Chapter IX
THE IRRESISTIBLE AND THE IMMOVABLE
The generator Arcot had brought was one of the two spare generators usedfor laboratory work. He took it now into the sub-station, and directedthe Talsonian students and the scientist in the task of connecting itinto the lines; though they knew where it belonged, he knew _how_ itbelonged.
Then the terrestrian turned on the power, and gradually increased ituntil the power authorities were afraid of breakdowns. The accumulatorswere charged in the city, and the power was being shipped to othercities whose accumulators were not completely charged.
But, after giving simple operating instructions to the students, Arcotand Morey went with Stel Felso Theu to his laboratory.
"Here," Stel Felso Theu explained, "is the original apparatus. All theseother machines you see are but replicas of this. How it works, why itworks, even what it does, I am not sure of. Perhaps you will understandit. The thing is fully charged now, for it is, in part, one of thedefenses of the city. Examine it now, and then I will show its power."
Arcot looked it over in silence, following the great silver leads withkeen interest. Finally he straightened, and returned to the Talsonian.In a moment Morey joined them.
The Talsonian then threw a switch, and an intense ionization appearedwithin the tube, then a minute spot of light was visible within thesphere of light. The minute spot of radiance is the real secret of theweapon. The ball of fire around it is merely wasted energy.
"Now I will bring it out of the tube." There were three dials on thecontrol panel from which he worked, and now he adjusted one of these.The ball of fire moved steadily toward the glass wall of the tube, andwith a crash the glass exploded inward. It had been highly evacuated.Instantly the tiny ball of fire about the point of light expanded to alarge globe.
"It is now in the outer air. We make the--thing, in an evacuated glasstube, but as they are cheap, it is not an expensive procedure. The ballwill last in its present condition for approximately three hours. Feelthe exceedingly intense heat? It is radiating away its vast energy.
"Now here is the point of greatest interest." Again the Talsonian fellto work on his dials, watching the ball of fire. It seemed far morebrilliant in the air now. It moved, and headed toward a great slab ofsteel off to one side of the laboratory. It shifted about until it wasdirectly over the center of the great slab. The slab rested on a scaleof some sort, and as the ball of fire touched it, the scale showed asudden increase in load. The ball sank into the slab of steel, and thescale showed a steady, enormous load. Evidently the little ball waspressing its way through as though it were a solid body. In a moment itwas through the steel slab, and out on the other side.
"It will pass through any body with equal ease. It seems to answer onlythese controls, and these it answers perfectly, and without difficulty.
"One other thing we can do with it. I can increase its rate of energydischarge."
The Talsonian turned a fourth dial, well off to one side, and thebrilliance of the spot increased enormously. The heat was unbearable.Almost at once he shut it off.
"That is the principle we use in making it a weapon. Watch the actualoperation."
The ball of fire shot toward an open window, out the window, andvanished in the sky above. The Talsonian stopped the rotation of thedials. "It is motionless now, but scarcely visible. I will now releaseall the energy." He twirled the fourth dial, and instantly there was aflash of light, and a moment later a terrific concussion.
"It is gone." He left the controls, and went over to his apparatus. Heset a heavy silver bladed switch, and placed a new tube in theapparatus. A second switch arced a bit as he drove it home. "Yourgenerator is recharging the accumulators."
Stel Felso Theu took the backplate of the control cabinet off, and theterrestrians looked at the control with interest.
"Got it, Morey?" asked Arcot after a time.
"Think so. Want to try making it up? We can do so out of spare junkabout the ship, I think. We won't need the tube if what I believe of itis true."
Arcot turned to the Talsonian. "We wish you to accompany us to the ship.We have apparatus there which we wish to set up."
Back to the ship they went. There Arcot, Morey and Wade worked rapidly.
It was about three-quarters of an hour later when Arcot and his friendscalled the others to the laboratory. They had a maze of apparatus on thepower bench, and the shining relux conductors ran all over the shipapparently. One huge bar ran into the power room itself, and pluggedinto the huge power-coil power supply.
They were still working at it, but looked up as the others entered."Guess it will work," said Arcot with a grin.
