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

worth about forty dollars right now, figured at a quarter of a cent per kilowatt hour.

“I haven’t been using anywhere near the power I can get out of this apparatus, either. Watch.” He threw another switch which shorted around the coronium resistor and the ammeter, allowing the current to run into the coil directly from the plate.

“I don’t have a direct reading on this,” he explained, “but an indirect reading 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 side of the screen. Suddenly, he shouted: “Cut it, Arcot! The conductors are setting up a secondary field in the plate and causing trouble.”

Instantly, Arcot’s hand went to a switch. A relay slammed open, and the ray projector died.

The power coil still held its field of enigmatic blackness.

“Watch this,” Arcot instructed. Under his expert manipulation, a small robot handler rolled into the room. It had a pair of pliers clutched in one claw. The spectators watched the screen in fascination as the robot drew back its arm and hurled the pliers at the black field with all its might. The pliers struck the blackness and rebounded as if they had hit a rubber wall. Arcot caused the little machine to pick up the pliers and repeat the process.

Arcot grinned. “I’ve cut off the power to the coil. Unlike the ordinary induction 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 little gadget, isn’t it?” He shut off the rest of the instruments and the television 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 of that would produce an effect like that is a stream of positrons⁠—or contraterrene nuclei. That would explain not only the heating, but the electrical display.

“As far as the coil goes, that’s easy to understand. Any energy storage device stores energy in the strain in space; here you can actually see the strain in space.” Then he smiled at his son. “I see my ex-laboratory assistant has come a long way. You’ve achieved controlled, usable atomic energy 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’d like 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 a proposition to put to you, Mr. Morey, and that proposition, simply stated, 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, and Fuller spent another hour over the carefully drawn plans for the ship.

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

“Well, boys,” said Mr. Morey, “as usual, I’m in a position where I’m forced to yield. I might refuse financial backing, but you could sell any one of those gadgets for close to a billion dollars and finance the expedition independently, or you could, with your names, request the money 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 and molecular 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’ll back you.”

“I hate to interrupt your exuberance,” said the elder Dr. Arcot, “but I should 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 important oversight. If a crew of men can overlook so fundamental a thing, I wonder 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 the Solar System.”

“I think we should be more broadminded,” said Arcot. “We aren’t going to stay 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 call it the Universite or something like that. Or, better yet, call it Fluorine! That’s everywhere in the universe and the most active element there is. This ship will go everywhere in the universe and be the 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 the idea⁠—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 bright points of light that were the stars of space rode high in the deep violet of the moonlit sky.

“The sea of all space⁠—the sea of vastness that lies between the far-flung nebulae⁠—the mighty void⁠—alone on a sea, the vastness of which 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 a million 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