The Nearest Fixed Star.
All that was required on my part was a mere act of the mind, and I went
where I wished. I visited Uranus and Neptune, after which I stretched my
swift wings for the great flight, away from our Solar System, over
billions of miles of space. I alighted on the burning star nearest to
our Earth. This star is called, by our astronomers, Alpha Centaurus, and
it is said to be 20,000,000,000,000 miles away. This star is much
greater than our Sun and is the center of a system of worlds larger and
more numerous than those that compose our Solar System.
You cannot imagine my surprise when I reached Alpha Centaurus and found
that it was inhabited by a class of human creatures who were created to
live and flourish in fire. Their customs and habits are so strange that
I am not capable of giving an intelligent description of them. I know
that it is inconceivable to us how life can be developed and sustained
in the midst of a burning sun, and I found that these beings in turn
could not conceive how life can exist in a cold world like ours.
These creatures have no digestive organs. They live, in part, on the
chemical action produced by fire breathing. The hotter the fire, the
more easily is life sustained. If they were to get away from the heat,
this chemical action would cease and therefore death would be as certain
to them as being enveloped in fire would spell death to us.
In our eyes, their bodies are misshapen, composed of elements most of
which are not found in our world. There are many cold places, or sun
spots, on Alpha Centaurus, but these are shunned by the people as death
traps. However, the centers of population gather on the more solid
sections, most of which lie around the sun spots.
You could scarcely believe your eyes were you to look upon the durable
works of architecture built by these strangely shaped mortals.
Still more wonderful are the seas of boiling fire which are sometimes
comparatively quiet, and then again, in all madness, their majestic
flames shoot upward thousands of miles.
When the sea is quiet, life is oppressive in the centers of population
just as it is in our world when the air is still and the summer sun is
pouring down upon us. Breathing is easier and life is quickened when the
molten sea boils furiously. These terrible heat blasts are most
exhilarating and refreshing to the inhabitants living near enough to
receive the benefit of them.
You may imagine that these people of Alpha Centaurus are idlers, being
fed by the ceaseless heat waves that beat upon them. Such a conception
is totally false, for I saw that industry was plainly evident, and labor
had its reward in securing the necessaries and luxuries of life.
These life-sustaining foods are composed of elements which can be
appropriated into muscle and bone (if you will permit me to use these
terms), and are obtained by reuniting and re-combining spent forces.
This explanation is somewhat mystical, but I can do no better in
describing the food production and assimilation in a pure fire-world
like this one on which I had arrived.
To imagine and believe that fertility can be possible in a seething
world-furnace, is too far beyond our philosophy to be conceivable. Alpha
Centaurus is so large a sun that although it has a population ten times
greater than our globe, yet its surface is sparsely settled.
The oceans of fire occupy the greater part of the surface of this
wonderful sphere. In these great red-hot seas live the monsters of the
deep, as well as a motley variety of other species, veritable
salamanders, some grotesquely hideous, others surpassingly beautiful in
form and hue.
On this sphere man is extraordinarily intelligent. He is almost totally
ignorant of anything akin to astronomy, although some of the greater
scholars have ventured the theory that there might be other worlds
containing human life, providing there be fire enough to sustain them.
In some other particulars, these star-creatures have made astonishing
progress. They believe that the time is coming when the fires of their
world will be blown out and all life become extinct. This they would
call, in our language, the coming Judgment when every human being that
ever lived will receive his just recompense of reward.
With interest I studied the manner of government, and the admirable
system of education which is the secret of their progress.
I made a special effort to ascertain whence this sun receives its
continued supply of fuel. The question had often perplexed my mind when
I gazed toward our Sun from the shores of our world. None of the
theories advanced by our scientists and astronomers fully satisfied my
mind. And now I looked and studied in vain. Although the awful burnings
had been in progress for thousands of years, I could see no fuel that
was added to the flames. Hence I was driven to believe that Alpha
Centaurus was on fire and was gradually being consumed; this must be
true of all the stars that bedeck the canopy of Heaven.
The inconstancy of this star's surface is the greatest menace to its
inhabitants. At times the solid crusts break in the contracting of the
surface. All this makes terrible havoc, but the new generations take
fresh courage and pluckily restore the fallen habitations.
One of the luxuries enjoyed by these fire beings at certain times is to
get where the chemical action of heat is at a low ebb. That has a
similar effect upon them as calming our nerves has upon us.
One of the great inventions consists in an instrument that neutralizes
this chemical action of heat even where it is most intense. It is a
common sight to see creatures basking under one of these instruments in
a somewhat comatose state. The inventor of this instrument is worshiped
almost as a god.
One of the most startling inventions of all is a machine that
counteracts gravity. This, to my mind, is the greatest invention I had
yet seen, and, strange to say, these fire creatures know nothing about
means of propulsion except by hand power. If you were able to stand on
the seething furnace of Alpha Centaurus, you would see these machines
rise far into the shooting fire and beyond, as far as occupants can go
without freezing to death. Then at a reverse of the lever you would see
the mysterious car descend.
These star residents have enjoyed this invention so long that they no
longer appreciate its marvels. You ask me if I tried to get the secret.
I saw the whole apparatus and the more I studied it, the more I was
convinced that its storage battery contained heat energy. So I concluded
to solve the mystery. I learned that there was a certain element found
only in combination. When this element is set loose by chemical process,
it will rise at once toward a large planet that revolves around this
sun. This planet draws that particular element with six times more force
than it is held by Alpha Centaurus. The brilliant chemists, when they
first made this discovery, separated enough of this element to carry a
man upward from the sun's surface. Later on they made a counter
discovery of equal value.
They found a substance that would destroy this attraction if it was
placed between the element and the planet. The discovery enabled a
person to rise as high as he wished and then, by swinging the plate in
position, the aerial carriage would either stand still or descend
according to the wish of the operator.
What a boon it would be to our world if we had such an element for which
Jupiter or the Sun would have so much fondness! Then with our superior
knowledge of propulsion we could forever settle the perplexing problem
of aerial navigation.
These exceptional people, living in such terrible fire, wear pieces of
garments made of the finest texture. The hair-like threads are composed
of metallic substances far more enduring than gold or platinum.
Of all the unthinkable things on this star none are so extreme as the
manner in which these people hold conversation. They have no organs to
produce vocal sounds.
[Illustration: Fire Life on a Fixed Star.]
They convey their ideas one to another by a vibration of the
conversation flaps. Either the air waves, or substantial emissions,
excite the sensitive face of the listener so that the thought
intended can be accurately received.
Having a strong curiosity, I remained and studied this fire life. It
opened to me new channels of thought and illustrated more emphatically
than ever that all things are possible with Him who created the universe
and upholds it by the word of His power.
Finally, I left this strange abode and proceeded to visit some of the
eighteen worlds that revolve around Alpha Centaurus.