E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne (45 page)

‘How many families are working on rays – just one?’

‘One upon each kind of rays. That is, each of the ray families knows a great deal about all kinds of vibrations of the ether, but is specializing upon one narrow field. Take, for instance, the rays you are most interested in; those able to penetrate a zone of force. From my own slight and general knowledge I know that it would of necessity be a ray of the fifth order. These rays are very new – they have been under investigation only a few thousands of years – and the Rovol is the only student who would be at all well informed upon them. Shall I explain the orders of rays more fully than I did by means of the educator?’

‘Please. You assumed that we knew more than we do, so a little explanation would help.’

‘All ordinary vibrations – that is, all molecular and material ones, such as light, heat, electricity, radio, and the like – were arbitrarily called waves of the first order, in order to distinguish them from waves of the second order, which are given off by particles of the second order, which you know as protons and electrons, in their combination to
form atoms. Your scientist Millikan discovered these rays for you, and in your language they are known as Millikan, or Cosmic, rays.

‘Some time later, when sub-electrons of the first and second levels were identified, the energies given off by their combinations or disruptions were called rays of the third and fourth orders. These rays are most interesting and most useful; in fact, they do all our mechanical work. They as a class are called protelectricity, and bear the same relation to ordinary electricity that electricity does to torque – both are pure energy, and they are interconvertible. Unlike electricity, however, it may be converted into many different forms by fields of force, in a way comparable to that in which white light is resolved into colors by a prism – or rather, more like the way alternating current is changed to direct current by a motor-generator set, with attendant changes in properties. There are two complete spectra, of about five hundred and fifteen hundred bands, respectively, each as different from the others as red is different from green. Thus, the power that propels your space-vessel, your attractors, your repellors, your object-compass, your zone of force – all these things are simply a few of the fifteen hundred wave-bands of the fourth order, all of which you doubtless would have worked out for yourselves in time. Since I know practically nothing of the fifth – the first sub-ethereal level – and since that order is to be your prime interest, I will leave it entirely to Rovol.’

‘If I knew a fraction of your “practically nothing” I’d think I knew a lot. But about this fifth order – is that as far as they go?’

‘My knowledge is slight and very general; only such as I must have in order to understand my own subject. The fifth order certainly is not the end – it is probably scarcely a beginning. We think now that the orders extend to infinite smallness, just as the galaxies are grouped into larger aggregations, which are probably in their turn only tiny units in a scheme infinitely large.

‘Over six thousand years ago the last fourth order rays were worked out; and certain peculiarities in their behavior led the then Rovol to suspect the existence of the fifth order. Successive generations of the Rovol proved their existence, determined the conditions of their liberation, and found that this metal of power was the only catalyst able to liberate them in usable quantity. This metal, which was called Rovolon after the Rovol, was first described upon theoretical grounds and later was found, by spectroscopy, in certain stars, notably in one star only eight light-years away; and a few micrograms have been obtained from meteorites. Enough for study, and to perform a few tests, but not enough to be of any practical use.’

‘Ah … I see. Those visits, then
were
real – you Norlaminians
did
operate through a zone of force on Osnome and Urvania.’

‘In a very small way, yes. On those planets and elsewhere, specifically to attract the attention of such visitors as you. And ever
since that time the family Rovol have been perfecting the theory of the fifth order and waiting for your coming. The present Rovol, like myself and many others whose work is almost at a standstill, is waiting with all-consuming eagerness to greet you as soon as the
Skylark
can be landed upon our planet.’

‘Neither your rocket-ships nor projections could get you any Rovolon?’

‘Except for the minute quantities already mentioned, no. Every hundred years or so someone develops a new type of rocket that he thinks may stand a slight chance of making the journey to that Rovolon-bearing solar system, but not one of those venturesome youths has as yet returned. Either that sun has no planets or else the rocket-ships have failed. Our projections are useless, as they can be driven only a very short distance upon our present carrier wave. With a carrier of the fifth order we could drive a projection to any point in the galaxy, since its velocity would be millions of times that of light and the power necessary would be reduced accordingly – but as I said before, such waves cannot be generated without the metal Rovolon.’

