To Neptune!
"Doom faces us, a fiery doom in which the dividing sun will annihilate
Earth and most of its sister-planets! Panic even now grips all the
peoples of Earth, such panic as has never been known before, as that
doom marches inevitably toward them! Yet inevitable, inescapable as
that doom seems, we of the World Congress, we who represent here all
the gathered peoples of Earth, must endeavor to find even now some last
chance of lifting this awful menace from us!"
The World President paused, his dark, steady eyes searching out through
the great room at whose end, upon a raised platform, he stood. Behind
him on that platform sat a row of some two-score men and women, garbed
like himself and all others in the modern short and sleeveless garments
of differing colors, while before him in the great room stretched
the rows of seated members of the great World Congress, the twelve
hundred men and women who represented in it all the peoples of Earth.
Just beneath the great platform's edge sat Markham, the Intelligence
Chief, and myself; before us were the switches that controlled
the communication-plates throughout the room that broadcast all
proceedings in it to the world. And sitting there, I could glance up
and see among those two-score behind the World President two figures
well known to me; the strong figure of Dr. Marlin, with his intense
gray eyes and gray-touched hair; and the lounging, dark-haired form of
Dr. Robert Whitely, his somewhat sardonic countenance and cool eyes
turned now with keen interest toward the World President before him.
And as the latter began again to speak my own gaze shifted toward him.
"It has been just three days," the World President was saying, "since
Dr. Herbert Marlin and his fellow-astronomers gave to the world a
warning of this doom that hangs above it, gave to us a warning that
in less than five months more, if the sun's rotatory speed continues
to increase, it must inevitably divide into a double star and in so
doing wreck our universe and plunge most of its planets into fiery
death. I need not speak now of the terror that has reigned over Earth
since that announcement. It is sufficient to say that the first wild
riots, inspired by that terror in Europe and Northern Asia, have been
suppressed by the dispatch of police cruisers, and that throughout the
world order is being maintained and most of our world's activities are
being carried on as usual. Yet it is clear to all that the panic which
that statement inspired has not subsided, rather it is growing in force
over the Earth's surface with the passing of each day. For each day is
bringing our Earth nearer to death!
"For each day, each of these three intervening days, the sun's speed
of rotation has continued to increase by the same exact amount! Each
day its rotatory period has decreased by 4 hours more! It cannot be
doubted then that whatever is causing this strange acceleration, it
will keep on, until in a mere 137 days from the present, the sun's
rotatory period will have reached the figure of one hour. When that
occurs our sun will, as Dr. Marlin has warned us, divide into a double
star! Nothing in the universe can save our Earth or its neighboring
planets then. Our one hope, therefore, to save ourselves, is to prevent
that thing from happening, to halt this acceleration of the sun's spin
before it reaches its critical point 137 days from now! For it is only
by halting that steady increase of its rotatory speed that we can avoid
this terrific cataclysm that means death for us!
"But can we halt this acceleration of the sun's spin when none of
our astronomers has been able to ascertain its cause? That is what
you will ask, and in answer to that I say, some hours ago two of our
scientists _did_ ascertain that cause. They learned at last what great,
what almost incredible cause is responsible for this acceleration of
our sun's rotatory speed. Those two scientists are well known to all
of you, for they are Dr. Herbert Marlin himself, who first discovered
the fact of the sun's faster spin, and Dr. Robert Whitely, his
physicist-colleague, who has been studying the new vibrations recorded
by his instruments since the beginning of that acceleration of the
sun's rotatory speed. These two men have found, at last, the terrible
cause of our sun's strange behavior, and it is that you might hear it
that I have called you of the World Congress together at this time.
It is Dr. Marlin himself, then, who will tell you what he and his
fellow-scientist have discovered."
The World President stepped aside, and as he did so Dr. Marlin rose,
stepped forward to the great platform's edge, and looked quietly
out over the great room's occupants. I was aware as he did so of a
quality of utter tension in all the hundreds in that room, of a
hushed silence, in which the slightest sound seemed unnaturally loud.
Through the great windows there came a deep hum of sound from the
sunlit surrounding city, but in the big room itself was silence almost
complete until Dr. Marlin's strong, deep voice broke it.
