CHAPTER IX
Speed Limit—186,000 MPS!
Thus it was arranged. Dr. Kang Tsao and his daughter, beautiful Kang Pen-N'hi, moved kit and equipment aboard theLibertythat very day. The events of the following week were days not so filled with adventure as with plain hard and dogged work.
At Dr. Kang's own suggestion theLibertydid not linger on Deimos until the installation of the new power shield should be complete.
"This discovery," said the Martian scientist, "is remarkably simple. With what little equipment my daughter and I have brought aboard, and with such standard stores as may be found aboard your ship, we can make the craft impregnable. So let us waste no time, but get under way. We shall make the installation as we fly to Jupiter."
And this they did, in plain sight of all theLiberty'sstaff and crew. Despite which, few were able afterward to say what had been done, or why such minor alterations should make such a tremendous difference.
Old Douglas Sebold, Chief Engineer of theLiberty, openly acknowledged his inability to grasp the force field's method of operation.
"Come down here to the engine room, they did; the Martian man and his daughter. Fidgeted and fiddled around for a couple of hours without speaking nary a word to any of us except maybe a polite, 'Howjyedo? G'bye!' And when they left, what had they did? Hooked up a little hunk of wire here and a condenser there and a thingamajigger somewhere else, none of which looks like it ought to do nothing!"
Lieutenant MacDonald made much the same plaint.
"They opened the control banks and threw a few shunts across the relays. Then they ran one cable to the hypos. But so far asIcan see, what they did shouldn't make any great difference in the operation of the ship." He stared at Gary dubiously, "You don't think the old man's giving us the runaround, do you? Pretending to put out, when really all he's doing is stealing the secret of Earth's hypatomic?"
Lark O'Day, from the neighboring plot desk, looked up, glowering darkly. "Mac," he advised, "if I thought you really meant that, I'd come over there and push your face so far down your throat you'd have a tapeworm's view of your own stomach. Anybody who cracks about Dr. Kang—"
"Also cracks," grinned Gary, "about Kang's charming daughter, Pen-N'hi. Which Lark doesn't allow. But, no, Mac; I'm sure you're mistaken. As soon as we reach the asteroid belt Dr. Kang has promised us proof that the force-shield has been installed and is in operation."
With this assurance everyone had to be content, until ten days out from Mars theLibertyhove within range of that tremendous swarm of shuttling bodies which comprises the Bog, spaceman's term for the belt of myriad asteroids ranging in size from tiny granules of rock to life-sustaining mountains of matter larger than many satellites.
It was when they reached this point that Dr. Kang offered his promised proof. As the leaders of the party gathered within theLiberty'scontrol turret he said, "And now, for those of you who have not had the opportunity of seeing the Martian force-shield operate, a little demonstration may be heartening. Who's at the controls? O'Day? Good! Larkspur, my friend ... you see that asteroid moving within our vision range to loft and starboard?"
O'Day, fingers flickering incessantly over the keyboard as the ship wove its way through the treacherous belt, nodded tightly.
"I see it," he grunted, "and I'm getting out of its way now. If that thing ever plowed into us, theLibertywould be one small blob of crumpled metal floating through space."
"On the contrary," said Dr. Kang smoothly, "you will make no attempt to avoid the planetoid. You will set a course directly for it."
"Directly—!" gulped Lark.
"Yes. If you will be so kind."
Then Dr. Kang stepped to the board and depressed the single black stud he had installed on the instrument panel. "Steer directly for that rock at the greatest speed you can achieve."
O'Day essayed a grin that didn't quite jell. But with the eyes of Pen-N'hi upon him, he had no intention of showing the white feather. He merely shrugged.
"You're calling signals," he muttered ... and did as the old Martian directed.
With the die irrevocably cast, young Dr. Lane could sympathize completely with theLiberty'spilot. He, too, felt qualms of misgiving as the cruiser bore down at flashing speed upon a chunk of rock large enough to shatter the ship into billions of tortured rivets.
Nor was it pleasant to stare into the viewpane, watching that lethal asteroid loom ever larger and more deadly, now like a gray, grim, gaunt and fearsome stony beast, its gaping canyons yawned like fangs bared to destroy them. Nearer and nearer flashed theLiberty. Lane's heart missed a beat ... then another ... then started pounding with an excitement which moistened the palms of his hands and dried his lips. He cast a nervous glance at Dr. Kang. But the aged Martian's features were expressionless.
Flick Muldoon was frankly apprehensive, and Nora Powell, standing next to Warren across the room, moved closer to the sturdy space captain as though to eke from his presence some breath of reassurance.
