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| author | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-04-15 14:50:52 -0700 |
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| committer | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-04-15 14:50:52 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/78455-0.txt b/78455-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f7320b --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2825 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78455 *** + + EXPLORERS into INFINITY + + By Ray Cummings. + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Weird Tales April, May, June 1927.] + + + + + CONTENTS + + + FOREWORD + 1 FREEDOM IN TIME AND SPACE + 2 "THIS COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE" + 3 EXPLORERS INTO INFINITY + 4 THE WATCHERS + 5 THE RETURN + 6 THE FLIGHT INTO TIME, SIZE AND SPACE + 7 "A SINGLE STARLIT NIGHT--AN ETERNITY" + 8 THE ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST GLADE + 9 "DWINDLING GIANTS FROM LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE" + 10 THE SOLITARY VOYAGER + 11 BRAVE LITTLE BEACON STRIVING TO PIERCE INFINITY + + + + + _FOREWORD_ + + +_Some of my present readers will doubtless remember "The Girl in the +Golden Atom." When I wrote that book of the realm of infinite smallness +there was in my mind its logical converse, the realm of the infinitely +large. The one a complement to the other. And so I offer "Explorers +Into Infinity," in no sense as a sequel to "The Girl in the Golden +Atom," for fictionally they have no connection, but rather as its +companion story._ + +_You will find here a complete theory of the material universe as I +conceive it may perhaps really be. To my own imagination--and I think +very likely to your own--it is difficult to conceive of an infinite +distance beyond the stars--empty Space stretching out forever. Nor is +Einstein more satisfying to me, rather less so, for out beyond the +Einstein system of curved Space must lie something or nothing. It +is the nothingness which puzzles me. I have tried vainly to imagine +a realm, infinitely large, of unending nothingness. Time is equally +puzzling. I can conceive of eventful eons lying ahead of us; but rob +that time of its future events and I flounder. To me at least, the +conception of Time with nothing ever happening anywhere is impossible. +To me also, an event presupposes the existence of something; and so, +in my effort to imagine the infinitely large--Space illimitable, Time +unending--I am forced to conceive what must fill that Space, what must +happen to create that time._ + +_You may call this tale fantastic, weird, bizarre. Doubtless it is. But +with our most powerful microscopes reaching inward so tiny a distance +to see no end in infinite smallness; our greatest telescopes groping +futilely out into largeness unending to our vision, what is left but +our imagination? And that, at least, we can send winging into the +infinite!_ + +_I would not have you fear from this foreword that my story may be some +pedantic, heavily technical exposition. It is not; for it is fiction +only--a romance with which to entertain you; an effort, by using +fictional methods, to reduce theories purely imaginative into concrete +form with as great a degree of plausibility as may be. It is this only +I desire: to carry you with me as you read; to make plausible this +flight of our imaginations momentarily set free from the tiny everyday +universe which is all we have physically to envisage._ + + RAY CUMMINGS. + + + + + _CHAPTER 1_ + + FREEDOM IN TIME AND SPACE + + +I was busy with the Martian mail which had just arrived when the +message from Brett Gryce reached me. I did not apprehend that there +was anything of secrecy about it, since he was using the open air; yet +there was in his voice a note of tenseness and his summons was urgent. + +"I can't come, Brett, until I get through the mail." I was rushed, and +in a mood of ill-temper at the universe in general. + +"When will that be?" he demanded. + +"I don't know. It's accursedly large. Most of it seems to call for +radio distribution--these Martians are always in a hurry." + +"Come when you can," he said quietly. + +"Tonight?" + +"Yes--tonight. No matter how late--I must see you, Frank." + +"I'll come," I said, and cut him off. + +It was long past trinight, with dawn beginning to brighten the sky +beyond the masonry of lower Great-New York, when I had disposed of +those miserable Martian dispatches. The Gryces lived in the Southern +Pennsylvania area. My aerocar was at hand. I had rather planned to use +it; but I was tired and in no mood for effort. I decided to take the +pneumatic, since there was a branch--little traveled, it is true--which +would drop me within some twenty kilometers of the Gryce home. + +They gave me an individual cylinder, with a bed if I cared to sleep. +I did not. I lay there wondering what Brett could want of me; pleased +also that I would see Francine--dear little Frannie. . . . + +Occasionally I would call the Director ahead. They are sometimes +careless in the switching of special individual cylinders; and I had +no wish to pass the branch and find myself bringing up at some gulf +terminal with half the morning getting back. Once I called Brett. He +would meet me with his aero at the end of the branch when I arrived. +He, too, reminded the Director. A surly sort of fellow; the Gryces had +already reported him to the General Traffic Staff of Great-London. + +I was not misdirected, however; but it was broad daylight when I +emerged to find Brett impatiently awaiting me. And in a few minutes +more we were landing at the aero-stage beside the Gryce home. + +It was a simple enough place--for all Dr. Gryce's reputed wealth. +An estate of a few kilometers, set in a heavy grove of trees with +a high metallic wall about it. The granite house itself was small, +unpretentious. There were few outbuildings; one a large rectangular +affair which vaguely I understood was a workshop. I had never been in +it. I knew old Dr. Gryce was interested in science; in his day he had +materially advanced civilization with several fundamental devices. But +what--if anything--he might be doing now, I had no idea. + +Brett would tell me nothing beyond the fact that his father had +suggested they send for me. But he seemed excited, tense. Dr. Gryce +greeted me with his familiar kindliness. Though I did not see as much +of this family as I would like (my business with the Interplanetary +Mails was wholly underpaid and miserably confining), yet I counted the +Gryces among my closest friends. + +Dr. Gryce said, "We are very glad to see you, Frank. Come outside. +Frannie is preparing breakfast." + +His manner was grave and quiet as always. But there was about him also +an air of tenseness; and an aspect of apprehension. And it struck me, +a sort of weary, resigned depression which suddenly made his years sit +more heavily upon him. He was a man of some eighty odd; and though for +him no more than twenty or thirty years of life could be anticipated, +I had never considered him really old. He was small, slight of frame, +but erect, sturdy and vigorous. A smooth-shaven face with no more lines +upon it than a keen intellect and a character once wholly forceful +would engrave. And a mass of snow-white shaggy hair to make his head +appear preternaturally large. + +He seemed old now, however, with that sense of depression hanging upon +him. And an indefinable aspect of fear. + +I must allot a word to picture the three children of Dr. Gryce, +motherless since childhood. Brett was now twenty-eight--three years +older than myself, and physically my opposite. I am short, slender +and rather dark. And--so they tell me--not too even of temper. Brett +was a blond young giant. Crisp, wavy blond hair, blue eyes and the +strong-featured, ruddy face of a handsome athlete. But not too +handsome, for there was upon him no consciousness of his essentially +masculine beauty. He was wonderfully good-natured. His was a ready, +hearty laugh. He looked at life often from the humorous viewpoint. But +he had also a touch of his father's grave dignity; and a keen intellect +and a soberness of thought and reason far beyond his years. + +The two other children--Martynn and Francine--were twins, now just +seventeen. Alike, physically and temperamentally, as children of a +birth traditionally should be. Slim and rather small--Martynn about my +height; Francine somewhat shorter. Both blue-eyed, with blond hair. +Francine's hair was long-waving tresses which she wore generally in +plaits over her shoulders; Martynn's was short and curly. They were +rather alike of feature; a delicacy of mold which gave to Martynn a +girlishness. But not an effeminacy, for he was a young daredevil; and +his sister hardly a lesser one. In childhood and adolescence an impish +spirit of deviltry had always seemed to possess these twins; a spirit +of mischief which had made them a great trial to their father. It had +turned, now that they were nearing maturity, into an apparent desire +for reckless adventure--the product of abounding health, and bubbling, +irrepressible good nature. They adored each other; were constantly +together, with youthful escapades threatening limb and life and +complete disaster, out of which they would emerge or be extricated with +dauntless spirits unperturbed. + +The greater maturity of womanhood at seventeen had brought to Frannie +moments of gentleness, sweetness and a simple dignity. But they were +brief moments, and no more than a word or look from her twin was needed +to dispel them. Martt himself was without a vestige of dignity. But +they were no fools, these twins. They could, upon strict necessity, +give sober, intelligent thought to any problem at hand (Martynn had won +honors at the Great-London University); but of sober, matured action +they were incapable. Fearless--unreasonably fearless. But irresistible, +likable, and apparently quite capable of being restrained. A word +from Dr. Gryce, or from Brett--and to a lesser extent from me who had +known them from childhood--brought instant though often very temporary +obedience. They considered themselves quite grown up now. In truth, at +seventeen, Frannie was to my eyes a really beautiful young woman. + + + II + +We sat in a little arbor beside the house, with its breakfast table +already laid. Dr. Gryce, Brett, and myself. Martt was with Frannie +preparing the meal. It was evidence of the simplicity which marked +the Gryce household. In these days of mechanical devices for almost +everything--and the usual multiplicity of servants--there was not a +meal prepared for Dr. Gryce save by his daughter. + +I was very curious to learn why they had sent for me; but I had no need +to question, for at once Dr. Gryce plunged into it. + +"I hope, Frank, that you can stay--well, at least a few days with us. +Can you?" + +I stared. The Day Officer of the Manhattan Interplanetary Postal +Division was undoubtedly already in a rage at my absence. I said so. +"A few days? Dr. Gryce, I dread every conjunction that brings these +accursed mails--my divisional officers think it's a crime even to eat +or sleep when a planet is near us." + +He smiled. "I imagine I can fix it." + +"Then I'll stay, of course. If you could fix the planetary orbits so +that they were parabolas, Dr. Gryce, it would suit me exactly." + +He and Brett both were smiling, but Dr. Gryce's smile was momentary, +for at once that indefinable air of trouble returned to him. + +"Frank," he said, "I hardly know how to begin telling you what we have +done--are about to do. It seems curious also--I know it will strike you +so, you have been such a friend to me and my children--that during all +these years we have given you no hint of our purpose." + +"We have told no one," Brett put in: "no one in the world." + +I said nothing, but my curiosity increased. It was doubtless of grave +import, this thing they had to tell me; the solemnity, earnestness +which stamped them both was unmistakable. + +For a moment Dr. Gryce was silent; then he said abruptly, "You know, +Frank, all my life I have been engaged with science. In a measure, I +have been successful; there are a few devices which will bear my name +when I am gone." + +I nodded. "I know that very well, Dr. Gryce." + +"But all those things," he added earnestly, "all that I stand for to +the world, has really been of little importance to me. My main labor, +goal, dream, if you will, I have never told anyone--not a living person +except my children. For ten years past Brett has been helping me. And +though you would hardly believe it, for the last year or two Martt and +Frannie have been of material aid in the accomplishment of my purpose." + +"What branch of science?" I asked. "And you've accomplished it? You're +ready to give it to the world?" + +"Accomplished it--yes. But we are not ready to give it to the +world--perhaps we never shall. There would be evil in it--evil +diabolical--in untrained or unscrupulous hands. But we are ready to +test it--a practical test. Tonight, Frank, my boy Brett is going upon +an adventure----" + +The fear which had been lurking in his eyes leaped to stamp his other +features. He was afraid for Brett--afraid of this thing they were going +to do. He had stopped abruptly; and more quietly he added: + +"I want you to understand me, Frank, and so for a moment we must +be wholly theoretical. This thing we are about to do involves the +construction of our whole material universe. You know, of course, that +no limit has been found to the divisibility of matter?" + +His sudden question confused me. "You mean," I stammered, "that things +can be infinitely small?" + +"That there is no limit to smallness," Brett put in. "An atom--an +electron--they are mere words. Within them conceivably might be a +space with stars, planets, suns--worlds of their own so tiny that +compared to the Space in which they roam that Space would seem--and +would be--illimitable. Picture that, Frank. And picture upon one of +those worlds inhabitants of proportionate smallness. What would they +see, feel or think of the universe? Would they not conceive it about as +we do? Picture them with powerful microscopes, looking downward into +the matter composing their world. They would be aware of molecules, +atoms--they would gaze down into Space unending. Another realm within +their own. And within that one--others and yet others to infinity. The +conception confuses you, Frank? It need not. Each of those realms is +tiny--or large--according to the viewpoint. There can be no such thing +as absolute size." + +"That is what I mean," Dr. Gryce interrupted eagerly. "Absolute +size--how can you conceive it? You can not. A thing is large or small +only in relation to something else smaller or larger." + +He waved his hand to the rolling landscape with the morning light and +shadow upon it, visible through the arbor. + +"There is our everyday world, Frank. How big is it? You can not say. +Millimeters, meters, kilometers, helans, light-years--those are only +words with which we designate a comparison. Compared to what our +microscopes show us, this world of ours is very large, but compared to +the spaces between the stars--the stars themselves--it is very small. +Try then to imagine its absolute size. You can not, because there is +no such thing. A universe within what we call an atom--another realm +within an atom of matter upon one of the worlds of _that_ universe--is +not an extraordinary state of smallness _until we compare it with +ourselves_. + +"And this world of ours. It is normal to us; of no absolute size +whatever--neither large nor small--until we compare it to something +else. But suppose we visualize larger realms? Suppose we say these +planets, stars--all the starry universe within our ken and this visual +space which contains them--suppose we imagine all that to be contained +within the atom of a particle of matter of some comparatively still +larger realm? At once our world and ourselves shrink into smallness. +Where a moment ago we had seemed large, now we seem small. Yet that +other gigantic world within which we are contained--if we could live in +it our telescopes would show us still larger Space unending. We would +feel tiny--and of actuality _we would be tiny_--contemplating Space and +size so much larger." + +"And there you have infinity of Space," Brett added, as his father +paused. "Unending Space both smaller and larger than ourselves. +We--everything of which we can be physically aware--represent no more +than a single step in the ladder which has no bottom nor no top. You +can not conceive an end in either direction. There is no such thing. +Nor--as Father says--can you declare anything to be small or large +considered by itself alone. This then is Space as we conceive it to be. +Illimitable, unending--infinite Space." + +The conception momentarily seemed wholly beyond my grasp. What I would +have answered when for a moment Dr. Gryce and Brett paused I do not +know, for from the house the approaching voices of Martt and Frannie +reached us. + +"You'll fall, I tell you! Frannie, give me that!" + +"I won't." + +"You'll trip over the wires and you'll fall and smash it!" + +"I won't." + +The sound of a crash. And Martt's voice, "There, I told you!" + +They were upon us, wheeling the tray laden with breakfast; Martt, +flushed, laughing. "Oh, hello, Frank--they didn't switch you wrong, did +they? Frannie broke the heater coils--if the breakfast gets cold, don't +blame me." + +And Frannie, also flushed and laughing and a trifle rueful over the +mishap. Dressed in a blue blouse and widely flaring, knee-length +trousers, with her golden hair tossing on her shoulders. The picture of +a little housewife, of early morning informality. I thought I had never +seen her so beautiful. + + + III + +"That, Frank, is our conception of the infinity of Space." + +With breakfast finished Brett had resumed the discussion. We were +all seated in the arbor. Martt and Frannie momentarily were quiet, +seemingly keenly interested in the impression upon me which they +anticipated would come from their father's disclosures. + +Dr. Gryce said, "The idea of Time unending is indissolubly bound with +the concept of infinite Space. You will realize, Frank, for some +centuries it has been understood that Time and Space are inextricably +blended. We think instinctively of Space as a tangible entity--of +length, breadth and thickness. And of Time, as intangible. Such really +is not the case. Space has three dimensions--but Time also has a +dimension." + +"Length," Martt put in. "It sounds like a play on words, but--" + +"It isn't," Frannie finished for him. "I can't imagine anything clearer +than that Time has length." + +Dr. Gryce ignored them. "You must understand also that Time as we +conceive it can not exist except as the measurement of a _length_ +between two events. And what is an event? It presupposes the existence +of _Matter_, does it not? Matter thus is introduced into the universe. +It also can not be independent of Time and Space. So long as anything +material exists, there must be Space for it to exist in; and Time to +mark the passing of its existence. + +"Of our universe, then, we now have Matter, Time and Space. There is a +fourth--shall I say, element? It also is interdependent with each of +the other three. It is _Motion_. You know, of course, that there can be +no such thing as absolute Motion." + +"Or absolute Time," Frannie put in. + +"That we will discuss later," Dr. Gryce said quickly, "since it is +more intricate of conception. Absolute Motion is impossible and +non-existent. We can say a thing moves fast or slowly, _only in +relation to the movement of something else_. One word more. I want you +to realize, Frank, how wholly dependent each of these factors is upon +the other. _Matter_, for instance, is an entity persisting in Space +and Time. _Motion_ is the simultaneous change of the position of Matter +in Space and Time. A thing was _here, then_; it is _there, now_. That +is Motion. You see how you can not deal with one without involving the +others?" + +"Say, Father, why don't you tell him what we're going to do?" Martt +demanded. "Frank, listen--tonight Brett and I----" + +"But I'm going, too," Frannie declared. + +"You're not!" + +I saw again that look of fear in old Dr. Gryce's eyes. His +children--the spirit of youth with its lust for adventure--they were +eager and excited. But Dr. Gryce saw beyond that--saw the danger. . . + +He said gravely, "There is no possibility of my making you understand +the details, Frank, until we have gone into the matter thoroughly. +But as Martt implies, you are no doubt impatient. I will tell you +then, briefly, that for most of my life I have been delving into +this subject--Matter, Space, Time and Motion illimitable. Longing to +investigate this immense material universe which I believe exists. But +we humans are fettered, Frank. Like an ant, living for a brief moment +enchained with a cobweb to a twig and trying to envisage the earth." + +His voice now was trembling with emotion. "I was satisfied to see with +my own eyes some little part into infinity. I invented what we--my +children and I--call the myrdoscope. I will explain it presently. +Suffice it now to say that there are normally invisible rays, akin +to light, crossing Space, and I have made them visible. We captured +them--saw after a myriad trials unavailing, occasional vague glimpses +of the beyond which came to us. It might have satisfied me, but three +years ago, one night, Brett saw----" + +He paused, looking at Brett. Martt and Frannie were breathless, with +eyes fixed on me. + +Brett said, and his voice had a queer, solemn hush to it, "I was +looking through the myrdoscope. We had seen blurred, brief glimpses of +a realm----" + +"Beyond the stars," Frannie breathed. + +"Yes, beyond the stars. A realm seemingly of forest, or +something growing. Silvery patches--you might imagine they were +water, or light shining upon something that glistened. They +were always haphazard, these glimpses. We caught them, not +always from one direction--seemingly from everywhere. A realm +encompassing--enclosing--our whole star-filled Space. + +"With the labor of years, which you, Frank, will appreciate to some +degree, Father has charted what for our own little ken we might call +absolute points in Space. Landmarks, say, of this outer realm. With our +whirling earth, the ever-changing planets and stars, only this outer +realm seemed of fixed position. We could sometimes return our gaze to +the same landmark--a tremendous crescent-shaped patch of silver, for +instance, which several times we succeeded in re-finding. + +"It was near this patch at which I was one night gazing, when through +some vagary of the ray bearing its image--or some difference in our +crude apparatus--the scene suddenly clarified. And magnified as though +at once I had leaped a million light-years toward it. + +"I saw then a magnified section of the larger scene. The patch of +silver appeared now as a shimmering, opalescent liquid. A segment of +shore-front; and this all in a moment, again magnified. Upon a bluish +bank of soft vegetation, with the opal liquid beside it, I saw a girl +half reclining. A girl of human form, but transfigured by a beauty +more than human. A girl of a civilization behind our own--or perhaps +one in advance--I do not know. She was robed in a short, simple garment +more like a glistening, glowing silver veil than a dress. Her hair was +long--a tangled dark mass. She reclined there in an attitude of ease +and the abandonment of maidenly solitude. I say that she was more than +beautiful--oh, Frank----" + +Brett's voice had suddenly lost the precise exactitude of the +scientist. He seemed to have forgotten his father--Martt and Frannie; +it was as though he were confiding his human emotions only to me. + +"Beautiful, Frank. A strange, wild beauty, with a curious ethereal +aspect to it. I don't know--it's indescribable. Human--half human, but +half divine." + + * * * * * + +He checked himself; the scientist in him again became uppermost; but +though he now spoke with careful phrasing, his face remained flushed. + +"It was some moments before I saw additional details. And then I +realized that the girl was not alone. Upon her bare feet were a sort of +sandal with thongs crossing the ankle. And standing there beside one of +her feet were two tiny human figures. In height, the length perhaps of +her little foot. Men of human form; yet queerly grotesque; misshapen. +One of them was in the act of reaching upward toward the tassel of her +sandal cord where it dangled from her ankle; reaching as though to +grasp it and draw himself upward. The other was watching; and both were +grinning with gnomelike malevolence. + +"Nor was this all, for behind the girl, a brief distance away in what +appeared a woodland dell, was another figure--a man of aspect akin to +the grinning gnomes, save that in comparative size even to the girl +he was gigantic. Ten times her height, perhaps, he stood behind her +towering into the trees about him. A man of short, squat legs, dark +with matted hair; a garment like the gnomes', which might have been an +animal skin; a heavy massive chest; black hair long to his neck. A face +with clipped hair upon it. He was regarding the girl; a grin, but with +a leer to it--horribly sinister. And in his great hands, brandished +like a bludgeon, was an uprooted tree. + +"Have I given you an idea of motion in the scene? There was none. +The girl was obviously wholly unaware that she was not alone. She +lay motionless. But the lack of movement in her--in them all--was +more marked than that. The girl's lips were parted in a half-smile of +revery; but the outlines of her bosom beneath the silver veil did not +move. There was no movement of breath; no change of expression. The +gnomes, the giant--not the minutest change could I see mirrored in +their faces. + +"Yet it was so lifelike, I could not doubt it was life--and that the +motion was there though I could not see it. I watched all night, +shaken with this fragment of drama, perhaps tragedy, which I was +witnessing--but even the girl's eyelids did not tremble. Dawn came; the +scene faded. + +"For a month I did not even tell Father; and Frank, the vision of that +girl has never left me. The menace--gruesome, sinister--upon her--and +her beauty----" + +"Haven't you ever seen her again?" I asked eagerly. "Was it life? How +could it be life without motion?" + +"Oh, he saw her again," Martt exclaimed. "I've seen her--we've all seen +her." + +"Tell him, Brett," Frannie urged. + +"A month before I even told Father. During it, I searched for the scene +unavailing, then Father and I searched together. It was a year, when +almost from the same orbital position we came upon the scene again. +A year--and now we saw a change. The figures all were there, frozen +into immobility as before. But the gnome had caught the tassel, had +drawn himself partly up to stand upon the girl's white ankle. The giant +had come a trifle forward, and the upraised tree in his hands was +partly lowered. The girl's attitude was unchanged, but there was now +upon her face the vague dawn of startled knowledge, as though at that +instant she was becoming aware of something pulling at her sandal cord, +something touching her ankle--perhaps too, she was hearing a sound from +the giant behind her. The startled knowledge which as yet had not had +time fully to register upon her face." + +My mind was whirling with a confusion of thoughts; the vague +comprehension of what Brett meant was coming to me. I stammered, "Not +yet had time--but Brett, you must have watched them all that night----" + +"That night, Frank. And others--but there was no sign of movement. +Another year--that was last year--we saw the girl partly aware of +her danger. This year--a month ago--she was fully aware of it. +Frightened--her eyes stricken wide with terror. But she had had no time +as yet to move. + +"Don't you understand, Frank? That drama is going on out there now. +Like size of Matter and Space--and rate of Motion--there is no absolute +Time. It is all comparative. To that realm out there of which we have +been given a little vision, our tiny worlds here in the heavens are +mere whirling electrons, like the electrons within one of our own atoms +which to our consciousness of Time revolve many times a second. + +"A year! A single revolution of our earth about its sun! To that girl +out there, what we call a year is merely an electron in a fraction of +a second revolving about its fellow. Even that is very slow--for she +herself is wholly within the atom of a greater world outside her. A +year as we call it--a second or less, to her. And though she is in full +movement, how can we hope to see it by watching for a night? If a year +were a second to her--an eight-hour vigil of ours would encompass less +than a thousandth part of a second of her life! + +"All comparative, Frank. There is nothing wonderful or really strange +about it. In what we would experience to be a hundred years from now +that girl will be fully faced with the menace of her assailants. A +moment only, to her consciousness. It is that, Frank, we meant by the +infinity of Time." + +"Tell him what we're going to do," Martt insisted breathlessly. + +It came from Brett in a burst almost incoherent. "I was not satisfied +merely to see into this comparative infinity. Nor was Father. We have +worked three feverish years, Frank, to climax all the labor of Father's +which had gone before. And we have found a way--not merely to see, +but to transport ourselves into these greater realms. A vehicle--I'll +show you--explain it all. Its size can be changed--the state of the +matter composing it is within our control. Its position in Space can be +changed--simple enough, Frank, to enlarge upon the principles of our +interplanetary vehicles. And--with one factor so interdependent upon +the other--we have been able to control the rate of its Time-progress. +It travels through Time as it does through Space." + +His words were tumbling over each other. "You'll see it in a moment, +Frank--test it--we have it here, ready yesterday. It sets us free, +don't you understand? Free at last in Space and Time. And I'm going in +it tonight--with Martt perhaps--we're going out to reach that girl upon +an equality of Size and Time-progress. Going out to explore infinity!" + + + + + _CHAPTER 2_ + + "THIS COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE" + + +I had anticipated that they would show me a vehicle similar perhaps +to the huge and elaborate space-flyers in the service of our +Interplanetary Postal Division. But instead of taking me to the +workshops where I had conceived it to be lying--serene, glistening +with newness, intricate with what devices for its changing of size and +Time-rate I could not imagine--instead of this they took me into the +house. And there, in Dr. Gryce's quiet study with its sober, luxurious +furnishings and his library of cylinders ranged in orderly array about +the walls, I saw not one but four machines--mere models standing there +on the polished table-top. Four of them identical--all of a milk-white +metal. + +But they were models complete in every detail. I stood beside one, +regarding it with a breathless, absorbed interest as Dr. Gryce +commented upon it. A cube of about the length of my forearm in its +three equal dimensions, with a cone-shaped tower on top--a little +tower not much longer than my longest finger. The cube itself had a +rectangular doorway, and in each face two banks of windows. The door +slid sidewise, the windows were of a transparent material, like glass. +Midway about the cube ran a tiny balcony at the second-story level. It +was wholly enclosed by the glasslike material. It extended around all +four sides; small doors from it gave access to the cube's interior. The +cone on top also had windows, and its entire apex was transparent. + +I bent down and peered into the lower doorway. Tiny rooms were there. +Bedrooms; a cookery--a house complete, save that it was wholly +unfurnished. The largest room on the lower story--its floor had a +circular transparent pane in it--was fitted with a seemingly intricate +array of tiny mechanisms all of the same milk-white metal. A metallic +table held most of them; and I could see wires fine as cobwebs +connecting them. And in a corner of this room, a metallic spiral +stairway leading to the upper story. + +Dr. Gryce said, "That is the instrument room, complete. It contains +every mechanism for the operation of the vehicle. We made it in +this size--large enough to facilitate construction, but it is small +enough to be economical of material. This substance--we have never +named it--is of our own isolation. It is expensive. I'll explain it +presently. . . . That room beside the instrument room is where we will +put the usual everyday instruments necessary to the journey. Oxygen +tanks--the apparatus for air purification and air renewal; telescopes, +microscopes--my myrdoscope--all that sort of thing we can best obtain +in its normal size. Those--and the furnishings--the provisions--all +those in their normal size we will put into it later." + +"You mean," I asked, "this is not a model? This is the actual vehicle?" + +"Yes," he smiled. + +"But there are four of them." + +"We made six, Frank. It was advisable, and not unduly difficult to +duplicate the parts in the making. The assembling took time----" + +Brett said, "Father was insistent that we make every advance test +possible. We have already used two of them. We are going to test the +others today." + +"Now," exclaimed Frannie. "Do it now--Frank will want to see it." + +Dr. Gryce lifted one of the vehicles. In his hand it seemed light as +alemite. He placed it on a taboret and we sat grouped around it. + +"I shall send it into Time," he said quietly, "with its size unchanged, +with no motion in Space, so that always in relation to us it will +remain right here--I am going to send it back into other ages of Time." +He turned to me earnestly. "We wanted you here, Frank, because you are +so good a friend to me and my children. But for a selfish reason as +well. When Brett goes out into Space and Time tonight, I want your keen +eye to follow him. Your ability to record so accurately on the clocks +what you see at any given instant----" + +He was referring to my experience at the Table Mountain observatory--my +first work when my training period was over. I had, indeed, a curiously +keen vision for astronomical observation, and a quickness of finger +upon the clock to record what I saw. In transit work I was extremely +accurate; even now they were asking the Postal Division for my services +at Table Mountain in the forthcoming transit of Venus. + +Dr. Gryce was saying, "Your accuracy is phenomenal, Frank--your figures +as you observe what little we see of this flight will help me--set my +mind at rest that Brett is making no errors." He ended with a smile, +"So you realize we have a selfish motive in wanting you." + +"I'm very glad," I responded. He nodded and went back at once to what +he had been saying previously. "I'm going to send this into Time. You +must understand, Frank, that I can give you now only the fundamental +concepts underlying this apparatus. We have so much to do today--so +little time for theory. I need only tell you that it is readily +demonstrable that Time is one of the inherent factors governing the +_state of Matter_. This substance we have discovered--created, if you +will--yields readily to a change of state. An electronic charge--a +current akin to, but not identical with electricity--changes the +state of this substance in several ways. A rapid duplication of the +fundamental entities within its electrons--they are, as you perhaps +know, mere _whirlpools of nothingness_--this rapid duplication adds +size. The substance--with shape unaltered--grows larger. With such a +size-change there comes a normal, correspondingly progressive change of +Time-rate. We had to go beyond that, however, and secure an independent +Time-rate, independently changeable, so that the vehicle might remain +quiescent in size and still change its Time. In doing that, the _state +of the matter_ as our senses perceive it is completely altered. As +you know, no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time. +Which only means that with the Time-dimensions identical, different +dimensions of Space are needed. With the Time-dimension differing--the +state of Matter is different; two bodies thus can be together in the +same space." + +"What is a Time-dimension?" I asked. "I mean--how can you alter it?" + +"I would say, Frank, that the Time-dimension of a material body is the +_length_--or a measure of the length--of its fundamental vibration. +Basically there is no real substance as we conceive it--for all +Matter