Gerald Vance

“ But it can be you, Margot. It is my dying wish that you continue my work. Let nothing stop you. Nothing. Remember this, though: I cannot tell you what to expect when you reach the original home of proto-man. In all probability the whole race has perished, or we’d have heard of them since. But I can’t be sure of that. I can’t be sure of anything. Perhaps proto-man, like some deistic god, became disinterested in the Milky Way Galaxy for reasons we’ll never understand. Perhaps he still exists, in hyper-space. ”

“ In other words, instant travel across the length and breadth of the galaxy!
Whoever re-discovers proto-man’s secret, needless to say, will be the most influential, the most powerful, man in the galaxy. Margot, I thought that man would be me. ”

“ Garr Symm, absolute dictator of the galaxy, if he played his hand right.
Garr Symm sat there for a long time, dreaming of power as no man before him on any world had ever dreamed of power....
Vardin rushed into the airlock of the Canopusian freighter in a state of excitement. At last they had given her something to do, and she had been successful at the outset. Specifically, Ramsey and the beautiful woman had given her a scintillation-counter and told her to prowl among the wrecks with it while they worked on the control board of the freighter, which the beautiful woman had named Enterprise. ”

“ Margot said a second time. “The secret of proto-man, of our ancestors who colonized all the worlds of space with it, instantly, at the same cosmic moment. Think of what it means, Ramsey, can you? Instantaneous travel, anywhere, without the need for energy since energy cannot be used here, without the passage of time since time does not exist here.” ”

“ Cold, came the known and unbidden thoughts to Ramsey’s struggling mind. And lack of air. Attributes of extension, of space, but measured by duration, by time. And since time does not exist in hyper-space, the vacuum out there and the terrible, killing cold, could have no effect on you. You could go out there perfectly protected from the lethal environment by the absence of the time dimension. ”

“ Apparently the hyper-space pattern from Irwadi to Earth is the one I was looking for. The proto-men, if I may be bold enough to call them that, first left hyper-space at that point, perhaps a million, perhaps five million, Earth years ago. I don’t have to tell you what this means, my child. I’ve already indicated it to you previously. It suffices to remind you that, in what science has regarded as the most amazing coincidence in the history of the galaxy, humanoid types sprang up on some three thousand stellar worlds simultaneously between one and five million years ago. ”

“ Vardin said in her soft, shy voice.
“Haven’t you ever been through hyper-space before?” Margot asked the Vegan girl.
“Just once.”
“In normal space,” Ramsey explained, “we feel acceleration and deceleration because the increase or decrease in velocity is experienced at different micro-instants by all the cells of our body. In hyper-space the velocity is felt simultaneously in all parts of the ship, including all parts of us. We become weightless, of course, but the change is instant and we feel no pressure, no pain.” ”

“ I do believe you’re nervous.”
“Anxious, Margot. A hyper-pilot is always anxious just before crossover. You’ve got to be, because the slightest miscalculation can send you fifty thousand light years off course.”
“So? All you’d have to do is re-enter hyper-space and go back.”
Ramsey shook his head. “Hyper-space can only be entered from certain points in space. We’ve never been able to figure out why.” ”

“ In the normal universe, extension is measured by time. That is, it takes a certain amount of time to get from point A to point B. Conversely, time is measured by extension in space. On Earth, a day of time passes when Earth moves through space on an arc one three-hundred-sixty-fifth of its orbit around the sun in length. Since there isn’t any time to measure extension with in hyper-space, since time doesn’t exist here, you can’t speak of mid-points.”
“But this—shoal. It’s always encountered in hyper-space between Earth and Irwadi?”
Ramsey nodded. “Yes, that is right.” ”

“ Ramsey looked at her steadily. “Points which vary with the orbits of the three thousand humanoid worlds, Margot,” he said slowly. He watched her for a reaction, knowing that strange fact about hyper-space—perfectly true and never understood—dovetailed with her father’s letter about proto-man, an unknown pre-human ancestor [p 113] of all the humanoid races in the galaxy, who had discovered hyper-space, bred variations to colonize all the inhabitable worlds, found or created the three thousand crossover points in space, and used them. ”

