"One minute forty seconds."
"Gentlemen: In these brief moments I should like to thank you all for
your splendid assistance. I speak not so much of your technical work,
which speaks for itself, but of your willingness to exile yourselves
and even incriminate yourselves along with me--Time?"
"One twenty-five."
"It is a sad thing that our work which is intended to grant the
greatest boon imaginable to the Universe should have been driven into
secrecy. Limitless power is so vast a concept that even I cannot
speculate on the future it will bring to our worlds. In a few minutes,
after we have succeeded, all of us will be universal heroes. Now,
before our work is done, I want all of you to know that to me you are
already heroes--Time?"
"One ten."
"And now, a warning. When we have set up our spacial partition membrane
and begun the osmotic transfer of energy from hyperspace to our own
there may be effects which I have been unable to predict. Raw energy
pervading our space may also pervade our nervous systems and engender
various unforeseen conditions. Do not be alarmed. Keep well in mind the
fact that the change cannot be anything but for the better--Time?"
"Fifty seconds."
"The advantages? Up to now mathematics and the sciences have merely
been substitutes for what man should do for himself. So FitzJohn
preached in his first lecture, and so we are about to prove. The
logical evolution of energy mechanics is not toward magnification and
complex engineering development, but toward simplification--toward the
concentration of all those powers within man himself--Time?"
"Twenty seconds."
"Courage, my friends. This is the moment we have worked for these past
ten years. Secretly. Criminally. So it has always been with those who
have brought man his greatest gifts."
"Ten seconds."
"Stand by, all."
"Ready all, sir."
The seconds ticked off with agonizing slowness. At the moment of zero
the workers were galvanized into quick action. It was impossible to
follow their motions or understand them, but you could see by the
smooth timing and interplay that they were beautifully rehearsed. There
was tragedy in those efforts for us who already knew the outcome.
As quickly as they had begun, the workers stopped and peered upward
through the crystal dome. Far beyond them, crisp in the velvet
blackness, that star gleamed, and as they watched, it winked out.
They started and exclaimed, pointing. The graybeard cried:
"It's impossible!"
"What is it, sir?"
"I--"
And in that moment blackness enveloped the scene.