Part 11 (2/2)
”By no means. We have, however, been able to enlarge significantly our hyper-sphere of action. We have learned much.”
”That's the understatement of the century. But before you try to teach us any such advanced stuff as that, there's something simple-that is, it should be simple that's been bothering me no end. You got a little time now, Doe?”
”Lots of it, Babe. Go ahead.”
”Okay. Well, since I never got beyond calculus, and not very advanced calc at that, I don't know any more about high math than a pig does about Sunday. But you and I both know what we mean by plain, common, ordinary, every-day reality. We know what we mean when we say that matter exists. Check, to here?”
”In the sense in which you are using the terms reality' and matter', yes.”
”Okay. Matter exists in plain, ordinary, three-dimensional s.p.a.ce. Matter is composed of atoms. Therefore atoms must exist and must have reality in three-dimensional s.p.a.ce. So why can't any atomic physicist tri-di a working model of an atom? One that will work? One that human eyes can watch work? So that the ordinary human mind can understand how and why it works?”
”That's rank over-simplification, my boy. Why, the very concept of subatomic phenomena and of subs.p.a.ce is so...”
”I know it is. That's exactly what I'm b.i.t.c.hing about. Basically, nature is simple, and yet you Big Brains can't handle it except by inventing mathematics so horribly complex that it has no relations.h.i.+p at all to reality. You can't understand it yourselves. You don't-at least I'm pretty sure you don't-really understand-like I understand that chair there, I mean-time or subs.p.a.ce or s.p.a.ce or anything else that's really fundamental. So do you mind if I stick my amateur neck 'way out and make a rank amateur's guess as to why and why not?”
”I'm listening, Babe, with my mind as well as my ears.”
Barbara grinned suddenly. ”Out of the mouths of babes -one Babe in this case-et cetera,” she said.
”Okay, little squirt, that'll be enough out of you. Doc, I think there's one, and probably more than one, fundamental basic principle that n.o.body knows anything about yet. And that when you find them, and work out their laws, everything will snap into place so that even such a dumbster as I am will be able to see what the real score is. So you think I'm a squirrel food, don't you?”
”By no means. Many have had similar thoughts...” ”I know that, too, but now we jump clear off the far end. Do you read science fiction?”
”Of course.”
”You're familiar, then, with the triangle of electromagnetics, electro-gravitics, and magneto-gravitics. That's just a wild stab, of course, but one gets you a hundred that there's something, somewhere, that will tie everything up together-subs.p.a.ce, hunches, telekinetics, witches, and all that stuff.”
Adams leaned forward eagerly. ”Have you done any work on it?”
”Who, me? What with?” Deston laughed, but there was no trace of levity in the sound. ”What would I be using for a brain? That's your department, Doc.”
Adams smiled and started to say something, but broke off in the middle of a word. His smile vanished. He sat immobile, eyes unfocussed, for minute after minute. He sat there for so long that Deston, afraid to move, began to think that he had suffered some kind of a seizure.
Finally, however, Adams came out of his trance. He and Stella got up as one and, without a word, turned to leave the room.
”Hey!” Deston protested. ”Wait up, Doc! What gives?” Adams licked his lips. ”I can't tell you, Babe. I'd be the laughing-stock of the scientific world-especially since I can't conceive of any possible instrumentation to test it.”
”After that, you've got to talk. So start.”
”The trigger was your flat statement-axiomatic to you-that the atom exists in three dimensions. Since that alleged fact can not be demonstrated, it probably is not true. If it is not true, the reverse-the Occam's-Razor explanation-would almost have to he that s.p.a.ce possesses at least four physical dimensions.”
”h.e.l.l's... flaming... afterburners...” Deston breathed.
”Exactly. The fact that this theory-to my knowledge, at least-has never been propounded seriously does not affect its validity. It explains every phenomena with which I am familiar and conflicts with none.”
There was a long silence, which Deston broke. ”Except one, maybe. According to that theory, psionic ability would be the ability to perceive and to work in the fourth physical dimension of s.p.a.ce. Sometimes in time, too, maybe. But in that case, if anybody's got it why hasn't everybody? Can you explain that?”