‘I hate to break this up – I’d like to listen to you talk for a week – but we’re going to land pretty quick, and it looks as though we were going to land pretty hard.’

‘We will land soon, but not hard,’ replied Orlon confidently, and the landing was as he had foretold. The
Skylark
was falling with an ever-decreasing velocity, but so fast was the descent that it seemed to the watchers as though they must crash through the roof of the huge, brilliantly-lighted building toward which they were dropping. But they did not strike the observatory. So incredibly accurate were the calculations of the Norlaminian astronomer and so inhumanly precise were the controls he had set upon their bar that as they touched the ground after barely clearing the domed roof, the passengers felt only a sudden decrease in acceleration, like that following the coming to rest of a rapidly-moving elevator after it has completed a downward journey.

‘I shall join you in person very shortly,’ Orlon said, and the projection vanished.

‘Well, we’re here, folks, on another new world. Not quite as thrilling as the first one was, is it?’ and Seaton stepped toward the door.

‘How about the air composition, density, gravity, temperature, and so on?’ asked Crane. ‘Perhaps we should make a few tests.’

‘Didn’t you get that on the educator? Thought you did. Gravity a little less than seven-tenths, Air composition, same as Osnome and Dasor. Pressure, halfway between Earth and Osnome. Temperature, like Osnome most of the time, but fairly comfortable in the winter. Snow now at the poles, but this observatory is only ten degrees from the equator. They don’t wear clothes enough to flag a hand-car with here, either, except when they have to. Let’s go!’

He opened the door and the four travelers stepped
out upon a close-cropped lawn – a turf whose blue-green softness would shame an Oriental rug. The landscape was illuminated by a soft and mellow, yet intense green light which emanated from no visible source. As they paused and glanced about them they saw that the
Skylark
had alighted in the exact center of a circular enclosure a hundred yards in diameter, walled by row upon row of shrubbery, statuary, and fountains, all bathed in ever-changing billows of light. At only one point was the circle broken. There the walls did not come together, but continued on to border a lane leading up to a massive structure of cream-and-green marble, topped by its enormous, glassy dome – the observatory of Orlon.

‘Welcome to Norlamin, Terrestrials,’ the deep, calm voice of the astronomer greeted them, and Orlon in the flesh shook hands cordially in the American fashion with each of them in turn and placed around each neck a crystal chain from which depended a small Norlaminian chronometer-radiophone. Behind him there stood four other old men.

‘These men are already acquainted with each of you, but you do not as yet know them. I present Fodan, Chief of the Five of Norlamin. Rovol, about whom you know. Astron, the First of Energy. Satrazon, the First of Chemistry.’

Orlon fell in beside Seaton and the party turned toward the observatory. As they walked along the Earthpeople stared, held by the unearthly beauty of the grounds. The hedge of shrubbery, from ten to twenty feet high, and which shut out all sight of everything outside it, was one mass of vivid green and flaring crimson leaves; each leaf and twig groomed meticulously into its precise place in a fantastic geometrical scheme. Just inside this boundary there stood a ring of statues of heroic size. Some of them were single figures of men and women; some were busts; some were groups in natural or allegorical poses – all were done with consummate skill and feeling. Between the statues there were fountains, magnificent bronze and glass groups of the strange aquatic denizens of this strange planet, bathed in geometrically-shaped sprays, screens, and columns of water. Winding around between the statues and the fountains there was a moving, scintillating wall, and upon the waters and upon the wall there played torrents of color, cataracts of harmoniously-blended light. Reds, blues, yellows, greens – every color of their peculiar green spectrum and every conceivable combination of those colors writhed and flamed in ineffable splendor upon those deep and living screens of falling water and upon that shimmering wall.

