“That’s true, but, as always in dialectics, we must look for a solution in the opposite. Suppose we obtain an anti-gravitational shadow vectorally and not discretely.”

“Ah! But how?”

Swiftly, Renn Bose drew three straight lines and a narrow sector with an arc of greater radius intersecting them.

“This was known before bipolar mathematics. Two thousand and five hundred years ago it was called the Problem of the Fourth Dimension. In those times there was a widespread conception of multidimensional space; the shadow properties of gravitation, however, were unknown and people attempted to find an analogy with electromagnetic fields which led them to believe that points of singularity meant that matter had disappeared or had been changed into something that could be named but could not be explained. How could they have had any conception of space with their limited knowledge of the nature of phenomena? But our ancestors could guess — you sec, they realized that if the distance from, say, star A to the centre of Earth along line OA is twenty quintillion kilometres, then the distance to the same star by vector OB will equal zero… in practice, not zero but approaching it. They said that zero time would be achieved if the velocity of motion were equal to the velocity of light. Remember that the cochlear calculus2” has been only recently discovered!”

“Spiral motion was known thousands of years ago,” Mven Mass remarked cautiously, interrupting the scientist. Kenn Bose dismissed the remark disdainfully.

“They knew the motion but not the laws! It’s like this, if the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field are two sides of one and the same property of matter and if space is a function of gravitation, then the function of the electromagnetic field is antispace. The transition from one to the other yields the vector shadow function, zero space, which is known in everyday language as the speed of light. I believe it to be possible to achieve zero space in any direction. Mven Mass wants to visit the planet of Epsilon Tucanae — it’s all the same to me as long as I can set up the experiment! As long as I can set up the experiment!” repeated the physicist, lowering his short white eyelashes wearily.

“You will need not only the outer stations and Earth’s energy, as Mven Mass pointed out, but some sort of an installation as well. Such an installation cannot be simple or easily erected.”

“In that respect we’re lucky. We can use Corr Yule’s installation near the Tibetan Observatory. Experiments for the investigation of space were carried out there a hundred and seventy years ago. There will have to be some adjustments and, as far as volunteers to help me are concerned, I can get five, ten, twenty thousand any time I like. I have only to call for them and they will take leave of absence and come.”

“You seem to have thought of everything. There is only one other consideration, but it is the most important — the danger of the experiment. There may be the most unexpected results; in conformity with the law of big numbers we cannot make a preliminary attempt on a small scale. We must take the extraterrestrial scale from the start.”

“What scientist would be afraid of risk?” asked Renn Bose, shrugging his shoulders.

“I wasn’t thinking of personal risk! I know that there will be thousands of volunteers as soon as they are required for some dangerous and novel enterprise. The experiment will also involve the outer stations, the observatories, the whole system of installations that has cost mankind a tremendous amount of labour. These are installations that have opened a window into the Cosmos, that have put mankind in contact with the life, knowledge and creative activity of other populated worlds. This window is mankind’s greatest achievement: do you think that you, or I, or any other individual or group of individuals has the right to take the risk of closing it, even for a short time? I would like to know whether you feel that you have that right and on what grounds?”

“I have and on good grounds,” said Mven Mass, rising to his feet. “You have been at archaeological excavations — do not the billions of unknown skeletons in unknown graves appeal to us? Do they not reproach us and make demands of us? I visualize billions of human lives that have passed, lives in which youth, beauty and the joy of life slipped away like sand through one’s fingers — they demand that we lay bare the great mystery of time, that we struggle against it! Victory over space is victory over time, that is why I’m sure that I’m right, that’s why I believe in the greatness of the proposed experiment!”

“My feelings are different,” said Renn Bose. “But they form the other side of the same thing. Space still cannot be overcome in the Cosmos, it keeps the worlds apart and prevents us from discovering planets with populations similar to ours, prevents us from joining them in one family that would be infinitely rich in its joy and strength. This would be the greatest transformation since the Era of World Unity, since the days when mankind finally put an end to the separate existence of the nations and merged into one, in this way making the greatest progress towards a new stage in the conquest of nature. Every new step in this direction is more important than anything else, more important than any other investigations or knowledge.”

Renn Bose had scarcely finished when Mven Mass spoke again.

“There is one other thing, a personal one. In my youth I had a collection of old historical novels. There was one story about your ancestors, Darr Veter. Some great conqueror, some fierce destroyer of human life of whom there were so many in the epochs of the lower forms of society, launched an attack against them. The story was about a strong youth who was madly in love. His girl was captured and taken away — ’driven off”“ was the word used in those days. Can you imagine it? Men and women were bound and driven off to the country of the conqueror like cattle. The youth was separated from his beloved by thousands of miles. The geography of Earth was unknown, riding and pack animals were the only means of transport. The world of those days was more mysterious and vast, more dangerous and difficult to cross than Cosmic space is for us today. The young hero hunted for his dream, for years he wandered terribly dangerous paths until he found her in the depths of the Asian mountains. It is difficult to define the impression I had when I was younger, but it still seems to me that I, too, could go through all the obstacles of the Cosmos to the one I loved!”

Darr Veter smiled wanly.

“I can understand your feelings but I cannot get clear for myself what logical grounds there are for comparing a Russian story to your urge to get into the Cosmos. I understand Renn Bose better. Of course, you warned us that this was personal….”

Darr Veter stopped. He sat silent so long that Mven Mass began to fidget.

“Now I understand why it was that people used to smoke, drink, bolster themselves up with drugs at moments of uncertainty, anxiety or loneliness. At this moment I feel just as alone and uncertain — I don’t know what to say to you. Who am I to forbid a great experiment? But then, how can I permit it? You must turn to the Council, then….”

“No, that won’t do.” Mven Mass stood up and his huge body was tensed as though he were in mortal danger. “Answer us: would you make the experiment? As Director of the Outer Stations, not as Renn Bose, he is different….”

‘No!” answered Darr Veter, firmly. “I should wait.”

“What for?”

“The erection of an experimental installation on the Moon;’

“And power for it?”

“The lesser gravity of the Moon and the smaller scale of the experiment will make only a few Q-stations necessary.”

“But that would take hundreds of years and I should never see it!”

“You wouldn’t, but as far as the human race is concerned it doesn’t matter whether it’s now or a generation later.”