E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne (46 page)

‘At fifty years of age the man, now mentally mature, is recalled to his family home, as his father’s brain is now losing some of its vigor and keenness. The father then turns over his work to the son by means of the educator – and when the weight of the accumulated knowledge of a hundred thousand generations of research is impressed upon the son’s brain, his play is over.’

‘What does the father do then?’

‘Having made his brain record, about which I have told you, he and his companion – for she has in similar fashion turned over her work to her successor – retire to the Country of Age, where they rest and relax after their century of effort. They do whatever they care to do, for as long as they please to do it. Finally, after assuring themselves that all is well with the children, they decide that they are ready for the Change. Then, side by side as they have labored, they Pass.’

Now at the door of the observatory, Dorothy paused
and shrank back against Seaton, her eyes widening as she stared at Orlon.

‘No, daughter, why should we fear the Change?’ he answered her unspoken question, calm serenity in every inflection of his quiet voice. ‘The life-principle is unknowable to the finite mind, as is the All-Controlling Force. But even though we know nothing of the sublime goal toward which it is trending, any person ripe for the Change can, and of course does, liberate the life-principle so that its progress may be unimpeded.’

In the spacious room of the observatory, in which the Terrestrials and their Norlaminian hosts had been long engaged in study and discussion, Seaton finally rose, extended a hand toward his wife, and spoke to Orlon.

‘Your Period of Sleep begins in twenty minutes – and we’ve been awake for thirty hours, which is a long time for us. We will go back to our
Skylark
, and when the Period of Labor begins – that will give us ten hours – I will go over to Rovol’s laboratory and Crane can come back here to work with you? How would that be?’

‘You need not return to your vessel – I know that its somewhat cramped quarters have become irksome. Apartments have been prepared here for you. We shall have a light meal here together, and then we shall retire, to meet again tomorrow.’

As he spoke a tray laden with appetizing dishes appeared in the air in front of each person. As Seaton resumed his seat the tray followed him, remaining always in the most convenient position.

Crane glanced at Seaton questioningly; and Satrazon, the First of Chemistry, answered his thought before he could voice it.

‘The food before you, unlike that which is before us of Norlamin, is wholesome for you. It contains no copper, no arsenic, no heavy metal – in short, nothing in the least harmful to your chemistry. It is balanced as to carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and sugars, and contains the due proportion of each of the various accessory nutritional factors. You will also find that the flavors are agreeable to each of you.’

‘Synthetic, eh? You’ve got us analyzed,’ Seaton stated, rather than asked, as with knife and fork he attacked the thick, rare, and beautifully-broiled steak which, with its mushrooms and other delectable trimmings, lay upon his rigid, although unsupported tray – noticing as he did so that the Norlaminians ate with tools entirely different from those they had supplied to their Earthly guests.

‘Entirely synthetic,’ Satrazon made answer, ‘except for the sodium chloride necessary. As you already know, sodium and chlorin are very rare throughout our system, therefore the force upon the food-supply took from your vessel the amount of salt required for the formulae. We have been unable to synthesize atoms, for the same reason that the labors of so many others have been hindered – because of the lack of Rovolon. Now,
however, my science shall progress as it should; and for that I join with my fellow scientists in giving you thanks for the service you have rendered us.’

‘We thank you instead, for the service we have been able to do you is slight indeed compared to what you are giving us in return. But it seems that you speak quite impersonally of the force upon the food supply. Did not you yourself direct the preparation of these meats and vegetables?’

‘Oh, no. I merely analyzed your tissues, surveyed the food-supplies you carried, discovered your individual preferences, and set up the necessary integrals in the mechanism. The forces did the rest, and will continue to do so as long as you remain upon this planet.’

‘Fruit salad always was my favorite dish,’ Dorothy said, after a couple of bites, ‘and this one is just divine! It doesn’t taste like any other fruit I ever ate, either – I think it must be the same ambrosia that the old pagan gods used to eat.’

‘If all you did was to set up the integrals, how do you know what you are going to have for the next meal?’ asked Crane.

