The man laughed and then explained the relativity of time and space.
How it would take many years to reach Polaris but to the occupants of
the car it would seem as if it were only a few months. He told how the
cruiser would approach the velocity of light and how their relative
lengths and time would be altered.
A televisor disk clouded and the two whirled in fear. A mechanical
voice droned. "The completed expedition for exploring interstellar
space will leave day after tomorrow. The latest telephotos will be
broadcasted at once." The disk became rose, then shot with whirling
streamers of red, then abruptly cleared.
The scene that was presented lay in upper Nuk. Back of the foreground
could be seen the tall buildings of the city. In a little cleared space
lay six great cruisers. They were not spectacular but efficient and
deadly. A little over two hundred feet in length, torpedo-shaped, and
driven by electronic rockets.[2]
[Footnote 2: Within the atom the laws of thermodynamics do not apply.
Instead of the conservation of energy one has the conservation of
momentum. The propulsive power was complex but very efficient. The
electrons within the atom were ejected with a very high velocity, their
wavelength approaching short gamma radiation. The atoms were made
artificially radioactive by altering the nature of space about the
nucleus.
The quantum repulsive factor of the positive charge coming into phase
with the electron wave caused the ejection. The leaving electron with
its mass multiplied 10^{24} times gave a tremendous shove to the atom
which was communicated to the vessel. The electron was revolved into
hyper-space and its vector sign changed, then back into the present
four-dimensional continuum thus giving a second momentum to the cruiser
propulsive unit.
The electrons then became free electrons with a longer wavelength
having given up a greater part of their energy. The loss in mass of the
electron and protons furnishing the energy. (If this seems far-fetched,
remember that modern quantum theory is even more so, and the increase
of mass, wavelength of electrons, and protons, the radioactivity of
matter as due to being in phase with the bound electrons, and the
repulsive force or quantum number are well known today by atomic
physicists.)]
The voice broke in again. "The vessel is fully provisioned for a period
of ten years and is armed with high-powered automatic rifles for
reducing cities, with ultra-violet and heat rays, the electron guns,
besides poison gases and high explosive bombs. The crews are picked
so as to represent all the inhabited planets. It is the hope of the
Council to extend the sway of the Science Civilization over the galaxy.
Within two thousand years the Physicists who are investigating the
fifth and sixth dimensions promise a means of propulsion and velocity
attainment greater than the velocity of light."
There followed a detailed survey of the interior of the cruisers. On
all the planets only two followed the televisor views with fear and
trepidation. What luck! The controls of the ship were of the standard
type used on the interplanetary vessels.
"Have you any weapons?" The Last Woman asked the explorer.
"Only an automatic and a flame pistol. If we can get one of those
cruisers and get started out of the atmosphere they can never catch us.
I'll be here tomorrow night two hours after the orange beacon comes on.
Be ready."
The Last Woman was still fearful. "Won't they signal Mars to stop us?
Oh we can't! We can't!"
But the explorer was reared in a different school. He did not forget
that he was once a superman.
"By the time we reach Mars we will be a thin disc due to our velocity.
They can never locate us. We will make it, never fear."
"Tomorrow!" breathed the woman.
Robots labored deep beneath the cities tending great machines that
steadily turned out the machinery to supply the Earth. The expedition's
crew came in from Venus and Mars. The Martians laughing and talking,
taking it all as a rare experience; the Venusians silent as ever going
about their work efficiently. One of the Metal Men was to head the
party. Many years would pass before they would return to Earth. What
would they find in the system of Alpha Centauri. The explorer and the
Last Woman anxiously watched the sun traverse its slow path across the
sky. Would night never come?
* * * * *
At last night fell and the sun set in a sea of crimson. The explorer
was murmuring prayers that he had read in the ancient books, Explorer
X12 had indeed gone backward. The atavist's mind was a blur of
conflicting emotions, his intellect clouded, fear struggled with hope.
Under his tunic he had hidden the powerful automatic and two belts of
clips besides his flame pistol with extra charges.
