Learning the World: A Scientific RomanceHumanity has spread to every star within 500 light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life. The ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four hundred year journey. For its long-lived inhabitants, the centuries have been busy. Now a younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst. Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system's Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark. On Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system's outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It's only a comet. His physicist colleague Orro takes time off from trying to invent a flying-machine to calculate the comet's trajectory. Something is very odd about that comet's path. They are not the only ones for whom the world has changed. "We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday. We have to start learning the world all over again." |
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airship aliens asteroid asteroid belt astronomy Atomic Awlin Bahron blink blink comparator buzz cables carbonaceous chondrites caremother caves comet cone Constantine Council crew crowd door drifted eight engine etheric etheric waves eyes face felt Five Ravines flashed flitter flying forward founders gas giant gazed Genome Gevork Gevorkian going Grant green habitat Halegap hands head Horrocks human KEN MACLEOD knew Kwarive laughed Learning the World Lenoen light looked machines Markhan metres minute moon Moon Caves night nodded Nollam numbers orbit Orro Orro's perch planet plates probe reached Red Sun rocks roosts scientists screen Seloh ship shittles shook shoulder side sight smiled sound Southern Rule space speculation stared stars stood sunline sure Synchronic talking tell There's thing thought tion told trees trudges turned virtual walked wall watched waterworld waved wings