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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blind Time, by George O. Smith
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Blind Time
-
-Author: George O. Smith
-
-Release Date: May 29, 2022 [eBook #68197]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND TIME ***
-
-
-
-
-
-                              BLIND TIME
-
-                          By George O. Smith
-
-           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
-              Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.
-         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
-         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
-
-
-The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
-"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
-new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
-experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
-has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
-who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
-you will pinch-hit for him."
-
-"I understand."
-
-The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.
-
-"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
-o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."
-
-Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
-of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
-designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
-full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
-existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
-accident--
-
-"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.
-
-The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.
-
-"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.
-
-Edwin Porter nodded.
-
-"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
-which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
-although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to--"
-
-"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
-violently anti-semantic."
-
-"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
-it be averted?"
-
-"Because it has happened already."
-
-"But you said eight o'clock."
-
-"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."
-
-"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
-o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
-already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
-on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
-not manufacturing time machines, are they?"
-
-Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
-time machines."
-
-"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
-predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
-the insurance companies out of business--unless they hired him."
-
-"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.
-
-"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
-tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
-prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
-thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
-acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
-unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
-is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
-up his forecasting."
-
-"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
-always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
-argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
-anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."
-
-"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
-very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
-be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
-about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
-the contract may be voided on those grounds."
-
-"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
-accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."
-
-"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
-than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
-become evident until eight?"
-
-"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
-A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
-track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
-two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
-and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
-means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
-interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
-starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
-shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
-trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
-the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"
-
-"No, but I fail to see the connection."
-
-"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
-a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
-accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
-o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
-and make a suitable settlement."
-
-"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.
-
-"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
-principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
-I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
-experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
-pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."
-
-"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
-is ... will it be?"
-
-"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
-the possibility of death, but--"
-
-"I give up," groaned Wright.
-
-"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.
-
-"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."
-
-"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
-in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
-newcomer, just what really goes on."
-
-"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
-predictable accidents."
-
-"We've tried. We've also failed."
-
-"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
-a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery--let alone
-the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
-mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."
-
-"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"
-
-"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"
-
-"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
-the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
-riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
-that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
-other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
-are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."
-
-"Driller beams?"
-
-"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
-Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
-dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
-float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
-are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
-set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
-it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
-beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
-three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."
-
-"I follow."
-
-"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
-whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
-don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."
-
-"I've heard of blind rivets."
-
-"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
-rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."
-
-Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
-a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
-a blindy?"
-
-"Sure, but it will be dangerous."
-
-"I'll have the signs posted."
-
-"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."
-
-"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"
-
-"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."
-
-"O.K."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
-Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
-overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
-of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
-door open."
-
-"I couldn't be going to forget that?"
-
-Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.
-
-"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
-huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."
-
-"Right."
-
-Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
-ready."
-
-"How soon?"
-
-"Within the hour."
-
-"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."
-
-Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
-tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
-Peter's nose.
-
-There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
-second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
-new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
-beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
-this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
-tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
-opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
-operator.
-
-But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the--
-
-The missing link!
-
-Several inches of the caliper were missing.
-
-Ben nodded.
-
-Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
-space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
-planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
-was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
-six inches of--nothing.
-
-"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
-building. For instance--" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
-the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
-rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and--
-
-Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.
-
-"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
-trigger. Follow?"
-
-"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"
-
-"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
-sitting down.
-
-"I ... ah--" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
-in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
-wind," he gasped.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
-of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
-swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
-at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
-a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.
-
-It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.
-
-Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
-and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
-circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
-with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
-Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
-imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
-through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
-for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
-in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
-rapped backwards toward the room--against nothing, and then floated
-rapidly toward the riveter itself.
-
-With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
-slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
-The blindy was complete again.
-
-"See?" said Simpkins.
-
-"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.
-
-Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
-started to replace the shattered panel.
-
-"I see--but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
-chair.
-
-The two men laughed uproariously.
-
-Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
-by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
-or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
-the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
-At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
-room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
-midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
-by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
-to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
-for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
-treated for whatever period of action is required."
-
-"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
-in Ben.
-
-"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
-since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
-occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
-the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."
-
-"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.
-
-"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
-couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
-exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
-through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."
-
-"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
-door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
-resistance in the first place--I found no trouble in hooking it over
-the closet door--because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
-for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
-can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
-the work."
-
-"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
-is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
-wonderingly.
-
-"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
-yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."
-
-"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
-trust the demonstration was successful?"
-
-"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
-that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"
-
-"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."
-
-"Bad, huh?"
-
-"Could be--we'll know in a while."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
-possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
-machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
-they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
-place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
-and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
-the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
-intervene."
-
-"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"
-
-Ben nodded.
-
-"You're absolutely certain?"
-
-"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
-trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
-and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
-something."
-
-"Something? Can this be identified?"
-
-"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
-mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
-know that someone has--or will drop something in the way."
-
-"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
-Ben.
-
-"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"
-
-"We do--and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."
-
-"No identification possible?"
-
-"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
-We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
-badge with a key-impression on its face--the magnetic to locate and
-the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
-psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
-it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt--well,
-knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
-the accident."
-
-"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"
-
-"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
-an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
-occurred--well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
-thing could be fooled.
-
-"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
-mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
-was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
-all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
-another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."
-
-"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
-"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
-of human in its way."
-
-"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
-use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
-for action. That's about all we can do."
-
-"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.
-
-"Huh?"
-
-"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator--you know,
-temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
-shutter release."
-
-"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
-all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
-pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"
-
-"No, of course not."
-
-"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
-out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
-however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
-when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
-can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."
-
-"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
-move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
-fall."
-
-"Does electricity cross the gap?"
-
-"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
-young man."
-
-"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.
-
-"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
-to avert accidents."
-
-"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"
-
-"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
-as possible to save your company money. That is your job."
-
-"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
-somehow."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
-didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
-airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
-said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
-for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
-the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
-specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
-enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
-think you can lick it?"
-
-"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."
-
-"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
-regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
-is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
-Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
-try to avert them after they have happened."
-
-"But this one--"
-
-"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is--or has happened."
-
-"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"
-
-"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
-They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
-of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
-the area where the tools have been."
-
-"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
-tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
-end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
-hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
-curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
-place."
-
-"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
-accident you anticipate need not happen."
-
-"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."
-
-"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.
-
-"It ... ah--"
-
-"Has it really happened?"
-
-"It will with certainty."
-
-"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"
-
-"Ah--"
-
-"See?" laughed Peter.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
-things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
-on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
-eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
-electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
-sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
-of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
-the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
-the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
-feverishly, however.
-
-"Why?" asked Peter.
-
-"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
-remove the car where the accident will happen."
-
-"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.
-
-It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
-from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
-passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
-dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
-end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
-was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
-dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
-the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
-to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
-in fear and partly from the hurried work.
-
-They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
-of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
-the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
-and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
-and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
-set-up.
-
-"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
-the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
-awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."
-
-"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
-"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
-unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty--the wondering
-just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."
-
-"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.
-
-"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
-the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
-statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
-no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
-too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
-outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."
-
-"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.
-
-"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
-usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."
-
-"Why not all go home?"
-
-"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."
-
-"And the accident happened anyway?"
-
-"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
-this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
-makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
-here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
-element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
-someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
-very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
-the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.
-
-"I see it is."
-
-"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
-behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
-than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
-victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."
-
-"Why?"
-
-"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
-the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
-warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
-beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
-much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
-third hand--pardon the numbers, Peter--if the victim were positively
-identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
-mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
-Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"
-
-"It seems like a hard row to hoe."
-
-"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
-they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
-time."
-
-"Twice in time?"
-
-"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
-the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
-it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
-It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."
-
-"That fatalistic attitude again."
-
-"Well--"
-
-Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."
-
-They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
-them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
-on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
-were filled with faces, watching.
-
-The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
-holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
-mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
-mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.
-
-He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
-Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
-isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
-hours."
-
-"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
-weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
-the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
-It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
-and forth with determination and purpose, _with no visible means of
-support_. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
-ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
-visible to the main girder.
-
-On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
-four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
-of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
-an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
-the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
-green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
-stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
-section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
-held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
-The out-go of breath was definitely audible.
-
-The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
-and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
-looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
-both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.
-
-_Why were they there?_ Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
-were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
-watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
-watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
-watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
-them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
-the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
-to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
-nature.
-
-They were there because they were human!
-
-And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
-though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
-safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
-crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
-rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
-across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
-across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
-which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
-medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
-lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
-watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
-rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
-operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
-least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
-matter what they did, they would not be hit.
-
-The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
-sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
-unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
-the timing clock drew close to the minute.
-
-_Who--?_
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Then--came the zero minute.
-
-There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
-beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
-muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
-and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
-match. "Match?" he grumbled.
-
-Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.
-
-"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.
-
-Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.
-
-He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
-not want to miss it.
-
-"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.
-
-The mislink was approaching the circles again.
-
-Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
-men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
-tensed against moving forward.
-
-_How_, asked Peter of his mind, _can they expect anything to happen
-now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward._
-
-There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
-The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
-upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
-off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
-hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
-just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.
-
-The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
-still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
-to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
-forward-flung hands went down toward--
-
-_The red line!_
-
-There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
-his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
-leaving only peaceful blackness.
-
-He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
-brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:
-
-"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.
-
-"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
-mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
-about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
-something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
-is, it is the _past_ that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
-this guy getting it."
-
-"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
-can't stop an accident that's already happened."
-
-Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
-company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
-whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
-certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
-of same.
-
-
-                               THE END.
-
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68197 ***
+
+                              BLIND TIME
+
+                          By George O. Smith
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+              Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
+"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
+new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
+experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
+has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
+who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
+you will pinch-hit for him."
