_The Flight through the Fourth Dimension_
"This is the girl, Tolla," said Tako quietly. "She will take care of
you, Jane, and make you comfortable on this trip."
In the dull green sheen which enveloped the encampment, this girl of
the Fourth Dimension stood before us. She had greeted Tako quietly
in their own language, but as she gazed up into his face it seemed
that the anxiety for his welfare turned to joy at having him safely
arrive. She was a small girl; as small as Jane, and probably no
older. Her slim figure stood revealed, garbed in the same white
woven garments as those worn by the men. At a little distance she
might have been a boy of Earth, save that her silvery white hair was
wound in a high conical pile on her head, and there were tasseled
ornaments on her legs and arms.
Her small oval face, as it lighted with pleasure at seeing Tako, was
beautiful. It was delicate of feature; the eyes pale blue; the lips
curving and red. Yet it was a curious face, by Earth standards. It
seemed that there was an Oriental slant to the eyes; the nose was
high-bridged; the eyebrows were thin pencil lines snow-white, and
above each of them was another thin line of black, which evidently
she had placed there to enhance her beauty.
Strange little creature! She was the only girl of this world we were
destined to meet; she stood beside Jane, seemingly so different, and
yet, we were to learn, so humanly very much the same. Her quiet gaze
barely touched Don and me; but it clung to Jane and became
inscrutable.
"We will travel together," Tako said. "You make her comfortable,
Tolla."
"I will do my best," she said; her voice was soft, curiously limpid.
"Shall I take her now to our carrier?"
"Yes."
It gave me a pang to see Jane leave with her; Don shot me a sharp,
questioning glance but we thought it best to raise no objection.
"Come," said Tako. "Stay close by me. We will be in the carrier
presently."
* * * * *
There was an area here in the bowl-like depression of at least half
a mile square upon which an assemblage of some five thousand or more
men were encamped. It was dark, though an expanse of shifting
shadows and dull green light mingled with the vague phosphorescent
sheen from the rocks. The place when we arrived was a babble of
voices, a confusion of activity. The encampment, which obviously was
temporary--perhaps a mobilization place--rang with the last minute
preparations for departure. Whatever habitations had been here now
were packed and gone.
Tako led us past groups of men who were busy assembling and carrying
what seemed equipment of war toward a distant line of oblong objects
into which men were now marching.
"The carriers," said Tako. He greeted numbers of his friends,
talking to them briefly, and then hurried us on. All these men were
dressed similarly to Tako, but I saw none so tall, nor so commanding
of aspect. They all stared at Don and me hostilely, and once or
twice a few of them gathered around us menacingly. But Tako waved
them away. It brought me a shudder to think of Jane crossing this
camp. But we had watched Tolla and Jane starting and Tolla had
permitted none to approach them.
"Keep your eyes open," Don whispered. "Learn what you can. We've got
to watch our chance--" We became aware that Tako was listening. Don
quickly added, "I say, Bob, what does he mean--carriers?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Ask him."
We would have to be more careful; it was obvious that Tako's hearing
was far keener than our own. He was fifteen feet away, but he turned
his head at once.
"A carrier you would call in Bermuda a tram. Or a train, let us
say." He was smiling ironically at our surprise that he had
overheard us. He gestured to the distant oblong objects. "We travel
in them. Come, there is really nothing for me to do; all is in
readiness here."
* * * * *
The vehicles stood on a level rocky space at the farther edge of the
camp. I think, of everything I had seen in this unknown realm, the
sight of these vehicles brought the most surprise. The glimpse we
had had of Tako's feudal castle seemed to suggest primitiveness.
But here was modernity--super-modernity. The vehicles--there were
perhaps two dozen of them--were all apparently of similar character,
differing only in size.
They were long, low oblongs. Some were much the size and shape of a
single railway car; others twice as long; and several were like a
very long train, not of single joined cars, but all one structure.
They lay like white serpents on the ground--dull aluminum in color
with mound-shaped roofs slightly darker. Rows of windows in their
sides with the interior greenish lights, stared like round goggling
eyes into the night.
When we approached closer I saw that the vehicles were not of solid
structure, but that the sides seemingly woven of wire-mesh--or woven
of thick fabric strands.[4]
[4] The vehicles were constructed of a material allied in
character to that used for garments by the people of this
realm. It was not metal, but an organic vegetable substance.