“ Saluting smartly, Ramar Chind left Garr Symm’s office. Symm smiled and sat perfectly still for some minutes. For Irwadi, yes, he was thinking. Certainly for Irwadi. For Irwadi absolutely. To make Irwadi the most important planet in the galaxy. But important planets—in [p 110] the way that Irwadi would be important—couldn’t maintain the status quo. For example, Irwadi’s form of government might have to be changed. At present, an autocratic bureaucracy with no one man at the top. Ultimately, after the rediscovery of proto-man’s secret—rule by one man. ”

“ It is only granted that I observe—and convince, if I can. I am not a Vegan girl. I am—”
Ramsey said it. “Proto-man!”
“There aren’t many of us left. We discovered matter-transmission. We used it once, to people the worlds of the galaxy. It was our final creative effort. We merely observe now, unable to destroy our creation, trying to keep it out of mankind’s hands. You see—”
“Then back on Irwadi you knew all along we would come here!”
“I was vouchsafed the vision, yes. Even as you—stop her, Ramsey. You must stop her!”
Ramsey sprinted forward. Margot was nearing the black coffin now. ”

“ If you do, and if you succeed, more power will be yours than a human being has ever before had in the galaxy. I won’t presume to tell you how to use it.
Oh, yes. One more thing. Since Earth and Alpha Centauri are on a direct line from Irwadi, Centauri will do quite well as your outbound destination if for some reason you can’t make Earth. Again, good luck, my child. With all my love, Dad.
Ramsey frowned at the letter. He did not know what to make of it. As far as he knew, there was no such thing as a proto-man myth in wide currency around the galaxy. He had never heard of proto-man. ”

“ Margot showed no response, but then, Ramsey told himself, she was a tri-di actress. She could feign an emotion—or hide one. She merely asked: “Is it true that there’s no such thing as time in hyper-space?”
“That’s right. That’s why you can travel scores or hundreds or thousands of light years through hyper-space in hours. Hyper-space is a continuum of only three dimensions. There is no fourth dimension, no dimension of duration.” ”

“ Of course, Irwadi was an important planet-of-call in the Galactic Federation because the vital metal titanium was found as abundantly in Irwadian soil as aluminum is found in the soil of an Earth-style planet. Titanium, in alloy with steel and manganese, was the only element which could withstand the tremendous heat generated in the drive-chambers of interstellar ships during transfer. In the future, Chind Ramar told himself with a kind of cold pride, only Irwadian pilots, piloting Irwadian ships through hyper-space, would bring titanium to the waiting galaxy. ”

“ Ostentatiously, Ramsey reached into his cloak-pocket for a single credit bill and tossed it on the table.
“The denomination is not sufficient, sir,” the albino Sirian croupier said indifferently. Ramsey had known it was not.
Garr Symm’s face turned a darker green. The Vegan girl retreated from Ramsey’s side in fright. Symm raised his hand and an Irwadian waiter brought over a drink in a purple stem glass with a filigree pattern of titanium, bowing obsequiously. Symm lurched with the glass toward Ramsey. “I’m telling you to go,” he said in a loud voice. ”

“ In ten minutes, she had the slow-implosion capsule out of the hopper of a battered old Aldebaranese cargo ship.
“I never saw one of those mechanical arms working before,” Vardin said.
Margot smiled. She was delighted with the timid Vegan girl, with the cold night, with the way the wind blew across the Graveyard, with everything. They had their fuel. Tomorrow night the Enterprise would be ready for its dash into hyper-space. In thirty-six hours she might have her hands on the most valuable find in the history of mankind.... ”

“ Proto-man was tremendously ahead of us in certain sciences, naturally. For example, each humanoid type admirably fits the evolutionary pattern on its particular planet. The important point, Margot, is the simultaneity of the events: it means that proto-man left hyper-space, his birth-place, and peopled the man-habitable worlds of the galaxy at a single absolute instance in time. ”

“ An Earthman in the outworlds, particularly an Earthman fugitive who knew he dared not get into the kind of trouble that could bring the Earth consul to investigate, was used to insults. For Earth was the leading economic and military power of the galaxy, and the fact that Earth really tried to deal fairly with its galactic neighbors meant nothing. Earth, being top dog, was resented.
The thing which got Ramsey, though, was this Garr Symm. ”

