"Charles L. Harness-The Million Year Patent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

The Million Year Patent
by Charles L. Harness
This story copyright 1967 by Charles L. Harness.Reprinted by permission of Linn Prentiss.This copy
was created for Jean Hardy's personal use.All other rights are reserved. Thank you for honoring the
copyright.

Published by Seattle Book Company, www.seattlebook.com.

* * *


Bryan Burke pushed aside his physics book and his slide rule and turned to his father. "How do I go
about getting a patent?"
"What on?" said Jim Burke from behind his news tapes.
"Space travel-- at speeds faster than light."
"Unpatentable, my boy. Nothing can move faster than light. Einstein settled that centuries ago."
"Einstein was wrong."
"Can you prove it?"
"I think so. All you need is two ships, each traveling toward the other at a speed of more than one-half
the speed of light. According to Einstein, all motion is relative. So you can imagine that either ship has
zero motion, and the other has all the motion."
"True, I think. But where will you find two such ships?"
"It says here in the shipping news, that Electra, in dock on Joro, sixth planet of Sirius, will convert to
your new Burke drive while taking on cargo and passengers, and then take off for Earth. It also mentions
that Thor, of Alpha Centauri, will convert to Burke, and drive for Earth. I've just plotted the courses of
both ships as part of my homework in Astrogation. Both ships will land here at Washington Terminal on
the same day and at practically the same hour, three years from now..."
" ...and with my new drive," said Jim, "each ship would have a velocity of six-tenths the speed of light
toward Terra, and a total of 1.2 times the speed of light toward each other. Very interesting, and
somehow, of course, impossible."
Bryan's face fell.
"Oh well," said Jim, "at least I'll get you a date with Jack Lane. He's a patent attorney who handles
some of my private inventions, outside my research at Pan-Stellar."
The boy brightened. "Just one more question. How long would the patent last?"
"Seventeen years, I suppose."
"I know that. I mean, how do you calculate those seventeen years on a ship moving at a substantial
fraction of the speed of light? Remember, time slows down on an accelerating body. Seventeen years
Earth time might be only five or ten years, ship time."
Jim shrugged. "Nice legal point. Maybe your patent-- if you ever get it-- would still be in force on such
a ship, after seventeen years of Earth time. It would depend on whether the ship time is legal time. That's
one for Jack Lane. What difference does it make?"
"Maybe none," said Bryan thoughtfully.
And so the patent application was filed, and Jim Burke pretty much forgot about it.
During this time, Electra and Thorcontinued to gather speed. They peaked out at 0.6 c on schedule,
and toward the end of the third year, they began the long deceleration toward Sol.
And then came the explosion in the research laboratories of Pan-Stellar, which nearly killed Jim Burke,
and following which he was hauled off to Washington Central Hospital.
And then there came, during the next months, with a certain horrid rhythm, additional unpleasant
events. These included a series of operations on Jim Burke, which finally established that he was
probably going to live; but that radiation side effects would prevent competent use of his optic nerves;