"It was thirteen days ago," he said, "that the acceleration of our
sun's rotatory speed was first noted, thirteen days ago that it first
began to spin faster. In those days we of the world's observatories
have sought unceasingly for the cause, whatever it was, that was behind
this strange acceleration of the sun's spin, and have sought for that
cause even more intently in the last few days, since it was recognized
by us, that this increasing rotatory speed foreshadowed the division of
the sun and the doom of almost all its planets. That acceleration of
speed was too exact, too uniform each day, to be the result of interior
disturbances. It could not be the result of the influence of some dark
body passing the solar system in space, for such a body would affect
the planets also. What, then, could be the thing's cause? That is what
I and all astronomers have been seeking to solve in the last days. That
great enigma has finally been solved, not by an astronomer, but by a
physicist--by Dr. Robert Whitely, my fellow-professor at North American
University.
"It will be remembered that when the first great effects of the
sun's increased spin became apparent on Earth, the great electrical
storms and temperature-changes that still are troubling Earth,
Dr. Whitely announced the discovery of new vibrations which were
apparently emanating from the troubled sun also. That new vibration
lay in frequency between the Hertzian and the light vibrations, an
unexplored territory in the field of etheric vibrations. It seemed,
Dr. Whitely then stated, a force-vibration of some sort, the weak
reflected impulses from it, that reached his instruments, affecting
them as tangible force. It seemed reasonable to suppose, therefore,
that this new force-vibration or ray was being generated inside the
sun's disturbed mass, just as light vibrations and heat vibrations and
cosmic-ray vibrations and many others are generated by and radiated
from the sun.
* * * * *
"In the next days, however, Dr. Whitely continued to study this new
vibration, and endeavored to trace it accurately to the sun by using
recording instruments which recorded it as strongest or weakest in
various quarters of space. By means of these instruments, he was able
to plot the course of this force-vibration or ray in space, to chart
the path of its strongest portion in space. And by doing this he found
that this new force-vibration, contrary to his expectations, was not
being radiated out equally in all directions as one might expect. It
was being shot forth in a great force-beam or ray, one which cut a
straight path across half our solar system! And that mighty force-ray,
whose weaker reflected pulsings only struck his instruments here on
Earth, was not being generated and shot forth by the sun, but was
_striking_ the sun! And tracing its path out across the solar system by
his charts he found that the great force-ray was being shot out from
the planet Neptune, was stabbing across the great gulf from Neptune,
the outermost planet, and striking the sun!
"And it was that giant force-ray, as Dr. Whitely and I soon saw, that
was and is making our sun's rotatory speed steadily increase! For that
great ray, as we found, is one that can stab across space and strike
any object with terrific force, as though it were solid and material!
You know that even light rays, light vibrations, exert a definite
pressure or force upon the matter which they strike. Well, these
force-vibrations, of greater wavelength than the light vibrations, also
exert pressure and force upon any matter which they strike, but they
exert an infinitely greater pressure, can stab across the vast void
and strike any object with colossal and unceasing pressure. In this
way, then, this great force-vibration or ray hurtles across space and
strikes all matter in its path with terrific force, as though a solid
arm were pushing across the gulf.
"And this terrific ray of force, stabbing in through the solar system
from Neptune, was striking our sun just at its edge, just at its limb,
at its equator. It struck that edge turning always away from Neptune,
and striking that turning edge of the sun with terrific force as it
did, the great pushing ray made it turn even faster away from Neptune
at that edge, made the sun turn faster and faster! Pressing always upon
the turning sun's edge with the same great power, this mighty force-ray
has made the sun rotate faster each day, has made its rotatory speed
increase by the same amount each day. And since that great ray is still
stabbing across the gulf from Neptune to the sun, is still accelerating
the sun's spin, it is to that ray that we will owe the division of our
sun into two parts, 137 days from now, and the consequent wrecking of
our solar system!
"For Neptune alone will escape the cataclysm that will take place
when the sun divides, and it is from Neptune, from intelligent beings
on Neptune, there can be not the slightest doubt, that this great
force-ray comes. For it cannot be doubted for an instant that this
mighty force-ray is the work of intelligent creatures upon Neptune.
Never in all the many discussions concerning the possibility of life on
the other planets have astronomers conceded any possibility of life on
Neptune, the outermost of the sun's worlds, for though we have always
known it to have air and water, its great distance from the sun must
needs make it so cold a world as to be unable to sustain life. That was
our belief before, but now with this great ray from Neptune swiftly
wrecking our solar system before our very eyes, we can no longer doubt
that life, intelligent life, exists there!
