IV

He paused briefly, then went on: "Our first sensation was one of

shock--a reeling of the senses. But it was not severe--it passed almost

at once. We found ourselves clinging there to the instrument table.

To me the room seemed swaying dizzily. My forehead was damp with cold

moisture; a nausea possessed me. I was oppressed; the air of the room

was heavy to breathe."

"The air was snapping with the current," said Martt. "I could see it,

and feel it tingling against my face. And it was heavy to breathe, as

Brett says."

Brett resumed: "But we felt better after a moment. I saw the change

first on the dials. The pointer of the lowest unit dial of the size

series was slowly but visibly moving. I watched as it crept from 1 to

2. We had doubled in size. I gazed about the room. It was unchanged;

and now as my body rapidly adjusted itself to the new conditions, I

began to feel almost normal. Except a queer whirring in my head, and

the nausea which persisted for perhaps an hour, I felt no evidence

of the growth. The room, the vehicle was untrembling. No slightest

evidence within the vehicle of the size-change going on--except the

creeping pointer of the lowest dial. It was moving faster; it had

reached 10. The pointer of the dial beside it--registering in units of

a hundred--now seemed stirring."

Brett gazed at us earnestly. "I want to make myself absolutely clear.

We were then--I suppose a minute or so had elapsed--we were ten times

our original size----"

"Much faster than the vehicle grew in the garden," I exclaimed.

"Yes. I had chanced the possibility of severe shock and thrown the

lever at once to a quarter strength. Martt and Frannie, in the garden,

had put it on only to the one-hundredth part of its power. At all

intensities, the growth, you understand, constantly accelerates.

At unit 10, which we reached in possibly the first minute, we were

ten times our starting size--that is, for earth measurements, our

vehicle from base to tower-top was then one-tenth of a mile. But

soon the pointer had passed 50. And then 100--and the pointer of the

hundred-unit dial had crept to 1.

"With recovered normality of senses we had gone to the windows. I

want you to visualize first what always before we had seen. An

inky black void everywhere surrounding us, in the center of which

seemingly we hung motionless. The brilliant firmament of stars, freed

from the distortion of earth's atmosphere; glittering, blazing like

great diamonds. Pure white, blue-white, or tinged with yellow and

red. The whole extent of the heavens swarming with them. The huge,

spiral nebulous masses fleecy white, with tiny points of blazing

white fire in them. And behind them all that distant ring of seeming

star-dust--immeasurably distant yet glowing like a silver veil, which

in the ancient books they called the 'Milky Way.'

"Near at hand, above us were the tiny planets of our Solar System. The

sun, only a pale white disk from out here near Saturn; the earth--a

star very faint; red Mars, a tiny reddish dot. But Jupiter was

brilliant; and Saturn from our proximity was stupendously beautiful.

The globe itself--a great silver disk, with the sunlight to make a

narrow portion of it into a blazing crescent. The darkened areas of the

globe, even on the shadowed portion, were plain almost as the bands of

Jupiter. And Saturn's rings! Concentric rings--the inner one a trifle

darker--opened up to a narrow angle--a glowing silver band like a broad

hat-brim encircling the planet--a hat-brim over 37,000 miles broad.

[Illustration: "Saturn with its rings was stupendously beautiful from

our proximity."]

"This we saw, with ourselves of unchanging size. But now we were

growing. The change was at first apparent only in the aspect of

Saturn--since it was closest to us. The planet seemed to become a

little smaller--shrinking and creeping toward us. A contraction of its

size--and as though the space between us were diminishing. Yet--as

a seeming paradox--the visual diameter of the globe and the rings

remained almost the same.

"It is difficult to describe. We seemed moving closer to Saturn, yet

in no sense was there any apparent motion. The effect--the result--of

seeming motion--not the motion itself. Martt presently went back to

watch the dials. He called out to me when we had reached unit 1,000. A

thousand times our original size--the vehicle now ten miles in earthly

height. The change had now affected very slightly the entire firmament.

Everywhere a seeming contraction--not so much in the aspect of the

blazing star-points, but in the black void of Space itself. As though

the void were smaller--contracted so that everything in it were of

necessity a little nearer to us. But it was as yet barely noticeable. I

might even have thought it a psychological co-action with the change in

Saturn's aspect--a change unmistakable.

"Saturn, as we grew, had been seemingly smaller and coming visually

nearer to us. Yet our velocity away from it was--in our original

size--seven and one-half million miles an hour. Can I make you realize

that the effect of _both_ motions was apparent? It was as though we

were moving forward to lengthen a dwindling distance, with Saturn

following after us simultaneously to shorten it.

"It was at the thousand unit point--ourselves then ten miles of earthly

height--that I shut off the size-switch. Of visual diameter, Saturn had

really not altered materially."

