To Split the Sun!
"We had checked the great peril that had hung over us, but we found,
as the centuries and ages passed, that we had only checked it, that
we had not banished it. For nothing in the universe could halt the
cooling of Neptune and Triton. As their interior fires cooled, colder
and colder grew their surfaces, despite the roofs that enclosed them.
It was then that we had recourse to another means of halting that
oncoming cold--the use of artificial heat. We set up in the giant
compartment-city of Neptune, and in that of Triton also, great globes
that radiated out unceasing and intense heat. These globes held inside
them their own mechanisms, mechanisms that could change etheric
vibrations of electricity and light and others into heat-vibrations,
by changing their wavelength. And with these radiating their ceaseless
heat, and with the great enclosing roofs, the oncoming cold was again
checked.
"Yet after a time we were forced to recognize that this check also was
but temporary. For we were fighting the most grim and hopeless battle
in the universe; we were fighting against the relentless and inevitable
changes caused by the immutable physical laws of the universe. So that,
aid its failing heat as we might with artificial heat-producers, the
interior heat of Neptune was waning still, and more and more globe
heat-radiators were required to keep the temperature of Neptune at
its usual height. The Neptunians of Triton were faced with the same
problem, but their situation was not so desperate as of those upon
Neptune, since though Triton had cooled as quickly, its enclosed space
was so much smaller than Neptune's, its great roof so close to it also,
that it was possible with an effort to keep enough heat-mechanisms
going there to maintain the warmth.
"On Neptune, however, the struggle became more and more desperate,
our great struggle against the blind laws of nature. For as Neptune's
interior heat declined farther and farther, it became more and more
impossible for us to keep enough heat-mechanisms going to keep it warm
enough for life. And at last, after years upon years of that awful
struggle against fate, we of Neptune realized at last that it was no
longer possible to keep Neptune warm enough for us to exist there, and
that we must leave it at once for some other world if we were to escape
extinction; since as the great planet's interior heat declined, it
became more and more agonizing for us to keep enough heat for life by
means of the heat-mechanisms, and it was clear to all that the end was
at hand unless we left Neptune!
"But where could we go? Even if one of the other planets were suitable
to receive us, we could not have transported all our masses from
Neptune to another planet in time to escape the doom of cold and death
that was closing down upon Neptune. To transport all those masses would
have required countless trips with our limited number of cylinders.
And to take refuge upon another planet, even had time been ours, was
almost out of the question. For long our scientists had studied the
other planets with their instruments, and though some of them were so
cloud-wreathed and others so distant as to make observation difficult,
it had long been known to us that none of the other planets, due to
their natural conditions or to the presence of intelligent alien beings
already upon them, would be possible as a world for us Neptunians. It
was for those reasons, indeed, that no expeditions of cylinders had
ever been sent to the other planets.
"There remained, then, but one place where we might go, but one place
to which our millions might go before Neptune's cold grew too great
for life. That place was Triton, our peopled moon. For peopled as that
moon was with its own masses of Neptunians, struggling against the same
menacing cold that had vanquished us on Neptune, it was the one refuge
for our peoples. By crowding into its every corner, the countless
millions of Neptune's peoples would be able to exist upon Triton. And
though the cooling of Triton had menaced it with cold also, it has
been found, as we have mentioned, that it was not so hard to keep
Triton warm by means of the artificial globular heat-mechanisms, the
space enclosed by its great spherical roof being much smaller. It was
a desperate expedient, truly, to mass all the thronging millions from
the compartment-city that covered all giant Neptune, to mass all those
millions upon little Triton, yet that was the one expedient open, and
so it was followed at once.
"Out from Neptune to Triton went all the cylinders of both worlds,
loaded with as many Neptunians as they could carry, depositing those
Neptunians upon Triton and racing back for more. Countless trips made
those thousands of cylinders, trip after swift trip, each occupying
but little time because Triton was so near. And so at last there came
a day when the whole of Neptune's millions had been transported out
to Triton, when there remained on Neptune itself no single one of our
races, our giant world lying cold and deserted and dead, no longer a
habitable world, its vast compartment-city empty of the millions that
had for ages swarmed through it, while all those millions were crowded
now upon little Triton.
