Helliconia Summer, page 55
So the fault is not all ours, or hers. We must accept a lack of perfection in the scheme of things, accept the yellow-striped fly. Time, in which the whole drama is staged, is, as J.T. Fraser puts it, “a hierarchy of unresolved conflicts.” We must accept that limitation with the equanimity of Lucretius, and be angry only at those things against which one can be effectively angry, like the madness of making and deploying nuclear weapons.
Such matters are not generally the subject of literature. But I felt the necessity, as you see, to have a shot at incorporating them.
Now at last I have done. The rambling edifice of Helliconia is before you, with my hopes that you will enjoy the results.
Your affectionate
Father
Boars Hill
Oxford
APPENDICES
PHAGOR
APPENDIX 1
Cosmological
Star A (later known as Freyr) once had a companion star (Star C).
Eight million years before the narrated events, Star B (later known as Batalix) came within the gravitational field of Star A. In the orbital disturbances which followed, Star C escaped entirely, while Star B was captured. Henceforth, it formed the inferior partner of a binary system. The properties of the binary suns are as follows:
STAR A
Mass
14.8 mass of Sol (Earth’s sun)
Luminosity
60,000 X solar luminosity
Temperature
11,000 Kelvin
Radius
65 X radius of Sol or 28,112. 500 miles
Spectral class
A type supergiant
Colour
white
Star A is between 10 and 11 million years old. It has evolved away from the main sequence and is already entering old age.
At the time of its capture of Star B, it was less luminous but hotter. So for the first million years or so after capture, the planets of Star B were subjected to far more UV radiation than at present. X-ray and UV radiation resulted in accelerated evolution of present species.
Star A evolved no planetary system. Orbiting stellar debris was drawn into it and consumed.
STAR B
Mass
0.96 X mass of Sol
Luminosity
0.8 X solar luminosity
Temperature
5600 K
Radius
0.94 X radius or 406,550 miles
Spectral class
A type supergiant
Colour
white
Star B has four planets in orbit. They are, working from inner to outer, Copaise, Aganip, HELLICONIA, and Ipocrene.
In the period before Star B’s capture, a moon was in orbit about Helliconia which was lost during the disruption of capture.
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’s Composition
Helliconia is a planet with roughly terrestrial properties.
Radius
4800 miles
Circumference
30,159 miles
Mean density
4.09
Mass
Equivalent to 1.28 Earth’s mass
Axial inclination of rotation axis to the plane of orbit 55°
This compares with about 66° for Earth
This widens the range of temperatures within climatic zones.
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 CO2 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.
Orbital Motions
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 x1 to x2 sector marks the 500 E years of deepest winter on either side of apastron.
The y1 to y2 sector marks the period at periastron when Star A appears brighter than Star B in Helliconia’s skies.
Points V1, V2, and V3, indicate approximately the periods in which the three books of the volume are set.
The time from 311 to 633 E years marks a period of fairly rapid improvement in climatic conditions. After that, a slow warming process sets in towards periastron. From 1929 E years, a fairly rapid decline takes place. On either side of apastron is a period of over five E centuries when the climate is either severe or unsettled; a minor ice age is either building up or else in slow decline. This contrasts with a more brief 238 E years of high summer, over periastron.
The orbits of the four Star B planets are at the following (E) distances from their primary:
Copaise 0.31AU
Aganip 0.82AU
Helliconia 1.26AU
Ipocrene 1.53AU
An Avernian shrine stands on Aganip (Bk.2 x), 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 discomfitting secrets of human life on Helliconia. (The truth is uncovered by Sartorilrvrash 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:
Orbital radius measured from centre of planet
5731 miles
Orbital period
2hrs 9mins 30 secs
Shape: spherical – Diameter
0.62 miles
Mass
18,000,000 tonnes (1.8 X 1010 Kg)
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.
Some Avernus History
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 fertilized human egg cells were 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”, Avemus 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.
Helliconia and Earth: Relative Dates
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.