Brett stopped as though carefully to choose his words. "I'm striving

to give you a clear picture. A distant object of great size may

appear of the same diameter as something smaller and closer. But

you can generally tell which is which. There is a difference of

aspect--impossible to describe, but readily seen. Saturn was like

that--the change in the planet was like a progressive change from

the one condition to the other. It had appeared large and distant;

it changed, to be smaller and closer. Just before I shut off the

size-switch, when our rate of growth had become comparatively rapid,

Saturn took on other motions--I'll tell you about them in a moment.

"Do I make myself clear? I want to. . . . With our growth checked,

there was at once a striking, visual result. We seemed receding from

Saturn so fast that its apparent diameter dwindled very rapidly--a

normal dwindling of rapidly added distance. Presently it was a mere

star--then a pin-point of light. Then it was vanished. Our other

planets of the Solar System had preceded Saturn into invisibility. Then

our sun itself became so faint a star that I lost it. We were beyond

the Solar System--itself wholly lost to the naked eye among the great

star-clusters enveloping it."

V

"Wait," I exclaimed. "There is so much I want to ask you, Brett."

Frannie interposed timidly: "Did you say, Brett, that on earth the

vehicle then would have been ten miles in height?"

"Yes," he agreed.

She commented, "Then your relative Time-dials must have been visibly

moving----"

Dr. Gryce hastily interrupted: "The practical workings of the inherent

Time-change I want Brett to explain carefully. You did not move the

vehicle in Time, did you, Brett?"

"No sir. Not then."

I must have looked puzzled, for Dr. Gryce added: "We mean, Frank, that

the vehicle could have traveled in Time--in earth-Time, for instance,

to go into our past or our future. Brett had not done that. But

immediately the vehicle started a size-change, you understand, there

automatically began a Time-change inherent to that growth. Normal to

it, let me say."

"Oh, yes," I nodded. "I remember you explained that. In relation to its

size----"

"I'll put it this way," Dr. Gryce went on. "That girl out there is

moving through Time at a definite rate. Let us say a year of our Time

would be measured as a second of hers."

"Less than that," Martt interjected.

"Yes lad, I know. But those rough figures will serve for the present

comparison." He turned back to me. "Keep that in mind, Frank. Now

conceive Brett and Martt changing progressively upward in size, from

what they are here on earth, to a size normal to that girl and the

realm she lives in. A corresponding Time-change must take place. At

every point of the voyage in Time and size, the relative values must

agree; the vehicle's Time-rate always must be in inverse proportion to

its position in size."

I nodded. "I think I understand. You mean that when in size the vehicle

had progressed half-way from our size to the girl's, that then the

vehicle's normal Time-rate would be half-way between our Time and hers?"

"Exactly, Frank."

"At this ten-mile size what percentage of the size-journey had been

made?" I asked. I smiled. "I'm trying to imagine how large that girl

may be."

Brett said quickly, "I'll tell you that later. It was some distance

farther on before I could calculate such relative values even as

approximations."

Frannie said, "At that point, Brett, the vehicle began speeding into

the earth's future, didn't it?"

Dr. Gryce exclaimed: "Child, that will only lead us into philosophical

discussion. Beyond the realm of mathematics----"

"I don't think so, Father," Brett said quietly. "I would say that

since everything--Size, Time and Space--is relative, depending

wholly on the viewpoint of the observer--that Frannie's question is

simple enough. To me as observer--to my consciousness there in the

vehicle--every given instant was the Present. The earth was out there

in Space, revolving about its sun; rotating on its axis--its movements

to my consciousness _faster_ than before. To me it was the Present.

The earth was there. I saw it through the electro-telescope. I also

saw your aural ray through the aurometer. The ray swept the sky with

a rapid sweep, since to my altered Time-rate the earth was rotating

faster. But every given instant was my Present.

"However, compare my consciousness to yours on earth. The

earth--rotating faster relative to me--had, while I watched there,

made, let us say, a full rotation in that first five minutes of my

vigil. Relative to me--it was the earth's future Time. I was gazing

upon earth in its _tomorrow_. So I think that I was, as Frannie said,

speeding into the earth's future."

Frannie was triumphant. Dr. Gryce said smilingly, "You put it

clearly, Brett. But it's a philosophical and metaphysical viewpoint

nevertheless. You spoke of Saturn's having another apparent motion near

the end of your size-change?"

"Yes," said Brett. "As our Time-rate became materially slower, the

speeding up of all the motions inherent to the planets grew visible.

Saturn's rotation on its axis became readily visible through the

telescope. And the globe began very slowly shifting sidewise--at nearly

right angles to our course--the visual result of the intensification of

its orbital movement. . . . You were going to ask a question, Frank, a

moment ago?"

