"Hardly!” Morey replied. “Lux metal has a density of around 103, while this star has a density so high that one cubic inch of its matter would weigh a ton on Earth."
"Wow!” Wade ejaculated. “I'd hate to drop a baseball on my toe on that star!"
"It wouldn't hurt you,” Arcot said, smiling. “If you could lift the darned thing, you ought to be tough enough to stand dropping it on your toe. Remember, it would weigh about two hundred tons! Think you could handle it?"
"At any rate, here we go. When we get there, you can get out and try it."
Again came the shock of the start. The heavens seemed to reel about them; the bright spot of Sirius was a brilliant violet point that swelled like an expanding balloon, spreading out until it filled a large angle.
Then again the heavens reeled, and they were still. The control room was filled with a dazzling splendor of brilliant blue-white light, and an intense heat beat in upon them.
"Brother! Feel that heat,” said Arcot in awe. “We'd better watch ourselves; that thing is giving off plenty of ultraviolet. We could end up with third-degree sunburns if we're not careful.” Suddenly he stopped and looked around in surprise. “Hey! Morey! I thought you said this was a double star! Look over there! That's no white dwarf-it's a planet!"
"Ridiculous!” snapped Morey. “It's impossible for a planet to be in equilibrium about a double star! But—” He paused, bewildered. “But it is a planet! But-but it can't be! We've made too many measurements on this star to make it possible!"
"I don't give a hang whether it can or not,” Wade said coolly, “the fact remains that it is. Looks as if that shoots a whole flock of holes in that bedtime story you were telling us about a superdense star."
"I make a motion we look more closely first,” said Fuller, quite logically.
But at first the telectroscope only served to confuse them more. It was most certainly a planet, and they had a strange, vague feeling of having seen it before.
Arcot mentioned this; and Wade launched into a long, pedantic discussion of how the left and right hemispheres of the brain get out of step at times, causing a sensation of having seen a thing before when it was impossible to have seen it previously.
Arcot gave Wade a long, withering stare and then pushed himself into the library without saying a word. A moment later, he was back with a large volume entitled: “The Astronomy of the Nigran Invasion,” by D. K. Harkness. He opened the volume to a full-page photograph of the third planet of the Black Star as taken from a space cruiser circling the planet. Silently, he pointed to it and to the image swimming on the screen of the telectroscope.
"Good Lord!” said Wade in astonished surprise. “It's impossible! We came here faster than light, and that planet got here first!"
"As you so brilliantly remarked a moment ago,” Arcot pointed out, “I don't give a hang whether it can or not-it is. How they did it, I don't know, but it does clear up a number of things. According to the records we found, the ancient Nigrans had a force ray that could move planets from their orbits. I wonder if it couldn't be used to break up a double star? Also, we know their scientists were looking for a method of moving faster than light; if we can do it, so could they. They just moved their whole system of planets over here after getting rid of the upsetting influence of the white dwarf."
"Perfect!” exclaimed Morey enthusiastically. “It explains everything."
"Except that we saw that companion star when we stopped back there, half an hour ago,” said Fuller.
"Not half an hour ago,” Arcot contradicted. “Two years ago. We saw the light that left the. companion before it was moved. It's rather like traveling in time."
"If that's so,” asked Fuller, suddenly worried, “what is our time in relation to Earth?"
"If we moved by the space-strain drive at all times,” Arcot explained, “we would return at exactly the same time we left. Time is passing normally on Earth as it is with us right now, but whenever we use the space-strain, we move instantaneously from one point to another as far as Earth and the rest of the universe is concerned. It seems to take time to us because we are within the influence of the field.
"Suppose we were to take a trip that required a week. In other words, three days traveling in space-strain, a day to look at the destination, and three more days coming back. When we returned to Earth, they would insist we had only been gone one day, the time we spent out of the drive. See?"