In Book 1 Avernus has already been operative for more than a Great Year. i.e. about 2592 + 134 E years = 2726 E years
In Book 2 Avernus operative for a further 543 years = 3269 E years
So dates now will be:
On Earth, AD 6877
On Helliconia, 1177 E years AA
On Avernus, 3269
In Book 3 Avernus operative for a further 696 years = 3965 E Years
So dates now will be:
On Earth, AD 7573
On Helliconia, 1873 E years AA
On Avernus, 3965
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
Helliconian Time reckoned as Earth Time
Helliconia units
Equivalent Earth units
1 small year
480 days or 10 tenners
1 day
25.92 hours
1 hour
1.04 hours (62.4 minutes)
1 minute
1.56 minutes
1 second
0.936 seconds
A Helliconian inhabitant living to the ripe old age of 70 would be 99.4 E years old.
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
(Terrestrial dateline
AD 6877)
Earth years AA
1177
Helliconia year AA “Denniss” calendar
828*
Oldorando-Borlien After Union
381 (some claim 408)
Ancipital year
749**
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.
Earth
Helliconia
5
3.5
10
7
12
8.45
15
10.56
18
12.67
20
14
22
15.49
25
17.6
30
21
35
24.67
40
28
50
35.21
60
42
70
49
75
52.8
80
56
Life spans are longer in summers of the Great Year
*The legendary King Denniss was ruling in Year 249 before apastron, and foresaw disaster.
His calendar has been discarded.
**The full and correct name of this year in the Ancipital calendar, forged in the ancipital cotcmporal brain, is:
“Year After Small Apotheosis of Great year 5,634,000 Since catastrophe”. That is, since Freyr’s capture of Batalix, some 8,000,280 years previously.
APPENDIX 2
Phagors
The struggle for supremacy on Helliconia is between humans and phagors. Phagors, a two-homed, shaggy-coated species, were the original dominant inhabitants of the planet before Batalix (Star B) was captured by Freyr, the supergiant sun (Star A). They are also known as ancipitals (two-edged), a reference to their sharp horns.
This cowlike species probably evolved from flambreg, vast herds of which graze the northern wilds of Sibornal. They are kin to older pre- Freyr species, such as the kaidaws.
Kaidaws are the large horned animals, somewhat resembling horses, which phagors ride. These older species have physical traits in common, such as ball-joints at knees and elbows. This greater dexterity is counterbalanced by a sporadically firing nervous system; hence frequent bursts of immobility.
Phagors stand upright and possess three fingers on each hand.
BRAIN
A major distinction between phagor and human lies in brain structure. A phagor brain is uni-hemispheric, unlike a human brain with its two hemispheres. There is no equivalent to the neocortex. Inasmuch as the phagor brain resembles a human’s, it consists largely of hypothalamus, overlaid with a kind of cerebellum controlling motion.
It may be said in consequence that phagors live in their own perceptual Umwelts. Theirs is an eotemporal consciousness (Eos was the goddess of dawn, sister to Selene), where endings and beginnings cannot be distinguished from one another. For them, time is no indicator of progression as registered in a human mind. Events are monitored as a series of milestones from which direction has been obliterated; thus a trail is indicated, without an arrow of perception to point direction. A rudimentary nervous system permits only action and reaction. But tether (See Appendix 4) greatly extends ancipital awareness.
Ancipitals were masters of the cool dawn world before Freyr capture.
With their cowbirds, commensal avians which feed in part on their hosts’ parasites, they dominated a world, from the lowlands of Pegovin to Mt Estakhadok in the High Nktryhk. In those remote ages, they kept Others as pets.
BLOOD
Ancipital blood is golden, containing as it does an anti-freeze system which (together with their stiff pelage) renders the phagors impervious to cold. Cowbirds, kaidaws, and other dawn animals, share this characteristic. Red blood, free of anti-freeze, represents a more recent evolutionary development.
Moss forms a large part of phagor diet during cold periods. Mosses contain high percentages of arachidonic acid, which is highly polyunsaturated. A concentration of this fatty acid in the phospholipids of cell membranes makes the membranes more fluid. This serves to lower the temperature at which the lipid in the membranes undergoes a phase shift from liquid-crystalline to a more solid or gel-like state. Hence the acid from the moss protects cell membranes from the effects of cold; the cell is then able to function at low temperatures. Humanity, of course, has no such reinforcement.
