"Commander, the entire universe is only about ten to the seventeenth
seconds old. But to give you an idea, let's say that the chances of its
happening are _once_ in millions of trillions of years!"
Benedict blinked. The number, he realized, was totally beyond his
comprehension--or anyone else's.
"Well, so what? Now it has happened that one time. That simply means
that it will almost certainly never happen again!"
"True. But, Commander, when you buck odds like that and win, the thing
to do is look for some factor that is cheating in your favor. If you
took a pair of dice and started throwing sevens, one right after
another--_for the next couple of thousand years_--you'd begin to
suspect they were loaded."
Benedict said nothing; he just waited expectantly.
"There is only one thing that could have done it. Our ship." Leicher
said it quietly, without emphasis.
"What we know about the hyperspace, or superspace, or whatever it is we
move through in ultradrive is almost nothing. Coming out of it so near
to a star might set up some sort of shock wave in normal space which
would completely disrupt that star's internal balance, resulting in the
liberation of unimaginably vast amounts of energy, causing that star to
go nova. We can only assume that we ourselves were the fuze that set
off that nova."
Benedict stood up slowly. When he spoke, his voice was a choking
whisper. "You mean the sun--Sol--might...."
Leicher nodded. "I don't say that it definitely would. But the
probability is that we were the cause of the destruction of Alpha
Centauri A, and therefore might cause the destruction of Sol in the
same way."
Benedict's voice was steady again. "That means that we can't go back
again, doesn't it? Even if we're not positive, we can't take the
chance."
"Not necessarily. We can get fairly close before we cut out the drive,
and come in the rest of the way at sub-light speed. It'll take longer,
and we'll have to go on half or one-third rations, but we _can_ do it!"
"How far away?"
"I don't know what the minimum distance is, but I do know how we can
gage a distance. Remember, neither Alpha Centauri B or C were
detonated. We'll have to cut our drive at least as far away from Sol
as they are from A."
"I see." The commander was silent for a moment, then: "Very well, Dr.
Leicher. If that's the safest way, that's the only way."
Benedict issued the orders, while Leicher figured the exact point at
which they must cut out the drive, and how long the trip would take.
The rations would have to be cut down accordingly.
Commander Benedict's mind whirled around the monstrousness of the whole
thing like some dizzy bee around a flower. What if there had been
planets around Centauri A? What if they had been inhabited? Had he, all
unwittingly, killed entire races of living, intelligent beings?
But, how could he have known? The drive had never been tested before.
It couldn't be tested inside the Solar System--it was too fast. He and
his crew had been volunteers, knowing that they might die when the
drive went on.
Suddenly, Benedict gasped and slammed his fist down on the desk before
him.