“The apparatus was never tried, the government of that time having decided that it would not be wise to compromise the perfect happiness enjoyed by our planet by establishing relations with a world whose mores and state of civilization were unknown to us.”
“But you think,” the old man asked, anxiously, “that this apparatus might be put at our disposal?”
Before Telinga could reply, Gontran had moved closer to Fricoulet. “Well,” he said, “you mocked me a little while ago, but what do you think now?”
“The innocents shall have full hands,” growled the engineer. He turned to the Selenite and said: “But if your apparatus is similar in every respect to the one you’ve described to us, the reflector must be at least a kilometer in diameter.”
“Why is that?”
“Remember that it’s a matter of transporting a projectile over a distance of 12,000,000 leagues.”
“Pardon me,” said Ossipoff, “but it’s only 6,000,000, since that’s the distance at which the zones of attraction of the Moon and Venus meet.”
“Now,” said the Selenite in its turn, “the constructors of the apparatus judged that transporting a projectile over such a derisory distance would only require a reflector measuring 50 meters in height and 250 meters wide.”
The engineer made a face. “That’s not much,” he murmured. Addressing Ossipoff, he said “Don’t you think so?”
The old man did not answer. For several seconds he had been engaged in a series of calculations that had covered no less than three pages of his notebook with figures. Finally, he uttered a sigh of relief, held out his calculations to Flammermont and said: “See whether that’s correct, my dear Gontran.” Then he addressed Telinga. “If it’s not inconvenient,” he said, “I’ll use Maoulideck as a point of departure. That city’s situation, at the center of your hemisphere, will permit me to rise up vertically, in order to escape the influence of weight more rapidly and simultaneously take advantage of the entire influence of the electric vibrations….”
The Selenite approved this with a mute nod of his head.
“You’re quite certain,” asked Flammermont, who was examining the calculations submitted to him by Ossipoff with imperturbable seriousness, “that no error has been made?”
The old man shivered and drew closer to the young man. “Might I be mistaken, by chance?” he asked. “After all, it’s quite possible.”
“No, no,” Gontran replied, hastily. “It’s just the rapidity with which we’ll complete the journey, in your estimation, that astonishes me.”
“You need have no fear from that point of view. I’ve calculated that Venus’ zone of attraction is only two and a half days away; allowing as much for the fall, that makes five terrestrial days…”
“But in that case,” Gontran exclaimed, “we can reach Venus before Sharp can land there himself.”
Fricoulet’s expression was dubious. “Damn!” he said. “You’re getting ahead of yourself! Remember that while we’re here, immobilized in darkness, the scoundrel’s still traveling; nine more days still separate us from the sunrise, and by the time we can see clearly—and only then will we be able to make useful preparations for our departure—he’ll have no more than 3,000,000 leagues to cover.”
As Gontran’s and Monsieur Ossipoff’s expressions darkened, Ossipoff said to him: “Anyway, what does it matter whether we arrive before or after him. The main thing is to catch up with him—which is inevitable if, as Telinga affirms, all the pieces of the apparatus are intact.
“For my part,” declared the Selenite. “I promise to have everything prepared by the 200th hour of the day.”
Scarcely had the first rays of sunlight gilding the crenellated summits of the craters brought heat and light back to the surface of the invisible hemisphere than the Selenites set to work under the direction of Telinga. While some were busy on the summit of a peak overlooking Maoulideck, setting up immense mirrors designed to concentrate all the Sun’s light at the focal point of the parabolic reflector, others were putting together the 500 plates of selenium that formed the reflector itself.
Ossipoff and his companions were no less active. Having made a lengthy examination of the strange vehicle in which they would be required to continue their voyage, they had agreed to subject it to an important transformation on which the success of their bold enterprise would depend.
The vehicle was a hollow sphere made entirely of selenium, measuring no less than ten meters in diameter. In its lower part, a one-meter opening has been made, cut transversally by four stalks, the intersection of which supported a selenium axis. The extremity of that axis served to support, by courtesy of bronze rollers on an iron track, a sort of observatory dome, in such a manner that the room—in which the voyagers would be accommodated—could remain immobile in spite of the rotation of the sphere.
