On a mild October morning a little group filed into the rustic church near the laboratory. A little group—but every broadcast receiver, every television screen was attuned to the waves which were carrying each sound and sight in that church to every corner of the globe. All the people of the earth joined in a prayer for the good fortune of the couple whose wedding rites were being celebrated there. And as Mary Cameron became Mary Standish, all the earth joined in the hymn which welled out in a mighty chorus of thanksgiving whose echoing vibrations must have been heard even in far distant Andromeda.
The End
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The Emperor of the Stars,
by Arthur Leo Zagat & Nathan Schachner
Wonder Stories April 1931
Novelette - 12199 words
I. — OFF COURSE
"WE'RE a quarter of a million miles off our course!"
Joe Burns looked up from the oxygenation apparatus, whose valves he had been adjusting. "That's lovely! What's happened?"
"Don't know," replied Al Fries, navigator of the first terrestrial expedition to the planet Pluto, outpost of the solar system. "We've swung that much off in the last four hours. And I can't find a damn thing wrong. Speed relative to the Sun hasn't varied from a steady thousand miles per second. Corrective side rockets have exploded regularly and the meters show full power.
"I've checked and re-checked my calculations till I'm dizzy. All correct. Didn't want to tell you till I was sure I couldn't find the error. No use bothering you, you've enough to do keeping us alive in here. Inside's your job, outside's mine. But I'm stuck now!"
They had passed Neptune in their flight, and were out in the untraveled reaches of space, midway in their journeying to the new planet.
"Two hundred and fifty thousand miles off, you say. Which way?" Burns' steady tones revealed no perturbation over the alarming news.
"Minus on the plane Alpha 45 deg. 10' 24"; on Gamma 12 deg. 10' 54"."*
* Space navigation is plotted by reference to three planes having Earth as their common intersection, One of these planes (Alpha) is determined by the plane of the ecliptic, and uses therefore the celestial sphere. The others (Beta and Gamma) are at right angles to this plane and to each other.
"Perhaps we've gotten into the attraction sphere of some unknown planet," Burns suggested.
"Impossible. Any body which could exert enough attraction to swing us so rapidly off our course against the inertia our great speed gives us would be clearly apparent to the naked eye, or at least in our telescope. There isn't any. I've looked my eyes out. Besides, I've searched every direction with the gravito-statoscope* and found no evidence of any attractive force not accounted for by known bodies. You know that instrument will respond to the attraction of a grain of dust at a distance of five hundred miles. No, Joe, there just isn't any explanation."
* An instrument for detecting new gravitational influences acting on the ship.
"Have you tried the emergency corrective rockets?"
"Sure have. Used as many as I dared. The explosions didn't have the slightest effect!"
"Hell, Al, you must be off your nut. What you tell me just can't be so. Wish I knew enough math to check your figures. Not that I haven't all the confidence in the world—I mean universe—in you, but maybe this long lonesome journey is getting at you."
Fries paled. "Do you really think that's it, Joe?"
The chemist laughed. "Oh forget it, old boy. Of course I didn't mean it. But you stop thinking along that line or it will be so. Here, let me get at that telescope—I'll find the mischief-maker."
Joe stepped smilingly to the eyepiece of the powerful electro-optical refractor. He turned one or two gleaming thumb-screws, then squinted into the tube. The smile slowly died from his face, instead a look of amazement took its place that turned to terror. His face was white. "Al, come here!" he whispered.
"What is it, what do you see?"
"Nothing."
"Then why are you looking like that?"
"I said nothing, not nothing new! I see absolutely nothing!"
"What!" Fries almost shouted. "Here, give me that 'scope."
In his turn the navigator gazed long and searchingly through the eyepiece. His bronzed face too, betrayed the blood withdrawn, called back to an affrighted heart.
IN all that vast sky, space had been swept clean! Nothing but blackness. The numberless points of dazzling lights that were great worlds and huge suns had gone as if some cosmic hand had erased them from the skies! Their staunch ship floated in total emptiness!
"Al, look here, look!" Burns, imperturbable no longer, was pointing with trembling finger to the bank of white dials.
Fries looked. The pointer of every instrument, showing their relation to some outside body, was at zero! The velocimeter, the deviatoscope, even the gravito-statoscope. None was functioning!
The two adventurers gazed at each other in blank wonderment. What could this mean? It could not be true, that they had passed beyond all other matter, that they were alone in space, that within the shell of this little space-flier was the entire material universe! Incredible!
And yet—what other explanation could there be?
While still their reeling brains strove with the problem, there was a lurch—one only—a flash of blinding light at the quartz porthole—then all was as before. But no—Joe's fingers dug into Al's arm, as with his free hand he again pointed to the banked dials.
They were functioning once again! But how! It seemed as though all these staid mathematical instruments had gone suddenly crazy.
The pointer of the velocimeter was swinging wildly against the brass pin at the zero line in an endeavor to push past it. As though it were trying to register negative velocity! The deviatoscope was wobbling in all directions at once. The gravito-statoscope was registering negative quantities, indicating tremendous repulsion.