There were four dials, and three huge switches. Arcot set all fourdials, and threw one of the switches. Then he started slowly turning thefourth dial. In the center of the room a dim, shining mist a foot indiameter began to appear. It condensed, solidified without shrinking, asolid ball of matter a foot in diameter. It seemed black, but was aperfectly reflective surface--and luminous!
"Then--then you had already known of this thing? Then why did you nottell me when I tried to show it?" demanded the Talsonian.
Arcot was sending the globe, now perfectly non-luminous, about the room.It flattened out suddenly, and was a disc. He tossed a small weight onit, and it remained fixed, but began to radiate slightly. Arcotreadjusted his dials, and it ceased radiating, held perfectlymotionless. The sphere returned, and the weight dropped to the floor.Arcot maneuvered it about for a moment more. Then he placed his friendsbehind a screen of relux, and increased the radiation of the globetremendously. The heat became intense, and he stopped the radiation.
"No, Stel Felso Theu, we do not have this on our world," Arcot said.
"You do not have it! You look at my apparatus fifteen minutes, and thenwork for an hour--and you have apparatus far more effective than ours,which required years of development!" exclaimed the Talsonian.
"Ah, but it was not wholly new to me. This ship is driven by curvingspace into peculiar coordinates. Even so, we didn't do such a hot job,did we, Morey?"
"No, we should have--"
"What--it was not a good job?" interrupted the Talsonian. "You succeededin creating it in air--in making it stop radiating, in making a ball afoot in diameter, made it change to a disc, made it carry a load--whatdo you want?"
"We want the full possibilities, the only thing that can save us in thiswar," Morey said.
"What you learned how to do was the reverse of the process we learned.How you did it is a wonder--but you did. Very well--matter isenergy--does your physics know that?" asked Arcot.
"It does; matter contains vast energy," replied the Talsonian.
"Matter has mass, and energy because of that! Mass _is_ energy. Energyin any known form is a field of force in space. So matter is ordinarilya combination of magnetic, electrostatic and gravitational fields. Yourapparatus combined the three, and put them together. The resultwas--matter!
"You created matter. We can destroy it but we cannot create it.
"What we ordinarily call matter is just a marker, a sign that there arethose energy-fields. Each bit is surrounded by a gravitational field.The bit is just the marker of that gravitational field.
"But that seems to be wrong. This artificial matter of yours seems alsoa sort of knot, for you make all three fields, combine them, and havethe matter, but not, very apparently, like normal matter. Normal matteralso holds the fields that make it. The artificial matter is surroundedby the right fields, but it is evidently not able to hold the fields, asnormal matter does. That was why your matter continually disintegratedto ordinary energy. The energy was not bound properly.
"But the reason why it would blow up so was obvious. It did not takemuch to destroy the slight hold that the artificial matter had on itsfield, and then it instantly proceeded to release all its energy atonce. And as you poured millions of horsepower into it all day to fillit, it naturally raised merry hell when it let loose."
A
rcot was speaking eagerly, excitedly.
"But here is the great fact, the important thing: It is artificiallycreated in a given place. It is made, and exists at the point determinedby these three coordinated dials. It is not natural, and can exist onlywhere it is made and nowhere else--obvious, but important. It cannotexist save at the point designated. Then, if that point moves along aline, the artificial matter must follow that moving point and be alwaysat that point. Suppose now that a slab of steel is on that line. Thepoint moves to it--through it. To exist, that artificial matter _must_follow it through the steel--if not, it is destroyed. Then the steel isattempting to destroy the artificial matter. If the matter hassufficient energy, it will force the steel out of the way, andpenetrate. The same is true of any other matter, lux metal or relux--itwill penetrate. To continue in existence it must. And it has greatenergy, and will expend every erg of that energy of existence tocontinue existence.
"It is, as long as its energy holds out, absolutely irresistible!
"But similarly, if it is at a given point, it must stay there, and willexpend every erg staying there. It is then immovable! It is eitherirresistible in motion, or immovable in static condition. It is theirresistible and the immovable!
"What happens if the irresistible meets the immovable? It can only fightwith its energy of existence, and the more energetic prevails."
Invaders from the Infinite Page 9
