A Visit to Suari
A Martian Comes to Earth
By A. Hyatt Verrill
Copyright © 1930 by A. Hyatt Verrill
This edition published in 2011 by eStar Books, LLC.
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ISBN 9781612103808
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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A Visit to Suari
A Martian Comes to Earth
By A. Hyatt Verrill
The discovery of a means of transportation by means of disintegration would certainly solve a great many problems on interplanetary travel—to say nothing of shorter distance transportation..
A Visit to Suari
A Martian Comes to Earth
By A. Hyatt Verrill
CHAPTER I
Kespi-Nanay Returns
Excitement, speculation, wonder and interest ran high in Sonko-Huara, for news had been spread that Kespi-Nanay had returned. It was almost as though a person had returned from the dead. In a way, it was more amazing, for persons had been known to be resuscitated; moreover, everyone knew that death was merely a state and that the spirit that left one body took possession of another. But Kespi-Nanay had not died. He had merely disappeared—vanished completely—three Chukitis (years) before, after declaring that he intended to visit Suari, that great, glowing, mysterious planet that from the very beginning of history had been a source of wonder, of study and of baffling mystery to laymen and scientists alike. It was the nearest planet to Sonko-Huara—near, however, only by comparison—and separated by some forty-odd million Tuppus (miles) of space. Yet through the ages the astronomers of Sonko-Huara had learned much about their great, glowing neighbor, that, like their own planet, raced about the sun and rotated upon its own axis, so that the Sonko-Huaran scientists knew that the seasons, the climate, the alternating days and nights of Suari must be very similar to their own.
Through their telescopes the astronomers of ancient times had studied Suari; they had viewed its surface from pole to pole and completely around its circumference, for unlike Quilla (the moon), that presented only one side to view as far as Suari is concerned, Suari presented every portion of its surface to the eyes of the studious and curious inhabitants of Sonko-Huara. Often, however, strange masses of dense vapor obscured the big planet. Often, for long periods of time, certain portions of Suari were completely blanketed by these impenetrable masses that so puzzled the scientists. Yet always there were certain portions of its surface that were free from the vapor. Innumerable speculations had been raised by this phenomenon, for no such tenuous veil ever hung over and above the surface of Sonko-Huara.
Always the sunshine or the moonlight streamed upon it from a cloudless sky, and often, on moonless nights, for they had their own moons, the glow from Suari illuminated the planet. Through the ages, too, much had been learned of the surface of Suari. Over two-thirds of the planet was covered with water (an amazing discovery for the Sonko-Huarans whose planet was woefully short of water and was, with the exception of polar seas and inland seas, all land). Vast mountain ranges, great canals (crooked and winding in most remarkable manner) had been studied and mapped; immense masses of ice had been seen to cover the polar regions, and the astronomers were both astonished and puzzled to note that the appearance of the land masses changed continually. At times they were white, at others brown, at others green. Gradually they noticed that these alterations followed a regular sequence, that they were repeated at fixed intervals and that they bore a direct relationship to the position of the planet in reference to the sun. Suddenly the Sonko-Huaran astronomers had had an inspiration. Their neighboring planet must be inhabited! It must be populated by intelligent beings not unlike themselves! The change in colors must be the result of these beings cultivating the land!
The Sonko-Huaran astronomers, the scientists, even the common people became greatly excited and intensely interested in this theory. What manner of creatures could dwell upon Suari? What unthinkably strange and primitive beings they must be to till the soil and raise crops—industries that had been abandoned, forgotten by the Sonko-Huarans countless ages ago.
Discussions ran high as to what these dwellers on the other planet might be like. Were they formed like the inhabitants of Sonko-Huara? Were they weird, monstrous, fearsome creatures? Or were they totally unlike anything ever known or seen?
Yet years had passed, centuries, as we measure them, had slipped by before the suspicious of the Sonko-Huaran scientists had been confirmed, before instruments has been perfected to such a state that the observers on Sonko-Huara could prove that Suari was inhabited. Gradually the other planet had been brought visually closer. It was an epochal discovery when lights had been detected upon the dark area of Suari, lights obviously artificial. It had been a still more epochal discovery when an astronomer of Sonko-Huara had seen a city on the other planet. With each new discovery of this sort, each announcement that there was some new and indisputable proof of the existence of sentient, intelligent beings on Suari, efforts to obtain a more intimate knowledge had been redoubled.
Ages before the return of Kespi-Nanay, after his mysterious absence, the surface of Suari had been brought optically within a few thousand miles of Sonko-Huara. It was by this time an established fact that the other planet was thickly populated by some sort of intelligent beings. They had cities, towns, lights. They moved from place to place. They dug canals, they leveled mountains, they transformed the surface of their lands over vast areas. Yet all the constant minute studies devoted to them tended more and more to prove to the inhabitants of Sonko-Huara that their neighbors forty million miles away were immeasurably backward and behindhand, that, assuming them to be in the least similar to the Sonko-Huarans, they were more or less in the same state of civilization as the inhabitants of Sonko-Huara had been in their prehistoric days. Their stupidity, as assumed through reasoning and experiments, was absolutely astounding. Not only was it evident that they still made use of the archaic method of obtaining foods and other necessities by agriculture, but in addition their cities, as far as could be determined, were marvelous examples of the survival of ancient, long-abandoned barbarism.
