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THE JAMESON SATELLITE
By NEIL R. JONES
_The mammoths of the ancient world have been wonderfully preserved
in the ice of Siberia. The cold, only a few miles out in space, will
be far more intense than in the polar regions and its power of
preserving the dead body would most probably be correspondingly
increased. When the hero-scientist of this story knew he must die,
he conceived a brilliant idea for the preservation of his body, the
result of which even exceeded his expectations. What, how, and why
are cleverly told here._
PROLOGUE
_The Rocket Satellite_
In the depths of space, some twenty thousand miles from the earth, the
body of Professor Jameson within its rocket container cruised upon an
endless journey, circling the gigantic sphere. The rocket was a
satellite of the huge, revolving world around which it held to its
orbit. In the year 1958, Professor Jameson had sought for a plan whereby
he might preserve his body indefinitely after his death. He had worked
long and hard upon the subject.
Since the time of the Pharaohs, the human race had looked for a means by
which the dead might be preserved against the ravages of time. Great had
been the art of the Egyptians in the embalming of their deceased, a
practice which was later lost to humanity of the ensuing mechanical age,
never to be rediscovered. But even the embalming of the Egyptians--so
Professor Jameson had argued--would be futile in the face of millions of
years, the dissolution of the corpses being just as eventual as
immediate cremation following death.
The professor had looked for a means by which the body could be
preserved perfectly forever. But eventually he had come to the
conclusion that nothing on earth is unchangeable beyond a certain limit
of time. Just as long as he sought an earthly means of preservation, he
was doomed to disappointment. All earthly elements are composed of atoms
which are forever breaking down and building up, but never destroying
themselves. A match may be burned, but the atoms are still unchanged,
having resolved themselves into smoke, carbon dioxide, ashes, and
certain basic elements. It was clear to the professor that he could
never accomplish his purpose if he were to employ one system of atomic
structure, such as embalming fluid or other concoction, to preserve
another system of atomic structure, such as the human body, when all
atomic structure is subject to universal change, no matter how slow.
[Illustration: It glowed in a haze of light, the interior clearly
revealed.]
He had then soliloquized upon the possibility of preserving the human
body in its state of death until the end of all earthly time--to that
day when the earth would return to the sun from which it had sprung.
Quite suddenly one day he had conceived the answer to the puzzling
problem which obsessed his mind, leaving him awed with its wild, uncanny
potentialities.
He would have his body shot into space enclosed in a rocket to become a
satellite of the earth as long as the earth continued to exist. He
reasoned logically. Any material substance, whether of organic or
inorganic origin, cast into the depths of space would exist
indefinitely. He had visualized his dead body enclosed in a rocket
flying off into the illimitable maw of space. He would remain in perfect
preservation, while on earth millions of generations of mankind would
live and die, their bodies to molder into the dust of the forgotten
past. He would exist in this unchanged manner until that day when
mankind, beneath a cooling sun, should fade out forever in the chill,
thin atmosphere of a dying world. And still his body would remain intact
and as perfect in its rocket container as on that day of the far-gone
past when it had left the earth to be hurled out on its career. What a
magnificent idea!
At first he had been assailed with doubts. Suppose his funeral rocket
landed upon some other planet or, drawn by the pull of the great sun,
were thrown into the flaming folds of the incandescent sphere? Then the
rocket might continue on out of the solar system, plunging through the
endless seas of space for millions of years, to finally enter the solar
system of some far-off star, as meteors often enter ours. Suppose his
rocket crashed upon a planet, or the star itself, or became a captive
satellite of some celestial body?
It had been at this juncture that the idea of his rocket becoming the
satellite of the earth had presented itself, and he had immediately
incorporated it into his scheme. The professor had figured out the
amount of radium necessary to carry the rocket far enough away from the
earth so that it would not turn around and crash, and still be not so
far away but what the earth's gravitational attraction would keep it
from leaving the vicinity of the earth and the solar system. Like the
moon, it would forever revolve around the earth.
He had chosen an orbit sixty-five thousand miles from the earth for his
rocket to follow. The only fears he had entertained concerned the huge
meteors which careened through space at tremendous rates of speed. He
had overcome this obstacle, however, and had eliminated the
possibilities of a collision with these stellar juggernauts. In the
rocket were installed radium repulsion rays which swerved all
approaching meteors from the path of the rocket as they entered the
vicinity of the space wanderer.
