George O. Smith

“ Cliff's error was not in his mathematics; it was in his life.
Of all the things Maculay needed, more work along the same line with no relaxation was not among the list. What Maculay needed—or would eventually get in a sanatorium—was a long period of relaxation. Fun and games; a bit of competition; a hangover, and the sheer physical delight of wrapping an arm about the slender waist of a female and swaying to and fro to the rhythmic beat of tomtoms and the howl of a well beaten clarinet. ”

“ Clifford Maculay reacted instantly to the doctor's question; he became half-angry, completely indignant.
Doctor Hanson smiled. "You're not angry at the question," he said quietly; "you're not even surprised that a man of seventy should ask such a question. What you are indignant about is that your mind denies such a need. Cliff, you're trying to run your body with your brain."
"Naturally. So what has my love life—?"
"You've got glands too," remarked Hanson. "And some of them are damned important to mental balance." ”

“ Doctor Hanson would not have been able to locate Maculay at all. But he had equipped Ava with the same set of ideas, plus the desire to catch up with the physicist wherever he might have gone; because she was thus equipped, Ava went where Maculay would—and had—gone.
Melaxis, Venus, was a mad mixture of culture and frontier. It boiled with the same sort of teeming millions as New York City; it was a modern city, with white granite buildings, subways, and broad streets filled with racing traffic. But along these broad streets went the rough-shod colonists. ”

“ You should view this sensibly; if another race can employ the spacedrive without ruining the universe, so can we. Now why not let busy men alone to work, while you go back to your mental cripples? Good day!"
Hanson fumed but it did no good. He was licked by animosity, disdain, and complete lack of sympathy. There was nothing to do but leave. And the doctor left, half-convinced that Redmond was right in assuming that if one galactic race could use the negative-space drive, another could do the same without fear. But he was only half-convinced; he wanted an opinion from Maculay. ”

“ Cliff Maculay took the two handles, one in each hand. His eyes glazed a bit, and he laughed uncertainly. "Maybe the creation of the universe was started by some fool who created negative space," he said thickly. "You simple idiot, this is exactly the danger that almost drove me nuts; you haven't solved a thing!" ”

“ But the one thing that caused consternation throughout the entire solar system was a sickening shift. Spacecraft and planet gave a tiny, queasy slip, sort of like a heavy man who has just trod upon a grape. Things move according to their mass and according to their distance from the black shaft of energy. On planets, it was just enough to cause fear; the most infinitesimal waver in the constant course of the planets awakens racial fear. In spacecraft, the shift was more violent, but here people were prepared for a bit of wobble. ”

“ Doctor Hanson looked at the man. This was probably the first time that the entire man had relaxed, mind and body, in years. But Hanson did not see the point: Maculay may have run into a mathematical paradox, but it was not of honest mathematics. Figures do not lie, but liars can figure; it is more than possible that a brain will introduce an error in order that the facts of the case be unrecognized. Hanson nodded quietly. Man was mind and glands and body and appetite, bones, hide, and ulcers. If a sick mind can produce a sickness of the body, the reverse is true. ”

“ Redmond laughed in a superior manner. "Since matter cannot exceed the velocity of light without being encased in a volume of unreal space—and since a volume of unreal space would kick up the same sort of wake as we measured—we can assume that some intelligence has developed negative space and is using it. Negative space, Doctor Hanson, is not to be found free in nature."
"But you've really added nothing to Maculay's Equations."
"We've proven by observation that the sustained destruction of the universe will not obtain; we'll prove it, too." ”

“ Cliff took himself seriously, far too seriously. With delicate verbal barbs, Hanson began to poke fun at some of the imbecilities of pedantic reasoning. Maculay offered resistance at first, but Hanson worked him over the ground carefully, pointing out that Maculay, the only man in the world capable of understanding the variable-matrix wave mechanics, was in no position to snort at his fellow man. After all, Gertrude Stein had once gained great popularity on the theory that no one could understand her and therefore she must be sheer genius. ”

“ The expanding universe is expanding much faster than mankind's puny efforts to trim it down at a half mile per trim."
"Why didn't you tell me this before instead of giving me a lot of guff?" roared Hanson.
"Because the shoe is on the other foot," snapped Rober. "This time you need help. And like the rest of us idiots who show our ignorance when we ask medical questions, you show your ignorance of physics by the damfool questions you ask. But I've done some piddling with Maculay's Equations and the guy has something real and something far above my head, too. Why not ask Maculay?" ”

“ Men who went to Venus to escape whatever particular hell they felt on earth. Men who objected to taxes, laws, responsibilities, oppressions, regimentations, legalities, religions, and the rest. They were a hardy lot, a bit quick on the trigger and quite inclined to stand upon their own personal integrity. They were just, but their justice was hard-boiled. A man was innocent—or he was guilty enough to get the works.
And it was among this churning metropolis that Ava Longacre landed to seek out Maculay. ”

“ But the doctor's error was in not realizing that the human mind, once released of its inhibitions, can make a shrewd calculation. In the case of Ava Longacre, whose mental blocks would have rendered her undesirable to Cliff Maculay; when once released, the woman's mind reversed its tactics. Where the conscious mind had the balanced life distorted into undesirability, now her mind distorted into undesirability—the more responsible way of living—because she was beginning to enjoy excitement. ”

“ But he did know that the trouble with both Maculay and Ava Longacre laid in the subsurfaces of the conscious mind. Blocks, inhibitions, and fears instilled as a youth had driven Maculay to seek his excellence in mathematics as a goal rather than as the means to the normal goal of a happy, balanced life. In the filing-cabinet of the mind, however; in the subconscious mind of Clifford Maculay was all of the data of the life he should have led, held there subdued by the blocks of the conscious mind. Hanson had opened the doorway by removing these blocks, and he had done a fine job. ”