Gontran, to whom Fricoulet was giving a minute description of all the pieces of this strange vehicle, murmured in his ear: “That sphere rotates?”
“Certainly. Doesn’t a bullet rotate as it exits the device that fired it?” He took the young Comte aside. “There’s no point in asking you, is there, whether you know what William Crookes the great English scientist, meant by atomic bombardment?”
“No point, indeed, in asking me,” Flammermont replied, smiling, “for you’re convinced that I don’t know anything about it.”
“Well,” Fricoulet continued, “matter is in a state of eternal and powerful motion; the further matter is dissociated, the more that movement is freed from the shackles of cohesion. Now, as the millions of vibrations produced by that telephonic roundel are stored in the sphere, the molecules of air that act against the walls of the sphere are set in motion, as if by thousands of little fingers, and impress an incalculable velocity upon it. Do you understand?”
“I understand hardly anything—but the main thing is that you’re quite certain that this machine is functional.”
“And how could it be otherwise?” replied the engineer. “Look at this telephone transmitter, the roundel of which is less than three meters in diameter, and these formidable electromagnets, which will made it vibrate, and this Voltaic battery.”
While listening silently to his friend’s explanations, however, Flammermont seemed worried. “What are you thinking about?” Fricoulet asked him, abruptly.
“My God!” replied the young Comte. “Doubtless you’ll laugh at me, but I just had a dreadful thought.”
“What?”
“At a certain distance from the lunar surface, the vibrant waves will no longer have enough force to carry us forward.”
The engineer frowned. “Of course,” he said. “That might well happen.” Then, addressing Ossipoff, he said: “Monsieur de Flammermont thinks that our motive force won’t be sufficient to last is till the end of the journey.”
“On what do you base that supposition, dear boy?” asked the old man.
Gontran found himself completely at a loss and glanced at Fricoulet desperately. Fortunately, the young engineer replied in his stead and handed Ossipoff a page from his notebook. On that page, the following formula was inscribed in pencil:
A = √L189+v = 980,400
V+P
“What’s that?” asked the old man, opening his eyes wide.
“That,” replied Fricoulet, “is the mathematical proof that our friend Gontran is right.” As the old man was already turning to Flammermont, the engineer hastened to reply to the question that his friend had been asked. “The three of us,” he said, “weigh 250 kilograms. Now, taking account of the continuous loss of motive force the further we travel, it’s easy to calculate that, by necessity, there will come a moment when that continually-diminishing force becomes absolutely ineffective. That’s why, representing the speed of the apparatus as v and multiplying it by L189, the intensity of gravity at the lunar surface, I divide them by V, Venus, plus P, our weight. I take the square root and I arrive at this result: we shall come to a halt 980,400 kilometers from the Mo
on.”96
Monsieur Ossipoff had listened to the young engineer’s calculations without interrupting. When the latter had finished, the old man remained plunged into thought for a few seconds more. Eventually, he murmured: “That’s correct…quite correct. But then…” He looked at his two companions in turn and added: “It will be necessary for one of us to stay here to lighten the apparatus.”
Fricoulet smiled. “In that case,” he said, “I see no one but me who can play the role of the abandoned, for neither you nor Gontran, one a father and the other a fiancé, can avoid the duty incumbent upon you to run after Selena’s kidnapper.
“I dared not ask that of you,” added the old man, “but since you recognize yourself that there’s no way to do otherwise…”
This plan was not at all to Flamermont’s taste, though. Separate himself from Fricoulet! Fricoulet, his inspiration, then man who held out the pole to him to get him out of dangerous waters in which Ossipoff’s embarrassing questions might plunge him at any moment. He might as well renounce Selena right away. No, this could not be, and it would not be! Fricoulet was part of Gontran; the engineer was the diplomat’s scientific face. To separate them from one another would be to destroy entirely the Flammermont that Monsieur Ossipoff knew, who had seduced Selena’s father.