"My God, have the instruments been put out of commission, or have we gotten into a topsy-turvy world?" cried Al, rushing to the telescope, while Joe jumped for the porthole. Simultaneous exclamations burst from both.
No longer was there the black of unlit space; but neither were there the shining points of light, the old familiar constellations spangling the velvet back drop of space. Instead they were swimming in an intense blue light deeper by far than the fairest earth sky. Against the blue were silhouetted black disks and lesser points—myriads of them.
The Earthmen stared at each other blankly. Joe spoke first. "Where are we? What has happened to us?"
Al was frankly stumped. "I don't know. This is not our world, our universe. I may be crazy but maybe we've been pushed into a different universe. That might account for the strange gyrations of our instruments." He warmed to the idea. "After all, there's something in that. According to Einstein our space, our universe, is curved around into an enormous sphere. True, he assumes that there is absolutely nothing inside or outside that sphere, not even emptiness.
"But suppose he were wrong. Suppose that there are other universes, all spheres of space, floating in a great super-space. Suppose that one of these sphere universes in some manner impinged on our space, tangentially. Through a freak of fortune we happened to hit that one spot. Since the two spaces touch, we went hurtling from our own familiar universe into this strange one, the existence of which has never even been dreamt of by our scientists."
"Impossible," gasped Joe. "I can't believe it." He shook his head as though his disbelief gave him no comfort.
Once more they gazed out at the unknown. In the blue radiance, the black disks had grown perceptibly smaller.
"Hello," cried Al, "we're being pushed away from those dark worlds, if worlds they really are."
"That's fine; maybe we'll be thrown clear back into our world again." Joe's face showed that slowly he was yielding to the belief that this impossible thing must have happened.
"What," Al yelled in his indignation. "Do you mean to stand there and tell me
that you are willing to leave all this—the greatest, the most sensational adventure that happened to mortal men, without even a look around?"
"All right, keep your shirt on," retorted the castigated one. "If you want to investigate this nightmare I'm with you. Only please remember, that as it is, we have only an infinitely small chance of locating that one small point of contact again. And if we move about here, we'll lose that one chance."
But the fire of the pioneering scientist blazed too brightly in Al. "I don't care what happens. We stay. Think of it, man, a new, a different universe!"
"You're the doctor. I hope though, we find a world we can live on. And some interesting people. For make up your mind we'll never see old Terra Firma again."
Al ignored him. "Hm, there doesn't seem to be any gravity here. We're being repelled instead of attracted. Tell you what you do, Joe. Use some of our rear rockets. That'll force us ahead."
Accordingly, two rockets were fired. Intently Al watched the instrument board. Sure enough, the velocimeter registered a forward velocity, the deviatoscope acted normally again; only the gravito-statoscope continued to evidence repelling influences.
A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD
AS they drove ahead, both men watched the new heavens anxiously. One of the black disks was gradually disengaging itself from its fellows, and growing slowly, perceptibly larger. About the size of the moon now.
Al looked once more at his instruments. Their velocity was decreasing. "Shoot off another rocket, Joe," he ordered. Once more they forged ahead.
"Queer sort of matter in this world," he continued, ruminatively. "Repels us instead of attracting. Everything seems just the reverse of what we know. The space glows and the stars are dark. And I see no evidence of suns or anything to account for the queer blue light."
Meanwhile the dark world they were aiming for, was growing steadily larger. Then a queer thing happened. The nearer they approached, the higher it rose above them, until it was directly overhead, a vast ball filling half the firmament.
Joe was surprised, and told his friend so. "Not at all," Al responded. "Up and down are purely relative terms that have no meaning in space. It is only when you come within range of matter, that these words have any significance.
"In our universe, a material body, responding to gravitational influences, attracts your body to it. In other words, you fall toward it,—which means that the attracting body is beneath.
"Here in this universe, on the contrary, matter possesses only the property of repulsion. You are driven away from the world; in other words, you are falling from it,—which means that this world is overhead as far as we are concerned. To reach it, we shall have to climb straight up."
"Then how in blazes are we going to land on it to see what it's all about. We'll be like flies on a ceiling."
"You're right," Al confessed. "I didn't think of that. However, we'll get as close as we can, and see what we can discover."
With the aid of rockets, they drove on and up, until they touched the huge ceiling.
The two gazed out upon an illimitable expanse of black lava-like rock, craggy and bare. No life, no movement was visible in the spectral blue glare that beat upon the immense rocky plain. Indeed, no life as we know it could be possible, for aside from the difficulty of clinging to a ceiling of rock, Joe's tests quickly showed the absence of any atmosphere.
"I can't see the sense of wasting any more time hanging here," he said finally. "Let's try and find a more inviting world."
"Hold on a moment, what's that?" Al was pointing excitedly through the porthole.
Not half a mile off, a broad orange beam of light had suddenly shot out from the black surface. Even as they gazed, a long cylindrical object appeared at the base of the beam, steadied itself a moment, then shot out downward into space. Its flight was so swift that it vanished instantaneously. The orange light contracted until it too disappeared.
