The Devolutionist and The Emancipatrix
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Homer Eon Flint >> The Devolutionist and The Emancipatrix
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15 Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE DEVOLUTIONIST
And THE EMANCIPATRIX
By Homer Eon Flint
I
OUT OF THEIR MINDS
"Remember, now; don't make a sound, no matter what you see!"
Mrs. Kinney eyed her caller anxiously as they came to a pause in
front of the door. His glance widened at her caution, but he nodded
briefly. She turned the key in the lock.
Next second the two stepped softly into the room. Mrs. Kinney
carefully closed and locked the door behind them; and meanwhile the
man, peering closely into the shadows of the place, made out a scene
of such strangeness that he nearly forgot the woman's injunction.
The room was the private study of Dr. William Kinney. In itself, it
was not at all out of the ordinary. Shelves of books, cases of
surgical and psychological instruments, star charts, maps and
astronomical apparatus--these told at once both the man's vocation
and avocation. With these contents and rather severe furnishings the
room was merely interesting, not remarkable.
But its four chairs certainly were. Each of them was occupied by a
human being; and as Mrs. Kinney and her caller entered, neither of
the four so much as stirred. They were all asleep.
In the nearest chair was the doctor himself, half sitting and half
reclining; in fact, all four of the sleepers were in attitudes of
complete relaxation. The doctor's gray head was resting on one
shoulder wearily.
On his left was a man of medium height and commonplace countenance.
"Mr. Smith," whispered Mrs. Kinney, placing her mouth close to the
caller's ear, so that he might hear the better.
Opposite these two sat a man and a woman, their chairs placed close
together. The one was a slender, well-dressed, boyishly good looking
young woman of perhaps thirty; the other a large, aggressively
handsome fellow possibly five years older. "Mr. and Mrs. Van Emmon,"
explained Mrs. Kinney, still in a whisper.
The four sat absolutely motionless; the caller, looking very
closely, could hardly make out the rising and falling of their
chests as they breathed. Also, he saw that they were all connected,
the one with the other by means of insulated wires which ran to
brass bracelets around their wrists. At one point in this curious
circuit, a wire ran to a small group of electrical appliances placed
on a pedestal at the doctor's side; while the caller was still
further puzzled to note that each of the sleepers was resting his or
her feet on a stool, the legs of which, like the legs of each chair,
were tipped with glass.
After a minute of this the caller turned upon Mrs. Kinney in such
complete bewilderment that she instantly unlocked the door, and
again cautioning perfect silence, led the way into the corridor.
Here she again locked the door. Upon leaving the spot, a quiet young
man with keen gray eyes stepped from a room opposite, and at a nod
from Mrs. Kinney proceeded to do sentry duty outside the study.
Once down-stairs and safely within the living-room--
"This is rather mean of you Mrs. Kinney!" protested the man. "Tell
me all about it, quick!"
The lady complacently took a chair. "Well," she remarked innocently,
"I knew you'd want to see him."
"Yes, but--"
"It serves you right," she went on blithely, "for staying away so
long. Let's see--you left a year ago June, didn't you, Mr. Hill?"
He swallowed something and managed to reply, "Great guns, yes! I've
been in the wilds of New Guinea for a year--without news of any
kind! I saw my first newspaper on board the dirigible this morning!"
"Ah, well," commented Mrs. Kinney provokingly, "you'll have to be
humored, I suppose." She cogitated unnecessarily long, then left the
room to get a folio of newspapers and magazines. One of these she
selected with great deliberation, and opened it at the leading
article. Even then she would not hand it over right away. "You
remember that sky-car idea of the doctor's, don't you?"
"His machine to explore space? He couldn't talk of anything else
when I--you don't mean to say"--incredulously--"that he made a
success of that!"
"He certainly did. Took a three weeks' tour of the planets, month
before last!"
Hill stared in amazement, then leaned forward suddenly and whisked
the magazine out of Mrs. Kinney's fingers. He held the paper with
hands that trembled in excitement; and this is what he read, in the
matter-of-fact black-and-white of The Scientific New Zealander:
STAR EXPLORERS RETURN
Dr. Kinney and Party Visit Venus and Mercury
Bringing proofs which will satisfy the most skeptical, Dr. William
G. Kinney, G. Van Emmon, E. Williams Jackson, and John W. Smith, who
left the earth on December 9 in a powerful sky-car of the doctor's
design, returned on the 23rd, after having explored the two planets
which lie between the earth and the sun.
