_Dawn in Flame_
Virginia followed Bronson down to the laboratory in a daze, and she
comprehended only about one half of what he was saying. The one thing
that she did not understand was why he knew nothing of Earth Two. She
believed she had sent him there and the double transfer should have
awakened him.
That should have left him aware of his transfer to Earth Three when
Kingston kidnaped him.
Kingston could have told her that the bright sky light she saw in her
half-state had been but the temporarily-transferred atomic flame but
Kingston was not there. So instead of wanting to kill her summarily for
her double-cross, Ed Bronson still believed that she was originally of
Earth One, had been kidnaped as he had been.
Virginia did find it a bit amusing--perhaps it was the hysteria that
acts as a safety valve when things are so unreasonable that the mind
will not accept them without seeking its funny side.
Dawn was breaking as Bronson finished his explanation and, as the light
increased, he turned to the equipment and said, "We've got this all to
ourselves here. I couldn't find your crystal on Earth One--and besides,
if Kingston can flange up some means of detecting the presence of the
stuff on Earth One, there'd be but that one to detect.
"And I couldn't set this mausoleum down on Earth One near any city
street. No room. I'm assuming that your diggings are in the city?"
He did not wait for Virginia to answer, but turned to the equipment and
started to look it over in earnest. "This," he said, "I've got to know
more about."
Virginia could have told him but she merely nodded vaguely and said
nothing. She thought it over.
"Have you any hope at all of saving your world?" she asked--and then
gasped because she had not said "our world."
She might have saved her fear, for he did not notice. "Some," he said,
straightening up from the gear and looking at her with a half smile.
"Do I sound disloyal," she said tremulously, "if I suggest that if
Earth Three wins we have the means here to join them?" Virginia hoped
to gain some idea of his feelings on the subject so that she could
calculate his intentions.
Bronson shook his head grimly. "Earth Three," he said, "appears to have
all the cards. No one doubts that Earth Two is doomed and is no true
menace compared to Three. Earth Three is cognizant of its possible fate
and is most certainly working furiously to avoid it."
"They plot and plan against Earth One while Earth One sleeps in the
peace of false security. Lord knows, I've tried to tell them, and they
are so incapable of understanding this affair that they tried to slap
me in the clink for believing it." He laughed bitterly. "When I was a
kid in school they tried to tell me that any man who tells the truth
has nothing to fear."
"But if Earth Three wins--as it seems certain to do?" she insisted.
"That would be bad," he said.
"Why?"
"Virginia," he said soberly, "I don't quite know what it is but there's
something very wrong with Earth Three. Confound it, it's simple enough,
too, but for the life of me I cannot see it."
"What can be wrong with a world where science and knowledge are not
suppressed?"
"I don't know," he said irritably. "But there's something wrong with
Earth Three." He turned back to the gear again. "The one thing we
must be on the watch for is the day when Kingston sends word for his
trustees to assemble his space-resonant materials into a supercritical
mass.
"Also we must watch to see that he does not use yours. I'm going to
duplicate this equipment first and then your job will be to keep an eye
on Kingston all the time while I work out this stuff."
Bronson looked around him with a cynical smile. "Books, data,
equipment, and supplies," he said. "This is not like finding the
science of an ancient culture. This is a man finding a complete means
of study of a science of his own civilization removed but a few years
to the future.
"I've often laughed," he went on cheerfully, "at what Volta and
Henry might think if they saw a modern circuit. But give them books,
equipment and material and they would work it out soon enough.
"Radio, for instance, would have had its inception in the middle of the
nineteenth century if twentieth century measuring and testing equipment
and books had been handy. So," he strode over to a bookcase and took
out a heavy tome, "we work this out."
Virginia shook her head unhappily. "Why, oh why did this thing happen?"
* * * * *
Bronson smiled tolerantly. "Because of the chances," he said
thoughtfully. "I'm no believer in a great and benevolent god who
interferes with his subjects. I'm more inclined to look upon God as an
intellect interested in the problems of his subjects and quite willing
to let them work out their own destiny--if for no other reason than to
discover whether He had built well.
