Martin Starlifter Jackson sat in his quarters on Cycler 2, the Amor asteroid that was being utilized by Solar Tran Corporation to transport people and supplies between Mars and the Asteroid Belt. He was twenty-two and newly graduated from Mars Space Academy. Tall and somewhat thin he was stronger than he looked but was not prone to demonstrate it. He had a peaceful but stubborn nature.
The freighter was spun up along its major axis to provide one-half Mars gravity for its crew and two dozen passengers on its almost sixteen-month journey. The passengers provided a bit of extra profit but were not catered to beyond the necessities. It was cheap space travel for most. Martin wouldn't be aboard the full sixteen months, he would be taken off by one of the new fusion ships long before the asteroid made it to the Belt. His scheduled transit was eight months, it was still a big investment of time and money, but it was cheaper than using a fusion ship the entire distance.
Martin planned to spend some of his time aboard the cycler studying Space Law. One of his least favorite courses when he was at Mars Space Academy and his grades showed it. He would have to do it with one of his least favorite media devices too, a brain-cap. Those things hurt his head, literally. Use it too long and he would have a headache for a day. No one else at the Academy seemed to be as sensitive as him. And he found the knowledge while comprehensive was not as deeply understood as when he used other media devices for study such as his Annie. But he had always been different.
After study, Martin decided to pursue some exercise in the recreation area. Because of the low gravity and spin forces, the exercise rooms all had curved corners and edges to prevent injury. Most opted for an exercise regime using the specially designed equipment, but Martin wanted a freer motion workout. He opted for the open field room. This room was oblong in shape; the longest dimension ran along the axis of the asteroid. Because of its location, it had the lowest gravity of any area on the cycler and the most interesting physics. The elevator to the room opened at one end just below the axis. Martin walked “down” to the floor of the room, the gravity increasing as he went.
As he walked, he saw only a couple of people. The rotational motion at the “floor” was most noticeable because of the spin of the asteroid and the size of the room, some people suffered from motion sickness. Martin didn't notice anything except a slight tendency to lose his balance.
He took one of the balls from the storage bin and proceeded slowly out to the middle of the room where the “ceiling” was the highest and where the other people were playing. He watched a young man make a couple of tosses with a ball. The trajectory of the ball was not intuitive, instead of launching off into the distance and hitting the far wall it instead made a semi-loop and returned to the boy as he turned around.
Martin was curious enough to introduce himself and ask the boy how he had caused the unusual trajectory of the ball. The young man said that the angle and the speed at which the ball was thrown was the key. The angle had to be as close to forty-five degrees as possible and the speed should be somewhat less than the rotational speed of the room.
Martin asked if he could give it a try. The young man said yes but cautioned Martin that the radius with which the room curved would make it difficult to select the proper throwing angle, so he suggested Martin throw slightly higher than he thought was forty-five degrees. Martin let the ball go, watching it soars overhead as he turned to follow, it landed about twenty feet away and in the opposite direction from which it had been thrown.
“Very good,” said the boy, “excellent for a first try. You want to see something else?”
“Sure,” said Martin.
The boy turned to face the direction counter to the rotation of the room. He wound up and let go of the ball with all his strength. This time the ball flew higher overhead, following the contour of the '‘ceiling” until it returned to the boy just above his shoelaces.
“Wow,” said Martin, “almost a perfect circle, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, I can’t quite throw hard enough to make it perfect though, it always fades a little towards the end.”
“Let me try.” Taking the ball Martin faced counter to the rotation and let go, too hard. The ball hit the floor long before Martin rotated back to it.
Martin said, “What happened?”
The boy explained that from the way the ball came off the floor he believed that Martin had overthrown by a wide margin. Overthrown balls tended to skip higher and spin faster as they were traveling the opposite direction than the floor, underthrown balls tended to do the opposite.
Martin spent several more minutes before he was able to impart just enough velocity to the ball to get it all the way around before it hit the floor. By then, the boy and his companion needed to leave and Martin, having worked out enough, left with them.
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