“Spiral motion was known thousands of years ago,” Mven Mass remarked cautiously, interrupting the scientist. Kenn Bose dismissed the remark disdainfully.
“They knew the motion but not the laws! It’s like this, if the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field are two sides of one and the same property of matter and if space is a function of gravitation, then the function of the electromagnetic field is antispace. The transition from one to the other yields the vector shadow function, zero space, which is known in everyday language as the speed of light. I believe it to be possible to achieve zero space in any direction. Mven Mass wants to visit the planet of Epsilon Tucanae — it’s all the same to me as long as I can set up the experiment! As long as I can set up the experiment!” repeated the physicist, lowering his short white eyelashes wearily.
“You will need not only the outer stations and Earth’s energy, as Mven Mass pointed out, but some sort of an installation as well. Such an installation cannot be simple or easily erected.”
“In that respect we’re lucky. We can use Corr Yule’s installation near the Tibetan Observatory. Experiments for the investigation of space were carried out there a hundred and seventy years ago. There will have to be some adjustments and, as far as volunteers to help me are concerned, I can get five, ten, twenty thousand any time I like. I have only to call for them and they will take leave of absence and come.”
“You seem to have thought of everything. There is only one other consideration, but it is the most important — the danger of the experiment. There may be the most unexpected results; in conformity with the law of big numbers we cannot make a preliminary attempt on a small scale. We must take the extraterrestrial scale from the start.”
“What scientist would be afraid of risk?” asked Renn Bose, shrugging his shoulders.
“I wasn’t thinking of personal risk! I know that there will be thousands of volunteers as soon as they are required for some dangerous and novel enterprise. The experiment will also involve the outer stations, the observatories, the whole system of installations that has cost mankind a tremendous amount of labour. These are installations that have opened a window into the Cosmos, that have put mankind in contact with the life, knowledge and creative activity of other populated worlds. This window is mankind’s greatest achievement: do you think that you, or I, or any other individual or group of individuals has the right to take the risk of closing it, even for a short time? I would like to know whether you feel that you have that right and on what grounds?”
“I have and on good grounds,” said Mven Mass, rising to his feet. “You have been at archaeological excavations — do not the billions of unknown skeletons in unknown graves appeal to us? Do they not reproach us and make demands of us? I visualize billions of human lives that have passed, lives in which youth, beauty and the joy of life slipped away like sand through one’s fingers — they demand that we lay bare the great mystery of time, that we struggle against it! Victory over space is victory over time, that is why I’m sure that I’m right, that’s why I believe in the greatness of the proposed experiment!”
“My feelings are different,” said Renn Bose. “But they form the other side of the same thing. Space still cannot be overcome in the Cosmos, it keeps the worlds apart and prevents us from discovering planets with populations similar to ours, prevents us from joining them in one family that would be infinitely rich in its joy and strength. This would be the greatest transformation since the Era of World Unity, since the days when mankind finally put an end to the separate existence of the nations and merged into one, in this way making the greatest progress towards a new stage in the conquest of nature. Every new step in this direction is more important than anything else, more important than any other investigations or knowledge.”
Renn Bose had scarcely finished when Mven Mass spoke again.
“There is one other thing, a personal one. In my youth I had a collection of old historical novels. There was one story about your ancestors, Darr Veter. Some great conqueror, some fierce destroyer of human life of whom there were so many in the epochs of the lower forms of society, launched an attack against them. The story was about a strong youth who was madly in love. His girl was captured and taken away — ’driven off”“ was the word used in those days. Can you imagine it? Men and women were bound and driven off to the country of the conqueror like cattle. The youth was separated from his beloved by thousands of miles. The geography of Earth was unknown, riding and pack animals were the only means of transport. The world of those days was more mysterious and vast, more dangerous and difficult to cross than Cosmic space is for us today. The young hero hunted for his dream, for years he wandered terribly dangerous paths until he found her in the depths of the Asian mountains. It is difficult to define the impression I had when I was younger, but it still seems to me that I, too, could go through all the obstacles of the Cosmos to the one I loved!”
Darr Veter smiled wanly.
“I can understand your feelings but I cannot get clear for myself what logical grounds there are for comparing a Russian story to your urge to get into the Cosmos. I understand Renn Bose better. Of course, you warned us that this was personal….”
Darr Veter stopped. He sat silent so long that Mven Mass began to fidget.
“Now I understand why it was that people used to smoke, drink, bolster themselves up with drugs at moments of uncertainty, anxiety or loneliness. At this moment I feel just as alone and uncertain — I don’t know what to say to you. Who am I to forbid a great experiment? But then, how can I permit it? You must turn to the Council, then….”
“No, that won’t do.” Mven Mass stood up and his huge body was tensed as though he were in mortal danger. “Answer us: would you make the experiment? As Director of the Outer Stations, not as Renn Bose, he is different….”
‘No!” answered Darr Veter, firmly. “I should wait.”
