Hawking - George and the Ship of Time

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright 2018 by Lucy Hawking

Jacket illustrations by Garry Parsons

copyright 2018 by Random House Childrens Publishers

Interior illustrations/diagrams copyright 2018 by Random House Childrens Publishers

Originally published in Great Britain in 2018 by Random House Childrens Publishers UK, a division of the Random House Group Ltd.

First US edition 2019

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Jacket design by blacksheep-uk.com

Jacket design by James Fraser

Jacket illustrations by Garry Parsons copyright 2018 by Random House Childrens Publishers

The illustrations for this book were rendered in pencil that was digitally edited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hawking, Lucy, author. | Parsons, Garry, illustrator.

Title: George and the ship of time / Lucy Hawking ; illustrated by Garry Parsons.

Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2019. | Originally published in Great Britain by Penguin Random House Childrens in 2018. | Summary: After escaping the runaway spaceship, George finds himself on a barren Earth where society is under corporate control, access to technology is restricted, and the uneducated population is swamped with fake news.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018020088 | ISBN 9781534437302 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534437326 (eBook)

Subjects: | CYAC: RobotsFiction. | TechnologyFiction. | Science fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.H3134 Gcf 2018 | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020088

Human history has become, more and more, a race between education and catastrophe.

H. G. Wells

With very special thanks to Sue Cook, the George series nonfiction editor

As you read the story and see the sort of future George discovers, you will come across lots of fabulous scientific knowledge and ideaseverything from time dilation to machine learning! To expand this, at the end of the story is a collection of essays written by respected experts that will really help bring some of these ideas to life. Its your future: read about it, think about itand enjoy it! It is likely to be a truly exciting world.

by Professor Peter McOwan, Professor of Public Engagement with Science, Queen Mary University, London, UK

by Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, President of the British Academy, UK

by Dr. Marco Springmann, Senior Researcher on Environmental Sustainability and Public Health, Nuffield Department of Population Health and Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford, UK

by Dr. Mary Dobson, St Johns College, University of Cambridge, UK

by Dr. Jill S. Russell, Lecturer at University College London, UK

by Andy Taylor, Political and Legislative Consultant, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

by Beth West, Head of Development for London at Landsec, the UKs largest property company

by Dr. Demis Hassabis, Co-founder and CEO, DeepMind, UK

by Dr. Kate Darling,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

by Dave King,

Online Risk Adviser and Founder, Digitalis

Message buffered! The communication system crackled into life. Doppler correction implemented.

Until now, the inside of the spaceship Artemis had been eerily silent. But then a human voice broke through. A very angry human voice.

George! This is your mother! it squeaked over the loudspeaker. She sounded absolutely furious.

Oops! said Boltzmann Brian, Georges outsize robot, his only companion on this enormous spaceship. Shall I say hi to your mom? She must be missing us!

No! George floated back to the front of the ship. He had boarded the Artemis on Earth, little knowing that it would take him and Boltzmann on quite such a wild ride. It was as though they had jumped onto the back of an untamed stallion that had cosmically galloped away with them. Well, actually, he added, pausing out of range of the receiver so his extremely peeved mother wouldnt be able to hear him, I dont suppose youd like to tell her this was your idea?

He looked pleadingly at the battered old robot. A high-altitude space jump sometime previously had led to Boltzmanns head and body being charred by the heat of reentry into Earths atmosphere. This always reminded George that his own human body had no chance of survival outside the ship.

But it was not my idea, said Boltzmann, sounding puzzled. I do not think our current predicament will be solved by my attempting to fabricate reality to your mother. Robot Boltzmann had made great progress in mastering human emotions, but still hadnt got the hang of that most basic of human habitslying.

Anyway, George realized that it was pointless to tell tall stories to his mother back on Earth. No matter how they got there, he and Boltzmann were stuck on a speeding spacecraft, heading in a direction away from Earth... and they didnt know how to get home. He picked up the microphone.

Mom! he said.

George! The tinny voice sounded torn between rage and joy. If it was possible to weep and laugh at the same time, it sounded as though his mother was doing both. George!

Hello, Mom, said George.

George? continued his mother. Where are you? And dont just say, Im in space! I know that, thank you very much, George Greenby. George? George!

Hello! Hello, Mom! said George. Suddenly he realized that his mother couldnt actually hear him. Because of the time delay for delivery of messages across space, his mother was talking to him but unable to pick up his replies, which were still traveling toward her across the vastness of space. In fact, his mother could have broadcast her message hours or even days before and no longer be poised to receive his replies. Georges heart sank. It was too weird to be talking to his mother and yet not be talking to her at the same time.