Astounding British Edition, May 1953 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

| ASTO we could, Dr. Nagle. Unfortunately, at the time it seemed that the semantic noise in _ Dunning’s explanation was as high as the engineering noise on the tape. We have, however, filled in to the best of our recol- lection on the written transcript, which we will give you. “This transcript gives what has been pieced together by phonetic experts who have analyzed the tape. Observers’ additions are in parentheses. These were added only if all sbservers agreed independently, and may or may not be accurate. Is there any other question?” There were, they all knew, but for the moment the impact seemed to have stifled the response of the whole audience. 2 - Keyes took a step forward. “I wonder if there is any one of you who under- estimates the seriousness of this problem now. Is there anyone who does not under- stand that this secret must be regained at all cost? “We know that within the field of present knowledge there lies the knowledge neces- ‘sary to conquer gravity—to take us beyond the Earth, to the stars, if we wish to go. “We know that if one young American could do it, some young Russian could also. We have to duplicate that work of Dunning’s. “The full facilities of ONR are at your disposal. Access to Dunning’s laboratory and library and the remains of his machine will be granted, of course. Each of you has been selected, out of all whom we might have called, because we believed you. possess some special qualification for the task. You cannot fail. “We will meet again this evening, gentle- men. I trust you understand now the necessity for absolute security on this project.” Il. ZA LONG time afterwards, Martin Nagle re- _— called that he must have been in a partial __ stupor when he left that conference room. He hn __ felt a vague and unpleasant sensation about his head as if it had been beaten repeatedly with a pillow. He and Kenneth Berkeley went out to- gether. They paused only long enough to make polite greetings to his fellow physicists whom he had not seen for a long time. But he was in a hurry to leave. To get rid of that feeling in his head. In front of the ONR building he stopped UNDING SCIENCE FICTION with his hands in his pockets and looked over the unpleasant gray of the city’s build- ings. He could close his eyes and still see a man rising straight up into the air— soaring at an angle—dropping like a plummet. All at once he realized he hadn’t even stopped to examine the remains of the in- strument under the tarpaulin. He turned suddenly on Berkeley. “The psychology of this thing—is that where you're in on it, Berk?” His companion nodded. “Keyes called me in when he wanted an investigation into Dunning’s past. I’m staying, I guess.” “You know it’s impossible, don’t you?” said Mart. “Utterly and completely im- possible! There’s nothing in our basic science to explain this thing, let aloné duplicate it.” “Impossible? Meaning what?” “Meaning that I’ve got to . . . that every- one of us has got to shift how far—twenty years of learning—five hundred years of science? Where did we go off the track? Why was it left to a screwball like Dunning to hit it right?” ““He was an odd character,” mused Berk. ‘Astrology, mysticism, levitation. There’s quite a bit in the tape about levitation. That’s not so far removed from the concept of anti- gravity as that, is it?” Mart made a rough noise in his throat, “I expect to hear any moment that his first successful flight was aboard a broomstick.” “Well, there’s quite a bit of lore about broomsticks—also magic carpets and such. Makes you wonder how it all got started.” The shock was slow in wearing down. Martin returned to the hotel after the even- ing conference, which was spent mostly in examination of the wreckage. It was as Keyes had said, hopeless. But there was an indefinite something about gazing upon the remains of what had been the realization of an impossible dream. Mart felt a kind of frantic yearning to reach out and touch that mass and convert it back to the instrument it had once been by sheer force of will. As if. believing it possible would make it so. And wasn’t there some essence of truth in | this, he thought? Dunning had believed it could be done and had done it. Reputable ~ men in science didn’t believe such things possible— ae Now, in his hotel room, Mart sat on the edge of the bed looking out the window COMMIE KOOKS se)