"And so crowded were those vast hordes of the Neptunian races that
for a time it seemed that they could not exist in such numbers upon
Triton. This crowding was made less acute, however, by an expedient now
adopted by us. As mentioned, the Neptunians who had settled upon Triton
long before had found that the unchanging day on one side of it and
the unchanging night on the other were inconvenient for them after the
alternations of Neptune's day and night, and so had begun the custom of
spending a day of ten hours upon the sunlit side of Triton and a night
of equal length upon the dark side. And now we found that we could make
the crowding of our races upon Triton less acute by having half of them
working and active upon the sunward side for ten hours while the other
half slept through their night on the dark side. Every ten hours these
two halves of our people changed sides, changed from day to night, a
signal having been devised to mark the hour for that change, a signal
which consisted of a brilliant band of intense light, that passed
swiftly around both Triton's dark and sunward sides. With this shifting
of our peoples each ten hours it was possible to make use of all of
Triton's surface, and thus the crowding of our peoples upon it was made
less acute.
"Yet that crowding was still very great. All the thronging Neptunians
that had existed upon the surface of giant Neptune had been poured out
on little Triton, far, far less in size than its great parent-world.
And thus, though they could exist upon it, it was existence only that
was possible to the Neptunians on Triton, since this awful crowding
would grow worse, we knew, rather than better. And also, and more
important, here on Triton the same deadly menace that had driven us
from Neptune was again confronting us. For even as Neptune had cooled,
Triton had cooled, was cooling also. And though we strained every
effort to keep the warmth in Triton constant, though we sent cylinders
constantly back to dead and deserted Neptune to bring from it more
heat-mechanisms and other needed mechanisms, we found that even as
on Neptune we were fighting a losing battle with nature. For Triton
was cooling, was cooling still farther, and soon would be completely
cold and dead, its interior heat gone out into space. And when that
happened, no number of heat-mechanisms could keep warmth upon it, even
beneath the great enclosing roof, and all life on it must perish.
"The Neptunian races had come to their last stand! Crowded upon our
refuge of Triton, striving with all our power to keep upon it the
warmth, without which we could not live, we saw at last that some new
and radically different plan must be found, or we could no longer
exist. So all the greatest of our Neptunian scientists were called
together by us, the Council of Thirty. Into a great conclave here on
Triton they were called, and to them, without equivocation of any sort,
and to the races of the Neptunians, the situation that confronted
us was stated. We had been driven from Neptune by the relentless
growing cold, and now that same cold was upon us here at Triton, was
threatening us here also with annihilation. How were we to meet this
great menace that threatened to wipe us out?
* * * * *
"Countless were the plans that were advanced in answer to that menace
by our scientists. The first, and most obvious plan, was migration to
another planet. But here we were checked by the same considerations
that had made us unwilling to try that before, for we knew by
observation of the other planets that upon none of them could we live
as we lived upon Neptune. Some of them were greater in size than
Neptune, with greater gravitational power, and that was a difficulty
that could not be overcome by us since upon those planets our weight
would be so increased as to make us helpless, even had those planets
been fit for our life. Some planets were peopled by intelligent and
powerful races which we might be able to conquer after terrible
struggles. Others were too near the sun for us to ever inhabit them,
who had evolved on the dim, cool world of Neptune, the outermost world.
Other planets, as far as we could tell, were quite uninhabitable.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus--not one of them
was suitable as a world for us Neptunians. And we had, also, no desire
to move to another planet, in truth, since so many ages had it taken
for us to build our great compartment-cities upon Neptune and Triton,
to shield them with their great roofs, that it was impossible for us to
leave them, even had we been able, to start anew upon another world.
"We must remain with our own great world, it was plain, but how then
could we continue to live? Innumerable were the suggestions that were
advanced, but even those who advanced them were forced to admit them
impracticable. Scores upon scores of useless plans were submitted to
us, but none held even a shadow of hope for us, and it was not until we
of the Council of Thirty had come to despair almost of warding off the
doom that threatened us, that a plan was finally advanced by which that
doom could indeed be halted.
