Islands of Space Read online

  III

  It was two weeks before Dr. Robert Arcot and his old friend ArthurMorey, president of Transcontinental Airways, were invited to see whattheir sons had been working on.

  The demonstration was to take place in the radiation labs in thebasements of the Transcontinental building. Arcot, Wade, Morey, andFuller had brought the equipment in from the country place in Vermontand set it up in one of the heavily-lined, vault-like chambers that wereused for radiation experiments.

  The two older men were seated before a huge eighty-inchthree-dimensional television screen several floors above the level wherethe actual demonstration was going on.

  "There can't be anyone in the room, because of radiation burns,"explained Arcot, junior. "We could have surrounded the thing with relux,but then you couldn't have seen what's going on.

  "I'm not going to explain anything beforehand; like magic, they'll bemore astounding before the explanation is given."

  He touched a switch. The cameras began to operate, and the screen spranginto life.

  The screen showed a heavy table on which was mounted a small projectorthat looked something like a searchlight with several heavy cablesrunning into it. In the path of the projector was a large lux metalcrucible surrounded by a ring of relux, and a series of points of reluxaimed into the crucible. These points and the ring were grounded. Insidethe crucible was a small ingot of coronium, the strong, hard, Venerianmetal which melted at twenty-five hundred degrees centigrade and boiledat better than four thousand. The crucible was entirely enclosed in alarge lux metal case which was lined, on the side away from theprojector, with roughened relux.

  Arcot moved a switch on the control panel. Far below them, a heavy relayslammed home, and suddenly a solid beam of brilliant bluish light shotout from the projector, a beam so brilliant that the entire screen waslit by the intense glow, and the spectators thought that they couldalmost feel the heat.

  It passed through the lux metal case and through the coronium bar, onlyto be cut off by the relux liner, which, since it was rough, absorbedover ninety-nine percent of the rays that struck it.

  The coronium bar glowed red, orange, yellow, and white in quicksuccession, then suddenly slumped into a molten mass in the bottom ofthe crucible.

  The crucible was filled now with a mass of molten metal that glowedintensely white and seethed furiously. The slowly rising vapors told ofthe rapid boiling, and their settling showed that their temperature wastoo high to permit them to remain hot--the heat radiated away too fast.

  For perhaps ten seconds this went on, then suddenly a new factor wasadded to the performance. There was a sudden crashing arc and a blaze ofblue flame that swept in a cyclonic twisting motion inside the crucible.The blaze of the arc, the intense brilliance of the incandescent metal,and the weird light of the beam of radiation shifted in a fantastic playof colors. It made a strange and impressive scene.

  Suddenly the relay sounded again; the beam of radiance disappeared asquickly as it had come. In an instant, the blue violet glare of therelux plate had subsided to an angry red. The violent arcing hadstopped, and the metal was cooling rapidly. A heavy purplish vapor inthe crucible condensed on the walls into black, flakey crystals.

  The elder Arcot was watching the scene in the screen curiously. "Iwonder--" he said slowly. "As a physicist, I should say it wasimpossible, but if it did happen, I should imagine these would be theresults." He turned to look at Arcot junior. "Well, go on with yourexhibition, son."

  "I want to know your ideas when we're through, though, Dad," said theyounger man. "The next on the program is a little more interesting,perhaps. At least it demonstrates a more commercial aspect of thething."

  The younger Morey was operating the controls of the handling robots. Onthe screen, a machine rolled in on caterpillar treads, picked up the luxcase and its contents, and carried them off.

  A minute later, it reappeared with a large electromagnet and a reluxplate, to which were attached a huge pair of silver busbars. The reluxplate was set in a stand directly in front of the projector, and thebig electromagnet was set up directly behind the relux plate. The magnetleads were connected, and a coil, in the form of two torusesintersecting at right angles enclosed in a form-fitting relux case, hadbeen connected to the heavy terminals of the relux plate. An ammeter anda heavy coil of coronium wire were connected in series with the coil,and a kilovoltmeter was connected across the terminals of the reluxplate.

  As soon as the connections were completed, the robot backed swiftly outof the room, and Arcot turned on the magnet and the ray projector.Instantly, there was a sharp deflection of the kilovoltmeter.

  "I haven't yet closed the switch leading into the coil," he explained,"so there's no current." The ammeter needle hadn't moved.

  Despite the fact that the voltmeter seemed to be shorted out by therelux plate, the needle pointed steadily at twenty-two. Arcot changedthe current through the magnet, and the reading dropped to twenty.

  The rays had been on at very low power, the air only slightly ionized,but as Arcot turned a rheostat, the intensity increased, and the air inthe path of the beam shone with an intense blue. The relux plate,subject now to eddy currents, since there was no other path for theenergy to take, began to heat up rapidly.

  "I'm going to close the switch into the coil now," said Arcot. "Watchthe meters."

  A relay snapped, and instantly the ammeter jumped to read 4500 amperes.The voltmeter gave a slight kick, then remained steady. The heavycoronium spring grew warm and began to glow dully, while the ammeterdropped slightly because of the increased resistance. The relux platecooled slightly, and the voltmeter remained steady.

  "The coil you see is storing the energy that is flowing into it," Arcotexplained. "Notice that the coronium resistor is increasing itsresistance, but otherwise there is little increase in the back E.M.F.The energy is coming from the rays which strike the polarized reluxplate to give the current."

  He paused a moment to make slight adjustments in the controls, thenturned his attention back to the screen.

  The kilovoltmeter still read twenty.

  "Forty-five hundred amperes at twenty thousand volts," the elder Arcotsaid softly. "Where is it going?"

  "Take a look at the space within the right angle of the torus coils,"said Arcot junior. "It's getting dark in there despite the powerfullight shed by the ionized air."