The army of white figures crowded around the vehicles. Boxes, white
woven cases, projectors and a variety of disks and dials and wire
mechanisms were being loaded aboard. And the men were marching in to
take their places for the journey.
Tako gestured. "There is our carrier."
It was one of the smallest vehicles--low and streamlined, so that it
suggested a fat-bellied cigar, white-wrapped. It stood alone, a
little apart from the others, with no confusion around it. The
green-lighted windows in its sides goggled at us.
* * * * *
We entered a small porte at its forward pointed end. The control
room was here, a small cubby of levers and banks of dial-faces.
Three men, evidently the operators, sat within. They were dressed
like Tako save that they each had a great round lens like a monocle
on the left eye, with dangling wires from it leading to dials
fastened to the belt.
Tako greeted them with a gesture and a gruff word and pushed us past
them into the car. We entered a low narrow white corridor with dim
green lights in its vaulted room. Sliding doors to compartments
opened from one side of it. Two were closed; one was partly open. As
we passed, Tako called softly:
"All is well with you, Tolla?"
"Yes," came the girl's soft voice.
I met Don's gaze. I stopped short and called:
"Are you all right, Jane?"
I was immensely relieved as she answered, "Yes, Bob."
Tako shoved me roughly. "You presume too much."
The corridor opened into one main room occupying the full ten-foot
width of the vehicle and its twenty-foot middle section. Low soft
couch seats were here, and a small table with food and drink upon
it; and on another table low to the floor, with a mat-seat beside
it, a litter of small mechanical devices had been deposited. I saw
among them two or three of the green-light hand weapons.
Tako followed my gaze and laughed. "You are transparent. If you knew
how to use those weapons, do you think I would leave them near you?"
We were still garbed in the white garments, but the disks and wires
and helmet had been taken from us.
"I say, you needn't be so suspicious," Don protested. "We're not so
absolutely foolish. But if you want any advice from us on how to
attack New York, you've got to explain how your weapons are used."
* * * * *
Tako seated us. "All in good time. We shall have opportunity now to
talk."
"About the trip--" I said. "Are we going to New York City?"
"Yes."
"How long will it take?"
"Long? That is difficult to say. Have you not noticed that time in
my world has little to do with yours?"
"How long will it seem?" I persisted.
He shrugged. "That is according to your mood. We shall eat once or
twice, and get a little sleep."
One of the window openings was beside us with a loosely woven mesh
of wires across it. Outside I could see the shifting lights. Men
were embarking in the other vehicles; and the blended noise from
them floated in to us.
Questions flooded me. This strange journey, what would it be like? I
could envisage the invisible little Bermuda in the void of darkness
over us now; or here in this same space around us. No, we had
climbed from where we landed in the space close under the Paget
hilltop. And we had walked forward for perhaps an hour. The space of
Bermuda would be behind us and lower down. This then was the open
ocean. I gazed at the solid rocky surface outside our window. Nearly
seven hundred miles away must be New York City. We were going there.
How? Would it be called flying? Or following this rocky surface?
As though to answer my thoughts Tako gestured to the window. "See.
The first carrier starts away."
The carrier lay like a stiff white reptile on the ground. Its doors
were closed, and watching men stood back from it.
Don gasped, "Why--it's fading! A transition!"
* * * * *
It glowed along all its length and grew tenuous of aspect, until in
a moment that solid thing which had been solidly resting there on a
rock was a wraith of vehicle. A great oblong apparition--the ghost
of a reptile with round green spots on its sides. A fading wraith.
But it did not quite disappear. Hovering just within visibility, it
slowly, silently slid forward. It seemed, without changing its
level, to pass partly through an upstanding crag which stood in its
path. Distance dimmed it, dwindled it; and in a moment it was gone
into the night.
"We will start," said Tako abruptly. "Sit where you are. There will
be a little shock, much like the transition coming in from your
world." He called, "Tolla, we start."
A signal-dial was on the room wall near him. He rose and pressed its
lever. There was a moment of silence. Then the current went on. It
permeated every strand of the material of which the vehicle was
constructed. It contacted with our bodies. I felt the tingle of it;
felt it running like fire through my veins. The whole interior was
humming. There was a shock to my senses, swiftly passing, followed
by a sense of weightless freedom. But that lightness was an
illusion, a comparison with externals only, for the seat to which I
clung remained solid, and my body pressed upon it with a feeling of
normal weight.