"That plan, put forth by three of our Neptunian scientists in
cooperation, was one of such colossal nature that even we Neptunians,
who had roofed our worlds and had fought for so long the forces of
nature, were stupefied by it. These three Neptunian scientists, in
stating their plan, stated first that it was apparent to all that no
escape to other planets was possible for us, and that our races must
remain at Neptune and its moon, for life or death. They stated that it
was equally clear that no means could be found by which even Triton
could be kept heated artificially, all such means suggested requiring
such vast expenditures of energy as to make them impossible for any
but the shortest period of time. These premises, they said, were clear
indeed, and it was equally clear that unless a new source of heat were
found in some way for Neptune and its moon, we races of Neptunians must
swiftly die. And so these three suggested a source of heat that never
even had occurred to any of the rest of us, suggested--the sun!
"The sun as a source of heat for us! The idea seemed incredible to
us--the Council of Thirty. For to us of Neptune, lying so far out in
space from the sun, that sun could never mean and had never meant what
it does to you of the inner planets. To you it is a source of ceaseless
blazing heat, of brilliant light, warming your worlds sometimes to
scorching, no doubt. But to us that sun has seemed always but a tiny
little disk of fire far off in the void from us, a little sun-disk that
gives to us the dim light of our pale Neptunian day, but that gives to
us hardly any measurable heat whatever. We had simply never thought
of the sun at all as a source of heat, any more than you would think
of a star as a source of heat, since we had been accustomed always to
rely upon the interior heat of Neptune for our existence. But now with
that interior heat gone, with Neptune cold and dead beneath the zero
temperatures that reigned there, and with Triton fast approaching the
same condition, these three Neptunian scientists advanced the sun as a
possible source of heat that might save us.
"The sun, they admitted, was too infinitely far from us to help us any
with its heat as conditions were. But what, they asked, if the sun
were to divide into a double or multiple star? Countless stars of the
universe, we knew, had done so, had split into a double or triple or
multiple star, and in so dividing, by reason of their rotatory speed or
centrifugal force growing so great as to make it impossible for them
to hold together, the two or more small suns forming out of one always
moved some distance apart from each other, by the first force of their
division. If the sun were to divide into a double star, therefore, the
two smaller suns that would be formed thus would undoubtedly follow the
same course, would be pushed apart from each other by the very force of
their division, some two billion miles, our astronomers had calculated.
"Pushed apart thus, the two new suns would form an ordinary double
star, or binary, the two revolving around each other. And by their
division almost all the planets of the solar system would without
doubt be engulfed in one or the other of the two suns. The four inner
planets would inevitably be annihilated when the sun split into two
suns, when those two rushed apart from each other. For if they were
not directly in the path of the two separating suns, they would be
drawn into those separating suns almost at once by the tremendous
gravitational disturbances attendant upon this tremendous cataclysm.
They would have no more chance of life, indeed, than midges in a great
blaze. And in the same way Jupiter and Saturn would be whirled out of
their orbits, since those orbits would be fatally confused and changed
by the first division of the sun, and by the loss of centrifugal force
attendant upon their confused slowing they, too, would without doubt
be drawn into the path of one or the other of the separating suns and
perish in them. And even Uranus would meet a doom as inevitable, since
with a distance of two billion miles between them the two new suns
would be resting almost exactly upon Uranus' orbit, and so that world
too would go to blazing death in one or the other of them.
"But Neptune would not! For Neptune, farther out than Uranus, farthest
out of all the planets, would be the one planet in the solar system
that would escape the tremendous cataclysm, due to its distance from
the sun. When the two suns separated, Neptune's orbit would probably
change a little, it would probably sweep closer in toward those suns
for some distance, but except for that it would be unchanged, and would
by reason of its great distance continue to circle in its curving path
through space, but would circle then around these two new suns instead
of around the former single sun. And with those two suns separated as
they were, by a distance of two billion miles, Neptune would be near
always to one of those suns, because it would undoubtedly sweep nearer
to them when the cataclysm occurred, and would take up an elliptical
orbit about them with the two suns as the foci of that ellipse. Thus it
would always be near enough one of them to gain from it or from both
a large amount of heat! For not only would Neptune in its elliptical
orbit be far, far closer to them thus, but the other planets hurtling
into them would tend to make them hotter. Thus Neptune, revolving close
about the two suns, would gain from them the warm, life-giving heat
that it had never gained from the single sun!
