Spaceman Garrard is the third pilot to attempt the trip to the binary star system of Alpha
Centauri using the FTL drive invented by Dolph Haertel (the next
Einstein!) The Haertel Complex stories provide little in the way of
actual time travel, but this one does have minor relativistic time
dilation and more significant differing time rates.
— Michael Main
Figuring backward brought him quickly to the equivalence he wanted: one second in ship
time was two hours in Garrard time.
DEBUT
“Common Time,” in Shadow of Tomorrow, edited by Frederik Pohl (Permabooks,
July 1953).
VARIANTS
Debut. “Common Time,” in Shadow of Tomorrow, edited by Frederik Pohl (Permabooks, July 1953).
German translation: [ex=bare]“Zwischen Zeit und Unendlichkeit” | Between time and infinity[/ex], in 8 Science Fiction Stories, edited by Arnulf D. Krauß and Helmuth W. Mommers (Heyne, 1967).
German translation: Alternative title of “Zwischen Zeit und Unendlichkeit”. [ex=bare]“Im Griff der Zeit” | In the grip of time[/ex], in Die Fünfziger Jahre I, edited by Hans Joachim Alpers and Werner Fuchs (Hohenheim, October 1981).
Italian translation: [ex=bare]“Tempo comune” | Common time[/ex], in Le grandi storie della fantascienza 15, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg (Armenia Editore, May 1987).
Serbian translation: [ex=bare]“Zajedničko vreme” | Time together[/ex], in Savremenici budućnosti: Priče i tvorci naučne fantastike, edited by Zoran Živković (Narodna Knjiga, 1983).
Differing Time Rates: At FTL speeds, Garrand’s subjective time vastly differs from the ship’s clock time.
Long Sleep, Cryogenics, Etc.: Garrard goes into a long sleep at both the beginning of the story and as he returns to Earth.
Relativistic Time Dilation: At any speed below the velocity of light, subjective and objective time were exactly the same as far as the pilot was concerned. For an observer on Earth, time aboard the ship would appear to be vastly slowed at near-light speeds, but for the pilot himself, there would be no apparant change.