Exodus (The Exodus Trilogy) by Andreas Christensen Page B

a star locked in an orbit that brings it as close to the sun as 0.1 light years every twenty-six million years. Now, the supporting evidence for this theory is the mass extinctions themselves, of course, but also the fact that there are gravitational forces out there that cannot be accounted for, and that suggests that currently undetected objects may actually exist in near solar space.” He checked his tablet again, then raised his eyebrows, and smiled knowingly.
    “ Seems the theory was wrong on a few important points though, which is to our advantage. The orbit is a lot closer than first assumed, although it never gets any closer than 0.1 light years …. Hmm, yes. All right, this is it. Nemesis is a brown dwarf. No wonder we haven’t detected it before, I’m surprised they even managed to find it. Brown dwarves are proto stars that never ignited, so they are very hard to detect because they emit very little heat and light. So … Ah … Nemesis, with a mass twenty times that of Jupiter, is locked in an orbit that takes about thirteen million years to circle the sun, and that explains the mass extinctions. Seems it only releases the devastating comets every other round, for some reason. At its aphelion, meaning its furthest distance from the sun, it will be about 1.8 light years away, while its perihelion, that is the closest it gets, is located at 0.11 light years from the sun. Its current position is 0.3 light years out, and it will stay at that approximate distance a long time after the starship has passed.” He looked up from his tablet again, grinning from ear to ear, and from the expression on Sloan’s face, he had also seen what this meant. Ramon was fascinated, although he still didn’t see the relevance of all this. Grant shook his head, still smiling, and now Shearing also chimed in.
    “ That opens up a whole new range of options for us, don’t you think?” She looked at Sloan, who was punching at his own tablet like crazy, crunching the numbers. He nodded fiercely.
    “ This is fantastic. You know, using the Deuterium and Helium-3 fusion rocket, with a maximum gravity assisted velocity of 10 percent of light speed it would take us three years to reach Nemesis, ignoring acceleration time. With acceleration and gravity assist from the sun, we’re talking five to six years. I’ll have to do the math on that … Now, with a second gravity assist from Nemesis, we can easily obtain a speed of 25 to 35 percent of light speed. That’s just … staggering …”
    “ He he, the timing couldn’t have been better, right?” Grant said.
    “ Say, six years to Nemesis, then a gravity assist that gives us a little more than 25 percent of light speed, sixteen years to Alpha Centauri, then three years of braking. We’re talking twenty-five years here. And that’s a conservative estimate.” Dr. Shearing, as the authority on the issue, then spoke directly to the president.
    “ Of course, we need to check all the facts, and make sure there is absolutely no possibility that the Europeans have made a mistake. Barring that, I’d say we have a recommendation.” The president just nodded, with a satisfied expression on his face. Havelar, always onto the practical details, looked up at the scientist.
    “ How soon before you can be absolutely certain? We need to get production started, whatever decision we come to.” Shearing, skeptical toward Havelar’s involvement, as she’d voiced, although carefully, several times, looked at Grant, who answered.
    “ Give us three weeks. Usually we’d need more, a lot more, but it seems the Europeans have been onto this for years, so it should be just a matter of talking to them and looking at the figures ourselves. Then we’ll be ready.”

Chapter 6
July 207 6 ~ Sonora, Arizona
    They were s omewhere in the Sonora desert. Captain Tina Hammer felt weak, her throat parched, head throbbing, legs resisting her every movement. Whoever said black people don’t get sunburned was