Nearer and yet nearer. And now they were almost upon the cosmic juggernaut. At the rate at which they were traveling, if something were not donenow—immediately!—it would be but a matter of instants before—
Gary was not surprised to hear a cry rip from the group of awed watchers. Only a certain pride had preventedhimfrom being the one to cry aloud. But it was little Dr. Anjers, cherubic face gray, who broke forth.
"O'Day, turn away! It's a failure! We're going to crash! Look out—!"
But in that moment came a sudden, shuddering twist. Not hard, not damaging, not shocking, but a sensation as though theLibertyhad plowed headlong into a mass of sponge rubber. The nose of the ship flew up, the dreadful vision in the viewpane swung suddenly out of sight—and a moment later the rock which had threatened certain death to all aboard lay far behind!
Dr. Kang smiled. "You see, my friends?"
O'Day said wonderingly, "It—it shunted us! Bounced us up and around it, away from it, as if we were a rubber ball!"
"Exactly," said the Martian. "Our ship is encased in a sphere of electrical force through which no matter can penetrate. A yielding barrier which absorbs the shock of collision. The Bog holds no more perils for us, my friends. You may if you wish, lock your controls and pursue a set course to our destination."
"Well," said Flick Muldoon. "Well, I'll be damned!"
The Bog lay a trifle more than 120,000,000 miles from Mars. Great Jupiter swung in its gigantic orbit a full 225,000,000 farther beyond. Thus a journey of more than three Earth weeks' duration lay before the space questers. Merchantmen were wont to speak of this as a dreary, tedious journey, but those aboard theLibertydid not find it so. They had much with which to occupy their every waking hour.
For one thing, as the final stage of their adventure beckoned closer, it seemed to definitely decide a problem up to now left dangling. That of determining into exactly which quadrant of space should they direct their flight when—and if—they were successful in gaining from the Jovian council the fourth of their needful loans.
"Proxima Centauri," said Dr. Boris Anjers. "That is, of course, the goal toward which we must set our course."
Gary said dubiously, "I'm not so sure. The studies of Millikin, and the later research of Marquart and Thompson Blaine would seem to indicate that cosmic rays emanate not fromthatsector of space, but rather from the neighborhood of Sirius."[5]
"But," persisted the small Eurasian, "our main desire is to escape this galaxy. And certainly Proxima Centauri is our closest neighbor."
"Closest, yes. But by going towarditwe travel in the opposite direction to that which I think we should go. No, Sirius is the star we must seek. There, if anywhere, lies the answer to our problem."
Flick Muldoon stared from one to the other of the two wrangling scientists, his honest face wreathed in bewilderment.
"Am I nuts?" he demanded, "or have you two gone completely off base? You're talking about Proxima Centauri and Sirius like they were weekend excursions. If I haven't forgotten everything my astronomy prof told me, Proxima Centauri is about four light-years away. Sirius is twice that far. At the rate we're traveling it'll take us about 6,500 years to reach Proxy, and damn near 14,000 to get to the Dog! What do we do to live that long ... eat vitamins?"
Lane smiled. "You'd better stick to photography, Flick. Don't you realize by now that our whole purpose in going to Jupiter is to learn the secret of faster-than-light travel? If they'll tell us this secret, we can reach our destination in—well, I don't know exactly how long. That will depend greatly upon how far we can exceed the so-called 'limiting velocity'."
Here Dr. Kang interpolated, "That my boy is the term I suggest you use with the greatest respect. It is not merely the 'so-called' limiting velocity. The speed of lightisactually the greatest velocity at which matter can travel and still retain its integral form. Beyond that speed, mass becomes infinite. What happens then, no man knows. I am afraid we must reconcile ourselves to a long and wearisome voyage of nine Earth years."
Gary said tightly, "We can'taffordnine years. I'm not thinking of our own discomfort, I'm remembering our computations. According to those figures, Sol's dwindling point will be reached not in years, but in months ... maybeweeks! Before we can reach our goal, the universe from which we are fleeing will exist no more!"
"All the more reason," insisted Dr. Boris Anjers, "for heading toward Proxima Centauri, my young friend. I am older than you, and have studied cosmic radiation for a great many years. Iassureyou, there is no reason to believe one extra-galactic destination is more likely than another."
Gary glanced at the man oddly. It was unlike Anjers to flaunt his age and wisdom; equally unlike the small scientist to rouse to such heights of nervous excitement. Gary said slowly, "Well, Dr. Anjers, this is a communal enterprise. I don't wish to dictate our course. I'm willing to place the decision to a vote of all our party."
