Islands of Space - John W. Campbell (pdf to ebook reader TXT) 📗

“Sure,” said Fuller. “The three of us have entered into a lifelong pact with each other to refrain from using a certain weapon which would make this war impossible for all time.”

“What war?” Arcot wondered. “And what weapon?”

“This war,” Wade grinned, pointing at the chess board. “We have agreed absolutely never to read each other’s minds while playing chess.”

Morey lowered his book and looked at Arcot. “And just what have you been so busy about?”

“I’ve been investigating the weapon on board the Satorian ships we captured,” Arcot told them. “Quite an interesting effect. The Nansalian scientists and I have been analyzing the equipment for the past three days.

“The Satorians found a way to cut off and direct an electrostatic field. The energy required was tremendous, but they evidently separated the charges on Sator and carried them along on the ships.

“You can see what would happen if a ship were charged negatively and the ship next to it were charged positively! The magnitude of electrostatic forces is terrific! If you put two ounces of iron ions, with a positive charge, on the north pole, and an equivalent amount of chlorine ions, negatively charged, on the south pole, the attraction, even across that distance, would be three hundred and sixty tons!

“They located the negative charges on one ship and the positive charges on the one next to it. Their mutual attraction pulled them toward each other. As they got closer, the charges arced across, heating and fusing the two ships. But they still had enough motion toward each other to crash.

“They were wrecked by less than a tenth of an ounce of ions which were projected to the ship and held there by an automatic field until the ships got close enough to arc through it.

“We still haven’t been able to analyze that trick field, though.”

“Well, now that we’ve gotten things straightened out,” Fuller said, “let’s go home! I’m anxious to leave! We’re all ready to go, aren’t we?”

Arcot nodded. “All except for one thing. The Supreme Three want to see us. We’ve got a meeting with them in an hour, so put on your best Sunday pants.”

In the Council of Three, Arcot was officially invited to remain with them. The fleet of molecular motion ships was nearing completion⁠—the first one was to roll off the assembly line the next day⁠—but they wanted Arcot, Wade, Morey, and Fuller to remain on Nansal.

“We have a large world here,” the Scientist thought at them. “Thanks to you people, we can at last call it our own. We offer you, in the name of the people, your choice of any spot in this world. And we give you⁠—this!” The Scientist came forward. He had a disc-shaped plaque, perhaps three inches in diameter, made of a deep ruby-red metal. In the exact center was a green stone which seemed to shine of its own accord, with a pale, clear, green light; it was transparent and highly refractive. Around it, at the three points of a triangle, were three similar, but smaller stones. Engraved lines ran from each of the stones to the center, and other lines connected the outer three in a triangle. The effect was as though one were looking down at the apex of a regular tetrahedron.

There were characters in Nansalese at each point of the tetrahedron, and other characters engraved in a circle around it.

Arcot turned it in his hand. On the back was a representation of the Nansalian planetary system. The center was a pale yellow, highly-faceted stone which represented the sun. Around this were the orbits of planets, and each of the eleven planets was marked by a different colored stone.

The Scientist was holding in the palm of his hand another such disc, slightly smaller. On it, there were three green stones, one slightly larger than the others.

“This is my badge of office as Scientist of the Three. The stone marked Science is here larger. Your plaque is new. Henceforth, it shall be the Three and a Coordinator!

“Your vote shall outweigh all but a unanimous vote of the Three. To you, this world is answerable, for you have saved our civilization. And when you return, as you have promised, you shall be Coordinator of this system!”

Arcot stood silent for a moment. This was a thing he had never thought of. He was a scientist, and he knew that his ability was limited to that field.

At last, he smiled and replied: “It is a great honor, and it is a great work. But I can not spend my time here always; I must return to my own planet. I can not be fairly in contact with you.

“Therefore, I will make my first move in office now, and suggest that this plaque signify, not the Coordinator, and first power of your country, but Counselor and first friend in all things in which I can serve you.

“The tetrahedron you have chosen; so let it be. The apex is out of the plane of the other points, and I am out of this galaxy. But there is a relationship between the apex and the points of the base, and these lines will exist forever.

“We have been too busy to think of anything else as yet, but our worlds are large, and your worlds are large. Commerce can develop across the ten million light years of space as readily as it now exists across the little space of our own system. It is a journey of but five days, and later machines will make it in less! Commerce will come, and with it will come close communication.

“I will accept this plaque with the understanding that I am but your friend and advisor. Too much power in the hands of one man is bad. Even though you trust me completely, there might be an unscrupulous successor.

“And I must return to my world.

“Your first ship will be ready tomorrow, and when it is completed, my friends and I will leave your planet.

“We will return, though.