Editing Thiotimoline (section)

=="Thiotimoline to the Stars"==
Asimov's final piece on thiotimoline was a short story titled "Thiotimoline to the Stars", which he wrote for [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]]'s anthology ''[[Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology|Astounding]]'' (1973). In it, Admiral Vernon, Commandant of the Astronautic Academy, gives a speech to the graduating "Class of '22". Vernon's speech explains that thiotimoline was first mentioned in 1948 by a semi-mythical scientist named Azimuth or Asymptote, but that serious study of the compound didn't begin until the 21st century scientist Almirante worked out the theory of [[steric hindrance|hypersteric hindrance]]. Later scientists worked out ways to form endochronic molecules into [[polymer]]s, allowing large structures such as [[spacecraft|spaceship]]s to be built out of endochronic materials. One effect of endochronicity is that if one fails to add water to an object that has reacted to water, the object will travel into the future in search of water to interact with.

An individual with sufficient inborn talent, Vernon explains, can perfectly balance a starship's endochronicity with relativistic [[time dilation]], so that a ship traveling at relativistic speeds can age at the same rate as the rest of the universe, allowing it to return to its starting point within months, rather than centuries, of its departure. Vernon emphasizes that starship pilots are expected to match endochronicity with relativity exactly: a sixty-second difference between the two is regarded as barely acceptable, and a 120-second difference is considered grounds for dismissal.  Vernon also emphasizes that endochronic molecules are unstable, and must be renewed before each trip, so that an endochronic ship that finds itself lost might not have sufficient endochronicity to return to its proper time. A ship that finds itself in the future might be able to re-endochronize itself if the technology still exists; a ship that finds itself in the past will be marooned there.

Finally, Vernon reveals that the auditorium where he is giving his speech is actually an endochronic starship, and that during his speech, they have all flown to the outskirts of the [[Solar System]].  The graduates felt no acceleration because canceling out time dilation also caused the canceling out of inertia. When Vernon concludes his speech, the graduates will be landing in the [[United Nations]] Port at [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], where they will be spending the weekend.

After they land, Vernon receives an awful shock and passes out when his pilot informs him that the ship is surrounded by Indians. Vernon wrongly assumed the pilot meant [[Red Indians]], and thought that they had landed centuries in the past. But the pilot only meant that they had landed at the correct time but near [[Calcutta]], India.

Asimov included "Thiotimoline to the Stars" in his 1975 collection ''[[Buy Jupiter and Other Stories]]''.