Dr. Bryant said quietly, "That will not be necessary, Gary. You have led us most successfully up till now. I think we are all willing to accept your judgment."
"You're darn tootin'!" said Muldoon.
And Dr. Kang said blandly, "I, too, have perfect confidence in your decisions, Dr. Lane."
Anjers' round face puffed with petulance. His bushy eyebrows drew together. "Oh, very well!" he snapped in a tone almost a snarl. "But I warn you, you're making a great mistake!" And angrily he stomped from the room.
But to the man's credit, his pique did not last long. Before the day ended he had returned, as urbane as ever, with a contrite smile and an apology on his lips. So equanimity was restored aboard theLiberty, and that was good, for on a voyage such as this it was better to avoid all clash of personalities.
"We are fortunate," said Dr. Kang one night after Lark O'Day had reported an argument in the crew's quarters which had almost resulted in a free-for-all between the blasters and the mariners, "we number no Venusians or Jovians among our corps. It has been my observation that the members of these two races mingle poorly with the children of your world and mine. Of the four races, our two are the more easy-going, theirs the more emotional. Perhaps the early history of your Earth might have been less bloody had not your continent embraced such a diversity of planetary colonists."
Hugh Warren stared.
"Colonists? Are you trying to tell us, Dr. Kang, that the races of Earth's mankind aren't indigenous to Earth?"
The ivory-tinted one's eyebrows lifted slightly. "But of course they are not, Captain. Surely you didn't believe—or did you? But how unreasonable to think that one small planet would breed more than a single species! You of the white-skinned race are the only true race of Earth."
"Weare?"
"Why, surely! Just as all the true children of Venus are dark-skinned, and we of Mars amber-fleshed. Oh, there is a certain fundamental root-stock common to us all, I suppose. But any medical man can assure you our differences lie not only in the color of our skins. Our races show many physiological variations. Blood plasma, hair structure, distribution of sinews, skeletal articulation—"
Nora Powell asked, "Then the yellow races of Earth—the Chinese, Eskimos, Amerindians—were originally natives ofyourplanet?"
Dr. Kang nodded.
"Just as the ebony hued natives of your Africa came originally from Venus; yes. On my planet are small colonies of white and black skinned humans, and on Venus are aboriginal tribes of yellow and white skinned men. It seems an inexorable law of nature that on every globe the native tribe should rise to supremacy, while the secondary groups should achieve to a lesser culture."
Gary said, "That is only partly true, Dr. Kang. Your Martian colonists on our Earth—or at least those who colonized the country known as China—have ever been a great and cultured people. Our forefathers called them 'backward,' but that was because they placed social culture above mechanistic advancement."
"But, Dr. Kang," broke in Muldoon, "you're implying that spaceflight existed God-knows-how-long-ago! Centuries ... eons ... before the launching of the Wentworth-Kroll experimental rocket in 1973!"[6]
Dr. Kang nodded. "And that is true. Spaceflightdidexist countless centuries ago. It was achieved and perfected by a race now vanished. A race which persists today only in vestigial form. You will meet some of its members a few weeks hence."
"The Jovians?" demanded Gary. "You mean the Jovians once had a great civilization and visited all the worlds? From way out there in their far orbit?"
"Not exactly. But from theirformerplanet."
"Former—?"
"Yes. The one through whose shattered remnants we have but recently passed."
O'Day said dazedly, "The asteroid belt! That's right! Sciencedoesbelieve it once comprised a planet. It was destroyed mysteriously, some say by a gigantic tug of war waged between Jupiter and the sun; others say by internal explosion, millennia before civilization came to Earth. But—" His brows drew together thoughtfully—"but the Jovians are ablue-skinned race, Dr. Kang."
"Quite so," agreed Kang. "And as such they are bespoken in the legends of my people. And—if I am not mistaken—also in your ancient records.[7]We should pity them, my friends. They were once a great and valiant empire; now they are decadent. Those of them who escaped the holocaust which destroyed their former worlds have taken refuge on Jupiter, and there live quietly, concerning themselves no longer with matters of solar government.
"It is piteous," mourned the old man, "to see a once noble people brought so low. But that is, and ever has been, the history of man's strivings."
"Centuries," mused Gary Lane. "Thousands of years ago. I wonder—"
"Wonder what, my friend?"
"I wonder if their downfall has anything to do with the problem we're tackling now. But—" Gary shook himself, ridding his mind of the sudden, uneasy thought—"but of course that's nonsense! It couldn't possibly be...."