I had not forgotten it. "You were telling us, Brett, how you stopped

your growth at the ten-mile size. Almost immediately, you said, Saturn

receded into an invisibility of distance. The entire Solar System

vanished into distance. You had been traveling only seven and one-half

million miles an hour before changing size. It was the new velocity I

wanted to ask about. The whole question of velocity relative to size."

"Relative!" Brett exclaimed. "That's the keynote to it, Frank. Two

differing viewpoints, always. Keep them both in mind--the viewpoint

of earth-size, and the viewpoint of the vehicle-size. I'll try and

explain it now. Once clear to you, our whole experience will clarify to

your understanding. Conceive, from your external viewpoint of earth,

the vehicle out there in Space dropping with a velocity of seven and

one-half million miles an hour. That was its maximum, owing to the

ether-friction. It started to increase in size. Hence its mass grew--in

proportion directly as the cube. As the mass grew greater, the atoms

of the ether became of themselves relatively smaller, less ponderable,

less capable of exerting their frictional drag.

"This should be very clear to you, Frank. In a vacuum, a feather

and a bit of lead fall at equal rates. The mass--the weight--has

nothing to do with it. But in air--where there is a friction--the

heavier object falls faster. The vehicle was like that. Its mass, so

enormously increased, gave it a greatly increased maximum velocity. It

picked up velocity rapidly with its growth. The formulas involved are

intricate--I need only say that after forty-nine minutes of traveling

at the ten-mile size, we had again reached maximum. It was about 200

million miles a minute."

"A minute!" I exclaimed.

"Yes. That is 12,000 million miles an hour, as against seven and

one-half million. The vehicle's length, breadth and width had each

increased to a thousand times their former size. Its mass was the

product of the three--hence one thousand million times greater.

"These are all approximate to the actual figures, you understand. Round

numbers are less confusing. Our resultant velocity, however, was 200

million miles a minute, at the end of the first hour. We were well

beyond the Solar System by then."

Frannie asked, "Brett, why didn't Saturn appear to recede until after

you had stopped your growth?"

"That was merely optical, Frannie. Our velocity away from Saturn was

steadily increasing. But with our increasing size, the space seemed

dwindling--as though Saturn were following after us. With the growth

checked there was a visual reaction--an apparent leaping away. It was

merely optical. Anything else?"

"I'd like to know," I said, "the relation of your Time in the vehicle

at the ten-mile size--its relation to our earth-Time."

"The proportion of one to one thousand," he answered readily. "Seven

seconds to me, then, was about two hours on earth. Could I have seen

the earth when I reached that maximum, it would have made a complete

rotation on its axis--a day of yours--in a minute and twenty-four

seconds to me.

"It's all clear, isn't it? Suppose I go back to the details of our

trip? With ten miles of earthly size, at a velocity of 200 million

miles a minute we were dropping into the black void of Space. The Solar

System was lost presently, even to telescopic vision, but with the

naked eye the firmament of stars was very little changed. I searched

with the myrdoscope for the image of the girl, but did not chance to

pick it up. We were hot again within the vehicle, from the ether

friction--as hot as we had been before.

"Beneath us, in the star-field for which I was heading, was Alpha

Centauri. It is, as you know, one of the very closest stars to our

Solar System--to our earth. In miles, roughly some 25,000,000,000,000.

Four and a third light-years of distance, 4.35 light-years to be exact.

At 200 million miles a minute we would have been some eighty-eight days

getting there."

"I couldn't have stood a trip so long," Martt exclaimed. "I told him

we'd have to increase our size again. Nearly three months to get to the

nearest star--with others a thousand times farther on!"

"There was no reason for us to stay so small," Brett agreed. "Out

there, with the Solar System so far away, I had no fear of disturbing

it."

Again I interrupted. "Brett, the vehicle's velocity was then much

greater than the velocity of light----"

"About eighteen times greater."

"It seems inconceivable," I added. "Impossible for any tangible entity

in Space to attain such velocity."

"Ah, but Frank, that's where you're using the wrong viewpoint," Dr.

Gryce exclaimed warmly. "You're still imagining yourself an observer on

earth. But take the viewpoint of the vehicle. Space was proportionately

smaller than before. Brett gives you the earth-size figures in order to

avoid confusion. From the vehicle's enlarged viewpoint, Brett, what was

its comparative velocity?"

"About twelve million miles an hour," Brett said. "As against a former

seven and one-half million. Not so great a change, Frank?"

"No," I admitted. "But----"

"But you can not quite grasp how the two velocities can be the same?

Existing simultaneously in the same vehicle, only with a differing

viewpoint?"