"You cannot know how good your toy is if you insist upon helping it
over the difficult places with your hands. It must run of itself to be
a good model.
"Now I'm not exactly convinced that Nature or God was baffled by
this thing that His toy built and therefore held His benevolent--but
baffled--hand in the stream of time to see which was the best.
"I'm inclined to think there was a good scientific explanation of why
time should have split three ways--why in one case the earth entered
fission, why the thing worked properly in another time-stream and why
the Alamogordo Bomb fizzled in a third."
"Can you find out why--and what it could have been?" she asked.
He laughed shortly. "It isn't mumbo-jumbo or magic," he said. "All of
the things attributed to mumbo-jumbo are based upon facts not known to
those who observe the effects. The very fact that there was some doubt
about the outcome of the Alamogordo Bomb proved that the best brains
knew their knowledge of nuclear physics was incomplete."
Virginia nodded brightly. "So you think that some unknown factor caused
the trouble?"
"Obviously. We know that fissionable materials do operate. The
Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were of different types of material,
giving us at least two different proofs of its operation. We have too
little knowledge of Earth Three but I'm reasonably certain that, once
the original experiment failed, fissionable reactions took place and
are taking place now. We know even less of the affair of Earth Two. We
don't know but can assume that later attempts would turn out properly."
Virginia said nothing. She nodded sagely, and her nod was based upon
the fact that she knew he was right but could not say so lest she be
forced to tell the rest of her story.
"So," he said, "we can assume that something was either generated or
present in the mixture at Alamogordo that, in one case, stopped the
reaction, in the next case, permitted the thing to work and, in the
third case, started the atomic fire in the earth."
"How do you go about finding it?" she asked. Virginia was interested.
This theory was new to her, but it sounded reasonably solid.
He grinned unhappily. "The trouble with making experiments in atomic
explosions is that it leaves so little stuff to measure afterwards." He
lifted a crystal of the space-resonant elements and looked at it with
wrinkled forehead.
"Something in this crystal holds the answer. I think we should analyze
this material right down to the most infinitesimal trace. Then we can
find out which of the included elements is responsible for the original
problem."
"I can help," said Virginia.
He smiled grimly. "Your job is to keep an eye on Maddox and Kingston.
See if you can locate their men on Earth One, also see what you can do
toward locating those four subcritical masses. We must keep Kingston
and the rest of his gang from entering Earth One." He looked at her
thoughtfully. "Also keep an eye on your own collection."
Virginia smiled and nodded. She looked him squarely in the eye and
said, "My collection of those elements is very small."
"Um," he said. "It's more than possible that the various functions of
the space-resonant elements depends upon their mass. For instance, a
small quantity might be suitable for mere communication--a larger
quantity may be required for the visual communication, while a still
larger mass is needed for a physical transfer.
"How their division comes with respect to the transfer of objects or
messages from time plane to time plane is something that might be
baffling."
"But what are you going to do right now?" asked Virginia.
"First, I'm going to see what can be done about building a detector
for the supercritical masses," he said. "Then we're going to do some
micro-analysis on these crystals."
Virginia was silent. She was not entirely convinced that there was
something wrong with the culture on Earth Three. Earth Three obviously
had all of the scientific cards, what with years of research and no
restrictions or regulations.
However, Virginia was content to remain where she was for a short time.
There was little point in making an abrupt change just then. Any moment
that danger threatened Virginia knew that she could escape to Earth
Three and be safe. Her decision to remain was based upon her lifetime
of training on Earth Two.
Regardless of any decision to eschew a former life, the training of a
lifetime will remain. That Virginia had no intention of remaining on
Earth Two did not remove her interest in the main problem of her life.
Bronson had some theories that were interesting. Therefore Virginia was
content to remain and learn all she could.
Such knowledge might come in handy at a later date.
* * * * *
Leader Kingston leaned back against a counter and regarded his cohorts
with a cold stare. Maddox growled in his throat and the three guards
cowered because theirs had been a crime punishable by death for
hundreds of years.
