Читать книгу The Cosmic Crusaders: The Golden Amazon Saga, Book Eight - John Russell Fearn - Страница 6

CHAPTER ONE

VIONA’S IDEA

With the passing of Sefner Quorne, master scientist of Jupiter, from the scheme of things, his destruction at the will of the Central Intelligence being absolute, there began for the three greatest scientists on Earth a new era of activity.

“Why don’t we do as I suggested long ago and form the Cosmic Crusaders?”

It was Viona who spoke—Viona of the copper-gold hair and sapphire blue eyes. Viona, daughter of the fantastic Golden Amazon and Abna of Jupiter. Viona—young, vastly strong, impetuously brilliant, already the mistress of a dozen complicated sciences and the widow of Sefner Quorne. But to her the memory of him was bitter. She had never really been his wife: he had simply used her—and now he would use her no more.

“The Cosmic Crusaders, eh?” It was Abna who spoke this time, the metaphysical wizard of Jupiter, seven feet of overpowering blond manhood, and the only male in all the Solar System who had ever beaten the Golden Amazon at her own game. In most things he was her equal, and in a few isolated instances her master, though she had never admitted it and never would.

“At least,” the Golden Amazon herself said, “it would be a change from monotony, Abna. Earth has little need of our assistance and guardian­ship these days.”

For a moment there was silence in the solarium at the summit of the great building where the Amazon had her London headquarters. Below, there stretched the enormity of cita­dels that was the metropolis. Over­head there came and went the fleets of soundless aircraft. Occasionally a rocket-powered spaceship took off in a soul-tearing scream, which faded as the vessel climbed beyond the limits of the atmosphere. Here was the world of a future time—placid, organ­ized, and prosperous.

“You once said,” Abna remarked, “that we should start a kind of super ‘help your neighbor’ campaign and call ourselves the Cosmic Crusaders. A kind of helping hand to those planetary inhabitants who haven’t our knowledge and resources.”

“Right!” Viona confirmed. “Anything wrong with the suggestion?”

“Nothing at all; very laudable. The only point is, my dear, I can’t think of any planetary populations which need helping. From here to Pluto they are all under our aegis and our benefits are theirs. Whom are we supposed to help?”

“That is what has been baffling me, too,” the Amazon commented, turn­ing her beautiful face toward the two at the further end of the sunny roof-top solarium.

Viona sat up and smote her head in disgust. “I live with the greatest scientific geniuses in the System and they can’t even see what I’m driving at! You’re slipping, the pair of you! I’m not talking about our immediate Solar System, about which we know all there is to know: I’m thinking of the worlds beyond! Far out in space where telescopic power cannot reach. Worlds nearer to the Milky Way than to us. The galaxial deeps, so far removed from here that our System would not be apparent to them any more than theirs is to us.”

The Amazon said: “We’ve been into the Outer Deeps before, Viona, and have never seen a trace of a planetary system like our own—unless you include odd dead planets here and there, little better than hulks.”

“Until we get out into the Deeps ourselves, mother, we can’t state anything for certain. I’m thinking, initially, of possible Systems that may exist in the region of Alpha Centauri. Alpha being the nearest star to us—together with Proxima, which makes for Alpha being a double-sun—there’s no reason why a System should not exist around him as our System exists around our own sun.”

“Quite possible,” Abna agreed, flexing his mighty arms.

“Very well then—” Viona spread her hands. “What are we waiting for?”

Abna grinned. “We are waiting, Viona, for suggestions as to how we reach the potential worlds around Alpha Centauri. Or have you overlooked that Alpha is twenty thousand billion miles away? A matter just over four years to reach him, even moving at the speed of light.”

“Of course I haven’t overlooked it! I haven’t overlooked, either, that there have been occasions in the past when we’ve often exceeded the speed of light by many times! Have you forgotten that the Ultra’s controls and power plant have been converted for four-dimensional travel? I employed them when I took the plunge with Quorne to the center of the universe in our encounter with the Central Intelligence. By warping the Ultra into the fourth dimension, we were able to travel at near-infinite velocity relative to the normal three-dimensional universe. Light is no more the governing speed factor of the Ultra than the speed of sound is the limit for aircraft.…”

“All right!” Abna protested. “Your mother and I are not exactly novices when it comes to scientific facts. Certainly the speed of light can be exceeded in the Ultra, but can we stand it for the long period necessary to make the vast hops between stars?”

“Why not?” Viona gave a shrug. “If we were normal people, I’d say we’d flatten out and die. But we’re super­humanly strong, accustomed to space travel—and we can simply sleep part of the journey, don’t forget. Anyway, even if it did kill us eventually, it’d be better than rusting to death on Earth here, wouldn’t it?”

The Amazon said: “The surprising thing is the child’s right.”

“I’m no child!”