"I catch,” said Fuller. “By the way, shouldn't we take some photographs of this system? Otherwise, Earth won't get the news for several years yet."
"Right,” agreed Morey. “And we might as well look for the other planets of the Black Star, too."
They made several plates, continuing their observations until all the planets had been located, even old Pluto, where crews of Nigran technicians were obviously at work, building giant structures of lux metal. The great cities of the Nigrans were beginning to bloom on the once bleak plains of the planet. The mighty blaze of Sirius had warmed Pluto, vaporizing its atmosphere and thawing its seas. The planet that the Black Star had stolen from the Solar System was warmer than it had been for two billion years.
"Well, that's it,” said Arcot when they had finished taking the necessary photographs. “We can prove we went faster than light easily, now. The astronomers can take up the work of classifying the planets and getting details of the orbits when we get back.
"Since the Nigrans now have a sun of their own, there should be no reason for hostility between our race and theirs. Perhaps we can start commercial trade with them. Imagine! Commerce over quintillions of miles of space!"
"And,” interrupted Wade, “they can make the trip to this system in less time than it takes to get to Venus!"
"Meanwhile,” said Morey, “let's get on with our own exploration."
They strapped themselves into the control seats once more and Arcot threw in the molecular drive to take them, away from the sun toward which they had been falling.
When the great, hot disc of Sinus had once more diminished to a tiny white pinhead of light, Arcot turned the ship until old Sol once more showed plainly on the crosshairs of the aiming telescope in the rear of the vessel.
"Hold on,” Arcot cautioned, “here we go again!"
Again he threw the little red tumbler that threw a flood of energy into the coils. The space about them seemed to shiver and grow dim.
Arcot had thrown more power into the coils this time, so the stars ahead of them instead of appearing violet were almost invisible; they were radiating in the ultra-violet now. And the stars behind them, instead of appearing to be green, had subsided to a dull red glow.
Arcot watched the dull red spark of Sirius become increasingly dimmer. Then, quite suddenly, a pale violet disc in front of them ballooned out of nowhere and slid off to one side.
The spaceship reeled, perking the men around in the control seats. Heavy safety relays thudded dully; the instruments flickered under a suddenly rising surge of power-then they were calm again. Arcot had snapped over the power switch.
"That,” he said quietly, “is not so good."
"Threw the gyroscopes, didn't it?” asked Morey, his voice equally as quiet.
"It did-and I have no idea how far. We're off course and we don't know which direction we're headed."
CHAPTER VI
"What's the matter?” asked Fuller anxiously.
Arcot pointed out the window at a red star that blazed in the distance. “We got too near the field of gravity of that young giant and he threw us for a loss. We drained out three-fourths of the energy from our coils and lost our bearings in the bargain. The attraction turned the gyroscopes and threw the ship out of line, so we no longer know where the sun is.
"Well, come on, Morey; all we can do is start a search. At this distance, we'd best go by Sirius; it's brighter and nearer.” He looked at the instrument panel. “I was using the next lowest power and I still couldn't avoid that monster. This ship is just a little too hot to
handle."
Their position was anything but pleasant. They must pick out from the vast star field behind them the one star that was home, not knowing exactly where it was. But they had one tremendous help-the photographs of the star field around Sol that they had taken at the last stop. All they had to do was search for an area that matched their photographs.
They found the sun at last, after they had spotted Sirius, but they had had to rotate the ship through nearly twenty-five degrees to do it. After establishing their bearings, they took new photographs for their files.
Meanwhile, Wade had been recharging the coils. When he was finished, he reported the fact to Arcot.
"Fine,” Arcot said. “And from now on, I'm going to use the least possible amount of power. It certainly isn't safe to use more."
They started for the control room, much relieved. Arcot dived first, with Wade directly behind him. Wade decided suddenly to go into his room and stopped himself by grabbing a handhold. Morey, following close behind, bumped into him and was brought to rest, while Wade was pushed into his room.