They found Mercury to be a dead world, like the moon, except that it
once supported a civilization nearly as advanced as our own. They
tell of a giant human, a veritable colossus, who was the planet's
last survivor.
But on Venus they discovered people still living! They are
marvelously developed people, infinitely more advanced than the
people of the earth, and enjoying a civilization that is well-nigh
incredible. Among other things, they have learned how to visit other
worlds without themselves leaving their planet. They do it by a kind
of telepathy; they know all about us here on the earth; and they
have accumulated data regarding the peoples of hundreds of thousands
of other planets! The four explorers are able to prove their
statements beyond the shadow of doubt. They possess photographs
which speak for themselves; they have brought back relics from
Mercury and materials from Venus, such as never existed on the
earth. They submit a vast library of extraordinarily advanced
scientific literature, which was given to them by the Venusians.
The article went on to detail, to the extent of some eight or ten
pages, the main features of the exploration. Hill, however, did not
stop to read it all just then. He looked up, his thoughts flying to
the strange scene in the room up-stairs. "What are they
doing--recuperating?"
"Not exactly." Mrs. Kinney was a little disappointed. "Here--let me
point out the paragraph." And she ran a finger down the column until
it indicated this line:
Among other things they have learned how to visit other worlds
without themselves leaving their planet. They do this by a kind of
telepathy.
"That's the explanation," Mrs. Kinney said quietly. Hill fairly
blinked when he read the paragraph. "They are trying out one of the
Venusian experiments?"
"Of course; you know the doctor. He couldn't resist the temptation.
And I must say the others are just as bad.
"Mr. Smith is quite as much interested as Mr. Van Emmon. Mr. Smith
is an electrical engineer; the other man is a geologist, and a very
adventurous spirit. As for Mrs. Van Emmon--"
"But this account mentions"--Hill referred to the magazine--"'E.
Williams Jackson.' Who was he?"
"She--not he. Mrs. Van Emmon now; she used to be an architect. She
had the other three fooled for ten days; she passed herself off as a
man!"
But Hill was too absorbed in the general strangeness of the affair
to note this amazing item. He again glanced at the article, opened
his mouth once or twice as though to ask a question, thought better
of it each time, and finally got to his feet.
"Let me have this?" referring to the magazine.
Mrs. Kinney handed over the rest of the collection.
"I am sure the doctor would want you to read them. I remember he
said, just before they started away, that he wished you could have
gone with him."
"Did he?" much pleased. Hill made some affectionate remark, under
his breath about "the star-gazing old fraud"; then, evidently in a
hurry to get off by himself and read, he made his excuses and left
the house.
Mrs. Kinney returned to the book she had been reading, glanced at
the clock, and noted that it was almost at the hour, previously
agreed upon, that she should arouse the four up-stairs. She put the
book down and started toward the stairs.
At that instant a large gong sounded in the hall. In the study
up-stairs, the doctor's hand moved away from a pushbutton. He
stirred in his chair; and as he did so, the other three awakened.
First Van Emmon, then "Billie," his wife, and lastly the engineer.
Next second all four were sitting bolt upright, and looking at each
other eagerly.
II
BACK ON EARTH
"Talk about results!" Billie was first to speak. "Why--where do you
suppose I found myself? Out in mid-ocean, in a small boat, with the
spray flying into my--that is, into the face of--" She broke off,
confused.
"Your agent?" the doctor put in. All Billie could do was to nod; Van
Emmon was bursting to talk.
"My agent was a Parisian apache, or I'm a bum guesser! I didn't
catch all that was going on, but it certainly sounded like the plans
and specifications of a garroting!"
"No such excitement here," said Smith. But his eyes were sparkling.
"I was going the rounds with a mail-carrier. How do you explain
that, doc? I've never given mail-carrying a second thought."
"That would have nothing to do with it. As for myself, I was looking
through the eyes of some member of the House of Representatives, in
Washington. I recognized the building. They were calling the roll at
the time."
He paused while he made a note of the incident, for the sake of
checking up the hour with the newspaper accounts later on. Then he
rubbed the knuckles of one hand in the palm of the other--a habit
which indicated that a diagnosis was going on in his mind. The
others waited expectantly.