+
+"I understand."
+
+The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.
+
+"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
+o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."
+
+Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
+of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
+designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
+full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
+existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
+accident--
+
+"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.
+
+The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.
+
+"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.
+
+Edwin Porter nodded.
+
+"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
+which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
+although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to--"
+
+"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
+violently anti-semantic."
+
+"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
+it be averted?"
+
+"Because it has happened already."
+
+"But you said eight o'clock."
+
+"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."
+
+"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
+o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
+already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
+on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
+not manufacturing time machines, are they?"
+
+Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
+time machines."
+
+"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
+predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
+the insurance companies out of business--unless they hired him."
+
+"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.
+
+"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
+tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
+prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
+thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
+acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
+unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
+is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
+up his forecasting."
+
+"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
+always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
+argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
+anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."
+
+"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
+very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
+be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
+about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
+the contract may be voided on those grounds."
+
+"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
+accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."
+
+"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
+than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
+become evident until eight?"
+
+"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
+A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
+track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
+two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
+and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
+means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
+interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
+starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
+shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
+trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
+the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"
+
+"No, but I fail to see the connection."
+
+"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
+a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
+accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
+o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
+and make a suitable settlement."
+
+"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.
+
+"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
+principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
+I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
+experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
+pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."
+
+"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
+is ... will it be?"
+
+"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
+the possibility of death, but--"
+
+"I give up," groaned Wright.
+
+"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.
+
+"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."
+
+"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
+in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
+newcomer, just what really goes on."
+
+"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
+predictable accidents."
+
+"We've tried. We've also failed."
+
+"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
+a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery--let alone
+the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
+mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."
+
+"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"
+
+"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"
+
+"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
+the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
+riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
+that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
+other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
+are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."
+
+"Driller beams?"
+
+"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
+Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
+dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
+float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
+are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
+set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
+it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
+beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
+three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."
+
+"I follow."
+
+"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
+whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
+don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."
+
+"I've heard of blind rivets."
+
+"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
+rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."
+
+Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
+a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
+a blindy?"
+
+"Sure, but it will be dangerous."
+
+"I'll have the signs posted."
+
+"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."
+
+"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"
+
+"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."
+
+"O.K."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
+Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
+overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
+of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
+door open."
+
+"I couldn't be going to forget that?"
+
+Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.
+
+"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
+huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."
+
+"Right."
+
+Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
+ready."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Within the hour."
+
+"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."
+
+Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
+tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
+Peter's nose.
+
+There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
+second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
+new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
+beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
+this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
+tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
+opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
+operator.
+
+But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the--
+
+The missing link!
+
+Several inches of the caliper were missing.
+
+Ben nodded.
+
+Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
+space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
+planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
+was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
+six inches of--nothing.
+
+"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
+building. For instance--" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
+the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
+rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and--
+
+Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.
+
+"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
+trigger. Follow?"
+
+"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"
+
+"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
+sitting down.
+
+"I ... ah--" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
+in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
+wind," he gasped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
+of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
+swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
+at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
+a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.
+
+It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.
+
+Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
+and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
+circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
+with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
+Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
+imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
+through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
+for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
+in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
+rapped backwards toward the room--against nothing, and then floated
+rapidly toward the riveter itself.
+
+With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
+slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
+The blindy was complete again.
+
+"See?" said Simpkins.
+
+"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.
+
+Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
+started to replace the shattered panel.
+
+"I see--but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
+chair.
+
+The two men laughed uproariously.
+
+Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
+by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
+or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
+the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
+At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
+room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
+midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
+by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
+to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
+for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
+treated for whatever period of action is required."
+
+"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
+in Ben.
+
+"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
+since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
+occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
+the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."
+
+"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.
+
+"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
+couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
+exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
+through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."
+
+"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
+door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
+resistance in the first place--I found no trouble in hooking it over
+the closet door--because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
+for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
+can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
+the work."
+
+"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
+is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
+wonderingly.
+
+"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
+yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."
+
+"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
+trust the demonstration was successful?"
+
+"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
+that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"
+
+"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."
+
+"Bad, huh?"
+
+"Could be--we'll know in a while."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
+possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
+machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
+they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
+place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
+and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
+the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
+intervene."
+
+"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"
+
+Ben nodded.
+
+"You're absolutely certain?"
+
+"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
+trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
+and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
+something."
+
+"Something? Can this be identified?"
+
+"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
+mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
+know that someone has--or will drop something in the way."
+
+"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
+Ben.
+
+"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"
+
+"We do--and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."
+
+"No identification possible?"
+
+"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
+We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
+badge with a key-impression on its face--the magnetic to locate and
+the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
+psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
+it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt--well,
+knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
+the accident."
+
+"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"
+
+"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
+an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
+occurred--well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
+thing could be fooled.
+
+"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
+mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
+was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
+all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
+another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."
+
+"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
+"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
+of human in its way."
+
+"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
+use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
+for action. That's about all we can do."
+
+"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator--you know,
+temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
+shutter release."
+
+"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
+all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
+pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
+out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
+however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
+when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
+can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."
+
+"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
+move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
+fall."
+
+"Does electricity cross the gap?"
+
+"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
+young man."
+
+"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.
+
+"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
+to avert accidents."
+
+"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"
+
+"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
+as possible to save your company money. That is your job."
+
+"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
+somehow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
+didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
+airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
+said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
+for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
+the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
+specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
+enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
+think you can lick it?"
+
+"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."
+
+"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
+regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
+is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
+Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
+try to avert them after they have happened."
+
+"But this one--"
+
+"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is--or has happened."
+
+"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"
+
+"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
+They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
+of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
+the area where the tools have been."
+
+"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
+tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
+end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
+hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
+curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
+place."
+
+"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
+accident you anticipate need not happen."
+
+"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."
+
+"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.
+
+"It ... ah--"
+
+"Has it really happened?"
+
+"It will with certainty."
+
+"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"
+
+"Ah--"
+
+"See?" laughed Peter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
+things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
+on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
+eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
+electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
+sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
+of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
+the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
+the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
+feverishly, however.
+
+"Why?" asked Peter.
+
+"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
+remove the car where the accident will happen."
+
+"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.
+
+It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
+from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
+passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
+dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
+end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
+was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
+dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
+the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
+to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
+in fear and partly from the hurried work.
+
+They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
+of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
+the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
+and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
+and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
+set-up.
+
+"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
+the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
+awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."
+
+"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
+"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
+unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty--the wondering
+just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."
+
+"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.
+
+"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
+the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
+statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
+no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
+too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
+outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."
+
+"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.
+
+"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
+usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."
+
+"Why not all go home?"
+
+"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."
+
+"And the accident happened anyway?"
+
+"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
+this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
+makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
+here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
+element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
+someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
+very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
+the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.
+
+"I see it is."
+
+"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
+behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
+than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
+victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
+the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
+warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
+beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
+much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
+third hand--pardon the numbers, Peter--if the victim were positively
+identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
+mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
+Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"
+
+"It seems like a hard row to hoe."
+
+"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
+they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
+time."
+
+"Twice in time?"
+
+"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
+the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
+it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
+It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."
+
+"That fatalistic attitude again."
+
+"Well--"
+
+Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."
+
+They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
+them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
+on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
+were filled with faces, watching.
+
+The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
+holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
+mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
+mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.
+
+He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
+Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
+isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
+hours."
+
+"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
+weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
+the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
+It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
+and forth with determination and purpose, _with no visible means of
+support_. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
+ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
+visible to the main girder.
+
+On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
+four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
+of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
+an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
+the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
+green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
+stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
+section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
+held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
+The out-go of breath was definitely audible.
+
+The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
+and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
+looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
+both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.
+
+_Why were they there?_ Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
+were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
+watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
+watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
+watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
+them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
+the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
+to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
+nature.
+
+They were there because they were human!
+
+And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
+though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
+safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
+crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
+rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
+across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
+across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
+which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
+medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
+lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
+watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
+rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
+operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
+least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
+matter what they did, they would not be hit.
+
+The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
+sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
+unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
+the timing clock drew close to the minute.
+
+_Who--?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then--came the zero minute.
+
+There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
+beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
+muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
+and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
+match. "Match?" he grumbled.
+
+Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.
+
+"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.
+
+Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.
+
+He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
+not want to miss it.
+
+"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.
+
+The mislink was approaching the circles again.
+
+Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
+men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
+tensed against moving forward.
+
+_How_, asked Peter of his mind, _can they expect anything to happen
+now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward._
+
+There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
+The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
+upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
+off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
+hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
+just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.
+
+The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
+still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
+to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
+forward-flung hands went down toward--
+
+_The red line!_
+
+There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
+his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
+leaving only peaceful blackness.
+
+He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
+brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:
+
+"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.
+
+"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
+mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
+about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
+something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
+is, it is the _past_ that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
+this guy getting it."
+
+"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
+can't stop an accident that's already happened."
+
+Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
+company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
+whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
+certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
+of same.