"It is the beings of Neptune, therefore, the creatures of the sun's
outermost world, who are making the sun spin faster and faster, who
are deliberately planning to make our sun divide into a double star,
to wreck its universe! What their reason is for doing this, we cannot
now guess. We know that Neptune, almost alone among the sun's planets,
will survive the great cataclysm of its division, and we can but hazard
the thought that it is for some great advantage to themselves that the
Neptunians are engaged upon this colossal task. Neither can we guess
just how, exactly, they are doing it, how they are able to push against
the sun with such colossal force without Neptune itself being pushed
out into the void by the tremendous reaction from that push. But these
things are not of the greatest interest to us now.
"The thing of greatest interest to us now is this: Can we halt this
acceleration of the sun's rotation, can we thwart the doom which the
Neptunians would loose upon us? To do that there is but one remedy!
That is to bring to an end this great force-ray which the beings of
Neptune are playing upon our sun's edge, with which they are making
that sun turn faster. And to bring that ray to an end, to destroy it,
it is necessary that we go out to Neptune, to the source of that great
ray. For it is only at its source, whatever that source may be, that
this force-ray can be destroyed! And it is only by destroying that
force-ray that Earth and its sister-planets can be saved!
"This proposition, this plan to go out to Neptune itself, may seem to
you impossible. For greatly as our scientific knowledge has risen in
the last decades, we have been unable to bridge the gulf to even the
nearest of the planets. True, we have managed to send rockets to our
moon and explode flares there by means of them, but never yet have any
of us reached even the nearest of our neighboring planets. And thus to
propose to go out to Neptune, the farthest and outermost of all the
planets, the last outpost of our solar system, may appear to you quite
senseless. But it is not so, for now, at last, there is given to us
the power to venture out into the gulf of space to other planets! And
that power is given to us by the very doom that now threatens us, since
it is the force-ray or vibration with which the beings of Neptune are
turning our sun faster, which we can use to cross the gulf of space!
"For since his instruments first received and recorded that vibration,
the weak reflected pulsings of the great ray, Dr. Whitely has studied
it intensively, and has been able, by reversing the hook-up of his
receiving and recording instruments, to produce similar vibrations, a
similar ray, himself! He has been able to devise small generators which
produce the same force-ray, and on that principle larger generators
also can be devised and constructed, to shoot forth a force-ray of
immense power. With such a force-ray, generated from inside a strong,
hermetically-closed flier, one could shoot out at will into the great
void! For if such a flier, resting on Earth, turned its powerful ray
down upon Earth, that ray would strike Earth with terrific force. Being
so vast in mass, and the flier from which the ray is shot down being
so small, it would not be Earth that would be perceptibly moved by the
ray, but the flier itself would be shot instantly up and outward into
space by the ray's great pushing reaction!
"It would be necessary only to head the space-flier out toward the
desired planet upon starting, and the pushing force of the great ray,
constantly turned on, would so accelerate the flier's speed that it
would be pushed out toward that planet at a terrific velocity, a
speed which could be controlled by the power of the pushing ray. To
escape the attraction of other planets among which it might pass, the
space-flier would need only to shoot a similar great force-ray out
toward whatever planet was attracting it, and the pushing force of that
ray would hold the flier out from it. And when the space-flier neared
the planet that was its goal, it could gradually slow its progress by
means of a ray shot ahead toward that planet, braking its forward rush
thus, and being able to land smoothly and without harm upon that planet!
"Such a space-flier as that might be built and operated in that way,
with the great force-ray or vibration of the beings of Neptune to
propel it, and in such a flier it would be possible to go out across
the gulf to Neptune itself! Such a flier, pushing itself out into
space with a great ray, could be brought to such colossal speeds
that the journey out through the gulf to the distant planet could be
accomplished in but a score or more of days. We have the power to
build that flier, we have at last, at this tense moment, the power
to send such a space-flier out into the void. And I propose that such
a space-flier be built with the greatest speed possible and be sent
out to Neptune to locate and if possible to destroy the source of the
mighty force-ray whose colossal power is spinning our sun ever faster,
threatening Earth and most of its sister-planets with a final doom!
