Helliconia: Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer, Helliconia Winter (194 page)

Figure 1
. Birth of a new binary system.

A
shows the solar system of Star B (Batalix) and its four planets coming close to a binary system consisting of a large A-type supergiant star, Star A (Freyr), and its companion, the G-type star, Star C. Disturbance begins.

B
shows resulting gravitational disruptions, causing Star C to ‘escape’, as the Star B system is drawn into Star A’s influence. The moon of one of the planets of Star B (Helliconia) is lost to the system, drifting away in the general direction of Star C.

C
shows that now a new binary system has been formed. Star B and its attendant planets are in orbit about the supergiant Star A.

Locations

As located from Earth, the binary system of stars A and B lies in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-Bearer). The main body of a dark dust cloud lies close to the neighbouring constellation of Scorpius, at a distance of 700 light years from Earth. It conceals a cluster of comparatively young stars, with Star A among them.

Star A is just north of Antares. Location: Right Ascension 16h 25m. Declination: – 24° 30 ′.

Helliconia’s first designation on terrestrial charts: Planet G4 PBX / 4582–4–3.

Helliconia is a planet with roughly terrestrial properties.

The atmospheric composition varied slightly from pre-capture to post-capture. A greater amount of carbon dioxide in the air, pre-capture, produced a mean temperature of – 7°C. After capture, and at periastron (when Star B and planets are at their closest to Star A), some of this atmospheric CO
₂
combined with water to form carbonate rocks.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is thus reduced, so too the benefit of a ‘greenhouse’ effect is reduced, yielding a mean temperature of + 10°C.

In other words, pre-capture conditions were better than might be expected, while post-capture conditions are more severe.

Helliconia’s ‘Small Year’, that is to say its annual orbit about its parent Star B, is equal to 1.42 Earth years.

The motions of stars A and B are such that B orbits A in the equivalent of 2592 Earth years. Star B, in accordance with Kepler’s laws, moves in its orbit at a varying speed, slowing as it reaches the most distant point (apastron) from Star A, speeding up when it nears Star A (at periastron). In consequence, its planets, Helliconia included, spend less time enjoying maximum energy than they do receiving minimum energy.

Fig. 2 shows the ‘Great Year’ of Helliconia about the giant primary, where
t
= time in Earth years from apastron.

It is the Great Year which has predominant influence over Helliconia’s climate, and Star A which provides most of Helliconia’s heat and energy.

Figure 2
. Orbit.

The x
₁
to x
₂
sector marks the 500 E years of deepest winter on either side of apastron.

The y
₁
to y
₂
sector marks the period at periastron when Star A appears brighter than Star B in Helliconia’s skies.

Points V
₁
, V
₂
, and V
₃
indicate approximately the periods in which the three books of the volume are set.

The orbits of the four Star B planets are at the following (E) distances from their primary:

An Avernian shrine stands on Aganip (Bk.2x), it marks the spot where the 512 future occupants of the Avernus satellite were housed during the construction of the Earth Observation Station.

HELLICONIA
’
S MOON

The Helliconian satellite lost during the period of capture was known to the phagors as
T’Sehn-Hrr
. It holds the key to one of the discomfiting secrets of human life on Helliconia. (The truth is uncovered by SartoriIrvrash in Vol.2, xxi, to his detriment.)

Helliconian humans divide their small year of 480 days into weeks and tenners. One week is eight days. One tenner is 6 weeks (i.e. 48 days). So the year is divided into ten equal parts.

AVERNUS AS SATELLITE

Avernus is a satellite placed in orbit about Helliconia by the terrestrial expedition. It is designated Earth Observation Station. Its function is to relay data on all facets of Helliconia back to Earth. To the inhabitants of Helliconia, the OES is known as
Kaidaw
, because of its perceived rapid motion against the stars.

Avernus has an almost circular circumpolar orbit, its mean distance above planetary surface being:

Depending on the latitude of an observer, Avernus takes about 20-24 minutes to cross the sky, from rising to setting. From the ground, its maximum angular diameter when overhead presents 137.5 seconds of arc. Inhabitants can observe Avernus undergoing rather complex phases when it is passing overhead.

When the starship from earth was closing into orbit about Star B, 512 colonists were hatched, almost full-grown (i.e. as late adolescents). The DNA of fertilised human egg cells was computer-stored in nanowombs. The colonists were reared in six ‘families’ or clans, each destined for specific duties.

Once they had been landed at a base on Aganip, automated construction units began the building of the EOS, using local stellar material. Owing to difficulties and set-backs, construction took eight E-years. The colonists were then ferried to their new home on Avernus to begin an intensive study of Helliconia.

Information transmitted back to Earth takes a thousand years to reach its target. So the early signals sent in Spring are received on Earth in approximately AD 6344.

By the time of ‘Helliconia Summer’, Avernus has been in orbit for thirty-two E-centuries. Its population now numbers close to 6000 people. Copulation is taught from the age of eight, but all procreation is by extra-uterine birth.

Among the six clans, the PIN family is the ‘Cross-Continuity Family’. Its duty is to follow the unfolding of one or two Helliconian family groupings through generations over the cycle of a Great Year (60 generations).

The GO family deals with questions of theology, philosophy, ontogeny, phylogeny, etc.

The TAN family studies the origins of long-standing quarrels, from personal to national and specific.

As a safety valve against confinement sickness, Avernians can enter a ‘Helliconia Holiday’ lottery; winners are allowed to visit the planet below. This is a one-way ticket.

The colonising starship left Earth in the year AD 2100, arriving in the vicinity of Star B in AD 3600. The journey of 1000 light years took 1500 years to accomplish. Avernus was operative by AD 3608. On the Helliconian Great Year, this is 500 years After Aphelion.

Myrkwyr
is an ominous day in 1873. Freyr sinks below the horizon on the Polar Circle, not to rise again for a further eighteen or so human generations.

CALENDARS

The Earth–Avernus method of reckoning Helliconian years is simply to date them After Apastron (AA). On Helliconia itself, various nations have, at various times, their own means of reckoning calendar time. Generally, such calendars begin from the start of the reign of a local despot.

For example, in ‘Summer’ four different calendars are mentioned. Taking these into account, Book 2 opens in

HUMAN AGES COMPARED

Because the Small Year on Helliconia is longer than a terrestrial year, age differentials exist.

The following table (years) gives comparable ages of humans on the two planets.