Este é o "FTA" de George RR Martin, publicado originalmente em Analog Science Fiction em 1974 .
De acordo com a descrição aqui , o fim da torção é que a viagem hiperespacial é basicamente inútil.
- O cientista está chateado que eles estão financiando outros caminhos FTL;
Schechter sighed again. “You’re working under several misapprehensions. To begin with, the FTL Foundation was created to research a method of faster-than-light travel. A star drive, let us say. Hyperspace is only one avenue toward that end. Right now, we’re pursuing other avenues that look more promising. We …” “I know all about those other avenues,” Kinery interrupted. “Dead ends, all of them. You’re wasting the taxpayers’ money. And my God, some of the things you’re funding! Allison and his teleportation experiments. Claudia Daniels with her nonsense about an esper-engine. And Chung’s time-stasis hypothesis!
- O término do Twist é que o hiperespaço é inútil:
Schechter cut him off. “Never mind,” he said. “It isn’t important. We fund the crackpot theories that we fund because they’re better than nothing. Hyperspace is the dead end, Kinery. We keep the myth alive for the public, but we know better.” Kinery grimaced. “Oh, come now, Schechter. Take a look at my papers. You give me the funding and I’ll give you a hyperspace engine within two years.” Schechter turned to face him. “I’m sure you would,” he said, in a voice infinitely weary. “You know, Canferelli once said there was no reason why the limiting velocity of light should apply in hyperspace. He was right. It doesn’t. “I’m sorry, Kinery. Really I am. But Lopez gave us a hyperdrive thirty years ago. That’s when we discovered that the limiting velocity in hyperspace is not the speed of light. “It’s slower, Kinery. It’s slower.”