”Quite easily. Best, perhaps, by a.n.a.logy. You'll grant that to primitive man it was axiomatic that the Earth was flat? Two-dimensional?”
”Granted.”
”That belief became untenable when it was proved conclusively that it was round'. At that point cosmology began. The Geocentric Theory was replaced by the Heliocentric. Then the Galactic. Where are we now? We don't know. Note, however, that with every advance in science the estimated size of the physical universe has increased.”
”But what has that got to do with psionics?”
”I'm coming to that. While intelligence may not have increased very greatly over the centuries, mental ability certainly has. My thought is that the process of evolution has been, more and more frequently, activating certain hitherto-dormant portions of the brain; specifically, those portions responsible for the so-called supra-normal' abilities.”
”Oh, brother! You really went out into the wild blue yonder after that one, professor.”
”By no means. It may very well be that not all lines of heredity carry any of the genes necessary to form the required cells, even in the dormant state, and it is certain that there is a wide variation in the number and type of those cells. But have you ever really considered Lee Chaytor? Or George Wesley?”
”Just what everybody knows. They were empiricists -pure experimenters, like the early workers with electricity. They kept on trying until something worked. The theory hasn't all been worked out yet, is all.”
” Everybody knows' something that, in all probability, simply is not true. I believed it myself until just now; but now I'm almost sure that I know what the truth is. They both were-they must have been-tremendously able psiontists. They did not publish the truth because there was no symbology in which they could publish it. There still is no such symbology. They concealed their supra-normal abilities throughout their lives because they did not want to be laughed at-or worse.”
Deston thought for a minute. ”That's really a bolus... what can we-any or all of us-do about it?”
”I'm not sure. Data insufficient-much more work must be done before that question can be answered. As we said, Stella and I have learned much, but almost nothing compared to what is yet to be learned. To that end-but it is long past bedtime. Shall all eight of us meet after breakfast and learn from each other?”
”It'll be a one-way street, professor,” Deston said, ”but thanks a million for the compliment, anyway. We shall indeed.”
The Adamses left the room and Carlyle Deston stared unseeingly at the doorway through which they had pa.s.sed.
And next morning after breakfast the four couples sat at a round table, holding hands in a circle.
Very little can be said about what actually went on. It cannot be told in either words or mathematics. There is no symbology except the esoteric jargon of the psiontist-as meaningless to the non-psionic mind as the proverbial ”The gostak distims the doshes”-by the use of which such information can be transmitted.
Results, however, were enormous and startling; and it must be said here that not one of the eight had any suspicion then that the Adams fusion had any help in doing what it did. Andrew Adams' mind was admittedly the greatest of its time; combining with its perfect complement would enhance its power; everything that happened was strictly logical and only to be expected.
The physical results of one phase of the investigation, that into teleportation, can be described. Each pair of minds was different, of course. Each had abilities and powers that the others lacked; some of which were fully developable in the others, some only partially, some scarcely at all. Thus, when it came to the upper reaches of the Fourth Nume, even Adams was shocked at the power and scope and control that flared up instantly in the Trains' minds as soon as the doors were opened.
”Ah,” Adams said, happily, ”That explains why you would not start out without them.”
”And how!” Deston agreed; and it did.
It is also explained why Cecily had always been, in Bernice's words, ”such a s.e.x-flaunting power-house.” It accounted for Train's years of frustration and bafflement. At long, long last, they had found out what they were for.
”You two,” Adams said, ”have, among other things, a power of teleportation that is almost unbelievable. You could teleport, not merely yourselves, but this entire stars.h.i.+p and all its contents, to any destination you please.”
”They could, at that,” Deston marveled. ”Go ahead and do it, so Bobby and I can see how much of the technique we can learn.”
”I'm afraid to.” Cecily licked her lips. ”Suppose we-I, my part of it, I mean-scatter our atoms all over total s.p.a.ce?”
”We won't,” Train said. Although he had not known it before, he was in fact the stronger of the two. ”Give us a target, Babe. We'll hit it to a gnat's eyeball.”
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