Sixth Column (2 page)

Acquainting Ardmore with the individuals of his "command" had used up

several minutes during which he had thought furiously with half his mind

about what he should say next. He knew what he had to accomplish, some

sort of a shot in the arm that would restore the morale of this badly

demoralized group, some of the old hokum that men live by. He believed in

hokum, being a publicity man by trade and an army man only by necessity.

That brought to mind another worry-should he let them know that he was no

more a professional than they, even though he happened to hold a line

commission? No, that would not be very bright; they needed just now to

regard him with the faith that the layman usually holds for the professional.

Thomas was the end of the list: Calhoun had stopped talking. Here's

your chance, son, better not muff it!

Then he had it fortunately it would take only a short build-up. "It will be

necessary for us to continue our task assignment independently for an

indefinite period. I want to remind you that we derive our obligations not from

our superior officers who were killed in Washington, but from the people of

the United States, through their Constitution. That Constitution is neither

captured nor destroyed-it cannot, for it is not a piece of paper, but the joint

contract of the American people. Only the American people can release us

from it."

Was he right? He was no lawyer, and he didn't know-but he did know

that they needed to believe it. He turned to Calhoun. "Colonel Calhoun, will

you now swear me in as commanding officer of this detachment of the United

States army?" Then he added, as an apparent afterthought, "I think it would

be well for us all to renew our oaths at the same time. "

It was a chanted chorus that echoed through the nearly empty room. " Ì

do solemnly swear-to carry out the duties of my office-and to uphold and

defend the Constitution of the United States-against all of its enemies,

domestic and foreign!'

"So help me God."

"’So help me God!"'

Ardmore was surprised to discover that the show he had staged brought

tears to his own cheeks. Then he noticed them in Calhoun's eyes. Maybe

there was more to it than he had thought.

"Colonel Calhoun, you, of course, become director of research. You are

second in command, but I will carry out the duties of executive officer myself

in order to leave you free to pursue your scientific inquiries. Major Brooks and

Captain Wilkie are assigned to you. Scheer!"

"Yes, sir!"

"You work for Colonel Calhoun. If he does not need all of your service, I

will assign additional duties later. Graham!"

"Yes, sir."

"You will continue your present duties. You are also mess sergeant,

mess officer, supply officer-in fact, you are the whole commissary

department. Bring me a report later today estimating the number of rations

available and the condition of perishables. Thomas works for you, but is

subject to call by any member of the scientific staff any time they want him.

That may delay meals, but it can't be helped."

"Yes, sir."

"You and I and Thomas will perform all duties among us that do not

directly apply to research, and will assist the scientists in any way and at any

time that they need us. That specifically includes myself, Colonel," he

emphasized, turning to Calhoun, "if another pair of untrained hands is useful

at any point, you are directed to call on me."

"Very well, Major."

"Graham, you and Thomas will have to clear out the bodies around the

place before they get too high-say by tomorrow night. Put them in an unused

room and hermetically seal it. Scheer will show you how." He glanced at his

wrist. "Two o'clock. When did you have lunch?"

"There . . . uh . . . was none today."

"Very well. Graham, serve coffee and sandwiches here in twenty

minutes."

"Very good, sir. Come along, Jeff."

"Coming. "

As they left, Ardmore turned back to Calhoun. "In the meantime, Colonel,

let's go to the laboratory where the catastrophe originated. I still want to find

out what happened here!"

The other two scientists and Scheer hesitated; he picked them up with a

nod, and the little party filed out.

"You say nothing in particular happened, no explosion, no gas-yet they

died?" They were standing around Dr. Ledbetter's last set-up. The martyred

scientist's body still lay where it had fallen, a helpless, disorganized heap.

Ardmore took his eyes from it and tried to make out the meaning of the setup apparatus. It looked simple, but called no familiar picture to mind.

"No, nothing but a little blue flame that pers isted momentarily. Ledbetter

had just closed this switch." Calhoun pointed to it without touching it. It was

open now, a self-opening, spring-loaded type. "I felt suddenly dizzy. When

my head cleared, I saw that Ledbetter had fallen and went to him, but there

was nothing that I could do for him. He was dead-without a mark on him."

"It knocked me out," offered Wilkie. "I might not have made it if Scheer

hadn't given me artificial respiration. "

"You were here?" Ardmore asked.

"No, I was in the radiation laboratory over at the other end of the plant. It

killed my chief."

Ardmore frowned and pulled a chair out from the wall. As he started to sit

down there was a scurrying sound, a small gray shape flashed across the

floor and out the open door. A rat, he thought, and dismissed the matter. But

Dr. Brooks stared at it in amazement, and ran out the door himself, calling

out behind him: "Wait a minute-right back!"

"I wonder what's gotten into him?" Ardmore inquired of no one in

particular. The thought flashed through his mind that the strain of events had

finally been too much for the mild little biologist.

They had less than a minute to wait in order to find out. Brooks returned

as precipitately as he had left. The exertion caused him to pant and interfered

with articulation. "Major Ardmore! Dr. Calhoun! Gentlemen!" He paused and

caught his breath. "My white mice are alive!"

"Huh? What of it?"

"Don't you see? It's an important datum, perhaps a crucially important

datum. None of the animals in the biological laboratory was hurt! Don't you

see?"

"Yes, but-Oh! Perhaps I do-the rat was alive and your mice weren't

killed, yet men were killed all around them."

"Of course! Of course!" Brooks beamed at Ardmore.

