Andromeda (A Space-Age Tale) вк-1

by Ivan Yefremov

  Mven Mass jumped up and leaned on the table with both hands so hard that the joints cracked.

  Transmission periods of millions of years, covering tens of thousands of human generations and which actually amount to that “never” that is killing to scientific thought, could disappear at the wave of a magic wand — Renn Bose’s discovery and their joint experiment!

  Inconceivably distant points of the Universe would be within reach!

  Astronomers in ancient days believed the galaxies to be moving apart. The light that reached terrestrial telescopes from distant stellar islands had been changed, light oscillations had lengthened, turning to red waves. This reddening of the light was taken as evidence that the galaxies were receding from the observer. People in the past were accustomed to a direct, one-sided conception of phenomena and they created the theory of a Universe that was moving apart or exploding, not realizing that they saw only one side of the magnificent process of destruction and creation. It was this one aspect — dispersion and destruction, that is, the transition of energy to a lower level in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics — that was conceivable to us and was recorded by instruments constructed to sharpen our senses. The other aspect — accumulation, concentration and creation — was outside man’s concepts because life acquired its strength from energy diffused by the stars, the suns, and our conception of the surrounding Universe took shape on the basis of this. Man’s mighty brain, however, penetrated even into the hidden processes of the creation of worlds and of our Universe. But in those distant times it still seemed that the greater the distance to a galaxy the greater the speed of its motion away from the terrestrial observer. As man penetrated farther into outer space he found galaxies with velocities close to that of light. The end of the visible Universe was the point where galaxies seemed to have reached that velocity although actually no light from them could have reached us and we should not have seen them….

  We now know why the light from these galaxies is red. As is usually the case in science there proved to be more than one cause — it is not only due to their recession from us. The only light that reaches us from distant stellar islands is that radiated by their brightest centres. These huge masses of matter are encircled by annular electromagnetic fields that strongly affect light rays, not only by their intensity but also on account of the area they cover; they gradually slow down the light waves until they become longer red waves. In very ancient times astronomers knew that light from very dense stars turns red, the spectral lines shifting towards the red end, so that the star seems to be receding like, for example, the second component of Sirius, the white dwarf Sirius B. The farther away the galaxy, the more centralized is the radiation that reaches us and the stronger the concentration at the red end of the spectrum.

  During a very long journey through space light waves, on the other hand, are “shaken up” and the light quanta lose part of their energy. This phenomenon has now been studied — the red waves may also be fatigued “old” waves of ordinary light. Even light waves that penetrate everywhere “grow old” from their journey over tremendous distances. What hope had man of overcoming such distances unless he attack gravitation itself by means of its opposite, following Renn Bose’s calculations?

  His anxiety was fading away! He was doing the right thing by carrying out the unprecedented experiment!

  Mven Mass, as usual, went out on the observatory veran-dah and began walking swiftly up and down. The distant galaxies still shone in his tired eyes, galaxies that sent waves of red light to Earth like signals calling for help, like appeals to the all-conquering thought of man. Mven Mass laughed softly and confidently. These red rays would become as familiar to man as those at the Fete of the Flaming Bowls that had wrapped Chara Nandi’s body in the red light of life — Chara, who had appeared to him unexpectedly as the copper daughter of Epsilon Tucanae, the girl of his impossible dreams.

  And he would direct Renn Bose’s vector precisely at Epsilon Tucanae, not merely in the hope of seeing that wonderful world, but also in honour of her, of its terrestrial representative!

  CHAPTER NINE

  A THIRD CYCLE SCHOOL

  Third Cycle School No. 410 was situated in Southern Ireland. Broad fields, vineyards and oak groves ran down the slopes of the green hills to the very sea. Veda Kong and Evda Nahl arrived when the children were still in class; they walked along a corridor running round class- rooms on the perimeter of a circular building. The day was dull with a drizzle of rain so that all classes were being held indoors instead of out in the open as was more usual.

  Veda Kong felt like a schoolgirl again as she crept up to listen at the entrances to the classrooms which, as in the majority of schools, were without doors and shut off by overlapping projecting walls. Evda Nahl joined in the game and the two women peeped into class after class in an attempt to find Evda’s daughter and remain unnoticed themselves.

  In the first classroom they saw a drawing in blue chalk covering the whole length of one wall: it showed a vector that was encircled by a spiral unfolding along it. Two sections of the spiral were encircled by transverse ellipses in which a system of rectangular coordinates was inscribed.

  “Bipolar mathematics[21]!” exclaimed Veda in mock horror.

  “This is something more than that! Wait a minute!” said Evda.

  “Now that we know something about the shadow functions of the cochlear[22], or spiral progressive movement, that occurs along the vector,” — the elderly teacher with deep-set, blazing eyes, thickened one of the lines with his chalk — ’’we are close to understanding the repagular calculus. The name of the calculus comes from the ancient Latin word ‘repagulum,’ a barrier or obstacle, and it is the transition from one quality to another, seen in a two-sided aspect.” The teacher pointed to an extensive ellipse across the spiral. “In other words, it is the mathematical analysis of mutually transitional phenomena….”

