"Yes--I meant it--don't be so surprised--you've seen it done before. I
have--no, not under him, but a more experienced teacher. I figured it
would come in handy in our explorations."
Morey's face grew more and more astonished as Arcot's strange monologue
continued.
Finally, Arcot turned to Wade, who was looking at him and Morey in
wide-eyed wonder. And this time, it was Wade who began talking in a
monologue.
"You _did_?" he said in a surprised voice. "When?" There was a long
pause, during which Arcot stared at Wade with such intensity that Fuller
began to understand what was happening.
"Well," said Wade, "if you've learned the trick so thoroughly, try it
out. Let's see you project your thoughts! Go ahead!"
Fuller, now understanding fully what was going on, burst out laughing.
"He _has_ been projecting his thoughts! He hasn't said a word to you!"
Then he looked at Arcot. "As a matter of fact, you've said so little
that I don't know how you pulled this telepathic stunt--though I'm quite
convinced that you did."
"I spent three months on Venus a while back," said Arcot, "studying with
one of their foremost telepathists. Actually, most of that time was
spent on theory; learning how to do it isn't a difficult proposition. It
just takes practice.
"The whole secret is that everyone has the power; it's a very ancient
power in the human brain, and most of the lower animals possess it to a
greater degree than do humans. When Man developed language, it gave his
thoughts more concreteness and permitted a freer and more clearly
conceived type of thinking. The result was that telepathy fell into
disuse.
"I'm going to show you how to do it because it will be invaluable if we
meet a strange race. By projecting pictures and concepts, you can
dispense with going to the trouble of learning the language.
"After you learn the basics, all you'll need is practice, but watch
yourself! Too much practice can give you the great-granddaddy of all
headaches! Okay, now to begin with ..."
Arcot spent the rest of the evening teaching them the Venerian system of
telepathy.
* * * * *
They all rose at nine. Arcot got up first, and the others found it
expedient to follow his example shortly thereafter. He had brought a
large Tesla coil into the bedroom from the lab and succeeded in inducing
sufficient voltage in the bedsprings to make very effective, though
harmless, sparks.
"Come on, boys, hit the deck! Wade, as chief chemist, you are to
synthesize a little coffee and heat-treat a few eggs for us. We have
work ahead today! Rise and shine!" He didn't shut off the coil until he
was assured that each of them had gotten a considerable distance from
his bed.
"Ouch!" yelled Morey. "Okay! Shut it off! I want to get my pants! We're
all up! You win!"
After breakfast, they all went into the room they used as a calculating
room. Here they had two different types of integraph calculators and
plenty of paper and equipment to do their own calculations and draw
graphs.
"To begin with," said Fuller, "let's decide what shape we want to use.
As designer, I'd like to point out that a sphere is the strongest, a
cube easiest to build, and a torpedo shape the most efficient
aerodynamically. However, we intend to use it in space, not air.
"And remember, we'll need it more as a home than as a ship during the
greater part of the trip."
"We might need an aerodynamically stable hull," Wade interjected. "It
came in mighty handy on Venus. They're darned useful in emergencies.
What do you think, Arcot?"
"I favor the torpedo shape. Okay, now we've got a hull. How about some
engines to run it? Let's get those, too. I'll name the general things
first; facts and figures can come later.
"First: We must have a powerful mass-energy converter. We could use the
cavity radiator and use cosmic rays to warm it, and drive the individual
power units that way, or we can have a main electrical power unit and
warm them all electrically. Now, which one would be the better?"
Morey frowned. "I think we'd be safer if we didn't depend on any one
plant, but had each as separate as possible. I'm for the individual
cavity radiators."
"Question," interjected Fuller. "How do these cavity radiators work?"
"They're built like a thermos bottle," Arcot explained. "The inner shell
will be of rough relux, which will absorb the heat efficiently, while
the outer one will be of polished relux to keep the radiation inside.
Between the two we'll run a flow of helium at two tons per square inch
pressure to carry the heat to the molecular motion apparatus. The neck
of the bottle will contain the atomic generator."
Fuller still looked puzzled. "See here; with this new space strain
drive, why do we have to have the molecular drive at all?"
"To move around near a heavy mass--in the presence of a strong
gravitational field," Arcot said. "A gravitational field tends to warp
space in such a way that the velocity of light is lower in its presence.
Our drive tries to warp or strain space in the opposite manner. The two
would simply cancel each other out and we'd waste a lot of power going
nowhere. As a matter of fact, the gravitational field of the sun is so
intense that we'll have to go out beyond the orbit of Pluto before we
can use the space strain drive effectively."
"I catch," said Fuller. "Now to get back to the generators. I think the
power units would be simpler if they were controlled from one electrical
power source, and just as reliable. Anyway, the molecular motion power
is controlled, of necessity, from a single generator, so if one is apt
to go bad, the other is, too."
"Very good reasoning," smiled Morey, "but I'm still strong for
decentralization. I suggest a compromise. We can have the main power
unit and the main verticals, which will be the largest, controlled by
individual cosmic ray heaters, and the rest run by electric power units.
They'd be just heating coils surrounded by the field."
"A good idea," said Arcot. "I'm in favor of the compromise. Okay,
Fuller? Okay. Now the next problem is weapons. I suggest we use a
separate control panel and a separate generating panel for the power
tubes we'll want in the molecular beam projectors."
