Astounding British Edition, May 1953 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

N OISE LEVEL | but that failure induced a faint sense of guilt. Berk returned within minutes. With him were two men in uniform, a_ brigadier general, and a naval captain. With them was Dr. Keyes, Director of ONR. Martin knew him only by reputation—which was very top-drawer indeed: Keyes approached with a direct friendly smile and offered his hand. “Tm very sorry, Dr. Nagle, regarding this delay. I had no idea that you would be stopped at the security desk. I issued in- structions in plenty of time for the confer- ence that everyone invited be properly cleared, Somehow this formality was over- looked in your case. But I am sure that we shall be able to make satisfactory emergency arrangements within a few moments. If you will wait here while I confer with all these gentlemen— They closed the door of the inner office, but Mart could not help straining his ears at the rumble of sounds that filtered through. He caught a phrase in a voice that belonged to one of the security officers: “ Demanded these triple security screens yourself—” And another from Keyes: “. .. The one man who may be able to crack this thing for us—” Mart had come reluctantly. His wife had protested, and the two children had set up a tremendous wail that it might mean no summer vacation at all. 6G He rather wished he had heeded their protests. The moment a man became in- volved in something so classified it required triple passes from the Army, Navy, and F.B.I. then he could say good-bye to free- dom. He wondered how Keyes had become involved in such a circuitous business, Keyes had done monumental work on electro- magnetic radiation. And he wondered, too, what Kenneth Berkeley was doing here. It was way out of his field. Berk was a top psychologist in the mechanics of learning, and experimental training procedures. It looked to Mart as if both of them were wasting their time in security clearance wrangles. He was not particularly intrigued by the possible magnitude of the problem under consideration. A man sitting by a mountain stream under an open summer sky had the most ponderous problems of nature before him if he chose to consider them. None couched in hush-hush terms behind closed /iab doors could have any greater import. ——— Se Pe SES 7 ie Tay = ~ pew oe rd : At last the door opened. Mart arose. Dr. = Keyes led the procession out of the room. s All of the men were a little more strained —_ in their expressions than when they went — in, but Keyes took Mart’s arm. 33 “Tt’s all right. You have full clearance __ now. Your papers will be issued and ready when you come out. But let’s get to the conference at once. We’ve kept the others waiting,” As Mart stepped inside the conference room he caught his breath involuntarily, Besides the brilliant array of his colleagues in fields closely allied to his own, there was a display of gold splashed uniforms of all military services. He had quick recognition of several lieutenant generals, vice admir and at least one member of the JCS. Berk ushered him to a seat in the fron Mee ee row. He felt doubly guilty that these men = had been kept waiting, although it was no Za direct fault of his. At the front of the room a projection screen was unrolled on the wall. A sixteen mm. projector was set up near the rear. On a table on the far side a tarpaulin covered some kind of irregular object. sah Keyes stepped to the front of the room and cleared his throat briefly. “We will dispense with the formality of introducing each of you gentlemen. Many of you are acquainted, professionally or — personally, and I trust that all will be before this project is many hours old. “The top classification nature of the material we are about to discuss has been emphasized to you by the triple filter of security officers who have passed upon your admission to this room. That which is discussed here you will properly regard as worthy of protection with your own life, if — such an extreme consideration should be © forced upon you at some future time.” The military members of the audience remained immobile, but Martin Nagle ob- served an uneasy shifting among his fellow — scientists. All of them were to some degree — uncomfortable in the presence of the mili- tary assumption that you could lock up the __ secrets of nature when they lay all about ~— like shells upon the seashore. 2 aa aA i hile ee) Att ,Y:5 ht oh? a ah eee ey t Nhe ? \ i "5 fy PO ‘ 4 ay 1 : ae y i NAMAS erie | is > ho Agl But Keyes wasn’t a military man. Mart — felt his muscles become a little more rigid as the significance of this penetrated. = “Ten days ago,” said Keyes very slowly, a “we were approached by a young man, an who claimed to have u ¥ inventor of sorts, | hh 3% ‘i if 1 , , 4 yj ya wet ae sf 7 ini +A SO er a Cie eA ; BAN iP Ca ee EOmMmichbooks: co