1,000-Year Voyage (9 page)

“I find all this very hard to believe, Vilnia,” Merva said at length, “but on the other hand I feel perfectly sure that you would never make such a statement without due reason. Exodus is a boy with many strange ideas, and now that he is a married man he probably has some feeling of resentment towards me in that I am the controller of the ship and not he. However I can assure you that there is very little he can do to usurp my authority, and thank you for telling me Vilnia.”

Vilnia smiled, hesitated, then realising that the interview had terminated on this note she turned and left the room. Merva watched the door close, sat brooding for awhile, then gradually her fist clenched on the table before her.

“It begins to look,” she muttered to herself, “that the fears that I have had about Exodus for so long are showing signs of being justified. I have known for long enough that he resents my control, so perhaps I cannot do better than heed this child's warning.”

It was strange perhaps that it did not occur to Merva that there was any threat against her personally. She saw in Vilnia's warning only an incipient danger to the life energy machine, the one piece of apparatus that could give her constant life and enable her to stay side by side with Exodus as long as need be.

Indeed Merva's entire being was always centred round that life energy machine. She knew only too well that without it functioning perfectly there would come a rapid end not only to her rulership but also to her life, for even at this moment she was living on borrowed time in that the energy she was using to keep her alive was entirely spurious and failure to keep it maintained would result in death much more rapidly than would normally be the case.

Arriving at a final decision she got to her feet, left the room and made her way to the laboratory. In here she locked herself in and then set about the task of rendering the life energy machine entirely useless unless she herself controlled it. This indeed was a precaution which she had always taken up to now but with Exodus knowing so much about the instrument—she feeling that as her son he should know almost as much as she did—the precautions which she had taken to make it foolproof were no longer operative as far as she was concerned. The removal now of the main crystalline bars that carried the current made the equipment as inoperative as a battery without plates.

“And I must remember,” she mused, when the job was done, “to always remember to keep these bars to myself except when the equipment is actually in operation. Whatever bright schemes Exodus has in mind, this will completely scotch them.”

A sudden knocking on the door made her turn swiftly. She hurried quickly to a nearby metal cabinet, put the bars within it then closed the door and spun the combination lock. This done she crossed over to the laboratory door and opened it. Exodus was outside in the corridor, a look of vague surprise on his face.

“I'm sorry if I am interrupting some experiment or other,” he apologized, coming in nonetheless.

“No. I was just pottering about as usual,” his mother replied, following him to the centre of the laboratory. “What brings you here, Exodus? I should have thought that at this time you would have been more absorbed in your wife than in things of science?”

“I am endeavouring,” Exodus replied, “to divide my life into two separate compartments. In the one half I place my usual scientific studies and in the other half I place Vilma. I'm surprised that you of all people should haye any thoughts of my having romantic leanings towards Vilnia. Believe me I have none. I see her simply as one of those cogs you are always speaking about, in this great machine of revenge which we are endeavouring to build between us.”

“I'm glad that you keep that uppermost in your mind,” Merva said, “for that is the most essential thing of all.”

Exodus shook his head. “I cannot agree there, mother. It seems to me that children and life energy are every bit as important as the scheme of vengeance, therefore Vilnia ranks with equal importance to science. However maybe we are following a pointless argument so I'd better tell you why I really came here.”

“By all means.”

“I thought you might be interested to know that I have an idea for one of the most powerful weapons ever conceived.”

Merva smiled in the way that one does when tolerating someone many years younger.

“It is something,” Exodus continued, with a far away look in his eyes, “that embodies a principle certainly not used by you in any of your inventions so far. Without wishing to ridicule anything which you have done I would say that my conception is far more effective than anything you have conceived.”

“No matter what it may be so long as it contributes to the eventual destruction of the successors of Earth people.”

“I am more than willing to hear all about it,” Merva responded. “What kind of an invention is it?”

“It is based on cosmic energy. In this vessel of ours we are completely surrounded by it as a mere glance at the occiligraph shows in a moment. For a long time now I have been pondering how that enormous mass of energy might be used to advantage and at last I think I have a wonderful theory. You would care to hear about it?”

“By all means,” Merva nodded, seating herself on a nearby chair.

“Very well then. I see it like this….”

And Exodus began pacing slowly around his thumbs latched in the belt about the waist of his tunic. It was almost impossible for Merva to realise that he was as yet only eighteen: he had all the assurance and the perspicacity of a man twenty years his senior. “Cosmic energy is the most destructive force in the universe, as we well know. Insofar that it has more power than X-rays, gamma-rays, beta or alpha and in its undiluted form—which is to say unshielded either by an atmospheric envelope or electrical fields or even plain lead—it is certain death to living tissue. Expose living tissue for only a few seconds to pure cosmic energy and that tissue is totally destroyed and reduced to dust; Am I not right?”

“Definitely so,” Merva agreed, completely attentive. “I tried a long time ago to make some use of cosmic energy but unfortunately my experiments did not get me very far. It is such an unpredictable power with which to tamper. What exactly do you mean to do?”

“I had thought of building an enormous cosmic energy storage plant—by which I mean a plant capable of absorbing cosmic energy in much the same way as your life energy machine over there. In your case of course, energy is absorbed from human beings. In the plant I have in mind the energy of the cosmos which is exactly on the same principle would be absorbed instead and then re-radiated whenever required. Fundamentally the principle of the thing is very much the same as your life energy absorber, the only difference being that we shall deal with cosmic energy instead of life energy. It does seem to me that the two energies have a great deal in common—one is the energy of human beings and the other is the eternal life energy of the cosmos. In fact, it must be, because cosmic radiation is everywhere. You find it as close to the Earth as we find it out here in the deeps of space, and as we shall continue to find it no matter how far we travel.