"There's a big difference," commented he, thoughtfully, "between
these experiences and our last experiments. Then, each of us knew
exactly what to expect. Each had a definite image of a certain
particular person in mind when he went into the teleconscious state.
That made it comparatively easy for us to communicate the way we
did, even when you"--indicating the bride and groom--"were still in
Japan.
"But to-day neither of us had the slightest idea what was coming.
That is, if we followed the rule. Did you"--addressing Smith--"take
care to concentrate strictly upon the one idea of view-point?"
"Nothing else. I kept my attention fixed upon eyes and ears, only,
just as the instructions read."
"Same here," answered Billie, for herself and the geologist.
"Then we know this much: So long as the four of us are connected up
in this fashion"--holding up his braceleted wrists--"we combine our
forces to such an extent that we do not need a definite object. It's
simply the power of harmony."
Billie was anxious to get it down pat. "In other words, there's
nothing to prevent me from locating some one, although unknown to
me, so long as we four agree upon the same locality?"
"That's it exactly. If we agree to concentrate upon Greenland, even,
we shall find four people there whose view-points resemble our own.
The main thing is to find similar view-points."
There was some discussion along this line, in which the doctor made
it clear that view-point was simply another name for perspective,
and that it had nothing whatever to do with actual mental
accomplishments. The view-point was really the soul.
"As yet," he went on, "we should make no attempt to 'put ourselves
in the other fellow's place.' Such efforts require a violent
exertion of the imagination, and we need practice before tackling
the more advanced problems.
"Time enough, after a while, to get in touch with the Venusians.
There's none of them that has a view-point like ours. And once we've
done that--"
"What?" from Billie, breathlessly.
"Anything! The whole universe will be open to us! Why, I understand
from reading these books"--indicating the Venusian manuscripts--"that
there is such a thing as an intelligent creature, so utterly unlike
ourselves that--" He stopped short.
"For the time being," said Smith quickly, "we'd better be content
with something familiar. Is there some other planet in our solar
system that would do, doc?"
"No. According to the Venusians, the only others that are habitable
besides Venus and the earth, are Mars and Jupiter. And it seems that
the people on these two are so totally different--"
"We couldn't get an answer?"
"Very unlikely. Besides, I am having the cube refitted for a
two-months' cruise. Rather thought I'd like to visit Mars and
Jupiter in person.
"But when it comes to leaving the solar system entirely the
telepathic method is the only one that will work; even the nearest
of the fixed stars is out of the question."
"How far is that?" Smith inquired.
"The nearest? About four and a half light-years."
"Yes, but what's a light-year?"
"It amounts to sixty-three thousand times the distance from here to
the sun!"
Smith whistled. "Nothing doing in the cube, that's sure. Besides,
could we expect to find any people like us in the neighborhood of
that star?"
"Not Alpha Centauri." The doctor reached for one of the Venusian
books, and pointed out certain pages. "It seems that the Class IIa
stars--that is, suns--are the only ones which have planets in the
right condition for the development of humans. The astronomers
already suspected as much, by the way. But the Venusians have
definitely named a few systems whose evolution has reached points
almost identical with that of the earth.
"Now, until we have acquired a certain amount of ability"
--examining the books more closely--"our best chance will lie in the
neighborhood of a giant star known to us as Capella."
"Capella." Billie had drawn a star-chart to her side. "Where is that
located?"
"In Auriga, about half-way from Orion to the Pole Star. She's a big
yellow sun.
"At any rate, the Venusians say that this particular planet of
Capella's has people almost exactly the same as those of the earth,
except"--speaking very clearly--"except that they have had about one
century more civilization!"
Billie exclaimed with delight. "Say--this is going to be the best
yet! To think of seeing what the earth is going to be like, a
hundred years from now!"
Instantly Van Emmon's interest became acute. "By George! Is that
right, doc? Are we likely to learn what the next hundred years will
do for us?"
"Don't know exactly." The doctor spoke cautiously. "That's merely
what I infer from these books."
"If we do," ran on the geologist excitedly, "we'll see how a lot of
our present day theories will be worked out! I'm curious to see what
comes of them. Personally, I think most of them are plain nonsense!"
"That remains to be seen." The doctor glanced around. "Remember:
what we want is the view-point only; and the place is Capella's
planetary system. Ready?"
