Before the Universe by Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth

Author:Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1980-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

II. The Prototype

If Jocelyn hadn’t been a pretty girl, the deal would never have been made. But pretty Jocelyn was, and moreover she was smart enough to capitalize on her good looks.

So, it was decided that Jocelyn, in return for a promise of strict secrecy until the experiment was concluded, would be included in the maneuvers of the two scientists, would have every opportunity of finding things out and a promise that no other paper would get a crumb of information. That was a very good bargain, for Jocelyn didn’t have to put anything at all up in exchange. She was pretty, and smart. That was enough.

“Maybe I can help you two great minds anyhow,” she said. “What’re you trying to do?”

The two looked at each other. Finally Gaynor said: “You’re not a mathematician, Miss—Jocelyn, that is. I don’t know whether we can translate our language into yours. But—maybe you’ve heard of protomagnetism?”

“No. Whit is it?”

“Well, proto—we’ll call it proto for short—is something like ordinary magnetism. Only this: ordinary magnetism attracts steel and iron, principally, and only to a very slight degree anything else—such as, for instance, copper and cobalt, which respond just the tiniest bit. Proto attracts a bunch of elements, a little, but so little that it’s never been noticed before For instance, it attracts radium, niton, uranium, and thorium—the radioactive group—a little. The more radioactive, the greater the attraction. And the thing it attracts most of all is the new artificial Element 99.

“Another difference—magnetism, generally speaking, is a force exerted between two particles of iron or whatever. Proto, on the other hand, ain’t. Radium doesn’t attract radium—both particles are attracted by something else.”

“Tell her which way they’re attracted,” interjected Clair.

“I was coming to that,” started Gaynor, but Jocelyn interrupted with: “What am I supposed to gather from all this? According to my boss, you’ve got some sort of a ship. That’s what he sent me here for: to find out what this ship was, and what you’re going to do with it.”

Clair was startled. “So it’s an open secret now,” he said to Gaynor.

“Oh, no,” said Jocelyn; “but I know there’s a ship. I don’t know what kind of a ship it is, but I know it’s there. That’s all we could find out. Now, if you will kindly stop stalling and live up to your end of the bargain …’

“I wasn’t stalling, though,” said Gaynor resentfully. “That’s what I was going to tell you, that we’ve got the Prototype, and we’re just about ready to use it. And, what’s more, you’re coming along, because that’s your part of the bargain. It wasn’t before, but it is now, because I just made it so.”

“Fine,” said Jocelyn, unperturbed. “But where are we going?”

“That’s what I was coming to— ” (“It’s been a long time coming,” murmured Jocelyn). “We’re going to the place whence comes proto. What Art was driving at a while ago is that proto doesn’t pull things upward or downward, or backward or frontward or North-by-East-half-a-point-East, for that matter.

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