CHAPTER IV
_The Dying World_
"And now tell us of yourself," said 25X-987, "and about your world."
Professor Jameson, noted in college as a lecturer of no mean ability andperfectly capable of relating intelligently to them the story of theearth's history, evolution and march of events following the birth ofcivilization up until the time when he died, began his story. The mentalspeech hampered him for a time, but he soon became accustomed to it soas to use it easily, and he found it preferable to vocal speech after awhile. The Zoromes listened interestedly to the long account untilProfessor Jameson had finished.
"My nephew," concluded the professor, "evidently obeyed my instructionsand placed my body in the rocket I had built, shooting it out into spacewhere I became the satellite of the earth for these many millions ofyears."
"Do you really want to know how long you were dead before we found you?"asked 25X-987. "It would be interesting to find out."
"Yes, I should like very much to know," replied the professor.
"Our greatest mathematician, 459C-79, will tell it to you." Themathematician stepped forward. Upon one side of his cube were manybuttons arranged in long columns and squares.
"What is your unit of measuring?" he asked.
"A mile."
"How many times more is a mile than is the length of your rocketsatellite?"
"My rocket is fifteen feet long. A mile is five thousand two hundred andeighty feet."
The mathematician depressed a few buttons.
"How far, or how many miles from the sun was your planet at that time?"
"Ninety-three million miles," was the reply.
"And your world's satellite--which you call moon from yourplanet--earth?"
"Two hundred and forty thousand miles."
"And your rocket?"
"I figured it to go about sixty-five thousand miles from the earth."
"It was only twenty thousand miles from the earth when we picked it up,"said the mathematician, depressing a few more buttons. "The moon andsun are also much nearer your planet now."
* * * * *
Professor Jameson gave way to a mental ejaculation of amazement.
"Do you know how long you have cruised around the planet in your ownsatellite?" said the mathematician. "Since you began that journey, theplanet which you call the earth has revolved around the sun over fortymillion times."
"Forty--million--years!" exclaimed Professor Jameson haltingly."Humanity must then have all perished from the earth long ago! I'm thelast man on earth!"
"It is a dead world now," interjected 25X-987.
"Of course," elucidated the mathematician, "those last few million yearsare much shorter than the ones in which you lived. The earth's orbit isof less diameter and its speed of revolution is greatly increased, dueto its proximity to the cooling sun. I should say that your year wassome four times as long as the time in which it now takes your oldplanet to circumnavigate the sun.
"How many days were there in your year?"
"Three hundred and sixty-five."
"The planet has now ceased rotating entirely."
"Seems queer that your rocket satellite should avoid the meteors solong," observed 459C-79, the mathematician.
"Automatic radium repulsion rays," explained the professor.
"The very rays which kept us from approaching your rocket," stated25X-987, "until we neutralized them."
"You died and were shot out into space long before any life occurred onZor," soliloquized one of the machine men. "Our people had not yet evenbeen born when yours had probably disappeared entirely from the face ofthe earth."
"Hearken to 72N-4783," said 25X-987, "he is our philosopher, and he justloves to dwell on the past life of Zor when we were flesh and bloodcreatures with the threat of death hanging always over our heads. Atthat time, like the life you knew, we were born, we lived and died, allwithin a very short time, comparatively."
"Of course, time has come to mean nothing to us, especially when we areout in space," observed 72N-4783. "We never keep track of it on ourexpeditions, though back in Zor such accounts are accurately kept. Bythe way, do you know how long we stood here while you recounted to usthe history of your planet? Our machine bodies never get tired, youknow."
* * * * *
"Well," ruminated Professor Jameson, giving a generous allowance oftime. "I should say about a half a day, although it seemed scarcely aslong as that."
"We listened to you for four days," replied 72N-4783.
Professor Jameson was really aghast.
"Really, I hadn't meant to be such a bore," he apologized.