And despite every effort on the part of the denizens of Sonko-Huara, the unintelligent creatures on Suari failed to respond to the plain and simple signals that had been devised to attract their attentions. The simplest and most readily read messages had been formed on the surface of Sonko-Huara and had been displayed day after day when the two planets were nearest to each other, yet there had been no response, no answering signals. To be sure, the watchers had noticed strange masses and groups of lights, but they were meaningless; they conveyed nothing and it was decided they were merely to illuminate some great gathering of the Suarans.
Then had come the strange, mysterious but wholly undecipherable sounds that had first been detected and reported by Kespi-Nanay, the greatest of living scientists on Sonko-Huara. That they came from Suari, he was convinced, and despite the scoffs of fellow scientists, he boldly declared his conviction that they were signals of some sort, sent out by the dwellers on Suari. He pointed out that the sounds were articulate, that they were not mechanical and hence must have originated in the throat of some living creature. He also proved that the same sounds were constantly repeated with carefully timed intervals between
each series of sounds. But he was derided, ridiculed when he promulgated the theory that beings on Suari—especially such barbarous, primitive, stupid beings as all agreed they must be—could project their voices across millions of miles of space.
Even the Sonko-Huarans could not perform any such feat and—asked one of the news-dispersers—if Kespi-Nanay deemed the sounds to be voices, why, with his superior knowledge, could he not interpret the words? But despite the fact that Kespi's theories and beliefs found few followers, interest, that had flagged for years, was revived, and once more Suari became the center of all interest, all speculations, all studies.
Various wild schemes were suggested for visiting the other planet. Learned scientists spent days and weeks in abstruse calculations to prove that a trip to Suari was not, scientifically speaking, impossible. All the ultra-advanced knowledge of the inventors and scientists was employed in trying to devise some means for making the journey. There were gravitationally impelled machines, machines that were designed to be hurled into space by the rotational movement of the planet, machines of endless types. Yet in every case there was some impediment, some fatal fault that proved conclusively that none would serve.
Despite the logical warnings of the experts, several actually were tried. One machine, impelled by the power of a decomposing atom, left the surface of the planet. It gathered speed so swiftly that it became invisible, but, a few moments later, a terrific explosion in the upper atmosphere told the anxious and hopeful watchers of its fate. Another machine, designed to eliminate gravity as was done in the case of the ordinary machines used for every-day travel, but with devices to enable it to fly off at a tangent by the momentum of the planet's rotation, became incandescent and was transformed to gas by its friction through the upper air. Still another, by far the largest and most carefully planned of all, was impelled and controlled by the recently discovered Ethmic force and succeeded in winning clear of Sonko-Huara's atmospheric envelope. For the first twenty-four hours its progress through space was watched with bated breaths, and it seemed as if at last a successful voyage to Suari was to be accomplished.
But, about the thirtieth hour, it was seen that the machine's course had changed. It was veering away from the orbit of Suari and presently, to the horror of the Sonko-Huarans, it was determined that beyond any possibility of doubt the apparatus had become a satellite of the planet and was doomed forever to move around and around the sphere like an attendant moon.
Then, when everyone had given up all ideas of ever being able to visit the fascinatingly mysterious Suari, Kespi-Nanay had come out with his absolutely astounding statements. Matter, he declared, was all imaginary. It did not actually exist It was merely a combination or grouping of protons and electrons. This was by no means a new theory. In fact, generations before Kespi had been incubated and brought into existence, other Sonko-Huaraa scientists had promulgated exactly the same theory. But nothing had ever come of it, no one had ever been able conclusively to prove it. But Kespi-Nanay claimed he could; he averred he had; and he insisted that his discovery paved the way to visit Suari and to return in safety.
Naturally he once more became the target of derision, ridicule, jokes and incredulity. To do a thing was not enough; the important matter was to convince others. Achievement amounts to nothing unless the public admits the fact of that achievement. Kespi was determined that his astonishing achievement should be admitted.
So he announced that he would give a public demonstration of the truth of his claims. His promise was more than fulfilled. Before a vast gathering—in fact, before all the inhabitants, for by means of the universally employed vision-disseminators or Muri-Willyas, the demonstration was visible everywhere upon the planet— Kespi-Nanay caused a cube of metal, a tablet of Chocli-Hanca or concentrated food, and even a Pilcu bird (the only wild fowl on Sonko-Huara) to vanish before everyone's eyes. Then, as the people listened most attentively, he stated that he had gone further with his experiments than he had revealed hitherto. Not only, he informed them, was matter merely the result of certain arrangements of protons and electrons, each form of matter so-called being the result of slightly varying combinations, any or all of which might at will be broken up into the independent quanta and so rendered invisible; but, he went on, the same electrons could, by properly devised instruments and treatment, be summoned back into their original places with the protons.
