A Large Anthology of Science Fiction

by Jerry

  “Must be a terrible experience to be trapped in a fire like that. His face shows the hell that he must have passed through.”

  “How did it happen?” I managed to ask, at the same time deciding to say nothing about the experiments until I learned more about the situation.

  “No one knows exactly,” the officer replied, “but it is likely that he fell asleep, and a cigarette fell from his fingers and started some oil or gasoline burning. He was probably half unconscious when he awoke, and in his dazed condition couldn’t collect his senses enough to escape, which shouldn’t be hard in a garage. When he was carried out by neighbors, he was a raving maniac, with his mind completely gone. He died a few minutes later.”

  To say that I was overcome by the tragedy is putting it mildly, and feeling the thing getting the best of me, I went toward the ruined garage again. I could not help wondering if the cause of the fire and Ted’s death were the result of his having fallen asleep and a cigarette having set the garage on fire; or whether he had continued his experiments with the high frequency waves which in some way caused his death. The words of the police officer that Ted’s mind was completely gone when carried from the garage, coupled with the terrorized expression of his face caused me to believe that in some way the latter was the cause of his death, and I determined to try my utmost to find out.

  As my eyes roamed over the ruins before me, my attention was attracted by one of the head caps that lay partly burned among the twisted wiring of the experimental apparatus. The outer cloth was burned and torn, and the coils inside lay partly exposed to view. As my eyes followed the cord that led from the cap, I gasped in astonishment. The plug that was attached to the cord was inserted in one of the jacks that was still fastened to a piece of broken panel. I remembered clearly Ted pulling out both plugs from the panel when we finished our last experiment the previous evening. And my discovery could mean only one thing. Ted had used the head set and the apparatus after I left him.

  Rapidly question after question rose in my mind. Had Ted carried on the experiments after I left him? Had some unseen calamity happened during the tests that had killed him? Should I tell all I know about the affair and let the authorities clear it up? A chill came over me as I thought of these things, a feeling that was greatly increased when I glanced at the skull cap a second time and noticed that the chin straps were buckled together and one was torn from its side of the cap. I vividly imagined Ted tearing the cap madly from his head, driven insane somehow during the experiment. The determination to find out for myself grew within me, and I began to search the ruins for more clues that would tell me what happened in that garage after I had left him.

  My first thought was for Ted’s secret box. This was a metal box where he kept his plans, drawings and in fact all paper work of his experiments. He always kept it locked with a combination lock, of which he and I alone knew the combination. In fact no one else knew he had the box at all, for he always kept it back in the darkest corner under the work bench. I soon located the box a few feet away from the ruins. It was none the worse from the fire, and I picked it up, and making sure that no one had paid any attention to me, I hurried down the alley to my home. Entering the house I went directly to my bedroom and locked the door.

  Opening the combination lock and raising the cover, my eyes fell on a long envelope addressed to me in Ted’s handwriting, and with quivering fingers I tore open the letter and read:

  “Tom old pal, I am writing this to you for two reasons. First, you are the only one that knows the nature of the experiments that I am trying out, and second, because I can trust you with a secret and rest assured that it will remain a secret.

  “Only in case of serious accident or death to me, will you find this letter, because if I am alive and well in the morning I will destroy it, and you may never know that I wrote it.

  “Ted, I am cheating on you, for after you left me tonight in the garage, I continued with the experiments, having made up my mind to go through with the rest of the work alone. But I did it only because I realize the danger and possible fatal results from further tests. After you left I added a spare output tube to the set, increasing the power a great deal, and also adjusted the set so as to produce a current of higher frequency. Having done this I left a note in the metal box here addressed to you, telling you of what I had done and of what I intend to do, so that in case something did happen while I was under the influence of the set, you would know what had taken place. I then set the circuit-breaking device for thirty minutes, and with a slight increase of the frequency control, sufficient to allow me to see the electrons at almost a stop, I increased the output about five per cent and put on my mask for a lone trip into the atomic universe.

  CHAPTER IV

  Into the Atom

  “I WAS about to switch on the set, when I began to wonder what atoms I would see after the waves had taken control of my brain. Would I see atoms of air that were passing before my eyes? Or those of some other object, say for instance, those of the panel of the cabinets that I would be looking directly at while in the land of the unknown? I then decided that the atoms of a solid would probably move with a slower speed than those of a liquid or a gas, because they would have less freedom, and the space between individual atoms would be smaller. To test this out, I decided to place a solid object before my eyes. If I was right in my idea that the atoms of a solid are less free to move than in a gas or liquid, then I should be able to explore the atomic universes in a solid with a lower frequency current that I would need to reach the speeds of the faster moving atoms. In other words I would reach a point at which the electrons of a solid would be plainly visible to me, while those of the liquids and gases were still far beyond the range of my senses.