The molecular beam projector simply projected the field that caused
molecular motion to take place as wanted. As weapons, they were
terrifically deadly. If half a mountain is suddenly thrown into the air
because all the random motion of its molecules becomes concentrated in
one direction, it becomes a difficult projectile to fight. Or touch the
bow of a ship with the beam; the bow drops to absolute zero and is
driven back on the stern, with all the speed of its billions of
molecules. The general effect is similar to that produced by two ships
having a head-on collision at ten miles per second.
Anything touched by the beam is broken by its own molecules, twisted by
its own strength, and crushed by its own toughness. Nothing can resist
it.
"My idea," Arcot went on, "was that since the same power is used for
both the beams and the drive, we'll have two separate power-tube banks
to generate it. That way, if one breaks down, we can switch to the
other. We can even use both at once on the drive, if necessary; the
molecular motion machines will stand it if we make them of relux and
anchor them with lux metal beams. The projectors would be able to handle
the power, too, using Dad's new system.
"That will give us more protection, and, at the same time, full power.
Since we'll have several projectors, the power needed to operate the
ship will be about equal to the power required to operate the
projectors.
"And I also suggest we mount some heat beam projectors."
"Why?" objected Wade. "They're less effective than the molecular rays.
The molecular beams are instantly irresistible, while the heat beams
take time to heat up the target. Sure, they're unhealthy to deal with,
but no more so than the molecular beam."
"True enough," Arcot agreed, "but the heat beam is more spectacular, and
we may find that a mere spectacular display will accomplish as much as
actual destruction. Besides, the heat beams are more local in effect. If
we want to kill an enemy and spare his captive, we want a beam that will
be deadly where it hits, not for fifty yards around."
"Hold it a second," said Fuller wearily. "Now it's heat beams. Don't you
guys think you ought to explain a little bit to the poor goon who's
designing this flying battlewagon? How did you get a heat beam?"
Arcot grinned. "Simple. We use a small atomic cavity radiator at one end
of which is a rough relux parabolic filter. Beyond that is a lux metal
lens. The relux heats up tremendously, and since there is no polished
relux to reflect it back, the heat is radiated out through the lux metal
lens as a powerful heat beam."
"Okay, fine," said Fuller. "But stop springing new gadgets on me, will
you?"
"I'll try not to," Arcot laughed. "Anyway, let's get on to the main
power plant. Remember that our condenser coil is a gadget for storing
energy in space; we are therefore obliged to supply it with energy to
store. Just forming the drive field alone will require two times ten to
the twenty-seventh ergs, or the energy of about _two and a half tons_
of matter. That means a whale of a lot of lead wire will have to be fed
into our conversion generators; it would take several hours to charge
the coils. We'd better have two big chargers to do the job.
"The controls we can figure out later. How about it? Any suggestions?"
"Sounds okay to me," said Morey, and the others agreed.
"Good enough. Now, as far as air and water go, we can use the standard
spacecraft apparatus, Fuller, so you can figure that in any way you want
to."
"We'll need a lab, too," Wade put in. "And a machine shop with plenty of
spare parts--everything we can possibly think of. Remember, we may want
to build some things out in space."
"Right. And I wonder--" Arcot looked thoughtful. "How about the
invisibility apparatus? It may prove useful, and it won't cost much.
Let's put that in, too."
The apparatus he mentioned was simply a high-frequency oscillator tube
of extreme power which caused vibrations approaching light frequency to
be set up in the molecules of the ship. As a result, the ship became
transparent, since light could easily pass through the vibrating
molecules.
There was only one difficulty; the ship was invisible, all right, but it
became a radio sender and could easily be detected by a directional
radio. However, if the secret were unknown, it was a very effective
method of disappearing. And, since the frequency was so high, a special
detector was required to pick it up.
"Is that all you need?" asked Fuller.
"Nope," said Arcot, leaning back in his chair. "Now comes the kicker. I
suggest that we make the hull of foot-thick lux metal and line it on the
inside with relux wherever we want it to be opaque. And we want relux
shutters on the windows. Lux is too doggone transparent; if we came too
close to a hot star, we'd be badly burned."
Fuller looked almost goggle-eyed. "_A--foot--of--lux!_ Good Lord,
Arcot! This ship would weigh a quarter of a million tons! That stuff is
_dense_!"
"Sure," agreed Arcot, "but we'll need the protection. With a ship like
that, you could run through a planetoid without hurting the hull. We'll
make the relux inner wall about an inch thick, with a vacuum between
them for protection in a warm atmosphere. And if some tremendous force
did manage to crack the outer wall, we wouldn't be left without
protection."
"Okay, you're the boss," Fuller said resignedly. "It's going to have to
be a big ship, though. I figure a length of about two hundred feet and a
diameter of around thirty feet. The interior I'll furnish with aluminum;
it'll be cheaper and lighter. How about an observatory?"
"Put it in the rear of the ship," Wade suggested. "We'll mount one of
the Nigran telectroscopes."
"Control room in the bow, of course," Morey chipped in.
"I've got you," Fuller said. "I'll work the thing out and give you a
cost estimate and drawings."
"Fine," said Arcot, standing up. "Meanwhile, the rest of us will work
out our little exhibition to impress Mr. Morey and Dad. Come on, lads,
let's get back to the lab."