Acknowledgements
I am NOT a physicist. Nor an astronomer nor a mathematician nor, indeed, much of a biologist. Assuredly not a rocket scientist. I’m one of those people who uses the word “integral” only and always to mean “central to some subject.” You can get me to cringe by saying the word “polynomial.”
I took physics, I took calculus, I took astronomy. (And, yes, passed all three.) That’s not the same thing. Like Barack Obama on the subject of economics (which I can talk about much better than physics) the information was stored just long enough to pass the course and then forgotten.
Obviously, this has been something of a trial while writing this series. In the Vorpal Blade series I have the luxury of simply tossing that on my coauthor, Dr. Travis Taylor. Alas, Travis got a real job and he’s been busy. So I had to find other people to help.
As with Live Free or Die, I’d like to thank Bullet and Belinda (Gibby) Gibson for their assistance not only with the math but also with general proofreading. However, the task being somewhat more complex this time others got involved. I’d like to thank Stephanie Osborn, who is an astronomer, as well as “The Croatian Mafia,” Ivan Knezevic and Robert Bosnjak. The three of them have gotten me back to the point I could get C– in college-level Newtonian physics.
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In addition, when it got really complicated, I’d like to thank Dr. Les Johnson, Deputy Manager NASA Advanced Concepts Office, Dr. Larry Kos, also of NASA and Dr. Charles L. John, ditto. I often poke fun at NASA but the reality is that the recent decisions of the Administration in that area have me fuming.
Thank you all for your help and support.
My eyes are closed I feel you’re far away
Far beyond that shining star
I know you’ll find what you’ve been fighting for
Far beyond that shining star
“Glory to the Brave”
—Hammerfall