is mere vibration. Let us delve into substance. We find Matter +consists of molecules vibrating in Space. Molecules are composed of +atoms vibrating in Space. Within the atoms are electrons, revolving +in Space. The electrons are without substance, merely vibrations +electrically negative in character. The nucleus--once termed proton--is +all then that we have left of substance. What is it? A mere vortex--an +electrical vortex of nothingness! + +"You see, Frank, there is no real substance existing. It is all +vibration. Motion, in other words. Of what? That we do not know. Call +it a motion of disembodied electrical energy. Perhaps it is something +akin to that. But from it, our substantial, tangible, material universe +is built. All dependent upon its vibratory rate. And the measure of +that I would call the Time-dimension. When we alter that--when through +the impulse of a current of vibration we attack that fundamental vortex +to make it whirl at greater or lesser rate--then we, in effect, have +changed the Time-dimension." + +There was so much that seemed dimly close to my understanding, and yet +eluded me! + +"But," I said, "if you send that little cube back into Time, it will +no longer exist at all. It will be in the past--non-existent now. Or +suppose you send it into the future? It _will exist_ sometime--but now, +it will be non-existent." + +"Ah, that's where you're wrong," Brett exclaimed. "Don't you realize +that you're making Time absolute? You're taking yourself and this +present instant as fixed points of Space and Time--the standards +beyond which nothing else can exist. That's fatuous. Frank, look +here, it's simple enough once you grasp it. Time and Space are quite +similar, except that you have never moved about in Time but you have +in Space. Suppose you had not. Suppose--with your present power of +thought--you were this house. You had always been here--always would be +here. Suppose, too, that the world--the land and water--moved slowly +past you, at an unalterable rate. That's what Time does to us. Then +suppose I were to say to you--you as the house--'Let us go now to +Great-London.' That would puzzle you. You would say, 'Great-London was +here a year ago. But now it is gone--non-existent. It did exist--but +now it doesn't.' Or you would say, 'The shore of the Great-Pacific +Ocean will be here next year.' If I said, 'I'm going there now,' you +would reply, 'But you'll be in the future. You'll be non-existent!' +Making yourself the standard of everything. Don't you see how fatuous +that is?" + +I did not answer. It was so strange a mode of thought; it made me feel +so insignificant, so enslaved by the fetters of my human senses. And +these fetters Brett was very soon to cast off. + + + II + +Martt said, "Can't we make the tests, Father? There is a frightful lot +to do and it's nearly mid-morning already." + +From the table Dr. Gryce took a small rod of the milk-white metal--a +rod half a meter long and the diameter of my smallest finger. He knelt +on the floor beside the taboret, peering into the tiny doorway of the +mechanism he was about to send winging into the distant ages of our +Past. Again we were breathless. + +"More light, Frannie," he said. "I can not see inside here." Frannie +illumined the tubes along the ceiling; the room was flooded with their +soft, blue-white light. + +"That's better." Rod in hand he turned momentarily to me. "I'm going +to throw the Time-switch by pressing it with this rod," he explained. +"Within the vehicle--the confined space there--the current is equally +felt." He smiled gravely. "Without the rod I should lose a finger to +the Past----" + +Carefully he inserted the rod into the doorway. A moment of fumbling, +then I heard a click. The little milk-white model seemed to tremble. It +glowed; from it there came a soft, infinitely small humming sound. It +glowed, melted into translucency--transparency. For an instant I had +a vague sense that a spectral wraith of it was still before me. Then +with a blink of my eyelids I realized that it was gone. The taboret was +empty. Beside it, Dr. Gryce knelt with the rod melted off midway of its +length in his hand. + +I breathed again. Brett said softly, "It is gone, Frank. Gone into the +Past, relative to our consciousness of Time. Gone from our senses--yet +it is here--occupying the same Space it did before--but with a +different Time." + +He passed his hand through the apparent vacancy above the taboret. +To me then came a realization of how crowded all Space must be! Of +what a tiny fraction of things existent--of events occurring--are we +conscious! That Space over the taboret--empty to me. . . . yet it held +for a mind omniscient an infinity of things strewn through the ages of +the Past and Future. What multiplicity of events--unseen by me--Time +was holding separate in that crowded Space above the taboret! + +Dr. Gryce was saying, "Let us test one now by sending it into +smallness--come here, Frank." + +He had risen to stand by the table, with another of the models before +him. "This bit of stone," he said. "Let us send it into that." + +He laid a flat piece of black-gray, smoothly polished stone on the +table near the model. And with another rod he reached into the doorway. +Again I heard a click. He withdrew the rod. "You see, Frank." + +I saw that the rod was slightly compressed along the length he +had inserted. The model was already dwindling. Soundlessly, +untremblingly--it was contracting, becoming smaller, with shape and +aspect otherwise unchanged. Soon it was the size of my fist. Dr. Gryce +picked it up, rested it upon his opened hand. But in a moment it was no +more than a tiny cube rocking in the movement of his palm. He gripped +it gingerly with thumb and forefinger and set it on the polished black +slab of stone. Its milk-white color there showed it clearly. But it +was very small--smaller than the thumb-nail of my little finger. The +cone-shaped tower was a needle-point. + +A breathless moment passed. It was now no more than a white speck upon +the black stone surface. + +Brett said, "Try the microscope, Frank. You watch it." + +I put the low-powered instrument over it; Brett adjusted the light. The +stone was smoothly polished. But now, under the glass, upon a shaggy +mass of uneven rock surface I saw the vehicle visually as large as it +had been originally. But it was dwindling progressively faster. Soon +it lay tilted sidewise upon a slope of the rock; smaller--a tiny speck +clinging there. + +"Can you still see it?" Brett murmured. + +"Yes--no--now it is gone." The rock seemed empty. Somewhere down +in there the little mechanism lay dwindling. Forever it would grow +smaller. Dwindling into an infinity of smallness; but always to be with +things of its size--and things yet smaller. . . . + +As I turned from the glass, I became aware that Martt and Frannie were +not in the room. Dr. Gryce and Brett, absorbed in the test, quite +evidently had not noticed them leave. There had been two other models +on the table--there was now but one. + +Then from the garden outside the house a cry reached us. A shout--a cry +of fear--terror. Martt's voice. + +"Father! Brett! Help us! Help! Quick!" + + * * * * * + +We rushed from the room. + +Crowning wonder, yet horrible! A surge of fear swept me. In the garden +quite near the house stood the other model. Small no longer. It had +grown--_was growing_--until already it was as large as the house +itself. Around it the flowers, shrubs, even a tree had been pushed +and trampled by its expanding bulk. It stood gleaming white in the +sunlight, motionless save for that steady, increasingly rapid growth. +Its windows and doors loomed large dark rectangles; its balcony was +broad as a corridor; its cone tower was already reared higher than the +nearest trees. + +"Father! Help!" + +At the doorway of the vehicle, standing just outside it, were the +terror-stricken Martt and Frannie. They were holding the end of a long +metallic pole which projected into the doorway. Struggling with its +weight, striving to throw the switch inside. + +We reached them. The expanding bulk of the gleaming side of the +vehicle had pushed them back into a thicket of shrubbery. Near them a +tree, uprooted as though it were a straw sticking upright in sand, was +pushed aside and fell with a crash. + +Martt and Frannie were livid with terror; breathless, almost exhausted +with their futile efforts. + +Martt panted, "We can't--lift the pole! It's--too heavy--too large +inside." + +Within the huge doorway, by the sunlight streaming through the windows, +I could see the interior half of the pole, bloated by growth, huge, +heavy. + +Brett shoved Frannie away. "Frank! Here--take hold with us." + +Dr. Gryce was with us. Together we four men got the interior end of the +pole upon the table inside. A tremendous switch lever was there. But +the pole slipped, rolled down. I expected it to break at the doorway +point where it was so small outside, but it did not. The expanding +doorway had pushed us farther back. Another tree on the other side +fell. Above us the vehicle's tower loomed like a cathedral spire. +Tremendous now, the vehicle had grown until it was almost touching the +house. A fence had been trampled, had vanished beneath its giant bulk. + +And the growth was increasingly rapid. If we could not check it . . . +If it got wholly beyond control--this monster, growing . . . forever +growing, to a size infinitely large--larger than our earth itself. . . . + +I must have been standing stupidly confused. I heard Dr. Gryce +imploring, "Take hold of it, Frank! We must lift it. We must--our last +chance----" + +But Brett pushed us away. "I'm going inside. I can move the switch--let +go of me, Father! That switch--it isn't too big yet--but it will be in +a minute. Let go of me!" + +"No! No, Brett! The shock as you went in--you couldn't take it so +suddenly. It might hurt you--kill you. And the switch is too big for +your strength." + +It was out of control--this monster, growing, inexorably growing--it +was pushing at the house--a great white giant pushing gently but with +an irresistible power at the little toy house beside it. I could see +the house shifting on its foundations; a corner of it tilted downward. + +[Illustration: "The vehicle was out of control, pushing at the house +like a great white giant."] + +"Brett! Father! Try it now. One last try." Martt and Frannie had the +pole again in position. With a last despairing effort we raised it; +slid it up over the giant table-edge; caught the wide flaring side of +the giant switch. Pushing--despairingly; five of us, pigmies struggling +there at that giant threshold. The switch moved. Our pole held its +place; the switch moved farther, clicked with a tremendous snap that +reverberated about us. The growth of the monster was checked. It stood +there serene, triumphant, with the little house, tilted, but still +standing bravely beside it. + +White, shaken, we ceased our efforts. Frannie gasped, "We--we only +wanted to make it a normal size--so you could load it up with the +furniture and things. But it--it got away from us." + +Dr. Gryce said, "It is a lesson--perhaps a lesson which we needed +forced upon us." He gestured to the great quiescent white building +which had spread itself over most of the devastated garden. "A lesson," +he repeated. "We must guard this power carefully. In unskilled +or unscrupulous hands it is a power for evil almost unthinkable. +This monster here--if it had gotten beyond us--if we had lost its +control--this could destroy the Universe!" + + + + + _CHAPTER 3_ + + EXPLORERS INTO INFINITY + + +"You think we've got everything in it?" Frannie asked anxiously. + +We had gotten the vehicle back to a size normal to our own stature; +and all day had been working to equip it. The instrument room--its +Space and Time and size mechanisms were complete. I had learned now +that it was to be transported through Space by very similar principles +to those commonly in use--a controlled attraction or repulsion +of the faces of its cube for the heavenly body nearest to it; in +effect, an intensification--a neutralization--or reversal at will of +the electronic force which flows between and mutually attracts all +material bodies; the force which once--in centuries past--was called +gravitation. It needed no word of explanation. Its velocity and +distance dials, its direction indicators, were familiar, though rather +more intricate than those I had seen in the Interplanetary Service. +Beyond that, there was a bank of dials upon which a changing size was +recorded--with the vehicle's present starting dimensions to be the +standard unit. And other dials for its Time-change. Of these there were +two distinct sets. One, a record of the normal Time-change, inevitable +to a change of size; another, a comparison of that Time-distance with +the normal Time-progress of the earth, so that the Time-position of the +vehicle into the earth's Past or Future could be seen. + +In a subsidiary instrument-room was a variety of modern astronomical +apparatus; the myrdoscope, and a receiver for an aural ray which, as +a guide to Brett, Dr. Gryce was to send from earth. Of this, in more +detail, they later explained. + +In a smaller room were the apparatus for air renewal, the making of +various necessary gases, water and synthetic foods; a store-room +of provisions; rooms furnished comfortably so that the vehicle was +complete in its living quarters. A thousand details, until at the last +I felt as Frannie did--wondering how we could have failed to overlook a +score of things we had intended to do. + +It was nightfall when we finished; and all that evening we spent +checking up the equipment. Dr. Gryce's home had not been seriously +damaged by the morning's mishap; and as midnight approached we gathered +in the little observation and instrument room he had built in its upper +story. Brett and Martt, it had been decided, were to make the journey; +we others were to watch and wait. It seemed the more difficult role. +All that evening Dr. Gryce had been increasingly silent, careworn +of manner and aspect. And though Brett was excited in his mature, +repressed fashion--and Martt frankly exuberant--I saw that little +Frannie was solemn, perturbed as her father. + +It was a soft, brilliant, cloudless night, with no moon to pale the +gleaming stars. And at last every detail was settled, and the midnight +hour we had set for departure was at hand. We went forth with them to +the waiting vehicle. There was nothing more to say. They stood--Brett +and Martt--in the opened doorway as we gathered about them. + +"Well--good-bye, Father--good-bye, Frannie dear." Brett held her close; +then released her, pushed her away. "Good-bye, Frank." His hand-clasp +was warm and steady. + +Martt was jocular, but now at the last I could hear a tremble to his +voice. "When we get to that girl out there--well, I'm going to tell her +how interested you all are in her." His laugh was high-pitched. "That +is, if we can handle that giant." + +"Good-bye, Brett. Good-bye, Martt." + +Our words were so futile, so inadequate to the surge of feeling within +us! The door slid closed upon them. The vehicle, not to change size +until it was far into the realms of outer interstellar Space, beyond +our crowding little planets--lifted gently, soared upward, slid away +from us, a glistening white shape up there in the quiet starlight. + +Gravely, silently, with what sinking of heart I could only imagine, Dr. +Gryce stood regarding it. Beside me Frannie was crying softly. + +Explorers into infinity! And they were gone, to encounter--what? + + + + + _CHAPTER 4_ + + THE WATCHERS + + +We spent the rest of that night in the little observation room on the +upper story of Dr. Gryce's home; with him and Frannie beside me I sat +watching the vehicle's flight through the electro-telescope. It was +not a high-powered instrument, but it served. I could see the vehicle +plainly as it passed through our atmosphere and out into Space. A tiny +blob with darker rectangles of windows. + +Dr. Gryce sat with instruments, charts and his computations before +him. Occasionally he would ask me for the vehicle's position; and I +would give him the points and clock the time with all the accuracy +of which I was capable. He seemed solemn, perturbed no longer; the +scientist in him was all-absorbing. He said once with satisfaction, +"Brett is competent--the boy hasn't varied a hair from my directions." + +I knew that he and Brett had picked up the image of the girl and +her assailants within a month past; and that Brett had accurate +calculations which he could follow until able to capture the image on +his own instruments. + +"How long will it take them to get there?" I asked. "When will they be +back? You said within a few days. How long?" Dr. Gryce looked up from +his work with a faint smile. "There's no answer to that, Frank. Without +a change of their time it might take them to reach that realm out there +a thousand years or a million years--the vehicle's maximum velocity we +do not know--that they are to find out." + +"A million years! And another million to come back!" + +His smile broadened. "As we measure Time, yes. But they will change +their Time-rate; the trip may seem to them only a few days." + +"But," I persisted, "two million years of our Time! And we can not +change our Time." + +"No, Frank. But you speak thoughtlessly. Brett can return to any point +in our Time he wishes. Not with exactitude--but, we hope, within a few +days. They will return here--within that Time we have agreed." + +Frannie's face was very solemn though she said nothing; and I knew then +that she was wondering if her brothers would be able to keep their +promise. + +Dr. Gryce rose from his chair. "I must adjust the aural ray--Brett may +need it." + +He had already explained this ray. A device similar to the familiar +aurometer by which the aural power of the earth is measured. He had +perfected an instrument for projecting into Space the invisible aura of +the earth--projecting it in a tiny, very intense beam. An instrument +for visualizing its characteristic bands was in the vehicle. They hoped +that the ray might reach out into distant, interstellar Space; a flash +of it crossing the sky as our earth rotated. And, coming back, Brett +would see it, recognize it. A guide, as he came back from beyond all +the universes strewn there throughout the magnitude of Space. If it +could reach out there--if he saw it. My heart sank at the thoughts, +doubts, which rushed upon me. + +Dr. Gryce set his aural projector, with its ray, invisible to the naked +eye, flashing after the vehicle. Silently he returned to his seat. + +"Can you see them? You can still see them, Frank?" Frannie turned to me +with anxious face. + +I could still see the vehicle. But faintly, for faster than any mail +flyer it was winging its way outward. Mars--approaching its closest +point to the earth now to bring a deluge of the Martian Mails--red Mars +at midnight had been above us. The vehicle had gone that way; and now, +visually beside the planet, they were sinking together in the western +sky. The stars were paling with the coming dawn. The east flushed with +it, and presently I could see the vehicle no longer. + +And as I turned from my instrument, I heard Dr. Gryce. "Why Frannie, +girl! You're worn out! Come, it's dawn--they've vanished." + +Little Frannie had fallen asleep. + + + + + _CHAPTER 5_ + + THE RETURN + + +We did not sight the vehicle the next night; it had seemingly passed +beyond range of my instrument. With the myrdoscope we hoped to catch +it, but could not. The night following was overcast with clouds. But +we remained awake; Dr. Gryce seemed to feel that his sons might be +returning. It was pathetic to me, observing him quietly slipping away +from us at intervals to wander among the wreckage of his garden, gazing +anxiously upward. + +A week and still they had not come. What Dr. Gryce said to my Director +I do not know; but he told me the Director was satisfied to have me +remain away until my present business was finished. I had determined as +much for myself. Not all the Directors in the Service could have taken +me away from here, with Brett and Martt unheard from. + +Like a beacon day and night we made sure that our aural ray was +flashing its beam. But would Brett see it? + +Another week. Still no sign. Doubts, fears, terrors assailed us. +Were we watching, waiting futilely for what would never come? The +thought was in my mind--and I knew it was in the minds of Dr. Gryce and +Frannie--but never once did we voice it. Had Brett and Martt, perhaps, +returned to our Past? With mechanism impaired, had they landed here in +what we now called the Past--landed to find a wilderness of roaming +savages? Or to find this little Space we now called a house and garden, +a barren icy waste with men no more than beasts upon it? Or landed +here in our Future? Ourselves dead, gone and forgotten? A great city +here on this spot, perchance, with strange people and strange ways and +nothing remaining of the loved ones they sought? Or were they lost and +wandering in Space? Out there among myriad starry Universes hopeless to +find our infinitesimal Solar System? Or lost perhaps in Time, wandering +through the eons searching for the little centuries, years, days that +identified their goal? + +Or, again, perhaps they had safely reached that outer realm? Perhaps, +once there, something had happened to prevent their return? In what +we now called the Present, perhaps they were out there, transfixed, +just as to our vision that strange girl and her strange assailants +were transfixed--stricken of motion, with a passing of Time to us +insensible. Transfixed out there now, to take no more than a few +breaths, to move a hand, no more, during all the span of our own tiny +lives? + + + II + +I was sitting early one evening near the monight hour, alone with +Frannie in the observation room. Dr. Gryce, in the room adjoining, had +fallen asleep, worn by repressed anxiety and his now almost day and +night vigil. We were talking in half-whispers; and abruptly Frannie +voiced the fear that possessed us all. + +"Oh, Frank, can't you see them? Please, you must! Oh, I'm afraid +they're never coming back. Never--coming back." + +It sounded so horrible. "Hush, Frannie. You mustn't say things like +that." I put my arm around her, and suddenly like a child she flung +herself to me; sobbed, and clung to me. + +"Hush, Frannie. Don't cry--please don't cry. I'll look again. I might +see them now. I'll try to." + +I drew away from her; went back to my instrument. I had in mind to try +the myrdoscope, but all our efforts with it during the two weeks past +had been unavailing. It was a calm, clear evening. A broadly crescent +moon was falling into the west. Mars was well above the eastern +horizon; through the electro-telescope I looked that way. My circular +field was empty. Frannie was checking her sobs, interested with hope +renewed. + +"Don't you see them, Frank?" + +"No--not yet--_Yes_! I see them! Frannie, I see them!" + +From visually above the red planet, out of nothingness a huge shape +suddenly materialized. It had not been there an instant before; it +seemed for the space of a thought, a transparent ghost of the vehicle; +solidifying until even before I had told Frannie, I was aware that I +saw it there. The vehicle unmistakable. + +"They've come, Frannie! I see them! Call your father. Dr. Gryce! +They've come! They're safe!" + +How my heart leaped to be able to say it! Frannie was calling; and Dr. +Gryce, no more than half awake, repeating, "They've come? They're in +sight? They're safe?" + +This gentle old man, how full of thankfulness his heart must have been! +He came stumbling into the room. "Where are they, Frank? You can see +them, lad?" + +I could see them indeed--plainly, for abruptly I realized that they +were no farther than just beyond the earth's atmosphere. And I could +see also the conventional vane flying at horizontal above the vehicle's +tower to denote that all was well within. They had come. They were safe. + +They landed in the garden. Like a wafting feather the vehicle floated +down under Brett's skilled guidance. It was of a size seemingly +identical with the one it had upon departure, but evidence of its trip +was everywhere visible. Its gleaming milk-white color was dulled. Its +sides were pitted and scarred--the metal burned. A lower corner seemed +fused into a shapeless lump. + +The door slid open as we crowded forward. My heart was pounding. A +sudden, irrelevant thought leaped to me--a thought, hope, that they +might have brought back with them that strangely beautiful girl they +had gone to rescue. A thought abruptly, fiercely poignant--yet with +it a consciousness of its whimsicality that I--Frank Elgon--who loved +Frannie Gryce, should be possessed of such incongruous desire. + +The door was open. Brett and Martt--queerly garbed to seem almost +strangers--were crowding there, with no one else behind them. But +already I had forgotten the girl. Frannie's glad cries of welcome rang +out; and Dr. Gryce's tremulous greeting; and I heard my own voice, +strangely calm, "Well! Brett--Martt--you got back safely, didn't you? +I'm so glad--we're all so glad!" + + + + + _CHAPTER 6_ + + THE FLIGHT INTO TIME, SIZE AND SPACE + + +They seemed not tired, but undoubtedly they were hungry, famished; and +before they would say a word of those strange things we knew they had +to tell, they made us feed them. "Regular food," as Martt laughingly +called it. "By the code! We've eaten for months weird things supposed +to be edible. My digestion is ruined." + +Months! They had been gone two weeks and two days into a realm where +those little sixteen days were no more than a tiny fraction of a +second! Yet they spoke of months! It was very strange. + +"Frannie! _Don't_ ask me that again." Martt affectionately tweaked her +chin. "We found her, I tell you. Wait till we've had supper--you'll +hear." + +They ate with the relish of those long deprived of accustomed food; and +as we sat with them, forbearing to ask the eager questions flooding +us, again I had that impression of the strangeness which had come to +them. It was not only their manner of dress, though that of itself was +extraordinary. They wore shirts of a colored cloth with a high rolling +collar in front, low and open in back. Short trousers that were queerly +wide and flapping at the knee, stockings that seemed of a soft gray +leather and long-pointed shoes of a material I could not name. Over +the shirt a short jacket, wide-shouldered and with sleeves that puffed +and flared; and a skirt to it at the waist which rolled upward. Their +hats--which Frannie rescued from the vehicle--were solidly wooden of +aspect, with low circular crowns and triangular stiff brims. + +The garb seemed grotesque; yet they took it so as a matter of course +when once we ceased our comments--and they were so easy in it, so +unconscious of it--that abruptly I realized it was my own viewpoint +that held the strangeness. Between them, also, there was a difference +of aspect--a rationality to their characters. The colors of their +garments materially differed. Brett's clothes were more sober--less +vivid, less extreme. His shirt was a somber brown; Martt's was a +glaring green. Martt's jacket had additional bangles fastened to +its cloth, it rolled higher in the skirt; tassels depended from his +elbows longer than those Brett wore. His jacket sleeves were fuller; +his trousers flared more, and were a more brilliant hue. But I will +say that when after a time I became in a measure accustomed to his +looks, Martt was very handsome; and he carried himself with a sort of +swinging, debonair grace and swagger wholly attractive. + +They were strangers to us in their mode of dress; no one regarding +them could have named a nation of earth or any of the habited planets +from which they might have come. Yet the strangeness went deeper than +their clothes. They seemed older. A vague aspect of command seemed upon +them--especially did it envelop Brett, like an aura sensed but not +seen. Martt's old jocularity was unchanged; no dignity, no reservation, +no aloofness with us had been added to the new swagger. Yet beneath +his laughter there seemed always a hidden solemnity. And then I saw +it all--this subtle strangeness that clung to them--I saw it lurking +in their eyes. Memories mirrored there; memories of things no man had +seen and felt before. Eyes--and more especially Brett's eyes--which had +seen, perhaps, too much. + + + II + +It was Brett who began their narrative; began it with the slow, +careful, precise phrasing of the scientist anxious to avoid error of +memory; to be exact of every fact and detail. On his lap he held a book +of notes, and another book of the many dial recordings. He consulted it. + +"Our recorded time of starting was four minutes past midnight. Sixteen +days ago, wasn't it, Father? Sixteen!" + +He gave a queer laugh but did not comment upon his thoughts. "I had +determined to start slowly. Martt would have rushed us, but I thought +that caution was best until we were quite sure of the workings of these +mechanisms new to us. + +"I did not record our passing above the earth's atmosphere. But the +vehicle was inordinately hot from the friction of our passage. Perhaps +I took it too fast--at all events we did not bother with refrigeration +since in Space we would so soon need the heaters. We sat sweltering at +the main instrument table with the dials before us. + +"I think, Father, that I followed your instructions carefully. The +dials were all set and operating. The size-dials stood motionless at +unit 1. Our relative Time-dials were motionless at the original unit of +earth Time; and the earth dial-chronometers ticked off the passing of +your seconds and minutes. On the Space-dials--when first I chanced to +notice them--we had gone some 900 miles. Our velocity then had picked +up to 1,500 miles an hour and was swiftly accelerating. The Time was 1 +a.m. + +"It is slow getting through the atmosphere, but now we were fairly on +our way. As you suggested, Father, I was heading just a point off Mars +where I could hold Jupiter and Saturn almost in a line ahead of us. +They were all there visible through our floor window--we had turned +over and were falling toward them. I was using a fraction only of the +earth's repulsion, and holding steady with the selective attraction of +Mars and the star-field behind it." + +"We saw your aural ray," Martt put in. He was earnestly intent upon +Brett's narrative. "We saw it--I saw it--through the spectrometer. The +swing of it was apparent even at that near distance. And we saw the +Martian Mail coming in--they landed in Eurasia that night, I suppose. +Say, they move in a hurry, don't they? And stop in a hurry when they +get down close." + +Brett went on: "We were still within the lower cone of the earth's +shadow. But presently we emerged and came into the sunlight. The +brilliant blackness of Space; and the cold by now had penetrated so +that very soon we were glad enough to use the heaters. + +"You know the details of a Martian voyage, Father. And you, Frank? This +was no different except that having no necessity of stopping I reached +a greater velocity than they generally obtain. A forty-hour trip, isn't +it, Frank?" + +"There's nearly always one of the minimum-distance trips at about +that," I answered. "But you had some sixty million miles for yours. +That's a lot longer than a minimum distance." + +He nodded. "Yes. We came abreast of Mars--I suppose about a million +miles away. Our Space-dials showed about sixty-two million miles +traveled. We had been gone from you thirty-nine hours. Our average +velocity had been something over a million and a half miles an hour, +and with steadily increasing acceleration had reached then nearly three +million an hour. + +"That was as quick a trip as you anticipated, Father? But even so, we +found it irksome. We alternated at the instrument board. Martt prepared +most of the meals--beyond that and sleeping there was little to do. +Except to watch for asteroids; but the mails have reported the region +through there remarkably free of them this season. We saw none inside +the Martian orbit closer than a million miles, which to such a low +velocity as ours held no danger." + +Dr. Gryce asked, "The air purifiers, Brett? You had no trouble?" + +"No. Or very little, except just at first with the chlorate of +potassium. I was telling you about passing Mars. We saw it rising +slowly past us--saw it through a side window. A huge crescent, the +sunlight on half its disk, but even the unlighted portion was plainly +outlined. Above us was the thin crescent earth, with the sun behind it. +The tongues of flame in the sun's envelope were plainer than I had ever +seen them. We were falling away from the earth and sun, into the inky +blackness of Space with its blazing white stars. + +"During all this first portion of the trip we were eager to get more +quickly advanced. Beyond Neptune's orbit, with the Solar System once +behind us, we would feel like explorers, even though Nogar--he holds +the record, doesn't he?