E.E. 'Doc' Smith SF Gateway Omnibus: The Skylark of Space, Skylark Three, Skylark of Valeron, Skylark DuQuesne (48 page)

‘Brilliant – yes. Perfectly executed – yes. But I notice that you say nothing of depth of feeling or of emotional appeal.’ Dorothy blushed uncomfortably and started to say something, but Orlon silenced her and continued: ‘You need not apologize. I had a reason for speaking as I did, for in you I recognize a real musician, and our music is indeed entirely soulless. That is the result of our ancient civilization. We are so old that our music is purely intellectual, entirely mechanical, instead of emotional. It is perfect, but, like most of our other arts, it is almost completely without feeling.’

‘But your statues are wonderful!’

‘As I told you, those statues were made myriads of years ago. At that time we also had real music, but, unlike statuary, music at that time could not be preserved for posterity. That is another thing you have given us. Attend!’

At one end of the room, as upon a three-dimensional screen, the four Terrestrials saw themselves seated in the control room of the
Skylark
. They saw and heard Margaret take up her guitar and strike four sonorous chords in ‘A’. Then, as if they had been there in person, they heard themselves sing ‘The Bull-Frog’ and all the other songs they had sung, far off in space. They heard Margaret suggest that Dorothy play some ‘real music’, and heard Seaton’s comments upon the quartette.

‘In that, youngster, you were entirely wrong,’ said Orlon, stopping the reproduction for a moment. ‘The entire planet was listening to you very attentively – we were enjoying it as no music has been enjoyed for thousands of years.’

‘The whole planet!’ gasped Margaret. ‘Were you broadcasting it? How could you?’

‘Easy,’ grinned Seaton. ‘They can do practically anything.’

‘When you have time, in some period of labor, we would appreciate it very much if you four would sing for us again, would give us more of your vast store of youthful music, for we can now preserve it exactly as it is sung. But much as we enjoyed the quartette, Mrs Seaton, it was your work upon the violin that took us by storm. Beginning with tomorrow, my companion intends to have you spend as many periods as you will,
playing for our records. We shall now have your music’

‘If you like it so well, wouldn’t you rather I’d play you something I hadn’t played before?’

‘That is labor. We could not …’

‘Piffle!’ Dorothy interrupted. ‘Don’t you see that I could really play right now, to somebody who really enjoys music; whereas if I tried to play in front of a recorder I’d be perfectly mechanical?’

‘’At-a-girl, Dot! I’ll get your fiddle.’

‘Keep your seat, son,’ instructed Orlon, as the case containing the Stradivarius appeared before Dorothy, borne by a pencil of force. ‘While that temperament is incomprehensible to one of us, it is undoubtedly true that the artistic mind does operate in that manner. We listen.’

Dorothy swept into ‘The Melody in F’, and as the poignantly beautiful strains poured forth from that wonderful violin she knew that she had her audience with her. Though so intellectual that they themselves were incapable of producing music of real depth of feeling, they could understand and could enjoy such music with an appreciation impossible to a people of lesser mental attainments; and their profound enjoyment of her playing, burned into her mind by the telepathic, almost hypnotic power of the Norlaminian mentality, raised her to heights she had never before attained. Playing as one inspired she went through one tremendous solo after another – holding her listeners spellbound, urged on by their intense feeling to carry them further and ever further into the realm of pure emotional harmony. The bell which ordinarily signaled the end of the period of relaxation did not sound; for the first time in thousands of years the planet of Norlamin deserted its rigid schedule of life – to listen to one Earthwoman, pouring out her very soul upon her incomparable violin.

The final note of ‘Memories’ died away in a diminuendo wail, and the musician almost collapsed into Seaton’s arms. The profound silence, more impressive far than any possible applause, was broken by Dorothy.

‘There – I’m all right now, Dick. I was about out of control for a minute. I wish they could have had that on a recorder – I’ll never be able to play like that again if I live to be a thousand years old.’