"That heat would thus solve the great problem that faced us; it would
halt the doom that was closing down on us. For that heat would so
warm Neptune, that we could go back again and take up our existence
once more upon it free from all peril, could live again in that great
compartment-city that covered all Neptune. And Triton, too, would be
livable, then. For the great roofs that we had erected around Neptune
and its moon would tend to make of both worlds great hot-houses in
effect, the sun's or suns' heat being able to penetrate down through
those roofs. And with those enclosing roofs about us, and with the two
new suns close, we could live on in safety. For the enclosing roofs
themselves would prevent any inconvenience from the fact that Neptune
now and then would be farther from the two suns than at other times,
those great roofs keeping a constant warmth upon Neptune and its moon.
"Thus all the great peril that confronted us would be thrust back, and
we could live once more on Neptune, more warm and comfortable there
than ever before; we could pour back once more to our mighty world
that lay now dead and cold and deserted--could do all this, if the
sun _did_ divide into a double star. Yet what hope was there that
this could happen? We knew that the reason other suns of the universe
divide into double or multiple stars is because they have reached a
rate of rotatory speed that makes it impossible for them longer to hold
together. For when a sun is spinning its mass tends to split up by its
own centrifugal force, just as a turning wheel, and the faster the sun
spins the greater grows its centrifugal force, the greater its tendency
to split. And then at last that rate of spin grows so great, and its
centrifugal force is such that its mass can no longer hold together,
and fission takes place, the sun dividing into two or three or even
more stars, that push apart from each other. But what chance was there
of the sun doing this? For the sun, we knew, rotated at the speed of
one turn in 25 days, at its equator, and to split it would have to be
rotating at a speed of one turn in an hour. That meant that it would be
unthinkable eons before the sun's rotatory speed would have increased
to that point. For though a sun's rotatory speed does increase as time
passes, due to the shrinkage of its mass, it increases so infinitely
slowly that it would be eons, indeed, before the sun's rate of spin
would be so great as to cause its division. And thus there seemed small
hope indeed in that plan.
* * * * *
"Then it was that those scientists revealed to us the heart of
their plan, and made clear to us the true colossal nature of their
suggestion. What, they asked, if we ourselves increase the sun's
rotatory speed? What if we of Neptune should reach across the void of
almost three billion miles and set the sun to spinning faster, spinning
it ever faster and faster until it had reached the critical point,
until it turned once in one hour? Fission would result then, the sun
would divide into a double star as they had calculated, and all the
benefits mentioned would come to us, and Neptune and its moon would
be warmed always by the heat of the two suns about which they would
revolve. If we could do that, if we could reach across the void and
set the sun to spinning ever faster, it would soon divide into two new
suns, and thus we would have saved ourselves. Yet we were thunderstruck
by this suggestion of the Neptunian scientists. To reach out across
the infinite leagues of space that lay between our outermost planet
and the sun, to turn that sun ever faster until it split into a double
star--how ever could such a gigantic, stupefying feat as that be
accomplished?
"But the Neptunians who had suggested this plan now calmly explained
how that colossal deed could be accomplished. Long before, indeed, we
had discovered force-vibrations, finding them a vibration that exerted
tangible and definite pressure or force upon whatever matter they
struck. And we had used those force-rays in some ways. We had used
them to propel our cylindrical vehicles out through space from Neptune
to Triton, and _vice versa_. We had used them also, concentrated into
slender, pencil-like rays of great power, as weapons, since those
concentrated rays penetrated and destroyed all that they touched. Now
our scientists proposed to use them for this huge plan--to reach across
the void, across the solar system, and to turn the sun ever faster,
until the desired division of it had happened.
"Nor was this, as they outlined it, impracticable. The sun, turning
there in space at the center of the solar system, has naturally one
edge or limb turning away from us, and the other turning toward us.