--went once 27,000 million miles out." + +Dr. Gryce put in: "His record was 27,600 million miles from our sun. +At nearly five million miles an hour, which was his maximum velocity +obtainable, that trip for the full return passage consumed--I think the +total time was 461 days." + +Brett went on, "That was the record. But even to go a single light-year +at that velocity would have taken Nogar around 84 years--just going out +a little light-year of distance, to say nothing of getting back! And we +had so many thousands of light-years to travel even to get beyond the +stars. It seemed stupendous--impossible." + +"Naturally," said Dr. Gryce. "Impossible, of course, had you held to +that size." They were directing their explanations at me. I nodded. +"But you didn't stay that size?" I suggested. + +"No, of course not," said Brett. "But for a time, we did--I was +cautious from Mars to Jupiter, Father. Nogar plunged right through the +asteroid region there--plunged through at nearly his five million +miles an hour velocity. I held down to three million. We kept a close +watch, though Martt had a somewhat terrifying experience. Tell them, +Martt." + +Martt flushed a trifle. "It wasn't my fault--at least I didn't think +so. At a velocity like that the space there between the orbits of +Mars and Jupiter is horribly crowded. Brett was asleep. I sat by the +instrument table staring down into the floor window at the black +firmament into which we were dropping. You people take a voyage like +this as a matter of course--but it was my first time off earth, and the +beauty of it--of the heavens--well, I tell you it impressed me. The +black firmament--those blazing constellations beneath us--the full moon +of Jupiter every moment growing larger like a white round lamp down +there. + +"Well, anyway, perhaps, I was lost in thoughts of it--when leaping +up out of the blackness came a great round silver disk. A hundred +times the size of our full moon. Then a thousand. It was below me, +but off to one side. It swept past, so close I could see its barren, +rocky surface--a range of desolate gray mountains; and I could see, +too, its rotation, like a ball tossed into the air slowly rotating. +Before I could think to do anything--even to make a move--the asteroid +went past, out of my field as I looked through the floor window. For +a moment I saw it rising past a side window and then it was above +us--gone completely beyond my sight in a moment or two. I want to tell +you I was frightened--I called Brett down at once." + +Brett laughed. "I found him white, shaking like a tower-trembler. +If a collision had really threatened, he could have thrown the main +Time-switch. Thrown us suddenly into the asteroid's past or future--I +had told him that--but when the danger came, he never thought of it." + +"I never did," Martt confessed. + +"How close did the asteroid pass?" I asked. "I saw one once, on a +Martian trip----" + +"I suppose we passed it at a distance of some three thousand miles," +Brett answered. "But at three million miles an hour we were traveling +that distance in three or four seconds. It was a narrow escape. The +asteroid's attraction had drawn us aside from our course--but I soon +rectified that." + +"I meant to explain about attraction a moment ago, Frank," Dr. Gryce +interrupted. "The attraction of the vehicle on our planets is why +Brett could not yet increase his size. Jupiter and Saturn were pulling +the vehicle onward, and in direct proportion to the mass, of course, +the vehicle was pulling at them. An infinitesimal pull--but had Brett +increased its size materially--while still close to our planets--the +vehicle would have been a seriously disturbing element. I did not want +that. Indeed, with any great size-increase, the vehicle moving out +there would have thrown our whole system into chaos." + +Brett said, "I was careful to obey you, Father. We were safely +beyond Saturn--and Uranus and Neptune were on the other side of the +sun--before I even touched the size-switch. From the orbit of Mars to +that of Jupiter there are some 334 million miles between the points +we crossed. We were about 112 hours making the voyage. I kept us well +away--some ten million miles. But the planet was a beautiful sight, +assuming every phase from full to crescent as we passed. You have never +been so close, Father? Nor you, Frank?" + +"Nor I," spoke up Frannie. She said it in a whimsical fashion of +pathos, as though to make us all realize that she had been neglected. + +Brett laughed affectionately. "No, nor you, little sister. Well, it's +a beautiful sight. You can see it similarly in the telescope, but +somehow, at the same visual distance the naked eye shows it indefinably +different. A beautiful silver disk with the broad dark bands upon it +and the red spot glowing like a lantern in its lower hemisphere. + +"Our velocity was slackened for a time as we passed Jupiter, since +I had to lose its great attractive force and turn a neutral side to +it. But once by it, with it blazing as a gigantic thin crescent above +us, I used a full power of its repulsion. We gained velocity rapidly. +With the region of minor planets passed I had no fear of using all the +velocity we could obtain. I think Nogar was unskilful in the handling +of his vehicle; at all events, before we reached the neighborhood of +Saturn, we had attained a velocity of seven and a half million miles an +hour. It was the greatest velocity we reached." + +"But," I exclaimed, "but Brett, at seven and one-half million miles +an hour, in your whole life-time--whether you changed your Time-rate +or not, you would have to live those hours--in a whole life-time at +that velocity you wouldn't get one-quarter of the distance even to the +nearest star!" + +"No," he agreed. "But I began using the size-change after we passed +Saturn----" + +I interrupted again. "I've been wondering about that--I don't quite +see----" + +"I'll make it clear to you, Frank, in a moment," Dr. Gryce put in. "Go +on, Brett." + +"We were well past Saturn before I changed our size at all. Our average +velocity along there was six million miles an hour--it was a run of +about seventy-five hours. We would have been--even at our maximum of +seven and one-half million miles an hour--more than another 240 hours +getting past Neptune's orbit. It was too tedious. We determined, since +Uranus and Neptune were in other parts of their orbits--far on the +other side of our sun--I decided that once we were well beyond Saturn, +I would start our increase of size. We were seventy million miles +beyond Saturn, with nothing of importance ahead of us but the distant +stars, when I determined to start the change. The space there was +comparatively deserted--a few asteroids--sometimes we could go nearly +an hour without even sighting one. + +"With Martt beside me--we were both a little timid about it, +naturally--I threw over the switch and started our growth." + +He paused for the length of a breath. "It was extraordinary--all our +experience of the voyage from that moment was extraordinary. I hardly +know how to begin telling you. . . ." + + + III + +Dr. Gryce interrupted. "Just a minute, Brett--I want to make absolutely +clear to Frank the principles involved in this change of size in +relation to velocity." + +"May I ask a question first?" I hazarded. + +"All you like," said Brett. + +"I'm wondering why in your normal size you could attain no greater +velocity than seven and one-half million miles an hour. Theoretically, +you know, a freely falling body will accelerate to infinity. And +with repulsion added--a body, not only falling, but being _pushed_ +downward----" + +Frannie said, "Nogar found his approximate limit at five million----" + +"Our limitations were similar to his," Martt put in. + +"I know," I said. "I remember in the public newscasting they said----" + +"We found the same conditions," Brett put in. "Our vehicle--any vehicle +traveling in outer Space--is not strictly a freely falling body. For +low velocities--the general voyaging from here to Mercury, Venus or +Mars--Space may almost be considered a vacuum. But it is not a vacuum, +as we know. The imponderable, widely separated atoms of the ether--to +use the ancient word--begin to be a factor at velocities over three +million miles an hour. The drag became increasingly noticeable----" + +"And the heat of the friction warmed us up," Martt put in. "At six +million miles an hour we were hot, let me tell you. Sweltering--even +with the full refrigeration units going." + +"That friction held us to seven and one-half million as our limit," +Brett added. "Anything else, Frank?" + +"Yes, I was wondering about our aural ray here. Could you still see it?" + +"Oh yes. Our sun of the Solar System had dwindled--small, but white +and brilliant. With the naked eye the little star which was our earth +showed very faint but distinguishable. With the aurometer--even using +its spreading field of vision so that it embraced all that portion of +the sky--we could see your beam sweeping slowly across the field as the +earth rotated." + +"And the myrdoscope?" I suggested. "Hadn't you tried again to locate +the image of that girl?" My heart thumped as I said it. + +He nodded. "Beyond Jupiter, when the long hours of inactivity hung on +us, I spent many of them searching ahead of us with the myrdoscope. At +last I picked up the image of the girl--held it for a few moments." + +"There was no change?" Dr. Gryce said eagerly. + +"No. The little distance we had traveled made no change--in fact, my +smaller instrument, Father, showed it rather less clearly." + +"I mean no change in the girl's attitude," Dr. Gryce insisted. "No +change in the attacking giant--or those grinning little dwarfs at the +girl's ankle?" + +"None. But she was aware of them. On her face was stark terror--as +we had seen it from here, Father, a month before. I noticed that the +giant's forward step had nearly been completed--and the climbing dwarf +was holding tightly to her sandal cord." + +Brett gazed at me inquiringly but I shook my head. "That's all I have +to ask," I said. "Go ahead, Brett. You were telling us about how you +started the size-change----" + +Dr. Gryce put in. "I think you had best proceed, Brett. And then if +there is anything Frank does not understand, we can stop and make it +clear." + +He nodded, but for a moment he hesitated. "I flung over the switch to +start our growth," he said slowly. "It was the beginning of all those +strangely weird experiences which followed now one upon the other. +Frightening at first. . . ." + + + IV + +He paused briefly, then went on: "Our first sensation was one of +shock--a reeling of the senses. But it was not severe--it passed almost +at once. We found ourselves clinging there to the instrument table. +To me the room seemed swaying dizzily. My forehead was damp with cold +moisture; a nausea possessed me. I was oppressed; the air of the room +was heavy to breathe." + +"The air was snapping with the current," said Martt. "I could see it, +and feel it tingling against my face. And it was heavy to breathe, as +Brett says." + +Brett resumed: "But we felt better after a moment. I saw the change +first on the dials. The pointer of the lowest unit dial of the size +series was slowly but visibly moving. I watched as it crept from 1 to +2. We had doubled in size. I gazed about the room. It was unchanged; +and now as my body rapidly adjusted itself to the new conditions, I +began to feel almost normal. Except a queer whirring in my head, and +the nausea which persisted for perhaps an hour, I felt no evidence +of the growth. The room, the vehicle was untrembling. No slightest +evidence within the vehicle of the size-change going on--except the +creeping pointer of the lowest dial. It was moving faster; it had +reached 10. The pointer of the dial beside it--registering in units of +a hundred--now seemed stirring." + +Brett gazed at us earnestly. "I want to make myself absolutely clear. +We were then--I suppose a minute or so had elapsed--we were ten times +our original size----" + +"Much faster than the vehicle grew in the garden," I exclaimed. + +"Yes. I had chanced the possibility of severe shock and thrown the +lever at once to a quarter strength. Martt and Frannie, in the garden, +had put it on only to the one-hundredth part of its power. At all +intensities, the growth, you understand, constantly accelerates. +At unit 10, which we reached in possibly the first minute, we were +ten times our starting size--that is, for earth measurements, our +vehicle from base to tower-top was then one-tenth of a mile. But +soon the pointer had passed 50. And then 100--and the pointer of the +hundred-unit dial had crept to 1. + +"With recovered normality of senses we had gone to the windows. I +want you to visualize first what always before we had seen. An +inky black void everywhere surrounding us, in the center of which +seemingly we hung motionless. The brilliant firmament of stars, freed +from the distortion of earth's atmosphere; glittering, blazing like +great diamonds. Pure white, blue-white, or tinged with yellow and +red. The whole extent of the heavens swarming with them. The huge, +spiral nebulous masses fleecy white, with tiny points of blazing +white fire in them. And behind them all that distant ring of seeming +star-dust--immeasurably distant yet glowing like a silver veil, which +in the ancient books they called the 'Milky Way.' + +"Near at hand, above us were the tiny planets of our Solar System. The +sun, only a pale white disk from out here near Saturn; the earth--a +star very faint; red Mars, a tiny reddish dot. But Jupiter was +brilliant; and Saturn from our proximity was stupendously beautiful. +The globe itself--a great silver disk, with the sunlight to make a +narrow portion of it into a blazing crescent. The darkened areas of the +globe, even on the shadowed portion, were plain almost as the bands of +Jupiter. And Saturn's rings! Concentric rings--the inner one a trifle +darker--opened up to a narrow angle--a glowing silver band like a broad +hat-brim encircling the planet--a hat-brim over 37,000 miles broad. + +[Illustration: "Saturn with its rings was stupendously beautiful from +our proximity."] + +"This we saw, with ourselves of unchanging size. But now we were +growing. The change was at first apparent only in the aspect of +Saturn--since it was closest to us. The planet seemed to become a +little smaller--shrinking and creeping toward us. A contraction of its +size--and as though the space between us were diminishing. Yet--as +a seeming paradox--the visual diameter of the globe and the rings +remained almost the same. + +"It is difficult to describe. We seemed moving closer to Saturn, yet +in no sense was there any apparent motion. The effect--the result--of +seeming motion--not the motion itself. Martt presently went back to +watch the dials. He called out to me when we had reached unit 1,000. A +thousand times our original size--the vehicle now ten miles in earthly +height. The change had now affected very slightly the entire firmament. +Everywhere a seeming contraction--not so much in the aspect of the +blazing star-points, but in the black void of Space itself. As though +the void were smaller--contracted so that everything in it were of +necessity a little nearer to us. But it was as yet barely noticeable. I +might even have thought it a psychological co-action with the change in +Saturn's aspect--a change unmistakable. + +"Saturn, as we grew, had been seemingly smaller and coming visually +nearer to us. Yet our velocity away from it was--in our original +size--seven and one-half million miles an hour. Can I make you realize +that the effect of _both_ motions was apparent? It was as though we +were moving forward to lengthen a dwindling distance, with Saturn +following after us simultaneously to shorten it. + +"It was at the thousand unit point--ourselves then ten miles of earthly +height--that I shut off the size-switch. Of visual diameter, Saturn had +really not altered materially." + +Brett stopped as though carefully to choose his words. "I'm striving +to give you a clear picture. A distant object of great size may +appear of the same diameter as something smaller and closer. But +you can generally tell which is which. There is a difference of +aspect--impossible to describe, but readily seen. Saturn was like +that--the change in the planet was like a progressive change from +the one condition to the other. It had appeared large and distant; +it changed, to be smaller and closer. Just before I shut off the +size-switch, when our rate of growth had become comparatively rapid, +Saturn took on other motions--I'll tell you about them in a moment. + +"Do I make myself clear? I want to. . . . With our growth checked, +there was at once a striking, visual result. We seemed receding from +Saturn so fast that its apparent diameter dwindled very rapidly--a +normal dwindling of rapidly added distance. Presently it was a mere +star--then a pin-point of light. Then it was vanished. Our other +planets of the Solar System had preceded Saturn into invisibility. Then +our sun itself became so faint a star that I lost it. We were beyond +the Solar System--itself wholly lost to the naked eye among the great +star-clusters enveloping it." + + + V + +"Wait," I exclaimed. "There is so much I want to ask you, Brett." + +Frannie interposed timidly: "Did you say, Brett, that on earth the +vehicle then would have been ten miles in height?" + +"Yes," he agreed. + +She commented, "Then your relative Time-dials must have been visibly +moving----" + +Dr. Gryce hastily interrupted: "The practical workings of the inherent +Time-change I want Brett to explain carefully. You did not move the +vehicle in Time, did you, Brett?" + +"No sir. Not then." + +I must have looked puzzled, for Dr. Gryce added: "We mean, Frank, that +the vehicle could have traveled in Time--in earth-Time, for instance, +to go into our past or our future. Brett had not done that. But +immediately the vehicle started a size-change, you understand, there +automatically began a Time-change inherent to that growth. Normal to +it, let me say." + +"Oh, yes," I nodded. "I remember you explained that. In relation to its +size----" + +"I'll put it this way," Dr. Gryce went on. "That girl out there is +moving through Time at a definite rate. Let us say a year of our Time +would be measured as a second of hers." + +"Less than that," Martt interjected. + +"Yes lad, I know. But those rough figures will serve for the present +comparison." He turned back to me. "Keep that in mind, Frank. Now +conceive Brett and Martt changing progressively upward in size, from +what they are here on earth, to a size normal to that girl and the +realm she lives in. A corresponding Time-change must take place. At +every point of the voyage in Time and size, the relative values must +agree; the vehicle's Time-rate always must be in inverse proportion to +its position in size." + +I nodded. "I think I understand. You mean that when in size the vehicle +had progressed half-way from our size to the girl's, that then the +vehicle's normal Time-rate would be half-way between our Time and hers?" + +"Exactly, Frank." + +"At this ten-mile size what percentage of the size-journey had been +made?" I asked. I smiled. "I'm trying to imagine how large that girl +may be." + +Brett said quickly, "I'll tell you that later. It was some distance +farther on before I could calculate such relative values even as +approximations." + +Frannie said, "At that point, Brett, the vehicle began speeding into +the earth's future, didn't it?" + +Dr. Gryce exclaimed: "Child, that will only lead us into philosophical +discussion. Beyond the realm of mathematics----" + +"I don't think so, Father," Brett said quietly. "I would say that +since everything--Size, Time and Space--is relative, depending +wholly on the viewpoint of the observer--that Frannie's question is +simple enough. To me as observer--to my consciousness there in the +vehicle--every given instant was the Present. The earth was out there +in Space, revolving about its sun; rotating on its axis--its movements +to my consciousness _faster_ than before. To me it was the Present. +The earth was there. I saw it through the electro-telescope. I also +saw your aural ray through the aurometer. The ray swept the sky with +a rapid sweep, since to my altered Time-rate the earth was rotating +faster. But every given instant was my Present. + +"However, compare my consciousness to yours on earth. The +earth--rotating faster relative to me--had, while I watched there, +made, let us say, a full rotation in that first five minutes of my +vigil. Relative to me--it was the earth's future Time. I was gazing +upon earth in its _tomorrow_. So I think that I was, as Frannie said, +speeding into the earth's future." + +Frannie was triumphant. Dr. Gryce said smilingly, "You put it +clearly, Brett. But it's a philosophical and metaphysical viewpoint +nevertheless. You spoke of Saturn's having another apparent motion near +the end of your size-change?" + +"Yes," said Brett. "As our Time-rate became materially slower, the +speeding up of all the motions inherent to the planets grew visible. +Saturn's rotation on its axis became readily visible through the +telescope. And the globe began very slowly shifting sidewise--at nearly +right angles to our course--the visual result of the intensification of +its orbital movement. . . . You were going to ask a question, Frank, a +moment ago?" + +I had not forgotten it. "You were telling us, Brett, how you stopped +your growth at the ten-mile size. Almost immediately, you said, Saturn +receded into an invisibility of distance. The entire Solar System +vanished into distance. You had been traveling only seven and one-half +million miles an hour before changing size. It was the new velocity I +wanted to ask about. The whole question of velocity relative to size." + +"Relative!" Brett exclaimed. "That's the keynote to it, Frank. Two +differing viewpoints, always. Keep them both in mind--the viewpoint +of earth-size, and the viewpoint of the vehicle-size. I'll try and +explain it now. Once clear to you, our whole experience will clarify to +your understanding. Conceive, from your external viewpoint of earth, +the vehicle out there in Space dropping with a velocity of seven and +one-half million miles an hour. That was its maximum, owing to the +ether-friction. It started to increase in size. Hence its mass grew--in +proportion directly as the cube. As the mass grew greater, the atoms +of the ether became of themselves relatively smaller, less ponderable, +less capable of exerting their frictional drag. + +"This should be very clear to you, Frank. In a vacuum, a feather +and a bit of lead fall at equal rates. The mass--the weight--has +nothing to do with it. But in air--where there is a friction--the +heavier object falls faster. The vehicle was like that. Its mass, so +enormously increased, gave it a greatly increased maximum velocity. It +picked up velocity rapidly with its growth. The formulas involved are +intricate--I need only say that after forty-nine minutes of traveling +at the ten-mile size, we had again reached maximum. It was about 200 +million miles a minute." + +"A minute!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes. That is 12,000 million miles an hour, as against seven and +one-half million. The vehicle's length, breadth and width had each +increased to a thousand times their former size. Its mass was the +product of the three--hence one thousand million times greater. + +"These are all approximate to the actual figures, you understand. Round +numbers are less confusing. Our resultant velocity, however, was 200 +million miles a minute, at the end of the first hour. We were well +beyond the Solar System by then." + +Frannie asked, "Brett, why didn't Saturn appear to recede until after +you had stopped your growth?" + +"That was merely optical, Frannie. Our velocity away from Saturn was +steadily increasing. But with our increasing size, the space seemed +dwindling--as though Saturn were following after us. With the growth +checked there was a visual reaction--an apparent leaping away. It was +merely optical. Anything else?" + +"I'd like to know," I said, "the relation of your Time in the vehicle +at the ten-mile size--its relation to our earth-Time." + +"The proportion of one to one thousand," he answered readily. "Seven +seconds to me, then, was about two hours on earth. Could I have seen +the earth when I reached that maximum, it would have made a complete +rotation on its axis--a day of yours--in a minute and twenty-four +seconds to me. + +"It's all clear, isn't it? Suppose I go back to the details of our +trip? With ten miles of earthly size, at a velocity of 200 million +miles a minute we were dropping into the black void of Space. The Solar +System was lost presently, even to telescopic vision, but with the +naked eye the firmament of stars was very little changed. I searched +with the myrdoscope for the image of the girl, but did not chance to +pick it up. We were hot again within the vehicle, from the ether +friction--as hot as we had been before. + +"Beneath us, in the star-field for which I was heading, was Alpha +Centauri. It is, as you know, one of the very closest stars to our +Solar System--to our earth. In miles, roughly some 25,000,000,000,000. +Four and a third light-years of distance, 4.35 light-years to be exact. +At 200 million miles a minute we would have been some eighty-eight days +getting there." + +"I couldn't have stood a trip so long," Martt exclaimed. "I told him +we'd have to increase our size again. Nearly three months to get to the +nearest star--with others a thousand times farther on!" + +"There was no reason for us to stay so small," Brett agreed. "Out +there, with the Solar System so far away, I had no fear of disturbing +it." + +Again I interrupted. "Brett, the vehicle's velocity was then much +greater than the velocity of light----" + +"About eighteen times greater." + +"It seems inconceivable," I added. "Impossible for any tangible entity +in Space to attain such velocity." + +"Ah, but Frank, that's where you're using the wrong viewpoint," Dr. +Gryce exclaimed warmly. "You're still imagining yourself an observer on +earth. But take the viewpoint of the vehicle. Space was proportionately +smaller than before. Brett gives you the earth-size figures in order to +avoid confusion. From the vehicle's enlarged viewpoint, Brett, what was +its comparative velocity?" + +"About twelve million miles an hour," Brett said. "As against a former +seven and one-half million. Not so great a change, Frank?" + +"No," I admitted. "But----" + +"But you can not quite grasp how the two velocities can be the same? +Existing simultaneously in the same vehicle, only with a differing +viewpoint?" + +I think that was my trouble. I nodded, and he said at once, "To the +larger viewpoint, Frank, the Space had diminished a thousand times, to +make a thousand miles become as one mile. Not an _actual_ change--a +relative change only. But twelve million miles an hour, with distance +diminished one thousand times, is the same as twelve thousand million +miles an hour with the distance factor unaltered. You see that, of +course. Or consider the relative Time-values. The vehicle's Time +was seven seconds to about two hours. The exact figures were one to +one thousand. In the vehicle we lived a thousand earth-seconds in one. +Applied, then, to the two viewpoints of velocity, it gives identical +results for the distance traveled. Whatever the factors involved--the +earth-Time; the vehicle-Time; the Space relative to the vehicle; or to +the earth; and the velocity, relative either to the vehicle-size or +earth-size--the result must be mathematically the same. You see? And, +Frank, in describing the progressive size-changes into which we now +plunged, I shall give you always Space with earth-standards, and our +velocity from the viewpoint of earth. It reached tremendous figures; +but you are to remember always that of actuality they must be divided +by the relative size factor. They were never greater than you would +have expected the vehicle to obtain. + +"I was saying that we were headed for Alpha Centauri. Again we started +the growth. I threw the switch to its fullest intensity. Martt stayed +to watch the dials; I sat on the floor, gazing down through the window +at the star-field spread out beneath me. When my head had cleared from +the shock of starting the growth, I sat absorbed in watching. Soon +visible movements appeared. The star-drifts began to be apparent. And +we were going toward these stars; the apparent shortening Space, added +to our increasing relative velocity, made their approach visible. In +the field to the sides of us, the stars were shifting upward. Those in +front were spreading apart with a movement very slow but perceptible as +we dropped toward them. + +"I do not know how long I sat there; Martt occasionally would call to +me from his post at the dials, but I hardly heard him. Alpha Centauri +presently came rushing forward. As you know, it is a binary--twin stars +a few hundred million miles apart, its components revolving about each +other with a period of eighty-one years. It had been one blazing white +point of light. Then it separated into two. They stayed visually small, +for they were dwindling before the vehicle's growth; but they came +rushing toward us. Soon I could see them separated by a narrow black +ribbon of the void; and could see them revolving one about the other." + +"An eighty-one-year period, and you could see it!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes--a very slow movement, but I could see it. I would have passed +between them--the ribbon of Space there was widening rapidly, the stars +themselves had become great, blazing white-hot suns. But I was afraid +of the heat; I altered our course to present a slightly repellent side. +The firmament turned partly over. The two stars swung up past our side +window; in visual diameter larger than our earthly sun--they mounted +upward, closed in above us, drew together to form one; a sun at first; +then a brilliant star; then faint, until with the naked eye I lost it. + +"Beneath us, the star-field in front was rushing upward much faster +now. The constellations opening; the stars shifting--everywhere was +movement--strange movement, unnatural, fantastic. I confess, Father, +that I was injudicious. Martt was absorbed, fascinated in watching the +dials, and when occasionally he would call to me, I told him everything +was all right." + +"I didn't know what was going on," said Martt. "You told me to sit +there and I sat there." + +"Of course you didn't know what was going on," Brett smiled. "But I +did, and I think for a time I lost my wits. The stars were thick and +close around us. The nebulæ were opened into individual points of fire. +Everywhere was movement, unreal. Stars rotating visibly; binaries +shifting about each other; other stars shifting about each other; other +stars seeming to enlarge in size, or to diminish, to swing this way +or that with all the optical vagaries of our velocity, our changing +Time and Size; and always those of the star-field in front--beneath +us--spreading to the sides, rushing past our windows, closing in above +us and fading into invisibility. + +"A myriad universes in fantastic motion. And suddenly I realized that +these giant suns were very close to us, and very small! Some I had +recognized--blazing globes 100 million miles and more in diameter, +and thought myself ten times that far from them. But it was not so. +I stared at a giant globe 100 million miles in diameter, and with +my viewpoint suddenly changed I saw that it was no more than a tiny +glowing meteor, sweeping past a few miles away! + +"All this star-field, little balls, rolling close upon us. A miracle +that none hit us, though some time before, I had had the wit to call +to Martt to make all the faces repellent. By inertia only, we plunged +onward, repelling what lay in our path. + +"I saw a wandering asteroid--a few hundred miles perhaps in diameter. +It was whirling on its axis like a ball thrown into the air. A +whimsical humor--a madness perhaps--had descended upon me. There was +nothing but the asteroid momentarily close before us, and I called to +Martt to throw attraction into the bottom of the vehicle. The asteroid +came rushing. But shrinking--shrinking until I laughed aloud to see it +dwindle to a ball I could have held in my hand; and dwindle further +until impotently it struck the floor window with a tiny point of fire +from its fusing rock and metal. A burning cinder which scarce would +have hurt me had I caught it in my naked hands. + + + VI + +"How long my mood of ironic madness may have lasted I can not say. I +barely noticed our actual entry into the Galactic Plane. Enormous suns +whirling past, now relatively not many times bigger than the vehicle +itself. Others, distant a mile or so--or a billion miles if you want +the other viewpoint--with their magnified drift making them dart +crazily past. I gave no heed to passing time; I remember only that at +last the star-field beneath us was thinning out. Stray clusters--a +myriad glowing little balls hurled aside by our rush. But there were +visibly less and less of them, until, quite suddenly, I realized that +unbroken inky darkness lay ahead. And to the sides and above us, the +star clusters, nebulæ swirling like silver mist--it was all fading. +Winking little points up there behind us--winking and vanishing. + +"We were in blackness unbroken. Dropping into a void of blackness +with velocity inconceivable. Suddenly I was frightened. Stiff from +so long upon the floor, I rose and hurried to Martt. We shut off the +size-switch; made all the faces repellent. But there was nothing to +repel; nothing to stop our downward rush into that blackness. It +seemed all at once a blackness pregnant with unseen things of fearsome +aspect. . . . The size-dials showed us to be near unit 50,000,000. +Fifty million times our original size! The vehicle 500,000 miles high! + +"The relative Time-dials--showing relative earth-Time--were whirling. +Our Time in the vehicle was less than a single second to a year on +earth. My mind leaped back to you. Every second we lived there in the +vehicle you here on earth were living more than a year. A century +of yours was little more than a minute to us. The earth's future, +whirling on a thousand years while Martt and I sat there confused at +the instrument table. A tiny little earth, spinning like a top upon its +axis, flashing around its tiny sun with a complete revolution every +second! + +"The velocity indicators, as well, were in rapid motion. The indicator +of the miles-per-hour unit was an indistinguishable blur. And miles +per minute--and per second--we could read none of them, so fast +were they moving. The light-year distance pointers were in motion. +We were piling up light-years of distance every moment. The total +stood--as momentarily I read it--at between eleven and twelve thousand +light-years of total distance traveled. Light, speeding at 186,000 +miles a second, must go a year to make a light-year unit of distance. +And we had gone nearly 12,000 light-years! I read our present velocity +on the light-year velocity-dial. It was 3480 light-years per hour! And +still rapidly accelerating! + +"The panic of fear possessed us at the strangeness of it all--at that +void of blackness--soundlessness--into which we were plunging; and +even our plunge unmarked by the faintest trembling of the vehicle. A +panic. I started to use the aurometer to search for your ray. Absurd! +The absurdity of it made me laugh hysterically. Your ray had been +extinguished thousands of years in my Past. I tried the myrdoscope--to +locate the image of the girl--to verify our direction, for abruptly +I realized I had, in that empty black void, nothing by which I might +locate our position. + +"The myrdoscope was inoperative! I could not locate the girl-image--nor +anything else. I tried with the electro-telescope at its greatest +power--tried frantically to pick up some star-image behind us. I could +not. I did not think they were as yet beyond its range--it merely +had gone dead. The current in it would not hum. It was dead like the +myrdoscope. We wondered then if our dials were working accurately. In +our panic we doubted everything. And knew, with a stark terror upon +us--knew that we were lost. Lost perhaps in Size and Time. And lost in +black Space, empty, soundless, unfathomable!" + + + + + _CHAPTER 7_ + + "A SINGLE STARLIT NIGHT--AN ETERNITY" + + +Brett had momentarily paused in his narrative, but when we would have +plied him with questions he waved us aside. + +"Let us finish first. The panic that was upon us with this +knowledge--belief--that we were lost out there in Time and Size and +Space did not last long, for we fought against it. And presently we +were calmer--able to reason. Our size-dials were at rest--we had shut +off the switch. By earth standards the vehicle was 500,000 miles in +height. Our relative Time was a century of yours, to a little more +than a minute of ours. Some 8,000 years into your earth-future had +already piled up on the earth standard Time-dial--and we were adding +one hundred years to it almost every minute. Our velocity had reached +a maximum of 3480 light-years per hour--and we were 12,000 light-years +from earth. The velocity was now lessening a trifle; it dropped nearly +to an even 3,000. With unchanging size now, with nothing near us to +repel or attract, the ether-friction overcame inertia to reach a +balance of forces. + +"We conquered our fear--began to reason what we should do. It was of +course futile to look for your aural ray. It had been extinguished +thousands of years. We wanted to go on to our destination, and it was +the non-operation of the myrdoscope which worried and puzzled us. . . . +I was sure, Father, that up to this point in the voyage I had made +no serious error of direction. The image of the girl should have been +before us. But the myrdoscope would not work." + +"The Time----" I suggested. + +"Ah, no, Frank! We had progressed very little into the Time of that +girl's life. She should still have been reclining there on the bank; or +at least the bank itself should have been there. We puzzled over what +could be the trouble with the myrdoscope. We found the trouble----" + +"I found it," said Martt eagerly. + +Brett nodded. "Yes, it was Martt who reasoned it out. A curious +explanation--and one, I think, which involves the greatest of all the +issues we had encountered. The myrdoscope would not operate for a very +big, but very simple reason. You would think to find the answer in +Science? Not so. It was a theosophical reason, Father." + +Brett was very earnest, and very solemn. "It was my purpose, you +understand, to reach the girl at the _exact moment_ we had always seen +her. We planned to make our Time before reaching her, coincident with +hers of that given instant. Remember that. Consider then: At this other +instant when now we were trying to see her through the myrdoscope, our +Time-rate had carried us about 8,000 years into earth's future. But +also, it had carried us some forty minutes into the girl's future. + +"Not science now. Metaphysics, perhaps--and certainly Theology, and +Theosophy. We were destined _to be with the girl during those forty +minutes_. And we could not now look ahead and _see ourselves_--see our +future actions. + +"Father, you've spoken of that. What you said was true. It is not God's +way that man should look at his own little future. Not best for us. +The Almighty knows it, and has prohibited it. Chaos would result, for +we live upon hope. There was no scientific reason why the myrdoscope +should not show us what we were destined to do during those forty +minutes. Yet--it was dead. Dark. Inoperative. + +"And this now I know: With all the science in the world there are some +things you can not do--those things which transgress the Creator's +laws. Before them--against all scientific reason, logic--we must fail. +You can not see your future; you can only live it once. Nor can you go +back through Time to stop in your own Past; to live again your life--to +do differently than you did before. It is unthinkable--impossible, even +though now we have the scientific means to accomplish it. It is not the +Almighty's plan--and He will not let us do it. + +"We reasoned all this out. It was simple enough. We had our Time-switch +which would change our Time-rate irrespective of the normal Time-change +inherent to our size. . . . That was what puzzled you awhile