E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne (44 page)

Seaton nodded permission, and from the eyes and from the hands of the figure there leaped visible streams of force, which seized the transformers, coils, and tubes, and reformed and reconnected them, under Seaton’s bulging eyes, into an entirely different mechanism.

‘Oh, I see!’ he gasped. ‘Say, what are you, anyway?’

‘Pardon me; in my eagerness I became forgetful. I am Orlon, the First of Astronomy of Norlamin, in my observatory upon the surface of the planet. This that you see is simply my projection, composed of forces for which you have no name in your language. You can cut it off, if you wish, with your screens, which even I can see are of a surprisingly high order of efficiency. There, this educator will now work as it should. Please put on the remodeled helmets, all four of you.’

They did so, and the pencils of force moved levers, switches, and dials as positively as human hands could have moved them, and with vastly greater speed and precision. As the dials moved, each brain received clearly and plainly a knowledge of the customs, language, and manners of the inhabitants of Norlamin. Each mind became suffused with a vast, immeasurable peace, calm power, and a depth and breadth of mental vision theretofore undreamed-of. Looking deep into his mind they sensed a quiet, placid certainty, beheld power and knowledge to them illimitable, perceived depths of wisdom to them unplumbable.

Then from his mind into theirs there flowed smoothly
a mighty stream of comprehension of cosmic phenomena. They hazily saw infinitely small units grouped into planetary formations to form practically dimensionless aggregates. These in turn grouped to form slightly larger ones, and after a long succession of such groupings they knew that the comparatively gigantic bodies which then held their attention were in reality electrons, the smallest units recognized by Earthly science. They clearly understood the combinations of sub-atomic constituents into atoms. They perceived plainly the way in which atoms build up molecules, and comprehended the molecular structure of matter. In mathematical thoughts only dimly grasped, even by Seaton and Crane, were laid before them the fundamental laws of physics, of electricity, of gravitation, and of chemistry. They saw globular masses of matter, the suns and their planets, comprising solar systems; saw solar systems, in accordance with those immutable laws, grouped into galaxies. Galaxies in turn – here the flow was suddenly shut off as though a valve had been closed, and the astronomer spoke.

‘Pardon me. Your brains should be stored only with the material you desire most and can use to the best advantage, for your mental capacity is even more limited than my own. Please understand that I speak in no derogatory sense; it is only that your race has many thousands of generations to go before your minds should be stored with knowledge indiscriminately. We ourselves have not reached that stage, and we are perhaps millions of years older than are you. And yet,’ he continued musingly, ‘I envy you. Knowledge is, of course, relative, and I can know
so
little! Time and space have yielded not an iota of their mystery to our most penetrant minds. And whether we delve baffled into the unknown smallness of the small, or whether we peer, blind and helpless, into the unknown largeness of the large, it is the same – infinity is comprehensible only to the Infinite One: the all-shaping Force directing and controlling the universe and the unknowable Sphere. The more we know, the vaster the virgin fields of investigation open to us, and the more infinitesimal becomes our knowledge. But I am perhaps keeping you from more important activities. As you approach Norlamin more nearly I shall guide you to my observatory. I am glad indeed that it is in my lifetime that you have come to us, and I await anxiously the opportunity of greeting you in the flesh. The years remaining to me of this cycle of existence are few, and I had almost ceased hoping to witness your coming.’

The projection vanished instantaneously, and the four stared at each other in an incredulous daze of astonishment. Seaton finally broke the stunned silence.

‘Well, I’ll be kicked to death by little red spiders!’ he ejaculated. ‘Mart, did you see what I saw? I thought – hoped, maybe – that I was expecting something like that, but I wasn’t – it breaks me off at the ankles yet, just to think of it!’

Crane walked over to the educator in silence. He examined
it, felt the changed coils and transformers, and gently shook the new insulating base of the great power-tube. Still in silence he turned his back, walked around the instrument board, read the meters, then went back and again inspected the educator.