‘It is on record, daughter. Every note and every inflection is preserved, precisely as you played it,’ Orlon assured her. ‘That is our only excuse for allowing you to continue as you did, almost to the point of exhaustion. While we cannot really understand an artistic mind of the peculiar type to which yours belongs, yet we realized that each time you play you are doing something no one, not even yourself, can ever do again in precisely the same subtle fashion. Therefore we allowed, in fact encouraged, you to go on as long as that creative impulse should endure – not merely for our own pleasure in hearing it, great though that pleasure was; but in
the hope that our workers in music could, by a careful analysis of your product, determine quantitatively the exact vibrations or overtones which make the difference between emotional and intellectual music.’

As Rovol and Seaton approached the physics laboratory at the beginning of the period of labor, another small airboat occupied by one man drew up beside them and followed them to the ground. The stranger, another white-bearded ancient, greeted Rovol cordially and was introduced to Seaton as ‘Caslor, the First of Mechanism.’

‘Truly, this is a high point in the course of Norlaminian science, my young friend,’ Caslor acknowledged the introduction smilingly. ‘You have enabled us to put into practice many things which our ancestors studied in theory for many a wearisome cycle of time.’ Turning to Rovol he went on: ‘I understand that you require a particularly precise directional mechanism? I know well that it must indeed be one of exceeding precision and delicacy, for the controls you yourself have built are able to hold upon any point, however moving, within the limits of our solar system.’

‘We require controls a million times as delicate as any I have constructed, therefore, I have called your surpassing skill into cooperation. It is senseless for me to attempt a task in which I would be doomed to failure. We intend to send out a fifth-order projection, which, with its inconceivable velocity of propagation, will enable us to explore any region in the galaxy as quickly as we now visit our closest sister planet. Knowing the dimensions of this our galaxy, you can readily understand the exact degree of precision required to hold upon a point at its outermost edge.’

‘Truly, a problem worthy of any man’s brain,’ Caslor replied after a moment’s thought. ‘Those small circles,’ pointing to the forty-foot hour and declination circles which Seaton had thought the ultimate in precise measurement of angular magnitudes, ‘are of course useless. I shall have to construct large and accurate circles, and in order to produce the slow and fast motions of the required nature, without creep, slip, play, or backlash, I shall require a pure torque, capable of being increased by infinitesimal increments … Pure torque.’

He thought deeply for a time, then went on: ‘No gear-train or chain mechanism can be built of sufficient tightness, since in any mechanism there is some freedom of motion, however slight, and for
this purpose the drivers must have no freedom of motion whatever. We must have a pure torque – and the only possible force answering our requirements is band number fourteen hundred sixty-seven of the fourth order. I shall therefore be compelled to develop that band, which, having Rovolon, I can now do. The director must, of course, have a full equatorial mounting, with circles some two hundred fifty feet in diameter. Must your projector tube be longer than that, for correct design?’

‘That length will be ample.’

‘The mounting must be capable of rotation through the full circle of arc in either plane, and must be driven in precisely the motion required to neutralize the motion of our planet, which, as you know, is somewhat irregular. Additional fast and slow motions must of course be provided to rotate the mechanism upon each graduated circle at the will of the operator. It is my idea to make the outer supporting tube quite large, so that you will have full freedom with your inner, or projector tube proper. It seems to me that dimensions X37 B42 J867 would perhaps be as good as any.’

‘Perfectly satisfactory. You have the apparatus well in mind.’

‘These things will consume some time. How soon will you require this mechanism?’

‘We also have much to do. Two periods of labor, let us say; or, if you require them, three.’

‘It is well. Two periods will be ample time: I was afraid that you might need it today, and the work cannot be accomplished in one period of labor. The mounting will, of course, be prepared in the Area of Experiment. Farewell.’

‘You aren’t going to build the final projector here, then?’ Seaton asked as Caslor’s flier disappeared.

‘We shall build it here, then transport it to the Area, where its dirigible housing will be ready to receive it. All mechanisms of that type are set up there. Not only is the location convenient to all interested, but there are to be found all necessary tools, equipment, and material. Also, and not least important for such long-range work as we contemplate, the entire Area of Experiment is anchored immovably to the solid crust of the planet, so that there can be not even the slightest vibration to affect the direction of our beams of force, which must of course be very long.’