ago, +Frank? Well, now we used that Time-change mechanism. + +"It brought us new sensations. A shock, a queer humming lightness +pervading the vehicle, the air, our own bodies. A lightness as though +almost we were mere shadows of our former selves. Specters, a ghostly +vehicle, humming with an infinite vibration. + +"Presently that all wore away; or at least we grew used to it--so +that had there been anything in Space to see, as very soon there was, +ourselves were the substance--all else the shadows. + +"We went backward very slightly in Time. I suppose some forty minutes +of the girl's Time. I tested it by the myrdoscope. The instrument +flashed on! It was operating! A continuous _retrograde_ action of the +Time-mechanism was necessary to hold us upon that single given instant +of the girl's existence. The calculation was intricate; I reached it, +partly by mathematics, partly by experimentation with the myrdoscope. +I saw fragments of the girl's immediate Past, as our Time-change swung +us into it. Saw her arrive alone in the woodland dell. Saw her lie +down, at ease, with a security unsuspecting; saw the grinning, vicious +little gnomes creep upon her; the leering giant appear. And made, then, +another startling discovery--I'll tell you about it in a moment. + +"At last I had the Time-change correctly gaged; we were--in relation +to the girl--standing still in Time. Presently we again increased our +size. An alteration of the Time-mechanism was needed; a progressive +alteration. But this was simple to calculate and to adjust." + +Frannie asked, "What was your discovery?" + +He smiled. "Curious as always, little sister? It was that the giant was +in the act of becoming _smaller_! The gnomes were growing in size!" He +checked our chorus of exclamations. + +"I will tell you now: This giant--these gnomes--were three beings who +did not belong to the girl's world. They had come there from a greater +world outside the atom. By means of science--such means possibly as we +now were using with the vehicle--they had diminished their stature to +the infinitely small. Had gone down and down into their tiny atom, to +come upon the girl and her realm." + + + II + +Again Brett waved us aside. "Not now, please! Oh, yes--I can tell you +the structure of this, our little fragment of the material universe! +But let me finish first about our voyage. + +"With our Time-change corrected, the myrdoscope readily had picked up +the image of the girl. A larger image, for we were 12,000 light-years +closer to her. The same scene, stricken again of motion. The giant +standing there; the gnome climbing upon the girl's ankle; and herself, +just aware of her danger, with dawning terror on her face. + +"The electro-telescope also was working now. Looking behind us, we +could just see the last of the stars. And soon they were gone. A day of +our conscious existence went by. At 3,000 light-years an hour we added +72,000 light-years of distance--a total from earth of about 84,000. The +black abyss of Space had not remained empty. Off to one side had been +a faint glow. A nebula; a patch of star-dust. Through the telescope we +could see stars--a complete starry universe. It was as large, no doubt, +as that we had passed through. + +"It gave us a new idea of the immensity of Space. Separated by some +30,000 light-years from our own universe of stars--of which the Solar +System is so tiny a part--this other star-patch was equally as large. +And yet it seemed to lie isolated in fathomless Space. It drifted by +us and in a few hours was gone. And far off to the other side of us, +another patch came past. And others; each several thousand light-years +in extent; each isolated from all its fellows. + +"We traveled another full day. Over 150,000 light-years from earth. Yet +the girl's image was seemingly not coming nearer very rapidly. We felt +the voyage would take too long, so again we increased our size." + +I interrupted. "Had you calculated the girl's relative size?" + +"Yes," he said. "In a moment, Frank, you shall have it. We--our +vehicle--was 500,000 miles high, compared to earth. We increased +it to 600,000. Our velocity also increased. At a million miles of +height--I have made all my stated figures round numbers, but they +are approximately correct--at this million-mile height, we reached +normality to the girl. It simplified our mechanism adjustments. There +was no longer a size-change necessary. A retrograde Time-change, equal +to our own now normal rate of existence, held us at that same instant +of her life. + +"Our velocity was more than proportionately increased. To demonstrate +that mathematically would be intricate--would involve several very +complicated formulas, which would not interest you now. . . We passed, +distantly, a score or more of starry universes--to the sides, and +above and below us--lying in every plane; and of every size and +general extent. Some were small, a few thousand light-years like our +own. Others immense; one which seemed 500,000 light-years at least in +diameter. + +"We reached ultimately a maximum velocity of about 90,000 light-years +an hour. We had previously gone 150,000 light-years from earth. We +traveled some eighty additional hours, not all at the maximum--for +possibly half that time we were steadily accelerating. And at a total +of 4,750,000 light-years from the earth, a faint glow of seeming +phosphorescence showed in the blackness beneath us. + +"There was a universe to one side, ahead of us. But this was a +different light. A radiation from the Inner Surface itself. The Inner +Surface of the hollow little atom within which all this Space and its +infinitesimal whirling electrons is contained. They are immense suns, +to us here on earth, but from the larger viewpoint they were mere +electrons, whirling, flashing around in tiny orbits a thousand times a +second. + +"The girl and her realm, as we had thought, are on this Inner Surface +of what we may choose to call an atom. Themselves--this girl and her +people--are infinitesimal. This atom of ours is merely some tiny +particle of matter in that other world from which the giant and the +gnomes had descended. A tiny particle of matter. Call it a grain +of sand, lying with trillions of its fellows upon some great ocean +beach--lying there in the light of stars shining in infinite Space +above it. Lying there for a single starlit night which is all eternity +for us. A single starlit night--an eternity! Infinity, of Space and +Time? Why, even now I have seen no more than an infinitesimal fragment +of them! . . . . + +"The giant and gnomes were doubtless normally of the same size--only +momentarily did they happen to be different. . . . Wait, Frannie, +please! I can't tell it to you any faster. . . . The Inner Surface +became visible to our telescopes at about 4,900,000 light-years. A +realm of land and water. Vegetation. Strange of aspect, yet normal too. +It stretched beneath us in every direction--a huge concave surface. + +"We kept our size, but using the repellent force of this Inner Surface, +I gradually cut down our velocity. Down more and more until that last +light-year or so took us a week to traverse. The girl, Father, is +approximately 5,000,000 light-years from here. We--our earth--may be +near the center of the void. I don't know. Perhaps we are much nearer +the girl's side. It isn't important . . . + +"The Inner Surface at last lay close beneath us. It took us an +additional week of diminishing velocity to reach its atmosphere. I was +cautious; I had the velocity under control always." + +He paused a moment, seeming carefully to consider his next words. "I +want you now to forget earth standards. Take the larger viewpoint +exclusively. Let me speak of miles, not in relation to earth, but +miles--in relation to the Inner Surface--which are 100 million times +longer. Let me speak then of myself as again but six feet high; the +vehicle, 52.8 feet high. Realize that by the larger standards I was but +one-twentieth of a light-year from earth." + +Dr. Gryce said gravely, "Your telescope would show a globe like the +earth very plainly at one-twentieth of a light-year of distance. You +must explain, Brett, why you could not see it--or any of the great +stars of our immediate universe." + +Brett nodded. "We could not see the earth, because to our size it was +merely a little orange. To be more exact, a ball about five inches in +diameter. A tiny ball I could have held in my hand, whirling out there +in Space, spinning like a top on its axis to make your infinitesimal +days and nights; traversing its entire orbit--a complete revolution +around its little sun--more than three times every second! + +"With these other standards, then, I want you to visualize us as we sat +on the floor of the vehicle gazing down through the lower window. We +were, say a hundred miles above the Inner Surface, just entering the +upper strata of its atmosphere, and falling gently downward. Beneath +us lay a broad vista of land and water; vegetation; forests; here and +there patches of human habitation--houses, villages. It was a strange, +unfamiliar landscape, yet not unduly abnormal. In every direction--as +we dropped closer--it spread upward to our horizon. A rolling country; +gently undulating hills, broad valleys--and off near the horizon a +jagged mountain range. It seemed not far away; we could see black +yawning holes in it; the mouths of caves, or tunnels, perhaps. + +"The broad crescent lake lay directly beneath us. Trees bordered its +banks; trees strange of shape--yet one would call them trees at once. +A collection of low, flat-roofed buildings lay beside the water. A +village--or a city. The buildings were queerly curved--seemingly +crescent-shaped. They had no straight lines. They seemed generally of +but one story, though a few were larger; and upon an eminence near the +water stood one much larger; more ornate of shape than all the others. + +"It was not a fantastic scene, but wholly rational to our own accepted +standards. A sylvan atmosphere seemed to hang upon it. Trees and +flowers were everywhere; the roof-tops seemed gardens as luxuriant as +those beside the houses. The streets were broad and orderly; and beyond +the city ribbons of roads wound out over the hills. + +"A sylvan landscape, with an air of quiet peace upon it. I felt a sense +of surprize. This was not modernity; nor a civilization more advanced +than our own--nor yet was it barbarism. Later I knew it was decadence. +A people who once had been far up the slope of civilization, over the +peak, and now were coming down upon the other side. The peaceful, +restful ease of decadence, which to complete the inevitable cycle of +all human life ultimately would again bring them to barbarism. + +"We saw these details as we fell gently toward the crescent lake. You +will notice I have not mentioned color in the scheme, nor movement. +Our Time-mechanism was operating. The scene beneath us was stricken +motionless, since always we were holding to the same instant of its +Time. An unreality lay upon it; a flat, shadowy grayness of aspect. An +unnatural stillness. We dropped closer. A shadowy boat seemed on the +lake--a boat with a sail. It lay there, immobile. The water was rippled +by a breeze; but they were frozen ripples. And in the streets now we +saw people and curious vehicles--all standing like waxen figures. + +"The grove of trees--the woodland dell wherein the girl was lying--was +a short distance down the lake shore from the city. A single house was +near it; but in the other direction was unbroken forest. An open space +was there--a few hundred feet from the girl and her assailants. We +decided to land there. We knew we were invisible as yet--a ghost of a +vehicle, all in this same instant coming from Space to land upon the +lake shore. + +"We had not yet decided just what we would do. But it was necessary to +land first. And necessary also for the vehicle to assume the Time-rate +of this realm before we could leave it. When that was done we would be +normal humans, to rescue the girl as best we might. + +"We dropped into the little clearing at the edge of the lake, and +gently came to rest--and upon the surface of the ground, since to us +it would have had no substance; but within a foot of it, where, like a +ghost hovering, I held us level. The unreality of us, I must repeat, +was not to us apparent; we seemed solid--it was the ground, the forest +about us which was unreal. Spectral trees; a gray twilight. I made +sure that nothing was touching us. We were a few inches only above a +soft-looking gray ground. We were ready to cut off our Time-change--to +take our places normal to this new realm." + + + + + _CHAPTER 8_ + + THE ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST GLADE + + +Martt said, "I would have thrown off the Time-switch and rushed out at +once. But Brett wanted to talk about it." + +Brett smiled. "It was difficult for us to remember that no haste was +needed. No haste--until we took the girl's Time-rate. And then we +would need all haste possible. We discussed what we were to do. We had +weapons--the electronic flash, for instance, with which we could have +struck down that giant as with a lightning bolt. But could we? I was +not sure--not absolutely sure--that the weapon would be operative. Or +that, perchance, this giant would not by some strange means be proof +against it. A man sixty feet tall is no mean adversary. Suppose he held +the girl before him? Would I dare attack?" + +"I suggested," Martt put in, "that we take the normal Time-rate of the +girl, and be in hiding until the giant's size had dwindled to hers. The +dwarfs were growing. But there would only be three of them, against two +of us--and so far as we had seen, they were not armed." + +Brett went on: "That didn't seem a good plan. The giant's size was, we +had calculated, rapidly dwindling. Within five minutes he would be the +girl's size. But suppose, instead of standing there during those five +minutes he picked up the girl--made off with her? It was too dangerous. + +"At last we decided to make the vehicle, and thus ourselves, somewhat +larger. At the risk seriously of frightening the girl, we decided to +take a stature larger than the giant. Thus, since he was not armed, we +would have little difficulty keeping the girl from harm. + +"The forest glade within which our vehicle was hovering was ample for +the growth. We adjusted the mechanisms; and in a few moments of growth +we had reached the determined point. We shut off the switches; the +vehicle fell its few inches to the ground. . . . + +"The scene clarified. We were in a somber forest of dull, +orange-colored vegetation. Above us was a deep purple sky, with a few +drifting clouds, and stars gleaming up there in the darkness. They were +the stars of that last universe we had passed; unnatural of aspect, for +they seemed unduly close and unduly small. + +"It was not day--nor yet was it night. A queerly shimmering twilight; +shadowless, for the light seemed inherent to everything. + +"We were aware of all this in an instant, but we did not stop to regard +it, for Time now was passing. The girl and her assailants were now, +we knew, in full motion. With the flash cylinders in hand we stepped +hastily from the vehicle doorway. + +"The forest trees were saplings no higher than ourselves. We plunged +through them, came to the other glade. The girl was sitting up with +hands pressed to her breast in terror--a tiny figure of a girl not as +long as my hand. The dwarfs were so small I did not see them at first; +they were standing beside her--an inch perhaps in height. The giant, +with what drug acting upon him we could only guess, had dwindled until +he was only about half our own present height. He had dropped his +tree-bludgeon, which now was too large for him, and was stooping down +to seize the girl. His leer, with the reality of motion upon it, was +horrible. + +"Momentarily we had stopped at the edge of the glade. The figures +there were aware of us. The girl screamed--a little voice, shrill with +terror, an agony of sudden fear--at her assailants, and doubtless most +of all at ourselves. The giant--I can no longer call him that, since +we saw him as no more than three feet tall--at our appearance he +straightened. Stared at us. Surprize, then fear swept his ugly hairy +face. He shouted something to his tiny companions. + +[Illustration: "The girl screamed--a little voice, shrill with terror, +an agony of sudden fear."] + +"Martt's hand went up; he fired his cylinder. But he was confused--and +the nearness of the girl to his mark made him aim high. The bolt +missed; lodged harmlessly in a tree with a ripping of its bark. I +rushed forward to seize our adversary, but he eluded me, leaped over +the girl. I was afraid of trampling her--I stepped backward--clutched +Martt, fearful of what he might do. + +"It had all happened in a moment. The dwarfs had vanished; but the +other man--he was now no higher than my knees--was standing by a tree +behind the girl. He shouted again; and now the terror had left his +face and he was grinning, I saw his hand go swiftly to his mouth. Had +he taken more of his strange drug? Had he warned his two companions to +do the same? I think so, for before my eyes he was swiftly diminishing +in size. I knelt carefully beside the girl. Her figure--smaller than +my foot and near it--was huddled into a little ball, her head against +her upraised knees. She may have fainted; I did not heed her, save to +be careful my movements did not strike her. With arm stretched over +her I reached for the man. But he hopped away and eluded me. Still +grinning. As small now as my little finger he stood half hiding behind +a grass-blade. On hands and knees I pursued him. But like an insect, he +was too quick for me. Smaller always until I was probing the grass with +my fingers to find him--saw him momentarily like an ant in size as he +leaped into a tangle of tiny grass-blades and was gone. + +"I had forgotten my weapon. Illogically I had had no desire to kill +that tiny figure--only to catch it. But Martt had had no such feelings. +He was stamping around the glade--trying to stamp upon the other +figures--and mumbling angrily to himself. I called to ask if he had +caught them. He didn't know. He had seen them momentarily--seen them +raise their hands to their mouths. But they had dwindled so fast, they +were lost in a moment. + +"The girl was unconscious, lying there in a huddled little heap. Gently +I raised her, held her in the palm of my hand. She was white as a +little waxen figure--white and beautiful; and so small I scarce dared +to touch her with my huge rough fingers. + +"Martt brought water from the lake. I rested my hand on the ground, +with her still lying in it. And then presently she opened her eyes." + +Brett paused, and as he gazed at each of us in turn I thought I had +never seen his face so earnest. And there was upon it, too, a look +almost of exaltation--a look which transfigured it. He added gently: +"You three--my father, my sister, my friend, I have no need to hide +from you my emotions. I think then--incongruously perhaps, for that +little figure of girlhood lying there so soft and warm in the palm of +my hand--I think then my love for her was born." + +Hide his emotions! He could not had he wished. This love in his +heart was written plain on his face, to soften it, to uplift it to +something--or so it seemed to me--something just a little more than +human. A touch, perchance, of divinity. And I think now that love does +that--if only for some fleeting moment--to each one of us. + +He went on very softly: "She opened her eyes. I was afraid she would +be frightened. I tried to look very gentle, compassionate. I held +my hand very still. I think that for an instant Martt and I stopped +breathing. . . She opened her eyes--met mine. I saw in hers a flash +of terror. But something, strangely, must have conquered it--against +all reason as she stared at me. Stared while the terror faded, and her +little lips parted and smiled a welcome and a thanks. . ." + + + + + _CHAPTER 9_ + + "DWINDLING GIANTS FROM LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE" + + +There was not one of us who would have interrupted Brett when he paused +to light an arrant-cylinder and to choose what next he would tell us. +He was speaking softly, reminiscently, and with a curious gentleness. + +"I carried her to the vehicle, showed it to her. Obviously she could +understand nothing of my words; but she was very quick to read my +gestures; smiling readily now, with her fear quite gone. And sitting +up in the palm of my hand, with her arm flung about my thumb to steady +her, she bade me raise her to my ear. Her words--the softest, the +tiniest of human voices--what she said was wholly unintelligible, save +that I understood her name was Leela. + +"She stood beside a tree at a distance while we re-entered the vehicle +and brought it down to a size normal to her; and came out of it to +confront her." + +Martt burst out: "I tell you that was when I realized how beautiful she +is. Say, you never saw a girl like her--you can't describe it----" + +"I'm not trying," said Brett with his gentle smile. "She met us--there +by the vehicle--to us then, Frannie, she was about your size--perhaps +a little smaller. She took our hands, laid them against her forehead +as though with a gesture of welcome. And led us presently to her +home--the house near by. Her father (her mother is dead) her father is +a musician. Noted--very high of rank and standing among his people. A +kindly old man, with gray and black hair worn long to the base of his +neck. We--Martt and I--didn't let ours grow, though as you see we took +their mode of dress." + +"How long were you there?" I asked. + +"We slept perhaps three hundred times," he answered. "There are no +days and nights--always that same half-luminous twilight. No change +of seasons--or very little. It is nature in her softest mood. Nothing +to struggle against--life made easy. Too easy. . . It was not we who +learned Leela's language, but she, like an unnatural precocious child, +who learned ours. . . We created a commotion among the people; the +ruler sent for us. . . Oh, I have so much I'd like to tell you. But +Martt can tell it--after----" + +He checked himself suddenly. His words, some vague hint of what he +almost had added, sent an ominous chill to my heart; and I saw, too, +that Dr. Gryce had felt it, for a cloud came to his face and in his +eyes I saw fear lurking. + +But Brett went on at once: "I'd like to tell you of these people. A +race at peace with nature and themselves. The struggle for existence +all in the past. Decadence. The down-hill grade. Only by struggle can +Man progress, Father. This race, with the peak of its civilization +thousands of generations in its Past, gently resting, with the +inevitable decadence drawing it inexorably back to the barbarism +from whence it sprung. I'd like to tell you of their customs, their +government--their mode of life. . . Some other time--or Martt will +tell you. . . It was all so beautiful--so romantic. . . Music--their +strange, beautiful arts--Music as Leela's father gave it--Art to take +the place of Science and Industry. . . You ask Martt to tell you about +the dancing--the pageants, if you want to call them that, to which we +went so many times with Leela. . . But just now I'm tired--I think I've +talked too much--and I'm worried--and it seems to press me, against +all the logic of our Science, that I have no time to spend, telling all +this to you. . ." + +Brett, indeed, seemed suddenly tired, or perhaps harassed at the +thoughts which had come to him. I had been so absorbed--as had all of +us--that we had given no heed to the passing hours. Abruptly I realized +that the room was chill with early morning; through the window I saw +the flush of the eastern sky. + +Martt followed my glance. "Why, it's dawn! Brett's been talking all +night." + +Brett said strangely: "Too long! Father, this gentle race living out +there in such seeming security had just been visited by beings from +the great world outside it. A world known to them only by legend of +their past ages which they scarce knew to be true or false. Those three +assailants of Leela's--and other men like them--had suddenly appeared +as dwindling giants coming down out of largeness unfathomable. They had +already destroyed a city. . ." + +Brett's voice had risen; he was talking faster now; and there was +a touch of wildness in his tone--a wildness perhaps born of his +exhaustion, and the emotional stress under which I knew now he had been +laboring all night. + +"Our arrival there, Father--the three assailants of Leela--I think the +larger, him whom we have called the 'giant'--I think he is leader of +the invaders from that greater world. Our appearance--our own power to +change size which perhaps he observed there in the forest--must have +frightened him. The invaders vanished. But at the end of those months +we lived there--another of these giants was seen. + +"They're coming back again--to threaten Leela and all her people! I +came here to see you, Father--to tell you all I've told--and to leave +Martt. But I'm going back--to do what I can against this threat--this +invasion. And I want to go back to Leela. She----" + +"She was afraid to come with us," Martt put in. "I wanted her to +come--and now I want to go back with Brett. We've been arguing about it +for days--he won't let me go back with him--he's stubborn----" + +Brett reiterated: "I'm going back. I'm going alone. As soon as I've +slept--I've got to sleep now--you, you'll excuse me--let me take a +good long sleep--I'm too tired to argue about it now. . . Good night, +Frannie, dear--good night, Father--good night, Frank." + +He was presently gone from the room. Dr. Gryce had been sitting beside +me and I put my hand on his arm. His face was quite colorless; his +voice, suddenly very old and helpless, was murmuring, "I don't want him +to go out there again. I'm afraid--and I don't want him to do it. . ." + + + + + _CHAPTER 10_ + + THE SOLITARY VOYAGER + + +"But Brett," I said, "there are one or two things I want to ask you. +About your return voyage--for instance----" + +It was mid-afternoon. Brett, thoroughly rested, was wholly himself +again. Quiet, composed and smiling, but very determined; even a little +grim. And I think he was a bit ashamed of the sudden, almost querulous +way in which he had terminated his narrative and left us there in the +observation room at dawn. He had had his sleep now; and had been alone +for an hour with his father. Martt and Frannie had been called to them; +I--an outsider--was not asked, or wanted. What took place there behind +the closed door of the study, it was not for me to ask. But when they +came out I knew that Brett had won. A questionable victory, for old Dr. +Gryce was visibly broken; Frannie--pale and upon the verge of tears; +and Martt for a time a trifle sullen; resentful that he was to be left +behind. I think it hurt Brett--this fear he was bringing upon those +he loved. But he was very determined; convinced that it was the right +thing for him to do. + +"I start back tonight, Frank," he told me soberly as he emerged from +the study. + +"Oh," I said. "For how long will you be gone this time?" + +He hesitated. A look, which even now my memory fails to interpret, +came to him. Then he smiled. "I don't know. But remember, Frank, I can +return--with only those limitations the Almighty enforces--I can return +to any point of earth-Time I wish. As you will live it--well, I shall +aim to return here within a month." + +It was then I asked him about the return voyage he and Martt had just +made. "Brett, I've been wondering--did our aural ray guide you back?" + +"Yes," he said. "On the voyage back, the first thing I did was to put +the vehicle back through Time to a chosen instant at which I wished +to arrive here on earth. When that was done, I held that instant +always. We could not see the aural ray going out--when we looked +back for it--for two reasons. One: Our Time had run far into earth's +Future, and the ray was non-existent. The other: Even had we taken the +proper Time-point, we were outrunning the light-rays themselves. In +space, I mean, the aural ray left earth only with the speed of light. +Our velocity exceeded that. You see? But on the return voyage we +encountered the ray as we came in. A mere flash over the sky; but its +characteristic color-bands guided us." + +What he said about outrunning the light-rays made me think of the +myrdoscope, the image of that girl--which they had received here on +earth before the voyage--that image had crossed a space 5,000,000 +light-years in extent. But when I mentioned it, he explained: + +"The myrdal rays are not light, Frank, but only akin to it. Their +velocity--why, light beside them is a laggard. We have no way of +computing the velocity of the myrdal rays. But over a finite distance +such as five million light-years--for practical purposes it is +instantaneous. . . + +"I wanted to tell you--I was confused last night--I meant to explain +that coming back I used quite a different method from the outward trip. +I chanced a disturbance of some of those outlying starry universes, +and when we left the Inner Surface, I made the vehicle larger instead +of smaller. The void of Space shrank until about us the universes were +clustered like little patches of mist--tiny areas of glowing star-dust. +I saw our own, with its spectrum of the aural ray, quite readily. And +had reached it with a voyage of a few hours--and then reduced our size." + +"And your Time," I said. "Brett, I didn't see the vehicle until it was +almost entering the earth's atmosphere. And--just for an instant--it +seemed not solid, but like a vague gray ghost. Then suddenly it +materialized." + +He smiled and nodded. "Yes. That was when I took the earth's normal +Time-rate." + +The family joined us; we said no more. And that night Brett left us +for his solitary voyage. I would not set down here in detail those +last good-byes. Emotion repressed--it was what was not said that held +a pathos I shall never forget. An outward attempt at lightness. Martt +laughed, "Give my love to Leela." And Frannie said, "You tell her I'm +jealous because she's so beautiful." + +Just before Brett closed the door of the vehicle, Dr. Gryce spoke--the +only thing he had said for an hour past. + +"You'll be sure to come back, Brett? Within the month, lad?" + +"Oh, yes. Yes, Father dear." + +"Well--good-bye. . ." + +Good-bye! I can think of no sadder word for human tongue to frame. + + + + + _CHAPTER 11_ + + BRAVE LITTLE BEACON STRIVING TO PIERCE INFINITY + + +That little month of anxious watching and waiting passed so slowly! And +yet so quickly, as one by one its golden moments of hope drained away. + +Brett did not return. A month, then a year, while Dr. Gryce made me +leave the Service, to enter his, that all my time might be spent in +watching. + +A year; and now another year has passed. Brett would return within the +month. With his Time-mechanism unimpaired, no delay out there in the +Beyond could have affected his return to reach us during that first +little month. With that passed and gone, reason could only show the +futility of expecting him ever. Yet reason plays so small a part, when +it would seek to kill hope. + +The aural ray still burns--brave little beacon striving to pierce +infinity. Beside it, for those long, unreasoning hours of vigil, Dr. +Gryce sits and waits; silent, grayer and every day visibly older. The +possibilities of what could have happened to Brett--that myriad of +futile human conjectures--we have long since ceased voicing. Alone, I +sometimes speculate. Has Brett gone on into that outside world of which +we all are only a tiny atom? What is he doing? And then I tell myself, +what is it to me, save that it concerns Brett? The myriad, unfathomable +happenings of Eternal Time in Infinite Space--what right have I, one +tiny mortal, to probe them? + +The beacon burns to guide Brett back to us. Will he ever come? I +wonder. My brain, with its logic, says he will not. But my heart says, +"Might he not come tonight?" Or with tonight passed, then tomorrow +he will be here. Thus hope runs on and on, daunted but never broken. +Blessed hope, to make possible a courageous living of this little +life until we ourselves are plunged into that glowing Infinity of the +Hereafter. + + + THE END + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78455 *** diff --git a/78455-h/78455-h.htm b/78455-h/78455-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c9ce37 --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-h/78455-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3003 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>Explorers into Infinity | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + + <meta name="DC.Creator" content="Ray Cummings"> + <meta name="DC.Title" content="Explorers into Infinity"> + <meta name="DC.Language" content="en"> + <meta name="DC.Created" content="1927"> + <meta name="DC.date.issued" content="1927"> + <meta name="DC.Subject" content="Sci-fi"> + <meta name="Tags" content="fantasy, fiction, short story"> + <meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Distributed Proofreaders Canada"> + + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.caption p +{ + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + margin: 0.25em 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph3 { text-align: right; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph3 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78455 ***</div> + + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>EXPLORERS into INFINITY</h1> + +<p class="ph1">By Ray Cummings.</p> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br> +Weird Tales April, May, June 1927.]</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr"></td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">1</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_1">FREEDOM IN TIME AND SPACE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">2</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_2">"THIS COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">3</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_3">EXPLORERS INTO INFINITY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">4</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_4">THE WATCHERS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">5</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_5">THE RETURN</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">6</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_6">THE FLIGHT INTO TIME, SIZE AND SPACE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">7</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_7">"A SINGLE STARLIT NIGHT--AN ETERNITY"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">8</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_8">THE ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST GLADE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">9</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_9">"DWINDLING GIANTS FROM LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">10</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_10">THE SOLITARY VOYAGER</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">11</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_11">BRAVE LITTLE BEACON STRIVING TO PIERCE INFINITY</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOREWORD"><i>FOREWORD</i></h2> +</div> + + +<p><i>Some of my present readers will doubtless remember "The Girl in the +Golden Atom." When I wrote that book of the realm of infinite smallness +there was in my mind its logical converse, the realm of the infinitely +large. The one a complement to the other. And so I offer "Explorers +Into Infinity," in no sense as a sequel to "The Girl in the Golden +Atom," for fictionally they have no connection, but rather as its +companion story.</i></p> + +<p><i>You will find here a complete theory of the material universe as I +conceive it may perhaps really be. To my own imagination—and I think +very likely to your own—it is difficult to conceive of an infinite +distance beyond the stars—empty Space stretching out forever. Nor is +Einstein more satisfying to me, rather less so, for out beyond the +Einstein system of curved Space must lie something or nothing. It +is the nothingness which puzzles me. I have tried vainly to imagine +a realm, infinitely large, of unending nothingness. Time is equally +puzzling. I can conceive of eventful eons lying ahead of us; but rob +that time of its future events and I flounder. To me at least, the +conception of Time with nothing ever happening anywhere is impossible. +To me also, an event presupposes the existence of something; and so, +in my effort to imagine the infinitely large—Space illimitable, Time +unending—I am forced to conceive what must fill that Space, what must +happen to create that time.