Skylark Three

come to

lanet, Seaton gave the visiplates and the instrument boa

ar tribe of porpoises, but I'm strong for 'em. They're the most like our own kind of folks, as far as id

them imm

e 'em any other w

just perfectly fine, in spite of their being so funny-looking. Mrs. Carfon is just simply sweet, even if she does look like a

yly. "He probably has as much in

acted like any other boy, but he did se

one time, Mart, when those two phenomenal heads of hair our two little girl-friends are so proud of didn't make any kind of hit at all. They probably regard

ut we aren't planning on living there, so why worry about

at all their land area has been eroded away, how come they've go

was probably of the order of magnitude of three meters of mercury, originally. As

unt for it, all ri

e gone, except on that one world that Dick thinks is a wandering planet, we've found

not? Why shouldn't they be? Remember, man is the highest form of earthly life-at least, in our own opinion and as far as we know. In our wanderings, we have picked out planets quite similar to our own in point of

" conceded Crane, "but it prob

elligent things-freaks that we can't even begin to imagine now-but they probably would be occupying

-they're bipeds, anyway, with recognizable features. I've been studying that record with you, you

d their structure a lot-suppose it had been fifty times as great as it is? What would they have been like? Also, their atmosphere is very similar to ours in composition, and thei

"but it seems to me that you are a

the structure of a range of mountains from a superficial study of three pebbles picked u

ow

possible, and didn't stop. Well, it may be just as well that we didn't. If we go back there, protected as we are with our rays and stuff, it wouldn't surprise m

ested Dorothy. "I hope you aren't planning

e get this Fenachrone mess cleaned up we'll have to do just that little thing, won't we, Mart? As

ontributions to science in fields as yet untouched.

go alone, won'

ours call the frightful things we have seen normal, and are planning on deliberately hunting u

ufus, you red-headed little fraud, you know you wouldn't let me go to the

but broke off in amazement and gaspe

what? It m

oke or something. It came right through the ceiling like a flash-went ri

pward through the floor and passed upward through the ceiling. Doroth

lks-I know what

t, quick!" Dor

power-plant rays. We're an awful long ways off yet, though, and going like a streak of greased lightning, so they're having trouble in holding us. They're friendly, we already know that-they probably want to talk to us. It'd make i

of the control-room. Then it began to increase in density until apparently a man stood before them. His skin, like that of all the inhabitants of the planets of the green suns, was green. He was tall and well-proportioned when judged by Earthly standards, except for his head, which was overly large

ointed toward the table upon which stood the mechanical educator, and Seaton placed it in front of the peculiar visitor. As Seaton donned a headset and handed one to the stranger, the latter stared at him, impressin

mall, of Rovolon-of the metal of power, of which there is not even the most minute trace in our entire solar system. For more than five thousand years our instruments have been set to detect the vibrations which would herald the advent of the user of that metal. Now you have come, and I perceive that you have vast stores of it. Being yourselves seek

d visible streams of force, which seized the transformers, coils and tubes, and reformed

asped. "Say, what

see is simply my projection, composed of forces for which you have no name in your language. You can cut it off, if you wish, with your ray-screens, which eve

eived clearly and plainly a knowledge of the customs, language, and manners of the inhabitants of Norlamin. Each mind became suffused with a vast, immeasurable peace, calm power, and a depth and breadth o

then held their attention were in reality electrons and protons, the smallest units recognized by Earthly science. They clearly understood the combination of these electrons and protons into atoms. They perceived plainly the way in which atoms build up molecules, and comprehended the molecular structure of matter. In mathematical thoughts, only dimly grasped even by Seaton and Crane, were

y, "I envy you. Knowledge is, of course, relative, and I can know so little! Time and space have yielded not an iota of their mystery to our most penetrant minds. And whether we delve baffled into the unknown smallness of the small, or whether we peer, blind and helpless, into the unknown largeness of the large, it is the same-infinity is comprehensible only to the Infinite One: the all-shaping Force directing and controlling the Universe and the unknowable Sphere. The more we know, the

broke the stunned silence. "Well, I'll be kicked to death by little red spiders!" he ejaculated. "Mart, did you see what I saw, or

d gently shook the new insulating base of the great power-tube. Still in silence he turned his back,