“ Hanson looked at them clinically, then either reversed them or let them stand, depending upon their possible affect. Each phase took time; it is not simple to take a man who has never held a billiard cue and make him believe that excellence at the pool table is an evidence of a sharp eye and fine coordination instead of the result of a misspent youth. And Cliff's attitude towards women was troublesome. His mother, the youthful reading of too much of King Arthur, or Lord knew what, had given Maculay the odd idea that a woman was a sort of goddess, not to be touched by the hand of clod-like man. ”

“ Hanson shook his head. "You'll be safe," he said. "At the present moment you have too many inhibitions to rouse a stir in Cliff Maculay."
Ava snorted angrily. She was still forgetting Maculay; in fact she forgot him four or five times each day. Each time she reminded herself that it was a good thing that she did not 'go' for his type of man since the two of them would never get along.
Defensively, Ava said, "I'm to go to Venus and comb the entire planet for a man on a binge?"
Doctor Hanson chuckled. "For he who knows the answer, Cliff Maculay would leave a trail a mile wide," he said. ”

“ Maculay pondered for a moment. "Do you understand variable-matrix radiation mechanics?"
"Probably as little as you know synaptic pressure theory."
"That's the trouble. I can't explain in detail what I want. I can only explain by analogy. Look, Doc, for eight years I've been experimenting with some mathematics along an entirely new field of theory. Indications are that gross matter can exceed the velocity of light under certain conditions; but in attempting to define these conditions by mathematical formulation I've hit a snag." ”

“ People do not expect a man to step up to his first piano, sit himself down, and run through a faultless repertoire from Bach to Bebop. But these same people nod their heads at a new author's writing and think it is the first time he ever sat down to a typewriter—and then swear that they will do likewise as soon as they get a couple of free hours. Maculay was no exception, plus the fact that Hanson had given his mind the false experience of writing to cover up many irregularities in Maculay's past. ”

“ Maculay looked at the controls that projected side by side on the polished black panel labelled Upper and Lower.
"Dunno," said Maculay thickly.
Hanson watched him carefully. "Cliff," he said quietly, "you knew about the streak of energy, too. If that were the answer, you'd have come out of your mental tizzy."
Maculay turned to Redmond. "What means have you to prevent the sustained reaction?"
Redmond shook his head. "We don't need any. If another race can do it—"
"Don't be an idiot! Just because one race makes iron steamships it is no sign that iron floats on water." ”

“ A few days of that sort of bounce and Maculay would have it. The door closed exuberantly and Cliff was on his way to a one-year binge.
He paused once outside of the doctor's office. Ava Longacre was bent over some notes, and Cliff viewed her contemplatively. She stood up and smiled at him. It was a sort of professional smile, the kind she gave all of the doctor's visitors; it made no difference to Ava whether the visitor were seventy or seventeen. She gave each of them the same dry smile. ”

“ Ava's previous escort was a man of experience, possessor of a fresh hundred, and willing to play the game. His was the simple logic of the wolf; far better to have a woman you might be able to get than one who wanted someone else. Furthermore, he knew enough about human nature to toss a few cupfuls of oil on an already interesting fire. "See here," he said to Maculay, "what's the idea of making passes at my girl?" ”

“ It was 'Our Equations' now instead of 'Maculay's Equations'.
Hanson continued to nod and Redmond kept watching the spot on the Doctor's glasses.
"However," said Redmond, "the fact is that the power output does not exceed infinity at any time in this space. Not really, and therefore the paradox is answered. It is merely apparent, if you follow me. Actually, the spacecraft is not in real space and therefore it need not have an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light. However, there is no way of anchoring the generator on the planet while testing, nor of dissipating the energy. ”

“ He was neither Maculay the Physicist now, nor was he Maculay the hell-raiser; he was a glad mixture of both. "It came to me," he told Hanson, "just like That!"
"But—?"
"Easy. Easy. The output from the upper generator creates negative space. But before it can establish an expanding field, the output of the lower generator nullifies it. For the lower generator is making a field of positive space equal to the force from above. Take unity. Add unity and you have two. Cancel one unity and you have unity—plus a spacedriver!" ”

“ The Island Princess took off on schedule, arrowed into the blackness of space, and set her nose-sight on Venus. She was forty hours a-space when it happened. And the Island Princess was one of the four spacecraft close enough to the thing to have its presence recorded in the celestial globe.
It came with a roar of sound from the radio, which eliminated all communications instantly, and continued on a diminishing power for an hour until it fell below the cosmic noise level. It appeared in the celestial globe as an ebon shaft ”

“ Doctor Maculay is a slave driver and a martinet. Cigarettes, liquor, and wild women are annoying things that detract from the single-purposedness of life. Doctor Maculay is the kind of duck who would rather work overtime than make frolic with a dame—and he expects everybody who works with him to do the same. He also pays them accordingly, since a small room, a sterile diet, and a minimum of clothing are all that is necessary for any man dedicated to science. ”

“ That black shaft of energy was really a spacecraft, passing through the solar system at a velocity higher than the speed of light. Some extra-solar race, colonizing the galaxy. What we detected was the space-wake of such a craft. You have no idea of the energy kicked up when a body passes through space at a velocity higher than that of light. Then Our Hero, bullied by his superiors, shows that he has measured the energy-curve and solved the secret of interstellar travel."
A slight frown came to Maculay's face. ”

“ I'm no abstract mathematician, Steve, but I'm forced to fumble in the dark with some very cockeyed theories that make no sense. Maculay has the idea that the generation of some sort of negative space would permit gross matter to exceed the velocity of light, but that this negative space would destroy by mutual cancellation this present, or positive space. ”