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68197 ***
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blind Time, by George O. Smith</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Blind Time</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George O. Smith</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 29, 2022 [eBook #68197]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
-  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND TIME ***</div>
-
-<div class="titlepage">
-
-<h1>BLIND TIME</h1>
-
-<h2>By George O. Smith</h2>
-
-<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br />
-Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.<br />
-Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br />
-the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
-"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
-new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
-experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
-has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
-who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
-you will pinch-hit for him."</p>
-
-<p>"I understand."</p>
-
-<p>The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
-o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."</p>
-
-<p>Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
-of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
-designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
-full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
-existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
-accident&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.</p>
-
-<p>The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.</p>
-
-<p>"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.</p>
-
-<p>Edwin Porter nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
-which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
-although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
-violently anti-semantic."</p>
-
-<p>"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
-it be averted?"</p>
-
-<p>"Because it has happened already."</p>
-
-<p>"But you said eight o'clock."</p>
-
-<p>"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."</p>
-
-<p>"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
-o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
-already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
-on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
-not manufacturing time machines, are they?"</p>
-
-<p>Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
-time machines."</p>
-
-<p>"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
-predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
-the insurance companies out of business&mdash;unless they hired him."</p>
-
-<p>"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.</p>
-
-<p>"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
-tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
-prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
-thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
-acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
-unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
-is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
-up his forecasting."</p>
-
-<p>"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
-always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
-argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
-anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."</p>
-
-<p>"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
-very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
-be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
-about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
-the contract may be voided on those grounds."</p>
-
-<p>"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
-accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."</p>
-
-<p>"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
-than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
-become evident until eight?"</p>
-
-<p>"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
-A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
-track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
-two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
-and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
-means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
-interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
-starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
-shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
-trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
-the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"</p>
-
-<p>"No, but I fail to see the connection."</p>
-
-<p>"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
-a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
-accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
-o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
-and make a suitable settlement."</p>
-
-<p>"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.</p>
-
-<p>"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
-principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
-I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
-experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
-pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."</p>
-
-<p>"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
-is ... will it be?"</p>
-
-<p>"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
-the possibility of death, but&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"I give up," groaned Wright.</p>
-
-<p>"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.</p>
-
-<p>"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."</p>
-
-<p>"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
-in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
-newcomer, just what really goes on."</p>
-
-<p>"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
-predictable accidents."</p>
-
-<p>"We've tried. We've also failed."</p>
-
-<p>"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
-a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery&mdash;let alone
-the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
-mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."</p>
-
-<p>"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"</p>
-
-<p>"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"</p>
-
-<p>"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
-the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
-riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
-that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
-other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
-are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."</p>
-
-<p>"Driller beams?"</p>
-
-<p>"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
-Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
-dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
-float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
-are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
-set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
-it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
-beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
-three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."</p>
-
-<p>"I follow."</p>
-
-<p>"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
-whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
-don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."</p>
-
-<p>"I've heard of blind rivets."</p>
-
-<p>"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
-rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."</p>
-
-<p>Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
-a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
-a blindy?"</p>
-
-<p>"Sure, but it will be dangerous."</p>
-
-<p>"I'll have the signs posted."</p>
-
-<p>"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."</p>
-
-<p>"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"</p>
-
-<p>"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."</p>
-
-<p>"O.K."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
-Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
-overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
-of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
-door open."</p>
-
-<p>"I couldn't be going to forget that?"</p>
-
-<p>Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.</p>
-
-<p>"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
-huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."</p>
-
-<p>"Right."</p>
-
-<p>Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
-ready."</p>
-
-<p>"How soon?"</p>
-
-<p>"Within the hour."</p>
-
-<p>"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."</p>
-
-<p>Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
-tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
-Peter's nose.</p>
-
-<p>There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
-second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
-new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
-beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
-this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
-tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
-opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
-operator.</p>
-
-<p>But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>The missing link!</p>
-
-<p>Several inches of the caliper were missing.</p>
-
-<p>Ben nodded.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-  <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
-space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
-planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
-was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
-six inches of&mdash;nothing.</p>
-
-<p>"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
-building. For instance&mdash;" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
-the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
-rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.</p>
-
-<p>"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
-trigger. Follow?"</p>
-
-<p>"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"</p>
-
-<p>"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
-sitting down.</p>
-
-<p>"I ... ah&mdash;" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
-in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
-wind," he gasped.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
-of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
-swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
-at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
-a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.</p>
-
-<p>It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.</p>
-
-<p>Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
-and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
-circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
-with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
-Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
-imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
-through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
-for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
-in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
-rapped backwards toward the room&mdash;against nothing, and then floated
-rapidly toward the riveter itself.</p>
-
-<p>With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
-slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
-The blindy was complete again.</p>
-
-<p>"See?" said Simpkins.</p>
-
-<p>"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.</p>
-
-<p>Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
-started to replace the shattered panel.</p>
-
-<p>"I see&mdash;but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
-chair.</p>
-
-<p>The two men laughed uproariously.</p>
-
-<p>Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
-by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
-or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
-the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
-At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
-room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
-midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
-by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
-to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
-for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
-treated for whatever period of action is required."</p>
-
-<p>"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
-in Ben.</p>
-
-<p>"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
-since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
-occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
-the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."</p>
-
-<p>"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.</p>
-
-<p>"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
-couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
-exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
-through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."</p>
-
-<p>"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
-door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
-resistance in the first place&mdash;I found no trouble in hooking it over
-the closet door&mdash;because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
-for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
-can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
-the work."</p>
-
-<p>"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
-is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
-wonderingly.</p>
-
-<p>"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
-yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."</p>
-
-<p>"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
-trust the demonstration was successful?"</p>
-
-<p>"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
-that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"</p>
-
-<p>"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."</p>
-
-<p>"Bad, huh?"</p>
-
-<p>"Could be&mdash;we'll know in a while."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
-possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
-machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
-they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
-place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
-and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
-the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
-intervene."</p>
-
-<p>"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"</p>
-
-<p>Ben nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"You're absolutely certain?"</p>
-
-<p>"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
-trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
-and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
-something."</p>
-
-<p>"Something? Can this be identified?"</p>
-
-<p>"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
-mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
-know that someone has&mdash;or will drop something in the way."</p>
-
-<p>"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
-Ben.</p>
-
-<p>"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"</p>
-
-<p>"We do&mdash;and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."</p>
-
-<p>"No identification possible?"</p>
-
-<p>"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
-We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
-badge with a key-impression on its face&mdash;the magnetic to locate and
-the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
-psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
-it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt&mdash;well,
-knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
-the accident."</p>
-
-<p>"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"</p>
-
-<p>"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
-an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
-occurred&mdash;well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
-thing could be fooled.</p>
-
-<p>"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
-mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
-was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
-all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
-another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."</p>
-
-<p>"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
-"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
-of human in its way."</p>
-
-<p>"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
-use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
-for action. That's about all we can do."</p>
-
-<p>"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.</p>
-
-<p>"Huh?"</p>
-
-<p>"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator&mdash;you know,
-temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
-shutter release."</p>
-
-<p>"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
-all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
-pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"</p>
-
-<p>"No, of course not."</p>
-
-<p>"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
-out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
-however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
-when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
-can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."</p>
-
-<p>"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
-move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
-fall."</p>
-
-<p>"Does electricity cross the gap?"</p>
-
-<p>"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
-young man."</p>
-
-<p>"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.</p>
-
-<p>"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
-to avert accidents."</p>
-
-<p>"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"</p>
-
-<p>"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
-as possible to save your company money. That is your job."</p>
-
-<p>"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
-somehow."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
-didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
-airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
-said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
-for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
-the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
-specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
-enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
-think you can lick it?"</p>
-
-<p>"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."</p>
-
-<p>"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
-regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
-is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
-Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
-try to avert them after they have happened."</p>
-
-<p>"But this one&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is&mdash;or has happened."</p>
-
-<p>"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"</p>
-
-<p>"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
-They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
-of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
-the area where the tools have been."</p>
-
-<p>"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
-tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
-end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
-hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
-curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
-place."</p>
-
-<p>"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
-accident you anticipate need not happen."</p>
-
-<p>"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."</p>
-
-<p>"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.</p>
-
-<p>"It ... ah&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"Has it really happened?"</p>
-
-<p>"It will with certainty."</p>
-
-<p>"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"</p>
-
-<p>"Ah&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"See?" laughed Peter.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
-things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
-on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
-eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
-electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
-sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
-of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
-the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
-the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
-feverishly, however.</p>
-
-<p>"Why?" asked Peter.</p>
-
-<p>"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
-remove the car where the accident will happen."</p>
-
-<p>"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.</p>
-
-<p>It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
-from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
-passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
-dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
-end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
-was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
-dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
-the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
-to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
-in fear and partly from the hurried work.</p>
-
-<p>They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
-of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
-the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
-and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
-and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
-set-up.</p>
-
-<p>"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
-the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
-awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."</p>
-
-<p>"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
-"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
-unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty&mdash;the wondering
-just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."</p>
-
-<p>"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.</p>
-
-<p>"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
-the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
-statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
-no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
-too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
-outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."</p>
-
-<p>"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.</p>
-
-<p>"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
-usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."</p>
-
-<p>"Why not all go home?"</p>
-
-<p>"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."</p>
-
-<p>"And the accident happened anyway?"</p>
-
-<p>"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
-this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
-makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
-here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
-element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
-someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
-very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
-the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.</p>
-
-<p>"I see it is."</p>
-
-<p>"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
-behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
-than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
-victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."</p>
-
-<p>"Why?"</p>
-
-<p>"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
-the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
-warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
-beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
-much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
-third hand&mdash;pardon the numbers, Peter&mdash;if the victim were positively
-identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
-mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
-Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"</p>
-
-<p>"It seems like a hard row to hoe."</p>
-
-<p>"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
-they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
-time."</p>
-
-<p>"Twice in time?"</p>
-
-<p>"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
-the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
-it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
-It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."</p>
-
-<p>"That fatalistic attitude again."</p>
-
-<p>"Well&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."</p>
-
-<p>They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
-them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
-on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
-were filled with faces, watching.</p>
-
-<p>The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
-holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
-mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
-mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.</p>
-
-<p>He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
-Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
-isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
-hours."</p>
-
-<p>"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
-weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
-the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
-It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
-and forth with determination and purpose, <i>with no visible means of
-support</i>. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
-ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
-visible to the main girder.</p>
-
-<p>On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
-four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
-of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
-an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
-the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
-green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
-stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
-section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
-held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
-The out-go of breath was definitely audible.</p>
-
-<p>The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
-and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
-looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
-both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.</p>
-
-<p><i>Why were they there?</i> Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
-were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
-watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
-watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
-watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
-them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
-the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
-to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
-nature.</p>
-
-<p>They were there because they were human!</p>
-
-<p>And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
-though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
-safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
-crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
-rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
-across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
-across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
-which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
-medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
-lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
-watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
-rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
-operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
-least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
-matter what they did, they would not be hit.</p>
-
-<p>The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
-sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
-unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
-the timing clock drew close to the minute.</p>
-
-<p><i>Who&mdash;?</i></p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>Then&mdash;came the zero minute.</p>
-
-<p>There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
-beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
-muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
-and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
-match. "Match?" he grumbled.</p>
-
-<p>Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.</p>
-
-<p>"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.</p>
-
-<p>Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.</p>
-
-<p>He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
-not want to miss it.</p>
-
-<p>"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.</p>
-
-<p>The mislink was approaching the circles again.</p>
-
-<p>Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
-men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
-tensed against moving forward.</p>
-
-<p><i>How</i>, asked Peter of his mind, <i>can they expect anything to happen
-now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward.</i></p>
-
-<p>There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
-The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
-upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
-off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
-hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
-just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.</p>
-
-<p>The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
-still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
-to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
-forward-flung hands went down toward&mdash;</p>
-
-<p><i>The red line!</i></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-  <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p>There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
-his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
-leaving only peaceful blackness.</p>
-
-<p>He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
-brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:</p>
-
-<p>"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.</p>
-
-<p>"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
-mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
-about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
-something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
-is, it is the <i>past</i> that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
-this guy getting it."</p>
-
-<p>"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
-can't stop an accident that's already happened."</p>
-
-<p>Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
-company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
-whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
-certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
-of same.</p>
-
-
-<p class="ph1">THE END.</p>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND TIME ***</div>
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blind Time, by George O. Smith.