"That is nothing," replied the other. "Your story was interesting, andif it had been twice as long, it would not have mattered, nor would ithave seemed any longer. Time is merely relative, and in space actualtime does not exist at all, any more than your forty million years'cessation of life seemed more than a few moments to you. We saw that itwas so when your first thought impressions reached us following yourrevival."
"Let us continue on to your planet earth," then said 25X-987. "Perhapswe shall find more startling disclosures there."
As the space ship of the Zoromes approached the sphere from whichProfessor Jameson had been hurled in his rocket forty million yearsbefore, the professor was wondering how the earth would appear, and whatradical changes he would find. Already he knew that the geographicalconditions of the various continents were changed. He had seen as muchfrom the space ship.
A short time later the earth was reached. The space travelers from Zor,as well as Professor Jameson, emerged from the cosmic flyer to walk uponthe surface of the planet. The earth had ceased rotating, leavingone-half its surface always toward the sun. This side of the earth washeated to a considerable degree, while its antipodes, turned always awayfrom the solar luminary, was a cold, frigid, desolate waste. The spacetravelers from Zor did not dare to advance very far into eitherhemisphere, but landed on the narrow, thousand-mile strip of territoryseparating the earth's frozen half from its sun-baked antipodes.
As Professor Jameson emerged from the space ship with 25X-987, he staredin awe at the great transformation four hundred thousand centuries hadwrought. The earth's surface, its sky and the sun were all so changedand unearthly appearing. Off to the east the blood red ball of theslowly cooling sun rested upon the horizon, lighting up the eternal day.The earth's rotation had ceased entirely, and it hung motionless in thesky as it revolved around its solar parent, its orbit slowly but surelycutting in toward the great body of the sun. The two inner planets,Mercury and Venus, were now very close to the blood red orb whosescintillating, dazzling brilliance had been lost in its cooling process.Soon, the two nearer planets would succumb to the great pull of thesolar luminary and return to the flaming folds, from which they had beenhurled out as gaseous bodies in the dim, age-old past, when theircareers had just begun.
The atmosphere was nearly gone, so rarefied had it become, and throughit Professor Jameson could view with amazing clarity without discomfortto his eyes the bloated body of the dying sun. It appeared many timesthe size he had seen it at the time of his death, on account of itsrelative nearness. The earth had advanced a great deal closer to thegreat star around which it swung.
The sky towards the west was pitch black except for the iridescenttwinkle of the fiery stars which studded that section of the heavens. Ashe watched, a faint glow suffused the western sky, gradually growingbrighter, the full moon majestically lifted itself above the horizon,casting its pale, ethereal radiance upon the dying world beneath. It wasincreased to many times the size Professor Jameson had ever seen itduring his natural lifetime. The earth's greater attraction was drawingupon the moon just as the sun was pulling the earth ever nearer itself.
This cheerless landscape confronting the professor represented the stateof existence to which the earth had come. It was a magnificent spread ofloneliness which bore no witness to the fact that it h
ad seen theteeming of life in better ages long ago. The weird, yet beautiful scene,spread in a melancholy panorama before his eyes, drove his thoughts intogloomy abstraction with its dismal, depressing influence. Its funereal,oppressive aspect smote him suddenly with the chill of a terribleloneliness.
25X-987 aroused Professor Jameson from his lethargic reverie. "Let uswalk around and see what we can find. I can understand how you feel inregard to the past. It is quite a shock--but it must happen to allworlds sooner or later--even to Zor. When that time comes, the Zoromeswill find a new planet on which to live. If you travel with us, you willbecome accustomed to the sight of seeing dead, lifeless worlds as wellas new and beautiful ones pulsating with life and energy. Of course,this world being your own, holds a peculiar sentimental value to you,but it is really one planet among billions."
Professor Jameson was silent.
"I wonder whether or not there are any ruins here to be found?" queried25X-987.
"I don't believe so," replied the professor. "I remember hearing aneminent scientist of my day state that, given fifty thousand years,every structure and other creation of man would be obliterated entirelyfrom off the earth's surface."
"And he was right," endorsed the machine man of Zor. "Time is a greateffacer."