The aged professor had prepared for every contingency, and had set down
to rest from his labors, reveling in the stupendous, unparalleled
results he would obtain. Never would his body undergo decay; and never
would his bones bleach to return to the dust of the earth from which all
men originally came and to which they must return. His body would remain
millions of years in a perfectly preserved state, untouched by the hoary
palm of such time as only geologists and astronomers can conceive.
His efforts would surpass even the wildest dreams of H. Rider Haggard,
who depicted the wondrous, embalming practices of the ancient nation of
Kor in his immortal novel, "She," wherein Holly, under the escort of the
incomparable Ayesha, looked upon the magnificent, lifelike masterpieces
of embalming by the long-gone peoples of Kor.
With the able assistance of a nephew, who carried out his instructions
and wishes following his death, Professor Jameson was sent upon his
pilgrimage into space within the rocket he himself had built. The nephew
and heir kept the secret forever locked in his heart.
* * * * *
Generation after generation had passed upon its way. Gradually humanity
had come to die out, finally disappearing from the earth altogether.
Mankind was later replaced by various other forms of life which
dominated the globe for their allotted spaces of time before they too
became extinct. The years piled up on one another, running into
millions, and still the Jameson Satellite kept its lonely vigil around
the earth, gradually closing the distance between satellite and planet,
yielding reluctantly to the latter's powerful attraction.
Forty million years later, its orbit ranged some twenty thousand miles
from the earth while the dead world edged ever nearer the cooling sun
whose dull, red ball covered a large expanse of the sky. Surrounding
the flaming sphere, many of the stars could be perceived through the
earth's thin, rarefied atmosphere. As the earth cut in slowly and
gradually toward the solar luminary, so was the moon revolving ever
nearer the earth, appearing like a great gem glowing in the twilight
sky.
The rocket containing the remains of Professor Jameson continued its
endless travel around the great ball of the earth whose rotation had now
ceased entirely--one side forever facing the dying sun. There it pursued
its lonely way, a cosmic coffin, accompanied by its funeral cortege of
scintillating stars amid the deep silence of the eternal space which
enshrouded it. Solitary it remained, except for the occasional passing
of a meteor flitting by at a remarkable speed on its aimless journey
through the vacuum between the far-flung worlds.
Would the satellite follow its orbit to the world's end, or would its
supply of radium soon exhaust itself after so many eons of time,
converting the rocket into the prey of the first large meteor which
chanced that way? Would it some day return to the earth as its nearer
approach portended, and increase its acceleration in a long arc to crash
upon the surface of the dead planet? And when the rocket terminated its
career, would the body of Professor Jameson be found perfectly preserved
or merely a crumbled mound of dust?
CHAPTER I
_40,000,000 Years After_
Entering within the boundaries of the solar system, a long, dark,
pointed craft sped across the realms of space towards the tiny point of
light which marked the dull red ball of the dying sun which would some
day lie cold and dark forever. Like a huge meteor it flashed into the
solar system from another chain of planets far out in the illimitable
Universe of stars and worlds, heading towards the great red sun at an
inconceivable speed.
Within the interior of the space traveler, queer creatures of metal
labored at the controls of the space flyer which juggernauted on its way
towards the far-off solar luminary. Rapidly it crossed the orbits of
Neptune and Uranus and headed sunward. The bodies of these queer
creatures were square blocks of a metal closely resembling steel, while
for appendages, the metal cube was upheld by four jointed legs capable
of movement. A set of six tentacles, all metal, like the rest of the
body, curved outward from the upper half of the cubic body. Surmounting
it was a queer-shaped head rising to a peak in the center and equipped
with a circle of eyes all the way around the head. The creatures, with
their mechanical eyes equipped with metal shutters, could see in all
directions. A single eye pointed directly upward, being situated in the
space of the peaked head, resting in a slight depression of the cranium.
These were the Zoromes of the planet Zor which rotated on its way around
a star millions of light years distant from our solar system. The
Zoromes, several hundred thousand years before, had reached a stage in
science, where they searched for immortality and eternal relief from
bodily ills and various deficiencies of flesh and blood anatomy. They
had sought freedom from death, and had found it, but at the same time
they had destroyed the propensities for birth. And for several hundred
thousand years there had been no births and few deaths in the history of
the Zoromes.
This strange race of people had built their own mechanical bodies, and
by operation upon one another had removed their brains to the metal
heads from which they directed the functions and movements of their
inorganic anatomies. There had been no deaths due to worn-out bodies.
