unknown on Voerster. Osbertus shuddered.
The astronomer had nearly reached the age of retirement. Sixty was a goodly age on Voerster, where the years were 510 days long. He grimaced as he considered. How typically Voertrekker. We do not live the short traditional years of Earth, but the ponderous years of Luyten 726 I 4. Five hundred ten and an awkward fraction days long. Osbertus could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to live on a world where a year was a miserly 365 days long, and there were real seasons. On Voerster there were none. Spring was cold, summer was also cold, and fall was colder still. Winter was frozen. Voerster was not a kind world, but it had its own sort of spartan beauty. Clavius said it was a world to build character.
The astronomer looked again at the sheaf of calculations he had painstakingly completed using the same arithmetic the First Landers had brought with them from home. He sighed, dreaming of the computers he read about in the old texts. We have the theories but not the means, he thought sadly, returning to his labor.
By his revised calculations, and always assuming the ship approaching the outermost gas giant in the system would choose to slow at a constant rate, the Gloria Coelis would be in orbit around Voerster in two months, three days, and ten hours.
What changes would the Goldenwing bring? Mynheer Osbertus had always been the butt of criticism because of his yearning for change. Cousin Ian, The Voerster (his family title, which he bore in addition to his political title of The Voertrekker and his legal rank of Voertrekker-Praesident), quite disliked changes and greatly relished the power of disapproval. He believed with all his God-fearing heart that dissatisfaction led to brashness, arrogance, hauteur, vainglory, and self-love. These qualities resulted in sinfulness, ineptitude, and wickedness. So Church and chaplain taught, and so the Voertrekker-Praesident believed.
Osbertus had small brashness, little arrogance, and despite being a mynheer, almost no hauteur whatever. A certain vainglory and self-love he could not deny. But he wished that The Voerster could find it in his heart to be more tolerant of a poor relation. More than once Cousin Ian had threatened to close down Sternhoem. But for the intercession of Cousin Eliana, he quite possibly might have actually done it. He had not yet forgiven Osbertus for his personal disappointment in the Nepenthe affair. He probably never would.
Osbertus spoke aloud, “But a Voertrekker who has discovered two Goldenwings in a lifetime surely has a right to a bit of vainglory?” His cherubic face twisted into a comic opera laugh. “No?” he said to the darkness. “Then a kind word, surely.”
He heard a noise at the door, which stood at the end of a long, helical steel ladder attached to the outside of the building. It was Buele, his helper and general handyman, come with Osbertus’ late night cup of steaming, greena -spiked kava. Buele was not a clever person, but he had a good heart. Osbertus had rescued him from an asylum, where the mentally inept were used for farm labor, and none too gently--since, the resident minister had pointed out,’They feel very little.”
“It is time again to signal Voertrekkerhoem on the telegraph, Buele,” Osbertus Kloster said. “I want Cousin Eliana to know that the Goldenwing will arrive when I said it would arrive.” He wanted all the news about the Goldenwing to come from him. Was that vainglorious? he wondered innocently. Why should he not be in love with Eliana Ehrengraf? Every other mynheer in the world was.
He knew that it would be the sleepy duty clerk who would receive any message from Sternhoem, and that he would file it to be read by the Voertrekkerschatz in the morning. Ian was in Voersterstaad, conscientiously fulfilling duties he loathed.
But Buele did so love to work the telegraph key. For all that he was feebleminded, he knew the code and the Astronomer-Select of
The astronomer had nearly reached the age of retirement. Sixty was a goodly age on Voerster, where the years were 510 days long. He grimaced as he considered. How typically Voertrekker. We do not live the short traditional years of Earth, but the ponderous years of Luyten 726 I 4. Five hundred ten and an awkward fraction days long. Osbertus could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to live on a world where a year was a miserly 365 days long, and there were real seasons. On Voerster there were none. Spring was cold, summer was also cold, and fall was colder still. Winter was frozen. Voerster was not a kind world, but it had its own sort of spartan beauty. Clavius said it was a world to build character.
The astronomer looked again at the sheaf of calculations he had painstakingly completed using the same arithmetic the First Landers had brought with them from home. He sighed, dreaming of the computers he read about in the old texts. We have the theories but not the means, he thought sadly, returning to his labor.
By his revised calculations, and always assuming the ship approaching the outermost gas giant in the system would choose to slow at a constant rate, the Gloria Coelis would be in orbit around Voerster in two months, three days, and ten hours.
What changes would the Goldenwing bring? Mynheer Osbertus had always been the butt of criticism because of his yearning for change. Cousin Ian, The Voerster (his family title, which he bore in addition to his political title of The Voertrekker and his legal rank of Voertrekker-Praesident), quite disliked changes and greatly relished the power of disapproval. He believed with all his God-fearing heart that dissatisfaction led to brashness, arrogance, hauteur, vainglory, and self-love. These qualities resulted in sinfulness, ineptitude, and wickedness. So Church and chaplain taught, and so the Voertrekker-Praesident believed.
Osbertus had small brashness, little arrogance, and despite being a mynheer, almost no hauteur whatever. A certain vainglory and self-love he could not deny. But he wished that The Voerster could find it in his heart to be more tolerant of a poor relation. More than once Cousin Ian had threatened to close down Sternhoem. But for the intercession of Cousin Eliana, he quite possibly might have actually done it. He had not yet forgiven Osbertus for his personal disappointment in the Nepenthe affair. He probably never would.
Osbertus spoke aloud, “But a Voertrekker who has discovered two Goldenwings in a lifetime surely has a right to a bit of vainglory?” His cherubic face twisted into a comic opera laugh. “No?” he said to the darkness. “Then a kind word, surely.”
He heard a noise at the door, which stood at the end of a long, helical steel ladder attached to the outside of the building. It was Buele, his helper and general handyman, come with Osbertus’ late night cup of steaming, greena -spiked kava. Buele was not a clever person, but he had a good heart. Osbertus had rescued him from an asylum, where the mentally inept were used for farm labor, and none too gently--since, the resident minister had pointed out,’They feel very little.”
“It is time again to signal Voertrekkerhoem on the telegraph, Buele,” Osbertus Kloster said. “I want Cousin Eliana to know that the Goldenwing will arrive when I said it would arrive.” He wanted all the news about the Goldenwing to come from him. Was that vainglorious? he wondered innocently. Why should he not be in love with Eliana Ehrengraf? Every other mynheer in the world was.
He knew that it would be the sleepy duty clerk who would receive any message from Sternhoem, and that he would file it to be read by the Voertrekkerschatz in the morning. Ian was in Voersterstaad, conscientiously fulfilling duties he loathed.
But Buele did so love to work the telegraph key. For all that he was feebleminded, he knew the code and the Astronomer-Select of
Similar Books
True Love and Other Disasters
Rachel Gibson
Horrible Harry Moves up to the Third Grade
Suzy Kline
Dark Age
Felix O. Hartmann
A Preacher's Passion
Lutishia Lovely
Devourer
Liu Cixin
Honeybee
Naomi Shihab Nye
Deadly Obsession
Mary Duncan
The Year of the Jackpot
Robert Heinlein