For a long time the machine men wandered over the dreary surface of theearth, and then 25X-987 suggested a change of territory to explore. Inthe space ship, they moved around the earth to the other side, stillkeeping to the belt of shadowland which completely encircled the globelike some gigantic ring. Where they now landed arose a series of coneswith hollow peaks.
"Volcanoes!" exclaimed the professor.
"Extinct ones," added the machine man.
Leaving the space ship, the fifty or more machine men, including alsoProfessor Jameson, were soon exploring the curiously shaped peaks. Theprofessor, in his wanderings had strayed away from the rest, and nowadvanced into one of the cup-like depressions of the peak, out of sightof his companions, the Zoromes.
CHAPTER V
_Eternity or Death_
He was well in the center of the cavity when the soft ground beneath himgave way suddenly and he catapulted below into the darkness. Through theStygian gloom he fell in what seemed to be an endless drop. He finallycrashed upon something hard. The thin crust of the volcano's mouth hadbroken through, precipitating him into the deep, hollow interior.
It must have been a long ways to fall--or so it had seemed. Why was henot knocked senseless or killed? Then he felt himself over with threetentacles. His metal legs were four broken, twisted masses of metal,while the lower half of his cubic body was jammed out of shape andsplit. He could not move, and half of his six tentacles were paralyzed.
How would he ever get out of there? he wondered. The machine men of Zormight never find him. What would happen to him, then? He would remain inthis deathless, monotonous state forever in the black hole of thevolcano's interior unable to move. What a horrible thought! He could notstarve to death; eating was unknown among the Zoromes, the machinesrequiring no food. He could not even commit suicide. The only way forhim to die would be to smash the strong metal head, and in his presentimmovable condition, this was impossible.
It suddenly occurred to him to radiate thoughts for help. Would theZoromes receive his messages? He wondered how far the telepathicmessages would carry. He concentrated the powers of his mind upon thecall for help, and repeatedly stated his position and plight. He thenleft his mind clear to receive the thought answers of the Zoromes. Hereceived none. Again he tried. Still he received no welcoming answer.Professor Jameson became dejected.
* * * * *
It was hopeless. The telepathic messages had not reached the machine menof Zor. They were too far away, just as one person may be out of earshotof another's voice. He was doomed to a terrible fate of existence! Itwere better that his rocket had never been found. He wished that theZoromes had destroyed him instead of bringing him back to life--back tothis!
His thoughts were suddenly broken in upon.
"We're coming!"
"Don't give up hope!"
If the professor's machine body had been equipped with a heart, it wouldhave sung for joy at these welcome thought impressions. A short timelater there appeared in the ragged break of the volcano's mouth, wherehe had fallen through, the metal head of one of the machine men.
"We shall have you out of there soon," he said.
* * * * *
The professor never knew how they managed it for he lost consciousnessunder some strange ray of light they projected down upon him in hisprison. When he came to consciousness once more, it was to find himselfinside the space ship.
"If you had fallen and had smashed your head, it would have been allover with you," were the first thought impulses which greeted him. "Asit is, however, we can fix you up first rate."
"Why didn't you answer the first time I called to you?" asked theprofessor. "Didn't you hear me?"
"We heard you, and we answered, but you didn't hear us. You see, yourbrain is different than ours, and though you can send thought waves asfar as we can you cannot receive them from such a great distance."
"I'm wrecked," said the professor, gazing at his twisted limbs,paralyzed tentacles and jammed body.
"We shall repair you," came the reply. "It is your good fortune thatyour head was not crushed."
"What are you going to do with me?" queried the professor. "Will youremove my brains to another machine?"
"No, it isn't necessary. We shall merely remove your head and place itupon another machine body."
The Zoromes immediately set to work upon the task, and soon hadProfessor Jameson's metal head removed from the machine which he hadwrecked in his fall down the crater. All during the painless operation,the professor kept up a series of thought exchanges in conversation withthe Zoromes, and it seemed but a short time before his head surmounted anew machine and he was ready for further exploration. In the course ofhis operation, the space ship had moved to a new position, and now asthey emerged 25X-987 kept company with Professor Jameson.