Now, if we constructed colossal generators of the force-vibrations,
generators that could produce a gigantic ray that would have almost
inconceivable power, and shot that ray across the solar system toward
the edge of the sun turning _away_ from us, what would happen? It was
clear that that great ray, striking against the side of the sun's mass
turning away from us, striking that side with titanic pressure and
force, would tend to turn that side _faster_ away from us, would tend
in that way to make the whole sun turn faster! Such a gigantic ray,
though it would increase the sun's spin thus but slowly, would continue
to increase the sun's spin steadily as long as it was kept turned upon
the sun's side. Slowly, but steadily, the sun would turn ever faster,
until soon it would have reached that critical rotatory speed, of one
turn in one hour, that would make its centrifugal force so great as to
make it divide into a double star, and so save us of Neptune from the
cold death that hung over us.
"Thus this mighty plan was presented to us, and it was at once accepted
by us of the Council of Thirty, by all of the Neptunian races. For we
saw that in it lay our one chance for life, our one chance to halt the
doom of our races, our worlds, and to halt that doom we were willing to
make any effort. We knew that the other planets of the solar system,
that the seven other worlds of this universe and all their moons, would
go to flaming death when our plan succeeded, would be annihilated when
the sun divided, but we recked not of that. For the last necessity was
upon us, the last closing down of the doom that we had fought against
so long, and to remove the shadow of that doom from over us, we were
willing to send to a more terrible doom all the other planets of the
solar system.
"Only one great difficulty lay before us. That gigantic ray could be
generated and shot forth by us, since it would not be difficult, by
concentrating all efforts, to construct the generators and mechanisms
needed, but from what place was that ray to be shot toward the sun? And
how? It was evident that the giant ray could not be sent from Neptune's
surface. For not only would it be almost impossible to keep its great
mechanism working in the constant terrible cold that reigned there, but
Neptune's rotation would make it impossible to send the ray forth from
any spot on the great planet, since because of Neptune's rotation, it
would follow that that spot--that great ray, would be toward the sun
half the time, on Neptune's sunward side, and the other half would have
turned and point away into space from its dark or outer side. It was
apparent, therefore, that the great ray could not be sent forth from
Neptune, since to achieve its effect that ray must play constantly
upon the sun's one side or edge; and it became apparent that only from
Triton could it be sent forth, since Triton kept one face always toward
the sun and it would therefore be necessary only to set the great ray's
mechanisms in that sunward side, when it would point unchangingly
toward it.
"As far as position was involved, therefore, it was quite feasible to
drive the colossal force-ray out from Triton's sunward side toward
the sun. But there was another point involved, one that bid fair to
ruin the whole great plan. When this gigantic force-ray reached out
across the gulf, and struck the sun, it would push the sun's side with
inconceivable power, as was planned, with a power great enough to turn
that sun's titanic mass faster. It would be, in effect, like a solid
arm reaching forth from Triton to press against the sun's edge. But
the sun is gigantic, is millions of times greater in mass than Triton,
and so what would be the result of that great pressure of the ray? It
would, without doubt, turn the huge mass of the sun with that pressure
very slowly, but it would, by that pressure and by its reaction, push
back against the infinitely smaller mass of Triton itself, and push
it _away_ from the sun; it would push it back away from the sun with
such colossal power that Triton would be torn loose from the grip
of Neptune, its parent-world; would be torn loose almost instantly
from the solar system itself, and would be hurtled straight out into
the awful void of interstellar space away from the sun and all its
planetary worlds!
"It was the same principle, indeed, as that of our cylindrical
space-fliers. Those cylinders, generating inside themselves a powerful
force-ray, shot that force-ray down against the planet upon which
they were. But that force-ray striking with great pressure from the
comparatively tiny cylinder to the great planet, did not move the
planet, of course, with its push. It moved instead the cylinder itself,
hurtling it upward from the planet because its mass was so infinitely
smaller than the planet's. And it would be the same way with Triton
and the sun. For Triton, sending forth the great force-ray generated
upon it, toward the turning sun's edge, pressing against the sun's
huge mass with colossal power, would not move the sun, would not turn
it noticeably faster as we planned, but would move Triton itself out
from the solar system into the void of space. Almost instantly, by
that terrific push, Triton would be hurled out into the awful gulf of
space, and thus by that terrific push outward would be torn loose from
the attraction of the sun and its planets forever, and would by its own
inertia shoot out through the interstellar void for all time! And that
meant, of course, death for all the massed Neptunian races upon Triton,
since in the sunless, awful void of space outside our universe, our
solar system, they would at once perish!