But Fuller, coming last, slammed into Morey, who moved forward with new velocity toward the control room, leaving Fuller hanging at rest in the middle of the corridor.
"Hey, Morey!” he laughed. “Send me a skyhook! I'm caught!” Isolated as he was in the middle of the corridor, he couldn't push on anything and remained stranded.
"Go to sleep!” advised Morey. “It's the most comfortable bed you'll find!"
Wade looked out of his room just then, “Well, if it isn't old Weak Muscles Fuller! Weighs absolutely nothing and is still so weak he can't push himself around."
"Come on, though, Morey-give me a hand-I got you off dead center.” Fuller flailed his hand helplessly.
"Use your brains, if you have any,” said Morey, “and see what you can do. Come on, Wade-we're going."
Since they were going to use the space control, they would remain in free fall, and Fuller would remain helplessly suspended in mid-air.
The air of the ship suddenly seemed supercharged with energy as the space around them became gray; then the stars were all before them. The ship was moving forward again.
"Well, old pals,” said Fuller, “at least I have traffic blocked fairly well if I feel like it, so eventually you'd have to help me. However—” He floundered clumsily as he removed one of his foam-rubber space-boots, “-my brains tell me that action is equal and opposite to reaction!” And he threw the boot with all possible velocity toward Morey!
The reaction of the motion brought him slowly but surely to a handhold in the wall.
In the meantime, the flying boot caught Morey in the chest with a pronounced smack! as he struggled vainly to’ avoid it. Handicapped by the lack of friction, his arms were not quite powerful enough to move his mass as quickly as his legs might have done, for his inertia was as great as ever, so he didn't succeed in ducking.
"Round one!” called Arcot, laughing. “Won by Kid Fuller on a TKO! It appears he has brains and knows how to use them!"
"You win,” laughed Morey. “I concede the battle!"
Arcot had cut off the space-strain drive by the time Fuller reached the control room, and the men set about making more observations. They took additional photographs and turned on the drive again.
Time passed monotonously after they had examined a few stars. There was little difference; each was but a scene of flaming matter. There was little interest in this work, and, as Fuller remarked, this was supposed to be a trip of exploration, not observation. They weren't astronomers; they were on a vacation. Why all the hard work? They couldn't do as good a job as an experienced astronomer, so they decided to limit their observations to those necessary to retrace their path to Earth.
"But we want to investigate for planets to land on, don't we?” asked Morey.
"Sure,” agreed Fuller. “But do we have to hunt at random for them? Can't we look for stars like our own sun? Won't they be more apt to’ have planets like Sol's?"
"It's, an idea,” replied Morey.
"Well, why not try it then?” Fuller continued logically. “Let's pick out a G-O type sun and head for it."
They were now well out toward the edge of the Galaxy, some thirty thousand light years from home. Since they had originally headed out along the narrow diameter of the lens-shaped mass of stars that forms our Island Universe, they would reach the edge soon.
"We won't have much chance of finding a G-O this far out,” Arcot pointed out. “We're about out of stars. We've left most of the Galaxy behind us."
"Then let's go on to another of the galactic nebulae,” said Morey, looking out into the almost unbroken night of intergalactic space. Only here and there could they see a star, separated from its nearest neighbor by thousands of light years of empty space.
"You know,” said Wade slowly, “I've been wondering about the progress along scientific lines that a race out here might make. I mean, suppose that one of those lonely stars had planets, and suppose intelligent Me evolved on one of those planets. I think their progress would be much slower.” “I see what you mean,” Arcot said. “To us, of Earth, the stars are gigantic furnaces a few light years away. They're titanic tests tubes of nature, with automatic reading devices attached, hung in the sky for us to watch. We have learned more about space from the stars than all the experiments of the physicists of Earth ever secured for us. It was in the atoms of the suns that we first counted the rate of revolutions of the electrons about their nuclei."