</i></p> + +<p><i>You may call this tale fantastic, weird, bizarre. Doubtless it is. But +with our most powerful microscopes reaching inward so tiny a distance +to see no end in infinite smallness; our greatest telescopes groping +futilely out into largeness unending to our vision, what is left but +our imagination? And that, at least, we can send winging into the +infinite!</i></p> + +<p><i>I would not have you fear from this foreword that my story may be some +pedantic, heavily technical exposition. It is not; for it is fiction +only—a romance with which to entertain you; an effort, by using +fictional methods, to reduce theories purely imaginative into concrete +form with as great a degree of plausibility as may be. It is this only +I desire: to carry you with me as you read; to make plausible this +flight of our imaginations momentarily set free from the tiny everyday +universe which is all we have physically to envisage.</i></p> + +<p class="ph3"><span class="smcap">Ray Cummings.</span></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_1"><i>CHAPTER 1</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>FREEDOM IN TIME AND SPACE</h3> + + +<p>I was busy with the Martian mail which had just arrived when the +message from Brett Gryce reached me. I did not apprehend that there +was anything of secrecy about it, since he was using the open air; yet +there was in his voice a note of tenseness and his summons was urgent.</p> + +<p>"I can't come, Brett, until I get through the mail." I was rushed, and +in a mood of ill-temper at the universe in general.</p> + +<p>"When will that be?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. It's accursedly large. Most of it seems to call for +radio distribution—these Martians are always in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"Come when you can," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Tonight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—tonight. No matter how late—I must see you, Frank."</p> + +<p>"I'll come," I said, and cut him off.</p> + +<p>It was long past trinight, with dawn beginning to brighten the sky +beyond the masonry of lower Great-New York, when I had disposed of +those miserable Martian dispatches. The Gryces lived in the Southern +Pennsylvania area. My aerocar was at hand. I had rather planned to use +it; but I was tired and in no mood for effort. I decided to take the +pneumatic, since there was a branch—little traveled, it is true—which +would drop me within some twenty kilometers of the Gryce home.</p> + +<p>They gave me an individual cylinder, with a bed if I cared to sleep. +I did not. I lay there wondering what Brett could want of me; pleased +also that I would see Francine—dear little Frannie. . . .</p> + +<p>Occasionally I would call the Director ahead. They are sometimes +careless in the switching of special individual cylinders; and I had +no wish to pass the branch and find myself bringing up at some gulf +terminal with half the morning getting back. Once I called Brett. He +would meet me with his aero at the end of the branch when I arrived. +He, too, reminded the Director. A surly sort of fellow; the Gryces had +already reported him to the General Traffic Staff of Great-London.</p> + +<p>I was not misdirected, however; but it was broad daylight when I +emerged to find Brett impatiently awaiting me. And in a few minutes +more we were landing at the aero-stage beside the Gryce home.</p> + +<p>It was a simple enough place—for all Dr. Gryce's reputed wealth. +An estate of a few kilometers, set in a heavy grove of trees with +a high metallic wall about it. The granite house itself was small, +unpretentious. There were few outbuildings; one a large rectangular +affair which vaguely I understood was a workshop. I had never been in +it. I knew old Dr. Gryce was interested in science; in his day he had +materially advanced civilization with several fundamental devices. But +what—if anything—he might be doing now, I had no idea.</p> + +<p>Brett would tell me nothing beyond the fact that his father had +suggested they send for me. But he seemed excited, tense. Dr. Gryce +greeted me with his familiar kindliness. Though I did not see as much +of this family as I would like (my business with the Interplanetary +Mails was wholly underpaid and miserably confining), yet I counted the +Gryces among my closest friends.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce said, "We are very glad to see you, Frank. Come outside. +Frannie is preparing breakfast."</p> + +<p>His manner was grave and quiet as always. But there was about him also +an air of tenseness; and an aspect of apprehension. And it struck me, +a sort of weary, resigned depression which suddenly made his years sit +more heavily upon him. He was a man of some eighty odd; and though for +him no more than twenty or thirty years of life could be anticipated, +I had never considered him really old. He was small, slight of frame, +but erect, sturdy and vigorous. A smooth-shaven face with no more lines +upon it than a keen intellect and a character once wholly forceful +would engrave. And a mass of snow-white shaggy hair to make his head +appear preternaturally large.</p> + +<p>He seemed old now, however, with that sense of depression hanging upon +him. And an indefinable aspect of fear.</p> + +<p>I must allot a word to picture the three children of Dr. Gryce, +motherless since childhood. Brett was now twenty-eight—three years +older than myself, and physically my opposite. I am short, slender +and rather dark. And—so they tell me—not too even of temper. Brett +was a blond young giant. Crisp, wavy blond hair, blue eyes and the +strong-featured, ruddy face of a handsome athlete. But not too +handsome, for there was upon him no consciousness of his essentially +masculine beauty. He was wonderfully good-natured. His was a ready, +hearty laugh. He looked at life often from the humorous viewpoint. But +he had also a touch of his father's grave dignity; and a keen intellect +and a soberness of thought and reason far beyond his years.</p> + +<p>The two other children—Martynn and Francine—were twins, now just +seventeen. Alike, physically and temperamentally, as children of a +birth traditionally should be. Slim and rather small—Martynn about my +height; Francine somewhat shorter. Both blue-eyed, with blond hair. +Francine's hair was long-waving tresses which she wore generally in +plaits over her shoulders; Martynn's was short and curly. They were +rather alike of feature; a delicacy of mold which gave to Martynn a +girlishness. But not an effeminacy, for he was a young daredevil; and +his sister hardly a lesser one. In childhood and adolescence an impish +spirit of deviltry had always seemed to possess these twins; a spirit +of mischief which had made them a great trial to their father. It had +turned, now that they were nearing maturity, into an apparent desire +for reckless adventure—the product of abounding health, and bubbling, +irrepressible good nature. They adored each other; were constantly +together, with youthful escapades threatening limb and life and +complete disaster, out of which they would emerge or be extricated with +dauntless spirits unperturbed.</p> + +<p>The greater maturity of womanhood at seventeen had brought to Frannie +moments of gentleness, sweetness and a simple dignity. But they were +brief moments, and no more than a word or look from her twin was needed +to dispel them. Martt himself was without a vestige of dignity. But +they were no fools, these twins. They could, upon strict necessity, +give sober, intelligent thought to any problem at hand (Martynn had won +honors at the Great-London University); but of sober, matured action +they were incapable. Fearless—unreasonably fearless. But irresistible, +likable, and apparently quite capable of being restrained. A word +from Dr. Gryce, or from Brett—and to a lesser extent from me who had +known them from childhood—brought instant though often very temporary +obedience. They considered themselves quite grown up now. In truth, at +seventeen, Frannie was to my eyes a really beautiful young woman.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>We sat in a little arbor beside the house, with its breakfast table +already laid. Dr. Gryce, Brett, and myself. Martt was with Frannie +preparing the meal. It was evidence of the simplicity which marked +the Gryce household. In these days of mechanical devices for almost +everything—and the usual multiplicity of servants—there was not a +meal prepared for Dr. Gryce save by his daughter.</p> + +<p>I was very curious to learn why they had sent for me; but I had no need +to question, for at once Dr. Gryce plunged into it.</p> + +<p>"I hope, Frank, that you can stay—well, at least a few days with us. +Can you?"</p> + +<p>I stared. The Day Officer of the Manhattan Interplanetary Postal +Division was undoubtedly already in a rage at my absence. I said so. +"A few days? Dr. Gryce, I dread every conjunction that brings these +accursed mails—my divisional officers think it's a crime even to eat +or sleep when a planet is near us."</p> + +<p>He smiled. "I imagine I can fix it."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll stay, of course. If you could fix the planetary orbits so +that they were parabolas, Dr. Gryce, it would suit me exactly."</p> + +<p>He and Brett both were smiling, but Dr. Gryce's smile was momentary, +for at once that indefinable air of trouble returned to him.</p> + +<p>"Frank," he said, "I hardly know how to begin telling you what we have +done—are about to do. It seems curious also—I know it will strike you +so, you have been such a friend to me and my children—that during all +these years we have given you no hint of our purpose."</p> + +<p>"We have told no one," Brett put in: "no one in the world."</p> + +<p>I said nothing, but my curiosity increased. It was doubtless of grave +import, this thing they had to tell me; the solemnity, earnestness +which stamped them both was unmistakable.</p> + +<p>For a moment Dr. Gryce was silent; then he said abruptly, "You know, +Frank, all my life I have been engaged with science. In a measure, I +have been successful; there are a few devices which will bear my name +when I am gone."</p> + +<p>I nodded. "I know that very well, Dr. Gryce."</p> + +<p>"But all those things," he added earnestly, "all that I stand for to +the world, has really been of little importance to me. My main labor, +goal, dream, if you will, I have never told anyone—not a living person +except my children. For ten years past Brett has been helping me. And +though you would hardly believe it, for the last year or two Martt and +Frannie have been of material aid in the accomplishment of my purpose."</p> + +<p>"What branch of science?" I asked. "And you've accomplished it? You're +ready to give it to the world?"</p> + +<p>"Accomplished it—yes. But we are not ready to give it to the +world—perhaps we never shall. There would be evil in it—evil +diabolical—in untrained or unscrupulous hands. But we are ready to +test it—a practical test. Tonight, Frank, my boy Brett is going upon +an adventure——"</p> + +<p>The fear which had been lurking in his eyes leaped to stamp his other +features. He was afraid for Brett—afraid of this thing they were going +to do. He had stopped abruptly; and more quietly he added:</p> + +<p>"I want you to understand me, Frank, and so for a moment we must +be wholly theoretical. This thing we are about to do involves the +construction of our whole material universe. You know, of course, that +no limit has been found to the divisibility of matter?"</p> + +<p>His sudden question confused me. "You mean," I stammered, "that things +can be infinitely small?"</p> + +<p>"That there is no limit to smallness," Brett put in. "An atom—an +electron—they are mere words. Within them conceivably might be a +space with stars, planets, suns—worlds of their own so tiny that +compared to the Space in which they roam that Space would seem—and +would be—illimitable. Picture that, Frank. And picture upon one of +those worlds inhabitants of proportionate smallness. What would they +see, feel or think of the universe? Would they not conceive it about as +we do? Picture them with powerful microscopes, looking downward into +the matter composing their world. They would be aware of molecules, +atoms—they would gaze down into Space unending. Another realm within +their own. And within that one—others and yet others to infinity. The +conception confuses you, Frank? It need not. Each of those realms is +tiny—or large—according to the viewpoint. There can be no such thing +as absolute size."</p> + +<p>"That is what I mean," Dr. Gryce interrupted eagerly. "Absolute +size—how can you conceive it? You can not. A thing is large or small +only in relation to something else smaller or larger."</p> + +<p>He waved his hand to the rolling landscape with the morning light and +shadow upon it, visible through the arbor.</p> + +<p>"There is our everyday world, Frank. How big is it? You can not say. +Millimeters, meters, kilometers, helans, light-years—those are only +words with which we designate a comparison. Compared to what our +microscopes show us, this world of ours is very large, but compared to +the spaces between the stars—the stars themselves—it is very small. +Try then to imagine its absolute size. You can not, because there is +no such thing. A universe within what we call an atom—another realm +within an atom of matter upon one of the worlds of <i>that</i> universe—is +not an extraordinary state of smallness <i>until we compare it with +ourselves</i>.</p> + +<p>"And this world of ours. It is normal to us; of no absolute size +whatever—neither large nor small—until we compare it to something +else. But suppose we visualize larger realms? Suppose we say these +planets, stars—all the starry universe within our ken and this visual +space which contains them—suppose we imagine all that to be contained +within the atom of a particle of matter of some comparatively still +larger realm? At once our world and ourselves shrink into smallness. +Where a moment ago we had seemed large, now we seem small. Yet that +other gigantic world within which we are contained—if we could live in +it our telescopes would show us still larger Space unending. We would +feel tiny—and of actuality <i>we would be tiny</i>—contemplating Space and +size so much larger."</p> + +<p>"And there you have infinity of Space," Brett added, as his father +paused. "Unending Space both smaller and larger than ourselves. +We—everything of which we can be physically aware—represent no more +than a single step in the ladder which has no bottom nor no top. You +can not conceive an end in either direction. There is no such thing. +Nor—as Father says—can you declare anything to be small or large +considered by itself alone. This then is Space as we conceive it to be. +Illimitable, unending—infinite Space."</p> + +<p>The conception momentarily seemed wholly beyond my grasp. What I would +have answered when for a moment Dr. Gryce and Brett paused I do not +know, for from the house the approaching voices of Martt and Frannie +reached us.</p> + +<p>"You'll fall, I tell you! Frannie, give me that!"</p> + +<p>"I won't."</p> + +<p>"You'll trip over the wires and you'll fall and smash it!"</p> + +<p>"I won't."</p> + +<p>The sound of a crash. And Martt's voice, "There, I told you!"</p> + +<p>They were upon us, wheeling the tray laden with breakfast; Martt, +flushed, laughing. "Oh, hello, Frank—they didn't switch you wrong, did +they? Frannie broke the heater coils—if the breakfast gets cold, don't +blame me."</p> + +<p>And Frannie, also flushed and laughing and a trifle rueful over the +mishap. Dressed in a blue blouse and widely flaring, knee-length +trousers, with her golden hair tossing on her shoulders. The picture of +a little housewife, of early morning informality. I thought I had never +seen her so beautiful.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>"That, Frank, is our conception of the infinity of Space."</p> + +<p>With breakfast finished Brett had resumed the discussion. We were +all seated in the arbor. Martt and Frannie momentarily were quiet, +seemingly keenly interested in the impression upon me which they +anticipated would come from their father's disclosures.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce said, "The idea of Time unending is indissolubly bound with +the concept of infinite Space. You will realize, Frank, for some +centuries it has been understood that Time and Space are inextricably +blended. We think instinctively of Space as a tangible entity—of +length, breadth and thickness. And of Time, as intangible. Such really +is not the case. Space has three dimensions—but Time also has a +dimension."</p> + +<p>"Length," Martt put in. "It sounds like a play on words, but—"</p> + +<p>"It isn't," Frannie finished for him. "I can't imagine anything clearer +than that Time has length."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce ignored them. "You must understand also that Time as we +conceive it can not exist except as the measurement of a <i>length</i> +between two events. And what is an event? It presupposes the existence +of <i>Matter</i>, does it not? Matter thus is introduced into the universe. +It also can not be independent of Time and Space. So long as anything +material exists, there must be Space for it to exist in; and Time to +mark the passing of its existence.</p> + +<p>"Of our universe, then, we now have Matter, Time and Space. There is a +fourth—shall I say, element? It also is interdependent with each of +the other three. It is <i>Motion</i>. You know, of course, that there can be +no such thing as absolute Motion."</p> + +<p>"Or absolute Time," Frannie put in.</p> + +<p>"That we will discuss later," Dr. Gryce said quickly, "since it is +more intricate of conception. Absolute Motion is impossible and +non-existent. We can say a thing moves fast or slowly, <i>only in +relation to the movement of something else</i>. One word more. I want you +to realize, Frank, how wholly dependent each of these factors is upon +the other. <i>Matter</i>, for instance, is an entity persisting in Space +and Time. <i>Motion</i> is the simultaneous change of the position of Matter +in Space and Time. A thing was <i>here, then</i>; it is <i>there, now</i>. That +is Motion. You see how you can not deal with one without involving the +others?"</p> + +<p>"Say, Father, why don't you tell him what we're going to do?" Martt +demanded. "Frank, listen—tonight Brett and I——"</p> + +<p>"But I'm going, too," Frannie declared.</p> + +<p>"You're not!"</p> + +<p>I saw again that look of fear in old Dr. Gryce's eyes. His +children—the spirit of youth with its lust for adventure—they were +eager and excited. But Dr. Gryce saw beyond that—saw the danger. . .</p> + +<p>He said gravely, "There is no possibility of my making you understand +the details, Frank, until we have gone into the matter thoroughly. +But as Martt implies, you are no doubt impatient. I will tell you +then, briefly, that for most of my life I have been delving into +this subject—Matter, Space, Time and Motion illimitable. Longing to +investigate this immense material universe which I believe exists. But +we humans are fettered, Frank. Like an ant, living for a brief moment +enchained with a cobweb to a twig and trying to envisage the earth."</p> + +<p>His voice now was trembling with emotion. "I was satisfied to see with +my own eyes some little part into infinity. I invented what we—my +children and I—call the myrdoscope. I will explain it presently. +Suffice it now to say that there are normally invisible rays, akin +to light, crossing Space, and I have made them visible. We captured +them—saw after a myriad trials unavailing, occasional vague glimpses +of the beyond which came to us. It might have satisfied me, but three +years ago, one night, Brett saw——"</p> + +<p>He paused, looking at Brett. Martt and Frannie were breathless, with +eyes fixed on me.</p> + +<p>Brett said, and his voice had a queer, solemn hush to it, "I was +looking through the myrdoscope. We had seen blurred, brief glimpses of +a realm——"</p> + +<p>"Beyond the stars," Frannie breathed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, beyond the stars. A realm seemingly of forest, or +something growing. Silvery patches—you might imagine they were +water, or light shining upon something that glistened. They +were always haphazard, these glimpses. We caught them, not +always from one direction—seemingly from everywhere. A realm +encompassing—enclosing—our whole star-filled Space.</p> + +<p>"With the labor of years, which you, Frank, will appreciate to some +degree, Father has charted what for our own little ken we might call +absolute points in Space. Landmarks, say, of this outer realm. With our +whirling earth, the ever-changing planets and stars, only this outer +realm seemed of fixed position. We could sometimes return our gaze to +the same landmark—a tremendous crescent-shaped patch of silver, for +instance, which several times we succeeded in re-finding.</p> + +<p>"It was near this patch at which I was one night gazing, when through +some vagary of the ray bearing its image—or some difference in our +crude apparatus—the scene suddenly clarified. And magnified as though +at once I had leaped a million light-years toward it.</p> + +<p>"I saw then a magnified section of the larger scene. The patch of +silver appeared now as a shimmering, opalescent liquid. A segment of +shore-front; and this all in a moment, again magnified. Upon a bluish +bank of soft vegetation, with the opal liquid beside it, I saw a girl +half reclining. A girl of human form, but transfigured by a beauty +more than human. A girl of a civilization behind our own—or perhaps +one in advance—I do not know. She was robed in a short, simple garment +more like a glistening, glowing silver veil than a dress. Her hair was +long—a tangled dark mass. She reclined there in an attitude of ease +and the abandonment of maidenly solitude. I say that she was more than +beautiful—oh, Frank——"</p> + +<p>Brett's voice had suddenly lost the precise exactitude of the +scientist. He seemed to have forgotten his father—Martt and Frannie; +it was as though he were confiding his human emotions only to me.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful, Frank. A strange, wild beauty, with a curious ethereal +aspect to it. I don't know—it's indescribable. Human—half human, but +half divine."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>He checked himself; the scientist in him again became uppermost; but +though he now spoke with careful phrasing, his face remained flushed.</p> + +<p>"It was some moments before I saw additional details. And then I +realized that the girl was not alone. Upon her bare feet were a sort of +sandal with thongs crossing the ankle. And standing there beside one of +her feet were two tiny human figures. In height, the length perhaps of +her little foot. Men of human form; yet queerly grotesque; misshapen. +One of them was in the act of reaching upward toward the tassel of her +sandal cord where it dangled from her ankle; reaching as though to +grasp it and draw himself upward. The other was watching; and both were +grinning with gnomelike malevolence.</p> + +<p>"Nor was this all, for behind the girl, a brief distance away in what +appeared a woodland dell, was another figure—a man of aspect akin to +the grinning gnomes, save that in comparative size even to the girl +he was gigantic. Ten times her height, perhaps, he stood behind her +towering into the trees about him. A man of short, squat legs, dark +with matted hair; a garment like the gnomes', which might have been an +animal skin; a heavy massive chest; black hair long to his neck. A face +with clipped hair upon it. He was regarding the girl; a grin, but with +a leer to it—horribly sinister. And in his great hands, brandished +like a bludgeon, was an uprooted tree.</p> + +<p>"Have I given you an idea of motion in the scene? There was none. +The girl was obviously wholly unaware that she was not alone. She +lay motionless. But the lack of movement in her—in them all—was +more marked than that. The girl's lips were parted in a half-smile of +revery; but the outlines of her bosom beneath the silver veil did not +move. There was no movement of breath; no change of expression. The +gnomes, the giant—not the minutest change could I see mirrored in +their faces.</p> + +<p>"Yet it was so lifelike, I could not doubt it was life—and that the +motion was there though I could not see it. I watched all night, +shaken with this fragment of drama, perhaps tragedy, which I was +witnessing—but even the girl's eyelids did not tremble. Dawn came; the +scene faded.</p> + +<p>"For a month I did not even tell Father; and Frank, the vision of that +girl has never left me. The menace—gruesome, sinister—upon her—and +her beauty——"</p> + +<p>"Haven't you ever seen her again?" I asked eagerly. "Was it life? How +could it be life without motion?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he saw her again," Martt exclaimed. "I've seen her—we've all seen +her."</p> + +<p>"Tell him, Brett," Frannie urged.</p> + +<p>"A month before I even told Father. During it, I searched for the scene +unavailing, then Father and I searched together. It was a year, when +almost from the same orbital position we came upon the scene again. +A year—and now we saw a change. The figures all were there, frozen +into immobility as before. But the gnome had caught the tassel, had +drawn himself partly up to stand upon the girl's white ankle. The giant +had come a trifle forward, and the upraised tree in his hands was +partly lowered. The girl's attitude was unchanged, but there was now +upon her face the vague dawn of startled knowledge, as though at that +instant she was becoming aware of something pulling at her sandal cord, +something touching her ankle—perhaps too, she was hearing a sound from +the giant behind her. The startled knowledge which as yet had not had +time fully to register upon her face."</p> + +<p>My mind was whirling with a confusion of thoughts; the vague +comprehension of what Brett meant was coming to me. I stammered, "Not +yet had time—but Brett, you must have watched them all that night——"</p> + +<p>"That night, Frank. And others—but there was no sign of movement. +Another year—that was last year—we saw the girl partly aware of +her danger. This year—a month ago—she was fully aware of it. +Frightened—her eyes stricken wide with terror. But she had had no time +as yet to move.</p> + +<p>"Don't you understand, Frank? That drama is going on out there now. +Like size of Matter and Space—and rate of Motion—there is no absolute +Time. It is all comparative. To that realm out there of which we have +been given a little vision, our tiny worlds here in the heavens are +mere whirling electrons, like the electrons within one of our own atoms +which to our consciousness of Time revolve many times a second.</p> + +<p>"A year! A single revolution of our earth about its sun! To that girl +out there, what we call a year is merely an electron in a fraction of +a second revolving about its fellow. Even that is very slow—for she +herself is wholly within the atom of a greater world outside her. A +year as we call it—a second or less, to her. And though she is in full +movement, how can we hope to see it by watching for a night? If a year +were a second to her—an eight-hour vigil of ours would encompass less +than a thousandth part of a second of her life!</p> + +<p>"All comparative, Frank. There is nothing wonderful or really strange +about it. In what we would experience to be a hundred years from now +that girl will be fully faced with the menace of her assailants. A +moment only, to her consciousness. It is that, Frank, we meant by the +infinity of Time."</p> + +<p>"Tell him what we're going to do," Martt insisted breathlessly.</p> + +<p>It came from Brett in a burst almost incoherent. "I was not satisfied +merely to see into this comparative infinity. Nor was Father. We have +worked three feverish years, Frank, to climax all the labor of Father's +which had gone before. And we have found a way—not merely to see, +but to transport ourselves into these greater realms. A vehicle—I'll +show you—explain it all. Its size can be changed—the state of the +matter composing it is within our control. Its position in Space can be +changed—simple enough, Frank, to enlarge upon the principles of our +interplanetary vehicles. And—with one factor so interdependent upon +the other—we have been able to control the rate of its Time-progress. +It travels through Time as it does through Space."</p> + +<p>His words were tumbling over each other. "You'll see it in a moment, +Frank—test it—we have it here, ready yesterday. It sets us free, +don't you understand? Free at last in Space and Time. And I'm going in +it tonight—with Martt perhaps—we're going out to reach that girl upon +an equality of Size and Time-progress. Going out to explore infinity!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_2"><i>CHAPTER 2</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>"THIS COULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE"</h3> + + +<p>I had anticipated that they would show me a vehicle similar perhaps +to the huge and elaborate space-flyers in the service of our +Interplanetary Postal Division. But instead of taking me to the +workshops where I had conceived it to be lying—serene, glistening +with newness, intricate with what devices for its changing of size and +Time-rate I could not imagine—instead of this they took me into the +house. And there, in Dr. Gryce's quiet study with its sober, luxurious +furnishings and his library of cylinders ranged in orderly array about +the walls, I saw not one but four machines—mere models standing there +on the polished table-top. Four of them identical—all of a milk-white +metal.</p> + +<p>But they were models complete in every detail. I stood beside one, +regarding it with a breathless, absorbed interest as Dr. Gryce +commented upon it. A cube of about the length of my forearm in its +three equal dimensions, with a cone-shaped tower on top—a little +tower not much longer than my longest finger. The cube itself had a +rectangular doorway, and in each face two banks of windows. The door +slid sidewise, the windows were of a transparent material, like glass. +Midway about the cube ran a tiny balcony at the second-story level. It +was wholly enclosed by the glasslike material. It extended around all +four sides; small doors from it gave access to the cube's interior. The +cone on top also had windows, and its entire apex was transparent.</p> + +<p>I bent down and peered into the lower doorway. Tiny rooms were there. +Bedrooms; a cookery—a house complete, save that it was wholly +unfurnished. The largest room on the lower story—its floor had a +circular transparent pane in it—was fitted with a seemingly intricate +array of tiny mechanisms all of the same milk-white metal. A metallic +table held most of them; and I could see wires fine as cobwebs +connecting them. And in a corner of this room, a metallic spiral +stairway leading to the upper story.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce said, "That is the instrument room, complete. It contains +every mechanism for the operation of the vehicle. We made it in +this size—large enough to facilitate construction, but it is small +enough to be economical of material. This substance—we have never +named it—is of our own isolation. It is expensive. I'll explain it +presently. . . . That room beside the instrument room is where we will +put the usual everyday instruments necessary to the journey. Oxygen +tanks—the apparatus for air purification and air renewal; telescopes, +microscopes—my myrdoscope—all that sort of thing we can best obtain +in its normal size. Those—and the furnishings—the provisions—all +those in their normal size we will put into it later."</p> + +<p>"You mean," I asked, "this is not a model? This is the actual vehicle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he smiled.</p> + +<p>"But there are four of them."</p> + +<p>"We made six, Frank. It was advisable, and not unduly difficult to +duplicate the parts in the making. The assembling took time——"</p> + +<p>Brett said, "Father was insistent that we make every advance test +possible. We have already used two of them. We are going to test the +others today."</p> + +<p>"Now," exclaimed Frannie. "Do it now—Frank will want to see it."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce lifted one of the vehicles. In his hand it seemed light as +alemite. He placed it on a taboret and we sat grouped around it.</p> + +<p>"I shall send it into Time," he said quietly, "with its size unchanged, +with no motion in Space, so that always in relation to us it will +remain right here—I am going to send it back into other ages of Time." +He turned to me earnestly. "We wanted you here, Frank, because you are +so good a friend to me and my children. But for a selfish reason as +well. When Brett goes out into Space and Time tonight, I want your keen +eye to follow him. Your ability to record so accurately on the clocks +what you see at any given instant——"</p> + +<p>He was referring to my experience at the Table Mountain observatory—my +first work when my training period was over. I had, indeed, a curiously +keen vision for astronomical observation, and a quickness of finger +upon the clock to record what I saw. In transit work I was extremely +accurate; even now they were asking the Postal Division for my services +at Table Mountain in the forthcoming transit of Venus.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce was saying, "Your accuracy is phenomenal, Frank—your figures +as you observe what little we see of this flight will help me—set my +mind at rest that Brett is making no errors." He ended with a smile, +"So you realize we have a selfish motive in wanting you."</p> + +<p>"I'm very glad," I responded. He nodded and went back at once to what +he had been saying previously. "I'm going to send this into Time. You +must understand, Frank, that I can give you now only the fundamental +concepts underlying this apparatus. We have so much to do today—so +little time for theory. I need only tell you that it is readily +demonstrable that Time is one of the inherent factors governing the +<i>state of Matter</i>. This substance we have discovered—created, if you +will—yields readily to a change of state. An electronic charge—a +current akin to, but not identical with electricity—changes the +state of this substance in several ways. A rapid duplication of the +fundamental entities within its electrons—they are, as you perhaps +know, mere <i>whirlpools of nothingness</i>—this rapid duplication adds +size. The substance—with shape unaltered—grows larger. With such a +size-change there comes a normal, correspondingly progressive change of +Time-rate. We had to go beyond that, however, and secure an independent +Time-rate, independently changeable, so that the vehicle might remain +quiescent in size and still change its Time. In doing that, the <i>state +of the matter</i> as our senses perceive it is completely altered. As +you know, no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time. +Which only means that with the Time-dimensions identical, different +dimensions of Space are needed. With the Time-dimension differing—the +state of Matter is different; two bodies thus can be together in the +same space."</p> + +<p>"What is a Time-dimension?" I asked. "I mean—how can you alter it?"</p> + +<p>"I would say, Frank, that the Time-dimension of a material body is the +<i>length</i>—or a measure of the length—of its fundamental vibration. +Basically there is no real substance as we conceive it—for all +Matter is mere vibration. Let us delve into substance. We find Matter +consists of molecules vibrating in Space. Molecules are composed of +atoms vibrating in Space. Within the atoms are electrons, revolving +in Space. The electrons are without substance, merely vibrations +electrically negative in character. The nucleus—once termed proton—is +all then that we have left of substance. What is it? A mere vortex—an +electrical vortex of nothingness!</p> + +<p>"You see, Frank, there is no real substance existing. It is all +vibration. Motion, in other words. Of what? That we do not know. Call +it a motion of disembodied electrical energy. Perhaps it is something +akin to that. But from it, our substantial, tangible, material universe +is built. All dependent upon its vibratory rate. And the measure of +that I would call the Time-dimension. When we alter that—when through +the impulse of a current of vibration we attack that fundamental vortex +to make it whirl at greater or lesser rate—then we, in effect, have +changed the Time-dimension."