Andy watched as John set up the variables for the simulation.  Everything went fine for the boost up to a million miles an hour.  The simulation like the ship worked flawlessly.  “Ok, turn it around and slow it down,” Andy said.

John pushed a few buttons, and the ship on the screen began to turn.  The moment the ship started to turn red lights began flashing as the central core stress meters dipping well into the yellow and red areas.  “Ok, let’s do it again, but this time slow the turn way down,” Andy said as he pushed the button that stopped the simulation.

This time the ship on the screen made the turn ever so slowly.  The moment John hit the button that fired the anti-matter drive the central core below the Communication Section folded up like it was made out of toothpicks.  Andy just stared at the screen as John backed the simulation up and this time fired just the ion engines.  The effect was the same only slower.

John pushed a few more buttons and studied the readout.  “At a million miles an hour the mass of the ship is too great for the central core below the Communication Section,” he said.  “If this was real life we would all be dead when we hit the sun but more likely we would miss it and end up being flung back out into space where we would run out of food in time.”

“I almost forgot.” John pushed a few more buttons and ran the simulation again.  This time Andy watched as the central core began to crumple in slow motion and a moment later there was a blinding bright flash of light on the screen from the anti-matter reactor exploding.  This time the ship minus the Communication Section and half the Habitat Section tumbled out of control.  “Ok, that slowed us down,” John said sarcastically after watching the readouts.