For answer the others leaned back in their chairs. The doctor
touched the button at his side, as a signal to his wife; he settled
himself in his chair; and in a minute his head was dropping over
against his shoulder. In another second the minds of the four
experimenters were out of their bodies; out, and in the twinkling of
an eye, traversing space at absolute speed.
For thought, like gravitation, is instantaneous.
III
SMITH'S MIND WANDERS
Secretly Smith hoped he might find an agent who also was an
engineer. He had this in mind all the while he was repeating the
Venusian formula, the sequence of thought-images which was
necessary to bring on the required state of mind. The formula had
the effect of closing his mind to all save telepathic energy, and
opening wide the channels through which it controlled the brain.
No sooner had he repeated the words, meanwhile concentrating with
all the force of his newly trained will upon the single idea of
seeing and hearing what was happening on the unknown, yet quite
knowable planet--no sooner had his head sunk on his chest than he
became aware of a strange sound.
On all sides unseen apparatus gave forth a medley of subdued jars
and clankings. A variety of hissing sounds also were distinguishable.
And meanwhile Smith was staring hard, with the eyes he had borrowed
along with the ears, at a pair of human hands.
These hands were manipulating a group of highly polished levers and
hand-wheels. So long as his borrowed sight was fixed upon that group
Smith was entirely ignorant of the surroundings. All he could
surmise was that his agents operated some sort of machinery.
Then the agent glanced up; and Smith got his first shock. For he now
saw a cluster of indicating dials, such as one may see on the
instrument board of any automobile; but the trained engineer found
himself absolutely unable to interpret one of them. They were marked
with unknown figures!
Nevertheless, the engineer received an unmistakable impression,
quite as vivid as though something had been said aloud. "Progress;
all safe," was the thought-image that came to him.
He listened closely in hope of hearing a spoken word. Also, he tried
his best to make his agent look around the place. Other people might
be within sight. However, for a couple of minutes the oddly familiar
hands kept manipulating the unfamiliar instruments.
Then, somewhere quite close at hand, a deep-toned gong sounded a
single stroke. Instantly the agent looked up; and Smith saw that he
was inspecting the interior of a large engine-room. He had time to
note the huge bulk of a horizontal cylinder, perhaps fifty feet in
diameter, in the immediate background; also a variety of other
mechanisms, more like immensely enlarged editions of laboratory
apparatus than ordinary engines. Smith looked in vain for the
compact form of a dynamo or motor, and listened in vain for the
sound of either. Then, in swift succession, came two strokes on the
unseen gong, followed by a shrill whistle.
Smith's borrowed eyes became fixed upon that group of dials again.
Their indicators began to shift, some rapidly, some slowly. Once the
agent gave a swift glance through a round window--the place seemed
to be lighted by ordinary daylight--and Smith saw something
unrecognizable flit by.
A little further progress, and then came three strokes on the gong,
followed by a low thrumming. In response to these, the agent
deliberately picked out two levers, and pulled them down. When his
glance returned to the dials, one of them showed immense
acceleration.
By and by came another triple clanging, another pair of levers was
pulled down, and instantly the jarring and clanking gave way to a
decided rumble, low and distinct, but so powerful that it shook the
air. At the same time the agent quit his post and went over to the
giant horizontal cylinder.
Now Smith could see that this vast structure was merely part of an
engine whose dimensions were quite beyond any former experience. It
was a simple affair, being merely a reciprocal machine like the most
elementary form of steam engine. But, instead of being operated by
steam, it was a chemical machine; Smith's trained eyes told him that
the cylinder was really an enormous retort. And he noted with
further perplexity that the prodigious piston-rod not only moved
with terrific speed, but in a strictly back-and-forth motion; its
far end did not revolve.
The agent seemed satisfied with it all. He turned about and
walked--so far as Smith could sense in the usual manner of earth's
humans--back to the dials again. Just then a door opened a short
distance away and another man entered.
Smith would have mistaken him for the employee of some garage. He
was dressed in a suit of greasy blue overalls; and as he advanced
toward the eyes Smith was using, he looked about the room with
practiced glance. He merely nodded to Smith's man, who returned the
nod just as silently; and such was the extreme brevity of it all,
Smith was afterward unable to describe the man.
His agent, thus relieved of his duty temporarily, strolled out
another door, which took him through a narrow corridor and another
door, opening on to some sort of a balcony, or deck. Smith fully
expected to look upon an ocean.
