Clifford Maculay was the one man who could explain
the curious shift in the universe, which was far more
than the academic matter it seemed to be. But Maculay
had been "cured", and was no longer interested....
There are two basic ways to treat personality difficulties.
One: change the personality. Two: remove the psychic blocks
which are at the root of the trouble. The first method may
be simpler, in some cases, and may be accomplished without
apparent harm. But what if an individual's worth to
society is so entangled with his personality troubles that
when you change the latter, the former disappears, too?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Future combined with Science Fiction Stories July 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
1
Clifford Maculay reacted instantly to the doctor's question; he became
half-angry, completely indignant.
Doctor Hanson smiled. "You're not angry at the question," he said
quietly; "you're not even surprised that a man of seventy should ask
such a question. What you are indignant about is that your mind denies
such a need. Cliff, you're trying to run your body with your brain."
"Naturally. So what has my love life--?"
"You've got glands too," remarked Hanson. "And some of them are damned
important to mental balance."
Maculay sat forward on the chair, tense and alert. He was not
accustomed to being browbeaten; Maculay gave the orders and other
people jumped. Now that he was on the receiving end of the deal, he was
preparing for the battle of wits. But Hanson had seen many such men in
forty-odd years of medicine. Hanson did not see Maculay the Mind; he
saw a man of thirty-eight, soft from lack of exercise, underweight from
the constant burning away of nervous energy. He saw a fine physical
machine being run into an early grave or a sanatorium, because the mind
behind those sharp blue eyes was too damned ignorant to understand
that it could not trade the worn-out body for a new model with white
sidewall tires, automatic defroster, and long-playing record attachment.
"Relax," said Hanson; "I'm not going to argue with you."
"Good. Now let's get down to business."
"Exactly what do you want?"
Maculay pondered for a moment. "Do you understand variable-matrix
radiation mechanics?"
"Probably as little as you know synaptic pressure theory."
"That's the trouble. I can't explain in detail what I want. I can only
explain by analogy. Look, Doc, for eight years I've been experimenting
with some mathematics along an entirely new field of theory.
Indications are that gross matter can exceed the velocity of light
under certain conditions; but in attempting to define these conditions
by mathematical formulation I've hit a snag."
"What manner of snag?"
Cliff leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He was
physically relaxed, now, but only Doctor Hanson could hazard a guess as
to how much of this man's metabolism went into the job of keeping that
big brain in high gear.
"Physical matter cannot, of course, exceed the speed of light in
universal space. However, normal space is no longer normal when it is
warped by electrostatic fields, electromagnetic flux, or gravitational
lines. These universal effects produce a warping of physical space
to such an extent that the warped area is no longer a part of, or
connected in any way with the universal space we know. It becomes a
small island of separate space which may be accelerated or retarded.
That's the snag, Doctor."
"I don't see it."
"I always end up with one equation that has two answers. Theoretically,
one must be real and one must be imaginary, somewhat like the solution
to a simple quadratic; in that case you can disregard the answer that
tells you that you are confronted with a minus quantity of mass, for
instance, and you can select the positive quantity as being correct
with neither difficulty nor ambiguity. In this case, being more complex
by far, I find two roots indicating a positive and negative space,
mutually inimical. And, what causes the trouble is the fact that the
determinant depends upon the development of a negative-gravitic field."
"Well--?"
Maculay laughed bitterly. "This is sheer nonsense; like dividing by
zero."