Outside the window, the dark scene of rocks and vehicles and men was
fading; turning ghostly, shadowy, spectral. But it did not quite
vanish; it held its wraithlike outlines, and in a moment began
sliding silently backward. It seemed that we also passed through a
little butte of rocks. Then we emerged again into the open; and, as
we gathered speed, the vague spectral outlines of a rocky landscape
slid past us in a bewildering panorama.
We were away upon the journey.[5]
[5] What we learned of the science of the invisible realm
was perforce picked piecemeal by us from all that we saw,
experienced, and what several different times Tako was
willing to explain to us. And it was later studied by the
scientists of our world, whose additional theories I can
incorporate into my own knowledge. Yet much of it remains
obscure. And it is so intricate a subject that even if I
understood it fully I could do no more than summarize here
its fundamental principles.
The space-transition of these vehicles, Tako had already
told us, was closely allied to the transition from his world
to ours. And the weapons were of the same principles. The
science of space-transition, limited to travel from one
portion of the realm to another, quite evidently came first.
The weapons, the forcible, abrupt transition of material
objects out of the realm into other dimensions--into the
Unknown--this principle was developed from the traveling.
And from them both Tako himself evolved the safe and
controlled transition from his world to ours.
Concerning the operation of these vehicles: Motion, in our
Earth-world or any other, is the progressive change of a
material object in relation to its time and space. It is
here now, but it _was there_. Both space and time undergo a
simultaneous change; the object itself remains unaltered,
save in its _position_.
In the case of the vehicles, the current I have already
mentioned (used in the mechanism for the transition from
Earth to the other realm) that current, circulating in the
organic material of which the vehicle was composed, altered
the state of matter of the carrier and everything within the
aura of the current's field. The vehicle and all its
contents, with altered inherent vibratory rate of its
molecules, atoms and electrons, was in effect projected into
another world. A new dimension was added to it. It became an
imponderable wraith, resting dimly visible in a sort of
borderland upon the fringe of its own world.
Yet it had not changed _position_. It still remained
quiescent. Then the current was further altered, and the
time and space co-ordinates set into new combinations. This
change of the current was a _progressive_ change. Controlled
and carefully calculated by what intricate theoretic
principles and practical mechanisms no scientist of our
world can yet say.
It is clear, however, that as this progressive change in
space-time characteristics began, the vehicle perforce must
move slightly in space and time to reconcile itself to the
change.
There never has been a seemingly more abstruse subject for
the human mind to grasp than the theories involving a true
conception of space-time. Yet, doubtless, to those of Tako's
realm, inheriting, let me say, the consciousness of its
reality, there was nothing abstruse about it.
An analogy may make it clearer. The vehicle, hovering in the
borderland, might be called in a visible but gaseous state.
A solid can be turned to gas merely by the alteration of the
vibratory rate of its molecules.
This unmoving (gaseous) vehicle, is now further altered in
space-time characteristics. Suppose we say it is very
slightly thrown out of tune with its _spatial_ surroundings
at the time which is its _present_. Nature will allow no
such disorganization. The vehicle, as a second of _time_
passes, is impelled by the force of nature to be in a
_different place_. This involves motion. A small change in
the first second. Then the current alters it progressively
faster. The change, of necessity, is progressively greater,
the motion more rapid.
And this, controlled as to direction, became transportation.
The determination of direction at first thought seems
amazingly intricate. In effect, that was not so. With
space-time factors set as a destination, i. e., the place
where the vehicle must end its change at a certain time, all
the intermediate changes become automatic. With every
passing second it must be at a reconcilable place--the
direction of its passage perforce being the shortest path
between the two.
With this in mind, the transition from one world to another
becomes more readily understandable. No _natural_ change of
space is involved, merely the change of the state of matter.
It was the same change as that which carried the vehicles
into a shadowy borderland, and then pushed further into new
dimensional realms.
The green light-beam weapons were merely another application
of the same principle. The characteristics of the green
light current, touching organic matter, altered the
vibratory rate of what was struck to coincide with the
light. A solid cake of ice under a blow-torch becomes steam
by the same principle. The light-beams were swift and
violent in their action. The change in them was progressive
also--but it was so swiftly violent a change that nothing
living could survive the shock of the enforced transition.