"This seemed, indeed, the difficulty, which was to make our great
plan impossible. But with only that obstacle standing between us and
success, we did not despair, but sought to overcome it. And at last we
found a remedy for this difficulty, found a means by which it might be
overcome. Triton would be pushed out into the gulf of space away from
the solar system forever, when its great force-ray struck the sun's
edge. But what, it was asked, if Triton were braced against the push
outward of that great ray, were braced by a great force-ray of equal
colossal power shooting out from it in an opposite direction against
some great mass, tending in that way to push Triton _inward_ toward
the sun even as the great ray striking the sun would tend to push it
_outward_? The result would be, obviously, that Triton would be pushed
on either side by the two opposing great force-rays with equal power,
and being so pushed between them it would not move either inward or
outward. And thus being immovable, being braced against the pressure of
the ray shot toward the sun by the pressure of the ray shot out into
the void against as great a mass, Triton's ray striking the sun's edge
would, as we desired, turn that sun faster and faster, spin its huge
mass faster without affecting Triton itself! For, the two great rays
being so exactly balanced in power, Triton would not be affected in the
least in its own positions or motions.
"There was needed, then, only a second great force-ray to go out into
space opposite in direction to that of the first. It meant, however,
that since the first was radiating straight toward the sun from
Triton's sunward side, the second must radiate straight away from the
sun from Triton's dark side, which would make the second ray point
out into the void toward the constellation in which it would be in
reference to the sun. That is, we calculated that by the time all
would be ready for us to send the force-ray in toward the sun, the
constellation Sagittarius would be straight out from Neptune and the
sun; then the second ray would need to be sent out toward Sagittarius.
For it would be, then, against one of the great stars of Sagittarius
that this second opposing force-ray would strike, to brace Triton
against the other ray striking the sun, the star calculated best for
that purpose being the bright star in the quadrilateral of Sagittarius.
It was apparent, therefore, that when the great force-ray was shot
toward the sun, the second or bracing ray should be shot out against
that bright star in Sagittarius to brace Triton against the first ray's
push.
* * * * *
"Yet in reality the problem was not as simple as that. For that star in
Sagittarius, we well knew, lay like all the stars infinitely farther
from us than the sun. It would require but a little more than four
hours for the first great force-ray, which travels as you know almost
as fast as light itself, to reach the sun. But it would require a
number of years for the second great force-ray, traveling at the same
speed, to reach the bright star in Sagittarius and strike against
it. For even the nearest of the stars, of course, lies so far from
our solar system, our universe, that it requires years for light to
cross that colossal distance; in consequence it would require as long
or longer for the second force-ray to cross such a great distance,
traveling as it would at a speed almost that of light. Thus, since
that bright star in Sagittarius that had been fixed upon lay dozens of
light-years from our solar system, it would require dozens of years for
that second great force-ray to reach that star!
"It was evident, therefore, that the second force-ray would need to be
shot out toward that star long before the first, since it was vitally
necessary that the two rays strike their objects at the same moment.
"The first thing to do, therefore, was to prepare the great generators
and send that second ray out toward Sagittarius. That work was begun
at once, for only a short time was left us. On Triton's dark side,
beneath the great roof, countless great generators were constructed,
giant generators of the force-vibrations which could by their massed
power produce a colossal ray of unthinkable power. Then a great pit or
giant well was sunk in the roof, one whose sides sank down from the
roof toward the surface of Triton. At the bottom of that great pit, on
Triton's surface, was set the mighty mechanism or ray-concentrator that
would send the gathered power of all the massed generators driving out
into the great void in one colossal ray. That mechanism was, of course,
upon Triton's surface, and was cut off from the rest of that surface by
the metal walls that rose around it to the roof, since in that way it
was possible to send the great ray out from Triton's surface through
an opening in the great roof, the enclosing walls or sides of the pit
preventing the warm air beneath the roof from escaping outward, and
keeping it air-tight as ever.
