_The Sun's Gravity_
Ferdinand Stone was hollow-eyed and gaunt from his practically
sleepless days and nights of toil, but he was as grimly resolute as
ever. Struggling against the terrific weight of three gravities he made
his way to the desk of the Chief Computer and waited while that worthy,
whose leaden hands could scarcely manipulate the instruments of his
profession, finished his seemingly endless calculations.
"We will escape the sun's mighty attraction, Doctor Stone, with
approximately half a gravity to spare," the mathematician reported
finally. "Whether we will be alive or not is another question. There
will be heat, which our refrigerators may or may not be able to handle;
there will be radiations which our armor may or may not be able to
stop. You, of course, know a lot more about those things than I do."
"Distance at closest approach?" snapped Stone.
"Two point twenty-nine times ten to the ninth meters from the sun's
center," the computer shot back instantly. "That is, one million
five hundred ninety thousand kilometers--only two point twenty-seven
radii--from the arbitrary surface. What do you think of our chances,
sir?"
"It will probably be a near thing--very near," the physicist replied,
thoughtfully. "Much, however, can be done. We can probably tune our
defensive screens to block most of the harmful radiations, and we may
be able to muster other defenses. I will analyze the radiations and see
what we can do about neutralizing them."
"You will go to bed," directed Martin, crisply. "There will be lots
of time for that work after you get rested up. The doctors have been
reporting that the men who did not recover from the robots' broadcast
are dying under this acceleration. With those facts staring us in the
face, however, I do not see how we can reduce our power."
"We can't. As it is, many more of us will probably die before we get
away from the sun," and Stone staggered away, practically asleep on his
feet.
Day after day the frightful fall continued. The sun grew larger and
larger, more and ever more menacingly intense. One by one at first, and
then by scores, the mindless men of the Fleet died and were consigned
to space--a man must be in full control of all his faculties to survive
for long an acceleration of three gravities.
* * * * *
The generators of the defensive screens had early been tuned to
neutralize as much as possible of Old Sol's most fervently harmful
frequencies, and but for their mighty shields every man of the Fleet
would have perished long since. Now even those ultra-powerful guards
were proving inadequate.
Refrigerators were running at the highest possible overload and the
men, pressing as closely as possible to the dark sides of their
vessels, were availing themselves of such extra protection of lead
shields and the like as could be improvised from whatever material was
at hand.
Yet the already stifling air became hotter and hotter, eyes began to
ache and burn, skins blistered and cracked under the punishing impact
of forces which all the defenses could not block. But at last came the
long-awaited announcement.
"Pilots and watch-officers of all ships, attention!" the Chief Computer
spoke into his microphone through parched and blackened lips. "We
are now at the point of tangency. The gravity of the sun here is
twenty-four point five meters per second squared. Since we are blasting
twenty-nine point four we are beginning to pull away at an acceleration
of four point nine. Until further notice keep your pointers directly
away from the sun's center, in the plane of the Ecliptic."
The sun was now in no sense the orb of day with which we upon Earth's
green surface are familiar. It was a gigantic globe of turbulently
seething flame, subtending an angle of almost thirty-five degrees,
blotting out a full fourth of the cone of normally distinct vision.
Sunspots were plainly to be seen; combinations of indescribably violent
cyclonic storms and volcanic eruptions in a gaseously liquid medium
of searing, eye-tearing incandescence. And everywhere, threatening at
times even to reach the fiercely-struggling ships of space, were the
solar prominences--fiendish javelins of frenziedly frantic destruction,
hurling themselves in wild abandon out into the empty reaches of the
void.
Eyes behind almost opaque lead-glass goggles, head and body encased in
a multi-layered suit each ply of which was copiously smeared with thick
lead paint, Stone studied the raging monster of the heavens from the
closest viewpoint any human being had ever attained--and lived. Even
he, protected as he was, could peer but briefly; and, master physicist
though he was and astronomer-of-sorts, yet he was profoundly awed at
the spectacle.
Twice that terrifying mass was circled. Then, air-temperature again
bearable and lethal radiations stopped, the grueling acceleration was
reduced to a heavenly one-and-one-half gravities and the vast fleet
remade its formation. The automatons and the sun between them had taken
heavy toll; but the gaps were filled, men were transferred to equalize
the losses of personnel, and the course was laid for distant Earth.
And in the Admiral's private quarters two men sat together and stared
at each other.
"Well, that's that--so far, so good," the physicist broke the long
silence.
"But is their power really broken?" asked Martin, anxiously.
"I don't know," Stone grunted, dourly. "But the pick of them--the
brainiest of the lot--were undoubtedly here. We beat them...."
* * * * *
Martin interrupted.
"_You_ beat them, you mean," he said.
"With a lot of absolutely indispensable help from you and your force.
But have it your own way--what do words matter? _I_ beat them, then;
and in the same sense I can beat the rest of them if we play our cards
exactly right."
"In what way?"
"In keeping me entirely out of the picture. Believe me, Martin, it is
of the essence that all of your officers who know what happened be
sworn to silence and that not a word about me leaks out to anybody. Put
out any story you please except the truth--mention the name of anybody
or anything between here and Andromeda except me. Promise me now that
you will not let my name get out until I give you permission or until
after I am dead."
"But I'll have to, in my reports."
"You report only to the Supreme Council, and a good half of those
reports are sealed. Seal this one."
"But I think...."
"What with?" gruffly. "If my name becomes known my usefulness--and
my life--are done. Remember, Martin, I _know_ robots. There are some
capable ones left, and if they get wind of me in any way they'll get me
before I can get them. As things are, and with your help, I can and I
will get them all. That's a promise. Have I yours?"
"In that case, of course you have."
And Admiral Alan Martin and Doctor Ferdinand Stone were men who kept
their promises.