Arrival

Human Calendar Ninth year…

Three years had passed since mankind populated the new planet. In other words, one year after the neutron star fragment was discovered. At the same time, it had been five months since the Observer departed.

The Observer first circled around the new planet for acceleration and then used the gravitational energy of the planet to reach a speed of almost 500,000 meters per second. This alone took a month to prepare. Therefore, the actual time the Observer had spent in space was only four months. Four months of travelling at a constant speed of 500,000 meters per second meant that it had covered five thousand million meters, or thirty plus astronomic units!

Then the Observer started to decelerate. Three high-power particle propulsion systems fired up from the front for almost a week. Finally, the Observer had reached its destination, about ten million kilometers away from the neutron star fragment’s forward trajectory.