  Indeed, the space within the twin coils was rapidly growing dark; it wasdarkening the image of the things behind it, oddly blurring theiroutlines. In a moment, the images were completely wiped out, and theregion within the coils was filled with a strangely solid blackness.

  "According to the instruments," young Arcot said, "we have storedfifteen thousand kilowatt hours of energy in that coil and there seemsto be no limit to how much power we can get into it. Just from the powerit contains, that coil is worth about forty dollars right now, figuredat a quarter of a cent per kilowatt hour.

  "I haven't been using anywhere near the power I can get out of thisapparatus, either. Watch." He threw another switch which shorted aroundthe coronium resistor and the ammeter, allowing the current to run intothe coil directly from the plate.

  "I don't have a direct reading on this," he explained, "but an indirectreading from the magnetic field in that room shows a current of nearly a_hundred million amperes!_"

  The younger Morey had been watching a panel of meters on the other sideof the screen. Suddenly, he shouted: "Cut it, Arcot! The conductors aresetting up a secondary field in the plate and causing trouble."

  Instantly, Arcot's hand went to a switch. A relay slammed open, and theray projector died.

  The power coil still held its field of enigmatic blackness.

  "Watch this," Arcot instructed. Under his expert manipulation, a smallrobot handler rolled into the room. It had a pair of pliers clutched inone claw. The spectators watched the screen in fascination as the robotdrew back its arm and hurled the pliers at the black field with all itsmight. The pliers struck the blacknes
s and rebounded as if they had hita rubber wall. Arcot caused the little machine to pick up the pliers andrepeat the process.

  Arcot grinned. "I've cut off the power to the coil. Unlike the ordinaryinduction coil, it isn't necessary to keep supplying power to the thing;it's a static condition.

  "You can see for yourself how much energy it holds. It's a handy littlegadget, isn't it?" He shut off the rest of the instruments and thetelevision screen, then turned to his father.

  "The demonstration is over. Got any theories, Dad?"

  The elder Dr. Arcot frowned in thought. "The only thing I can think ofthat would produce an effect like that is a stream of positrons--orcontraterrene nuclei. That would explain not only the heating, but theelectrical display.

  "As far as the coil goes, that's easy to understand. Any energy storagedevice stores energy in the strain in space; here you can actually seethe strain in space." Then he smiled at his son. "I see my ex-laboratoryassistant has come a long way. You've achieved controlled, usable atomicenergy through total annihilation of mass. Right?"

  Arcot smiled back and nodded. "Right, Dad."

  "Son, I wonder if you'd give me your data sheets on that process. I'dlike to work out some of the mathematical problems involved."

  "Sure, Dad. But right now--" Arcot turned toward the elder Mr. Morey."--I'm more interested in the mathematics of finance. We have aproposition to put to you, Mr. Morey, and that proposition, simplystated, is--"

  Perhaps it was simply stated, but it took fully an hour for Arcot, Wade,and Morey to discuss the science of it with the two older men, andFuller spent another hour over the carefully drawn plans for the ship.

  At last, the elder Mr. Morey settled back and looked vacantly at theceiling. They were seated now in the conference room of TranscontinentalAirways.

  "Well, boys," said Mr. Morey, "as usual, I'm in a position where I'mforced to yield. I might refuse financial backing, but you could sellany one of those gadgets for close to a billion dollars and finance theexpedition independently, or you could, with your names, request themoney publicly and back it that way." He paused a moment. "I am,however, thinking more in terms of your safety than in terms of money."There was another long pause, then he smiled at the four younger men.

  "I think, however, that we can trust you. Armed with cosmic andmolecular rays, you should be able to put up a fair scrap anywhere.Also, I have never detected any signs of feeblemindedness in any of you;I don't think you'll get yourselves in a jam you can't get out of. I'llback you."

  "I hate to interrupt your exuberance," said the elder Dr. Arcot, "but Ishould like to know the name of this remarkable ship."

  "What?" asked Wade. "Name? Oh, it hasn't any."

  The elder Morey shook his head sadly. "That is indeed an importantoversight. If a crew of men can overlook so fundamental a thing, Iwonder if they _are_ to be trusted."

  "Well, what are we going to call it, then?" asked Arcot.

  "_Solarite II_ might do," suggested Morey. "It will still be from theSolar System."

  "I think we should be more broadminded," said Arcot. "We aren't going tostay in this system--not even in this galaxy. We might call it the_Galaxian_."

  "Did you say broadminded?" asked Wade. "Let's really be broad and callit the _Universite_ or something like that. Or, better yet, call it_Fluorine!_ That's everywhere in the universe and the most activeelement there is. This ship will go everywhere in the universe and bethe most active thing that ever existed!"

  "A good name!" said the elder Morey. "That gets my vote!"

  Young Arcot looked thoughtful. "That's mighty good--I like theidea--but it lacks ring." He paused, then, looking up at the ceiling,repeated slowly:

  _"Alone, alone, all, all alone; Alone on a wide, wide sea; Nor any saint took pity on My soul in agony."_

  He rose and walked over to the window, looking out where the brightpoints of light that were the stars of space rode high in the deepviolet of the moonlit sky.

  "The sea of all space--the sea of vastness that lies between thefar-flung nebulae--the mighty void--alone on a sea, the vastness ofwhich no man can imagine--alone--alone where no other man has been;alone, so far from all matter, from all mankind, that not even light,racing at billions of miles each day, could reach home in less than amillion years." Arcot stopped and stood looking out of the window.

  Morey broke the silence. "_The Ancient Mariner._" He paused. "'Alone'will certainly be right. I think that name takes all the prizes."

  Fuller nodded slowly. "I certainly agree. _The Ancient Mariner._ It'skind of long, but it is _the_ name."

  It was adopted unanimously.