If he had been caught with these arms his life would have been
forfeited, especially since he was supposed to be taking treatment for
his mental ailment. Lights blazed from the pinnacles of towers, the
hum of the mighty city became a lulling rhythm, official and private
sky cars flashed and dipped, the night life had begun. Life was now
concentrated in the great laboratories under arc lights that made each
corner blaze. There was no rest in Nuk. There was activity everywhere
and then more activity--that is how the Earthman ruled.
The explorer crept from the steel skyscraper's emergency exit and
hurried to meet his mate. The Last Woman was waiting. There was little
that she could take since speed was necessary. Explorer X12 entered
silently--the robots must not be disturbed.
"We must go. I have worked out a route underneath the city. We will
take a tube car from the Central Station to North Ward 8 and then
pass through the Dissecting Rooms, since they will be deserted at
this hour, and then it is only a short distance to the cruisers. Only
a perfunctory guard will be kept as they think that no one will be
interested in the cruisers now. Come!" So saying the man picked up the
pitifully small bundle of personal effects of the Last Woman.
The automatic elevator carried them silently to the eighth level
beneath the street. Here wide corridors led to other buildings. The
walls were lined with pipes and conduits, the man carried the flame
pistol in his hand, the throb, throb of the machines kept the walls
gently vibrating, hot air swirled around the two, and a feeling
of power gigantic filled their hearts. Televisor disks whirled at
interesting corridors. Were they being checked? Evidently not for no
alarm was given.
Two more corners to go and then the Central Tube Station. A robot moved
ponderously from a branching corridor. Its crystal eyes gleamed as it
saw the two, but before it could give warning the flame pistol shot a
violet-blue flame that cut the metal body almost in two. They went on.
A tube car came to their signal and Explorer X12 hurriedly pushed the
Last Woman in and closed the door.
The car moved off slowly until it entered the tube then shot ahead
with terrific velocity, then it slowed at the station of North Ward 8.
Here was the first big test--could they enter the corridors leading to
the Dissecting Laboratories unseen? How they managed it the two never
understood but at last they were hurrying down the dimly lighted way.
The explorer whispered.
"We must pass through this chamber." Slowly he opened the door and
apparently seeing no one entered. A gigantic Martian far across the
long room glanced up from a specimen that he was examining, and then in
long leaps came rushing toward them. The automatic spat once, a beady
eye became a bloody hole, and the body crashed to the floor. They must
hurry. A noise, a suggestion of a sound, they whirled, there in the
door stood a Venusian with levelled heat ray.
Defeat! The woman sobbed as overwhelming despair swept over her.
The Venusian regarded them silently, lowered his ray, turned and
disappeared. The Venusians were sympathetic.
At last the cruisers lay before them gleaming in the starlight. How
peaceful everything looked--then a wandering beam of light outlined
them clearly. The city awoke with a roar, lights flashed, gongs rang,
and guards broke from the entrance to the field and ran toward the
two. The explorer seized the hand of the Last Woman and ran toward the
lighted opening in the cruiser that lay a scant two hundred feet from
them.
A flash struck the ground by them sending up a spout of dirt and
stones. They were almost there. A red beam flashed by the running pair,
it struck the polished wall of beryllium of the cruiser and glanced
harmlessly off into space. They reached the portal, lunged through and
the man had closed the lock. Now came the big test. The explorer must
get away from the Earth--already other ships were being manned and the
alarm sent out to the Interplanetary Patrol.
"This way to the controls! We must get there." Said the man as he ran
toward the bow of the vessel. The control room was reached--but how
among the myriad controls, buttons, and switches could the man find the
right ones.
His training as a superman came to his aid. He snapped over the main
power switch and the gigantic dynamos that furnished current for the
powerful fields of force leaped into activity. They whined like hungry
dogs and settled to a steady roar. Viciously he jabbed at the gravity
equalizers, turned on two propulsion units--more would raise the shell
to incandescence in the earth's heavy atmosphere.
"Why are you heading north instead of out into space?" The Last Woman
inquired.