"With that much done, the controls of the colossal ray and its
generators were then constructed. Those controls were not single
but were repeated no less than twenty times, there being a score of
control-boxes for the great ray, set around the walls of the huge pit
from which the ray would spring forth, and entered not from without but
from within those walls, of course. A single control-box would have
been enough, but our object in having a score of control-boxes was
clear enough. It was a matter of life or death for all the Neptunian
races that those controls should function properly. If this great
second force-ray ceased but for a moment to go toward the star in
Sagittarius, as mentioned, the backward pressure of the other great
force-ray pressing against the sun would hurl Triton out of the solar
system for all time, with all the Neptunians upon it. So those controls
were not entrusted to a single control-box but were duplicated in
twenty, so that if any one control-box was destroyed or harmed in any
way, or even if a half-score or more were so destroyed or harmed, the
great ray would continue to go forth.
"With that done, with the great generators ready, the ray-mechanism or
opening ready, and the control-boxes and their intricate controls all
completed, the first step was finished and there remained but to turn
on the giant ray, to send it forth to that bright star in Sagittarius.
So on the day that had been designated, the Neptunians to whom had been
entrusted the all-important watch of the twenty controls, took their
places in the control-boxes. The great ray-mechanism had been so placed
in Triton's dark side, of course, that it pointed directly toward that
star which the ray was to strike, and so it was needed only to turn on
the giant ray. And so, at last, with all the Neptunians gathered there
beneath the roof around the walls of the giant pit, staring through
those walls, transparent from within, we gave the word. Then, as one,
the twenty controls were opened, and from the gathered throbbing
generators from the great ray-mechanism at the huge pit's bottom, there
drove upward and outward into the great void of space the colossal
force-ray, visible only near its source as pale light, flashing out at
almost the speed of light itself, on its stupendous journey across the
void toward that bright star in Sagittarius that was its goal!
"There was no push against Triton, of course, when that colossal ray
went forth, for there could be no push against Triton until that ray
struck a solid body, struck the star that was its goal, and then it
would push back against Triton. Just as if you reach forth to push
yourself away from a wall, there is no push on your body until your
hand reaches the wall. Not until dozens of years had passed, we knew,
would that great ray strike the star in Sagittarius that was its goal,
and not until then would come the back-push against Triton, the bracing
back-push that was its purpose. And in those dozens of years, with the
great ray shot ceaselessly forth to that star, of course, Neptune and
Triton themselves would be moving somewhat, would be moving as Neptune
followed its slow orbit around the sun. But so slow and so vast is
Neptune's orbit-movement, that it would have moved but little, and as
it moved, the ray-mechanism would be turned constantly a very little so
that its great ray would still be directed ceaselessly toward the star
in Sagittarius, and so that when that ray struck that star, Neptune and
Triton would be just between or in line with the sun and that distant
star.
"Thus half of our great task was finished, and there remained but
to complete the other half, to make ready for the sending forth of
the other great force-ray, the first one as we called it, toward the
sun. In the years that followed, while the great force-ray traveled
ceaselessly, on and on through the great void, toward that distant star
that was its goal, we Neptunians were busy here upon Triton with the
making ready of the newer force-ray. On Triton's sunward side, directly
opposite to the other force-ray's source, we constructed again the
great generators that would be used for this newer ray, massing them
there beneath the great roof. With those generators finished, we began
again to construct a great pit or well in the roof, and to place at
its bottom the ray-mechanism that would send this newer force-ray in
through the solar system toward the sun.
"Terrible years were those for us, though now at last this terrible
time approaches its end. For in those years we had not only to keep
on the immense task of constructing generators and mechanisms for the
newer force-ray, and to keep operating the other great generators and
mechanisms that were sending forth ceaselessly the great force-ray
toward Sagittarius; we had also to fight against the ever-encroaching
cold that was deepening ever its dread menace over us, and that seemed
on the point of overcoming us even as we reached the climax of our
giant fight against doom. For ever that cold on Triton grew greater as
it grew still cooler at its heart, and ever we must make greater and
greater efforts to keep operating the innumerable heat-mechanisms that
alone held death back from us. Yet we spurred ourselves onward by the
thought that now at last we were approaching victory over this dread
menace of cold that had beset us for so long, for at last the dozens of
years required were drawing to an end and the great force-ray was fast
nearing the star in Sagittarius that was its goal.