+    </title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68197 ***</div>
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+
+<h1>BLIND TIME</h1>
+
+<h2>By George O. Smith</h2>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br />
+Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.<br />
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br />
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
+"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
+new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
+experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
+has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
+who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
+you will pinch-hit for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand."</p>
+
+<p>The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
+o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
+of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
+designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
+full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
+existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
+accident&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.</p>
+
+<p>The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>Edwin Porter nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
+which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
+although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
+violently anti-semantic."</p>
+
+<p>"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
+it be averted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it has happened already."</p>
+
+<p>"But you said eight o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."</p>
+
+<p>"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
+o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
+already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
+on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
+not manufacturing time machines, are they?"</p>
+
+<p>Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
+time machines."</p>
+
+<p>"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
+predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
+the insurance companies out of business&mdash;unless they hired him."</p>
+
+<p>"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.</p>
+
+<p>"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
+tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
+prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
+thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
+acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
+unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
+is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
+up his forecasting."</p>
+
+<p>"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
+always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
+argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
+anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
+very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
+be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
+about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
+the contract may be voided on those grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
+accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."</p>
+
+<p>"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
+than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
+become evident until eight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
+A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
+track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
+two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
+and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
+means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
+interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
+starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
+shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
+trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
+the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I fail to see the connection."</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
+a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
+accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
+o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
+and make a suitable settlement."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
+principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
+I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
+experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
+pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
+is ... will it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
+the possibility of death, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I give up," groaned Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.</p>
+
+<p>"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
+in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
+newcomer, just what really goes on."</p>
+
+<p>"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
+predictable accidents."</p>
+
+<p>"We've tried. We've also failed."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
+a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery&mdash;let alone
+the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
+mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
+the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
+riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
+that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
+other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
+are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."</p>
+
+<p>"Driller beams?"</p>
+
+<p>"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
+Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
+dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
+float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
+are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
+set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
+it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
+beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
+three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."</p>
+
+<p>"I follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
+whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
+don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of blind rivets."</p>
+
+<p>"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
+rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
+a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
+a blindy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, but it will be dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have the signs posted."</p>
+
+<p>"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."</p>
+
+<p>"O.K."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
+Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
+overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
+of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
+door open."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't be going to forget that?"</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
+huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."</p>
+
+<p>"Right."</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"How soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Within the hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
+tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
+Peter's nose.</p>
+
+<p>There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
+second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
+new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
+beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
+this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
+tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
+opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
+operator.</p>
+
+<p>But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The missing link!</p>
+
+<p>Several inches of the caliper were missing.</p>
+
+<p>Ben nodded.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
+space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
+planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
+was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
+six inches of&mdash;nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
+building. For instance&mdash;" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
+the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
+rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.</p>
+
+<p>"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
+trigger. Follow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"</p>
+
+<p>"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
+sitting down.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... ah&mdash;" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
+in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
+wind," he gasped.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
+of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
+swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
+at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
+a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.</p>
+
+<p>It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.</p>
+
+<p>Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
+and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
+circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
+with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
+Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
+imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
+through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
+for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
+in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
+rapped backwards toward the room&mdash;against nothing, and then floated
+rapidly toward the riveter itself.</p>
+
+<p>With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
+slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
+The blindy was complete again.</p>
+
+<p>"See?" said Simpkins.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.</p>
+
+<p>Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
+started to replace the shattered panel.</p>
+
+<p>"I see&mdash;but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>The two men laughed uproariously.</p>
+
+<p>Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
+by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
+or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
+the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
+At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
+room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
+midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
+by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
+to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
+for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
+treated for whatever period of action is required."</p>
+
+<p>"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
+in Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
+since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
+occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
+the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."</p>
+
+<p>"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
+couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
+exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
+through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
+door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
+resistance in the first place&mdash;I found no trouble in hooking it over
+the closet door&mdash;because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
+for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
+can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
+the work."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
+is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
+wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
+yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."</p>
+
+<p>"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
+trust the demonstration was successful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
+that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could be&mdash;we'll know in a while."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
+possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
+machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
+they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
+place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
+and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
+the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
+intervene."</p>
+
+<p>"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You're absolutely certain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
+trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
+and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
+something."</p>
+
+<p>"Something? Can this be identified?"</p>
+
+<p>"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
+mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
+know that someone has&mdash;or will drop something in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
+Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do&mdash;and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."</p>
+
+<p>"No identification possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
+We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
+badge with a key-impression on its face&mdash;the magnetic to locate and
+the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
+psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
+it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt&mdash;well,
+knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
+the accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"</p>
+
+<p>"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
+an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
+occurred&mdash;well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
+thing could be fooled.</p>
+
+<p>"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
+mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
+was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
+all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
+another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
+"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
+of human in its way."</p>
+
+<p>"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
+use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
+for action. That's about all we can do."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator&mdash;you know,
+temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
+shutter release."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
+all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
+pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
+out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
+however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
+when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
+can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."</p>
+
+<p>"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
+move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
+fall."</p>
+
+<p>"Does electricity cross the gap?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
+young man."</p>
+
+<p>"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
+to avert accidents."</p>
+
+<p>"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
+as possible to save your company money. That is your job."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
+somehow."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
+didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
+airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
+said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
+for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
+the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
+specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
+enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
+think you can lick it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
+regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
+is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
+Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
+try to avert them after they have happened."</p>
+
+<p>"But this one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is&mdash;or has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
+They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
+of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
+the area where the tools have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
+tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
+end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
+hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
+curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
+accident you anticipate need not happen."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"It ... ah&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Has it really happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will with certainty."</p>
+
+<p>"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"See?" laughed Peter.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
+things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
+on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
+eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
+electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
+sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
+of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
+the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
+the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
+feverishly, however.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
+remove the car where the accident will happen."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
+from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
+passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
+dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
+end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
+was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
+dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
+the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
+to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
+in fear and partly from the hurried work.</p>
+
+<p>They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
+of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
+the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
+and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
+and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
+set-up.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
+the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
+awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."</p>
+
+<p>"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
+"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
+unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty&mdash;the wondering
+just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
+the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
+statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
+no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
+too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
+outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."</p>
+
+<p>"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
+usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not all go home?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."</p>
+
+<p>"And the accident happened anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
+this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
+makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
+here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
+element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
+someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
+very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
+the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.</p>
+
+<p>"I see it is."</p>
+
+<p>"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
+behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
+than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
+victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
+the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
+warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
+beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
+much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
+third hand&mdash;pardon the numbers, Peter&mdash;if the victim were positively
+identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
+mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
+Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems like a hard row to hoe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
+they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Twice in time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
+the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
+it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
+It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."</p>
+
+<p>"That fatalistic attitude again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."</p>
+
+<p>They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
+them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
+on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
+were filled with faces, watching.</p>
+
+<p>The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
+holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
+mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
+mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.</p>
+
+<p>He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
+Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
+isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
+weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
+the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
+It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
+and forth with determination and purpose, <i>with no visible means of
+support</i>. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
+ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
+visible to the main girder.</p>
+
+<p>On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
+four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
+of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
+an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
+the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
+green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
+stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
+section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
+held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
+The out-go of breath was definitely audible.</p>
+
+<p>The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
+and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
+looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
+both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.</p>
+
+<p><i>Why were they there?</i> Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
+were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
+watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
+watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
+watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
+them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
+the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
+to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>They were there because they were human!</p>
+
+<p>And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
+though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
+safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
+crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
+rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
+across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
+across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
+which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
+medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
+lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
+watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
+rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
+operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
+least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
+matter what they did, they would not be hit.</p>
+
+<p>The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
+sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
+unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
+the timing clock drew close to the minute.</p>
+
+<p><i>Who&mdash;?</i></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Then&mdash;came the zero minute.</p>
+
+<p>There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
+beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
+muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
+and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
+match. "Match?" he grumbled.</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.</p>
+
+<p>Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.</p>
+
+<p>He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
+not want to miss it.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.</p>
+
+<p>The mislink was approaching the circles again.</p>
+
+<p>Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
+men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
+tensed against moving forward.</p>
+
+<p><i>How</i>, asked Peter of his mind, <i>can they expect anything to happen
+now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward.</i></p>
+
+<p>There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
+The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
+upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
+off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
+hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
+just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
+still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
+to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
+forward-flung hands went down toward&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>The red line!</i></p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
+his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
+leaving only peaceful blackness.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
+brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:</p>
+
+<p>"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
+mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
+about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
+something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
+is, it is the <i>past</i> that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
+this guy getting it."</p>
+
+<p>"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
+can't stop an accident that's already happened."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
+company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
+whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
+certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
+of same.</p>
+
+
+<p class="ph1">THE END.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 68197 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blind Time, by George O. Smith
+
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+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Blind Time
+
+Author: George O. Smith
+
+Release Date: May 29, 2022 [eBook #68197]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+             Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND TIME ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                              BLIND TIME
+
+                          By George O. Smith
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+              Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
+"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
+new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
+experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
+has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
+who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
+you will pinch-hit for him."
