Astounding British Edition, Vol. 6, No. 8 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CATSPAW I admit it. I'd be lost trying to find my way home from out there if i couldn’t retrace my steps. I wouldn’t recognize Sol from Sirius if I were on Arcturus, and I'd not know how to go about it.” : “Spectral lines, and stellar data—” said Edith “T have a hunch that whoever—in fact I’m certain—gave me this information was un- certain as to whether I was in the next stellar system or halfway across the universe.” “That would depend upon the range of whatever gadget they used to implant the information—and whether it were beamed. Also, Tom, there’s another interesting item. You say there was a mental conversation in your case. That means that the velocity of - propagation of that medium 1s _instan- taneous! Either that or he was right here on Terra.” “Got me. But if he were right here, why didn’t he meet me in person, or make a future date?” “I pass,” said Edith. “I have a fair work- ing knowledge of astrogation. I wonder if it is complete. enough for my fellow to have positioned us. On the other hand, mine came strictly as information without chitchat. Like pe handing me a telegram full of ata.” Barden considered the problem a moment as the girl went on. “But my knowledge of astrogation is merely the angular-constants of the Marker- Stars and how to recognize them from their constellation-positions. He might be able to set up a model of this hunk of sky and reach the right answer—only if he sought the information, however. I did not give it, and he seemed uninterested—as I say, it was like getting a phonograph record or a radio- gram.” They entered Barden’s office and as they did, Tim Evans came running in. Barden nodded and said: “Miss Ward, this is Tim Evans, my head mathematical physicist. Tim, this is Dr. Ward.” ~ They acknowledged the introduction, but Tim was excited, “Look, Tom, did it work?” “We had trouble on Ship One but we fudged Two up and made it sing like an angel.’ Barden explained sketchily. “Oh.” said Evans, his face falling slightly. “Why? 33 = use I’ve been thinking along another line and I’ve come up with another kind of superdrive. If yours didn’t work, this one is certain.” ~ “Yes? Go on.” “No need to,” said Evans. “Yours is far more efficient and less bulky. Mine would get you there but it would take up a lot of extra space. Besides, it doesn’t offer the chance to see where you’re going directly, but only through a new type of celestial globe. Furthermore, it wouldn’t move as fast. So, forget it.” “New type of celestial globe?” asked Barden. “We could use it, maybe. We can see out all right, but that’s due to the inter- i9 mittence. The present celestial globe system — is an adaptation of the pulse-ranging trans- mission-time presentation, you know. When ou're running above light the globe is use- ess. “But look, Tom,” objected Edith. “You won't need one at superspeed. You'll not be maneuvering, and if you hit something a few million miles ahead in the globe, you're past it before anything could work anyway.” “Admitted,” he said. “But I’d like to have one, anyway. Look, Evans, how does this thing work?” “On a Magneto-gravitic principle. Gravity, I am beginning to understand, is not a matter of wave propagation at all. It is a factor of matter—and it is either there or it isn’t” “T wouldn’t know.” “Well, that’s the theory. So we utilize an artificial manifestation of gravity, beamed. Ii also seems that gravitational effects are mutual. In other . words, the attraction between Terra and Sol] is the combination of mutual attractions. So our beam, increasing the attraction between the object and the beam also causes the increase of the attrac tion between the beam and the object. For beam read transmitter; I always think of the radiating element as being the beam instead of what I should. Anyway, when the attrac- tion is increased, it affects a detector in the radiating elements. That gives you your indication.” “How about ranging.” “Still a matter of the inverse-square of the distance. We know accurately the attrac- tion-factor of our beam. Whatever reflects will have distance-diminishment which we can measure and use.” “But it is also proportional to the mass, isn’t it?” asked Barden. “It’]l take a nice bunch of circuits,” grinned Evans, “but we can check the mass with another beam’s attraction to it and differentiate. An integrating system will] solve for range on the basis of mass and distance. The celestial search and presentation systems will be the same.” “O.K.—how about communications?” “Sure,” said Evans. “You rig ‘em up,” said Barden. “And Tim, tell Eddie to refurbish the ship. We're going ~ out again. And I want three or four of the original space drives put aboard as working spares.” “Working spares?” asked Evans. “Yeah, mount ‘em on girder-frameworks complete with atomic units. [m going to prove the next point.” “What next point?” asked Dr. Edith Ward. “T want to find out if your informant was = telling the truth,” said Tom _ Barden, “Interested?” EGomicdoo eS) => 7 ore ¥ : > ff} , aa he sé ¥ / ar : . . PN GON COPE Re Rea re ae (€@) o a Nh) s A, t J AN