, even to teaching us all a strange language, but by no possibility could it have had such an effect upon copper, steel, bakelite, and glass. It was certainly real, and while I cannot begin t

chrone, after all!" cried Dorothy, and

from Crane's encircling arm. "What could a man be called who from the sheer depths of his imagination

red tide rising in waves up to his hair as he wriggled in embarrassment, like any schoolboy. "Mart's done mos

our way out of the woods, at least, and that

bet they'll be able to dope out something just as good. Relieved? That doesn't half tell it, guy-I feel as if I had just pitched off the Old Man of the Sea who's been sitting on my neck! What sa

t her guitar, and they sang one rollicking number after another. Though by no means a Metropolitan Opera quarte

c, Dottie?" asked Margaret, after a t

violin, an accomplished musician, playing upon one of the finest instruments the world has ever known, she was lifted out of h

vacious dances, then "Traumerei" and "Liebestraum." At last she swept into the

mple, and I love you," he declared-and his eyes and his ar

e green in a few months, when the planet would swing inside the orbit of its sun around the vast central luminary of that complex solar system-it made a magnificent picture. They saw sparkling blue oceans and huge

now," remarked Seaton; and it was not long until the

ed them. "With your permission

e centered the visiplate, changed the direction of the bar a trifle, decreased slightly

"The observatory will be upon the dark side of Norlamin when we arrive, but I have a force operating upon the steering mechanism which will guid

t's what we came out here for. But it would ta

re was unbroken silence as the monstrous brain of the menace was studied by the equally capable intellect of the Norlaminian scientist. There was no pause in the mo

ed and the awful record ended, a

y have the will to destroy, which is a thing that I cannot understand. However, if it is graven upon the Sphere that we are to pass, it means

. "Going to take it lying down, wi

o our very natures. No man of Norlamin

eadset again and get my plan, offering any s

plan of battle into the brain of t

ys, as they are not in the province of the Orlon family; but the student Rovol, of the family Rovol of Rays, has all present knowledge of such pheno

ole family studying one subject, and yet having on

insure complete coverage of the field. Soon afterward, it was discovered that very little progress was being made in any branch, because so much was known that it took practically a lifetime to review that which had already been accomplished, even in a narrow and highly specialized field. Many points were studied for years before it was discovered that the identical work had been done before, and either forgotten or overlooked. To remedy this condition the mechanical educator had to be dev

akes only about twenty-five or thirty years-and then he is ready to begin actual work. When that time comes, he receives in one day

t, I believe I might know something myself! As an astronomer, you may be int

g darkness for only a few hours at a time and only in the winter, when our planet is outside the orbit of our sun around the great central sun of our entire system. However, with the Rovolon you have brought us, we shall have

es are working o

st interested in; those able to penetrate a zone of force. From my own very slight and general knowledge I know that it would of necessity be a ray of the fifth order. These rays are very new-they have been

knew more than we do, so a li

st order; in order to distinguish them from waves of the second order, which are given off by particles of the second order, which you know as protons and electr

otelectricity, and bear the same relation to ordinary electricity that electricity does to torque-both are pure energy, and they are inter-convertible. Unlike electricity, however, it may be converted into many different forms by fields of force, in a way comparable to that in which white light is re

being generated only by the breaking down of matter itself into the corresponding particles. However, it has been shown that they are quite similar to protelectricity in their general behavior. Thus, the power that propels your space-vessel, your attractors, your repellers, your object-compas

to know a lot about rays. How about the

ainly is not the end-it is probably scarcely a beginning. We think now that the orders extend to infinite smallness, just as t

st able to decompose matter and thus liberate the rays. This metal, which was called Rovolon after the Rovol, was first described upon theoretical grounds and later was found, by spectroscopy, in certain stars, notably in one star only eight light-years away, but not even the most infinitesimal trace of it exists in our entire solar system.