“To us, I mean.” The Amazon gave a faint smile and then continued: “In the Ultra we could exceed the speed of light by using the automatic control to side-slip from the normal space-time continuum into the fourth dimension once the course to Alpha was set. That would have the effect of foreshortening space, and then we’d emerge back into normal space once the gulf had been traversed. As Viona remarked, there may be worlds out there in the Greater Deeps that we could benefit. Backward populations, to whom science as yet means nothing. We might, in due time, bring true that dream I once had—long before I met you, Abna. Long before Viona was—created.”

“What dream, mother?” Viona was bright-eyed with eagerness as the Amazon slipped a supple arm around her young shoulders.

“It was a dream of unifying the whole Universe—the whole mighty macrocosmic molecule which Einstein once called finite and yet unbounded. In those days I believed in power for power’s sake; I believed the populations of endless worlds would have to bow down before my scientific skill. Since then I have learned a great deal. Ruthlessness is not always the answer, and perhaps I have been mel­lowed by the passing years.”

“Mellowed maybe,” Viona admitted, “but you’re still the most brilliant woman this planet has ever known. Don’t go back on your fabulous reputation by behaving like an ordinary person.”

The Amazon smiled whimsically, dropping her arm from about Viona’s shoulders.

“I shall never do that, provided— always provided—that I can find something upon which to exercise my tal­ents. Your idea of a flight to Alpha Centauri is like the old days—the freedom of space, the call of adven­ture, the magnificent tension of never knowing what is to happen next. Maybe we might make a beginning in trying to unify the Universe. We might even start to obliterate all those cruel, selfish elements that make everlasting peace among thinking beings impossible. Yes, Viona, I’m all for the flight to Outer Space. What about you, Abna?”

“Anything goes. Certainly there is little we can do on Earth except mope around and make experiments.”

So it was decided, and preparations immediately went forward for the greatest journey ever yet contem­plated by these three super-scientists who ruled the System.

The one individual to whom most information was vouchsafed was Chris Wilson, wealthy controller of the System’s Space Lines. He seemed puzzled when, the day before departure, the Amazon outlined everything to him.

“Frankly, Vi,” he said, using as ever the Amazon’s Christian name, “it does not make sense to me. You and Abna—and maybe even Viona by now—have the mastery of mind over matter so complete that you can project yourselves anywhere at any time by using sufficient concentration. Since there are no barriers to thought, why go to all the trouble of a space journey in the Ultra when you can mentally project yourselves to your destination?”

“Good old Chris!” The Amazon gave a sigh. “Always have your two feet planted firmly on Earth, don’t you? The reason why the journey must be a normal physical one is because we don’t yet know where our destination is to be.”

“You said Alpha Centauri. What more is needed?”

“A good deal more! We have to be certain that there is a planetary sys­tem around Alpha. There’s no guar­antee of one. If we used mental pro­jection we’d reassemble in space itself without a world to tread. True, mental power could again save us from destruction, but it would be a profound waste of intellectual energy.… No, this has to be done in the normal way. And anyhow, there is the interest of the voyage! Think of it—many times faster than light and a distance of twenty thousand billion miles! What might we not see on a trip like that?”

Chris Wilson winced. “Probably fascinates you, Vi, but I’m an aging codger who prefers the fireside and daily routine. Incidentally, I assume no communication with you will be possible?”

“Not after we’ve left the solar system—which will be with ex­treme rapidity—and then warped into the fourth dimension. Everything else has been attended to, and the high-level executives of the government know they have to rely henceforth on their own resources.”

The Amazon rose to her feet, as erect as a golden statue. She held out her slim hand—that hand that could, under necessity, crush flash and blood to pulp.

“Goodbye, Chris,” she said simply, her profound eyes upon him.

He had risen too and, puzzled, he shook hands and then regarded her.

“Goodbye? That sounds like the end of the road. Surely it isn’t that?”

“It may be. Once we are launched way beyond the nearest star, we shall not come back to Earth without very good reason. Earth no longer has need of us. Our future lies amongst the stars, trying to build up those backward scientific races that need aid. Everything we do shall be in the name of this home world of ours, of course, but.… Well, the journeying may take many years. Even centuries. You are a natural human being, Chris, and for that reason your life span is short compared to Abna’s, Viona’s, and mine. So it is goodbye, you see.”

Chris shook his white-haired head vehemently. “I’ll never believe that, Vi. You’ll be back before I die, with some new wonder to relate.”

The Amazon only shrugged and walked to the door. Reaching it, she turned and smiled at the bemused Chris. “I haven’t time to say goodbye to your family, Chris. But I’ve left a video message in my office for Ethel and the others. Give her my regards.…” In another mo­ment she had left the colossal admini­strative Space Edifice, and was on her way in her private atomic helicopter to the great hangar where reposed her space machine, the Ultra. The hangar lay outside the city itself, an enormous building housing the most powerful space machine ever known. Into its design had gone the combined genius of three scientific intellectuals, and within it was every conceivable neces­sity. It was a flying city in itself.