* * * * *
There was little to see during this strange flight. Outside our
windows gray shadows drifted swiftly past--a shadowy, ghostly
landscape of gray rocks. Sometimes it was below us, so that we
seemed in an airship winging above it. Then abruptly it would rise
over us and we plunged into it as though it were a mere light-image,
a mirage.
Hours passed. For the most part the shadowy void seemed a jagged
mountainous terrain, a barren waste. There were great plateau
uplands, one of which rose seemingly thousands of feet over us. And
there was perhaps an hour of time when the surface of the world had
dropped far away, so far down that it was gone in the distance. Like
a projectile we sped level, unswerving. And at last the shadows of
the landscape came up again. And occasionally we saw shadowy
inhabited domains--enclosing walls around water and vegetation, with
a frowning castle and its brood of mound-shaped little houses like
baby chicks clustered around the mother hen.
Tako served us with a meal; it was strange food, but our hunger made
it palatable. Jane and Tolla remained in their nearby cabin. We did
not see them, but occasionally Don or I, ignoring Tako's frown,
called out to Jane, and received her ready answer.
Occasionally also, we had an opportunity to question Tako. He had
begun tell us the general outline of his plans. The important fact
was that the army would mobilize just within visibility of New York.
"Nothing can touch us then," Tako said. "You will have to explain
what weapons will be used against me. Particularly the long-range
weapons are interesting. But you have no weapons which could
penetrate into the shadows of the borderland, have you?"
"No," said Don. "But your weapons--" He tried not to seem too
intent. "Look here, Tako, I don't just understand how you intend to
conquer New York."
"Devastate it," Tako interrupted. "Smash it up, and then we can
materialize and take possession of it. My object is to capture a
great number of young women--beautiful young women."
"How?" I demanded. "By smashing up New York? There are thousands of
young women there, but you would kill them in the process. Now if
you would try some other locality. For instance, I could direct you
to open country--"
* * * * *
He understood my motive. "I ask not that kind of advice. I will
capture New York; devastate it. I think then your rulers will be
willing voluntarily to yield all the captives I demand. Or, if not,
then we will plan to seize them out of other localities."
Don said, "Suppose you tell us more clearly just how you expect to
smash New York, as you call it. First, you will gather, not
materialized, but only visible to the city."
"Exactly. That will cause much excitement, will it not?
Panics--terror. And if we are only wraiths, no weapons of your world
can attack us."
"Nor can yours attack the city. Can they?"
He did not at first answer that; and then he smiled. "Our hand
light-projectors could not penetrate out from the borderland without
losing their force. But we have bombs. You shall see.[6] The bombs
alone will devastate New York, if we choose to use them. I have also
a long-range projector of the green light-beam. It is my idea, when
the city is abandoned by the enemy that we can take possession of
some prominent point of vantage. A tall building, perhaps." He
smiled again his quiet grim smile. "We will select one and be
careful to leave it standing. I will materialize with our giant
projector, dominate all the region and then we can barter with your
authorities. It is your long-range guns I most fear. When the
projector is materialized--and we are ready to bargain--then your
airplanes, warships lying far away perhaps, might attack. Suppose
now you explain those weapons to me."
[6] Materialization bombs, we afterward called them; they
played a diabolical part in the coming events. They were of
many sizes and shapes, but most of them were small in size
and shape, like a foot-long wedged-shaped brick, or the head
of an ax. They were constructed of organic material, with a
wire mesh of the transition mechanism encasing them, and an
automatic operating device like the firing fuse of a bomb.
* * * * *
For an hour or more he questioned us. He was no fool, this fellow;
he knew far more of the conditions ahead of him than we realized. I
recall that once I said:
"You have never been in New York?"
"No. Not materialized. But I have observed it very carefully."
As a lurking ghost!
"We have calculated," he went on, "the space co-ordinates with great
precision. That is how we have been able to select the destination
for this carrier now. You cannot travel upon impulse by this method.
Our engineers, as you might call them, must go in advance with
recording apparatus. Nothing can be done blindly."
It brought to my mind the three pilots now operating our vehicle. I
mentioned the lens on their left eyes like a monocle.
"With that they can see ahead of us a great distance. It flings the
vision--like gazing along a beam of light--to space-time factors in
advance of our present position. In effect, a telescope."
