John W. Campbell

“ Bullo knelt in sorrow, his hands crossed on the back of his head.
“Rise, Bullo. I know how you felt, but remember, a Warrior is not a good fighter who loses his head in moments of stress. ‘Seek facts, seek plans, seek victory!'” he quoted the Warrior Class motto.
Dos-Tev turned to Mea-Quin once more. “I must try again. I will concentrate my mind on some useful thought. My mind was free to absorb impressions and interpret only those when last I went over. I shall carry over a thought and occupy my mind thus, till it learns its new powers and its new limitations.” ”

“ Trembling, Mea-Quin turned to Dos-Tev. “It had done its duty as you foresaw. The momentum was distributed, our ship received its alloted portion, the Moon absorbed the greater part. My son, you have done much for the defeat of Ay-Artz. Now I shall give you one more thing I have labored on. What ray has been sought for long and declared impossible? It is a ray that matter will not stop, a ray which no mechanism of matter can screen against and which will bring tearing, burning death to any living being.” ”

“ Think, Mea-Quin, of what this which I shall describe means, and you too, Bullo. It is this; a fan-shaped ray, reaching out with effective power for perhaps 100 miles. It is a ray of anarchy, of total entropy. It destroys organization, it will cause the orderly motion of the mightiest ship ever built to carry man, to degenerate suddenly into a mere anarchy of random, molecular motion. It causes the effect of a collision of two solid bodies. Orderly motion through it is impossible. ”

“ Your ears will seem to play you false, your eyes deceive you, a terrible feeling of loneliness that would break a weak mind. If you fear your mind weak, do not don this. For every mental impulse that each living creature radiates continually, forever will be cut off. No corpse will be less lifeless to you than I when you wear this!”
“But you own mental impulses will be reflected, intensified and worked over. ”

“ Almost at once his face became flushed, his arms went pale and he began to breathe heavily as though running strenuously. Bullo started forward, an expression of tortured anxiety on his face. Well he knew that no Warrior dared disturb the Tev Class when they were incommunion with themselves. And the Dos-Tev himself-! But now the young ruler stood swaying gently, his laboring lungs sucking in air, while his face became more flushed and gradually purpled. Mea-Quin watched anxiously and finally spoke. “Dos-Tev, you strain yourself beyond human endurance. Remove the cap!” ”

“ If immaterial, it will not react to material vibration.”
“But – could it not be made invisible?”
“No paint can produce invisibility. No space-field can do so without leaving such tremendous spatial strains all about it that the veriest amateur of science would realize something was terribly amiss. Only in the fourth dimension would such affect be achieved.”
“A four-dimensional machine,” Dos-Tev shook his head unhappily. “How could we cope with such a being?”
“No – not four-dimensional machine. Three dimensions just as our machines have. Look, here is a plane. ”

“ As he slipped he threw out the main rocket drive, and the giant rockets were silenced. He started the lower rockets on automatic altimeter control; they would force the ship upward at every opportunity. Presently he felt their rhythmic thrust, jabbing, pushing the ship upward – and fell as blackness swam over him.
He returned to consciousness to find the moon sinking swiftly. Mea-Quin staggered into the room, as he sat up, and set the controls for return.
“Bullo – is alive – but injured!” ”

“ Could he have seen a great space liner coming into huge Tyroo Lanii docks, seen the mighty mass falling freely for 100 feet without the landing rockets, only to slow gently and safely to a landing as gentle as a bit of down, he would surely have searched in vain for the reaction, since that reaction is born on a magnetic field to the giant decelerating magnets. Now there is no visible transfer of momentum. The magnets do not move in the slightest degree. Space transfers the momentum to them and they lose it in that infinitely vaster momentum of Lemnis. ”

“ Dos-Tev burst out laughing. “Ayhuuu – Mea-Quin, our minds are topheavy. They weigh themselves down with their very strength. But can your bomb generate the necessary intensity?”
Mea-Quin nodded. “It is filled with radioactive material of a type familiar to you – fuel 239-34 – L equals 34.9. But I have it under the control system of Tur Lao.” The old face crinkled in smiles, his eyes glistened slyly.
Dos-Tev brought the ship to the ground once more, beside the dome. He was silent for a moment, while a slow, broad smile crept over his lean face. ”

“ BuIlo – and thou a Warrior! What was it? How were you tricked to sleep? I well know you would not have been asleep normally.”
“The shadow – the little, fiickering shadow-!” gasped Bullo, trembling to his very soul.
Dos-Tev turned to Mea-Quin sadly. “He was caught by some hypnotic device. The cap does not protect against all things. What damage was done?”
“I woke because of a feeling of unrest. The walls of the ship were glowing faintly. As I watched the metal glowed and crumbled. It was a transmutation field, a field so huge I cannot conceive it. The dome – the dome is nigh ruined. ”

“ It is a weapon which, I believe, we must rely greatly upon: their intelligent machines. Their people were warlike but a long period of peace seems to have brought them into greater harmony and with this threat of outside interference they are now working solidly together, I believe. I have received no strong warring impulses, while the impulses from Four were a jumble of separate strains and will-pulls. Their movement in any direction is not a unified march but a resultant of many individual and diverse strainings. ”

“ Those races – the proud men of the fourth planet, the powerful, intelligent men of the 3d alone, for instance, will be a source of friction. Add to this the women of the satellite, who have fought their own males till they believe every male an inferior being. ”

“ We have work to do. We must construct a conference dome. It must be lined with that material of the caps, that within we may have free intercommunication of thought and yet be protected from those without. ”

“ Breaking atoms produce it. The great difficulty of designing the atomic engine was to prevent its appearance. It is uncontrollable.”
“Ay, it is uncontrollable,” smiled Mea-Quin. “An inch of lead will stop by far the greater part of it if the intensity is not too great and will render it harmless then. Our eight inch metal walls would stop a low intensity. Now – here is the long-sought Gamma Ray weapon.” Mea-Quin handed Dos-Tev a small thing, a device that resembled a large fruit, some six inches in diameter, with crinkled, slightly pitted sides, surmounted by a conical hat. ”

“ It will be a terrible task – and then we must separate the races with the result that each, suspicious and naturalIy hateful, naturally resenting and having a feeling of disgust for the strange shapes of those other races, will feel that they have drawn apart to plot and plan against them. ”