  “Acting on this belief, I took a silver half dollar from my pocket, and propped it up on the bench so that it would be plainly visible before my eyes while I sat in my chair unconscious to my own world. Seeing that all was ready I switched on the set and glued my eyes to the fifty cent piece, until I passed into the worlds beyond and was carried through the different changes until again a few groups of bright rings stood out bright and clear against an inky background. But this time the set was adjusted to give a current of higher frequency to the coils in the cap, and also supply a heavier magnetic field than we used before. And so, after reaching the stage that you and I reached in our last tryout together, the scene continued to change and draw closer. The fiery circles of one of those atoms drew closer until it alone was before my eyes, the others appearing to be far off. Also the disturbance of the rings kept increasing, while the bright orange color began to dull and lose its brilliancy. Gradually the disturbance of the rings increased and the bright circles grew duller until one after another they broke, revealing their bright little speeding electrons.

  “Slower and slower the speed of the approaching little planets moved and in another moment I was gazing with wonder on thirteen slow revolving planets of different sizes, but all globular in shape. They were all rotating clockwise around the centre disk with the exception of the third and seventh, counting from the centre. They were moving around their orbits in the opposite direction to the others. When I had reached this stage of the experiment everything went blank, and for a moment or two my senses were completely confused. I found out after the experiment that it was due to the field control regulator sticking and then suddenly releasing and increasing the output with a sudden jerk that momentarily paralyzed my senses.

  “But when I opened my eyes again and was able to see plainly, I was surprised to see that the scene had advanced so far that I was now only able to see the sixth and seventh planets. They stood out before my eyes now almost motionless, and as large as moons. It was a marvelous, view.

  “I would have been content to have had them remain as they were for the time being, in order to study the alternate bright and shaded strips and patches that now could be seen plainly on the surface of each. But the output regulator of my set had not yet reach
ed its limit and the two shining globes drew up closer and closer, while the rest of the planets of the family became smaller, becoming in size and appearance as the thousands of distant suns that studded the background beyond the two approaching planets.

  “On and on they came, and gradually the sixth became the centre of interest, as the other was gradually being crowded into background and appeared to have stopped approaching. In fact, in view of the other now magnificent globe it appeared to be growing smaller and more distant. With wondering eyes I gazed at the one huge glittering planet that was now before my eyes, its markings now quite visible as it shone there against the eternal blackness of the surrounding space. My first speculation was that the bright sections of the monster would prove to be clouds, but as I got a closer view of the oncoming world I found out that I was mistaken. No clouds were visible, and the light and dark patches both proved to be land, but land of two different appearances.

  “That there was an atmosphere surrounding the globe I soon discovered, for only when the globe was close could I make out the surface clearly. I saw no large bodies of water but made out a great number of enclosed lakes. The surface was thickly spotted with holes of different sizes containing water. As I looked over the surface my attention was attracted to a dark spot on one of the light areas of land, and I was soon able to recognize it as a collection of buildings of some sort. A possible city.

  “Again my senses reeled and everything went dark, with the exception of bright flashes that shot across the blackness before my eyes. The field current regulator had slipped again, allowing the current to increase in the head coils with a rush. Again my senses cleared and my brain became attuned to the world that I was in, and again I saw scenes before me.

  The Girl in the Atom

  “BUT the vision that now met my eyes was the most astonishing of them all, for I found myself at the base of a huge towering round shaped” castle constructed of a smooth black substance, that showed not a line or a break over its entire surface, except doorways. There were plenty of them scattered at regular intervals over the surface of the structure. An arch was formed over each door and an inverted arch at the base of the doorways or openings. Although some of these doorways were at least a hundred feet above the ground, no steps led from them and no protecting railings surrounded them. They were just so many openings in the smooth unbroken, glossy, jet-black surface.

  “I had scarcely time to notice these things before I had come so close that I could see only the base of the huge structure. But my eyes soon beheld other things of interest. I was now in a garden at the base of the castle. There were no flowers visible, no cosy seats to sit on and while away the hours, no paths of cement or gravel, but a smooth unbroken carpet of soft velvety grass, far softer and richer than any I had ever seen before. Scattered over the entire area were trees of a uniform height and shape, their thickly covered branches starting at about five feet from the ground and ending in a point about twenty feet above. In the centre of this enclosed haven of rest was a clear pool of water, its bottom covered with the same soft short grass that grew around it.

  “It was while I drank in the peacefulness and beauty of the scene before me that I saw a vision that I will never forget. From behind one of the trees a girl stepped into view. A girl whose form was, with the exception of a few minor differences, an exact model of those of our own world. One of the things that I first noticed was that she was armless, a discovery that, had I been able to think and reason in my own natural way, would have caused me to feel sorry for her. The fact that her loose flowing dress had no sleeves or openings for arms was enough to convince me later, that her entire race was undoubtedly armless, and that they must have other means of accomplishing their work.

  “Her face as I saw it from a short distance was a perfect picture of beauty. The small nose, firm dainty chin and the rich mass of brown wavy hair that hung down over her shoulders produced an effect upon me that I will never forget. The scene ceased moving as my field regulator had reached its maximum point, and I remained a distance of a few yards from this heavenly vision unable to approach closer. I tried in vain to draw near to her but some power held me back. I tried to call to her but failed to make any sound.

