Part 15 (2/2)

They had worked out the problem of the time-field, but there they had been aided by the actual apparatus, and the possibilities of making direct tests on machines already set up. The problem of artificial matter, at length fully solved, was a different matter. This had required within a few days of a month (by their clocks; close to thirty thousand years of Earth's time), for they had really been forced to develop it all from the beginning. In the small improvements Arcot had inst.i.tuted in Stel Felso Theu's device, he had really merely followed the particular branch that Stel Felso Theu had stumbled upon. Hence it was impossible to determine with any great variety, the type of matter created. Now, however, Arcot could make any known kind of matter, and many unknown kinds.

But now came the greatest problem of all. They were ready to start work on the data they had collected in s.p.a.ce.

”What,” asked Zezdon Afthen, as he watched the three terrestrians begin their work, ”is the nature of the thing you are attempting to harness?”

”In a word, energy,” replied Arcot, pausing.

”We are attempting to harness energy in its primeval form, in the form of a s.p.a.ce-field. Remember, ma.s.s is a measure of energy. Two centuries ago a scientist of our world proposed the idea that energy could be measured by ma.s.s, and proceeded to prove that the relations.h.i.+p was the now firmly intrenched formula E=Mc^{2}.

”The sun is giving off energy. It is giving off ma.s.s, then, in the form of light photons. The field of the sun's gravity must be constantly decreasing as its ma.s.s decreases. It is a collapsing field. It is true, the sun's gravitational field does decrease, by a minute amount, despite the fact that our sun loses a thousand million tons of matter every four minutes. The percentage change is minute, but the energy released is--immeasurable.

”But, I am going to invent a new power unit, Afthen. I will call it the 'sol,' the power of a sun. One sol is the rating of our sun. And I will measure the energy I use in terms of sun-powers, not horsepower. That may tell you of its magnitude!”

”But,” Zezdon Afthen asked, ”while you men of Earth work on this problem, what is there for us? We have no problems, save the problem of the fate of our world, still fifty thousand years of your time in the future. It is terrible to wait, wait, wait and think of what may be happening in that other time. Is there nothing we can do to help? I know our hopeless ignorance of your science. Stel Felso Theu can scarcely understand the thoughts you use, and I can scarcely understand his explanations! I cannot help you there, with your calculations, but is there nothing I can do?”

”There is, Ortolian, decidedly. We badly need your help, and as Stel Felso Theu cannot aid us here as much as he can by working with you, I will ask him to do so. I want your knowledge of psycho-mechanical devices to help us. Will you make a machine controlled by mental impulses? I want to see such a system and know how it is done that I may control machines by such a system.”

”Gladly. It will take time, for I am not the expert worker that you are, and I must make many pieces of apparatus, but I will do what I can,”

exclaimed Zezdon Afthen eagerly.

So, while Arcot and his group continued their work of determining the constants of the s.p.a.ce-energy field, the others were working on the mental control apparatus.

Chapter XV

ALL-POWERFUL G.o.dS

Again there was a period of intense labor, while the s.h.i.+p drifted through time, following Earth in its mad careening about the sun, and the sun as it rushed headlong through s.p.a.ce. At the end of a thirty-day period, they had reached no definite position in their calculations, and the Talsonian reported, as a medium between the two parties of scientists, that the work of the Ortolian had not reached a level that would make a scientific understanding possible.

As the s.h.i.+p needed no replenis.h.i.+ng, they determined to finish their present work before landing, and it was nearly forty thousand years after their first arrival that they again landed on Earth.

It was changed now; the ice caps had retreated visibly, the Nile delta was far longer, far more prominent, and cities showed on the Earth here and there.

Greece, they decided would be the next stop, and to Greece they went, landing on a mountain side. Below was a village, a small village, a small thing of huts and hovels. But the villagers attacked, swarming up the hillside furiously, shouting and shrieking warnings of their terrible prowess to these men who came from the ”s.h.i.+ning house,”

ordering them to flee from them and turn over their possession to them.

”What'll we do?” asked Morey. He and Arcot had come out alone this time.

”Take one of these fellows back with us, and question him. We had best get a more or less definite idea of what time-age we are in, hadn't we?

We don't want to overshoot by a few centuries, you know!”

The villagers were swarming up the side of the hill, armed with weapons of bronze and wood. The bronze implements of murder were rare, and evidently costly, for those that had them were obviously leaders, and better dressed than the others.

”Hang it all, I have only a molecular pistol. Can't use that, it would be a plain ma.s.sacre!” exclaimed Arcot.

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