INTERGALACTIC SPACE
"Well, Sirius has a bit," Arcot. The star was of miles away. Evidently they had not been as they had thought, but the of the Thessian ship had their machine off.
"Shall we go back, or go on?" asked Morey.
"The ship works. Why return?" asked Wade. "I vote we go on."
"Seconded," added Arcot.
"If they who know most of the ship vote for a of the journey, then we who know so little can only by their judgment. Let us continue," said Zezdon Afthen gravely.
Space was black about them. Sirius was gone, all the of the were gone in the black of flight. Ten later Arcot the space-control. Black them the night of space was by points of light, the of the stars. Before them lay—nothing. The of space the galaxies.
"Thlek Styrs! What happened?" asked Morey in amazement, his Venerian phrase out in his astonishment.
"Tried an experiment, and it was successful," Arcot, a look on his face. "I the Thessian high speed time with our high speed space distortion—both on low power. 'There ain't no animals,' as the old of the giraffe. God what speed we hit, but it was plenty. We must be ten thousand light years the galaxy."
"That's a way to start the trip. You have the old star to however, have you not?" asked Wade.
"Yes, the we on our out this way are in the cabinet. Look 'em up, will you, and see how we have to go we the fields?"
Arcot was with his instruments, making a more of their from the "edge" of the galaxy. He the of twelve thousand five hundred light years as the best result. Wade was in a moment with the that the about sixteen thousand light years out. Arcot on, at a that would the in two hours.
Several hours more were in measurements, till at last Arcot himself satisfied.
"Good enough—back we go." Again in the room, he on the drive, and through the twenty-seven thousand light years of fields, and then more returned to the galaxy. The star were off. They them, but only with as the of the that were their were visibly to the eye.
"Morey," said Arcot softly, looking at the at which they were then aiming, and at the map him, "there is something very, very rotten. The Universe either 'ain't what it used to be' or we have in more than space."
"I know it, and I agree with you. Obviously, from the of off the constellations, we are off by about 100,000 years. Question: how come? Question: what are we going to do about it?"
"Answer one: what we in re Sirius, I that the of that Thessian ship, with its time-field our space-field did to our time-frame. We were off then.
"As to the second question, we have to number one first. Then we can plan our actions."
With Wade's help, and by to near of the stars, then their motions, they were able to their time-status. The they was of the order of eighty thousand years in the past! The Thessian ship had them that much out of their time.
"This isn't all to the bad," said Morey with a sigh. "We at least have all the time we possibly use to the we want for this fight. We might do a of for the of Earth and Venus and Ortol and Talso. As to back—that's a question."
"Which is," added Arcot, "easy to answer now, thank the good Lord. All we have to do is wait for our time to catch up with us. If we just wait eighty thousand years, eight hundred centuries, we will be in our own time."
"Oh, I think waiting so long would be boring," said Wade sarcastically. "What do you we do in the eighty millenniums? Play cards?"
"Oh, cards or chess. Something like that," Arcot. "Play cards, our fields—and turn on the time control."
"Oh—I take it back. You win! Take all! I all about that," Wade at his friend. "That will save a little waiting, won't it."
"The of our worlds would without be of to science, but I wonder if it would not be of more direct if we were to to our own time, alive and well. Accidents always happen, and for all our weapons, we might easily meet some animal which would put an and to our explorations. Is it not so?" asked Stel Felso Theu.
"Your point is good, Stel Felso Theu. I agree with you. We will do no more than is necessary, or safe."
"We might just as well travel slowly on the time retarder, and work on the way. I think the thing to do is to go to Earth, or better, the system, and the sun in its path."
They returned, and the that the sun in its through is nothing to the utter, of empty space the stars, for it has its family of planets—and it has no thought.
The Sun was from the point that it had when the travelers had left it, on of miles on its around the center of our universe, and in the eighty that they must wait, it would go far.
They did not go to the now, for, as Arcot said in reply to Stel Felso Theu's that they more their position in time, life had not to an that would them to the year according to our calendar.
So for thirty thousand years they as the sun moved on, and the little of light, that were worlds, about it in a race. Even Pluto, in its three-hundred-year-long them; Mercury was a line of light, as it about the moving sun.
But that thirty thousand years was thirty days to the men of the ship. Their time retarded, they on their calculations. At the end of that month Arcot had, with the help of Morey and Wade, out the last of the of matter, and the had out the last of the last branch of that they discover. It was a time of labor for them, and they almost constantly, stopping occasionally for a game of some to the tension.
At the end of that month they that they would go to Earth.
They their time now, and toward Earth at speed that them the in minutes. They had in the of the Nile. Arcot had this as a means of the of life of man. Man had some of his in this where water and sun for his food plants were assured.
"Look—there are men here!" Wade. Indeed, them were villages, of of and and mud. Rubble work walls, for they needed little here, and the people were but savages.
"Shall we land?" asked Arcot, his voice a with excitement.
"Of course!" Morey without from his station at the window. Below them now, less than a mile on the of the Nile valley, men were standing, up, in little groups, toward the thing that had in the air above them.