“What for?”
“The erection of an experimental installation on the Moon;’
“And power for it?”
“The lesser gravity of the Moon and the smaller scale of the experiment will make only a few Q-stations necessary.”
“But that would take hundreds of years and I should never see it!”
“You wouldn’t, but as far as the human race is concerned it doesn’t matter whether it’s now or a generation later.”
“But it’s the end for me, the end of my dream! And for Renn….”
“To me it means that it’s impossible to check up my work experimentally and make corrections — it means I cannot continue!”
“One mind is not enough. Ask the Council.”
"Your ideas and your words are the Council’s decision given in advance. We have nothing to expect from them,” said Mven Mass softly.
“You’re right. The Council will refuse.”
“I shan’t ask you anything else. I feel guilty, Renn and I have put the heavy burden of decision upon you.”
“That is my duty as one older in experience. It is not your fault that the task seems magnificent and extremely dangerous. That is what upsets me so much, makes it hard to bear.”
Renn Bose was the first to suggest returning to the temporary dwellings of the expedition. The three downcast men plodded through the sand, each in his own way feeling the bitter sorrow of having to reject an experiment such as had never before been tried. Darr Veter cast occasional side glances at his companions and felt that it was harder for him than for them. There was a bold recklessness in his nature that he had had to fight against all his life. It made him something like an old-time brigand — why had he felt such joy and satisfaction in his mischievous battle with the bull? In his heart he was indignant, he was full of protest against a decision that was wise but not bold.
CHAPTER SIX
THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE SUNS
Dr. Louma Lasvy and Eon Thal, the biologist, dragged their heavy weight slowly towards him from the ship’s sick bay. Erg Noor went to meet them.
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“Nisa?” “Alive, but….”
“Dying?”
“Not yet. She is totally paralysed. Her respiration is extraordinarily low. Her heart is functioning — one beat in a hundred seconds. It is not death but it is absolute collapse which may last a long, an indefinitely long time.”
“Is there any possibility that she may regain consciousness and suffer?” “None whatever.”
“Are you sure?” The look in the commander’s eyes was sharp and insistent, but the doctor was not at all put out. “Absolutely sure!”
Erg Noor looked inquiringly at the biologist. He nodded his affirmation.
“What do you intend to do?”
“Keep her in an even temperature, absolute repose and weak light. If the collapse does not progress… what does it matter… let her sleep till we reach Earth. Then she can go to the Institute of Nerve Currents. The injury is due to some form of current, her spacesuit was holed in three places. It is a good thing that she was scarcely breathing!”
“I noticed the holes and sealed them with my plaster,” said the biologist.
In silent gratitude Erg Noor squeezed his arm above the elbow.
“Only…” began Louma, “we’d better get her away from high gravitation as quickly as we can… and… at the same time there’s danger, not so much in the acceleration of the take-off as in the return to normal gravitation.”
“I see, you’re afraid the pulse will get even slower. But the heart is not a pendulum that accelerates its oscillations in a field of high gravitation, is it?”
“The rhythm of impulses in the organism, in general, follows the same laws. If the heartbeats slow down to, say, one in two hundred seconds, then the brain will not get a sufficient supply of blood, and….”
Erg Noor fell into such deep thought that he forgot that he was not alone: he suddenly came to himself and sighed deeply.
His companions waited patiently.
“Would it not be a way out if the organism were to be submitted to higher pressures in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen?” asked the commander cautiously, and by the satisfied smile of the faces of Louma Lasvy and Eon Thal he knew that the idea was the right one.
“Saturate the blood with the gas under increased pressure, good…. Of course, we must take precautions against thrombosis and — let her heart beat once in two hundred seconds, it will come right later.”
Eon’s smile showed his white teeth under a black moustache and gave his stern face a look of youthfulness and reckless merriment.
“The organism will remain paralysed but will live,” said Louma with relief. “Let’s go and get the chamber ready. I want to use the big silicolloid hood that we took for Zirda. We can get a floating armchair inside it to make a bed for her during the take-off. After acceleration ceases we can make her a proper bed.”
“As soon as you’re ready report to the control tower. We’re not staying here a minute longer than necessary… we’ve had enough of the darkness and weight of the black world!”
The crew hurried to their various sections of the ship, each of them struggling against excess weight as best he could.
The signals for the take-off resounded like a song of victory.
With feelings of such absolute relief as they had never before experienced the people of the expedition entrusted themselves to the soft embraces of the landing chairs. A take-off from a heavy planet is a difficult and dangerous undertaking. The acceleration necessary to escape its gravity would strain the very limit of human endurance and the slightest mistake on the part of the pilot might lead to the death of them all.