+
+"I understand."
+
+The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.
+
+"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
+o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."
+
+Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
+of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
+designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
+full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
+existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
+accident--
+
+"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.
+
+The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.
+
+"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.
+
+Edwin Porter nodded.
+
+"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
+which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
+although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to--"
+
+"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
+violently anti-semantic."
+
+"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
+it be averted?"
+
+"Because it has happened already."
+
+"But you said eight o'clock."
+
+"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."
+
+"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
+o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
+already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
+on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
+not manufacturing time machines, are they?"
+
+Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
+time machines."
+
+"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
+predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
+the insurance companies out of business--unless they hired him."
+
+"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.
+
+"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
+tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
+prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
+thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
+acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
+unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
+is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
+up his forecasting."
+
+"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
+always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
+argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
+anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."
+
+"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
+very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
+be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
+about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
+the contract may be voided on those grounds."
+
+"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
+accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."
+
+"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
+than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
+become evident until eight?"
+
+"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
+A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
+track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
+two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
+and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
+means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
+interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
+starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
+shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
+trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
+the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"
+
+"No, but I fail to see the connection."
+
+"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
+a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
+accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
+o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
+and make a suitable settlement."
+
+"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.
+
+"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
+principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
+I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
+experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
+pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."
+
+"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
+is ... will it be?"
+
+"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
+the possibility of death, but--"
+
+"I give up," groaned Wright.
+
+"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.
+
+"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."
+
+"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
+in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
+newcomer, just what really goes on."
+
+"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
+predictable accidents."
+
+"We've tried. We've also failed."
+
+"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
+a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery--let alone
+the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
+mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."
+
+"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"
+
+"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"
+
+"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
+the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
+riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
+that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
+other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
+are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."
+
+"Driller beams?"
+
+"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
+Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
+dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
+float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
+are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
+set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
+it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
+beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
+three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."
+
+"I follow."
+
+"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
+whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
+don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."
+
+"I've heard of blind rivets."
+
+"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
+rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."
+
+Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
+a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
+a blindy?"
+
+"Sure, but it will be dangerous."
+
+"I'll have the signs posted."
+
+"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."
+
+"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"
+
+"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."
+
+"O.K."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
+Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
+overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
+of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
+door open."
+
+"I couldn't be going to forget that?"
+
+Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.
+
+"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
+huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."
+
+"Right."
+
+Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
+ready."
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Within the hour."
+
+"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."
+
+Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
+tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
+Peter's nose.
+
+There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
+second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
+new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
+beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
+this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
+tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
+opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
+operator.
+
+But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the--
+
+The missing link!
+
+Several inches of the caliper were missing.
+
+Ben nodded.
+
+Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
+space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
+planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
+was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
+six inches of--nothing.
+
+"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
+building. For instance--" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
+the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
+rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and--
+
+Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.
+
+"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
+trigger. Follow?"
+
+"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"
+
+"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
+sitting down.
+
+"I ... ah--" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
+in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
+wind," he gasped.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
+of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
+swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
+at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
+a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.
+
+It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.
+
+Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
+and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
+circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
+with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
+Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
+imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
+through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
+for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
+in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
+rapped backwards toward the room--against nothing, and then floated
+rapidly toward the riveter itself.
+
+With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
+slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
+The blindy was complete again.
+
+"See?" said Simpkins.
+
+"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.
+
+Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
+started to replace the shattered panel.
+
+"I see--but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
+chair.
+
+The two men laughed uproariously.
+
+Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
+by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
+or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
+the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
+At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
+room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
+midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
+by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
+to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
+for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
+treated for whatever period of action is required."
+
+"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
+in Ben.
+
+"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
+since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
+occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
+the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."
+
+"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.
+
+"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
+couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
+exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
+through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."
+
+"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
+door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
+resistance in the first place--I found no trouble in hooking it over
+the closet door--because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
+for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
+can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
+the work."
+
+"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
+is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
+wonderingly.
+
+"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
+yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."
+
+"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
+trust the demonstration was successful?"
+
+"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
+that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"
+
+"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."
+
+"Bad, huh?"
+
+"Could be--we'll know in a while."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
+possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
+machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
+they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
+place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
+and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
+the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
+intervene."
+
+"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"
+
+Ben nodded.
+
+"You're absolutely certain?"
+
+"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
+trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
+and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
+something."
+
+"Something? Can this be identified?"
+
+"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
+mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
+know that someone has--or will drop something in the way."
+
+"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
+Ben.
+
+"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"
+
+"We do--and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."
+
+"No identification possible?"
+
+"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
+We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
+badge with a key-impression on its face--the magnetic to locate and
+the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
+psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
+it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt--well,
+knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
+the accident."
+
+"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"
+
+"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
+an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
+occurred--well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
+thing could be fooled.
+
+"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
+mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
+was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
+all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
+another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."
+
+"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
+"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
+of human in its way."
+
+"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
+use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
+for action. That's about all we can do."
+
+"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator--you know,
+temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
+shutter release."
+
+"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
+all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
+pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"
+
+"No, of course not."
+
+"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
+out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
+however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
+when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
+can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."
+
+"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
+move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
+fall."
+
+"Does electricity cross the gap?"
+
+"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
+young man."
+
+"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.
+
+"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
+to avert accidents."
+
+"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"
+
+"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
+as possible to save your company money. That is your job."
+
+"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
+somehow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
+didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
+airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
+said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
+for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
+the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
+specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
+enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
+think you can lick it?"
+
+"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."
+
+"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
+regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
+is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
+Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
+try to avert them after they have happened."
+
+"But this one--"
+
+"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is--or has happened."
+
+"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"
+
+"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
+They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
+of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
+the area where the tools have been."
+
+"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
+tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
+end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
+hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
+curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
+place."
+
+"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
+accident you anticipate need not happen."
+
+"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."
+
+"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.
+
+"It ... ah--"
+
+"Has it really happened?"
+
+"It will with certainty."
+
+"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"
+
+"Ah--"
+
+"See?" laughed Peter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
+things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
+on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
+eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
+electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
+sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
+of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
+the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
+the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
+feverishly, however.
+
+"Why?" asked Peter.
+
+"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
+remove the car where the accident will happen."
+
+"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.
+
+It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
+from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
+passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
+dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
+end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
+was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
+dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
+the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
+to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
+in fear and partly from the hurried work.
+
+They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
+of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
+the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
+and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
+and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
+set-up.
+
+"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
+the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
+awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."
+
+"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
+"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
+unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty--the wondering
+just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."
+
+"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.
+
+"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
+the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
+statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
+no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
+too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
+outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."
+
+"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.
+
+"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
+usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."
+
+"Why not all go home?"
+
+"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."
+
+"And the accident happened anyway?"
+
+"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
+this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
+makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
+here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
+element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
+someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
+very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
+the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.
+
+"I see it is."
+
+"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
+behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
+than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
+victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
+the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
+warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
+beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
+much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
+third hand--pardon the numbers, Peter--if the victim were positively
+identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
+mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
+Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"
+
+"It seems like a hard row to hoe."
+
+"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
+they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
+time."
+
+"Twice in time?"
+
+"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
+the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
+it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
+It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."
+
+"That fatalistic attitude again."
+
+"Well--"
+
+Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."
+
+They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
+them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
+on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
+were filled with faces, watching.
+
+The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
+holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
+mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
+mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.
+
+He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
+Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
+isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
+hours."
+
+"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
+weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
+the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
+It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
+and forth with determination and purpose, _with no visible means of
+support_. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
+ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
+visible to the main girder.
+
+On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
+four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
+of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
+an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
+the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
+green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
+stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
+section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
+held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
+The out-go of breath was definitely audible.
+
+The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
+and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
+looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
+both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.
+
+_Why were they there?_ Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
+were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
+watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
+watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
+watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
+them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
+the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
+to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
+nature.
+
+They were there because they were human!
+
+And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
+though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
+safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
+crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
+rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
+across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
+across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
+which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
+medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
+lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
+watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
+rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
+operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
+least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
+matter what they did, they would not be hit.
+
+The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
+sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
+unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
+the timing clock drew close to the minute.
+
+_Who--?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then--came the zero minute.
+
+There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
+beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
+muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
+and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
+match. "Match?" he grumbled.
+
+Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.
+
+"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.
+
+Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.