  Veda Kong disappeared behind the outjutting wall, pulling her companion after her.

  “That’s something new! It’s from that branch of mathematics Renn Bose was talking to us about down on the seashore.”

  “The school always gives its pupils the newest of everything and discards whatever is outworn. If new generations repeat old conceptions how can we expect to ensure rapid progress? As it is, a terrible amount of time elapses before a child takes its place in the relay race of knowledge. It takes dozens of years for a child to become fully educated and ready to undertake gigantic tasks. This pulsation of the generations, where you take one step forward and nine-tenths backward — backward while the next shift in the relay is learning — is that most difficult of all biological laws for man, the law of death and renascence. Much of what we learned in mathematics, physics and biology is already out of date. Your history is different, it grows old more slowly because it is very old itself.”

  They glanced into another room. The schoolmistress, standing with her back to them, and the interested children, did not notice them. The attentive faces of the pupils — they were young men and women seventeen years of age, in the higher classes of the Third Cycle School — and their burning cheeks told how thrilled they were with the lesson.

  “We, the human race, have passed through many trials,” the voice of the teacher resounded with her excitement, “and the most important thing in your school history is the study of the historic mistakes made by man and their consequences. We have passed through the stage of the unbearable complication of life and things used by man and have arrived at extreme simplicity. The complication of life led dialectically to the simplification of spiritual culture. There must not be any unnecessary thing to tie man up, his experiences and perceptions are finer when he leads a simple life. Everything relating to everyday life is studied by the best brains as befits important scientific problems. We have followed the general line of development of the animal kingdom which was directed towards the liberation of attention by making movements automatic and developing reflexes in the wo
rk of the nervous system. The automation of the productive forces of society created an analogous reflex system of control in production economy and released many people for what is now man’s chief occupation — scientific research. Nature has provided us with a big brain capable of scientific inquiry although at first it was only used to search for food and investigate its edibility.”

  “Very good!” whispered Evda Nahl and at that moment noticed her daughter. The girl did not suspect anything and sat staring in contemplation at the corrugated glass that prevented the pupils from seeing what was going on outside the classroom.

  Veda Kong was curious to compare her with her mother. They had the same long straight hair, the daughter’s plaited with a blue thread and tied up in two big loops. Both had the same oval face, narrow at the chin and somewhat babyish from the too high forehead and the high cheekbones protruding below the temples. A snow-white sweater of artificial wool stressed the dark paleness of the girl’s skin and the acute blackness of her eyes, eyebrows and eyelashes. A necklace of red coral harmonized with the girl’s unquestionably original appearance.

  Evda’s daughter, like all other pupils, wore wide shorts, hers differing only in a red fringe that was stitched into the seams.

  “An American Indian ornament,” whispered Evda Nahl in answer to her friend’s inquiring glance.

  Evda and Veda just had time to step back into the corridor when the teacher left the room followed by several pupils, Evda’s daughter amongst them. The girl stopped suddenly in her tracks as she noticed her mother, her pride and an example to be followed. Although Evda did not know it, there was a circle of her admirers in the school, youngsters who had decided to take the same road in life as she had taken.

  “Mother!” whispered the girl, casting a shy glance at her mother’s companion and clinging to Evda.

  The teacher stopped and then came over to them, giving them a nod of greeting.

  “I must inform the school council,” she said, disregarding Evda’s gesture of protest, “we must gain something from your visit.”

  “Better take advantage of her visit,” said Evda as she introduced Veda Kong.

  The history teacher blushed deeply and looked like a young girl.

  “That’s fine!” she said, trying to keep her tone businesslike. “The school is about to graduate the senior groups and a word from Evda Nahl to send them on their way coupled with a review of the ancient cultures and races from Veda Kong will be something for our youth to remember! Won’t it, Rhea?”

  Evda’s daughter clapped her hands. The teacher ran with the light gait of a gymnast to the subsidiary premises, contained in a long straight building.

  “Rhea, can you cut out the polytechnics lesson today and come for a walk?” Evda suggested to her daughter. “I shan’t be able to see you again before you have to choose your matriculation tasks. Last time we didn’t come to a decision.”

  Rhea did not answer but took her mother’s hand. In each of the school cycles the lessons were interspersed with polytechnics. At the moment they were to have one of Rhea’s favourite occupations, the grinding of optical lenses, but what could be more interesting or more important than her mother’s arrival?

  Veda went away to a little observatory that she could see in the distance, leaving mother and daughter alone. Rhea, clasping her mother’s strong arm like a child, walked beside her wrapped in thought.

  “Where’s your little Kay?” asked Evda and the girl grew noticeably sad. Kay had been a ward of hers — the older school-children paid regular visits to first- and second cycle schools in their vicinity to help with the teaching and upbringing of wards they had selected. Integrated help for the teachers was absolutely essential to ensure thoroughness of education.

  “Kay was promoted to the second cycle and has gone far away from here. It’s such a pity… why do they move us from place to place every four years, when we are promoted to the next cycle?”