"I must keep an eye on you," he said. "You will be getting into moretrouble before you get accustomed to the metal bodies."
But Professor Jameson was doing a great deal of thinking. Doubtlessly,these strange machine men who had picked up his rocket in the depths ofspace and had brought him back to life, were expecting him to travelwith them and become adopted into the ranks of the Zoromes. Did he wantto go with them? He couldn't decide. He had forgotten that the machinemen could read his innermost thoughts.
"You wish to remain here alone upon the earth?" asked 25X-987. "It isyour privilege if you really want it so."
"I don't know," replied Professor Jameson truthfully.
* * * * *
He gazed at the dust around his feet. It had probably been thecomposition of men, and had changed from time to time into various otheratomic structures--of other queer forms of life which had succeededmankind. It was the law of the atom which never died. And now he hadwithin his power perpetual existence. He could be immortal if he wished!It would be an immortality of never-ending adventures in the vast,endless Universe among the galaxy of stars and planets.
A great loneliness seized him. Would he be happy among these machine menof another far-off world--among these Zoromes? They were kindly andsolicitous of his welfare. What better fate could he expect? Still, alonging for his own kind arose in him--the call of humanity. It wasirresistible. What could he do? Was it not in vain? Humanity had longsince disappeared from the earth--millions of years ago. He wonderedwhat lay beyond the pales of death--the real death, where the bodydecomposed and wasted away to return to the dust of the earth and assumenew atomic structures.
He had begun to wonder whether or not he had been dead all these fortymillions of years--suppose he had been merely in a state of suspendedanimation. He had remembered a scientist of his day, who had c
laimedthat the body does not die at the point of official death. According tothe claims of this man, the cells of the body did not die at the momentat which respiration, heart beats and the blood circulation ceased, butit existed in the semblance of life for several days afterward,especially in the cells of the bones, which died last of all.
Perhaps when he had been sent out into space in his rocket right afterhis death, the action of the cosmic void was to halt his slow death ofthe cells in his body, and hold him in suspended animation during theensuing millions of years. Suppose he should really die--destroying hisown brain? What lay beyond real death? Would it be a better plane ofexistence than the Zoromes could offer him? Would he rediscoverhumanity, or had they long since arisen to higher planes of existence orreincarnation? Did time exist beyond the mysterious portals of death? Ifnot, then it was possible for him to join the souls of the human race.Had he really been dead all this time? If so, he knew what to expect incase he really destroyed his own brain. Oblivion!
Again the intense feeling of loneliness surged over him and held himwithin its melancholy grasp. Desperately, he decided to find the nearestcliff and jump from it--head-first! Humanity called; no man lived tocompanion him. His four metal limbs carried him swiftly to the summit ofa nearby precipice. Why not gamble on the hereafter? 25X-987,understanding his trend of thought, did not attempt to restrain him.Instead, the machine man of Zor waited patiently.
As Professor Jameson stood there meditating upon the jump which wouldhurl him now into a new plane of existence--or into oblivion, thethought transference of 25X-987 reached him. It was laden with thewisdom born of many planets and thousands of centuries' experience.
"Why jump?" asked the machine man. "The dying world holds yourimagination within a morbid clutch. It is all a matter of mentalcondition. Free your mind of this fascinating influence and come with usto visit other worlds, many of them are both beautiful and new. You willthen feel a great difference.
"Will you come?"
The professor considered for a moment as he resisted the impulse to diveoff the declivity to the enticing rocks far below. An inspiration seizedhim. Backing away from the edge of the cliff, he joined 25X-987 oncemore.
"I shall come," he stated.
He would become an immortal after all and join the Zoromes in theirnever-ending adventures from world to world. They hastened to the spaceship to escape the depressing, dreary influence of the dying world,which had nearly driven Professor Jameson to take the fatal leap tooblivion.
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April 1956 and was first published in _Amazing Stories_ July 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
The Jameson Satellite Page 5