+
+He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
+not want to miss it.
+
+"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.
+
+The mislink was approaching the circles again.
+
+Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
+men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
+tensed against moving forward.
+
+_How_, asked Peter of his mind, _can they expect anything to happen
+now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward._
+
+There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
+The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
+upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
+off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
+hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
+just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.
+
+The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
+still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
+to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
+forward-flung hands went down toward--
+
+_The red line!_
+
+There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
+his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
+leaving only peaceful blackness.
+
+He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
+brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:
+
+"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.
+
+"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
+mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
+about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
+something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
+is, it is the _past_ that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
+this guy getting it."
+
+"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
+can't stop an accident that's already happened."
+
+Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
+company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
+whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
+certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
+of same.
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
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+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Blind Time</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: George O. Smith</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 29, 2022 [eBook #68197]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND TIME ***</div>
+
+<div class="titlepage">
+
+<h1>BLIND TIME</h1>
+
+<h2>By George O. Smith</h2>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br />
+Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1946.<br />
+Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br />
+the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>The man behind the large, polished desk nodded as Peter Wright entered.
+"Wright," he said, "the Oak Tool Works will require an adjuster. You're
+new in this office, but I've been given to understand that you have
+experience, are willing, intelligent, and observing. The Oak Tool Works
+has a special contract, and it is always taken care of by Mr. Delinge
+who happens to be having a vacation in an unaccessible spot. Therefore,
+you will pinch-hit for him."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand."</p>
+
+<p>The president of Interplanetary Industrial Insurance nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Good," he said. "You are to be at their Charles Street plant at eight
+o'clock tonight. They are to have an accident then."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright nodded. He turned to go, his head mulling over the myriad
+of questions used by the average insurance adjuster. The questions
+designed to uncover any possible fraud. Those designed to place the
+full blame of the mishap, to ascertain whether it were covered by the
+existing contract, to determine the exact and precise time of the
+accident&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he yelled, turning back to the executive.</p>
+
+<p>The president of I.I.I. nodded wearily.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you right?" asked Peter incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>Edwin Porter nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"But look, sir. An accident, by definition, is an unforeseen incident,
+which by common usage has come to be accepted as misfortunate,
+although the term 'accident' may correctly be applied to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wright, after you have been to the Oak Tool Works, you will become
+violently anti-semantic."</p>
+
+<p>"But look, sir. If this accident is forecast with certainty, why can't
+it be averted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because it has happened already."</p>
+
+<p>"But you said eight o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"I did," said Porter. "And I mean it."</p>
+
+<p>"But ... but it is now about three-thirty in the afternoon. At eight
+o'clock this evening there is to be an accident that has happened
+already. The Oak Tool Works is in this same time-zone; they're running
+on Central Standard Time, too. So far as I know, the Oak Tool Works is
+not manufacturing time machines, are they?"</p>
+
+<p>Porter grinned despite his weariness. "No, Oak, is not manufacturing
+time machines."</p>
+
+<p>"I am still in gross ignorance. If anybody is capable of truly
+predicting the future on the basis of ten percent accuracy, he'd put
+the insurance companies out of business&mdash;unless they hired him."</p>
+
+<p>"The future, in some senses, can be predicted," said Porter.</p>
+
+<p>"Only on a statistical basis," answered Wright. "The prediction that
+tomorrow will arrive at precisely such and such an instant is a
+prediction based upon the statistical experience gained by several
+thousand years. So is the prediction of what will happen when sulphuric
+acid and potassium nitrate are mixed. But an accident, sir, is
+unpredictable by definition. Therefore he who can predict an accident
+is a true prognosticator who needs no statistical experience to bolster
+up his forecasting."</p>
+
+<p>"Wright, this argument gets nowhere. It, incidentally, is why Delinge
+always handled the Oak contract. He knew, and there was never an
+argument. No, I'll tell you no more, Wright. You'll be incredulous
+anyway until you've seen it in person. Eventually, you'll understand."</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt it," replied Peter. "Seems to me that there are a couple of
+very obvious factors. One, if an accident can be predicted, it can also
+be avoided. Two, if such an accident is foreseen and nothing is done
+about trying to avert it, then it is a matter of gross negligence and
+the contract may be voided on those grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"With but one exception to your statements, I agree," said Porter. "The
+accident that will take place at eight o'clock has already happened."</p>
+
+<p>"What you really mean is," said Peter Wright, more by way of question
+than by statement, "is that the accident has occurred but will not
+become evident until eight?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd hate to try to explain it in a few words. Let us try by analogy.
+A man atop of the mountain sees an avalanche start toward a railroad
+track. The avalanche takes out the track, preventing a meeting between
+two emissaries on a vital question. The vital question is not settled,
+and two countries go to war. In the war, one country discovers a
+means of nullifying gravity, which after the war is used to start
+interplanetary travel. Several years after interplanetary travel
+starts, the rare metals are discovered in plenty and the cost of
+shipping is such that the monetary system fails and the system enters a
+trying period of depression. Now, could you, a man suffering because of
+the depression, go back and turn aside the avalanche?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I fail to see the connection."</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't any, really. In that case the depression was due to
+a concatenation of events. In the case at the Oak Tool Works, the
+accident per se has already happened, but it will happen at eight
+o'clock. You, Peter Wright, will witness the accident that will happen
+and make a suitable settlement."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's hire the prognosticator," suggested Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"The laboratory is working full time on a means of utilizing the
+principle in our business. To date they are not successful. For me,
+I hope they are never successful. I'll stick to the statistical
+experience, since true prognostication depends upon some sort of
+pre-destination, which if true makes a mockery of all effort."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," grumbled Peter Wright. "I'm going. What sort of accident
+is ... will it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go prepared for anything from simple abrasion to loss of limb. I doubt
+the possibility of death, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I give up," groaned Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Delinge?" asked the man at the Oak Tool Works.</p>
+
+<p>"Vacationing on Mars, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"No offense, young man. I'd prefer him only because he has experience
+in this. I'll have to spend some time in explaining to you, as a
+newcomer, just what really goes on."</p>
+
+<p>"What I'd like to know," said Wright, "is some means of averting these
+predictable accidents."</p>
+
+<p>"We've tried. We've also failed."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Mr. Simpkins, I'm of the legal profession. I am not too much of
+a scientist, and I know about nothing regarding machinery&mdash;let alone
+the kind of plant that makes tools that make tools. I took a course in
+mech, of course, and forgot it as soon as I made my grade."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what a blind rivet is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah ... er ... one that can't be seen from both sides?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right. A sealed tank, for instance, usually has a manhole in it for
+the bucker. The bucker holds a bucking tool against the rivet while the
+riveter rams it over. Similarly, bolting structures together requires
+that a counterthrust or torque be applied to the nut or bolt on the
+other side. Unless the structure is equipped with tapped holes, which
+are expensive and cannot be made with driller beams."</p>
+
+<p>"Driller beams?"</p>
+
+<p>"An outgrowth of the war laboratory. What used to be called a Buck
+Rogers. Doesn't really disintegrate the metal, of course, but
+dissipates the binding energy between molecules and lets the metal
+float away in a molecular gas, driven by its own heat energy. The beams
+are sharply defined as to diameter and depth of penetration; you can
+set 'em to a thousandth, though it takes cut and try methods to do
+it. We don't really drill or cut metal any more. We beam-drill it and
+beam-cut it. It's possible to set a screw-cutting beam, but tapping a
+three-quarter inch hole is not for any construction company."</p>
+
+<p>"I follow."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in setting blind screws and blind rivets, we have a method
+whereby the bucker need not crawl around on the inside. Actually, we
+don't use a bucker any more. The riveter does it all from one side."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard of blind rivets."</p>
+
+<p>"This is not a self-setting rivet," said Simpkins. "This is a real
+rivet-set system. Wait, I'll show you one."</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins snapped on the inter-communicator. "Ben? Look, Ben, we've got
+a new man from I.I.I. here who doesn't know the ropes. Can you bring up
+a blindy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, but it will be dangerous."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have the signs posted."</p>
+
+<p>"O.K.," answered Ben. "I'll be up in a minute."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, have you got one that is about to reform?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would get that kind anyway. No sense in tying up the corridor."</p>
+
+<p>"O.K."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It was about a minute later, no more, when a knock came at the door.