  ‘“The psyche is wearied and becomes sluggish where there is a uniformity of impressions and perception becomes duller. The efficiency of teaching and upbringing grows less year by year. That is why the twelve years of schooling are divided into three four-year cycles and you move to another school after every cycle, each time to a different part of the planet. It is only the babies in the zero cycle, from one to four years, that do not need any change of place and conditions of upbringing.”

  “And why does each cycle have separate schools and separate living quarters?”

  "As you little people grow up and are trained you become qualitatively different beings. If different age groups live together it makes their training more difficult and is annoying to the youngsters themselves. We have reduced the differences to a minimum by dividing the children into three age groups, but this is still not a perfect system.

  The first cycle, for example, obviously needs splitting into two groups, and that will soon be done. But let us talk first about your affairs and your dreams for the future. I shall have to deliver a lecture to all of you and may be able to answer your questions.”

  Rhea began to confide her innermost thoughts to her mother with the frankness of a child of the Great Circle Era who had never experienced hurtful ridicule or misunderstanding. The girl was the incarnation of youth that as yet knew nothing of life but was full of contemplative anticipation. At the age of seventeen the girl was finishing school and starting her three-year period of matriculation tasks, working amongst adults. After the tasks her interests and abilities would be clearly defined. A two-year higher education would follow that would give her the right to independent work in the chosen field. In the course of a long life a man or woman had time to take higher educational courses in five or six different fields, changing work from time to time, but a great deal depended on the choice of the first difficult tasks — the Labours of Hercules, or matriculation tasks. They were chosen after long contemplation and always following the advice of older people.

  “Have you passed the graduation psychological tests yet?” asked Evda.

  “Yes. I got 20 and 24 in the first eight groups, 18 and 19 in the tenth and thirteenth and even 17 in the seventeenth!” exclaimed Rhea proudly.

  “That’s wonderful!” said Evda in pleased tones. “Everything is open to you. Have you stuck to the choice you made for the first task?”

  “Yes, I’m going to be a nurse on the Island of Oblivion, and then all our circle are going to work at the Jutland Psychological Hospital.”

  Rhea told her mother about the circle of her “followers.” Evda had plenty of good-natured jokes to make about these zealous psychologists but nevertheless Rhea persuaded her mother to be mentor for the members of the group who were also at the time selecting their tasks.

  “I shall have to live here until the end of my holiday,” laughed Evda, “and what will Veda Kong do?”

  The girl suddenly remembered her mother’s companion.

  “She’s very nice,” said Rhea, seriously, “and almost as beautiful as you are!”

  “She’s much more beautiful!”

  “No, I know… and it’s not because you’re my mother,” said the girl, bashfully. “Perhaps she’s better at first glance but you have a spiritual tabernacle within you that Veda Kong hasn’t yet got. I don’t say she won’t have, it’s just that she hasn’t built it yet… but she’ll build it and then….”

  “Then she’ll outshine your mother like a moon outshines the stars.”

  Rhea shook her head.

  “And are you going to stand still? You’ll go farther than she!”

  Evda passed her hand over the girl’s smooth hair and looked down into her upturned face.

  “Isn’t that enough eulogy, daughter? We’re wasting time!”

  Veda Kong walked slowly down an avenue that led her deeper into a grove of broad-leaved maples, whose heavy moist foliage rustled dully. The first wraiths of the evening mist were making an effort to rise from a nearby meadow but they were instantly dispersed by the wind. V
eda Kong was pondering over the mobile tranquillity of nature and thinking that the sites for the schools were always so well chosen. The development of a keen perception of nature and a sensitive communion with nature were an important part of the child’s training. Dulled interest in nature is, in actual fact, an impediment to man’s development, for one who has forgotten how to observe will soon lose the ability to generalize. Veda thought about the ability to teach, the most important of all competencies in the age when they had at last learned that upbringing was more important than education and was the only way to prepare the child for the difficult job of being a real man. The basis, of course, is provided by inherent abilities but they might easily be left undeveloped, without that chiselling of the human spirit that is done by the pedagogue.

  Veda’s mind turned back to those distant days when she had been a third cycle schoolgirl, a mass of contradictions, burning with the desire to sacrifice herself and at the same time judging the world by herself alone, with all the egocentrism of healthy youth. How much the teachers did for her in those days — in truth there is no loftier profession in this world of ours than that of teacher!

  The future of mankind is in the hands of the teacher for it is only by his efforts that man rises ever higher and becomes more and more powerful, coping with the most arduous of all tasks, that of overcoming himself, his greedy self-love and his unbridled desires.

  Veda Kong turned towards a small bay surrounded by pines where she could hear the sounds of youthful voices; soon she came upon a dozen boys in plastic aprons busily trimming an oak beam with axes, instruments that had been invented as far back as the stone age. The young builders greeted the historian respectfully and explained to her that they wanted to build a vessel without the aid of automatic saws and other machinery, in the same way as the heroes of ancient days had done. The ship, when built, was to take them to the ruins of Carthage, a trip they wanted to make during their vacation, accompanied by the teachers of geography, history and polytechnics.