“Well, what’s the matter?” asked the old man, suddenly, noticing the absorbed demeanor of his future son-in-law. “Anyone would think that the arrangement didn’t suit you.”
“Alcide is a childhood friend,” replied the young man, with admirably well-feigned emotion, “and you’ll understand that I can’t abandon him gladly.”
“Would you prefer to renounce Selena?” countered the scientist, not without a certain bitterness.
“God forbid!” cried the young Comte, heatedly, “but since it’s a matter of weight that’s troubling us, could we not dispense with part of the apparatus rather than dispensing with Fricoulet?”
The old scientist shrugged expansively. “Dispense with the apparatus!” he exclaimed. “You don’t, I suppose, intend to fly on the luminous ray yourself, like an atom.”
“Would that really be impossible?” the young man riposted. Then, without leaving Ossipoff—whose haggard eyes ere looking at him in astonishment—time to recover from that enormity, he went on gravely: “Although I don’t have any such audacity in mind, it seems to me that by looking hard, we might find a means of making our vehicle lighter.” He spoke slowly, emphasizing his words and punctuating his phrases, watching Fricoulet from the corner of his eye. The latter, while appearing to by deep in thought, was performing an expressive mime.
“As Telinga has told me that we can be ready to depart in four times 24 hours,” Ossipoff replied, “think about what you’ve just said—and if you find the means of which you speak, I’ll be the first to adopt it. You can’t think that I can easily resign myself to leaving Monsieur Fricoulet behind.” With a grimace that contradicted the words he had just spoken, he shook the engineer’s hand, then added: “But if, in spite of all your efforts, the apparatus must remain as it presently is and it’s necessary to lighten the load…”
“Then,” Fricoulet continued, smiling, “you’ll throw me overboard like a sack of ballast.”
Ossipoff nodded his head affirmatively and, turning on his heel, went to rejoin Telinga, in whose company he had to go to Fedor Sharp’s vehicle in order to search it with the utmost care for objects he might need, such as blankets, spare clothing, scientific apparatus, weapons, etc.
As soon as the two young men were alone, Flammermont exclaimed: “Well, you’re a nice one! You know that I don’t understand a damned word of all these combinations of speed, weight and so on, but you amuse yourself by making me juggle with figures and then hang me out to dry!”
The engineer shrugged his shoulders. “You have such amazing aplomb,” he said, “that I’m always on the lookout for occasions for you to deploy it.”
“That’s all well and good,” Gontran retorted, in a piqued tone, “but it’s no less true that you’ve given me a hare to chase, and it’s necessary that I kill that hare.”
“Bah! You’ll kill it. Don’t worry—you know full well that I understand this sort of thing. Just give me a few hours and you’ll be satisfied.”
“I don’t matter—it’s Ossipoff that has to be satisfied.
“Very well—he will be.”
With these words, leaving Flammermont to supervise the work, the engineer went back underground in order to be able conduct his meditation and research in peace.
In less than an hour, he returned to the Comte in triumph.
“Well?” said the latter.
“Here it is—look.” And before his friend’s eyes he made a rapid sketch, saying: “Given that our total weight is too great for the apparatus to be able to transport us all the way to Venus, it was necessary to reduce that weight. Two means of doing that presented themselves: to get rid of me, or to get rid of the apparatus. You opted for the second means—I expected no less of your friendship.”
“I beg your pardon!” Gontran exclaimed. “I never mentioned getting rid of the apparatus.”
“That’s where we’re not in agreement, for that’s what my plan is based on.”
“Do you intend us to make the voyage sitting astride an electric current?”
“You’re joking—but I’m being serious, and I’ll convince you of it. The new calculations that I’ve just made establish that the apparatus, as it’s presently set up, will be sufficient to take us as far as the confines of the lunar zone of attraction; once there, of course, the vibratory waves will have no further influence on it, so we’ll abandon it.”