‘We have no idea what the form, flavor, or consistency of any dish will be,’ was the surprising answer. ‘We know only that the flavor will be agreeable and that it will agree with the form and consistency of the substance, and that the composition will be well-balanced chemically. You see, all the details of flavor, form, texture, and so on are controlled by a device something like one of your kaleidoscopes. The integrals render impossible any unwholesome, unpleasant, or unbalanced combination of any nature, and everything else is left to the mechanism, which operates upon pure chance.’

‘What a system!’ Seaton exclaimed admiringly, and resumed his vigorous attack upon the long-delayed supper.

The meal over, the Earthly visitors were shown to their rooms and fell into deep, dreamless sleep.

Breakfast over, Seaton watched intently as his tray, laden with empty containers, floated away from him and disappeared into an opening in the wall.

‘How do you do it, Orlon?’ he asked, curiously. ‘I can hardly believe it, even after seeing it done.’

‘Each tray is carried upon the end of a beam or rod of force, and supported rigidly by it. Since the beam is tuned to the individual
wave of the instrument you wear upon your chest, your tray is of course placed in front of you, at a predetermined distance, as soon as the sending force is actuated. When you have finished your meal the beam is shortened. Thus the tray is drawn back to the food laboratory, where other forces cleanse and sterilize the various utensils and place them in readiness for the next meal. It would be an easy matter to have this same mechanism place your meals before you wherever you go upon this planet, provided only that a clear path can be plotted from the laboratory to your person.’

‘Thanks, but it would scarcely be worthwhile. Besides, we’d better eat in the
Skylark
most of the time, to keep our cook good-natured. Well, I see Rovol is coming in for a landing, so I’ll have to be on my way. Coming along, Dot, or have you got something else on your mind?’

‘I’m going to leave you for a while. I can’t really understand even a radio, and just thinking about those funny, complicated rays and things you are going after makes me dizzy in the head. Mrs Orlon is going to take us over to the Country of Youth – she says Margaret and I can play around with her daughter and her bunch and have a good time while you scientists are doing your stuff.’

‘All right. ’Bye ’til tonight,’ and Seaton stepped out into the grounds, where the First of Rays was waiting.

The flier was a torpedo-shaped craft of some transparent, glassy material, completely enclosed except for one circular doorway. From the midsection, which was about five feet in diameter, and provided with heavily-cushioned seats capable of carrying four passengers in comfort, the hull tapered down smoothly to a needle point at each end. As Seaton entered and settled himself into the cushions, Rovol touched a lever. Instantly a transparent door slid across the opening, locking itself into position flush with the surface of the hull, and the flier darted into the air and away. For a few minutes there was silence as Seaton studied the terrain beneath them. Fields or cities there were none; the land was covered with dense forests and vast meadows, with here and there great buildings surrounded by gracious, park-like areas. Rovol finally broke the silence.

‘I understand your problem, I believe, since Orlon has transferred to me all the thought he had from you. With the aid of the Rovolon you have brought us I am confident that we shall be able to work out a satisfactory solution of the various problems involved. It will take us some few minutes to traverse the distance to my laboratory, and if there are any matters upon which your mind is not quite clear, I shall try to clarify them.’

‘That’s letting me down easy,’ Seaton grinned, ‘but you don’t need to be afraid of hurting my feelings – I know just exactly how ignorant and dumb I am compared to you. There’s a lot of things I don’t understand at all. First, and nearest, this airboat. It has no power
plant at all. I assume that it, like so many other things hereabouts, is riding on the end of a rod of force?’

‘Exactly. The beam is generated and maintained in my laboratory. All that is here in the flier is a small sender, for remote control.’

‘How do you obtain your power? Solar generators and tide-motors? I know that all your work is done by protelectricity, and that you have developed all of the third order and almost all of the fourth, but Orlon did not inform us as to the sources.’

‘We have not used such inefficient generators for many thousands of years. Long ago it was shown by research that energies were constantly being generated in abundance in outer space, and that they – up to and including the sixth magnitude, that is – could be collected and transmitted without loss to the surface of the planet by means of matched and synchronized units. Several million of these collectors have been built and thrown out to become tiny satellites of Norlamin.’

‘How did you get them far enough out?’