</p> + +<p>There was so much that seemed dimly close to my understanding, and yet +eluded me!</p> + +<p>"But," I said, "if you send that little cube back into Time, it will +no longer exist at all. It will be in the past—non-existent now. Or +suppose you send it into the future? It <i>will exist</i> sometime—but now, +it will be non-existent."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's where you're wrong," Brett exclaimed. "Don't you realize +that you're making Time absolute? You're taking yourself and this +present instant as fixed points of Space and Time—the standards +beyond which nothing else can exist. That's fatuous. Frank, look +here, it's simple enough once you grasp it. Time and Space are quite +similar, except that you have never moved about in Time but you have +in Space. Suppose you had not. Suppose—with your present power of +thought—you were this house. You had always been here—always would be +here. Suppose, too, that the world—the land and water—moved slowly +past you, at an unalterable rate. That's what Time does to us. Then +suppose I were to say to you—you as the house—'Let us go now to +Great-London.' That would puzzle you. You would say, 'Great-London was +here a year ago. But now it is gone—non-existent. It did exist—but +now it doesn't.' Or you would say, 'The shore of the Great-Pacific +Ocean will be here next year.' If I said, 'I'm going there now,' you +would reply, 'But you'll be in the future. You'll be non-existent!' +Making yourself the standard of everything. Don't you see how fatuous +that is?"</p> + +<p>I did not answer. It was so strange a mode of thought; it made me feel +so insignificant, so enslaved by the fetters of my human senses. And +these fetters Brett was very soon to cast off.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Martt said, "Can't we make the tests, Father? There is a frightful lot +to do and it's nearly mid-morning already."</p> + +<p>From the table Dr. Gryce took a small rod of the milk-white metal—a +rod half a meter long and the diameter of my smallest finger. He knelt +on the floor beside the taboret, peering into the tiny doorway of the +mechanism he was about to send winging into the distant ages of our +Past. Again we were breathless.</p> + +<p>"More light, Frannie," he said. "I can not see inside here." Frannie +illumined the tubes along the ceiling; the room was flooded with their +soft, blue-white light.</p> + +<p>"That's better." Rod in hand he turned momentarily to me. "I'm going +to throw the Time-switch by pressing it with this rod," he explained. +"Within the vehicle—the confined space there—the current is equally +felt." He smiled gravely. "Without the rod I should lose a finger to +the Past——"</p> + +<p>Carefully he inserted the rod into the doorway. A moment of fumbling, +then I heard a click. The little milk-white model seemed to tremble. It +glowed; from it there came a soft, infinitely small humming sound. It +glowed, melted into translucency—transparency. For an instant I had +a vague sense that a spectral wraith of it was still before me. Then +with a blink of my eyelids I realized that it was gone. The taboret was +empty. Beside it, Dr. Gryce knelt with the rod melted off midway of its +length in his hand.</p> + +<p>I breathed again. Brett said softly, "It is gone, Frank. Gone into the +Past, relative to our consciousness of Time. Gone from our senses—yet +it is here—occupying the same Space it did before—but with a +different Time."</p> + +<p>He passed his hand through the apparent vacancy above the taboret. +To me then came a realization of how crowded all Space must be! Of +what a tiny fraction of things existent—of events occurring—are we +conscious! That Space over the taboret—empty to me. . . . yet it held +for a mind omniscient an infinity of things strewn through the ages of +the Past and Future. What multiplicity of events—unseen by me—Time +was holding separate in that crowded Space above the taboret!</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce was saying, "Let us test one now by sending it into +smallness—come here, Frank."</p> + +<p>He had risen to stand by the table, with another of the models before +him. "This bit of stone," he said. "Let us send it into that."</p> + +<p>He laid a flat piece of black-gray, smoothly polished stone on the +table near the model. And with another rod he reached into the doorway. +Again I heard a click. He withdrew the rod. "You see, Frank."</p> + +<p>I saw that the rod was slightly compressed along the length he +had inserted. The model was already dwindling. Soundlessly, +untremblingly—it was contracting, becoming smaller, with shape and +aspect otherwise unchanged. Soon it was the size of my fist. Dr. Gryce +picked it up, rested it upon his opened hand. But in a moment it was no +more than a tiny cube rocking in the movement of his palm. He gripped +it gingerly with thumb and forefinger and set it on the polished black +slab of stone. Its milk-white color there showed it clearly. But it +was very small—smaller than the thumb-nail of my little finger. The +cone-shaped tower was a needle-point.</p> + +<p>A breathless moment passed. It was now no more than a white speck upon +the black stone surface.</p> + +<p>Brett said, "Try the microscope, Frank. You watch it."</p> + +<p>I put the low-powered instrument over it; Brett adjusted the light. The +stone was smoothly polished. But now, under the glass, upon a shaggy +mass of uneven rock surface I saw the vehicle visually as large as it +had been originally. But it was dwindling progressively faster. Soon +it lay tilted sidewise upon a slope of the rock; smaller—a tiny speck +clinging there.</p> + +<p>"Can you still see it?" Brett murmured.</p> + +<p>"Yes—no—now it is gone." The rock seemed empty. Somewhere down +in there the little mechanism lay dwindling. Forever it would grow +smaller. Dwindling into an infinity of smallness; but always to be with +things of its size—and things yet smaller. . . .</p> + +<p>As I turned from the glass, I became aware that Martt and Frannie were +not in the room. Dr. Gryce and Brett, absorbed in the test, quite +evidently had not noticed them leave. There had been two other models +on the table—there was now but one.</p> + +<p>Then from the garden outside the house a cry reached us. A shout—a cry +of fear—terror. Martt's voice.</p> + +<p>"Father! Brett! Help us! Help! Quick!"</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>We rushed from the room.</p> + +<p>Crowning wonder, yet horrible! A surge of fear swept me. In the garden +quite near the house stood the other model. Small no longer. It had +grown—<i>was growing</i>—until already it was as large as the house +itself. Around it the flowers, shrubs, even a tree had been pushed +and trampled by its expanding bulk. It stood gleaming white in the +sunlight, motionless save for that steady, increasingly rapid growth. +Its windows and doors loomed large dark rectangles; its balcony was +broad as a corridor; its cone tower was already reared higher than the +nearest trees.</p> + +<p>"Father! Help!"</p> + +<p>At the doorway of the vehicle, standing just outside it, were the +terror-stricken Martt and Frannie. They were holding the end of a long +metallic pole which projected into the doorway. Struggling with its +weight, striving to throw the switch inside.</p> + +<p>We reached them. The expanding bulk of the gleaming side of the +vehicle had pushed them back into a thicket of shrubbery. Near them a +tree, uprooted as though it were a straw sticking upright in sand, was +pushed aside and fell with a crash.</p> + +<p>Martt and Frannie were livid with terror; breathless, almost exhausted +with their futile efforts.</p> + +<p>Martt panted, "We can't—lift the pole! It's—too heavy—too large +inside."</p> + +<p>Within the huge doorway, by the sunlight streaming through the windows, +I could see the interior half of the pole, bloated by growth, huge, +heavy.</p> + +<p>Brett shoved Frannie away. "Frank! Here—take hold with us."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce was with us. Together we four men got the interior end of the +pole upon the table inside. A tremendous switch lever was there. But +the pole slipped, rolled down. I expected it to break at the doorway +point where it was so small outside, but it did not. The expanding +doorway had pushed us farther back. Another tree on the other side +fell. Above us the vehicle's tower loomed like a cathedral spire. +Tremendous now, the vehicle had grown until it was almost touching the +house. A fence had been trampled, had vanished beneath its giant bulk.</p> + +<p>And the growth was increasingly rapid. If we could not check it . . . +If it got wholly beyond control—this monster, growing . . . forever +growing, to a size infinitely large—larger than our earth itself. . . .</p> + +<p>I must have been standing stupidly confused. I heard Dr. Gryce +imploring, "Take hold of it, Frank! We must lift it. We must—our last +chance——"</p> + +<p>But Brett pushed us away. "I'm going inside. I can move the switch—let +go of me, Father! That switch—it isn't too big yet—but it will be in +a minute. Let go of me!"</p> + +<p>"No! No, Brett! The shock as you went in—you couldn't take it so +suddenly. It might hurt you—kill you. And the switch is too big for +your strength."</p> + +<p>It was out of control—this monster, growing, inexorably growing—it +was pushing at the house—a great white giant pushing gently but with +an irresistible power at the little toy house beside it. I could see +the house shifting on its foundations; a corner of it tilted downward.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"The vehicle was out of control, pushing at the house like a great white giant."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"Brett! Father! Try it now. One last try." Martt and Frannie had the +pole again in position. With a last despairing effort we raised it; +slid it up over the giant table-edge; caught the wide flaring side of +the giant switch. Pushing—despairingly; five of us, pigmies struggling +there at that giant threshold. The switch moved. Our pole held its +place; the switch moved farther, clicked with a tremendous snap that +reverberated about us. The growth of the monster was checked. It stood +there serene, triumphant, with the little house, tilted, but still +standing bravely beside it.</p> + +<p>White, shaken, we ceased our efforts. Frannie gasped, "We—we only +wanted to make it a normal size—so you could load it up with the +furniture and things. But it—it got away from us."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce said, "It is a lesson—perhaps a lesson which we needed +forced upon us." He gestured to the great quiescent white building +which had spread itself over most of the devastated garden. "A lesson," +he repeated. "We must guard this power carefully. In unskilled +or unscrupulous hands it is a power for evil almost unthinkable. +This monster here—if it had gotten beyond us—if we had lost its +control—this could destroy the Universe!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_3"><i>CHAPTER 3</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>EXPLORERS INTO INFINITY</h3> + + +<p>"You think we've got everything in it?" Frannie asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>We had gotten the vehicle back to a size normal to our own stature; +and all day had been working to equip it. The instrument room—its +Space and Time and size mechanisms were complete. I had learned now +that it was to be transported through Space by very similar principles +to those commonly in use—a controlled attraction or repulsion +of the faces of its cube for the heavenly body nearest to it; in +effect, an intensification—a neutralization—or reversal at will of +the electronic force which flows between and mutually attracts all +material bodies; the force which once—in centuries past—was called +gravitation. It needed no word of explanation. Its velocity and +distance dials, its direction indicators, were familiar, though rather +more intricate than those I had seen in the Interplanetary Service. +Beyond that, there was a bank of dials upon which a changing size was +recorded—with the vehicle's present starting dimensions to be the +standard unit. And other dials for its Time-change. Of these there were +two distinct sets. One, a record of the normal Time-change, inevitable +to a change of size; another, a comparison of that Time-distance with +the normal Time-progress of the earth, so that the Time-position of the +vehicle into the earth's Past or Future could be seen.</p> + +<p>In a subsidiary instrument-room was a variety of modern astronomical +apparatus; the myrdoscope, and a receiver for an aural ray which, as +a guide to Brett, Dr. Gryce was to send from earth. Of this, in more +detail, they later explained.</p> + +<p>In a smaller room were the apparatus for air renewal, the making of +various necessary gases, water and synthetic foods; a store-room +of provisions; rooms furnished comfortably so that the vehicle was +complete in its living quarters. A thousand details, until at the last +I felt as Frannie did—wondering how we could have failed to overlook a +score of things we had intended to do.</p> + +<p>It was nightfall when we finished; and all that evening we spent +checking up the equipment. Dr. Gryce's home had not been seriously +damaged by the morning's mishap; and as midnight approached we gathered +in the little observation and instrument room he had built in its upper +story. Brett and Martt, it had been decided, were to make the journey; +we others were to watch and wait. It seemed the more difficult role. +All that evening Dr. Gryce had been increasingly silent, careworn +of manner and aspect. And though Brett was excited in his mature, +repressed fashion—and Martt frankly exuberant—I saw that little +Frannie was solemn, perturbed as her father.</p> + +<p>It was a soft, brilliant, cloudless night, with no moon to pale the +gleaming stars. And at last every detail was settled, and the midnight +hour we had set for departure was at hand. We went forth with them to +the waiting vehicle. There was nothing more to say. They stood—Brett +and Martt—in the opened doorway as we gathered about them.</p> + +<p>"Well—good-bye, Father—good-bye, Frannie dear." Brett held her close; +then released her, pushed her away. "Good-bye, Frank." His hand-clasp +was warm and steady.</p> + +<p>Martt was jocular, but now at the last I could hear a tremble to his +voice. "When we get to that girl out there—well, I'm going to tell her +how interested you all are in her." His laugh was high-pitched. "That +is, if we can handle that giant."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Brett. Good-bye, Martt."</p> + +<p>Our words were so futile, so inadequate to the surge of feeling within +us! The door slid closed upon them. The vehicle, not to change size +until it was far into the realms of outer interstellar Space, beyond +our crowding little planets—lifted gently, soared upward, slid away +from us, a glistening white shape up there in the quiet starlight.</p> + +<p>Gravely, silently, with what sinking of heart I could only imagine, Dr. +Gryce stood regarding it. Beside me Frannie was crying softly.</p> + +<p>Explorers into infinity! And they were gone, to encounter—what?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_4"><i>CHAPTER 4</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE WATCHERS</h3> + + +<p>We spent the rest of that night in the little observation room on the +upper story of Dr. Gryce's home; with him and Frannie beside me I sat +watching the vehicle's flight through the electro-telescope. It was +not a high-powered instrument, but it served. I could see the vehicle +plainly as it passed through our atmosphere and out into Space. A tiny +blob with darker rectangles of windows.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce sat with instruments, charts and his computations before +him. Occasionally he would ask me for the vehicle's position; and I +would give him the points and clock the time with all the accuracy +of which I was capable. He seemed solemn, perturbed no longer; the +scientist in him was all-absorbing. He said once with satisfaction, +"Brett is competent—the boy hasn't varied a hair from my directions."</p> + +<p>I knew that he and Brett had picked up the image of the girl and +her assailants within a month past; and that Brett had accurate +calculations which he could follow until able to capture the image on +his own instruments.</p> + +<p>"How long will it take them to get there?" I asked. "When will they be +back? You said within a few days. How long?" Dr. Gryce looked up from +his work with a faint smile. "There's no answer to that, Frank. Without +a change of their time it might take them to reach that realm out there +a thousand years or a million years—the vehicle's maximum velocity we +do not know—that they are to find out."</p> + +<p>"A million years! And another million to come back!"</p> + +<p>His smile broadened. "As we measure Time, yes. But they will change +their Time-rate; the trip may seem to them only a few days."</p> + +<p>"But," I persisted, "two million years of our Time! And we can not +change our Time."</p> + +<p>"No, Frank. But you speak thoughtlessly. Brett can return to any point +in our Time he wishes. Not with exactitude—but, we hope, within a few +days. They will return here—within that Time we have agreed."</p> + +<p>Frannie's face was very solemn though she said nothing; and I knew then +that she was wondering if her brothers would be able to keep their +promise.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce rose from his chair. "I must adjust the aural ray—Brett may +need it."</p> + +<p>He had already explained this ray. A device similar to the familiar +aurometer by which the aural power of the earth is measured. He had +perfected an instrument for projecting into Space the invisible aura of +the earth—projecting it in a tiny, very intense beam. An instrument +for visualizing its characteristic bands was in the vehicle. They hoped +that the ray might reach out into distant, interstellar Space; a flash +of it crossing the sky as our earth rotated. And, coming back, Brett +would see it, recognize it. A guide, as he came back from beyond all +the universes strewn there throughout the magnitude of Space. If it +could reach out there—if he saw it. My heart sank at the thoughts, +doubts, which rushed upon me.</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce set his aural projector, with its ray, invisible to the naked +eye, flashing after the vehicle. Silently he returned to his seat.</p> + +<p>"Can you see them? You can still see them, Frank?" Frannie turned to me +with anxious face.</p> + +<p>I could still see the vehicle. But faintly, for faster than any mail +flyer it was winging its way outward. Mars—approaching its closest +point to the earth now to bring a deluge of the Martian Mails—red Mars +at midnight had been above us. The vehicle had gone that way; and now, +visually beside the planet, they were sinking together in the western +sky. The stars were paling with the coming dawn. The east flushed with +it, and presently I could see the vehicle no longer.</p> + +<p>And as I turned from my instrument, I heard Dr. Gryce. "Why Frannie, +girl! You're worn out! Come, it's dawn—they've vanished."</p> + +<p>Little Frannie had fallen asleep.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_5"><i>CHAPTER 5</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE RETURN</h3> + + +<p>We did not sight the vehicle the next night; it had seemingly passed +beyond range of my instrument. With the myrdoscope we hoped to catch +it, but could not. The night following was overcast with clouds. But +we remained awake; Dr. Gryce seemed to feel that his sons might be +returning. It was pathetic to me, observing him quietly slipping away +from us at intervals to wander among the wreckage of his garden, gazing +anxiously upward.</p> + +<p>A week and still they had not come. What Dr. Gryce said to my Director +I do not know; but he told me the Director was satisfied to have me +remain away until my present business was finished. I had determined as +much for myself. Not all the Directors in the Service could have taken +me away from here, with Brett and Martt unheard from.</p> + +<p>Like a beacon day and night we made sure that our aural ray was +flashing its beam. But would Brett see it?</p> + +<p>Another week. Still no sign. Doubts, fears, terrors assailed us. +Were we watching, waiting futilely for what would never come? The +thought was in my mind—and I knew it was in the minds of Dr. Gryce and +Frannie—but never once did we voice it. Had Brett and Martt, perhaps, +returned to our Past? With mechanism impaired, had they landed here in +what we now called the Past—landed to find a wilderness of roaming +savages? Or to find this little Space we now called a house and garden, +a barren icy waste with men no more than beasts upon it? Or landed +here in our Future? Ourselves dead, gone and forgotten? A great city +here on this spot, perchance, with strange people and strange ways and +nothing remaining of the loved ones they sought? Or were they lost and +wandering in Space? Out there among myriad starry Universes hopeless to +find our infinitesimal Solar System? Or lost perhaps in Time, wandering +through the eons searching for the little centuries, years, days that +identified their goal?</p> + +<p>Or, again, perhaps they had safely reached that outer realm? Perhaps, +once there, something had happened to prevent their return? In what +we now called the Present, perhaps they were out there, transfixed, +just as to our vision that strange girl and her strange assailants +were transfixed—stricken of motion, with a passing of Time to us +insensible. Transfixed out there now, to take no more than a few +breaths, to move a hand, no more, during all the span of our own tiny +lives?</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>I was sitting early one evening near the monight hour, alone with +Frannie in the observation room. Dr. Gryce, in the room adjoining, had +fallen asleep, worn by repressed anxiety and his now almost day and +night vigil. We were talking in half-whispers; and abruptly Frannie +voiced the fear that possessed us all.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Frank, can't you see them? Please, you must! Oh, I'm afraid +they're never coming back. Never—coming back."</p> + +<p>It sounded so horrible. "Hush, Frannie. You mustn't say things like +that." I put my arm around her, and suddenly like a child she flung +herself to me; sobbed, and clung to me.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Frannie. Don't cry—please don't cry. I'll look again. I might +see them now. I'll try to."</p> + +<p>I drew away from her; went back to my instrument. I had in mind to try +the myrdoscope, but all our efforts with it during the two weeks past +had been unavailing. It was a calm, clear evening. A broadly crescent +moon was falling into the west. Mars was well above the eastern +horizon; through the electro-telescope I looked that way. My circular +field was empty. Frannie was checking her sobs, interested with hope +renewed.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see them, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"No—not yet—<i>Yes</i>! I see them! Frannie, I see them!"</p> + +<p>From visually above the red planet, out of nothingness a huge shape +suddenly materialized. It had not been there an instant before; it +seemed for the space of a thought, a transparent ghost of the vehicle; +solidifying until even before I had told Frannie, I was aware that I +saw it there. The vehicle unmistakable.</p> + +<p>"They've come, Frannie! I see them! Call your father. Dr. Gryce! +They've come! They're safe!"</p> + +<p>How my heart leaped to be able to say it! Frannie was calling; and Dr. +Gryce, no more than half awake, repeating, "They've come? They're in +sight? They're safe?"</p> + +<p>This gentle old man, how full of thankfulness his heart must have been! +He came stumbling into the room. "Where are they, Frank? You can see +them, lad?"</p> + +<p>I could see them indeed—plainly, for abruptly I realized that they +were no farther than just beyond the earth's atmosphere. And I could +see also the conventional vane flying at horizontal above the vehicle's +tower to denote that all was well within. They had come. They were safe.</p> + +<p>They landed in the garden. Like a wafting feather the vehicle floated +down under Brett's skilled guidance. It was of a size seemingly +identical with the one it had upon departure, but evidence of its trip +was everywhere visible. Its gleaming milk-white color was dulled. Its +sides were pitted and scarred—the metal burned. A lower corner seemed +fused into a shapeless lump.</p> + +<p>The door slid open as we crowded forward. My heart was pounding. A +sudden, irrelevant thought leaped to me—a thought, hope, that they +might have brought back with them that strangely beautiful girl they +had gone to rescue. A thought abruptly, fiercely poignant—yet with +it a consciousness of its whimsicality that I—Frank Elgon—who loved +Frannie Gryce, should be possessed of such incongruous desire.</p> + +<p>The door was open. Brett and Martt—queerly garbed to seem almost +strangers—were crowding there, with no one else behind them. But +already I had forgotten the girl. Frannie's glad cries of welcome rang +out; and Dr. Gryce's tremulous greeting; and I heard my own voice, +strangely calm, "Well! Brett—Martt—you got back safely, didn't you? +I'm so glad—we're all so glad!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_6"><i>CHAPTER 6</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE FLIGHT INTO TIME, SIZE AND SPACE</h3> + + +<p>They seemed not tired, but undoubtedly they were hungry, famished; and +before they would say a word of those strange things we knew they had +to tell, they made us feed them. "Regular food," as Martt laughingly +called it. "By the code! We've eaten for months weird things supposed +to be edible. My digestion is ruined."</p> + +<p>Months! They had been gone two weeks and two days into a realm where +those little sixteen days were no more than a tiny fraction of a +second! Yet they spoke of months! It was very strange.</p> + +<p>"Frannie! <i>Don't</i> ask me that again." Martt affectionately tweaked her +chin. "We found her, I tell you. Wait till we've had supper—you'll +hear."</p> + +<p>They ate with the relish of those long deprived of accustomed food; and +as we sat with them, forbearing to ask the eager questions flooding +us, again I had that impression of the strangeness which had come to +them. It was not only their manner of dress, though that of itself was +extraordinary. They wore shirts of a colored cloth with a high rolling +collar in front, low and open in back. Short trousers that were queerly +wide and flapping at the knee, stockings that seemed of a soft gray +leather and long-pointed shoes of a material I could not name. Over +the shirt a short jacket, wide-shouldered and with sleeves that puffed +and flared; and a skirt to it at the waist which rolled upward. Their +hats—which Frannie rescued from the vehicle—were solidly wooden of +aspect, with low circular crowns and triangular stiff brims.</p> + +<p>The garb seemed grotesque; yet they took it so as a matter of course +when once we ceased our comments—and they were so easy in it, so +unconscious of it—that abruptly I realized it was my own viewpoint +that held the strangeness. Between them, also, there was a difference +of aspect—a rationality to their characters. The colors of their +garments materially differed. Brett's clothes were more sober—less +vivid, less extreme. His shirt was a somber brown; Martt's was a +glaring green. Martt's jacket had additional bangles fastened to +its cloth, it rolled higher in the skirt; tassels depended from his +elbows longer than those Brett wore. His jacket sleeves were fuller; +his trousers flared more, and were a more brilliant hue. But I will +say that when after a time I became in a measure accustomed to his +looks, Martt was very handsome; and he carried himself with a sort of +swinging, debonair grace and swagger wholly attractive.</p> + +<p>They were strangers to us in their mode of dress; no one regarding +them could have named a nation of earth or any of the habited planets +from which they might have come. Yet the strangeness went deeper than +their clothes. They seemed older. A vague aspect of command seemed upon +them—especially did it envelop Brett, like an aura sensed but not +seen. Martt's old jocularity was unchanged; no dignity, no reservation, +no aloofness with us had been added to the new swagger. Yet beneath +his laughter there seemed always a hidden solemnity. And then I saw +it all—this subtle strangeness that clung to them—I saw it lurking +in their eyes. Memories mirrored there; memories of things no man had +seen and felt before. Eyes—and more especially Brett's eyes—which had +seen, perhaps, too much.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>It was Brett who began their narrative; began it with the slow, +careful, precise phrasing of the scientist anxious to avoid error of +memory; to be exact of every fact and detail. On his lap he held a book +of notes, and another book of the many dial recordings. He consulted it.</p> + +<p>"Our recorded time of starting was four minutes past midnight. Sixteen +days ago, wasn't it, Father? Sixteen!"</p> + +<p>He gave a queer laugh but did not comment upon his thoughts. "I had +determined to start slowly. Martt would have rushed us, but I thought +that caution was best until we were quite sure of the workings of these +mechanisms new to us.</p> + +<p>"I did not record our passing above the earth's atmosphere. But the +vehicle was inordinately hot from the friction of our passage. Perhaps +I took it too fast—at all events we did not bother with refrigeration +since in Space we would so soon need the heaters. We sat sweltering at +the main instrument table with the dials before us.</p> + +<p>"I think, Father, that I followed your instructions carefully. The +dials were all set and operating. The size-dials stood motionless at +unit 1. Our relative Time-dials were motionless at the original unit of +earth Time; and the earth dial-chronometers ticked off the passing of +your seconds and minutes. On the Space-dials—when first I chanced to +notice them—we had gone some 900 miles. Our velocity then had picked +up to 1,500 miles an hour and was swiftly accelerating. The Time was 1 +a.m.</p> + +<p>"It is slow getting through the atmosphere, but now we were fairly on +our way. As you suggested, Father, I was heading just a point off Mars +where I could hold Jupiter and Saturn almost in a line ahead of us. +They were all there visible through our floor window—we had turned +over and were falling toward them. I was using a fraction only of the +earth's repulsion, and holding steady with the selective attraction of +Mars and the star-field behind it."</p> + +<p>"We saw your aural ray," Martt put in. He was earnestly intent upon +Brett's narrative. "We saw it—I saw it—through the spectrometer. The +swing of it was apparent even at that near distance. And we saw the +Martian Mail coming in—they landed in Eurasia that night, I suppose. +Say, they move in a hurry, don't they? And stop in a hurry when they +get down close."</p> + +<p>Brett went on: "We were still within the lower cone of the earth's +shadow. But presently we emerged and came into the sunlight. The +brilliant blackness of Space; and the cold by now had penetrated so +that very soon we were glad enough to use the heaters.</p> + +<p>"You know the details of a Martian voyage, Father. And you, Frank? This +was no different except that having no necessity of stopping I reached +a greater velocity than they generally obtain. A forty-hour trip, isn't +it, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"There's nearly always one of the minimum-distance trips at about +that," I answered. "But you had some sixty million miles for yours. +That's a lot longer than a minimum distance."</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Yes. We came abreast of Mars—I suppose about a million +miles away. Our Space-dials showed about sixty-two million miles +traveled. We had been gone from you thirty-nine hours. Our average +velocity had been something over a million and a half miles an hour, +and with steadily increasing acceleration had reached then nearly three +million an hour.</p> + +<p>"That was as quick a trip as you anticipated, Father? But even so, we +found it irksome. We alternated at the instrument board. Martt prepared +most of the meals—beyond that and sleeping there was little to do. +Except to watch for asteroids; but the mails have reported the region +through there remarkably free of them this season. We saw none inside +the Martian orbit closer than a million miles, which to such a low +velocity as ours held no danger."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce asked, "The air purifiers, Brett? You had no trouble?"</p> + +<p>"No. Or very little, except just at first with the chlorate of +potassium. I was telling you about passing Mars. We saw it rising +slowly past us—saw it through a side window. A huge crescent, the +sunlight on half its disk, but even the unlighted portion was plainly +outlined. Above us was the thin crescent earth, with the sun behind it. +The tongues of flame in the sun's envelope were plainer than I had ever +seen them. We were falling away from the earth and sun, into the inky +blackness of Space with its blazing white stars.</p> + +<p>"During all this first portion of the trip we were eager to get more +quickly advanced. Beyond Neptune's orbit, with the Solar System once +behind us, we would feel like explorers, even though Nogar—he holds +the record, doesn't he?—went once 27,000 million miles out."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce put in: "His record was 27,600 million miles from our sun. +At nearly five million miles an hour, which was his maximum velocity +obtainable, that trip for the full return passage consumed—I think the +total time was 461 days."</p> + +<p>Brett went on, "That was the record. But even to go a single light-year +at that velocity would have taken Nogar around 84 years—just going out +a little light-year of distance, to say nothing of getting back! And we +had so many thousands of light-years to travel even to get beyond the +stars. It seemed stupendous—impossible."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Dr. Gryce. "Impossible, of course, had you held to +that size." They were directing their explanations at me. I nodded. +"But you didn't stay that size?" I suggested.</p> + +<p>"No, of course not," said Brett. "But for a time, we did—I was +cautious from Mars to Jupiter, Father. Nogar plunged right through the +asteroid region there—plunged through at nearly his five million +miles an hour velocity. I held down to three million. We kept a close +watch, though Martt had a somewhat terrifying experience. Tell them, +Martt."</p> + +<p>Martt flushed a trifle. "It wasn't my fault—at least I didn't think +so. At a velocity like that the space there between the orbits of +Mars and Jupiter is horribly crowded. Brett was asleep. I sat by the +instrument table staring down into the floor window at the black +firmament into which we were dropping. You people take a voyage like +this as a matter of course—but it was my first time off earth, and the +beauty of it—of the heavens—well, I tell you it impressed me. The +black firmament—those blazing constellations beneath us—the full moon +of Jupiter every moment growing larger like a white round lamp down +there.</p> + +<p>"Well, anyway, perhaps, I was lost in thoughts of it—when leaping +up out of the blackness came a great round silver disk. A hundred +times the size of our full moon. Then a thousand. It was below me, +but off to one side. It swept past, so close I could see its barren, +rocky surface—a range of desolate gray mountains; and I could see, +too, its rotation, like a ball tossed into the air slowly rotating. +Before I could think to do anything—even to make a move—the asteroid +went past, out of my field as I looked through the floor window. For +a moment I saw it rising past a side window and then it was above +us—gone completely beyond my sight in a moment or two. I want to tell +you I was frightened—I called Brett down at once."</p> + +<p>Brett laughed. "I found him white, shaking like a tower-trembler. +If a collision had really threatened, he could have thrown the main +Time-switch. Thrown us suddenly into the asteroid's past or future—I +had told him that—but when the danger came, he never thought of it."</p> + +<p>"I never did," Martt confessed.