+Simpkins called for the knocker to enter. The door opened and a man in
+overalls stuck his head in. There was a grin on his face and a smudge
+of grease on his nose. "Can't, Joe," he said. "You didn't leave the
+door open."</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't be going to forget that?"</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright swallowed. "Going to forget?" he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben," said Simpkins in a very tired tone, "through the door glass,
+huh? Let's show this man what we're up against."</p>
+
+<p>"Right."</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins snapped the communicator. "Tony? Get a new glass for my office
+ready."</p>
+
+<p>"How soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Within the hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. I'll have it cut and waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Peter shook his head, and then watched Ben enter with the riveting
+tool. He looked at it, and Ben, with a grin, held it up in front of
+Peter's nose.</p>
+
+<p>There was a regular air ram with handle. That was standard. But the
+second air ram hitched in opposition alongside of the standard job was
+new. It projected out, its business end projecting in a caliper arc
+beyond the standard ram, and returning to buck the standard ram. With
+this tool, one man could both ram the rivet and buck it with the same
+tool, and, since both hammer and anvil were driven, the effort was in
+opposition mechanically, and no great effort would be required of the
+operator.</p>
+
+<p>But the thing that stopped Peter Wright cold was the ... the&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The missing link!</p>
+
+<p>Several inches of the caliper were missing.</p>
+
+<p>Ben nodded.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>Peter reached forward gingerly and passed his fingers through the
+space. He felt of the ends. They were microscopically smooth, true
+planes of cleavage. The far end, that acted as anvil for the main ram
+was solid and immobile despite being separated from the framework by
+six inches of&mdash;nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Ben, "we need only a small port in the item we're
+building. For instance&mdash;" and Ben opened the closet door a crack, slid
+the far end inside, and then closed the door. He shoved forward and
+rapped the door panel with the main ram. Then pulled back and&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Rapped the inside of the door panel with the hidden end.</p>
+
+<p>"If we were riveting, now, we could slip in our rivet and pull the
+trigger. Follow?"</p>
+
+<p>"I follow, but where's the missing piece? What holds it that way?"</p>
+
+<p>"The missing piece is coming," said Ben, retrieving his instrument and
+sitting down.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... ah&mdash;" started Joe Simpkins, and then taking Peter Wright's arm
+in a viselike grip, pointed dramatically to his office door. "The
+wind," he gasped.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Wright shook his head. It was far too much for him. He was strictly out
+of his element, and struggling madly to keep up. The door, he saw, was
+swinging shut, propelled by the wind. He recalled what they had said
+at the portal upon entry, something about the door should be open. With
+a shout and a leap, Peter raced for the door.</p>
+
+<p>It slammed, and Peter grabbed for the knob.</p>
+
+<p>Then the glass erupted in his face; in shards it fell to the floor,
+and a metal piece came soaring through the air, through the glass, and
+circled the room. Peter's jaw was slack as he watched it flying about
+with no apparent plan. It poised for a minute before his chair, where
+Ben had held up the blindy riveter for his inspection. In Peter's
+imagination, he saw himself sitting there, passing his ghostly fingers
+through the spot where that piece of steel now hung immobile. It headed
+for the closet, and Ben, watching, opened the door wide. The piece slid
+in, moved this way and that, rapped forward against nothing and then
+rapped backwards toward the room&mdash;against nothing, and then floated
+rapidly toward the riveter itself.</p>
+
+<p>With precision it approached the riveter. It came to rest easily,
+slipping into place with no shock, and the cleavage lines disappeared.
+The blindy was complete again.</p>
+
+<p>"See?" said Simpkins.</p>
+
+<p>"Yeah," gulped Peter, weakly.</p>
+
+<p>Laconically, a workman entered, cleaned up the glass on the floor, and
+started to replace the shattered panel.</p>
+
+<p>"I see&mdash;but I don't really believe it," said Peter, flopping into his
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>The two men laughed uproariously.</p>
+
+<p>Ben sat down and Simpkins started. "You see, the time field," he said
+by way of explanation. "I haven't the vaguest notion of how it works
+or why. I admit it. But what does happen is that during the workday,
+the missing sections of all blindy tools are stored in the tool room.
+At the end of the day, their respective tools are returned to the tool
+room where they restore completely. About seven to eight o'clock, the
+midsections emerge from the tool room and go through the motions made
+by the entire tool, eventually following their ah ... owners ... back
+to the tool room where they join. At this point, those tools required
+for use on the following day are placed in the temporal treater, and
+treated for whatever period of action is required."</p>
+
+<p>"If it takes four hours for work, they're treated for four hours," put
+in Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"And once the day's work is finished, the work itself must be moved,
+since where the tool fits across a barrier, now the missing piece
+occupies that same space. If it does not find room, the man handling
+the tool several hours before will not be able to set his tool."</p>
+
+<p>"Which was why I couldn't enter with the riveter," added Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"It acts quite normally," said Simpkins, though with some doubt. "You
+couldn't bring the thing through a barrier if no time-difference
+exists. Actually, there is a temporal offset in the thing. It may pass
+through the same space as another time, but not at the same time."</p>
+
+<p>"And you can't lick it," said Ben solemnly. "I purposely left the
+door open. But if I had really left the door open, I'd have had no
+resistance in the first place&mdash;I found no trouble in hooking it over
+the closet door&mdash;because when the mislink appeared, I opened the door
+for it. It does help, sometimes," grinned the shop foreman, "because we
+can tell when a piece of work is not going to be moved. Then it impedes
+the work."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know whether the impedance caused by not moving the work
+is responsible for the work not having been moved?" asked Simpkins,
+wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind being on either horn of a dilemma," said Ben. "But I've
+yet to see the dilemma that I'd ride both horns simultaneously on."</p>
+
+<p>"Um, a bad animal, the dilemma," laughed Simpkins. "Well, Wright, I
+trust the demonstration was successful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Successfully confusing," admitted the insurance adjuster. "I gather
+that the injured party got in the way of a missing link?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever it will be was in the way of a mislink from a box-car crane."</p>
+
+<p>"Bad, huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could be&mdash;we'll know in a while."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Ben lit a cigarette and said: "The box-car crane is a gadget made
+possible by the temporal treating. Prior to its use they put heavy
+machinery into the box car by running to the door on a crane and then
+they dropped it on a dolly and slid and levered it inside and in
+place. Now they have a crane with a mislink between the pulley block
+and the grab hook. They hook it on, lift it up, and slide it inside
+the car, suspended on the mislink that permits the roof of the car to
+intervene."</p>
+
+<p>"And the victim fell afoul of one of these?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"You're absolutely certain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," he said. "A number of things might have caused the
+trouble. This one is a boom-type crane. The mislinks are in the booms,
+and when it was swinging back from dropping a case inside, it hit
+something."</p>
+
+<p>"Something? Can this be identified?"</p>
+
+<p>"With a minor interference, we can feel it," said Simpkins. "With a
+mislink screwdriver, we can feel the interference. If it is hard, we
+know that someone has&mdash;or will drop something in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"And if it is soft, and moves, you can estimate it to be animal," added
+Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you probe with a feeler of some sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do&mdash;and did. There was a body on the ground after the accident."</p>
+
+<p>"No identification possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"None. Probing with a rod in the dark makes identification difficult.
+We've tried to make some sort of study, such as wearing a magnetic
+badge with a key-impression on its face&mdash;the magnetic to locate and
+the key to identify, but frankly," and Simpkins frowned deeply, "it's
+psychologically dangerous. The accident can not be averted. After all,
+it has happened. And we tried it once, and the man who was hurt&mdash;well,
+knowing he was to be hurt, he went into a mental funk far worse than
+the accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you send him home or have him guarded over carefully?"</p>
+
+<p>"We tried, kept him guarded closely. Aside from putting him in
+an air-tight case, we did about everything. When the accident
+occurred&mdash;well, he and his guards went to watch the first time that the
+thing could be fooled.</p>
+
+<p>"It happened, all right," said Simpkins. "First, another man caught a
+mislink on his shoulder, which laid him out slightly. That, we thought,
+was it! And if it was, the time-factor was all screwed up. But we
+all ran forward to measure, and as we did, our man got clipped with
+another. The first accident had gone unnoticed by the operator."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you tell that such an accident will happen?" asked Peter.
+"Seems to me that a hundred tons of crane might not notice a few pounds
+of human in its way."</p>
+
+<p>"We erect guard-wires that register. That is for one reason only. We
+use it to summon the medicos and the hospital ambulance, and prepare
+for action. That's about all we can do."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you could take a picture of such?" suggested Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Take a picture with a camera controlled by the operator&mdash;you know,
+temporal treat the camera, film, and all but the range finder and the
+shutter release."</p>
+
+<p>"Look, fellow, that would take a picture of the accident as it happens,
+all right. It's also done. Makes excellent records. But as for
+pre-accident stuff, know what happens?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," smiled Ben, "you'll see. Anyway, the camera comes roaring
+out, is poised in midair, and is snapped. The timing isn't too good,
+however. Well, you'll see the camera come out and snap around the place
+when the accident happens. Remember this is not time travel, and you
+can't go forward and take a picture and then come back."</p>
+
+<p>"For what good it does, we can tell about when a piece of goods will
+move by leaning a long-time mislink against it and waiting for it to
+fall."</p>
+
+<p>"Does electricity cross the gap?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nope. Only force and motion. The television idea isn't good either,
+young man."</p>
+
+<p>"Um, how did you know?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"We go through this regular. You're not the first that has been trying
+to avert accidents."</p>
+
+<p>"You understand that I represent I.I.I.?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Simpkins. "As such, it is your responsibility to do as much
+as possible to save your company money. That is your job."</p>
+
+<p>"Right. I still say that there is some means of averting the accident,
+somehow."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they
+didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the
+airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man,"
+said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind
+for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as
+the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was
+specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds
+enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You
+think you can lick it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a
+regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man
+is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated.
+Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to
+try to avert them after they have happened."</p>
+
+<p>"But this one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is&mdash;or has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then.
+They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one
+of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear
+the area where the tools have been."</p>
+
+<p>"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the
+tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the
+end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one
+hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power
+curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this
+accident you anticipate need not happen."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Then where's the body?" demanded Peter Wright.</p>
+
+<p>"It ... ah&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Has it really happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will with certainty."</p>
+
+<p>"Thus proving the utter futility of all effort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"See?" laughed Peter.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>They left the office and proceeded into the factory. Here, where
+things should have been humming, all was at a standstill. Men sat
+on the benches and smoked nervously. They looked into one another's
+eyes with that "Will it be me?" stare, and they worried visibly. An
+electrician who tinkered hourly with lethal voltages as his day's work
+sat and chewed his fingernails. A machinist, sitting on the bedplate
+of a forming press large enough to stamp out an automobile body around
+the place where he sat, was biting his lips and looking out through
+the opened door to the shipping platform. Men outside were working
+feverishly, however.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"They want to get done. They must get done so that the engine can
+remove the car where the accident will happen."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this scene?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>It was out on the loading platform. A mislink crane shunted large cases
+from the platform, swung around in an arc, and the missing section
+passed through the door and the crane ran down the length of the car,
+dropping the case at the far end. The mislink crane returned, the far
+end reappeared, and another case was hooked to the boom. The operation
+was repeated. The cases were fitted in the box car with neatness and
+dispatch. The pile of cases diminished, and the box car was sealed as
+the crane went to work on the next car in line. It took time, though,
+to fill each car, and the men working out here sweated visibly, partly
+in fear and partly from the hurried work.</p>
+
+<p>They had little time to stare into one another's faces and wonder which
+of them would be taking the brunt of the accident. As time wore along,
+the siren of the ambulance arriving caused some nervousness. The doctor
+and his corps of nurses came slowly forward, inquired as to the scene,
+and proceeded to lay out a fairly well equipped emergency operating
+set-up.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beginning to feel the morbidity of this," said Peter. "The doctor,
+the ambulance, the insurance agent. We're like a bunch of vultures
+awaiting the faltering step of the desert wanderer."</p>
+
+<p>"A bunch of undertakers waiting for the accident to happen," said Ben.
