The Praxis (47 page)

The Naxids had been reinforced. Two more warships, and a pair of fat cargo vessels that had chucked large containers into orbit around the sun for the warships to pick up, containers that Severin suspected held food and fuel. The cargo ships had then gone on to rendezvous with the two message relay stations and occupy them. Severin wouldn't be getting messages out of the system anytime soon.

The Naxids had fired decoys: an elaborate pattern had been sent in orbit around the Protipanu system. Anyone entering would have a confusing time sorting real targets from false, perhaps a fatal time.

The Naxids were up to something. Severin watched everything on his displays and made notes.

The enemy had plans. And Severin was going to work out what they were.

If only he could keep from freezing.

T
he Shaa “year” is, so far as anyone knows, an arbitrary period of time unconnected with the orbit of any planet, or the measurement of anything in the natural world. It consists of .84 Earth years, or 306.6 Earth days. Caroline Sula, twenty-three in Shaa measure, is twenty by the reckoning of old Earth.

Planets within the empire of the Shaa each have their own local calendar by which they chart the local year and seasons: but all official business is conducted in reference to the imperial calendar rather than the local.

The Shaa year is divided into equally arbitrary units that demonstrate the Shaa love for prime numbers. The Shaa year is divided into eleven months of 27.9 Earth days each, and each month is divided into twenty-three Shaa days, each1.21 Earth days. The Shaa day is divided into twenty-nine hours, each of 59.98 minutes; and the hours are divided into fifty-three minutes, each 67.9 Earth seconds long. A Shaa minute consists of 101 seconds, each of 0.67 Earth seconds.

There is no Shaa equivalent of the “week,” though many planets have such a period in their own local calendars.

Measurements of time in this work, unless otherwise noted, are exclusively in Shaa measure. Readers may take comfort in the fact that, though the Shaa day is a little longer than Earth's twenty-four-hour day, the hours and minutes are roughly equivalent.

WALTER JON WILLIAMS has been nominated repeatedly for every major SF award, including Hugo and Nebula Awards nominations for
City on Fire
. His latest books are the
New York Times
bestseller
Destiny's Way
and
The Rift
. Mr. Williams lives near Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife, Kathleen Hedges.

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