The Black Star Passes - John W. Campbell (reading cloud ebooks txt) 📗

“When I looked at those great machines, and those comparatively little beings as they handled their projectors, they seemed out of place. Why?” He shrugged. “Again, just a hunch, an impression.” He paused again, and the slow smoke drifted upward.

“If I’m granted the premise that a black, dead star is approaching the Solar System, then my theorizing may seem more logical. You agree?” The listeners nodded and Arcot continued. “Well⁠—I had an idea⁠—and when I went downstairs for the handling machine, I called the Lunar Observatory.” He couldn’t quite keep a note of triumph out of his voice. “Gentlemen⁠—some of the planets have been misbehaving! The outermost planets, and even some of those closer to the sun have not been moving as they should. A celestial body of appreciable mass is approaching the System; though thus far nothing has been seen of the visitor!”

A hubbub of excited comment followed this startling revelation. Arcot quieted them with an upraised hand. “The only reason you and the world at large haven’t heard about this as yet is the fact that the perturbation of the planets is so very slight that the astronomers figured they might have made an error in calculation. They’re rechecking now for mistakes.

“To get back to my visualization⁠—It must have been many millions of years ago that life developed on the planets of the black star, a warm sun then, for it was much younger. It was probably rather dim as suns go even its younger days. Remember, our own sun is well above average in brilliance and heat radiation.

“In those long-gone ages I can imagine a race much like ours developing, differing chemically, in their atmosphere of hydrogen; but the chemical body is not what makes the race, it’s the thought process. They must have developed, and then as their science grew, their sun waned. Dimmer and dimmer it became, until their planets could not maintain life naturally. Then they had to heat them artificially. There is no question as to their source of power; they had to use the energy of matter⁠—so called atomic energy⁠—for no other source would be great enough to do what had to be done. It is probable that their science had developed this long before their great need arose.

“With this must also have come the process of transmutation, and the process they use in driving their interstellar cruisers. I am sure those machines are driven by material energy.

“But at last their star was black, a closed star, and their cold, black planets must circle a hot, black sun forever! They were trapped for eternity unless they found a way to escape to some other stellar system. They could not travel as fast as light, and they could escape only if they found some nearby solar system. Their star was dead⁠—black. Let’s call it Nigra⁠—the Black One⁠—since like every other star it should have a name. Any objection?”

There was none, so Arcot continued:

“Now we come to an impossibly rare coincidence. That two suns in their motion should approach each other is beyond the point of logic. That both suns have a retinue of planets approaches the height of the ridiculous. Yet that is what is happening right now. And the Nigrans⁠—if that’s the correct term⁠—have every intention of taking advantage of the coincidence. Since our sun has been visible to them for a long, long time, and the approaching proximity of the suns evident, they had lots of time to prepare.

“I believe this expedition was just an exploratory one; and if they can send such huge machines and so many of them, for mere exploration, I’m sure they must have quite a fleet to fight with.

“We know little about their weapons. They have that death ray, but it’s not quite as deadly as we might have feared, solely because our ships could outmaneuver them. Next time, logically, they’ll bring with them a fleet of little ships, carried in the bellies of those giants, and they’ll be a real enemy. We’ll have to anticipate their moves and build to circumvent them.

“As for their ray, I believe I have an idea how it works. You’re all familiar with the catalytic effects of light. Hydrogen and chlorine will stand very peacefully in the same jar for a long time, but let a strong light fall on them, and they combine with terrific violence. This is the catalytic effect of a vibration, a wave motion. Then there is such a thing as negative catalysis. In a certain reaction, if a third element or compound is introduced, all reaction is stopped. I believe that’s the principle of the Nigran death ray; it’s a catalyst that simply stops the chemical reactions of a living body, and these are so delicately balanced that the least resistance will upset them.”

Arcot halted, and sat puffing furiously for a moment. During his discourse the pipe had died to an ember; with vigorous puffing he tried to restore it. At last he had it going and continued.

“What other weapons they have we cannot say. The secret of invisibility must be very old to them. But we’ll guard against the possibility by equipping our ships against it. The only reason the patrol ships aren’t equipped already is that invisibility is useless with modern criminals; they all know the secret and how to fight it.”

Morey interrupted with a question.

“Arcot, it’s obvious that we have to get out into space to meet the enemy⁠—and we’ll have to have freedom of movement there. How are we going to do it? I was wondering if we could use Wade’s system of storing the atomic hydrogen in solution. That yields about 100,000 calories for every two grams, and since this is a method of storing heat energy, and your molecular motion director is a method of converting heat into mechanical work with 100 percent efficiency, why not use that? All we need, really, is a method of storing heat energy for use while we’re