‘It was real, and not a higher development of hypnotism, as I thought at first that it must be,’ he reported seriously. ‘Hypnotism, if sufficiently advanced, might have affected us in that fashion, even to teaching us all a strange language, but by no possibility could it have had such an effect upon copper, steel, bakelite, and glass. It was certainly real, and while I cannot begin to understand it, I will say that your imagination has certainly vindicated itself. A race who can do such things as that can do almost anything. You have been right, from the start.’

‘Then you can beat those horrible Fenachrone, after all!’ cried Dorothy, and threw herself into her husband’s arms.

‘Do you remember, Dick, that I hailed you once as Columbus at San Salvador?’ asked Margaret unsteadily from Crane’s encircling arms. ‘What could a man be called who from the sheer depths of his imagination called forth the means of saving from destruction all the civilizations of millions of entire worlds?’

‘Don’t talk that way, please, folks,’ Seaton was plainly uncomfortable. He blushed, the burning red tide rising in waves up to his hair as he wriggled in embarrassment, like any schoolboy. ‘Mart’s done most of it, anyway, you know; and even at that, we aren’t out of the woods yet, by forty-seven rows of apple trees.’

‘You will admit, will you not, that we can see our way out of the woods, at least, and that you yourself feel rather relieved?’ asked Crane.

‘I’ll say I’m relieved! We ought to be able to take ’em, with the Norlaminians backing us. If they haven’t already got the stuff we need, they will know how to make it – even if that zone actually is impenetrable, I’ll bet they’ll be able to work out some solution. Relieved? That don’t half tell it, guy – I feel like I’d just pitched off the Old Man of the Sea who’s been riding on my neck! What say you girls get your fiddle and guitar and we’ll sing us a little song? I feel good – they had me worried – it’s the first time I’ve felt like singing since we cut that warship up.’

Dorothy brought out her ‘fiddle’ – the magnificent Stradivarius, formerly Crane’s, which he had given her – Margaret her guitar, and they sang one rollicking number after another. Though by no means a Metropolitan Opera quartette, their voices were all better than mediocre, and they had sung together so much that they harmonized readily.

‘Why don’t you play us some real music, Dottie?’ asked Margaret, after a time. ‘You haven’t practiced for ages.’

‘Right. This quartette of ours ain’t so hot,’ agreed Seaton. ‘If we had any audience except Shiro, they’d probably be throwing eggs by this time.’

‘I haven’t felt like playing lately, but I do now,’ and Dorothy stood up and swept the bow over the strings. Doctor of music in violin, an accomplished
musician, playing upon one of the finest instruments the world has ever known, she was lifted out of herself by relief from the dread of the Fenachrone invasion and that splendid violin expressed every subtle nuance of her thought.

She played rhapsodies and paeans, and solos by the great masters. She played vivacious dances, then ‘Traumerei’ and ‘Liebestraum’. At last she swept into the immortal ‘Meditation’, and as the last note died away Seaton held out his arms.

‘You’re a blinding flash and a deafening report, Dottie Dimple, and I love you,’ he declared – and his eyes and his arms spoke volumes that his light utterance had left unsaid.

Norlamin close enough so that its images almost filled number six visiplate, the four wanderers studied it with interest. Partially obscured by clouds and with polar regions two glaring caps of snow – they would be green in a few months, when the planet would swing inside the orbit of its sun around that vast central luminary of that complex solar system – it made a magnificent picture. They saw sparkling blue oceans and huge green continents of unfamiliar outlines. So terrific was the velocity of the space-cruiser that the image grew larger as they watched it, and soon the field of vision could not contain the image of the whole disk.

‘Well, I expect Orlon’ll be showing up pretty quick now,’ remarked Seaton; and it was not long until the projection appeared in the air of the control room.

‘Hail, Terrestrials!’ he greeted them. ‘With your permission, I shall direct your flight.’

Permission granted, the figure floated across the room to the board and the rays of force centered the visiplate, changed the direction of the bar a trifle, decreased slightly their negative acceleration, and directed a stream of force upon the steering mechanism.

