later. I’m Still uncertain of the exact figures, but it looks as though the

accumulated error will be about thirty per cent.”

Ertak nodded, but Ailiss said promptly, “Sorry, Im not reading you. Error

in what? Which parameters are you filling?”

“Real time and acceleration,” Kamblin said patiently. “Here, look at it

this way. I set the date of the explosion at about forty-five years after

take-off. That’s when it will happen, back home. But for us’ time is

gradually speeding up. For us, the explosion will happen about thirty-one

years after take-off.”

“Oh. Well, that still seems to be a fair distance in the future. And we’ll

be just as far away from it as we thought we’d be, if it’s only a

relativistic effect.”

“It isn’t only a relativistic effect,” Jorn said suddenly.

“Ies either that or it’s entirely meaninglessl”

“Easy, Ailiss, that isn’t what he means,” Kamblin said gently. “I don’t

think he’s talking about physics now. What is it, Jorn?”

“Well … It’s going to be bad for us. It means that the people home are

going to seem to have less time, too, from our point of view. I can’t do

contraction equations in my head or I could tell you how much less.”

“Don’t try, I know already,” Kamblin said. “The effect is small on this end

of the curve, this early. For us, it will seem that our planet will die

after we have been about three years in space instead of the predicted