The Potter of Firsk and Other Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

automatically. Our research program is concentrating on the mechanics of straight flight. A hundredth of a second error at a hundred billion light years means three hundred thousand light years. If we missed the home galaxy by that margin we’d be lost forever. Our first problem is to guarantee ourselves a mathematically straight course.”
    “Can’t you line up on stars ahead or behind?”
    Chiram shook his head. “The light from behind can’t catch up with us; in fact, we’ll overtake it and add the images of the stars behind to those of the stars ahead.” He clasped his blunt hands on the desk. “That is our second problem: seeing. Our speed will approximate instantaneity. Assuming ninety per cent efficiency in our destriation field, an average speed of six or seven thousand light years a second will take us a hundred billion light years in six months. The impact of radiation on an unshielded object at this speed would be cataclysmic. The weakest infra-red light would be compacted by a kind of Döppler effect to cosmic rays; ordinary visible light would become a thousand times harder, more energetic, and cosmic rays would strike at a frequency of ten to the thirty-first or thirty-second power. I can’t imagine the effect of radiation like that, but I know it would hurt. We are trying to develop a system of vision that can function under this tremendous impact. Longitudinal sight will be normal, of course, with light striking the side of our ship at normal frequencies.”
    “How long will it take to lick these problems?”
    Chiram said in a measured voice, “We are making satisfactory progress.”
    “How will you know for sure when you’ve returned? One galaxy must look a lot like another…”
    Chiram drummed his fingers on the table. “That’s a good question. I’m sorry to say I have no precise answer. We will trust to alertness, and careful examination of any galaxy in our path which shows the proper size and configuration. The fact that our galaxy is roughly double the average size will help us. We shall have to trust a good deal to luck.”
    “Suppose the universe isn’t spherical, but infinite?”
    Chiram fixed the man with a contemptuous stare. “You’re talking foolishness. How can I answer that question?”
    The reporter hurriedly corrected himself. “What I meant, will you set a limit to the time before you turn around and come back?”
    “We believe the universe is spherical,” said Chiram coolly. “In a fourth-dimensional sense, of course. We will remain under constant acceleration and our speed will increase constantly. If the universe is spherical, we will return; if it is infinite, we will fly on forever.”
    Two ships landed, a slender cylinder and a peculiar impractical-looking hull the shape of a doughnut. Chiram stepped out of the cylinder, marched up the concrete ramp to the glass-walled office.
    Jay Banners, who was putting up the money, and a lank young man were waiting for him. Banners resembled Chiram in outward proportion, but his hair was sparse, the lines of his face were softer. He looked easy, amiable; there was nothing of the spartan or the ascetic in Jay Banners.
    Chiram was associated with the discovery of striatics, the gravitron and the subsequent inertia-negative destriation fields; he had been a member of the original Centauri expedition. Banners had never been into space, but he held majority stock in Star Island Development, and he was director of half a dozen other corporations.
    He waved a pudgy hand at Chiram. “Herb, meet my son, Jay Junior. And now I’ll give you a surprise. Hold your hat. Jay wants to go along on the trip. So I told him we’d see what we could do.” He glanced at Chiram expectantly.
    Chiram pulled up the corners of his mouth, squinted as if he were eating an unexpectedly sour pickle. “Well, now, Banners…I don’t know if it’s advisable…Inexperienced member,” he muttered. “Got a crew pretty well lined out…”
    “Oh come