"Well," asked Maddox, "what do we do now?"
"The first thing," said Kingston sharply, "is to locate ourselves."
"That shouldn't be hard," said Maddox, looking around. Kingston nodded,
regarding his wrist watch.
"It is near-morning in New Mexico," he said. "Where we are now is
midnight."
"It's also cold--and that lettering on the window is Russian. We are
in eastern Siberia."
Kingston made some calculations. "We're lucky at that," he said. "So
long as morning comes in Washington before morning comes here we are
in no great danger. The fact is," he added, regarding his watch once
more, "that the monitors will be taking up their regular duty in a few
minutes. Otherwise we might have no end of trouble."
Maddox shrugged. A pajama-clad man has little dignity and very little
authority. To be trapped in a foreign country--one whose politics
differ from your own--under highly suspicious circumstances might well
result in a long period of enforced inactivity. Bronson had been in a
hurry when he had performed the shipping operation. Had he taken time
to think it over, Bronson would have sent them to some place where
their arrival would have brought them instant apprehension.
But Bronson had been in a hurry and his only desire was to ship them
to some spot not fitted with instant means of escape. He would have
preferred some place where no space-resonant element existed but that
was impossible since the technique demanded a focal mass.
"So," said Kingston, showing Maddox the silvery-metal band on his
wrist, "as soon as the monitors take over and locate me, we'll--"
* * * * *
He disappeared in mid-sentence and Maddox followed a few seconds later.
The guards vanished at regular intervals, leaving the Russian store
vacant once again.
Minutes later Kingston and Maddox emerged from a standard transmission
building not far from the site of the laboratory. Maddox was puzzling
openly. "Bronson has probably ripped the tuning circuit from my
receiver," he said. "But what would that gain him?"
"Only a few minutes more time," said Kingston. "Instead of our landing
back home again, we must use a standard line and walk a few squares.
I--look!"
"Heaven!" breathed Maddox.
The laboratory site was, naturally, vacant.
"I didn't think it possible," said Maddox.
"But where did he take it?" wondered Kingston.
"Who knows?" said Maddox, spreading his hands.
"We can find out but it will take time. My guess is Earth Two
somewhere. He'd be a fool to stay here where he can be found easily."
"It wouldn't be too easy if Bronson has hashed up the keyed tuning
circuit," grunted Maddox angrily. "Confound it, that reduces the
problem to one of searching two worlds for the right mass of elements."
Kingston shook his head. "We're about ready," he said. "Give us another
week or so and we can eliminate all opposition." His face hardened. "In
fact, we can start to spread the atomic fire on Earth Two at any time."
They turned back to the standard transmission building and returned to
Washington. There was nothing they could do without the laboratory and
there were other, well-equipped laboratories in Washington. Actually,
so far as the operations in the space-resonant bands were concerned,
location meant very little. It had been merely convenient to locate in
Maddox's place.
Once returned to Kingston's official building, the leader set his
operatives to checking the supercritical masses in the vain hope of
locating one of them that existed in the stolen laboratory.
Bronson's statement that he wanted a detector did not mean
none existed. All forms of communication require the two main
components--generator and detector. Kingston's men, to track down the
stolen laboratory, merely tuned through the space-resonant bands,
stopping every time they hit a response so that they could check the
neighborhood visually.
What Bronson wanted was not a mere detector. He wanted some means
of knowing definitely when the subcritical masses of his own
space-resonant elements were reassembled. This is comparable to a
device that will register whenever a radio transmitter is turned on,
regardless of frequency or location.
Bronson knew that the tuning qualities of the space-resonant effects
depended mostly on the mass of the crystals. He knew the mass of his
own stuff but that had been formed to serve as fluorescent material
and the amount of the space-resonant elements in that mass was
uncertain--especially in view of the fact that Earth One was still to
learn of the space-resonant bands.
So Bronson's knowledge of the mass of his own crystal did not include
the proportion of these new elements and therefore he had little
knowledge of how the divided masses would resonate.
It was quite a project--but it had to be done.