When one part of the mechanical men wore out, it was replaced by a new
part, and so the Zoromes continued living their immortal lives which saw
few casualties. It was true that, since the innovation of the machines,
there had been a few accidents which had seen the destruction of the
metal heads with their brains. These were irreparable. Such cases had
been few, however, and the population of Zor had decreased but little.
The machine men of Zor had no use for atmosphere, and had it not been
for the terrible coldness of space, could have just as well existed in
the ether void as upon some planet. Their metal bodies, especially their
metal-encased brains, did require a certain amount of heat even though
they were able to exist comfortably in temperatures which would
instantly have frozen to death a flesh-and-blood creature.
The most popular pastime among the machine men of Zor was the
exploration of the Universe. This afforded them a never ending source of
interest in the discovery of the variegated inhabitants and conditions
of the various planets on which they came to rest. Hundreds of space
ships were sent out in all directions, many of them being upon their
expeditions for hundreds of years before they returned once more to the
home planet of far-off Zor.
This particular space craft of the Zoromes had entered the solar system
whose planets were gradually circling in closer to the dull red ball of
the declining sun. Several of the machine men of the space craft's crew,
which numbered some fifty individuals, were examining the various
planets of this particular planetary system carefully through telescopes
possessing immense power.
These machine men had no names and were indexed according to letters and
numbers. They conversed by means of thought impulses, and were neither
capable of making a sound vocally nor of hearing one uttered.
"Where shall we go?" queried one of the men at the controls questioning
another who stood by his side examining a chart on the wall.
"They all appear to be dead worlds, 4R-3579," replied the one addressed,
"but the second planet from the sun appears to have an atmosphere which
might sustain a few living creatures, and the third planet may also
prove interesting for it has a satellite. We shall examine the inner
planets first of all, and explore the outer ones later if we decide it
is worth the time."
"Too much trouble for nothing," ventured 9G-721. "This system of planets
offers us little but what we have seen many times before in our travels.
The sun is so cooled that it cannot sustain the more common life on its
planets, the type of life forms we usually find in our travels. We
should have visited a planetary system with a brighter sun."
"You speak of common life," remarked 25X-987. "What of the uncommon
life? Have we not found life existent on cold, dead planets with no
sunlight and atmosphere at all?"
"Yes, we have," admitted 9G-721, "but such occasions are exceedingly
rare."
"The possibility exists, however, even in this case," reminded 4R-3579,
"and what if we do spend a bit of unprofitable time in this one
planetary system--haven't we all an endless lifetime before us? Eternity
is ours."
"We shall visit the second planet first of all," directed 25X-987, who
was in charge of this particular expedition of the Zoromes, "and on the
way there we shall cruise along near the third planet to see what we can
of the surface. We may be able to tell whether or not it holds anything
of interest to us. If it does, after visiting the second planet, we
shall then return to the third. The first world is not worth bothering
with."
* * * * *
The space ship from Zor raced on in a direction which would take it
several thousand miles above the earth and then on to the planet which
we know as Venus. As the space ship rapidly neared the earth, it
slackened its speed, so that the Zoromes might examine it closely with
their glasses as the ship passed the third planet.
Suddenly, one of the machine men ran excitedly into the room where
25X-987 stood watching the topography of the world beneath him.
"We have found something!" he exclaimed.
"What?"
"Another space ship!"
"Where?"
"But a short distance ahead of us on our course. Come into the foreport
of the ship and you can pick it up with the glass."
"Which is the way it's going?" asked 25X-987.
"It is behaving queerly," replied the machine man of Zor. "It appears to
be in the act of circling the planet."
"Do you suppose that there really is life on that dead
world--intelligent beings like ourselves, and that this is one of their
space craft?"
"Perhaps it is another exploration craft like our own from some other
world," was the suggestion.
"But not of ours," said 25X-987.
Together, the two Zoromes now hastened into the observation room of the
space ship where more of the machine men were excitedly examining the
mysterious space craft, their thought impulses flying thick and fast
like bodiless bullets.
"It is very small!"
"Its speed is slow!"
"The craft can hold but few men," observed one.
"We do not yet know of what size the creatures are," reminded another.
"Perhaps there are thousands of them in that space craft out there. They
may be of such a small size that it will be necessary to look twice
before finding one of them. Such beings are not unknown."
"We shall soon overtake it and see."
"I wonder if they have seen us?"
"Where do you suppose it came from?"
"From the world beneath us," was the suggestion.
"Perhaps."