"Lee Edgar - Return to Andromeda" - читать интересную книгу автора (Edgar Lee)

point. I reckon it will actually take just over a month for the first stage, an open space which will take light
itself ten years to cross.’
‘Wow!’
‘By the time we pass Kappa-Cassiopeiae, we will be dead on schedule. That’s where we leave the galaxy
proper.’
‘How long will it actually take to get to Andromeda?’
‘Just hang on,’ Cassi said. ‘I’ll ask Iris.’ She typed: ‘CALCULATE AVERAGE ACCELERATION FACTOR.’
There was a delay until Iris replied. ‘182.55922801% >’
Mike smirked. ‘That’s approximate, I suppose.’
‘Iris never approximates anything, Mike. You should know that by now.’
‘You mean we almost double our speed at each juncture?’
‘That’s right - compounded, of course.’ Her fingers moved over the keys. ‘RECALLIBRATE DESTINATION
TIMES ASSUMING GIVEN AVERAGE ACCELERATION FACTOR.’
Iris responded by updating the last column.

Ross 248 10 20d 00h 14m 24s
A h Go m r g 3
p a r o bd e 4
l i 12 22d 04h 48m 24s
Beta Kruger 13 22d 19h 11m 57s
Archid 18 24d 10h 33m 36s
Chaph 45 29d 07h 12m 05s
Cih 96 34d 08h 59m 11s
Shedir 150 37d 06h 00m 03s
Marfak 250 40d 05h 02m 24s
Segin 500 44d 06h 28m 47s
Omicrom Cassiopeiæ 800 46d 22h 33m 36s
Gamma Cepheus 1300 49d 08h 52m 48s
Kappa Cassiopeiæ 3200 54d 10h 34m 56s
A do e aM 1
nrmd- 3 2085
234 34d 1 1m 2
67 0h 3 1s

Mike leant back in his chair. ‘Three thousand six hundred days? That’s more like it.’
Cassi grinned. ‘Feel better now?’
‘Yes. Tell me, why did your father name you after a star?’
Cassi laughed. ‘I can tell you’ve spent most of your life earthbound. Cassiopeia is not a star but a
constellation sandwiched between the Solar System and the edge of the Galaxy.’
‘A star cluster?’
‘Far from it. Like most constellations and assumed shapes derived therefrom, they only make sense when
seen from the direction of Terra. Even the seven brightest stars which make up the constellation are spread
out over billions of kilometres of open space.’
‘I don’t follow. I was just Orion’s Security Marshal until yesterday, don’t forget.’
‘Look at Iris, Mike. Archid, better known to Earth astronomers as Eta Cassiopeiae, is fairly close in
astronomical terms. However, Kappa of the same constellation is 30,052,932,000,000,000 kilometres from
Terra.’
‘All right then, clever clogs. To rephrase my question, why did your father name you after a constellation?
Especially if it would have looked so different while he was inbound?’
 ‘The stars still had the same names, Mike. They had been programmed into Iris before dad left Terra in the