Beyond The Barrier of Space by Pel Torro

Author:Pel Torro [Torro, Pel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Publisher: Tower Books
Published: 1968-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN - PROGRESS

“Is that one of the new mathematical sciences?” asked the Liberal leader.

“That’s right,” said Davidson. “It’s a combination of various mathematical formulae dealing with the laws of probability and possibility, together with a kind of algebraic logic. I had applied it in several directions from different sets of data, fed it through a new computer of my own design, and turned up with this.” He gestured expansively. It was a gesture that took in all the reinforcement in the cellar.

“You mean, whichever way you looked at it you could see trouble coming, in one form or another?” said Matheson.

“I could indeed. If it wasn’t Recman, then it was going to be either Zurgas or the Quen. Sooner or later we would have had either a civil war, or an invasion. So, naturally, being inflicted with the instincts of self-preservation, being as concerned with the prolongation of my own individual life as any other normal, rational being, I decided to take all the precautions f could. Down here, gentlemen, there are stores of food, pressurized oxygen, and adequate supplies of fresh water. All being well, we should be able to exist here for quite a considerable time.

“We appear to be ideally set up here,” said the President.

“Yes, we do,” agreed Matheson.

They began looking around at the cellar which Bill Stokes and Professor Davidson had taken careful steps to prepare to withstand the rigors of war. Sound masonry was built on top of the reinforced steel of the cellar. Davidson looked up at it dispassionately.

“The lighting down here,” he said, “is generated by a small atomic, energy-exchange unit. We are entirely independent of any failure in the power supply above.”

“Of course, looking at the broader picture of the three worlds,” said the President, “it looks as if Recman, in an attempt to seize power, made a deal with the Zurgas and the Quen. And Zurgas and the Quen, unknown to Recman, had ideas of their own.”

“We must bear in mind all along,” said Matheson, “the Zurgas and the Quen are probably as alien to one another as they are to us.”

“Yes, this is a three-cornered fight,” said the Liberal.

“I remember reading about an incident long ago, in a micro-print of an old terrestrial classic, about three gentlemen who had cause to fight a duel with each other. As they were unable to decide which of them should fight his opponent first, they decided to use geometry in order to solve their problem.” He paused. “They simply stood in a triangle, and— although my memory is somewhat hazy on the point—each man fired at the man who stood next to him, in a clockwise direction. Each shot the next and all fell dead at once.”

“Yes, there is some kind of analogy there with the position of the Zurgas, the Quen and ourselves,” said Matheson. The ingenious professor was pacing up and down the bomb-proof cellar. More masonry crashed down above his head.

“That sounds like the end of the house,” he said ruefully.

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