“ But what the devil would hyper-space have to do with such a myth? Proto-man, whatever proto-man was, couldn’t have lived in hyper-space. Not in that bleak, ugly, faceless infinity....
Unless, Ramsey thought, more perplexed than ever, it was the very bleak, ugly, [p 105] faceless infinity which made proto-man leave.
“Breakfast!” the Vegan girl called. Ramsey joined her in the kitchen, and they ate without talking. When they were drinking their coffee, an Earth-style beverage which the Vegan girl admitted liking, the apartment door irised and Margot Dennison came in. ”

“ For assaulting the Chief of Irwadi Security, the bulletin said. For assaulting a drunken fool, Ramsey thought.
“Well?” Margot asked. This morning she wore a man-tailored jumper which, Ramsey observed, clashed with the Sirian-archaic furniture. She looked cool and completely poised and no less beautiful, if less provocatively dressed, than last night.
Ramsey returned question for question. “What about the ship?”
“In a Spacer Graveyard, of course. There isn’t a landing field on the planet we could go to.” ”

“ Thoughts raced through Ramsey’s mind. As an administrator, as an Irwadian public servant in a touchy job, Garr Symm, a drunkard, was obviously grossly incompetent. What other qualifications did he have which gave him the top Irwadian Security job? Ramsey didn’t know. He sighed. The Vegan girl’s mouth formed a rictus of pain. Ramsey had a hunch he was going to find out. ”

“ Englander had an Arcturan-earthian wife and twin boys four years old. “I don’t know what about Sally and the kids,” he told Ramsey glumly. “I guess I’ll go over to the New Quarter and try to get some kind of a job.”
“They wouldn’t hire an outworlder to shine their shoes with his own spit, Stu. They have got the planetarization bug, and they’ve got it bad.”
Sally Englander called from the kitchen of the small flat: “Will Jase be staying for supper?”
Englander stared at Ramsey, who shook his head. “Not today, Sally,” Englander said, looking at Ramsey gratefully. ”

“ It was rumored on Irwadi and elsewhere that he couldn’t return to Earth because of some crime he had committed.
“Alwayth the chip on the shoulder,” the Port Security Officer said. “Won’t you Earthmen ever learn?” The splay-tongued reptile-humanoids of Irwadi always spoke Interstellar Coine with a pronounced lisp which Ramsey found annoying, especially since it went so well with the officious and underhanded behavior for which the Irwadians were famous the galaxy over.
“Get to the point,” Ramsey said harshly. “I have a ship to take through hyper-space.” ”

“ Ramsey shook his head and tried to force the thoughts from his mind with doggerel. Ben Adam, he thought. Abou Ben Adam, Humpty Dumpty, hurry, hurry, hurry, the only two headed get yours here the sum of the square of the sides is equal to the square of the hyper-space, no, mustn’t think that mimsy were the borogroves and the momraths now what the heck did the momraths do anyhow absolute [p 118] zero is the temperature at which all molecular activity.... ”

“ Several hours after the setting of the Irwadi primary had ushered in the cold night, Margot Dennison, Ramsey and Vardin arrived at the Graveyard and made their way at once to the Enterprise. They went inside swiftly and in a very few minutes prepared the thousand-tonner for blastoff. Ramsey’s mouth was dry. He could barely keep the thoughts of proto-man from his mind. If Margot read them.... ”

“ Fool,“ Garr Symm said softly, without malice. “That is the last thing I want. Don’t you understand that? No, I guess you don’t.“
“Yes, sir.“
“Their ship?“
“Every morning after they leave we go over it. Still two or three nights away from completion, sir. Also—“ Ramar Chind smiled.
“Yes, what is it?“
“Two or three nights away from completion, except for one thing. They’ll need a fuel supply. Two U-235 capsules rigged for slow implosion, sir. The hopper of their ship is empty.“
“Is there such a fuel supply in the Graveyard? ”

“ Unless, he thought suddenly, the dying man could have simply meant all the myths of human creation, hypothecating a first man who, somehow, had developed independently of the beasts of the field although he seemed to fit their evolutionary pattern.... ”

“ An instant later, having felt no sensation of acceleration, they were floating weightlessly in the cabin of the little Enterprise.
“The qualities of radar,” Garr Symm said, “exist in their totality in a universe of extension. Time, actually is a drawback to radar, [p 114] necessitating a duration-lag between sending and receiving. Therefore, Ramar Chind, radar behaves perfectly in hyper-space, as you see.”
“Yes,” Ramar Chind said, floating near the radar screen aboard the Dog Star. ”