</p> + +<p>"How close did the asteroid pass?" I asked. "I saw one once, on a +Martian trip——"</p> + +<p>"I suppose we passed it at a distance of some three thousand miles," +Brett answered. "But at three million miles an hour we were traveling +that distance in three or four seconds. It was a narrow escape. The +asteroid's attraction had drawn us aside from our course—but I soon +rectified that."</p> + +<p>"I meant to explain about attraction a moment ago, Frank," Dr. Gryce +interrupted. "The attraction of the vehicle on our planets is why +Brett could not yet increase his size. Jupiter and Saturn were pulling +the vehicle onward, and in direct proportion to the mass, of course, +the vehicle was pulling at them. An infinitesimal pull—but had Brett +increased its size materially—while still close to our planets—the +vehicle would have been a seriously disturbing element. I did not want +that. Indeed, with any great size-increase, the vehicle moving out +there would have thrown our whole system into chaos."</p> + +<p>Brett said, "I was careful to obey you, Father. We were safely +beyond Saturn—and Uranus and Neptune were on the other side of the +sun—before I even touched the size-switch. From the orbit of Mars to +that of Jupiter there are some 334 million miles between the points +we crossed. We were about 112 hours making the voyage. I kept us well +away—some ten million miles. But the planet was a beautiful sight, +assuming every phase from full to crescent as we passed. You have never +been so close, Father? Nor you, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"Nor I," spoke up Frannie. She said it in a whimsical fashion of +pathos, as though to make us all realize that she had been neglected.</p> + +<p>Brett laughed affectionately. "No, nor you, little sister. Well, it's +a beautiful sight. You can see it similarly in the telescope, but +somehow, at the same visual distance the naked eye shows it indefinably +different. A beautiful silver disk with the broad dark bands upon it +and the red spot glowing like a lantern in its lower hemisphere.</p> + +<p>"Our velocity was slackened for a time as we passed Jupiter, since +I had to lose its great attractive force and turn a neutral side to +it. But once by it, with it blazing as a gigantic thin crescent above +us, I used a full power of its repulsion. We gained velocity rapidly. +With the region of minor planets passed I had no fear of using all the +velocity we could obtain. I think Nogar was unskilful in the handling +of his vehicle; at all events, before we reached the neighborhood of +Saturn, we had attained a velocity of seven and a half million miles an +hour. It was the greatest velocity we reached."</p> + +<p>"But," I exclaimed, "but Brett, at seven and one-half million miles +an hour, in your whole life-time—whether you changed your Time-rate +or not, you would have to live those hours—in a whole life-time at +that velocity you wouldn't get one-quarter of the distance even to the +nearest star!"</p> + +<p>"No," he agreed. "But I began using the size-change after we passed +Saturn——"</p> + +<p>I interrupted again. "I've been wondering about that—I don't quite +see——"</p> + +<p>"I'll make it clear to you, Frank, in a moment," Dr. Gryce put in. "Go +on, Brett."</p> + +<p>"We were well past Saturn before I changed our size at all. Our average +velocity along there was six million miles an hour—it was a run of +about seventy-five hours. We would have been—even at our maximum of +seven and one-half million miles an hour—more than another 240 hours +getting past Neptune's orbit. It was too tedious. We determined, since +Uranus and Neptune were in other parts of their orbits—far on the +other side of our sun—I decided that once we were well beyond Saturn, +I would start our increase of size. We were seventy million miles +beyond Saturn, with nothing of importance ahead of us but the distant +stars, when I determined to start the change. The space there was +comparatively deserted—a few asteroids—sometimes we could go nearly +an hour without even sighting one.</p> + +<p>"With Martt beside me—we were both a little timid about it, +naturally—I threw over the switch and started our growth."</p> + +<p>He paused for the length of a breath. "It was extraordinary—all our +experience of the voyage from that moment was extraordinary. I hardly +know how to begin telling you. . . ."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">III</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce interrupted. "Just a minute, Brett—I want to make absolutely +clear to Frank the principles involved in this change of size in +relation to velocity."</p> + +<p>"May I ask a question first?" I hazarded.</p> + +<p>"All you like," said Brett.</p> + +<p>"I'm wondering why in your normal size you could attain no greater +velocity than seven and one-half million miles an hour. Theoretically, +you know, a freely falling body will accelerate to infinity. And +with repulsion added—a body, not only falling, but being <i>pushed</i> +downward——"</p> + +<p>Frannie said, "Nogar found his approximate limit at five million——"</p> + +<p>"Our limitations were similar to his," Martt put in.</p> + +<p>"I know," I said. "I remember in the public newscasting they said——"</p> + +<p>"We found the same conditions," Brett put in. "Our vehicle—any vehicle +traveling in outer Space—is not strictly a freely falling body. For +low velocities—the general voyaging from here to Mercury, Venus or +Mars—Space may almost be considered a vacuum. But it is not a vacuum, +as we know. The imponderable, widely separated atoms of the ether—to +use the ancient word—begin to be a factor at velocities over three +million miles an hour. The drag became increasingly noticeable——"</p> + +<p>"And the heat of the friction warmed us up," Martt put in. "At six +million miles an hour we were hot, let me tell you. Sweltering—even +with the full refrigeration units going."</p> + +<p>"That friction held us to seven and one-half million as our limit," +Brett added. "Anything else, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was wondering about our aural ray here. Could you still see it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes. Our sun of the Solar System had dwindled—small, but white +and brilliant. With the naked eye the little star which was our earth +showed very faint but distinguishable. With the aurometer—even using +its spreading field of vision so that it embraced all that portion of +the sky—we could see your beam sweeping slowly across the field as the +earth rotated."</p> + +<p>"And the myrdoscope?" I suggested. "Hadn't you tried again to locate +the image of that girl?" My heart thumped as I said it.</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Beyond Jupiter, when the long hours of inactivity hung on +us, I spent many of them searching ahead of us with the myrdoscope. At +last I picked up the image of the girl—held it for a few moments."</p> + +<p>"There was no change?" Dr. Gryce said eagerly.</p> + +<p>"No. The little distance we had traveled made no change—in fact, my +smaller instrument, Father, showed it rather less clearly."</p> + +<p>"I mean no change in the girl's attitude," Dr. Gryce insisted. "No +change in the attacking giant—or those grinning little dwarfs at the +girl's ankle?"</p> + +<p>"None. But she was aware of them. On her face was stark terror—as +we had seen it from here, Father, a month before. I noticed that the +giant's forward step had nearly been completed—and the climbing dwarf +was holding tightly to her sandal cord."</p> + +<p>Brett gazed at me inquiringly but I shook my head. "That's all I have +to ask," I said. "Go ahead, Brett. You were telling us about how you +started the size-change——"</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce put in. "I think you had best proceed, Brett. And then if +there is anything Frank does not understand, we can stop and make it +clear."</p> + +<p>He nodded, but for a moment he hesitated. "I flung over the switch to +start our growth," he said slowly. "It was the beginning of all those +strangely weird experiences which followed now one upon the other. +Frightening at first. . . ."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">IV</p> + +<p>He paused briefly, then went on: "Our first sensation was one of +shock—a reeling of the senses. But it was not severe—it passed almost +at once. We found ourselves clinging there to the instrument table. +To me the room seemed swaying dizzily. My forehead was damp with cold +moisture; a nausea possessed me. I was oppressed; the air of the room +was heavy to breathe."</p> + +<p>"The air was snapping with the current," said Martt. "I could see it, +and feel it tingling against my face. And it was heavy to breathe, as +Brett says."</p> + +<p>Brett resumed: "But we felt better after a moment. I saw the change +first on the dials. The pointer of the lowest unit dial of the size +series was slowly but visibly moving. I watched as it crept from 1 to +2. We had doubled in size. I gazed about the room. It was unchanged; +and now as my body rapidly adjusted itself to the new conditions, I +began to feel almost normal. Except a queer whirring in my head, and +the nausea which persisted for perhaps an hour, I felt no evidence +of the growth. The room, the vehicle was untrembling. No slightest +evidence within the vehicle of the size-change going on—except the +creeping pointer of the lowest dial. It was moving faster; it had +reached 10. The pointer of the dial beside it—registering in units of +a hundred—now seemed stirring."</p> + +<p>Brett gazed at us earnestly. "I want to make myself absolutely clear. +We were then—I suppose a minute or so had elapsed—we were ten times +our original size——"</p> + +<p>"Much faster than the vehicle grew in the garden," I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I had chanced the possibility of severe shock and thrown the +lever at once to a quarter strength. Martt and Frannie, in the garden, +had put it on only to the one-hundredth part of its power. At all +intensities, the growth, you understand, constantly accelerates. +At unit 10, which we reached in possibly the first minute, we were +ten times our starting size—that is, for earth measurements, our +vehicle from base to tower-top was then one-tenth of a mile. But +soon the pointer had passed 50. And then 100—and the pointer of the +hundred-unit dial had crept to 1.</p> + +<p>"With recovered normality of senses we had gone to the windows. I +want you to visualize first what always before we had seen. An +inky black void everywhere surrounding us, in the center of which +seemingly we hung motionless. The brilliant firmament of stars, freed +from the distortion of earth's atmosphere; glittering, blazing like +great diamonds. Pure white, blue-white, or tinged with yellow and +red. The whole extent of the heavens swarming with them. The huge, +spiral nebulous masses fleecy white, with tiny points of blazing +white fire in them. And behind them all that distant ring of seeming +star-dust—immeasurably distant yet glowing like a silver veil, which +in the ancient books they called the 'Milky Way.'</p> + +<p>"Near at hand, above us were the tiny planets of our Solar System. The +sun, only a pale white disk from out here near Saturn; the earth—a +star very faint; red Mars, a tiny reddish dot. But Jupiter was +brilliant; and Saturn from our proximity was stupendously beautiful. +The globe itself—a great silver disk, with the sunlight to make a +narrow portion of it into a blazing crescent. The darkened areas of the +globe, even on the shadowed portion, were plain almost as the bands of +Jupiter. And Saturn's rings! Concentric rings—the inner one a trifle +darker—opened up to a narrow angle—a glowing silver band like a broad +hat-brim encircling the planet—a hat-brim over 37,000 miles broad.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"Saturn with its rings was stupendously beautiful from our proximity."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"This we saw, with ourselves of unchanging size. But now we were +growing. The change was at first apparent only in the aspect of +Saturn—since it was closest to us. The planet seemed to become a +little smaller—shrinking and creeping toward us. A contraction of its +size—and as though the space between us were diminishing. Yet—as +a seeming paradox—the visual diameter of the globe and the rings +remained almost the same.</p> + +<p>"It is difficult to describe. We seemed moving closer to Saturn, yet +in no sense was there any apparent motion. The effect—the result—of +seeming motion—not the motion itself. Martt presently went back to +watch the dials. He called out to me when we had reached unit 1,000. A +thousand times our original size—the vehicle now ten miles in earthly +height. The change had now affected very slightly the entire firmament. +Everywhere a seeming contraction—not so much in the aspect of the +blazing star-points, but in the black void of Space itself. As though +the void were smaller—contracted so that everything in it were of +necessity a little nearer to us. But it was as yet barely noticeable. I +might even have thought it a psychological co-action with the change in +Saturn's aspect—a change unmistakable.</p> + +<p>"Saturn, as we grew, had been seemingly smaller and coming visually +nearer to us. Yet our velocity away from it was—in our original +size—seven and one-half million miles an hour. Can I make you realize +that the effect of <i>both</i> motions was apparent? It was as though we +were moving forward to lengthen a dwindling distance, with Saturn +following after us simultaneously to shorten it.</p> + +<p>"It was at the thousand unit point—ourselves then ten miles of earthly +height—that I shut off the size-switch. Of visual diameter, Saturn had +really not altered materially."</p> + +<p>Brett stopped as though carefully to choose his words. "I'm striving +to give you a clear picture. A distant object of great size may +appear of the same diameter as something smaller and closer. But +you can generally tell which is which. There is a difference of +aspect—impossible to describe, but readily seen. Saturn was like +that—the change in the planet was like a progressive change from +the one condition to the other. It had appeared large and distant; +it changed, to be smaller and closer. Just before I shut off the +size-switch, when our rate of growth had become comparatively rapid, +Saturn took on other motions—I'll tell you about them in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Do I make myself clear? I want to. . . . With our growth checked, +there was at once a striking, visual result. We seemed receding from +Saturn so fast that its apparent diameter dwindled very rapidly—a +normal dwindling of rapidly added distance. Presently it was a mere +star—then a pin-point of light. Then it was vanished. Our other +planets of the Solar System had preceded Saturn into invisibility. Then +our sun itself became so faint a star that I lost it. We were beyond +the Solar System—itself wholly lost to the naked eye among the great +star-clusters enveloping it."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">V</p> + +<p>"Wait," I exclaimed. "There is so much I want to ask you, Brett."</p> + +<p>Frannie interposed timidly: "Did you say, Brett, that on earth the +vehicle then would have been ten miles in height?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he agreed.</p> + +<p>She commented, "Then your relative Time-dials must have been visibly +moving——"</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce hastily interrupted: "The practical workings of the inherent +Time-change I want Brett to explain carefully. You did not move the +vehicle in Time, did you, Brett?"</p> + +<p>"No sir. Not then."</p> + +<p>I must have looked puzzled, for Dr. Gryce added: "We mean, Frank, that +the vehicle could have traveled in Time—in earth-Time, for instance, +to go into our past or our future. Brett had not done that. But +immediately the vehicle started a size-change, you understand, there +automatically began a Time-change inherent to that growth. Normal to +it, let me say."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," I nodded. "I remember you explained that. In relation to its +size——"</p> + +<p>"I'll put it this way," Dr. Gryce went on. "That girl out there is +moving through Time at a definite rate. Let us say a year of our Time +would be measured as a second of hers."</p> + +<p>"Less than that," Martt interjected.</p> + +<p>"Yes lad, I know. But those rough figures will serve for the present +comparison." He turned back to me. "Keep that in mind, Frank. Now +conceive Brett and Martt changing progressively upward in size, from +what they are here on earth, to a size normal to that girl and the +realm she lives in. A corresponding Time-change must take place. At +every point of the voyage in Time and size, the relative values must +agree; the vehicle's Time-rate always must be in inverse proportion to +its position in size."</p> + +<p>I nodded. "I think I understand. You mean that when in size the vehicle +had progressed half-way from our size to the girl's, that then the +vehicle's normal Time-rate would be half-way between our Time and hers?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly, Frank."</p> + +<p>"At this ten-mile size what percentage of the size-journey had been +made?" I asked. I smiled. "I'm trying to imagine how large that girl +may be."</p> + +<p>Brett said quickly, "I'll tell you that later. It was some distance +farther on before I could calculate such relative values even as +approximations."</p> + +<p>Frannie said, "At that point, Brett, the vehicle began speeding into +the earth's future, didn't it?"</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce exclaimed: "Child, that will only lead us into philosophical +discussion. Beyond the realm of mathematics——"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so, Father," Brett said quietly. "I would say that +since everything—Size, Time and Space—is relative, depending +wholly on the viewpoint of the observer—that Frannie's question is +simple enough. To me as observer—to my consciousness there in the +vehicle—every given instant was the Present. The earth was out there +in Space, revolving about its sun; rotating on its axis—its movements +to my consciousness <i>faster</i> than before. To me it was the Present. +The earth was there. I saw it through the electro-telescope. I also +saw your aural ray through the aurometer. The ray swept the sky with +a rapid sweep, since to my altered Time-rate the earth was rotating +faster. But every given instant was my Present.</p> + +<p>"However, compare my consciousness to yours on earth. The +earth—rotating faster relative to me—had, while I watched there, +made, let us say, a full rotation in that first five minutes of my +vigil. Relative to me—it was the earth's future Time. I was gazing +upon earth in its <i>tomorrow</i>. So I think that I was, as Frannie said, +speeding into the earth's future."</p> + +<p>Frannie was triumphant. Dr. Gryce said smilingly, "You put it +clearly, Brett. But it's a philosophical and metaphysical viewpoint +nevertheless. You spoke of Saturn's having another apparent motion near +the end of your size-change?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Brett. "As our Time-rate became materially slower, the +speeding up of all the motions inherent to the planets grew visible. +Saturn's rotation on its axis became readily visible through the +telescope. And the globe began very slowly shifting sidewise—at nearly +right angles to our course—the visual result of the intensification of +its orbital movement. . . . You were going to ask a question, Frank, a +moment ago?"</p> + +<p>I had not forgotten it. "You were telling us, Brett, how you stopped +your growth at the ten-mile size. Almost immediately, you said, Saturn +receded into an invisibility of distance. The entire Solar System +vanished into distance. You had been traveling only seven and one-half +million miles an hour before changing size. It was the new velocity I +wanted to ask about. The whole question of velocity relative to size."</p> + +<p>"Relative!" Brett exclaimed. "That's the keynote to it, Frank. Two +differing viewpoints, always. Keep them both in mind—the viewpoint +of earth-size, and the viewpoint of the vehicle-size. I'll try and +explain it now. Once clear to you, our whole experience will clarify to +your understanding. Conceive, from your external viewpoint of earth, +the vehicle out there in Space dropping with a velocity of seven and +one-half million miles an hour. That was its maximum, owing to the +ether-friction. It started to increase in size. Hence its mass grew—in +proportion directly as the cube. As the mass grew greater, the atoms +of the ether became of themselves relatively smaller, less ponderable, +less capable of exerting their frictional drag.</p> + +<p>"This should be very clear to you, Frank. In a vacuum, a feather +and a bit of lead fall at equal rates. The mass—the weight—has +nothing to do with it. But in air—where there is a friction—the +heavier object falls faster. The vehicle was like that. Its mass, so +enormously increased, gave it a greatly increased maximum velocity. It +picked up velocity rapidly with its growth. The formulas involved are +intricate—I need only say that after forty-nine minutes of traveling +at the ten-mile size, we had again reached maximum. It was about 200 +million miles a minute."</p> + +<p>"A minute!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is 12,000 million miles an hour, as against seven and +one-half million. The vehicle's length, breadth and width had each +increased to a thousand times their former size. Its mass was the +product of the three—hence one thousand million times greater.</p> + +<p>"These are all approximate to the actual figures, you understand. Round +numbers are less confusing. Our resultant velocity, however, was 200 +million miles a minute, at the end of the first hour. We were well +beyond the Solar System by then."</p> + +<p>Frannie asked, "Brett, why didn't Saturn appear to recede until after +you had stopped your growth?"</p> + +<p>"That was merely optical, Frannie. Our velocity away from Saturn was +steadily increasing. But with our increasing size, the space seemed +dwindling—as though Saturn were following after us. With the growth +checked there was a visual reaction—an apparent leaping away. It was +merely optical. Anything else?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know," I said, "the relation of your Time in the vehicle +at the ten-mile size—its relation to our earth-Time."</p> + +<p>"The proportion of one to one thousand," he answered readily. "Seven +seconds to me, then, was about two hours on earth. Could I have seen +the earth when I reached that maximum, it would have made a complete +rotation on its axis—a day of yours—in a minute and twenty-four +seconds to me.</p> + +<p>"It's all clear, isn't it? Suppose I go back to the details of our +trip? With ten miles of earthly size, at a velocity of 200 million +miles a minute we were dropping into the black void of Space. The Solar +System was lost presently, even to telescopic vision, but with the +naked eye the firmament of stars was very little changed. I searched +with the myrdoscope for the image of the girl, but did not chance to +pick it up. We were hot again within the vehicle, from the ether +friction—as hot as we had been before.</p> + +<p>"Beneath us, in the star-field for which I was heading, was Alpha +Centauri. It is, as you know, one of the very closest stars to our +Solar System—to our earth. In miles, roughly some 25,000,000,000,000. +Four and a third light-years of distance, 4.35 light-years to be exact. +At 200 million miles a minute we would have been some eighty-eight days +getting there."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't have stood a trip so long," Martt exclaimed. "I told him +we'd have to increase our size again. Nearly three months to get to the +nearest star—with others a thousand times farther on!"</p> + +<p>"There was no reason for us to stay so small," Brett agreed. "Out +there, with the Solar System so far away, I had no fear of disturbing +it."</p> + +<p>Again I interrupted. "Brett, the vehicle's velocity was then much +greater than the velocity of light——"</p> + +<p>"About eighteen times greater."</p> + +<p>"It seems inconceivable," I added. "Impossible for any tangible entity +in Space to attain such velocity."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but Frank, that's where you're using the wrong viewpoint," Dr. +Gryce exclaimed warmly. "You're still imagining yourself an observer on +earth. But take the viewpoint of the vehicle. Space was proportionately +smaller than before. Brett gives you the earth-size figures in order to +avoid confusion. From the vehicle's enlarged viewpoint, Brett, what was +its comparative velocity?"</p> + +<p>"About twelve million miles an hour," Brett said. "As against a former +seven and one-half million. Not so great a change, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"No," I admitted. "But——"</p> + +<p>"But you can not quite grasp how the two velocities can be the same? +Existing simultaneously in the same vehicle, only with a differing +viewpoint?"</p> + +<p>I think that was my trouble. I nodded, and he said at once, "To the +larger viewpoint, Frank, the Space had diminished a thousand times, to +make a thousand miles become as one mile. Not an <i>actual</i> change—a +relative change only. But twelve million miles an hour, with distance +diminished one thousand times, is the same as twelve thousand million +miles an hour with the distance factor unaltered. You see that, of +course. Or consider the relative Time-values. The vehicle's Time +was seven seconds to about two hours. The exact figures were one to +one thousand. In the vehicle we lived a thousand earth-seconds in one. +Applied, then, to the two viewpoints of velocity, it gives identical +results for the distance traveled. Whatever the factors involved—the +earth-Time; the vehicle-Time; the Space relative to the vehicle; or to +the earth; and the velocity, relative either to the vehicle-size or +earth-size—the result must be mathematically the same. You see? And, +Frank, in describing the progressive size-changes into which we now +plunged, I shall give you always Space with earth-standards, and our +velocity from the viewpoint of earth. It reached tremendous figures; +but you are to remember always that of actuality they must be divided +by the relative size factor. They were never greater than you would +have expected the vehicle to obtain.</p> + +<p>"I was saying that we were headed for Alpha Centauri. Again we started +the growth. I threw the switch to its fullest intensity. Martt stayed +to watch the dials; I sat on the floor, gazing down through the window +at the star-field spread out beneath me. When my head had cleared from +the shock of starting the growth, I sat absorbed in watching. Soon +visible movements appeared. The star-drifts began to be apparent. And +we were going toward these stars; the apparent shortening Space, added +to our increasing relative velocity, made their approach visible. In +the field to the sides of us, the stars were shifting upward. Those in +front were spreading apart with a movement very slow but perceptible as +we dropped toward them.</p> + +<p>"I do not know how long I sat there; Martt occasionally would call to +me from his post at the dials, but I hardly heard him. Alpha Centauri +presently came rushing forward. As you know, it is a binary—twin stars +a few hundred million miles apart, its components revolving about each +other with a period of eighty-one years. It had been one blazing white +point of light. Then it separated into two. They stayed visually small, +for they were dwindling before the vehicle's growth; but they came +rushing toward us. Soon I could see them separated by a narrow black +ribbon of the void; and could see them revolving one about the other."</p> + +<p>"An eighty-one-year period, and you could see it!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes—a very slow movement, but I could see it. I would have passed +between them—the ribbon of Space there was widening rapidly, the stars +themselves had become great, blazing white-hot suns. But I was afraid +of the heat; I altered our course to present a slightly repellent side. +The firmament turned partly over. The two stars swung up past our side +window; in visual diameter larger than our earthly sun—they mounted +upward, closed in above us, drew together to form one; a sun at first; +then a brilliant star; then faint, until with the naked eye I lost it.</p> + +<p>"Beneath us, the star-field in front was rushing upward much faster +now. The constellations opening; the stars shifting—everywhere was +movement—strange movement, unnatural, fantastic. I confess, Father, +that I was injudicious. Martt was absorbed, fascinated in watching the +dials, and when occasionally he would call to me, I told him everything +was all right."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know what was going on," said Martt. "You told me to sit +there and I sat there."</p> + +<p>"Of course you didn't know what was going on," Brett smiled. "But I +did, and I think for a time I lost my wits. The stars were thick and +close around us. The nebulæ were opened into individual points of fire. +Everywhere was movement, unreal. Stars rotating visibly; binaries +shifting about each other; other stars shifting about each other; other +stars seeming to enlarge in size, or to diminish, to swing this way +or that with all the optical vagaries of our velocity, our changing +Time and Size; and always those of the star-field in front—beneath +us—spreading to the sides, rushing past our windows, closing in above +us and fading into invisibility.</p> + +<p>"A myriad universes in fantastic motion. And suddenly I realized that +these giant suns were very close to us, and very small! Some I had +recognized—blazing globes 100 million miles and more in diameter, +and thought myself ten times that far from them. But it was not so. +I stared at a giant globe 100 million miles in diameter, and with +my viewpoint suddenly changed I saw that it was no more than a tiny +glowing meteor, sweeping past a few miles away!</p> + +<p>"All this star-field, little balls, rolling close upon us. A miracle +that none hit us, though some time before, I had had the wit to call +to Martt to make all the faces repellent. By inertia only, we plunged +onward, repelling what lay in our path.</p> + +<p>"I saw a wandering asteroid—a few hundred miles perhaps in diameter. +It was whirling on its axis like a ball thrown into the air. A +whimsical humor—a madness perhaps—had descended upon me. There was +nothing but the asteroid momentarily close before us, and I called to +Martt to throw attraction into the bottom of the vehicle. The asteroid +came rushing. But shrinking—shrinking until I laughed aloud to see it +dwindle to a ball I could have held in my hand; and dwindle further +until impotently it struck the floor window with a tiny point of fire +from its fusing rock and metal. A burning cinder which scarce would +have hurt me had I caught it in my naked hands.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">VI</p> + +<p>"How long my mood of ironic madness may have lasted I can not say. I +barely noticed our actual entry into the Galactic Plane. Enormous suns +whirling past, now relatively not many times bigger than the vehicle +itself. Others, distant a mile or so—or a billion miles if you want +the other viewpoint—with their magnified drift making them dart +crazily past. I gave no heed to passing time; I remember only that at +last the star-field beneath us was thinning out. Stray clusters—a +myriad glowing little balls hurled aside by our rush. But there were +visibly less and less of them, until, quite suddenly, I realized that +unbroken inky darkness lay ahead. And to the sides and above us, the +star clusters, nebulæ swirling like silver mist—it was all fading. +Winking little points up there behind us—winking and vanishing.</p> + +<p>"We were in blackness unbroken. Dropping into a void of blackness +with velocity inconceivable. Suddenly I was frightened. Stiff from +so long upon the floor, I rose and hurried to Martt. We shut off the +size-switch; made all the faces repellent. But there was nothing to +repel; nothing to stop our downward rush into that blackness. It +seemed all at once a blackness pregnant with unseen things of fearsome +aspect. . . . The size-dials showed us to be near unit 50,000,000. +Fifty million times our original size! The vehicle 500,000 miles high!</p> + +<p>"The relative Time-dials—showing relative earth-Time—were whirling. +Our Time in the vehicle was less than a single second to a year on +earth. My mind leaped back to you. Every second we lived there in the +vehicle you here on earth were living more than a year. A century +of yours was little more than a minute to us. The earth's future, +whirling on a thousand years while Martt and I sat there confused at +the instrument table. A tiny little earth, spinning like a top upon its +axis, flashing around its tiny sun with a complete revolution every +second!</p> + +<p>"The velocity indicators, as well, were in rapid motion. The indicator +of the miles-per-hour unit was an indistinguishable blur. And miles +per minute—and per second—we could read none of them, so fast +were they moving. The light-year distance pointers were in motion. +We were piling up light-years of distance every moment. The total +stood—as momentarily I read it—at between eleven and twelve thousand +light-years of total distance traveled. Light, speeding at 186,000 +miles a second, must go a year to make a light-year unit of distance. +And we had gone nearly 12,000 light-years! I read our present velocity +on the light-year velocity-dial. It was 3480 light-years per hour! And +still rapidly accelerating!</p> + +<p>"The panic of fear possessed us at the strangeness of it all—at that +void of blackness—soundlessness—into which we were plunging; and +even our plunge unmarked by the faintest trembling of the vehicle. A +panic. I started to use the aurometer to search for your ray. Absurd! +The absurdity of it made me laugh hysterically. Your ray had been +extinguished thousands of years in my Past. I tried the myrdoscope—to +locate the image of the girl—to verify our direction, for abruptly +I realized I had, in that empty black void, nothing by which I might +locate our position.</p> + +<p>"The myrdoscope was inoperative! I could not locate the girl-image—nor +anything else. I tried with the electro-telescope at its greatest +power—tried frantically to pick up some star-image behind us. I could +not. I did not think they were as yet beyond its range—it merely +had gone dead. The current in it would not hum. It was dead like the +myrdoscope. We wondered then if our dials were working accurately. In +our panic we doubted everything. And knew, with a stark terror upon +us—knew that we were lost. Lost perhaps in Size and Time. And lost in +black Space, empty, soundless, unfathomable!"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_7"><i>CHAPTER 7</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>"A SINGLE STARLIT NIGHT—AN ETERNITY"</h3> + + +<p>Brett had momentarily paused in his narrative, but when we would have +plied him with questions he waved us aside.</p> + +<p>"Let us finish first. The panic that was upon us with this +knowledge—belief—that we were lost out there in Time and Size and +Space did not last long, for we fought against it. And presently we +were calmer—able to reason. Our size-dials were at rest—we had shut +off the switch. By earth standards the vehicle was 500,000 miles in +height. Our relative Time was a century of yours, to a little more +than a minute of ours. Some 8,000 years into your earth-future had +already piled up on the earth standard Time-dial—and we were adding +one hundred years to it almost every minute. Our velocity had reached +a maximum of 3480 light-years per hour—and we were 12,000 light-years +from earth. The velocity was now lessening a trifle; it dropped nearly +to an even 3,000. With unchanging size now, with nothing near us to +repel or attract, the ether-friction overcame inertia to reach a +balance of forces.</p> + +<p>"We conquered our fear—began to reason what we should do. It was of +course futile to look for your aural ray. It had been extinguished +thousands of years. We wanted to go on to our destination, and it was +the non-operation of the myrdoscope which worried and puzzled us. . . . +I was sure, Father, that up to this point in the voyage I had made +no serious error of direction. The image of the girl should have been +before us. But the myrdoscope would not work."