  “A craving to be close to her possessed me and unable to realize that I could in no way make myself known to her, I tried every possible way to attract her attention. But to her I was invisible. She stood beneath the trees looking directly towards me with those soul devouring eyes but not a sign of recognition to be seen on her face.

  “Once more the world around me began to move and change, and the garden began to draw away from me as though I were being carried swiftly up into the air and away. Sadly I watched the pale white angel and her garden fade into the distance until again it was but a dark spot on the surface of the planet, a cluster of jet black castles of an atomic city. And soon the girl, garden, castle and city were lost in the maze of bright rings that filled all space before my eyes. A few moments and I was back in my own world. Back to the point from which I had started; my garage.

  “As I removed the head piece a feeling of utter loneliness came over me. In some way or other I had a clear recollection of what I had seen, and could picture the scenes with ease. I could with little trouble picture the face that I had seen in the atomic garden. But, as the events rose in my mind, the wretched feeling of loneliness completely mastered me. From the moment that I removed my head set, the name Celina was firmly stamped in my mind, whether in some mysterious way I had really learned her name while on the atomic planet, or whether in some freakish manner, I invented this most beautiful of names.

  “Anyway the name Celina had firmly stamped itself in my memory and when I think of the beauty in the garden I think of Celina. It was useless to try and overcome the wretched feeling of loneliness. I wanted to go back, back to that atomic world, back to Celina, that girl of girls, to stay there forever in that garden of love. The thought that her home and her world were but a part of an atom in our world was hard to realize. In fact I didn’t want to realize it. It was madness to think that I could never enter her world or bring her into mine.

  “Suddenly it came to my confused senses that the atom which was her solar system was, to my senses, One in millions and millions that were crowded infinitely close together, and with this came a terrifying thought. Would I see the same atom again the next time? Could I possibly single the one out from its millions of brothers? My blood chilled as I realized the impossibility of such a thing. She was lost to me forever. Never again would I see that garden, or Celina, the girl that I had learned to love with a fierceness that was beyond control. With this realization of my love came the growing desire to return to her. The longing in my heart ate deeper and deeper, until in desperation I began to prepare the set for another trip into the unknown.

  “I adjusted the field regulator, further increasing the output, in order to draw the scenes closer to me, unmindful of the danger of passing heavier fields through the brain. I thought only of her, Celina. Coming closer to her would allow me to look into those eyes, to see those tempting lips close to mine, and feast my eyes on the rich masses of dark brown hair.

  “Tom, I am fighting against this feeling with all my might, but there is more than love pulling me.

  I am sure that the strain of the last test has caused this desire to return. Something strange and unheard of has taken hold of me this way, and has bedded in my brain the desire to go back to her.

  “So I am writing this to you, Tom. You alone will understand. I couldn’t continue life like this and I know that I will not return to your world.

  I am in full possession of my senses, but there is a power that I can’t explain and can’t resist. I must go. I must see her again. And if I do not this time see the same atomic system and the same girl.

  I hope that I do not come back alive. I would rather go on in spirit to the universe where the inhabitants of all worlds eventually must go. Then I will be sure to see her ag
ain.

  A Half-Dollar Piece

  “IF I come out of it this time, rid myself of this wretched feeling, this mad desire that is gripping me, I will destroy this machine and tear this letter up, and no one will ever know the hell that I am passing through. I have the set adjusted to trip in three hours, that will be five o’clock, allowing me time to destroy this letter before you come in at breakfast time as I know you will. If I fail to come out alive, you alone know that I keep this metal box, and will sooner or later find this letter.

  “I have a feeling that I am breaking some universal law in penetrating the veil that separates us from other worlds around us, and that something will happen when I try again. But I would go Tom, if I was certain that I would never come back. Now as a last request, old pal, take good care of the half dollar, for I believe it contains the atom that I have just seen. Remember that somewhere on it, is a little girl that I am trusting to your care. Now I will go, I can’t hold back much longer. Forgive me old pal, if my love for her is greater than my loyalty to you, Ted.”

  My eyes were moist with tears when I finished reading the letter, and my first thought was of the half dollar piece. It was Ted’s last request that I take care of it, and without any further delay I hurried back to the grim blackened ruins of the garage, and after a few minutes’ search among the tangled wires and controls of the experimental apparatus, I found the silver coin, unharmed and unscarred. Realizing that the slightest scratch would remove millions of atoms from the coin, I wrapped it up carefully in a handkerchief and sadly went home.

  The events of the night passed through my mind as I paced the floor of my bedroom, and I bitterly cursed the infernal device that had led my pal to his death. In a blind rage I took the plans of his apparatus from the metal box and tore them into bits. No other man would be lured to his death by a similar apparatus if I could help it. With the set a tangled mass and the plans of the apparatus destroyed I felt that I had done what Ted would have done in my place.