The Universe Between
Page 18
They sat in silence for a moment, the graying physicist and his youthful, blond-haired friend. The sunset had faded and it was night outside. Tomorrow another sunrise. They both were thinking of a door opening, a door that no one had ever known was there before, opening into a segment of existence that had been guessed at, perhaps, but never really proven or identified.
After a long while Hank Merry broke the silence. “It looks as if there’s work to be done. A lot of work. For me, for you, for anybody else that feels like working in the least.”
“There’s work to be done, all right.”
“What about you and Sharnan?”
“Personally?” Robert shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s odd. She’s looked into the deepest corners of my mind, and I into hers, and even so we are two people from two different places and I don’t know how close we can really come. Now or ever.” He looked up at Hank. “She’s an exciting girl, when she’s on this side. On the other side she doesn’t exactly send me. And I’m not quite sure how it seems to her, on this side, to be courted by a jigsaw puzzle. Probably not everything she could hope for. Of course, it isn’t always like that. Sometimes I think I do see her world her way, and she sees mine my way.”
Robert walked over to stare out the window. “It’s very strange, Hank. Sometimes I think their universe as they perceive it is an ordinary, pedestrian three-dimensional universe just like ours. Very similar to ours, in fact, just somehow turned around at an off angle so that we can only perceive each other through another spacial dimension. But sometimes I think that they see themselves very much the same as we see ourselves, with their people, their cities, their social problems — ”
“But not the same ones,” Hank said, alarmed.
“Not quite the same, but off the same stalk. A variation of ours.” Robert rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I’ve learned a little of their history, and it’s amazing. They had roughly the same emergence of science as we did, in the long run, but along slightly different lines. Their great theoretical mathematician had a different name, for instance, and came to slightly different conclusions, ultimately just as wrong as ours. In our universe the United States never did break away from the mother country; in their universe, it did. Our Civil War fell apart after six months because of the great freeze and famine in the south in 1883; theirs came sooner, and lasted four years without solving anything. They faced the same Cold War between freedom and slavery in the twentieth century that we did, except our Joint Conference finally made peace, while they are still limping along with a ‘United Nations,’ or some such thing. Our president who got the Joint Conference started lived to serve as its chairman for three full terms, and still plays soccer with his grandchildren up in Massachusetts; theirs was assassinated in some place they call ‘Texas’ before he ever really got started, and somebody else took over. No, it’s a different place, The Other Side. I’m only beginning to learn.”
“And you’re going back now?” Hank asked.
“Yes, I think I’d better,” Robert laughed. “I’ve found the magic words, all right, but that broomstick keeps wiggling. Have you got enough to keep you busy for a while?”
“For a day or two,” Hank Merry said sourly. “Maybe even for three.”
“Then I won’t stay too long. And I’ll be in touch.” Robert Benedict tossed his friend a mock salute, grinned, and moved back through to the Other Side.
Sharnan was waiting for him there. As he had known she would be.
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Copyright © 1951 by Alan E. Nourse. Registration Renewed 1979.
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This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-6731-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6731-5
eISBN 10: 1-4405-6696-8
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6696-7