by Various
CHAPTER I
_Sarka_
In his laboratory atop the highest peak in the venerable Himalayas,lived Sarka, conceded by the world to be its greatest scientist, despitehis youth. His grandfather, who had watched the passing of eighteencenturies, had discovered the Secret of Life and thoughtlessly, in thelight of later developments, broadcast his discovery to the world. Thegenius of this man, who was also called Sarka, had been passed on to hisson, Sarka the Second, and by him in even greater degree to Sarka theThird ... called merely Sarka for the purposes of this history.
Had Sarka lived in the days before the discovery of the Secret of Life,people of that day would have judged him a young man of twenty. His realage was four centuries.
Behind him as he sat moodily staring at the gigantic Revolving Berylstood a woman of most striking appearance. Her name was Jaska, andaccording to ideas of the Days Before the Discovery, she seemed a trifleyounger than Sarka. Her hand, unadorned by jewelry of any kind, restedon Sarka's shoulder as he studied the Revolving Beryl, while her eyes,whose lashes, matching her raven hair, were like the wings of tinyblackbirds, noted afresh the wonder of this man.
"What is to be done?" she asked him at last, and her voice was likemusic there in the room where science performed its miracles for Sarka.
* * * * *
Wearily Sarka turned to face her, and she was struck anew, as she hadbeen down the years since she had known this man, every time theirglances met, at the mighty curve of his brow, which renderedinsignificant his mouth, his delicate nose of the twitching nostrils,the well-deep eyes of him.
"Something must be done," he said gloomily, "and that soon! For, unlessthe children of men are provided with some manner of territorialexpansion, they will destroy one another, only the strongest willsurvive, and we shall return to the days when the waters covered theearth, and monstrous creatures bellowed from the primeval slime!"
"You are working on something?" she asked softly.
For a moment he did not answer. While she waited, Jaska peered into thedepths of the Revolving Beryl, which represented the earth. It was fiftyfeet in diameter, and in its curved surface and entrancing depths wasmirrored, in this latest development of teleview, all the earth and thedoings of its people. But Jaska scarcely saw the fleeting images, themen locked in conflict for the right to live, the screaming,terror-stricken women. This was now a century-old story, and thecivilization of Earth had almost reached the breaking point.
No, she scarcely saw the things in the Beryl, for she had read the hintof a vast, awesome secret in the eyes of Sarka--and wondered if he daredeven tell her.
* * * * *
"If the people knew," he whispered, "they would do one of two things!They would tear me limb from limb, and hurl the parts of me outward intospace forever--or they would demand that I move before I am ready--andcause a catastrophe which could never be rectified; and this grand oldEarth of ours would be dead, indeed!"
"And this secret of yours?" Jaska now spoke in the sign language whichonly these two knew, for there were billions of other Revolving Berylsin the world, and words could be heard by universal radio by any whocared to listen. And always, they knew, the legions of enemies of Sarkakept their ears open for words of Sarka which could be twisted around tohis undoing.
"I should not tell even you," he answered, his fingers working swiftlyin their secret, silent language, which all the world could see, butwhich only these two understood. "For if my enemies knew that youpossessed the information, there is nothing they would stop at to makeyou tell."
"But I would not tell, Sarka," she said softly. "You know that!"
He patted her hands, and the ghost of a smile touched his lips.
"No," he said, "you would not tell. Some day soon--and it must be soonif the children of men are not to destroy themselves, I will tell you!It is a secret that lies heavily on my heart. If I should make amistake.... Chaos! Catastrophe! Eternal, perpetual dark, the childrenof men reduced to nothingness!"
* * * * *
A little gasp from Jaska, for it was plain that this thing Sarka hintedat was far and away beyond anything he had hitherto done--and Sarka hadalready performed miracles beyond any that had ever been done by hispredecessors.
"When my grandfather," went on Sarka moodily, "perfected, in thisself-same laboratory, the machinery by which the waters of the oceanscould be disintegrated, our enemies called him mad, and fought their wayup these mountain slopes to destroy him! With the pack at his doors, hedid as he had told them he would do. Though they hurried swiftly intothe great valleys to colonize them--where oceans had been--they werelike ravening beasts, and gave my grandfather no thanks. Our people havealways fought against progress, have always been disparaging of itsadvocates! When the first Sarka discovered the Secret they would havedestroyed him, though he made them immortal...."
"If only the Secret," interrupted Jaska, "could be returned to him whodiscovered it! That would solve our problem, for men then would die andbe buried, leaving their places for others."
Again that weary smile on the face of Sarka.
"Take back the Secret which is known to-day to every son and daughter ofwoman? Impossible! More nearly impossible than the attainment of my mostambitious dream!"
"And that dream?" spoke Jaska with speeding fingers.
"I have wondered about you," said Sarka softly, while those eyes of hisbored deeply into hers. "We have been the best of friends, the best ofcomrades; but there are times when it comes to me that I do not know youentirely! And I have many enemies!"
"You mean," gasped the woman, for the moment forgetting the secret signmanual, "you think it possible that I--I--might be one of your enemies,in secret?"
"Jaska, I do not know; but in this matter in my mind I trust no one. Iam afraid even that people will read my very thoughts, though I havelearned to so concentrate upon them that not the slightest hint of themshall go forth telepathically to my enemies! I do not mind death formyself; but our people must be saved! It is hideous to think that wehave been given the Secret of Life, only to perish in the end because ofit! I am sorry, Jaska, but I can tell no one!"
But Jaska, one of the most beautiful and intelligent of Earth'sbeautiful and intelligent women, seemed not to be listening to Sarka atall, and when he had finished, she shrugged her shoulders slightly andprepared to leave.
* * * * *
He followed her to the nearest Exit Dome, built solidly into the side ofhis laboratory, and watched her as she slipped swiftly into the white,skin-tight clothing--marked on breast and back with the Red Lily of theHouse of Cleric. His eyes still were deeply moody.
He helped her don the gleaming metal helmet in whose skull-pan was setthe Anti-Gravitational Ovoid--invented by Sarka the Second, used now ofnecessity by every human creature--and strode with her to the OuterExit, a door of ponderous metal sufficiently strong to prevent the innerwarmth of the laboratory getting out, or the biting cold of the heightsto enter, and studied her still as she buckled about her hips her ownpersonal Sarka-Belt, which automatically encased her, through contactwith her tight clothing, with the warmth and balanced pressure of thelaboratory, which would remain constant as long as she wore it.
With a nod and a brief smile, she stepped to the metal door and vanishedthrough it. Sarka turned gloomily back to his laboratory. Looking intothe depths of the Revolving Beryl and adjusting the enlarging devicewhich brought back, life size, the infinitesmal individuals mirrored inthe Beryl, he watched her go--a trim white figure which flashed acrossthe void, from mountain-top to her valley home, like a very whiteprojectile from another world. Very white, and very precious, but....
When she was home, and had waved to him that she had arrived safely, heforgot her for a time, and allowed his eyes to study the inner workingsof this vast, crowded world whose on-rushing fate was so filling hisbrain with doubt, with fear--and something of horr
or!