+"No, I'm not calloused. I'm scared slightly green. I can't take it
+unless I joke about it. It's the uncertain certainty&mdash;the wondering
+just which one of us gets caught in the certain accident."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems uncanny to talk about the certainty of accident," said Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"The training at I.I.I. would instill a bit of the perfection of
+the statistical method in you," nodded Simpkins. "By the time your
+statistical bureau gets all done checking the chances of a new account,
+no one would bet against it. I.I.I. also puts the kiss of death on,
+too. Just try to hire men for a plant that can't be insured by your
+outfit. They'll ask a thousand credits a day."</p>
+
+<p>"What time is this affair going to happen?" asked Peter.</p>
+
+<p>"Not too long. They're about finished. Then they inert everything as
+usual and we'll all retreat to the inside wall and wonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not all go home?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't win," said Ben solemnly. "We did all go home once."</p>
+
+<p>"And the accident happened anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. A thief broke in and it clipped him. Just don't forget that
+this isn't a probability, it's certain. And the same mob-instinct that
+makes people gather around an injured man will keep the entire gang
+here, morbidly waiting to see who gets it in what way. There is that
+element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that
+someone is going to get clipped with that crane. They're all cagey and
+very careful. It will be an accident despite planning, and therefore
+the unforeseen something will be out of the ordinary."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>"Quite a problem, Peter," said Simpkins.</p>
+
+<p>"I see it is."</p>
+
+<p>"A lot of this veiling is sheer psychiatry. We've consulted the best
+behavior specialists in the system. Keeping the fact secret is worse
+than permitting free knowledge, according to them. But identifying the
+victim is far worse than to have everybody in a slight tizzy."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when it happens, we have a victim that realizes that part of
+the chance was his, and shock is not so great than it would be if no
+warning took place in light of the management knowing all about it
+beforehand. On the other hand, all the men who were not hurt get as
+much uplift after it happens as their downswing of anticipation. On the
+third hand&mdash;pardon the numbers, Peter&mdash;if the victim were positively
+identified, the rest would be no better off, but the victim would be a
+mental case from then on, and shock would set in prior to the accident.
+Then we'd be likely to run up the casualty rate. Follow?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems like a hard row to hoe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, usually we keep people out of danger areas. We know where
+they'll be, of course. It's these darned accidents that happen twice in
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"Twice in time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The accident happens once invisibly, and once visibly. Once in
+the future controlled by the present, and then as the future unfolds,
+it is an accident happening in the present, controlled by the past.
+It's blind time, and there is nothing we can do about it."</p>
+
+<p>"That fatalistic attitude again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ben interrupted. "They're stopping now."</p>
+
+<p>They turned to watch. The final box car was loaded and the engine drew
+them away. The mislink crane returned for the final time and was stowed
+on the platform. A hush fell over the crew, and the windows in the back
+were filled with faces, watching.</p>
+
+<p>The silence was intense. Peter realized that practically every man was
+holding his breath, and yet it would be at least a half hour before the
+mislink began to follow the crane, and some time after that before the
+mislink caught up to the scene of the accident.</p>
+
+<p>He let his breath out with a sigh, and mentioned the fact to Ben and
+Simpkins. The foreman nodded and agreed, saying: "We know, but there
+isn't one of us who won't try to hold his breath for the next two
+hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Impractical," muttered Peter Wright. "There must be a way."</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The mislink was a husky section in its own right. The crane boom was no
+weakling. Thin rods, jointed on toggles, floated about ten inches from
+the main "I" beam, just as long as the temporal treated section itself.
+It made an eerie sight, this monstrous slab of solid metal, moving back
+and forth with determination and purpose, <i>with no visible means of
+support</i>. To add to the alien sight, the telltale rods maintained their
+ten-inch separation with a metallic rigidity, though no connection was
+visible to the main girder.</p>
+
+<p>On the loading deck were three painted circles. The inner one was a
+four-inch stripe of brilliant red. The circle approximated the scene
+of the accident. Outside of that by a considerable safety-factor was
+an orange stripe, almost yellow. Another safety-factor distance away
+the third stripe of green inclosed the area. As the mislink crossed the
+green stripe, all eyes fastened on it. As it crossed the yellow-orange
+stripe, the watchers tensed, and as the mislink crossed into the danger
+section, there was a sudden, audible indrawing of breath, which was
+held solid until the mislink passed across the red line on the way out.
+The out-go of breath was definitely audible.</p>
+
+<p>The tension mounted. A large clock, set up for the case, swept around
+and around toward the estimated zero hour. The watchers no longer
+looked into one another's eyes and when eyes met inadvertently, they
+both fell with a sickly smile that lacked courage.</p>
+
+<p><i>Why were they there?</i> Peter asked of himself, and he knew. They
+were there because of morbid curiosity. The thing that made people
+watch three-hundred-foot dives into a large washtub of water; people
+watching a tightrope walker somersault on the wire above Niagara:
+watching the high trapeze artists performing with no net. That one of
+them was certain to be called into the act, the element of chance and
+the element of danger, always a gamble, made them stay. With nothing
+to win, they stayed to watch, which is a basic characteristic of human
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>They were there because they were human!</p>
+
+<p>And when the accident came, the laws of the lines would be broken,
+though everything in every man's power would be done to maintain the
+safety. For the mislink would stop, after the accident, just as the
+crane had been stopped automatically by the contact with the telltale
+rods in their temporal extension of the crane itself. The green line,
+across which no one must pass save the authorities; the yellow line
+across which only the medical corps may cross, and the red line across
+which only two men may cross and then only to take the victim to the
+medical set-up on the dock. Men would rush forward, crossing the
+lines, and the victim would be carried away with a trailing number of
+watchers. Then, someone would have to forget the victim to keep the
+rest of the men from getting in the way of the mislink as it resumed
+operations. But, of course, no one else had been hit, so this, at
+least, would be successful, and the men were very confident that no
+matter what they did, they would not be hit.</p>
+
+<p>The minutes wore on interminably. Coffee came in great tanks, and
+sandwiches in stacks. The men ate in gulps, swallowing great lumps of
+unchewed food, and all courted indigestion. The strain was terrific as
+the timing clock drew close to the minute.</p>
+
+<p><i>Who&mdash;?</i></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Then&mdash;came the zero minute.</p>
+
+<p>There was an intake of breath as the clock chimed once, to mark the
+beginning of the period of probability. No man moved a muscle, yet all
+muscles were tense with expectancy. Nervously, Ben felt in his pocket
+and took out a cigarette, stuck it into his mouth, and fumbled for a
+match. "Match?" he grumbled.</p>
+
+<p>Simpkins fumbled and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Nope," he said, and his voice was loud and raw.</p>
+
+<p>Peter felt in his pocket and found a match.</p>
+
+<p>He lit one and held it over. His eyes were solid on the scene, he did
+not want to miss it.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out!" someone cried in a strident voice.</p>
+
+<p>The mislink was approaching the circles again.</p>
+
+<p>Peter turned and faced the place squarely, casting an eye across the
+men's faces. They were all set, and in every man's body were muscles
+tensed against moving forward.</p>
+
+<p><i>How</i>, asked Peter of his mind, <i>can they expect anything to happen
+now? Every man is psychologically unable to move forward.</i></p>
+
+<p>There came a stabbing pain, and Peter whirled with a wordless scream.
+The shock was searing. Instantaneously, he whirled, hitting his
+upflinging elbow against the wall. The obstruction in motion set him
+off balance, and he automatically moved a foot to regain it. His foot
+hit the foot of Ben, who was standing solidly, partly turned, his face
+just changing from solid-set to one of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>The solid foot tripped Peter, and he fell forward. He flung the
+still-burning match from his fingers as he put both hands forward
+to break his fall. The loading deck came up to meet him, and his
+forward-flung hands went down toward&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>The red line!</i></p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p>There was a coruscating flare of stars, bars, and screaming color in
+his mind, that contracted to a pinpoint and then expanded to infinity,
+leaving only peaceful blackness.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to consciousness in the ambulance, but his return was
+brief. He was conscious only long enough to hear:</p>
+
+<p>"Some day we'll lick it," said Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Only when you lick the regular accident rate. The trouble is,"
+mused the medical attendant, "that people think there's something
+about mislink accidents that is different. Like either predestiny or
+something that makes you able to change the future. Fact of the matter
+is, it is the <i>past</i> that they're trying to change. Funny, to think of
+this guy getting it."</p>
+
+<p>"Last one got it by a different set of factors," said Ben, "but you
+can't stop an accident that's already happened."</p>
+
+<p>Peter Wright, adjuster for the solar system's greatest insurance
+company, Interplanetary Industrial Insurance, went under. His mind was
+whirling with a mixed desire to argue about temporal accidents, and the
+certain knowledge that he was in no position to mention the avoidance
+of same.</p>
+
+
+<p class="ph1">THE END.</p>
+
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