Edmond Hamilton

“ And at the same moment we felt, faintly, the strange tingle of that radiation through our bodies.
"If It's filtering through even the Dome's walls," Carew faltered, "then It's so strong now—"
"So strong that our foot-thick beryllium armor is no more good than paper!" I finished hoarsely.
We knew what had happened. Hours before, the armor would have been effective. But in those hours, as we had worked, It had been growing bigger and stronger. Now It was too strong for armor of any kind. Soon It would be too strong even for the massive walls of the Dome. ”

“ This new radiation from Element One-forty-four is the spark—a spark never existing before in the universe. A spark that has grown with superhuman swiftness now, linking separated transuranic elements together in a strange, loose physical body whose nerves are intangible radiation! A body—and a mind! Only a newborn mind yet, but powerful enough already to warp Andersen into helping Its body grow in strength by bringing those elements together! And now—"
Zarias didn't get a chance to finish. Carew, sick and staggering, uttered a thin, high cry. ”

“ I stumbled and would have fallen but for Marie's firm arm around me. Zarias' face was livid when he took his helmet off, and I knew then what my own must look like.
"Burris?" said Ramon Varez quietly.
"In there," croaked the Greek. "In there working for It now, with Mathers and Andersen. Soon, maybe, all of us will be!" He got a grip on himself and stopped that. "By heaven, no! No Thing of minerals and rays can conquer men! We'll find a way!"
"The helmets failed, then?" said Cubbison anxiously.
"Too thin," Zarias nodded. "It'll take a foot of beryllium to protect us. ”

“ When that happened, when we were all mindless puppets who couldn't answer the televisor, those rockets would carry out Cubbison's orders and obliterate us and the Station together.
"I won't quit without at least a fight!" Zarias raged. "I'm going in there!"
He started to get into his armor. But Ramon Varez caught his arm.
"Zarias, wait!" cried the Costa Rican. "There's still a chance, if you'll let me try it! A stratagem based on psychology."
Zarias laughed mirthlessly. "Our sciences are our master passions right to death. Thanks, Ramon. ”

“ Zarias laughed mirthlessly. "There has been a blow-up. A bad one. New life has been born—new life. Something alien to our cosmos, something Nature never intended to exist here, but which we clever little people brought into being. Andersen was right last night!" His voice rasped higher. "Right now, It's in there in Main Physics lab! What is It? It's twenty-odd chunks of transuranic elements, formed into an organized body by linking radiation-nerves, by which it can think, feel and act. It's only newly born, It doesn't know much yet, but It knows that It wants to grow!" ”

“ Nothing like them ever existed in the natural cosmos. They're an artificial intrusion, a brand-new order of matter that doesn't rightly belong in our universe at all."
Zarias snorted. "My dear Dane, I'd advise you to consult our friend Varez on the state of your psyche."
I saw that Andersen was a little hurt. "He's only joking, Nils," I put in.
Zarias swore. "I am not joking, Drummond. When a serious scientist starts going mystic, it's time he had his complexes checked."
"Come, come, gentlemen," said Burris, in his mocking way. "We must remember not to get on one another's nerves!" ”

“ Zarias went on. "It's newborn, fumbling, groping. We have to kill It before It gets bigger."
"But how?" cried Marie. "How can you kill a thing of chemical elements and radiation?"
The Greek set his teeth. "We've got to get back into Main Physics lab and break up Its body by switching those elements back to their chambers. Then we can use the emergency-charges to explode the chambers and so destroy It."
He looked at Marie and Burris. "We'll need shields to keep that radiation off our brains. What will hold it out best?"
"Beryllium, I think," Burris answered. ”

“ All this time, Andersen had stood behind me staring into the visor of Chamber N in a blank sort of way. In our excitement, we hadn't paid him any attention. But now as we stood dazed and silent, he spoke. ”

“ We were the second shift of scientists to work at the Station.
We had begun where the first shift left off, at transuranic element Number One-thirty-six. And with Zarias sparking the work, we had run the new elements up to a hundred and forty-four, the last one just being separated now. And it looked as though we're now working into a more stable series of elements.
That's why Andersen irked me a little with his talk of these new elements being a challenge to the normal cosmos.
"Everything man does is a challenge like that," I told him next day in his lab. ”

“ Cubbison answered fussily. "It might get all of us under control as it has Andersen and Mathers. In that case, we'd all be working to help It grow. The Commission is sending two rockets at once to take off all Station personnel if the situation here becomes untenable. But in case we're overpowered by the Thing before the rockets can get here, and fail to maintain intelligent communication by televisor, the rockets will drop plutonium bombs on the Station."
We stared at him. "You mean, destroy the Station?" said Burris. "Destroy all of us?" ”

“ He spoke in a queer, halting way, his eyes fixed on the televisor screen.
"We must bring that mass of One-forty-four and a lot of the other transuranic elements out of the chambers, into this lab," he said.
Burris uttered a yelp. "Are you crazy? That new ray might induce enough unpredictable activity in the other elements to trigger a big fission!"
Andersen just looked at him vaguely. "We must do that," he murmured. "It has been born, but It is still weak. We must help It grow stronger, or It will die." ”

“ They say that when a man reports for duty at Transuranic Station he spends his whole first day peering raptly from the lookout, and then never goes up there again. It's nearly the truth—the novelty of being on the Moon wears off fast, when nothing out there ever changes. ”

“ Is it the sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon and other elements of our bodies? You know it is not. There's a spark there, a chemical spark kindled long ago on the primal Earth, that unites those inert elements into a living organism. ”

“ Andersen shook his head. "Not quite the same, Drummond. Iron and electromagnetic vibrations always existed in Nature. We just used them. But these transuranic elements—they never existed before."
Before I could argue further, the inter-phone across his lab squawked in Zarias' voice.
"Drummond! Andersen! Come over here and I'll show you something!"
We went through the tunnels in a hurry, to Main Physics lab. There were already a half-dozen others there—Marie Laurent, Burris, Varez and others.
"Take a look at the panel of Chamber N!" Zarias yelled at us. ”

“ I do recall that as we burst into the lab, Mathers and Andersen were working in the same dazed, mechanical way with the canyon controls.
And I recall that they had arranged the lead trays that contained chunks or heaps of the glowing transuranic elements in a curious circular pattern around the conveyor-rack on which the tray of radiant Element One-forty-four still rested. And that between the One-forty-four and the other elements, the shimmering radiation of Its nerves pulsed and throbbed.
"One-forty-four is the brain—switch it back first!" Zarias shouted as we plunged into the lab. ”

“ But you can't make protective helmets of foot-thick beryllium."
"We'll plate anti-rad helmets as thickly with beryllium as we can," Zarias retorted, "and take our chances."
Cubbison finally got a chance to speak. He spoke as fussily as though all this were some annoying ordinary accident. ”