"That's either an upside down volcanic eruption, or else—," Joe paused uncertainly.
"Or else—that's just what we're going to investigate." Al sprang to the controls. Rapidly he propelled the spaceship to the point where the orange ray had appeared, and hovered directly underneath it.
They gazed up at a huge inverted funnel, tapering on top to a flat narrow area.
"Turn on the searchlight, Joe. Let's see what's up there."
Obediently, Joe swung the parabolic reflector into focus, and turned on the current. An invisible ray stabbed through the blue space, impinged inside the funnel, and lit it up with a blinding light.
Al whistled. "Look how smooth the walls are, how regular the curve. That's an artificial orifice, Joe. And something just came out of it. I'm going in there to investigate."
"Hold on there. Don't let your enthusiasm run away with you," Joe cautioned. "In the first place, I've seen volcanic cones as smooth and regular as this one. And if it is—you remember that orange flare—another eruption while you're squinting at it will mean the end of this little expedition. Besides, this boat's too big to fit in there. And if we get out, what'll hold us and the ship from all flopping down—God knows where—in this crazy space."
"I'm not worrying much about the volcano idea," retorted Al. "As for our falling, just run us as far up into the opening as you can, and I'll attend to the rest. Careful that the air lock is on top, though."
Joe shook his head doubtfully, grumbled a bit, but followed instructions. Once snugly in position, the beams of the searchlight illuminated the interior. There was no question about it now—the funnel was patently artificial. The walls were of black polished stone; at the tip overhead was a flat slab of the same material. A circular incision, about four feet in diameter, was evident in the slab.
II. — THE GREEN TERRORS
AL was hastily donning his space suit, electrically heated and containing oxygen-respiratory apparatus.
"For God's sake, Al, what do you intend doing?" Joe cried out in alarm.
"Do? Tie this ship to the sides of the funnel so she stays put. Remember we have four steel rings welded on the outside of our ship."
By this time he had donned the suit; only the helmet was not yet clamped into position. He took out of the tool chest two huge steel spikes, two lengths of massive chain ending in huge hooks, an electric drill, and picked up a disruptor tube.
"Now I'm ready; you hold the boat steady while I work. When the ship's securely fastened, I'll wave in at the porthole. Then you get into your space suit, and climb out. Bring a crowbar along, and your disruptor tube."
He climbed up into the air lock, shut the panel behind him, slid open the outer panel, and climbed on top of the space flier.
He chose a spot in the polished rock close to one of the ship's steel rings. With the electric drill it was a matter of minutes to fashion a deep hole. Al then inserted a spike at an angle, slipped a length of chain over it. The chain was secure. Next he slipped the great hook at the other end, into the steel ring. Repeating the operation on the other side, the spaceship was hanging, securely fastened.
Then he waved in signal. Shortly Joe was clambering out also enclosed in a space-suit. He carried a long crowbar with him. Fortunately the top slab was only a few feet above their heads. With right good will, they shoved against the inside stone. It moved slightly. Greater grew their exertions. Finally it lifted, as though on a hinge. Eagerly they pushed harder, until it fell over inside, revealing a circular hole, through which an orange light streamed.
Al spoke through the wireless phone included in the helmet equipment. "Just give me a leg up, Joe, like a good fellow."
Joe bent, clasped his hands in front. Al put one foot onto the clasped hands and Joe heaved until he was able to clamber through the opening. Immediately he extended an arm down, and with great exertion, pulled Joe up alongside of him.
They found themselves at the bottom of a slanting well. Far in the distance was a circular opening through which an orange light filtered.
Slowly, labori
ously they negotiated the steep climb. At last they emerged panting, into the orange glare.
What they saw was so inconceivably strange, so opposed to all their preconceived notions that they stood still, gasping with astonishment.
They were standing on a vast plain, composed of the same rocky material as the outside; bleak, barren, thrown into giant crags and mountains. There was no horizon; the plain curved upwards until it was lost in the distant haze. The whole atmosphere was bathed in an orange glow, emanating from a huge globe of fire overhead, the sun of this interior world.
No sign of life revealed itself in the hideous barrenness of the huge concavity.
"Good Lord, what is this anyway!" Joe spoke through his phone. "We have to climb up to land on this place, then bust our way through; and then we find ourselves standing inside a hollow shell, with a sun and everything. It's certainly confusing. And why, if this matter has no gravitation, as you say, but exercises a repulsive force, why isn't it down on this side too, so that we would fall kerplunk into this space also?"
"Because," Al spoke up, "that sun overhead must be the source of the repulsion. I get it all now. The waves of repulsion emanating from the sun keeps this shell properly spaced around it, and causes everything to be pushed against it, including us. That would give exactly the same effect, as far as we are concerned, as though we were held here by force of normal gravity. Furthermore, the repelling waves must penetrate this shell of material, and flow out into the blue space of this universe. That was why our ship was being forced away."
Space Lawyers: A Collaborative Collection Page 9