‘We shall alight upon the grounds of my observatory upon Norlamin in seven thousand four hundred twenty-eight seconds,’ he announced presently. ‘The observatory will be upon the dark side of Norlamin when we arrive, but I have a force operating upon the steering mechanism which will guide the vessel along the required curved path. I shall remain with you until we land, and we may converse upon any topic of interest to you.’

‘We came in search of you specifically to discuss a matter in which you will be as much interested as we are. But it would take too long to tell you about it – I’ll show you.’

He brought out the magnetic brain record, threaded
it into the machine and handed the astronomer a headset. Orlon put it on, touched the lever, and for an hour there was unbroken silence. There was no pause in the motion of the magnetic tape, no repetition – Orlon’s brain absorbed the information as fast as it could be sent, and understood that frightful recording in every particular.

As the end of the tape was reached a shadow passed over Orlon’s face.

‘Truly a depraved evolution – it is sad to contemplate such a perversion of a really excellent brain. They have power, even as you have, and they have the will to destroy, which is a thing that I cannot understand. However, if it is graven upon the Sphere that we are to pass, it means only that upon the next plane we shall continue our searches – let us hope with better tools and with greater understanding than we now possess.’

‘’Smatter?’ snapped Seaton savagely. ‘Going to take it lying down, without putting up any fight at all?’

‘What can we do? Violence is contrary to our very natures. No man of Norlamin could offer any but passive resistance.’

‘You can do a lot if you will. Put on that headset again and get my plan, offering any suggestions your far abler mind may suggest.’

As the human scientist poured his plan of battle into the brain of the astronomer, Orlon’s face cleared.

‘It is graven upon the Sphere that the Fenachrone shall pass,’ he said finally. ‘What you ask of us we can do. I have only a general knowledge of rays, as they are not in the province of the Orlon family; but the student Rovol, of the family Rovol of Rays, has all present knowledge of such phenomena. Tomorrow I will bring you together, and I have little doubt that he will be able, with the help of your metal of power, to solve your problem.’

‘I don’t quite understand what you said about a whole family studying one subject, and yet having only one student in it,’ said Dorothy, in perplexity.

‘A little explanation is perhaps necessary. First, you must know that every man of Norlamin is a student, and most of us are students of science. With us, “labor” means mental effort, that is, study. We perform no physical or manual labor save for exercise, as all our mechanical work is done by forces. This state of things having endured for many thousands of years it long ago became evident that specialization was necessary in order to avoid duplication of effort and to insure complete coverage of the field. Soon afterward, it was discovered that very little progress was being made in any branch, because so much was known that it took a lifetime to review that which had already been accomplished, even in a narrow and highly-specialized field. Many points were studied for years before it was discovered that the identical work had been done before, and either forgotten or overlooked. To remedy this condition the mechanical educator had to be developed. Once it was perfected a new system was begun. One man was assigned
to each small subdivision of scientific endeavor, to study it intensively. When he became old each man chose a successor – usually a son – and transferred his own knowledge to the younger student. He also made a complete record of his own brain, in much the same way as you have recorded the brain of the Fenachrone upon your metallic tape. These records are all stored in a great central library, as permanent references.

‘All these things being true, now a young person need only finish an elementary education – just enough to learn to think, which takes only about twenty-five or thirty years – and he is ready to begin actual work. When that time comes he receives in one day all the knowledge of his specialty which has been accumulated by his predecessors during many thousands of years of intensive study.’

‘Whew!’ Seaton whistled. ‘No wonder you folks know something! With that start, I believe I might know something myself! As an astronomer, you may be interested in this star-chart and stuff – or do you know all about that already?’

‘No, the Fenachrone are far ahead of us in that subject, because of their observatories out in open space and because of their gigantic reflectors, which cannot be used through any atmosphere. We are further hampered in having darkness for only a few hours at a time and only in winter, when our planet is outside the orbit of our sun around the great central sun of our entire system. However, with the Rovolon you have brought us, we shall have real observatories far out in space; and for that I personally will be indebted to you more than I can ever express. As for the chart, I hope to have the pleasure of examining it while you are conferring with Rovol of Rays.’