“Build a plant like that,” Exodus continued, a bright gleam in his eyes, “and when that glorious day comes for us to attack the Earth we shall have a generator stored to the limit with cosmic energy which we have gathered together immediately outside the atmosphere of Earth. I do not suggest that we get the energy together while we are such an enormous distance away from our home planet, because that would undoubtedly mean the dissipation of the energy throughout the years as we made the return journey. Cosmic energy being anywhere we can absorb it at any time we choose and wherever we choose providing we are in space. Is that quite clear so far?”

“Yes, it is clear enough,” Merva admitted slowly: “the only thing troubling me is the fact that you do not seem to have considered the danger attached to the initial experiments. I am quite prepared to admit that a generator stored with cosmic energy, when complete, would be the mightiest weapon ever contrived, but in the early stages of construction you would have to experiment with cosmic energy almost constantly and since you are flesh and blood the energy might eventually have a very serious effect upon you.”

“Pioneers always take the risks,” Exodus replied, shrugging. “I have not the least fear but what I shall conduct the experiments in perfect safety and in the fullest insulation—and there is the virtue that I have unnumbered years in which to make my experiments. My point is this, mother,” he continued, striding forward until he was facing her directly, “when the day finally comes to strike I wish to have in my possession a weapon so shattering, so completely reliable, that the chance of defeat is entirely ruled out. Effective though the instruments are which you have designed I still do not feel inclined to pin all my faith on them. I want something that at one blow can destroy half the world completely. A weapon that can reduce whole civilisations and whole human beings into complete dust with one fell swoop. Your weapons are ideal for individual picking off as one might call it, or for concentrating on small points that will not come into the main area, but for the initial blast I say let us have cosmic radiation. Under the withering impact of that human beings will shrivel and vanish like ants on a red hot grill!”

“Exodus, I am proud of you,” Merva commented, rising to her feet and moving towards him. “You have your father's immense breadth of outlook and my complete lack of sentiment. The combination of the two has produced an ideal avenger. Naturally it goes without saying that I will help you all I can with a plan like this and then we....”

“I don't think I shall need any help,” Exodus said thinking. “I am one that must work alone and entirely to my own ideas. I do not mean by that that I am shutting you out from my activities but I do insist on doing this whole construction alone. The machine is to be mine and the power that goes with it is also to be mine. Like you I find it difficult to share power with anybody.”

The eyes of mother and son met for a moment and in neither was there the faintest trace of yielding. Possibly the most discomfited was Merva in that she had come to realise at last that her son was possessed of greater scientific intelligence than either herself or her late husband.

“And when do you intend to start the construction of this machine?” she asked presently, moving away.

“I'm in no hurry. I have the drawings to get out first but I thought it would be as well to let you know what I am doing in case you find me busy on the job without a previous explanation. What I have in mind is to turn the main storage room at the far end of the vessel into the site for the generator. The stuff that is already in there can easily be moved into some of the other holds of the ship and that would leave me ample room for construction. If the generator were to be constructed there, filling one quarter of the ship, the feeder lines from it could afterwards be carried to the nose of the vessel and there we have the whole thing beautifully under control. You will be able to estimate for yourself how much cosmic power there will be in a generator occupying a quarter of a ship this size.”

“There can never be too much power,” Merva replied. “That is the secret of success, be it human power or elemental power.”

“Well then, since you have given your blessing….” Exodus crossed over to the life energy machine and stood contemplating it thoughtfully. Merva watched him, her eyes narrowed over a thought.

“Would it do any harm,” Exodus asked, “if you switched this machine on for me so that I can once again refresh my mind as to its principles?”

“It is quite impossible to switch it on without there being a dissipation of life energy,” Merva answered him. “There is so little of it that I can't afford to lose any either for your sake or mine, so I'm afraid nothing can be done in that direction.”

“That,” Exodus said, turning and looking at her, “doesn't make sense. It is as simple to switch this machine on in order to see its operation without it dissipating any energy as it is to switch on the power plant of the space ship without having it to actually drive the vessel. Besides I must have it switched on in order to have a better idea of the basic principles which I have in mind.”

Merva shook her head. “I cannot help you there, Exodus.”

A grim look came into his face; he crossed over to where his mother was standing.

“This doesn't make sense,” he declared flatly. “On the one hand you are willing to help me all you can with this invention then the moment I ask you to make the first move in regard to that help, you refuse to do anything. There can't be any reason why you don't want this machine switched on, can there?”

“Are you quite sure,” Merva asked, deliberately, “that this cosmic ray theory of yours is absolutely genuine?”

“Genuine?” Exodus stared at her in amazement. “But of course it's genuine! Why should you so suddenly decide to doubt it?”

“I doubt it, Exodus, because it is so closely linked in basis of operation with this life energy machine of mine. I have known for long enough that you would like to know a great deal more about this life energy machine and I'm going to venture to suggest that this cosmic ray theory of yours, entirely nebulous, has been devised so as to make it necessary for you to thoroughly examine this life energy machine as a supposed basis for your own machine. Now that I do not intend to allow.”

“And why not?” Exodus asked, completely blank.

“A little while ago, Exodus, you said that you found it difficult to share power with anybody. I too am of the same mind and there is nothing that could give you greater power than to know more about that life energy machine. You could, if you chose, use just enough energy to give yourself just one more injection and then you could dissipate the remainder, leaving me without anything. I dislike saying such a thing about my own son but I believe in an emergency you would do just that.”