* * * * *
There were a few hours of the journey when Don and I slept,
exhausted by what we had been through. Tako was with us when we
dozed off, and I recall that he was there when we awakened. How much
time passed we could not tell.
"You are refreshed?" he said smilingly. "And hungry again, no doubt.
We will eat and drink--and soon we will arrive at the predestined
time and place."
We were indeed hungry again. And while we were eating Tako gestured
to the window. "Look there. Your world seems visible a little."
Just before we slept it had seemed that mingled with the shadows of
Tako's world was the gray outline of an ocean surface beneath us. I
gazed out at the dim void now. Our flight was far slower than
before. We were slackening speed for the coming halt. And I saw now
that the shadows outside were the mingled wraiths of two spectral
worlds, with us drifting forward between and among them. The terrain
of Tako's world was bleaker, more desolate and more steeply
mountainous than ever. There were pits and ravines and gullies with
jagged mountain spires, cliffs and towering gray masses of rock.
And mingled with it, in a general way coincidental with it in the
plane of the same space, we could see now the tenuous shapes of our
own world. Vague, but familiar outlines! We had passed Sandy Hook!
The ocean lay behind us. A hundred feet or so beneath us was the
level water of the Lower Bay.
"Don!" I murmured. "Look there! Long Island off there! And that's
Staten Island ahead of us!"
"Almost at our destination," Tako observed. And in a moment he
gestured again. "There is your city. Have a good look at your dear
New York."
* * * * *
Diagonally ahead through the window we saw the spectres of the great
pile of masonry on lower and mid-Manhattan. Spectres of the giant
buildings; the familiar skyline, and mingled with it the ghostly
gray outlines of the mountains and valley depths of Tako's world.
All intermingled! The mountain peaks rose far higher than the
tallest of New York's skyscrapers; and the pits and ravines were
lower than the waters of the harbor and rivers, lower than the
subways and the tubes and the tunnels.
"Another carrier!" Don said abruptly. "See it off there!"
It showed like a great gray projectile coming in level with us. And
then we saw two others in the distance behind us. Fantastic, ghostly
arrival of the enemy! Weird mobilization here within the space of
the doomed New York.
"Can they see us?" I murmured. "Tako, the people down there on
Staten Island--can they see us?"
"Yes," he smiled. "Don't you think so? Look! Are not those ships of
war? Hah! Gathered already--awaiting our coming!"
I have already given a brief summary of the events of the days and
nights just past here in New York. The terror at the influx of
apparitions. The panic of the city's teeming millions struggling too
eagerly to escape.
It was night now--the night of May 19th. The city was in chaos, but
none of the details were apparent to us as we arrived. But we could
see, as we drifted with slow motion above the waters of the harbor,
that there were warships anchored here, and in the Hudson River.
They showed as little spectral dots of gray. And in the air, level
with us at times, the wraiths of encircling airplanes were visible.
"They see us," Tako repeated.
They did indeed. A puff of light and up-rolling smoke came from one
of the ships. A silent shot. Perhaps it screamed through us, but we
were not aware of it.
Tako chuckled. "They get excited, do they not? We strike terror--are
they going to fight like excited children?"
* * * * *
We were under sudden bombardment. Fort Wadsworth was firing; puffs
showed from several of the warships; and abruptly a group of ghostly
monoplanes dove at us like birds. They went through us, emerged and
sped away. And in a moment the shots were discontinued.
"That is better," said Tako. "What a waste of ammunition."
Our direction was carrying us from mid-Manhattan. The bridges to
Brooklyn were visible. Beyond them, over New York, mingled with
teeming buildings was a mountain slope of Tako's realm. I saw one of
our carriers lying on a ledge of it.
A sudden commotion in our car brought our attention from the scene
outside. The voices of girls raised in anger. Tolla's voice and
Jane's! Then came the sound of a scuffle!
"By what gods!" Tako exclaimed.
We all leaped to our feet. Tako rushed for the door of the
compartment with us after him. We burst in upon the girls. They were
standing in the center of the little room. One of the chairs was
overturned. Jane stood gripping Tolla by the wrists, and with
greater strength was forcibly holding her.
As we appeared, Jane abruptly released her, and Tolla sank to the
floor and burst into wild sobs. Jane faced us, red and white of
face, and herself almost in tears.
"What's the matter?" Don demanded. "What is it?"
But against all our questionings both girls held to a stubborn
silence.