s nor your projections co

o planets or else the rocket-ships have failed. Our projections are useless, as they can be driven only a very short distance upon our present carrier wave. With a carrier of the fifth order we could drive a project

k for a week-but we're going to land pretty quick, and

ntly lighted building upon which they were dropping and bury themselves many feet in the ground beneath it. But they did not strike the observatory. So incredibly accurate were the calculations of the Norlaminian astronomer and so inhumanly precise were the controls he had set upo

very shortly," Orlon said,

d. Not quite as thrilling as the first one wa

gravity, temperature, and so on?" asked C

alf-way between Earth and Osnome. Temperature, like Osnome most of the time, but fairly comfortable in the winter. Snow now at the poles, but this obs

urce. As they paused and glanced about them, they saw that the Skylark had alighted in the exact center of a circular enclosure a hundred yards in diameter, walled by row upon row of shrubbery, statuary, and fountains, all bathed in ever-changing bill

shook hands cordially in the American fashion with each of them in turn, and placed around each neck a crystal

know them. I present Fodan, Chief of the Five of Norlamin. Rovol, about wh

his boundary there stood a ring of statues of heroic size. Some of them were single figures of men and women; some were busts; some were groups in natural or allegorical poses-all were done with consummate skill and feeling. Between the statues there were fountains, magnificent bronze and glass groups of the strange aquatic denizens of this strange planet, bathed in geometrically shaped sprays, screens, and columns of water. Winding aro

individual sparkling jewels, of every known color, for the most part self-luminous; and each gem, apparently entirely unsupported, was dashing in and out an

ick?" whispered Dorothy, and

uld you mind explaining the why of

ou may have observed that the statuary is very old. No such work has been done for ages. Modern art has developed along the lines of color and motion, hence the lighting effect

shing jewels and asked, "It must have taken a prodig

it is scarcely begun. It was starte

u live that long? How long will it take to fini

f Norlamin from the first cooling of the planet. It will, in all probability, require thousands of years for its completion. You see, time is of little importance to us, and workmanship is everything. My companion will continue working upon

an artist? Suppose she should want to do music or p

unfinished artistic projects in the house of Orlon, and if the companion of my son should not find one to her liking,

'm afraid I didn't understand things very wel

self-evident truth, and are therefore the law. Population is regulated according to the needs of the planet, and since much work is now in progress, an increase in population was recommended by the Five. My companion and I therefore had three children, instead of the customary two. By lot it fell to us to have two boys and one girl. One of the boys will assume my duties wh

to the Country of Youth, where they spend another twenty-five years. There they develop their brains and initiative by conducting any researches they choose. Most of us, at that age, solve all the riddles of the Universe, only to discover later that our solutions have been fallacious. However, much really excellent work is done in the Country of Youth, primarily because of the new and unprejudiced

e of its vigor and keenness. The father then turns over his work to the son by means of the educator-and when the weight of

the fathe

the Country of Age, where they rest and relax after their century of effort. They do whatever they care to do, for as long as they please to do it. Finally, a

hy paused and shrank back against Seaton,

ife-principle is unknowable to the finite mind, as is the All-Controlling Force. But even though we know nothing of the sublime goal toward wh

and their Norlaminian hosts had been long engaged in study and di

g time. I'm getting so dopey I can't think a lick. We'd better go back to the Skylark and turn in, and a

ed quarters have become irksome. Apartments have been prepared here for you. We s

air in front of each person. As Seaton resumed his seat the tra

d Satrazon, the First of Chemistry, answe

als-in short, nothing in the least harmful to your chemistry. It is balanced as to carbohydrates, proteins, fats and sugars, and contai

d beautifully broiled steak which, with its mushrooms and other delicate trimmings, lay upon his rigid although unsupported tray-

food-supply took from your vessel the amount of salt required for the formula. We have been unable to synthesize atoms, for the same reason that the labors of so many others have been hindere

d compared to what you are giving us in return. But it seems that you speak quite impersonally of th

red your individual preferences, and set up the necessary integrals in the mechanism. Th

his one is just too perfectly divine! It doesn't taste like any other fruit I ever a

als, how do you know what you are going

istency of the substance, and that the composition will be well-balanced chemically. You see, all the details of flavor, form, texture, and so on are controlled by a device something like one of yo

eaton, with the others, resumed his vigo

rs were shown to their rooms, and