“That’s easy to say!” Gontran exclaimed. “We’ll abandon it! But what will become of us?”
Fricoulet smiled at his friend’s anxiety. “We’ll stay where we are,” he continued, “which is to say, in the three-meters-high and three-meters-broad cabin enclosed in the upper part of the sphere.”
Flammermont’s bewilderment was increasing. “But the cabin’s part of the apparatus,” he objected.
“At this moment, yes. But this is my innovation. Instead of linking it indissolubly with the sphere by means of rivets, as it is now, I’ll attach it by means of nuts and bolts, in such a way that it can be rendered independent of it at the desired moment.”
Gontran clapped his hands. “I get it!” he cried. “It’s perfectly simple.”
“You get it,” said the engineer, sarcastically.
“Of course! When we reach the limit of the zone of lunar attraction, we’ll abandon the sphere, which has become useless, and continue the voyage in our cabin.”
Fricoulet could not help laughing. “Fortunately,” he said, Monsieur Osipoff can’t hear you. If he could, he’d have a sorry opinion of you. Fool! You’d let yourself fall 6,000,000 leagues in that selenium cube!”
“Do you see any reason why not?”
“Many—first of all…but I don’t have time to explain all that. I’d rather continue explaining my plan. Around my sphere, in an equatorial position, I extend a circular surface made entirely of selenium, 30 meters in diameter. To that surface, our cabin is attached by metallic cables, with the effect that, once we’re rid of the encumbering sphere, we’ll continue our voyage with our cabin forming a gondola, suspended from a vast rigid parachute, the surface area of which will measure no less than 300 square meters. In that fashion, not only will the apparatus be lightened sufficiently to permit me to take part in our voyage, but will also allow us to take Selenite companions, if they’re minded to do it.”
As he finished this speech, Fricoulet rolled on the ground, dragging his friend Gontran down with him. The latter, to show the engineer how enthusiastic he was about his invention, had bounded forward to hug him, without thinking about the special conditions of density and weight on the world where they were. With his sextupled strength, he had cannoned into the unfortunate Fricoulet’s torso with the force of a catapult.
“Ficthre!” groaned the engineer, feeling himself anxiously. “Can you think before you act?” Having convinced himself that nothing was broken, he added: “In future, spare me your gestures of friendship—they’re too dangerous.” On seeing Gontran’s crestfallen expression, though, he started laughing and took him by the hand. “No hard feelings, eh? Now let’s get busy putting the plan you’ve just submitted to me into execution.”
“What!” Gontran exclaimed. “You want…”
“Certainly I want you to pass for its discoverer in Ossipoff’s eyes. Anyway, as you said yourself, it’s childishly simple—Christopher Columbus’s egg.”
Five days after this conversation, the immense selenium parachute surrounded the sphere, attached by cables to the cabin in which the voyagers were to take their places. The sphere itself, suspended from two metal masts, was placed at the focal point of the parabolic reflector. All that remained was to “center” the mirrors, and the departure had been fixed for the following day.
After loading all the objects that they intended to take with them, Ossipoff and his companions had decided to get a few hours’ rest. In order not to waste their time in unnecessary comings and goings, though, they had lain down on the bunks accommodated in the new vehicle, so that when they woke up they would only have to give the signal to take off. Worn out by the accumulated fatigue of the previous days, they were sleeping, as the saying goes, with closed fists, filling the cabin with sonorous snoring, when a sudden dreadfully loud noise brought them to their feet.
For a second, they looked at one another helplessly, searching one another’s eyes for an explanation of their abrupt awakening.
Fricoulet was the first to exclaim: “Our friend Telinga surely wouldn’t do us the bad turn of sending us into space without warning?”
Gontran shook his head. “No,” he said, “it seemed to me to be more like the sound of an avalanche falling on top of us. Perhaps some rocks have been dislodged from the rim of the crater.”
The Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist Across the Solar System (Vol. 1) Page 42