"Hm-m-m. An action that kills a couple of hundred men through rock

walls and metal, with no fuss and no excitement, yet passes by mice and the

like. I've never before heard of anything that would kill a man but not a

mouse." He nodded toward the apparatus. "It looks as if we had big medicine

in that little gadget, Calhoun."

"So it does," Calhoun agreed, "if we can learn to control it."

"Any doubt in your mind?"

"Well-we don't know why it killed, and we don't know why it spared six of

us, and we don't know why it doesn't harm animals."

"So-Well, that seems to be the problem." He stared again at the simple appearing enigma. "Doctor, I don't like to interfere with your work right from

scratch, but I would rather you did not close that switch without notifying me

in advance." His gaze dropped to Ledbetter's still figure and hurriedly shifted.

Over the coffee and sandwiches he pried further into the situation. "Then

no one really knows what Ledbetter was up to?"

"You could put it that way," agreed Calhoun. "I helped him with the

mathematical considerations, but he was a genius and somewhat impatient

with lesser minds. If Einstein were alive, they might have talked as equals,

but with the rest of us he discussed only the portions he wanted assistance

on, or details he wished to turn over to assistants."

"Then you don't know what he was getting at?"

"Well, yes and no. Are you familiar with general field theory?"

"Criminy, no!"

"Weld-that makes it rather hard to talk, Major Ardmore. Dr. Ledbetter

was investigating the theoretically possible additional spectra-"

"Additional spectra?"

"Yes. You see, most of the progress in physics in the last century and a

half has been in dealing with the electromagnetic spectrum, light, radio, Xray-"

"Yes, yes, I know that, but how about these additional spectra?"

"That's what I am trying to tell you," answered Calhoun with a slight note

of annoyance. "General field theory predicts the possibility of at least three

more entire spectra. You see, there are three types of energy fields known to

exist in space: electric, magnetic, and gravitic or gravitational. Light, X-rays,

all such radiations, are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Theory

indicates the possibility of analogous spectra between magnetic and gravitic,

between electric and gravitic, and finally, a three-phase type between

electric-magnetio-gravitic fields. Each type would constitute a complete new

spectrum, a total of three new fields of learning.

"If there are such, they would presumably have properties quite as

remarkable as the electromagnetic spectrum and quite different. But we have

no instruments with which to detect such spectra, nor do we even know that

such spectra exist."

"You know," commented Ardmore, frowning a little, "I'm just a layman in

these matters and don't wish to set my opinion up against yours, but this

seems like a search for the little man who wasn't there. I had supposed that

this laboratory was engaged in the single purpose of finding a military

weapon to combat the vortex beams and A-bomb rockets of the PanAsians. I

am a bit surprised to find the man whom you seem to regard as having been

your ace researcher engaged in an attempt to discover things that he was not

sure existed and whose properties were totally unknown. It doesn't seem

reasonable. "

Calhoun did not answer; he simply looked supercilious and smiled

irritatingly. Ardmore felt put in the wrong and was conscious of a warm flush

spreading up toward his face. "Yes, yes," he said hastily, "I know I'm wrongwhatever it was that Ledbetter found, it killed a couple of hundred men.

Therefore it is a potential military weapon-but wasn't he just mugging around

in the dark?"

"Not entirely," Calhoun replied, with a words-of-one-syllable air. "The

very theoretical considerations that predict additional spectra allow of some

reasonable probability as to the general nature of their properties. I know that

Ledbetter had originally been engaged in a search for a means of setting up

tractor and pressor beams-that would be in the magneto-gravitic spectrumbut the last couple of weeks he appeared to be in a condition of intense

excitement and radically changed the direction of his experimentation. He

was close-mouthed; I got no more than a few hints from the transformations

and developments which he had me perform for him. However"-Calhoun

drew a bulky loose-leaf notebook from an inner pocket "he kept complete

notes of his experiments. We should be able to follow his work and perhaps

infer his hypotheses."

Young Wilkie, who was seated beside Calhoun, bent toward him. "Where

did you find these, doctor?" he asked excitedly.

"On a bench in his laboratory. If you had looked you would have seen

them."

Wilkie ignored the thrust; he was already eating up the symbols set down

in the opened book. "But that is a radiation formula-"

"Of course it is-d'you think I'm a fool?"

"But it's all wrong!"

"It may be from your standpoint; you may be sure that it was not to Dr.

Ledbetter."

They branched off into argument that was totally meaningless to

Ardmore; after some minutes he took advantage of a pause to say,

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! just a moment. I can see that I am simply keeping

you from your work; I've learned all that I can just now. As I understand it,

your immediate task is to catch up with Dr. Ledbetter and to discover what it

is that his apparatus does-without killing yourselves in the process. Is that

right?"

"I would say that is a fair statement," Calhoun agreed cautiously.

"Very well, then-carry on, and keep me advised at your convenience." He

got up; the others followed his example. "Oh just one more thing."

"Yes?"

"I happened to think of something else. I don't know whether it is

important or not, but it came to mind because of the importance that Dr.

Brooks attached to the matter of the rats and mice." He ticked points off on

his fingers.

"Many men were killed; Dr. Wilkie was knocked out and very nearly died;

Dr. Calhoun experienced only a momentary discomfort; the rest of those who

lived apparently didn't suffer any effects of any sort weren't aware that

anything had happened except that their companions mysteriously die d.

Now, isn't that data of some sort?"

He awaited a reply anxiously, being subconsciously afraid that the

scientists would consider his remarks silly, or obvious.

Calhoun started to reply, but Dr. Brooks cut in ahead of him. "Of course,

it is! Now why didn't I think of that? Dear me, I must be confused today. That

establishes a gradient, an ordered relationship in the effect of the unknown