The man laughed gleefully and said:
"They will be expecting that and will concentrate the Patrol above
Nuk. We will fool them." But he was forgetting that he was no longer a
superman but a primitive while they were trying to outwit brains that
had never been defeated.
* * * * *
Soon the frozen plains of the north lay beneath them. Their velocity
was over two thousand miles per hour at an altitude of sixty thousand
feet. The Aurora hung like a curtain before them; green and red
streamers signalizing success or defeat.
On their televisor disks appeared a dozen dots that swiftly grew into
long ships of the Interplanetary Patrol. The Last Woman screamed and
the man groaned. A cold hard voice spoke from a receiver.
"Return to Nuk at once. You are surrounded. Fools!"
The man seemed to go insane and screamed like a wild animal.
"You'll never take us back!" He pushed the ray controls madly. Five
blinding beams leaped out, two red, two violet, and one the ionizing
beam of a cathode ray. Three ships were caught in this wholly
unexpected attack. For who would dare to defy the Patrol!
One of the red beams met a vessel head on, it leaped into blinding,
coruscating incandescence, melted and disappeared. A violet beam swept
over a ship, it continued its plunge toward the Earth that lay like a
cradle of protecting white beneath them. The cathode ray caressed a
ship and that ship was no more. Those electrons driven at almost the
speed of light broke down the electrical field of the nucleus of the
atoms and the whole ship exploded as the nucleus disintegrated with
violence.
The explorer shouted in joy--but too soon. A brilliant plane of light
flashed from the flagship of the Patrol, and the captured vessel,
neatly cut in two, started on its long swift plunge toward the ground.
The Earth rocketed toward them as the man seized the woman in his
arms and leaped toward the emergency cylinders. Entering he hastily
slammed the door and cast off--but too late--his speed was terrific and
the cylinder struck the snow field and plunged far down into the icy
blanket. Oblivion swept over the two. The Aurora shimmered and blazed
in the cold heavens and seemed to chuckle.
The Council Room was still. The greatest case of insubordination that
had ever arisen in the solar system's great civilizations was being
tried. The atavist was a pathetic broken figure, the Last Woman alone
defiant. All the evidence had been heard and the Head of the Council,
Metal Man 89 gave the verdict that will go down into History as the
policy of the Science Civilization. His cold, motionless voice brought
shivers to the condemned.
"Over nineteen thousand years ago we, the Scientists of the Earth,
decided that for the good of Civilization and the progress of the race
that there should be only one sex--male. Putting all our energies to
the task of building this Civilization we succeeded beyond our wildest
dreams. We rule the solar system and soon will rule the galaxy. You
represent that influence that for ages dragged mankind back to the
primeval slime out of which he had struggled.
"You even dared to light the beacon of Love in a Civilization that
overthrew its reign that had enwrapped the world in its coils like the
octopus does its prey. Bitterly do we regret allowing the Last Woman to
live, for it has deprived us of a good man--Explorer X12. He could have
been cured had not the chance to slip backward presented itself. Never
again shall we allow or give an anachronism or an atavist a chance to
live. They must die even as we the Supreme Council of the solar system
condemn you to death by the flame."
No sound was heard for several seconds as the Metal Man ceased
speaking. The man was calm now. He raised his head and looked long at
the tier on tier of gathered Intelligences. Did he sigh for his lost
position? Rising slowly he took the hand of the Last Woman and walked
slowly by the seated Councilors toward the metal door that led into
the chamber of flame. Reaching the door he turned and looked back. The
rays of the sun lit up the crystal emblazoned chamber with an ethereal
beauty. The Last Woman was stunned--she couldn't believe it yet.
The two passed through and found themselves in a small metal walled
room with no exit. Explorer X12 turned to clasp the woman in his
arms--but even as he turned the room leaped into brilliant flames.
When they ceased an instant afterward only two little conical piles of
ash were all that remained of the Last Woman and the Explorer--those
who had dared to love. An exhaust fan started to whir with a subdued
murmur. The two piles of ash rose up toward the ceiling, met,
coalesced, and as one passed through the vent. United at last.
Outside a Martian laughed.