Instead, he found himself gazing into a sea of clouds. He was in
some sort of aircraft!
Next moment, quite as though it had all been prearranged, a large
sky-cruiser hove into sight perhaps a quarter of a mile away. It
seemed to materialize out of the clouds, and rapidly bore down upon
the craft in which the agent stood.
But the practical man of the earth was eying the air-ship in
increasing amazement. For it was truly a ship; a huge vessel
wonderfully like one of the old-fashioned freighters which used to
sail the seas of the earth. What was more, it had four tall, sloping
masts, each spread with something remarkably like canvas; and that
whole incredible hulk was actually swinging in mid air!
Looking closer, Smith saw that the masts were exceedingly tall; they
held enough canvas to propel ten ships. And each stick sloped back
at so sharp an angle--much sharper than forty-five degrees--that the
wind not only blew the craft along in its course, but actually
supported it as well.
It meant a wind which would make a hurricane seem tame. Either that,
or air with greater density than any Smith knew about.
Suddenly the cruiser came about into the wind, and at the same
instant it began to take in sail, all the sheets furling in unison.
Simultaneously great finlike wings shot out of slits in the sides of
the hull; and immediately they began to beat the air, back and
forth, back and forth, with the speed and motion of swallows.
So this was the meaning of the giant reciprocal engine! Instead of
the screw propeller which characterized earth's aircraft, these
vessels employed the true bird principle, combining it with the
simple methods of primitive sailing craft.
As soon as the ship stopped its wind-driven rush and began to employ
its wings, the speed straightway slackened; and the ships began to
descend. About the same time the figures of several people appeared
on what might be called the bridge; and assuming that these people
were as large as the man whom Smith had seen enter the engine-room--a
chap of average height--then that ship, in proportion, was all of a
mile long!
But Smith's awe was not shared by his agent, who turned
indifferently away and looked about the sky as though in search of
other sights. In doing so, he leaned over the deck's railing; and
Smith saw the sheer sides of the giant ship, extending fore and aft
almost indefinitely; while far overhead billowed vast clouds of
white cloth. The vessel was now under sail.
About a mile higher up, and almost that distance to one side, the
agent's eyes made out two tiny specks. He watched them closely for a
moment as they pitched and tossed queerly about; then darted into
the engine-room, secured a pair of binoculars of an old, squat
pattern, and swiftly focused upon the nearer of the two.
Smith instantly sensed a disaster. The object was a small air-craft,
of a sort entirely strange to the engineer; yet he knew that it was
disabled. One of its queer wings was broken and fluttering, as the
little machine dropped, tumbling and twisting erratically, in an
inexplicably slow fashion toward the unseen ground. Smith glimpsed a
single figure, presumably strapped in the seat.
Then the focus changed to cover the other machine. It was of the
same type; and Smith saw that it was swooping in a steep spiral, its
driver leaning over in his seat, looking down.
Next moment the two were in focus together. Every second they
dropped closer and closer to Smith's borrowed eyes. And in less time
than it takes to tell it, they had come so close that when the
occupant of the disabled craft lurched heavily to one side, Smith
could plainly make out the long, flying hair of a woman.
She was unconscious, and strapped in!
Her craft capsized. At the same time the other driver--a
man--maneuvered so as to spiral exactly around the wreck as it fell.
When it came right side up again--now only a half a mile away--he
drove down so close that his machine nearly grazed the woman's head.
As he did so, he leaned over and tried to unfasten her. But the
unsteadiness of her craft prevented this.
He made a second try. This time his own machine narrowly escaped
injury; he steered it hastily away from that damaged wing. And then
he made a supreme effort.
Bringing his machine directly across the top of the other as it once
more righted itself, he touched one of his controls, so that his own
flier's spiral increased in steepness. Straightening up, he poised
himself while he coolly measured the distance; and then he calmly
leaped a matter of ten or twelve feet, over and down to the top of
the other craft.
The shock of his landing steadied it. Clinging fast with one hand,
the man bent and unbuckled the woman's strap. Next instant he had
lifted her, a dead weight, into his arms and then over his
shoulders.
His own machine was still scooting downward, its speed even greater
than that of the broken flier. When the man saw it swinging past and
below him, he instantly clambered, burden and all, to the edge of
the cockpit. For a second he stood, balancing precariously; and
then, half jumping, half diving, he plunged once more.
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