Frontier: Book One - The Space Cadets by Laurence Moroney Read Free Book Online Page A

destructive
interference.”
    “ That ’ s
right,” continued Abby. She spread iron filings on a piece of card,
and turned on a speaker beneath the card. Classical music filled
the room. The deep bass caused Aisha ’ s
ears to throb. The fine filings vibrated from the sound, and
started to form patterns. She turned on another speaker, and the
filings began to form patterns for that too. In some places there
were no filings at all.
    “ And just like with any other
destructive interference, there are null spots, like
these.”
    “ Wait,” said Aisha. “So if there
are areas of null gravity, from destructive interference between
two stars, then--”
    “ Then the space around that area
forms a kind of bubble. If you travel into it, headed in the
general direction of the other star, you are instantaneously
transported towards the Oort Cloud surrounding that
star.”
    “ That ’ s how we get interstellar travel?
No warp drive or hyperspace? ”
    “ Nope. But what ’ s the problem with this approach?”
    Soo-Kyung spoke up. “There are
many,” she said. “Not least, how do we send a ship the fifty
thousand A-Us to the Oort Cloud in order to find one of these null
zones? And once we ’ re there,
it ’ s still a very long journey to any
potential, prospective planets.”
    “ Correct,” said the teacher. “But
also, how do we get back once we ’ ve done
so?”
    “ How do we even know the ship made
the journey successfully?”
    “ Wait,” said Aisha, a thought
growing in her mind. “You ’ ve done it
already, haven ’ t you? The closest star is
just over four light years away, so you might have sent a ship four
or more years ago, and then detected their transmissions, which
would take four years, at the speed of light, to let us know that
they made it in one piece. Or at least their transmitter
did.”
    “ So,” said Soo-Kyung. “Did
you?”
    “ Yes,” said Miss Abby. “We did.
And just over a year ago, we got confirmation that the ship made it
all the way across the gulf between the stars.”
    “ Amazing,” said Aisha. “Travel
between the stars. The galaxy is open to us.”
    “ Not quite yet,” said Miss
Abby. “But maybe soon. A few problems to solve first.”
    “ Wait, ” said Soo-Kyung. “ You got confirmation just over a
year ago? ”
    “ Yes.”
    “ And wasn ’ t it just over a year ago that the Academy opened
enrollment to anybody that could qualify?”
    “ Why, yes it was. Your
point?”
    “ Is there a
connection?”
    “ There ’ s
always a connection, in everything. The question is, of course,
whether that connection actually means something or
not.”
    “ Does it?”
    “ Time will tell.”
    “ Time will tell?”
    All eyes were on the exchange
between the teacher and this brash young Korean student. And when
people saw the flag on her nameplate -- that of North Korea --
there were gasps.
    “ Wait,” said Aisha.
“There ’ s something else, isn ’ t there?”
    “ What could you mean?” There was
mischief in Abby ’ s voice. She was waiting
for someone to make the connection.
    “ We discovered it very easily,”
said Aisha. “Surely, if there were other alien races, they would
discover it, too. And one of the reasons why we believe
we ’ ve never encountered aliens is that it
takes too long to travel between the stars. But this discovery
makes star travel quick and simple, relatively speaking,” said
Aisha. “So where are they? Surely we would have seen some evidence
of them by now.”
    “ That is the question,”
said Abby finally. “And the one we ’ re
working on answering.”
    “ By going out there. By looking
for ourselves,” said Aisha, nodding. “It makes sense.”
    Soo-Kyung furrowed her eyebrows.
“Does it?”
    The teacher looked to her again.
“What do you mean?”
    “ If they do exist, and
they ’ ve not visited, there ’ s a good chance we want it that way, isn ’ t there? I mean, we ’ ve been
listening for radio signals for years and have