Act of God by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani Page B

sudden interest. "Why is this constant-boost engine such a cause for rejoicing?" he asked her.
    "Well, the conventional engine is used primarily for injecting a payload into a free-flying orbit. No acceleration occurs after the injection except for minor adjustments in the orbit. Using these engines, it takes months or years to get to another planet. The rocket achieves its maximum velocity, then it shuts off and coasts the rest of the way. It's just a big skyrocket, enormously complicated, but no different in principle from the kind used for fireworks: just a big tube filled with explosive which is allowed to burn at a controlled rate. But, with a constant one-G boost engine, with a mid-course turnaround for deceleration, you can reach Mars within a week." She saw his slightly perplexed expression and added: "One-G stands for one Earth gravity, of course. It's the acceleration you experience downward at the Earth's crust due to its gravitational field. What it means in practical terms is that, with one-G constant acceleration, the entire solar system becomes as accessible as the coastlines of the world were to navigation in the Nineteenth Century."
    It was a difficult proposition to swallow all at once. "If that's true, why aren't we going all-out for this ion-drive engine, too?"
    "I can only make guesses," she told him. "For one thing, the ion drive is only one type of engine that is capable of constant boost, at least theoretically. There are other possibilities. Also, any form of constant boost engine has been considered by most space engineers to be merely a theoretical possibility, a dream for a future generation." She turned to Novak. "At least, so I thought until now. Besides, there are a number of practical problems to be solved, the primary one being the fuel or energy source and reaction mass." She waved her slender hands about in the immemorial gesture of the specialist searching for words comprehensible to the layman. "There are other problems, especially muzzle velocity."
    Sam held out a hand in a silencing gesture. "Hold it. Muzzle velocity? Jesus, I thought only bullets had that. We'll talk about fuel and muzzle velocity later. I want to hear the rest of Slats' spiel. After all, we don't want to waste what he keeps reminding us is his valuable time."
    "Hell," Novak admitted. "I sit around on my rapidly-broadening butt all day with nobody to talk to. You know how much prestige this office has these days? Remember that Air Force guy we used to know? The one they put on UFO investigations?"
    "Tell me about it," Sam said, wearily.
    "Same thing here. If it's not orbital, if it's not military, they just aren't interested. You just watch, Sam. The bastards are going to steal a march on us, just like they did in the fifties, only this time it'll be a lot worse. And they're making no big secret of their overall plan, just certain crucial aspects."
    "Before we get into the doomsaying," Sam said drily, "just how close are they to perfecting this constant-boost ion drive?"
    "I wish we knew. What we do know is that they're devoting resources to the search comparable to their efforts to develop the A-bomb and the ICBM."
    "Meaning that their security is probably comparably tight," Sam observed. "Anything else you can tell us about Peter the Great?"
    Novak wrapped up his overview, noting that basic scientific research was an integral part of the project. He briefly described the nature of that research and added, "The head of the scientific program is Miss Tammsalu's former boss, Pyotr Tarkovsky, and the gamma-ray observatory had a high priority on his program. But from what your partner here has been telling us lately, it may not be a very live part of the program now."
    "You've seen the transcripts of Laine's debriefings," Sam said. "What do you make of this business with Nekrasov?"
    Novak leaned forward and rested on his elbows. "I'll confess it's the strangest thing I ever heard. I'd be willing to bet that what Nekrasov