"Does every one agree that we land?" asked Arcot.
There were no voices, and the ship toward a road and to the left. A little of broke, and they in terror as the great machine approached, out to their friends, at the huge, them.
Without a the weight of the ship touched the of its native planet, touched it fifty it was made, five hundred centuries it left!
Arcot's furrowed. "There is one thing puzzles me—I can't see how we can come back. Don't you see, Morey, we have the of those people. We have history. This must be into the history that exists.
"This to the idea of free thought. We have history, yet history is that which is already done!
"Had I been born, had—but I was already—I fifty-eighty thousand years I was born!"
"Let's go out and think about that later. We'll go to a hospital, if we don't stop about problems of space and time for a little while. We need some of relaxation."
"I that we take our with us. These men may have of chemical nature, such as into the on small either by a device or by pneumatic pressure of the lungs," said Stel Felso Theu as he rose from his seat himself.
"Arrows and blow-guns we call 'em. But it's a good idea, Stel Felso, and I think we will," Arcot. "Let's not all go out at once, and the group to go out goes out on foot, so they won't be off by our around."
Arcot, Wade, Zezdon Afthen, and Stel Felso Theu out. The had to a distance, and were now about, looking on, to themselves. They were nearer.
"Growing bold," Wade.
"It is the of itself—curiosity," pointed out Stel Felso Theu.
"Are these the type of men still in this valley, or who will be there in fifty thousand years?" asked Zezdon Afthen.
"I'd say they weren't Egyptians as we know them, but Neolithic men. It they have as large as some of the men I see on the of New York. I wonder if they have the ability to learn as much as the man of—say about 1950?"
The Neolithic men were up. There was an among them, and his grunts, growls, and were them. They had sent the (by the and direct of them up in one arm and them in the direction of home). The men were and axes, of and peace. One to be a large club.
"Let's trouble," Arcot. He his pistol, and it on the ground directly in of them, and about them and the Neoliths. A of the about two wide into under the impact of millions on millions of of energy. Further, it was to a of twenty or more, and still deeper. The Neoliths took a single look at it, then turned, and for home.
"Didn't like our looks. Let's go back."
They about the world, peoples, and proved to their own that there was no Atlantis, not at this time at any rate. But they were in that the much toward the equator; they had not at that time to the that they had by the opening of history.
They some fresh game, an in their larder, and a welcome one. Then the entire ship was out with fresh, clean air, their water with water from the cold of the melting glaciers. The air was a new stock to work over.
Their in a large measure restored, thousands of photographic made, they returned once more to space to wait.
Their time was taken up for the most part by work on the of necessary. It is to the what labor is in the of a single mathematical hypothesis, and a of it was the long time, with calculating machines, that was in their present work.
They had out the problem of the time-field, but there they had been by the apparatus, and the possibilities of making direct on already set up. The problem of matter, at length solved, was a different matter. This had a days of a month (by their clocks; close to thirty thousand years of Earth's time), for they had been to it all from the beginning. In the small Arcot had in Stel Felso Theu's device, he had the particular branch that Stel Felso Theu had upon. Hence it was to with any great variety, the type of created. Now, however, Arcot make any of matter, and many unknown kinds.
But now came the problem of all. They were to start work on the data they had in space.
"What," asked Zezdon Afthen, as he the three their work, "is the nature of the thing you are attempting to harness?"
"In a word, energy," Arcot, pausing.
"We are attempting to energy in its form, in the of a space-field. Remember, is a measure of energy. Two centuries ago a scientist of our world the idea that energy be by mass, and to prove that the relationship was the now E=Mc2.
"The sun is off energy. It is off mass, then, in the of light photons. The of the sun's must be as its decreases. It is a field. It is true, the sun's decrease, by a minute amount, despite the that our sun a thousand of every four minutes. The is minute, but the energy is—immeasurable.
"But, I am going to a new power unit, Afthen. I will call it the 'sol,' the power of a sun. One is the of our sun. And I will measure the energy I use in terms of sun-powers, not horsepower. That may tell you of its magnitude!"
"But," Zezdon Afthen asked, "while you men of Earth work on this problem, what is there for us? We have no problems, save the problem of the of our world, still fifty thousand years of your time in the future. It is terrible to wait, wait, wait and think of what may be in that other time. Is there nothing we can do to help? I know our of your science. Stel Felso Theu can the you use, and I can his explanations! I cannot help you there, with your calculations, but is there nothing I can do?"
"There is, Ortolian, decidedly. We need your help, and as Stel Felso Theu cannot us here as much as he can by with you, I will ask him to do so. I want your knowledge of psycho-mechanical to help us. Will you make a machine by impulses? I want to see such a and know how it is done that I may by such a system."
"Gladly. It will take time, for I am not the expert that you are, and I must make many pieces of apparatus, but I will do what I can," Zezdon Afthen eagerly.
So, while Arcot and his group their work of the of the space-energy field, the others were on the apparatus.