"Couldn't they have watched their own sun?” Fuller asked. “Sure, but what could they compare it with? They couldn't see a white dwarf from here. They couldn't measure the parallax to the nearest star, so they would have no idea of stellar distances. They wouldn't know how bright S. Doradus was. Or how dim Van Maanen's star was."
"Then,” Fuller said speculatively, “they'd have to wait until one of their scientists invented the telectroscope."
Arcot shook his head. “Without a knowledge of nuclear physics, the invention of the telectroscope is impossible. The lack of opportunity to watch the stars that might teach them something would delay their knowledge of atomic structure. They might learn a great deal about chemistry and Newtonian physics, and go quite a ways with math, but even there they would be handicapped. Morey, for instance, would never have developed the autointegral calculus, to say nothing of tensor and spinor calculus, which were developed two hundred years ago, without the knowledge of the problems of space to develop the need. I'm afraid such a race would be quite a bit behind us in science.
"Suppose, on the other hand, we visit a race that's far ahead of us. We'd better not stay there long; think what they might do to us. They might decide our ship was too threatening and simply wipe us out. Or they might even be so far advanced that we would mean nothing to them at all-like ants or little squalling babies.” Arcot laughed at the thought.
"That isn't a very complimentary picture,” objected Fuller. “With the wonderful advances we've made, there just isn't that much left to be able to say we're so little."
"Fuller, I'm surprised at you!” Arcot said. “Today, we are only opening our eyes on the world of science. Our race has only a few thousand years behind it and hundreds of millions yet to come. How can any man of today, with his freshly-opened eyes of science, take in the mighty pyramid of knowledge that will be built up in those long, long years of the future? It's too gigantic to grasp; we can't imagine the things that the ever-expanding mind of man will discover."
Arcot's voice slowed, and a far-off look came in his eyes.
"You might say there can be no greater energy than that of matter annihilation. I doubt that. I have seen hints of something new-an energy so vast-so transcendently tremendous-that it frightens me. The energies of all the mighty suns of all the galaxies-of the whole cosmos-in the hand of man! The energy of a billion billion billion suns! And every sun pouring out its energy at the rate of quintillions of horsepower every instant!
"But it'
s too great for man to have-I am going to forget it, lest man be destroyed by his own might."
Arcot's halting speech told of his intense thought-of a dream of such awful energies as man had never before conceived. His eyes looked unseeing at the black velvet of space with its few, scattered stars.
"But we're here to decide which way to go,” he added with a sudden briskness as he straightened his shoulders. “Every now and then, I get a new idea and I-I sort of dream. That's when I'm most likely to see the solution. I think I know the solution now, but unless the need arises, I'm never going to use p. It's too dangerous a toy."
There was silence for a moment, then Morey said, quietly:
"I've got a course plotted for us. We'll leave this Galaxy at a steep angle-about forty-five degrees from the Galactic plane-to give us a good view of our own Galaxy. And we can head for one of the nebulae in that general area. What do you say?"
"I say,” remarked Fuller, “that some of the great void without seems to have leaked into my own poor self. It's been thirty thousand years since I am going to have a meal this morning-whatever it is I mean-and I want another.” He looked meaningfully at Wade, the official cook of the expedition.
Arcot suddenly burst out laughing. “So that's what I've been wanting I” It had been ten chronometer hours since they had eaten, but since they had been outracing light, they were now thirty thousand years in Earth's past.
The weightlessness of free fall makes it difficult to recognize normally familiar sensations, and the feeling of hunger is one of them. There was little enough work to be done, so there was no great need for nourishment, but the ordinary sensation of hunger is not caused by lack of nourishment, but an empty stomach.
Sleep was another problem. A restless body will not permit a tired brain to sleep, and though they had done a great deal of hard mental work, the lack of physical fatigue made sleep difficult. The usual “day” in space was forty hours, with thirty-hour waking periods and ten hours of sleep.
The Battle of the Infinite Trilogy Page 27