He closed the master switches of his power-plants and the two resumed work where they had left off. The control panel was soon finished. Rovol then plated an immense cylinder of copper and placed it in the power plant. He next set up an entirely new system of refractory relief-points and installed additional ground-rods, sealed through the floor and extending deep into the ground below, explaining as he worked.

‘You see, son, we must lose one-thousandth of one percent of our total energy, and provision must be made for its dissipation
in order to avoid destruction of the laboratory. These air-gap resistances are the simplest means of disposing of the wasted power.’

‘I understand – but how about disposing of it when we are out in space? We picked up pretty heavy charges in the
Skylark
– so heavy that I had to hold up several times in the ionized layer of an atmosphere somewhere while they leaked off – and this kind of apparatus will burn up tons of copper where ours used ounces.’

‘In the projected space-vessel we shall install converters to utilize all the energy, so that there will be no loss whatever. Since such converters must be designed and built especially for each installation, and since they require a high degree of precision, it is not worthwhile to construct them for a purely temporary mechanism, such as this one.’

The walls of the laboratory were opened, ventilating blowers were built, and refrigerating coils were set up everywhere, even in the tubular structure and behind the visiplates. After assuring themselves that everything combustible had been removed the two scientists put on, under their helmets, goggles whose protecting lenses could be built up to any desired thickness. Rovol then threw a switch, and a hemisphere of flaming golden radiance surrounded the laboratory and extended for miles upon all sides.

‘Why such a light?’ asked Seaton.

‘As a warning. This entire area will be filled with dangerous radiations, and that light is a warning for all uninsulated persons to give our theater of operations a wide berth.’

‘I see. What next?’

‘All that remains to be done is to take our lens-material and go,’ replied Rovol, as he took from a cupboard the largest faidon that Seaton had ever seen.

‘Oh, that’s what you’re going to use! You know, I’ve been wondering about that stuff. I took one back with me to the Earth to experiment on. I gave it everything I could think of, and couldn’t touch it. I couldn’t even make it change its temperature. What is it, anyway?’

‘It is not matter at all, in the ordinary sense of the word. It is almost pure crystallized energy. You have of course noticed that it looks transparent, but that it is not. You cannot see into its substance a millionth of a micron – the illusion of transparency being purely a surface phenomenon, and peculiar to this one form of substance. I have told you that the ether is a fourth-order substance. The faidon also is a fourth-order substance, but it is crystalline, whereas the ether is probably fluid and amorphous. You might call this faidon crystallized ether without being too wrong.’

‘But it should weigh tons, and it is hardly heavier than air – or no, wait a minute. Gravitation is also a fourth-order phenomenon, so it might not weigh anything at all – but it would have terrific mass
– or would it, not having protons? Crystallized ether would displace fluid ether, so it might – I’ll give up! It’s too deep for me!’

‘Its theory is abstruse, and I cannot explain it to you any more fully than I have until after we have given you at least a working knowledge of the fourth and fifth orders. Pure fourth-order material would be without weight and without mass; but these crystals as they are found are not absolutely pure. In crystallizing from the magma they entrapped sufficient numbers of particles of other orders to give them the characteristics which you have observed. The impurities, however, are not sufficient in quantity to offer any point of attack to ordinary reagents.’

‘But how could such material possibly be formed?’

‘It can be formed only in some such gigantic cosmic body as this, our green system, formed incalculable ages ago, when all the mass comprising it existed as one colossal sun. Picture for yourself the condition in the center of that sun. It has attained the theoretical maximum of temperature – some seventy million of your Centigrade degrees – the electrons have been stripped from the protons until the entire central core is one solid ball of neutronium and can be compressed no more without destruction of the protons themselves. Still the pressure increases. The temperature, already at the theoretical maximum, can no longer increase. What happens?’

‘Disruption.’