"Yes," he said. "In a moment, Frank, you shall have it. We--our
vehicle--was 500,000 miles high, compared to earth. We increased
it to 600,000. Our velocity also increased. At a million miles of
height--I have made all my stated figures round numbers, but they
are approximately correct--at this million-mile height, we reached
normality to the girl. It simplified our mechanism adjustments. There
was no longer a size-change necessary. A retrograde Time-change, equal
to our own now normal rate of existence, held us at that same instant
of her life.
"Our velocity was more than proportionately increased. To demonstrate
that mathematically would be intricate--would involve several very
complicated formulas, which would not interest you now. . . We passed,
distantly, a score or more of starry universes--to the sides, and
above and below us--lying in every plane; and of every size and
general extent. Some were small, a few thousand light-years like our
own. Others immense; one which seemed 500,000 light-years at least in
diameter.
"We reached ultimately a maximum velocity of about 90,000 light-years
an hour. We had previously gone 150,000 light-years from earth. We
traveled some eighty additional hours, not all at the maximum--for
possibly half that time we were steadily accelerating. And at a total
of 4,750,000 light-years from the earth, a faint glow of seeming
phosphorescence showed in the blackness beneath us.
"There was a universe to one side, ahead of us. But this was a
different light. A radiation from the Inner Surface itself. The Inner
Surface of the hollow little atom within which all this Space and its
infinitesimal whirling electrons is contained. They are immense suns,
to us here on earth, but from the larger viewpoint they were mere
electrons, whirling, flashing around in tiny orbits a thousand times a
second.
"The girl and her realm, as we had thought, are on this Inner Surface
of what we may choose to call an atom. Themselves--this girl and her
people--are infinitesimal. This atom of ours is merely some tiny
particle of matter in that other world from which the giant and the
gnomes had descended. A tiny particle of matter. Call it a grain
of sand, lying with trillions of its fellows upon some great ocean
beach--lying there in the light of stars shining in infinite Space
above it. Lying there for a single starlit night which is all eternity
for us. A single starlit night--an eternity! Infinity, of Space and
Time? Why, even now I have seen no more than an infinitesimal fragment
of them! . . . .
"The giant and gnomes were doubtless normally of the same size--only
momentarily did they happen to be different. . . . Wait, Frannie,
please! I can't tell it to you any faster. . . . The Inner Surface
became visible to our telescopes at about 4,900,000 light-years. A
realm of land and water. Vegetation. Strange of aspect, yet normal too.
It stretched beneath us in every direction--a huge concave surface.
"We kept our size, but using the repellent force of this Inner Surface,
I gradually cut down our velocity. Down more and more until that last
light-year or so took us a week to traverse. The girl, Father, is
approximately 5,000,000 light-years from here. We--our earth--may be
near the center of the void. I don't know. Perhaps we are much nearer
the girl's side. It isn't important . . .
"The Inner Surface at last lay close beneath us. It took us an
additional week of diminishing velocity to reach its atmosphere. I was
cautious; I had the velocity under control always."
He paused a moment, seeming carefully to consider his next words. "I
want you now to forget earth standards. Take the larger viewpoint
exclusively. Let me speak of miles, not in relation to earth, but
miles--in relation to the Inner Surface--which are 100 million times
longer. Let me speak then of myself as again but six feet high; the
vehicle, 52.8 feet high. Realize that by the larger standards I was but
one-twentieth of a light-year from earth."
Dr. Gryce said gravely, "Your telescope would show a globe like the
earth very plainly at one-twentieth of a light-year of distance. You
must explain, Brett, why you could not see it--or any of the great
stars of our immediate universe."
Brett nodded. "We could not see the earth, because to our size it was
merely a little orange. To be more exact, a ball about five inches in
diameter. A tiny ball I could have held in my hand, whirling out there
in Space, spinning like a top on its axis to make your infinitesimal
days and nights; traversing its entire orbit--a complete revolution
around its little sun--more than three times every second!
"With these other standards, then, I want you to visualize us as we sat
on the floor of the vehicle gazing down through the lower window. We
were, say a hundred miles above the Inner Surface, just entering the
upper strata of its atmosphere, and falling gently downward. Beneath
us lay a broad vista of land and water; vegetation; forests; here and
there patches of human habitation--houses, villages. It was a strange,
unfamiliar landscape, yet not unduly abnormal. In every direction--as
we dropped closer--it spread upward to our horizon. A rolling country;
gently undulating hills, broad valleys--and off near the horizon a
jagged mountain range. It seemed not far away; we could see black
yawning holes in it; the mouths of caves, or tunnels, perhaps.
"The broad crescent lake lay directly beneath us. Trees bordered its
banks; trees strange of shape--yet one would call them trees at once.
A collection of low, flat-roofed buildings lay beside the water. A
village--or a city. The buildings were queerly curved--seemingly
crescent-shaped. They had no straight lines. They seemed generally of
but one story, though a few were larger; and upon an eminence near the
water stood one much larger; more ornate of shape than all the others.
"It was not a fantastic scene, but wholly rational to our own accepted
standards. A sylvan atmosphere seemed to hang upon it. Trees and
flowers were everywhere; the roof-tops seemed gardens as luxuriant as
those beside the houses. The streets were broad and orderly; and beyond
the city ribbons of roads wound out over the hills.
"A sylvan landscape, with an air of quiet peace upon it. I felt a sense
of surprize. This was not modernity; nor a civilization more advanced
than our own--nor yet was it barbarism. Later I knew it was decadence.
A people who once had been far up the slope of civilization, over the
peak, and now were coming down upon the other side. The peaceful,
restful ease of decadence, which to complete the inevitable cycle of
all human life ultimately would again bring them to barbarism.
"We saw these details as we fell gently toward the crescent lake. You
will notice I have not mentioned color in the scheme, nor movement.
Our Time-mechanism was operating. The scene beneath us was stricken
motionless, since always we were holding to the same instant of its
Time. An unreality lay upon it; a flat, shadowy grayness of aspect. An
unnatural stillness. We dropped closer. A shadowy boat seemed on the
lake--a boat with a sail. It lay there, immobile. The water was rippled
by a breeze; but they were frozen ripples. And in the streets now we
saw people and curious vehicles--all standing like waxen figures.
"The grove of trees--the woodland dell wherein the girl was lying--was
a short distance down the lake shore from the city. A single house was
near it; but in the other direction was unbroken forest. An open space
was there--a few hundred feet from the girl and her assailants. We
decided to land there. We knew we were invisible as yet--a ghost of a
vehicle, all in this same instant coming from Space to land upon the
lake shore.
"We had not yet decided just what we would do. But it was necessary to
land first. And necessary also for the vehicle to assume the Time-rate
of this realm before we could leave it. When that was done we would be
normal humans, to rescue the girl as best we might.
"We dropped into the little clearing at the edge of the lake, and
gently came to rest--and upon the surface of the ground, since to us
it would have had no substance; but within a foot of it, where, like a
ghost hovering, I held us level. The unreality of us, I must repeat,
was not to us apparent; we seemed solid--it was the ground, the forest
about us which was unreal. Spectral trees; a gray twilight. I made
sure that nothing was touching us. We were a few inches only above a
soft-looking gray ground. We were ready to cut off our Time-change--to
take our places normal to this new realm."
_CHAPTER 8_