</p> + +<p>"The Time——" I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Ah, no, Frank! We had progressed very little into the Time of that +girl's life. She should still have been reclining there on the bank; or +at least the bank itself should have been there. We puzzled over what +could be the trouble with the myrdoscope. We found the trouble——"</p> + +<p>"I found it," said Martt eagerly.</p> + +<p>Brett nodded. "Yes, it was Martt who reasoned it out. A curious +explanation—and one, I think, which involves the greatest of all the +issues we had encountered. The myrdoscope would not operate for a very +big, but very simple reason. You would think to find the answer in +Science? Not so. It was a theosophical reason, Father."</p> + +<p>Brett was very earnest, and very solemn. "It was my purpose, you +understand, to reach the girl at the <i>exact moment</i> we had always seen +her. We planned to make our Time before reaching her, coincident with +hers of that given instant. Remember that. Consider then: At this other +instant when now we were trying to see her through the myrdoscope, our +Time-rate had carried us about 8,000 years into earth's future. But +also, it had carried us some forty minutes into the girl's future.</p> + +<p>"Not science now. Metaphysics, perhaps—and certainly Theology, and +Theosophy. We were destined <i>to be with the girl during those forty +minutes</i>. And we could not now look ahead and <i>see ourselves</i>—see our +future actions.</p> + +<p>"Father, you've spoken of that. What you said was true. It is not God's +way that man should look at his own little future. Not best for us. +The Almighty knows it, and has prohibited it. Chaos would result, for +we live upon hope. There was no scientific reason why the myrdoscope +should not show us what we were destined to do during those forty +minutes. Yet—it was dead. Dark. Inoperative.</p> + +<p>"And this now I know: With all the science in the world there are some +things you can not do—those things which transgress the Creator's +laws. Before them—against all scientific reason, logic—we must fail. +You can not see your future; you can only live it once. Nor can you go +back through Time to stop in your own Past; to live again your life—to +do differently than you did before. It is unthinkable—impossible, even +though now we have the scientific means to accomplish it. It is not the +Almighty's plan—and He will not let us do it.</p> + +<p>"We reasoned all this out. It was simple enough. We had our Time-switch +which would change our Time-rate irrespective of the normal Time-change +inherent to our size. . . . That was what puzzled you awhile ago, +Frank? Well, now we used that Time-change mechanism.</p> + +<p>"It brought us new sensations. A shock, a queer humming lightness +pervading the vehicle, the air, our own bodies. A lightness as though +almost we were mere shadows of our former selves. Specters, a ghostly +vehicle, humming with an infinite vibration.</p> + +<p>"Presently that all wore away; or at least we grew used to it—so +that had there been anything in Space to see, as very soon there was, +ourselves were the substance—all else the shadows.</p> + +<p>"We went backward very slightly in Time. I suppose some forty minutes +of the girl's Time. I tested it by the myrdoscope. The instrument +flashed on! It was operating! A continuous <i>retrograde</i> action of the +Time-mechanism was necessary to hold us upon that single given instant +of the girl's existence. The calculation was intricate; I reached it, +partly by mathematics, partly by experimentation with the myrdoscope. +I saw fragments of the girl's immediate Past, as our Time-change swung +us into it. Saw her arrive alone in the woodland dell. Saw her lie +down, at ease, with a security unsuspecting; saw the grinning, vicious +little gnomes creep upon her; the leering giant appear. And made, then, +another startling discovery—I'll tell you about it in a moment.</p> + +<p>"At last I had the Time-change correctly gaged; we were—in relation +to the girl—standing still in Time. Presently we again increased our +size. An alteration of the Time-mechanism was needed; a progressive +alteration. But this was simple to calculate and to adjust."</p> + +<p>Frannie asked, "What was your discovery?"</p> + +<p>He smiled. "Curious as always, little sister? It was that the giant was +in the act of becoming <i>smaller</i>! The gnomes were growing in size!" He +checked our chorus of exclamations.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you now: This giant—these gnomes—were three beings who +did not belong to the girl's world. They had come there from a greater +world outside the atom. By means of science—such means possibly as we +now were using with the vehicle—they had diminished their stature to +the infinitely small. Had gone down and down into their tiny atom, to +come upon the girl and her realm."</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class="ph2">II</p> + +<p>Again Brett waved us aside. "Not now, please! Oh, yes—I can tell you +the structure of this, our little fragment of the material universe! +But let me finish first about our voyage.</p> + +<p>"With our Time-change corrected, the myrdoscope readily had picked up +the image of the girl. A larger image, for we were 12,000 light-years +closer to her. The same scene, stricken again of motion. The giant +standing there; the gnome climbing upon the girl's ankle; and herself, +just aware of her danger, with dawning terror on her face.</p> + +<p>"The electro-telescope also was working now. Looking behind us, we +could just see the last of the stars. And soon they were gone. A day of +our conscious existence went by. At 3,000 light-years an hour we added +72,000 light-years of distance—a total from earth of about 84,000. The +black abyss of Space had not remained empty. Off to one side had been +a faint glow. A nebula; a patch of star-dust. Through the telescope we +could see stars—a complete starry universe. It was as large, no doubt, +as that we had passed through.</p> + +<p>"It gave us a new idea of the immensity of Space. Separated by some +30,000 light-years from our own universe of stars—of which the Solar +System is so tiny a part—this other star-patch was equally as large. +And yet it seemed to lie isolated in fathomless Space. It drifted by +us and in a few hours was gone. And far off to the other side of us, +another patch came past. And others; each several thousand light-years +in extent; each isolated from all its fellows.</p> + +<p>"We traveled another full day. Over 150,000 light-years from earth. Yet +the girl's image was seemingly not coming nearer very rapidly. We felt +the voyage would take too long, so again we increased our size."</p> + +<p>I interrupted. "Had you calculated the girl's relative size?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "In a moment, Frank, you shall have it. We—our +vehicle—was 500,000 miles high, compared to earth. We increased +it to 600,000. Our velocity also increased. At a million miles of +height—I have made all my stated figures round numbers, but they +are approximately correct—at this million-mile height, we reached +normality to the girl. It simplified our mechanism adjustments. There +was no longer a size-change necessary. A retrograde Time-change, equal +to our own now normal rate of existence, held us at that same instant +of her life.</p> + +<p>"Our velocity was more than proportionately increased. To demonstrate +that mathematically would be intricate—would involve several very +complicated formulas, which would not interest you now. . . We passed, +distantly, a score or more of starry universes—to the sides, and +above and below us—lying in every plane; and of every size and +general extent. Some were small, a few thousand light-years like our +own. Others immense; one which seemed 500,000 light-years at least in +diameter.</p> + +<p>"We reached ultimately a maximum velocity of about 90,000 light-years +an hour. We had previously gone 150,000 light-years from earth. We +traveled some eighty additional hours, not all at the maximum—for +possibly half that time we were steadily accelerating. And at a total +of 4,750,000 light-years from the earth, a faint glow of seeming +phosphorescence showed in the blackness beneath us.</p> + +<p>"There was a universe to one side, ahead of us. But this was a +different light. A radiation from the Inner Surface itself. The Inner +Surface of the hollow little atom within which all this Space and its +infinitesimal whirling electrons is contained. They are immense suns, +to us here on earth, but from the larger viewpoint they were mere +electrons, whirling, flashing around in tiny orbits a thousand times a +second.</p> + +<p>"The girl and her realm, as we had thought, are on this Inner Surface +of what we may choose to call an atom. Themselves—this girl and her +people—are infinitesimal. This atom of ours is merely some tiny +particle of matter in that other world from which the giant and the +gnomes had descended. A tiny particle of matter. Call it a grain +of sand, lying with trillions of its fellows upon some great ocean +beach—lying there in the light of stars shining in infinite Space +above it. Lying there for a single starlit night which is all eternity +for us. A single starlit night—an eternity! Infinity, of Space and +Time? Why, even now I have seen no more than an infinitesimal fragment +of them! . . . .</p> + +<p>"The giant and gnomes were doubtless normally of the same size—only +momentarily did they happen to be different. . . . Wait, Frannie, +please! I can't tell it to you any faster. . . . The Inner Surface +became visible to our telescopes at about 4,900,000 light-years. A +realm of land and water. Vegetation. Strange of aspect, yet normal too. +It stretched beneath us in every direction—a huge concave surface.</p> + +<p>"We kept our size, but using the repellent force of this Inner Surface, +I gradually cut down our velocity. Down more and more until that last +light-year or so took us a week to traverse. The girl, Father, is +approximately 5,000,000 light-years from here. We—our earth—may be +near the center of the void. I don't know. Perhaps we are much nearer +the girl's side. It isn't important . . .</p> + +<p>"The Inner Surface at last lay close beneath us. It took us an +additional week of diminishing velocity to reach its atmosphere. I was +cautious; I had the velocity under control always."</p> + +<p>He paused a moment, seeming carefully to consider his next words. "I +want you now to forget earth standards. Take the larger viewpoint +exclusively. Let me speak of miles, not in relation to earth, but +miles—in relation to the Inner Surface—which are 100 million times +longer. Let me speak then of myself as again but six feet high; the +vehicle, 52.8 feet high. Realize that by the larger standards I was but +one-twentieth of a light-year from earth."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gryce said gravely, "Your telescope would show a globe like the +earth very plainly at one-twentieth of a light-year of distance. You +must explain, Brett, why you could not see it—or any of the great +stars of our immediate universe."</p> + +<p>Brett nodded. "We could not see the earth, because to our size it was +merely a little orange. To be more exact, a ball about five inches in +diameter. A tiny ball I could have held in my hand, whirling out there +in Space, spinning like a top on its axis to make your infinitesimal +days and nights; traversing its entire orbit—a complete revolution +around its little sun—more than three times every second!</p> + +<p>"With these other standards, then, I want you to visualize us as we sat +on the floor of the vehicle gazing down through the lower window. We +were, say a hundred miles above the Inner Surface, just entering the +upper strata of its atmosphere, and falling gently downward. Beneath +us lay a broad vista of land and water; vegetation; forests; here and +there patches of human habitation—houses, villages. It was a strange, +unfamiliar landscape, yet not unduly abnormal. In every direction—as +we dropped closer—it spread upward to our horizon. A rolling country; +gently undulating hills, broad valleys—and off near the horizon a +jagged mountain range. It seemed not far away; we could see black +yawning holes in it; the mouths of caves, or tunnels, perhaps.</p> + +<p>"The broad crescent lake lay directly beneath us. Trees bordered its +banks; trees strange of shape—yet one would call them trees at once. +A collection of low, flat-roofed buildings lay beside the water. A +village—or a city. The buildings were queerly curved—seemingly +crescent-shaped. They had no straight lines. They seemed generally of +but one story, though a few were larger; and upon an eminence near the +water stood one much larger; more ornate of shape than all the others.</p> + +<p>"It was not a fantastic scene, but wholly rational to our own accepted +standards. A sylvan atmosphere seemed to hang upon it. Trees and +flowers were everywhere; the roof-tops seemed gardens as luxuriant as +those beside the houses. The streets were broad and orderly; and beyond +the city ribbons of roads wound out over the hills.</p> + +<p>"A sylvan landscape, with an air of quiet peace upon it. I felt a sense +of surprize. This was not modernity; nor a civilization more advanced +than our own—nor yet was it barbarism. Later I knew it was decadence. +A people who once had been far up the slope of civilization, over the +peak, and now were coming down upon the other side. The peaceful, +restful ease of decadence, which to complete the inevitable cycle of +all human life ultimately would again bring them to barbarism.</p> + +<p>"We saw these details as we fell gently toward the crescent lake. You +will notice I have not mentioned color in the scheme, nor movement. +Our Time-mechanism was operating. The scene beneath us was stricken +motionless, since always we were holding to the same instant of its +Time. An unreality lay upon it; a flat, shadowy grayness of aspect. An +unnatural stillness. We dropped closer. A shadowy boat seemed on the +lake—a boat with a sail. It lay there, immobile. The water was rippled +by a breeze; but they were frozen ripples. And in the streets now we +saw people and curious vehicles—all standing like waxen figures.</p> + +<p>"The grove of trees—the woodland dell wherein the girl was lying—was +a short distance down the lake shore from the city. A single house was +near it; but in the other direction was unbroken forest. An open space +was there—a few hundred feet from the girl and her assailants. We +decided to land there. We knew we were invisible as yet—a ghost of a +vehicle, all in this same instant coming from Space to land upon the +lake shore.</p> + +<p>"We had not yet decided just what we would do. But it was necessary to +land first. And necessary also for the vehicle to assume the Time-rate +of this realm before we could leave it. When that was done we would be +normal humans, to rescue the girl as best we might.</p> + +<p>"We dropped into the little clearing at the edge of the lake, and +gently came to rest—and upon the surface of the ground, since to us +it would have had no substance; but within a foot of it, where, like a +ghost hovering, I held us level. The unreality of us, I must repeat, +was not to us apparent; we seemed solid—it was the ground, the forest +about us which was unreal. Spectral trees; a gray twilight. I made +sure that nothing was touching us. We were a few inches only above a +soft-looking gray ground. We were ready to cut off our Time-change—to +take our places normal to this new realm."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_8"><i>CHAPTER 8</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST GLADE</h3> + + +<p>Martt said, "I would have thrown off the Time-switch and rushed out at +once. But Brett wanted to talk about it."</p> + +<p>Brett smiled. "It was difficult for us to remember that no haste was +needed. No haste—until we took the girl's Time-rate. And then we +would need all haste possible. We discussed what we were to do. We had +weapons—the electronic flash, for instance, with which we could have +struck down that giant as with a lightning bolt. But could we? I was +not sure—not absolutely sure—that the weapon would be operative. Or +that, perchance, this giant would not by some strange means be proof +against it. A man sixty feet tall is no mean adversary. Suppose he held +the girl before him? Would I dare attack?"</p> + +<p>"I suggested," Martt put in, "that we take the normal Time-rate of the +girl, and be in hiding until the giant's size had dwindled to hers. The +dwarfs were growing. But there would only be three of them, against two +of us—and so far as we had seen, they were not armed."</p> + +<p>Brett went on: "That didn't seem a good plan. The giant's size was, we +had calculated, rapidly dwindling. Within five minutes he would be the +girl's size. But suppose, instead of standing there during those five +minutes he picked up the girl—made off with her? It was too dangerous.</p> + +<p>"At last we decided to make the vehicle, and thus ourselves, somewhat +larger. At the risk seriously of frightening the girl, we decided to +take a stature larger than the giant. Thus, since he was not armed, we +would have little difficulty keeping the girl from harm.</p> + +<p>"The forest glade within which our vehicle was hovering was ample for +the growth. We adjusted the mechanisms; and in a few moments of growth +we had reached the determined point. We shut off the switches; the +vehicle fell its few inches to the ground. . . .</p> + +<p>"The scene clarified. We were in a somber forest of dull, +orange-colored vegetation. Above us was a deep purple sky, with a few +drifting clouds, and stars gleaming up there in the darkness. They were +the stars of that last universe we had passed; unnatural of aspect, for +they seemed unduly close and unduly small.</p> + +<p>"It was not day—nor yet was it night. A queerly shimmering twilight; +shadowless, for the light seemed inherent to everything.</p> + +<p>"We were aware of all this in an instant, but we did not stop to regard +it, for Time now was passing. The girl and her assailants were now, +we knew, in full motion. With the flash cylinders in hand we stepped +hastily from the vehicle doorway.</p> + +<p>"The forest trees were saplings no higher than ourselves. We plunged +through them, came to the other glade. The girl was sitting up with +hands pressed to her breast in terror—a tiny figure of a girl not as +long as my hand. The dwarfs were so small I did not see them at first; +they were standing beside her—an inch perhaps in height. The giant, +with what drug acting upon him we could only guess, had dwindled until +he was only about half our own present height. He had dropped his +tree-bludgeon, which now was too large for him, and was stooping down +to seize the girl. His leer, with the reality of motion upon it, was +horrible.</p> + +<p>"Momentarily we had stopped at the edge of the glade. The figures +there were aware of us. The girl screamed—a little voice, shrill with +terror, an agony of sudden fear—at her assailants, and doubtless most +of all at ourselves. The giant—I can no longer call him that, since +we saw him as no more than three feet tall—at our appearance he +straightened. Stared at us. Surprize, then fear swept his ugly hairy +face. He shouted something to his tiny companions.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""> + <div class="caption"> + <p>"The girl screamed—a little voice, shrill with terror, an agony of sudden fear."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>"Martt's hand went up; he fired his cylinder. But he was confused—and +the nearness of the girl to his mark made him aim high. The bolt +missed; lodged harmlessly in a tree with a ripping of its bark. I +rushed forward to seize our adversary, but he eluded me, leaped over +the girl. I was afraid of trampling her—I stepped backward—clutched +Martt, fearful of what he might do.</p> + +<p>"It had all happened in a moment. The dwarfs had vanished; but the +other man—he was now no higher than my knees—was standing by a tree +behind the girl. He shouted again; and now the terror had left his +face and he was grinning, I saw his hand go swiftly to his mouth. Had +he taken more of his strange drug? Had he warned his two companions to +do the same? I think so, for before my eyes he was swiftly diminishing +in size. I knelt carefully beside the girl. Her figure—smaller than +my foot and near it—was huddled into a little ball, her head against +her upraised knees. She may have fainted; I did not heed her, save to +be careful my movements did not strike her. With arm stretched over +her I reached for the man. But he hopped away and eluded me. Still +grinning. As small now as my little finger he stood half hiding behind +a grass-blade. On hands and knees I pursued him. But like an insect, he +was too quick for me. Smaller always until I was probing the grass with +my fingers to find him—saw him momentarily like an ant in size as he +leaped into a tangle of tiny grass-blades and was gone.</p> + +<p>"I had forgotten my weapon. Illogically I had had no desire to kill +that tiny figure—only to catch it. But Martt had had no such feelings. +He was stamping around the glade—trying to stamp upon the other +figures—and mumbling angrily to himself. I called to ask if he had +caught them. He didn't know. He had seen them momentarily—seen them +raise their hands to their mouths. But they had dwindled so fast, they +were lost in a moment.</p> + +<p>"The girl was unconscious, lying there in a huddled little heap. Gently +I raised her, held her in the palm of my hand. She was white as a +little waxen figure—white and beautiful; and so small I scarce dared +to touch her with my huge rough fingers.</p> + +<p>"Martt brought water from the lake. I rested my hand on the ground, +with her still lying in it. And then presently she opened her eyes."</p> + +<p>Brett paused, and as he gazed at each of us in turn I thought I had +never seen his face so earnest. And there was upon it, too, a look +almost of exaltation—a look which transfigured it. He added gently: +"You three—my father, my sister, my friend, I have no need to hide +from you my emotions. I think then—incongruously perhaps, for that +little figure of girlhood lying there so soft and warm in the palm of +my hand—I think then my love for her was born."</p> + +<p>Hide his emotions! He could not had he wished. This love in his +heart was written plain on his face, to soften it, to uplift it to +something—or so it seemed to me—something just a little more than +human. A touch, perchance, of divinity. And I think now that love does +that—if only for some fleeting moment—to each one of us.</p> + +<p>He went on very softly: "She opened her eyes. I was afraid she would +be frightened. I tried to look very gentle, compassionate. I held +my hand very still. I think that for an instant Martt and I stopped +breathing. . . She opened her eyes—met mine. I saw in hers a flash +of terror. But something, strangely, must have conquered it—against +all reason as she stared at me. Stared while the terror faded, and her +little lips parted and smiled a welcome and a thanks. . ."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_9"><i>CHAPTER 9</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>"DWINDLING GIANTS FROM LARGENESS UNFATHOMABLE"</h3> + + +<p>There was not one of us who would have interrupted Brett when he paused +to light an arrant-cylinder and to choose what next he would tell us. +He was speaking softly, reminiscently, and with a curious gentleness.</p> + +<p>"I carried her to the vehicle, showed it to her. Obviously she could +understand nothing of my words; but she was very quick to read my +gestures; smiling readily now, with her fear quite gone. And sitting +up in the palm of my hand, with her arm flung about my thumb to steady +her, she bade me raise her to my ear. Her words—the softest, the +tiniest of human voices—what she said was wholly unintelligible, save +that I understood her name was Leela.</p> + +<p>"She stood beside a tree at a distance while we re-entered the vehicle +and brought it down to a size normal to her; and came out of it to +confront her."</p> + +<p>Martt burst out: "I tell you that was when I realized how beautiful she +is. Say, you never saw a girl like her—you can't describe it——"</p> + +<p>"I'm not trying," said Brett with his gentle smile. "She met us—there +by the vehicle—to us then, Frannie, she was about your size—perhaps +a little smaller. She took our hands, laid them against her forehead +as though with a gesture of welcome. And led us presently to her +home—the house near by. Her father (her mother is dead) her father is +a musician. Noted—very high of rank and standing among his people. A +kindly old man, with gray and black hair worn long to the base of his +neck. We—Martt and I—didn't let ours grow, though as you see we took +their mode of dress."</p> + +<p>"How long were you there?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"We slept perhaps three hundred times," he answered. "There are no +days and nights—always that same half-luminous twilight. No change +of seasons—or very little. It is nature in her softest mood. Nothing +to struggle against—life made easy. Too easy. . . It was not we who +learned Leela's language, but she, like an unnatural precocious child, +who learned ours. . . We created a commotion among the people; the +ruler sent for us. . . Oh, I have so much I'd like to tell you. But +Martt can tell it—after——"</p> + +<p>He checked himself suddenly. His words, some vague hint of what he +almost had added, sent an ominous chill to my heart; and I saw, too, +that Dr. Gryce had felt it, for a cloud came to his face and in his +eyes I saw fear lurking.</p> + +<p>But Brett went on at once: "I'd like to tell you of these people. A +race at peace with nature and themselves. The struggle for existence +all in the past. Decadence. The down-hill grade. Only by struggle can +Man progress, Father. This race, with the peak of its civilization +thousands of generations in its Past, gently resting, with the +inevitable decadence drawing it inexorably back to the barbarism +from whence it sprung. I'd like to tell you of their customs, their +government—their mode of life. . . Some other time—or Martt will +tell you. . . It was all so beautiful—so romantic. . . Music—their +strange, beautiful arts—Music as Leela's father gave it—Art to take +the place of Science and Industry. . . You ask Martt to tell you about +the dancing—the pageants, if you want to call them that, to which we +went so many times with Leela. . . But just now I'm tired—I think I've +talked too much—and I'm worried—and it seems to press me, against +all the logic of our Science, that I have no time to spend, telling all +this to you. . ."</p> + +<p>Brett, indeed, seemed suddenly tired, or perhaps harassed at the +thoughts which had come to him. I had been so absorbed—as had all of +us—that we had given no heed to the passing hours. Abruptly I realized +that the room was chill with early morning; through the window I saw +the flush of the eastern sky.</p> + +<p>Martt followed my glance. "Why, it's dawn! Brett's been talking all +night."</p> + +<p>Brett said strangely: "Too long! Father, this gentle race living out +there in such seeming security had just been visited by beings from +the great world outside it. A world known to them only by legend of +their past ages which they scarce knew to be true or false. Those three +assailants of Leela's—and other men like them—had suddenly appeared +as dwindling giants coming down out of largeness unfathomable. They had +already destroyed a city. . ."</p> + +<p>Brett's voice had risen; he was talking faster now; and there was +a touch of wildness in his tone—a wildness perhaps born of his +exhaustion, and the emotional stress under which I knew now he had been +laboring all night.</p> + +<p>"Our arrival there, Father—the three assailants of Leela—I think the +larger, him whom we have called the 'giant'—I think he is leader of +the invaders from that greater world. Our appearance—our own power to +change size which perhaps he observed there in the forest—must have +frightened him. The invaders vanished. But at the end of those months +we lived there—another of these giants was seen.</p> + +<p>"They're coming back again—to threaten Leela and all her people! I +came here to see you, Father—to tell you all I've told—and to leave +Martt. But I'm going back—to do what I can against this threat—this +invasion. And I want to go back to Leela. She——"</p> + +<p>"She was afraid to come with us," Martt put in. "I wanted her to +come—and now I want to go back with Brett. We've been arguing about it +for days—he won't let me go back with him—he's stubborn——"</p> + +<p>Brett reiterated: "I'm going back. I'm going alone. As soon as I've +slept—I've got to sleep now—you, you'll excuse me—let me take a +good long sleep—I'm too tired to argue about it now. . . Good night, +Frannie, dear—good night, Father—good night, Frank."</p> + +<p>He was presently gone from the room. Dr. Gryce had been sitting beside +me and I put my hand on his arm. His face was quite colorless; his +voice, suddenly very old and helpless, was murmuring, "I don't want him +to go out there again. I'm afraid—and I don't want him to do it. . ."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_10"><i>CHAPTER 10</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE SOLITARY VOYAGER</h3> + + +<p>"But Brett," I said, "there are one or two things I want to ask you. +About your return voyage—for instance——"</p> + +<p>It was mid-afternoon. Brett, thoroughly rested, was wholly himself +again. Quiet, composed and smiling, but very determined; even a little +grim. And I think he was a bit ashamed of the sudden, almost querulous +way in which he had terminated his narrative and left us there in the +observation room at dawn. He had had his sleep now; and had been alone +for an hour with his father. Martt and Frannie had been called to them; +I—an outsider—was not asked, or wanted. What took place there behind +the closed door of the study, it was not for me to ask. But when they +came out I knew that Brett had won. A questionable victory, for old Dr. +Gryce was visibly broken; Frannie—pale and upon the verge of tears; +and Martt for a time a trifle sullen; resentful that he was to be left +behind. I think it hurt Brett—this fear he was bringing upon those +he loved. But he was very determined; convinced that it was the right +thing for him to do.</p> + +<p>"I start back tonight, Frank," he told me soberly as he emerged from +the study.</p> + +<p>"Oh," I said. "For how long will you be gone this time?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. A look, which even now my memory fails to interpret, +came to him. Then he smiled. "I don't know. But remember, Frank, I can +return—with only those limitations the Almighty enforces—I can return +to any point of earth-Time I wish. As you will live it—well, I shall +aim to return here within a month."</p> + +<p>It was then I asked him about the return voyage he and Martt had just +made. "Brett, I've been wondering—did our aural ray guide you back?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "On the voyage back, the first thing I did was to put +the vehicle back through Time to a chosen instant at which I wished +to arrive here on earth. When that was done, I held that instant +always. We could not see the aural ray going out—when we looked +back for it—for two reasons. One: Our Time had run far into earth's +Future, and the ray was non-existent. The other: Even had we taken the +proper Time-point, we were outrunning the light-rays themselves. In +space, I mean, the aural ray left earth only with the speed of light. +Our velocity exceeded that. You see? But on the return voyage we +encountered the ray as we came in. A mere flash over the sky; but its +characteristic color-bands guided us."</p> + +<p>What he said about outrunning the light-rays made me think of the +myrdoscope, the image of that girl—which they had received here on +earth before the voyage—that image had crossed a space 5,000,000 +light-years in extent. But when I mentioned it, he explained:</p> + +<p>"The myrdal rays are not light, Frank, but only akin to it. Their +velocity—why, light beside them is a laggard. We have no way of +computing the velocity of the myrdal rays. But over a finite distance +such as five million light-years—for practical purposes it is +instantaneous. . .</p> + +<p>"I wanted to tell you—I was confused last night—I meant to explain +that coming back I used quite a different method from the outward trip. +I chanced a disturbance of some of those outlying starry universes, +and when we left the Inner Surface, I made the vehicle larger instead +of smaller. The void of Space shrank until about us the universes were +clustered like little patches of mist—tiny areas of glowing star-dust. +I saw our own, with its spectrum of the aural ray, quite readily. And +had reached it with a voyage of a few hours—and then reduced our size."</p> + +<p>"And your Time," I said. "Brett, I didn't see the vehicle until it was +almost entering the earth's atmosphere. And—just for an instant—it +seemed not solid, but like a vague gray ghost. Then suddenly it +materialized."</p> + +<p>He smiled and nodded. "Yes. That was when I took the earth's normal +Time-rate."</p> + +<p>The family joined us; we said no more. And that night Brett left us +for his solitary voyage. I would not set down here in detail those +last good-byes. Emotion repressed—it was what was not said that held +a pathos I shall never forget. An outward attempt at lightness. Martt +laughed, "Give my love to Leela." And Frannie said, "You tell her I'm +jealous because she's so beautiful."</p> + +<p>Just before Brett closed the door of the vehicle, Dr. Gryce spoke—the +only thing he had said for an hour past.</p> + +<p>"You'll be sure to come back, Brett? Within the month, lad?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Yes, Father dear."</p> + +<p>"Well—good-bye. . ."</p> + +<p>Good-bye! I can think of no sadder word for human tongue to frame.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_11"><i>CHAPTER 11</i></h2> +</div> + +<h3>BRAVE LITTLE BEACON STRIVING TO PIERCE INFINITY</h3> + + +<p>That little month of anxious watching and waiting passed so slowly! And +yet so quickly, as one by one its golden moments of hope drained away.</p> + +<p>Brett did not return. A month, then a year, while Dr. Gryce made me +leave the Service, to enter his, that all my time might be spent in +watching.</p> + +<p>A year; and now another year has passed. Brett would return within the +month. With his Time-mechanism unimpaired, no delay out there in the +Beyond could have affected his return to reach us during that first +little month. With that passed and gone, reason could only show the +futility of expecting him ever. Yet reason plays so small a part, when +it would seek to kill hope.</p> + +<p>The aural ray still burns—brave little beacon striving to pierce +infinity. Beside it, for those long, unreasoning hours of vigil, Dr. +Gryce sits and waits; silent, grayer and every day visibly older. The +possibilities of what could have happened to Brett—that myriad of +futile human conjectures—we have long since ceased voicing. Alone, I +sometimes speculate. Has Brett gone on into that outside world of which +we all are only a tiny atom? What is he doing? And then I tell myself, +what is it to me, save that it concerns Brett? The myriad, unfathomable +happenings of Eternal Time in Infinite Space—what right have I, one +tiny mortal, to probe them?</p> + +<p>The beacon burns to guide Brett back to us. Will he ever come? I +wonder. My brain, with its logic, says he will not. But my heart says, +"Might he not come tonight?" Or with tonight passed, then tomorrow +he will be here. Thus hope runs on and on, daunted but never broken. +Blessed hope, to make possible a courageous living of this little +life until we ourselves are plunged into that glowing Infinity of the +Hereafter.</p> + + +<p class="ph2">THE END</p> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78455 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78455-h/images/cover.jpg b/78455-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..791bfde --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/78455-h/images/illus1.jpg b/78455-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..40040b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/78455-h/images/illus2.jpg b/78455-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..446de25 --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/78455-h/images/illus3.jpg b/78455-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1962759 --- /dev/null +++ b/78455-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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