* * * * *
"A single space-flier capable of holding three or four men and their
equipment and supplies, could be built in a month or more, if all
energies were concentrated upon it, and if the great generators of the
force-ray which it would need could be constructed in that time. That
single flier, when built, should be sent out to Neptune at once! For
little enough time remains to us before the break-up of our sun; little
more than four months indeed. And that single flier, going out with
its occupants at once, could locate the source of the mighty force-ray
on Neptune, and if it could not destroy that ray's source, could at
least return to Earth with exact knowledge of its position. And in the
interval, there could be constructed here on Earth a fleet of such
space-fliers, so that with a knowledge of the great ray's source these
might be able to destroy it. All depends, however, upon constructing
and sending out that first space-flier, while there is yet time!
"It would not be possible to construct a large space-flier in the short
time of a month that I have mentioned, but a small one capable of
holding four men, say, could be built in that time if all efforts were
concentrated upon it. And I myself will be one of those four! For upon
disclosing this plan to the World President, I was asked by him to be
the commander of such a space-flier on its venture out to Neptune; and
I accepted! Another of that four must be Dr. Whitely, whose discovery
of the great force-ray from Neptune has shown us whence our doom is
coming, and which discovery has alone made such a space-flier possible.
It is my intention to take as a third my own assistant, Allen Randall,
and as the fourth person to make this momentous voyage it would be
best, no doubt, to have some younger member of the Intelligence Bureau,
so that a complete report on the great ray's source and on all else
encountered could be brought back, in case we were unable to destroy
the ray ourselves.
"This, then, is the one chance for our Earth, that in such a
space-flier or fliers we of Earth can go out to Neptune and put an end
to that mighty force-ray from Neptune that is spinning our sun ever
faster. For if we can do that, if we can construct such a space-flier
or fliers and reach Neptune and bring an end to that ray before the 137
days left to us have elapsed, we will have halted this acceleration of
our sun's spin, will have prevented its division. But if we cannot do
that, if we are unable in the short time remaining to us to accomplish
the task of destroying that mighty force-ray, then the beings of
Neptune will have accomplished their colossal purpose, will have caused
our sun to divide into a double star and will have sent all its planets
except Neptune to a fiery doom!"
Dr. Marlin's strong voice ceased, and as it did so an utter silence
reigned over the great room for some moments, broken at last
by the voices of the twelve hundred members of the great World
Congress--breaking into a vast, indistinguishable roar! My heart was
pounding at what I had heard, and I turned, spoke swiftly to Markham
beside me, and then as he nodded was leaping up myself upon the great
platform! Was leaping up to where Marlin was standing now with Dr.
Whitely and the World President, the whole great room trembling now
with the cheering shouts with which those in it greeted Dr. Marlin's
announcement. And there I was speaking rapidly to the World President,
and to Dr. Marlin.
"The fourth man, sir!" I cried. "The fourth man that's to go in the
space-flier--let me be that fourth!"
The World President, recognizing me, turned inquiringly toward Dr.
Marlin, who nodded, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Hunt is from the
Intelligence Bureau," he said, "and he's young and has had scientific
training--was one of my own students. We could have no better fourth."
My heart leaped at his words, and then the World President nodded to
me. "You will be the fourth then, Mr. Hunt," he said, shaking my hand.
And as I stood there on the platform with Marlin and Dr. Whitely, the
World President was turning back to the hundreds of shouting members, a
sea of faces extending back to the great room's walls. Cheering as they
were at this last chance to save Earth and its peoples that had been
proposed to them, this last hope given to them to halt the terrible
doom overshadowing them, their great uproar yet stilled for a moment as
the World President turned toward them, as his voice went out to them
over the great room.
"You, the members of the World Congress," he said, "have heard
that which Dr. Marlin has told you. With this last hope in view,
it is unnecessary for me to tell you to bend now all the world's
energies toward that one chance, toward the construction of the first
space-flier. For since upon that space-flier rests the only chance to
save Earth, to prevent the sun's cataclysmic division, which this great
ray from Neptune is accomplishing, I have no fear but that in a month
from now that space-flier will be completed. Have no fear but that in
it, a month from now, Dr. Marlin and his three friends will start on
their unprecedented and momentous voyage out from Earth into space;
will start on their great flight out through the void--to Neptune!"