"So we labored on with all our strength, and soon the mechanisms of the
new giant force-ray were finished, its great pit ready in Triton's
sunward side, and the twenty control-boxes set in that pit's walls.
Now at last was approaching the crucial moment of our great plan, that
moment in which all must be calculated and performed with infinite care
lest we meet disaster. The greatest of our scientists had many times,
in those years, calculated the exact moment when the huge force-ray we
had shot forth would meet at last the star in Sagittarius, would strike
against that star. It was necessary that the other giant force-ray that
we were to send forth against the sun would strike the sun's edge at
the same moment exactly as the other ray struck that star, and with the
same power exactly. So all was anxiety unutterable as we approached
this great climax of our plan.
"By this time, scores of your Earth-days ago, Neptune in following its
orbit had moved so that it was almost exactly between the sun and that
distant star in Sagittarius toward which the ray was shooting. The fact
that Triton revolved about Neptune did not impede that ray, of course,
since as you know Triton moves about Neptune in an orbit slanted
greatly, inclined greatly from the ecliptic, and so even when on the
outer side of Neptune its ray would be able to go straight toward the
sun, through the upper limits of Neptune's atmosphere, and so in the
same way, even when it was on the sunward side of Neptune, its great
ray, that we had sent forth years before, could shoot directly toward
the star in Sagittarius. The only thing needful was that the ray we
sent forth toward the sun be of the same power and strike it exactly
when the other ray struck that distant star, so that they would push
back against Triton with the same force at the same time.
"So in tense anxiety we remained and at last there came the moment
for which we waited, more than four hours before the time when we
calculated the other ray would strike the star in Sagittarius. And when
that moment came the signal was given and the new mighty force-ray was
shot forth, from Triton's sunward side, shot forth toward that edge
of the sun turning away from us! That ray, of course, had no planets
directly between it and the sun, we having chosen long before a time
for the whole plan when this would not happen. But in the four hours
and more that followed, we millions of Neptunians waited here on Triton
with suspense unutterable. The moment was approaching when this giant
force-ray would strike the sun. If we had calculated wrongly, if the
other giant ray did not strike that star in Sagittarius at the same
moment, Triton would be hurled out to doom in the great void by the
sun-ray's pressure! Tensely we waited and then at last there came the
moment for which we had waited. That moment came, and passed--that
moment in which the new giant ray struck the sun--yet Triton did not
move beneath its pressure.
"We knew that we had won! For the other ray had struck the star
in Sagittarius at the same moment, balancing Triton against the
pressure of the sun-ray, and now as we observed the sun, we saw by
our instruments that it was turning faster already! Its huge mass was
spinning faster as our great ray stabbed from Triton to press against
that mass's edge with colossal force! Within the first Earth-day the
pressure of that great ray against the sun's edge had increased the
sun's speed of spin at almost the exact amount we had calculated, had
decreased its rotatory period by four hours. And each day thereafter
the steady pressure of that colossal force-ray has turned the sun ever
faster at the same steady rate, has decreased its rotatory period by
four Earth-hours more. So that even as we had calculated, we saw,
within 150 Earth-days from the first sending forth of the sun-ray, that
the sun would be spinning so fast beneath that ray's pressure, its
rotatory period decreased to the critical period of one hour, that it
would no longer be able to hold together and would divide into a double
star!
"And even now that great plan which we, the Neptunians, and we, the
Council of Thirty, carried out, comes at last to its fruition! For
already more than one-half of that time, more than eighty days, have
passed, and there remains hardly more than three-score days before the
great sun-cataclysm comes. Hardly more than three-score days from now
the end, for all your inner planets, for all the planets save Neptune,
will come, the sun reaching that critical rotatory period of one hour
and spinning then so fast, beneath the pressure of our great ray, that
it cannot longer hold together, will divide into two suns that will
whirl apart from each other and engulf in their fires all the planets
save our own outermost one, sending them with all their peoples to
fiery doom! For to that doom we Neptunians are sending them to save
ourselves from a doom, in another way, equally as terrible."