At these words an exclamation of incredulity arose from thousands of lips. It might be possible—in fact, was possible, as they had seen—that matter could be forced to disappear. It was not so very remarkable after all, they decided, for water was matter and yet it could be made to evaporate and vanish. Moruli was matter, yet it could be consumed by flame and made to vanish without leaving a trace of ashes. But that matter, once it had vanished, could be restored to its original state was too incredible.
The next moment they began to have their doubts as to their conviction. Kespi, as if reading their thoughts, was speaking of these very things. Water, he was pointing out, could be recovered—was not this precisely what happened daily? Did the sun not evaporate water, cause it to vanish? Most assuredly. Yet did that water not fall again as rain? And salts, dissolved in water and hence destroyed as matter in their particular forms, could, as all knew, be readily recovered. Why then, he reminded them, was it so incredible to believe that metal, living flesh—any object—could not be reformed by summoning the protons and electrons, of which such matter had been composed, and forcing them to group themselves as in the first place?
Hardly had he spoken when, by seemingly magical means, the cube of metal, the heap of food, the bird were once again before him—conjured from nothingness, from the air.
A deafening roar of approbation and applause greeted his demonstration and drowned his next words. When order and silence had been restored, he made his most astonishing statement of all. Not only could an object be restored, rebuilt from its original protons and electrons, but he informed the amazed people it could be rebuilt in a totally different locality from that in which it had been disintegrated. And to prove this incredible statement, he proceeded to cause the three objects to vanish and to reappear almost instantaneously several hundred feet distant.
The people by this time were beyond expressing their wonder. But still more astonishing things were to be vouchsafed them. "My discovery," observed Kespi, "will be the means of solving that ages-old problem of making a visit to Suari. Because, my friends, whereas matter, as we know it, may not travel through space by any known means—and if it were possible for it to do so ages would be required for it to traverse such a Tuppu as separates us from Suari—the constituent electrons and protons of matter can traverse space unharmed and with such extreme speed that they may be said to travel instantaneously. Hence an object may be reduced to its free quanta or portions here on Sonko-Huara and within an inconceivably short time afterwards they may be reassembled in the original material form on Suari or elsewhere. Distance, space has no effect upon them. Ah, you ask, how do I know this? By reasoning, by logic, by the unalterable laws of the universe," he exclaimed. "I can assure you that I can make this metallic cube vanish, and before you have realized it has gone, it will be in its original form somewhere upon the surface of Suari. But— " with a laugh, "of course it might be beneath the waters of that planet, and equally, of course, you could not see such a small object on distant Suari, and hence I could not prove my claims. But"—his tones were so impressive, so earnest that everyone awaited breathlessly for his next words—"but," he repeated, "so sure am I of my deductions, so convinced that my reasoning is correct, that I plan to test the matter on myself. Tomorrow I shall cause myself to be disintegrated, and—if all goes well—shall cause myself to be reassembled upon Suari. In other words, I shall be transported —not as a body of matter but as countless trillions of electronic and protonic units—through forty million Tuppus of space and will find myself in material form upon that mysterious planet.
"Of course,
" he smiled, "I run a slight risk. I, like the metallic cube, might be reassembled in the water. I might be reformed in some other equally unpleasant and fatal situation. But that is a chance I must take. The promise of the adventure is worth risks. Personally, however, I do not foresee any such difficulties. My experiments have proved to my own satisfaction that I can cause an object, reduced to its constituent electrons and protons, to form again within a very restricted area, predetermined by myself. I have selected the area on Suari, where, if all goes well, I shall be reformed. It is a spot that is somewhat remote from the strange collections of structures, which we assume to be refuges of the Suarians, and in an area that—not having presented the alternating colors indicating the presence of living beings— is, we assume, uninhabited. I do not" — he smiled— "particularly desire to appear suddenly and as if by some supernatural means in the immediate vicinity of a Suarian or of several Suarians. We may feel fairly certain from our observations and studies that they are a primitive, backward and not over-intelligent lot, and probably therefore as superstitious and as readily startled as were our own ancestors in the remote past when they, too, depended upon the cultivation of the soil for their livelihood. I might be struck down—even devoured by the creatures before I had an opportunity to make my friendly intentions and my physical actuality understood. Moreover, as we have no conception of the physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of Suari, I might, and probably would, appear as a strange, bizarre and monstrous creature to them. Naturally we assume that, as Suari is many times the bulk of Sonko-Huara, its inhabitants will be proportionately gigantic, and hence I would be completely at their mercy.
A Visit to Sauri Page 1