As they entered the lane Seaton saw with amazement that what he had supposed a wall, now close at hand, was not a wall at all. It was composed of myriads of individual sparkling jewels, of every known color, for the most part self-luminous; and each gem, apparently entirely unsupported, was dashing in and out and along among its fellows, weaving and darting here and there, flying at headlong speed along an
extremely tortuous, but evidently carefully-calculated course.

‘What can that be, anyway, Dick?’ whispered Dorothy, and Seaton turned to his guide.

‘Pardon my curiosity, Orlon, but would you mind explaining that moving wall?’

‘Not at all. This garden has been the private retreat of the family Orlon for many thousands of years, and women of our house have been beautifying it since its inception. You may have observed that the statuary is very old. No such work has been done for ages. Modern art has developed along the lines of color and motion, hence the lighting effects and the tapestry wall. Each gem is held upon the end of a minute pencil of force, and all the pencils are controlled by a machine which has a key for every jewel in the wall.’

Crane, the methodical, stared at the innumerable flashing jewels and asked, ‘It must have taken a prodigious amount of time to complete such an undertaking?’

‘It is far from complete; in fact, it is scarcely begun. It was started only about four hundred years ago.’

‘Four hundred years!’
exclaimed Dorothy. ‘Do you live that long? How long will it take to finish it, and what will it be like when it is done?’

‘No, none of us live longer than about one hundred and sixty years – at about that age most of us decide to pass. When this tapestry wall is finished, it will not be simply form and color, as it is now. It will be a portrayal of the history of Norlamin from the first cooling of the planet. It will, in all probability, require thousands of years for its completion. You see, time is of little importance to us, and workmanship is everything. My companion will continue working upon it until we decide to pass; my son’s companion may continue it. In any event, many generations of the women of the Orlon will work upon it until it is complete. When it is done, it will be a thing of beauty as long as Norlamin shall endure.’

‘But suppose that your son’s wife isn’t that kind of an artist? Suppose she would want to do music or painting or something else?’ asked Dorothy, curiously.

‘That is quite possible; for, fortunately, our art is not yet entirely intellectual, as is our music. There are many unfinished artistic projects in the house of Orlon, and if the companion of my son should not find one to her liking, she will be at liberty to continue anything else she may have begun, or to start an entirely new project of her own.’

‘You have a family then?’ asked Margaret. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t understand things very well when you gave them to us over the educator.’

‘I send things too fast for you, not knowing that your educator was new to you; a thing with which you were not thoroughly familiar. I will therefore explain some things in language, since you are not
familiar with the mechanism of thought transference. The Five do what governing is necessary for the entire planet. Their decrees are founded upon self-evident truth, and are therefore the law. Population is regulated according to the needs of the planet, and since much work is now in progress, an increase in population was recommended by the Five. My companion and I therefore had three children, instead of the customary two. By lot it fell to us to have two boys and one girl. One of the boys will assume my duties when I pass; the other will take over a part of some branch of science that has grown too complex for one man to handle as a specialist should. In fact, he has already chosen his specialty and been accepted for it – he is to be the nine hundred sixty-seventh of Chemistry, the student of the asymmetric carbon atom, which will thus be a specialty from this time henceforth.

‘It was learned long ago that the most perfect children were born of parents in the full prime of mental life, that is, at about one hundred years of age. Therefore, with us each generation covers one hundred years. The first twenty-five years of a child’s life are spent at home with his parents, during which time he acquires his elementary education in the common schools. Then boys and girls alike move to the Country of Youth, where they spend another twenty-five years. There they develop their brains and initiative by conducting any researches they choose. Most of us, at that age, solve the most baffling problems of the universe, only to discover later that our solutions have been fallacious. However, much really excellent work is done in the Country of Youth, primarily because of the new and unprejudiced viewpoints of the virgin minds there at work. In that country also each finds his life’s companion, the one necessary to round out mere existence into a perfection of living that no person, man or woman, can ever know alone. I need not speak to you of the wonders of love or of the completion and fullness of life that it brings, for all four of you, children though you are, know love in full measure.