‘The first ones were forced out to the required distance upon beams of force produced by the conversion of electricity, which was in turn produced from turbines, solar motors, and tide-motors. With a few of them out, however, it was easy to obtain sufficient power to send out more; and now, whenever one of us requires more power than he has at his disposal, he merely sends out such additional collectors as he needs.’

‘Now about those fifth-order rays, which will penetrate a zone of force. I am told that they are not ether waves at all?’

‘They are not ether waves. The fourth-order rays are the shortest vibrations that can be propagated through the ether; for the ether itself is not a continuous medium. We do not know its nature exactly, but it is an actual substance, and is composed of discrete particles of the fourth order. Now the zone of force, which is itself a fourth-order phenomenon, sets up a condition of stasis in the particles composing the ether. These particles are relatively so coarse that rays and particles of the fifth order will pass through the fixed zone without retardation. Therefore, if there is anything between the particles of the ether – this matter is being debated hotly among us at the present time – it must be a sub-ether, if I may use that term. We have never been able to investigate any of these things at all fully, not even such a relatively coarse aggregation as is the ether; but now, having Rovolon, it will not be many thousands of years until we shall have extended our knowledge many orders farther, in both directions.’

‘Just how will Rovolon help you?’

‘It will enable us to generate an energy of the ninth magnitude – that much power is necessary to work effectively with that which you have so aptly named a zone of force – and will give us a source of fifth, and probably
higher orders of vibrations which, if they are generated in space at all, are beyond our present reach. The zone of force is necessary to shield certain items of equipment from ether vibrations; as any such vibration inside the controlling fields of force renders observation or control of the higher orders of rays impossible.’

‘Hm … m. I see – I’m learning something,’ Seaton replied, cordially. ‘Just as the higher-powered a radio set is, the more perfect must be its shielding?’

‘Yes. Just as a trace of gas will destroy the usefulness of your most sensitive vacuum tubes, and just as imperfect shielding will allow interfering waves to enter sensitive electrical apparatus – in that same fashion will even the slightest ether vibration interfere with the operation of the extremely sensitive fields and lenses of force which must be used in controlling forces of the higher orders.’

‘Orlon told me that you had the fifth order pretty well worked out.’

‘We know exactly what the forces are, how to liberate and control them, and how to use them. In fact, in the work which we are to begin today, we shall use but little of our ordinary power: almost all our work will be done by energies liberated from copper by means of the Rovolon you have given me. But here we are at my laboratory. You already know that the best way to learn is by doing, and we shall begin at once.’

The flier alighted upon a lawn quite similar to the one before the observatory of Orlon, and the scientist led his Earthly guests into the vast, glass-lined room that was his laboratory. Great benches lined the walls. There were hundreds of dials, meters, tubes, transformers, and other instruments and mechanisms at whose uses Seaton could not even guess.

Rovol first donned a suit of transparent, flexible material, of a deep golden color, instructing Seaton to do the same; explaining that much of the work would be with dangerous frequencies and with high pressures, and that the suits were not only absolute insulators against electricity, heat, and sound, but were also ray-filters proof against any harmful radiations. As each helmet was equipped with radio-phones, conversation was not interfered with in the least.

Rovol took up a tiny flash-pencil, and with it deftly cut off a bit of Rovolon, almost microscopic in size. This he placed upon a great block of burnished copper, and upon it played a force. As he manipulated two levers, two more beams of force flattened out the particle of metal, spread it out over the copper, and forced it into the surface of the block until the thin coating was at every point in molecular contact with the copper beneath it – a perfect job of plating, and one done in the twinkling of an eye. He then cut out a piece of the treated copper the size of a pea, and other forces rapidly built around it a structure of coils and metallic tubes. This apparatus he suspended in the air at the extremity of a small beam of force. The block
of copper was next cut in two, and Rovol’s fingers moved rapidly over the keys of a machine which resembled slightly an overgrown and exceedingly complicated book-keeping machine. Streams and pencils of force flashed and crackled, and Seaton saw raw materials transformed into a complete power plant, in its center the two-hundred-pound lump of plated copper, where an instant before there had been only empty space upon the massive metal bench. Rovol’s hands moved rapidly from keys to dials and back, and suddenly a zone of force, as large as a basketball, appeared around the apparatus poised in the air.