There was a deafening roar of the planet motors as Erg Noor directed the spaceship at a tangent to the horizon. The levers of the hydraulic chairs were pressed lower and lower under the influence of growing weight. In a moment the levers would reach the limit and then, under the pressure of acceleration the frail human bones might be broken as they would be on an anvil. The commander’s hands, lying on the buttons that controlled the ship’s machinery, were unbearably heavy. But his strong fingers were at work and Tantra, describing a huge, flattened arc, rose higher and higher out of thick darkness into the transparent blackness of infinity. Erg Noor kept his eyes fixed on the red line of the horizontal leveller — it wavered in its unstable equilibrium, indicating that the ship showed a tendency to stop its climb and travel on the downward arc. The heavy planet had still not given up its prisoner. Erg Noor decided to switch on the anameson motors whose power was sufficient to lift the spaceship from any planet. Their ringing vibration made the whole ship shudder. The red line rose about half an inch above the zero line. A little more….
Through the upper inspection periscope the commander saw that Tantra was covered with a fine layer of blue flame that flowed slowly towards the stern of the vessel. The atmosphere had been passed! In empty space vestigial electric currents, following the law of superconductivity, flowed along the vessel’s hull.
The stars had again become needles of light and Tantra, escaping, flew farther and farther from the dread planet. The burden of gravity decreased with every minute. The body became lighter and lighter, the artificial gravitation machine began to hum and after so many days under the pressure of the black planet terrestrial gravity seemed indescribably small. The people jumped up from their chairs. Ingrid, Louma and Eon performed intricate passages from a fantastic dance. The inevitable reaction, however, soon set in and the greater part of the crew fell into a brief sleep that gave temporary repose. Only Erg Noor, Pel Lynn, Pour Hyss and Louma Lasvy remained awake. The spaceship’s temporary course had to be worked out to avoid the belt of ice and meteoroids by describing an arc perpendicular to the plane of rotation of star T’s system. After this the ship could be brought up to its normal subphotonic speed and work could be begun on the computation of the real course.
The doctor kept watch over Nisa’s condition after the take-off and the return to normal terrestrial gravity. She was soon able to reassure all those who were awake by her report that the pulse had reached a constant of one beat in a hundred and ten seconds. This was not mortal as long as there was an excess supply of oxygen. Louma Lasvy proposed using a tiratron,[21] an electronic cardiac exciter, and neurosecretory stimulators[19].
The walls of the ship whined for fifty-five hours from the vibration of anameson motors until, at last, the speedometer showed that they had attained a speed of nine hundred and seventy million kilometres an hour, very close to the safety limit. In the course of a terrestrial 24-hour day their distance from the iron star increased by more than 20,000 million kilometres. It is difficult to describe the relief felt by all thirteen members of the expedition after their severe trials — the murdered planet, the loss of Algrab and the awful black sun. The joy of liberation was not complete, one member of the expedition, young Nisa Creet, lay motionless in a special partition of the sick bay in a cataleptic half sleep and half death.
The five women on the ship, Ingrid, Louma, the second electronic engineer, the geologist, and lone Marr, the teacher of rhythmic gymnastics (who was also keeper of the food stores, radio operator and collector of scientific material), gathered as though for an ancient funeral rite. Nisa’s body, divested of all clothing and washed with the special solutions TM and AS, had been laid out on a thick hand-stitched carpet of the softest Mediterranean sponges. This carpet was placed on a pneumatic mattress under a dome of transparent, rosy-hued silicolloid. An accurate air-condition controller would keep the necessary temperature, pressure and composition of the air inside the hood constant for many years. Soft rubber blocks kept Nisa fixed in one position which Louma intended to change once a month. She was more afraid of bed-sores than of anything else — they could come from absolute motionlessness. Louma, therefore, decided that a watch had to be kept over Nisa’s body and herself refused to take her periods of long sleep during the first year or two of the journey. Nisa’s cataleptic state continued. The only improvement Louma could effect was an increase in pulse-bea
ts to one a minute. Little as this was, it was sufficient to enable them to stop the oxygen saturation which was harmful to the lungs….
Four months passed. The spaceship was following its real, computed course home, avoiding the belt of free meteoroids. The crew, worn out with their adventures and hard toil, were sunk in a seven-months’ sleep. This time there were four instead of the three people awake on board: Erg Noor and Pour Hyss, whose tour of duty it was, were joined by Louma Lasvy and Eon Thal.
The commander, after having got out of a graver situation than any spaceship commander had ever been in before, felt very lonely. The four years’ journey back to Earth seemed endless to him. He did not deceive himself — they were endless because he could hope to save his fearless auburn-haired astronavigator, whom he had come to love, only on Earth.
For a long time he put off doing what he would otherwise have done on the day after the take-off — running through the electronic stereofilms from Parus — he had wanted to see them together with Nisa and with her hear the first news from those wonderful worlds, the planets of the blue star of the terrestrial night sky. He had wanted Nisa to share with him the pleasure of seeing the boldest romantic dreams of the past and present coming true — the discovery of new stellar worlds, the future distant islands of human civilization. But at last they were brought out….
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