I think that was my trouble. I nodded, and he said at once, "To the

larger viewpoint, Frank, the Space had diminished a thousand times, to

make a thousand miles become as one mile. Not an _actual_ change--a

relative change only. But twelve million miles an hour, with distance

diminished one thousand times, is the same as twelve thousand million

miles an hour with the distance factor unaltered. You see that, of

course. Or consider the relative Time-values. The vehicle's Time

was seven seconds to about two hours. The exact figures were one to

one thousand. In the vehicle we lived a thousand earth-seconds in one.

Applied, then, to the two viewpoints of velocity, it gives identical

results for the distance traveled. Whatever the factors involved--the

earth-Time; the vehicle-Time; the Space relative to the vehicle; or to

the earth; and the velocity, relative either to the vehicle-size or

earth-size--the result must be mathematically the same. You see? And,

Frank, in describing the progressive size-changes into which we now

plunged, I shall give you always Space with earth-standards, and our

velocity from the viewpoint of earth. It reached tremendous figures;

but you are to remember always that of actuality they must be divided

by the relative size factor. They were never greater than you would

have expected the vehicle to obtain.

"I was saying that we were headed for Alpha Centauri. Again we started

the growth. I threw the switch to its fullest intensity. Martt stayed

to watch the dials; I sat on the floor, gazing down through the window

at the star-field spread out beneath me. When my head had cleared from

the shock of starting the growth, I sat absorbed in watching. Soon

visible movements appeared. The star-drifts began to be apparent. And

we were going toward these stars; the apparent shortening Space, added

to our increasing relative velocity, made their approach visible. In

the field to the sides of us, the stars were shifting upward. Those in

front were spreading apart with a movement very slow but perceptible as

we dropped toward them.

"I do not know how long I sat there; Martt occasionally would call to

me from his post at the dials, but I hardly heard him. Alpha Centauri

presently came rushing forward. As you know, it is a binary--twin stars

a few hundred million miles apart, its components revolving about each

other with a period of eighty-one years. It had been one blazing white

point of light. Then it separated into two. They stayed visually small,

for they were dwindling before the vehicle's growth; but they came

rushing toward us. Soon I could see them separated by a narrow black

ribbon of the void; and could see them revolving one about the other."

"An eighty-one-year period, and you could see it!" I exclaimed.

"Yes--a very slow movement, but I could see it. I would have passed

between them--the ribbon of Space there was widening rapidly, the stars

themselves had become great, blazing white-hot suns. But I was afraid

of the heat; I altered our course to present a slightly repellent side.

The firmament turned partly over. The two stars swung up past our side

window; in visual diameter larger than our earthly sun--they mounted

upward, closed in above us, drew together to form one; a sun at first;

then a brilliant star; then faint, until with the naked eye I lost it.

"Beneath us, the star-field in front was rushing upward much faster

now. The constellations opening; the stars shifting--everywhere was

movement--strange movement, unnatural, fantastic. I confess, Father,

that I was injudicious. Martt was absorbed, fascinated in watching the

dials, and when occasionally he would call to me, I told him everything

was all right."

"I didn't know what was going on," said Martt. "You told me to sit

there and I sat there."

"Of course you didn't know what was going on," Brett smiled. "But I

did, and I think for a time I lost my wits. The stars were thick and

close around us. The nebulæ were opened into individual points of fire.

Everywhere was movement, unreal. Stars rotating visibly; binaries

shifting about each other; other stars shifting about each other; other

stars seeming to enlarge in size, or to diminish, to swing this way

or that with all the optical vagaries of our velocity, our changing

Time and Size; and always those of the star-field in front--beneath

us--spreading to the sides, rushing past our windows, closing in above

us and fading into invisibility.

"A myriad universes in fantastic motion. And suddenly I realized that

these giant suns were very close to us, and very small! Some I had

recognized--blazing globes 100 million miles and more in diameter,

and thought myself ten times that far from them. But it was not so.

I stared at a giant globe 100 million miles in diameter, and with

my viewpoint suddenly changed I saw that it was no more than a tiny

glowing meteor, sweeping past a few miles away!

"All this star-field, little balls, rolling close upon us. A miracle

that none hit us, though some time before, I had had the wit to call

to Martt to make all the faces repellent. By inertia only, we plunged

onward, repelling what lay in our path.

"I saw a wandering asteroid--a few hundred miles perhaps in diameter.

It was whirling on its axis like a ball thrown into the air. A

whimsical humor--a madness perhaps--had descended upon me. There was

nothing but the asteroid momentarily close before us, and I called to

Martt to throw attraction into the bottom of the vehicle. The asteroid

came rushing. But shrinking--shrinking until I laughed aloud to see it

dwindle to a ball I could have held in my hand; and dwindle further

until impotently it struck the floor window with a tiny point of fire

from its fusing rock and metal. A burning cinder which scarce would

have hurt me had I caught it in my naked hands.