Skylark 1 The Skylark of Space by E.E. "Doc" Smith

Author:E.E. "Doc" Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780425046401
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2007-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

THEY DESCENDED rapidly, over a large city set in the middle of a vast, level, beautifully planted plain. As they watched, the city vanished and became a mountain summit, with valleys falling away on all sides as far as the eye could reach.

“Huh! I never saw a mirage like that before!” Seaton exclaimed. “But we’ll land, if we finally have to swim!”

The ship landed gently upon the summit, its occupants more than half expecting the mountain to disappear beneath them. Nothing happened, however, and the five clustered in the lock, wondering whether or not to disembark. They could see no sign of life; but each felt the presence of a vast, invisible something.

Suddenly a man materialized in the air before them; a man identical with Seaton in every detail, down to the smudge of grease under one eye and the exact design of his Hawaiian sport shirt.

“Hello, folks,” he said, in Season’s tone and style. “S’prised that I know your language—huh, you would be. Don’t even understand telepathy, or the ether, or the relationship between time and space. Not even the fourth dimension.”

Changing instantaneously from Seaton’s form to Dorothy’s, the stranger went on without a break. “Electrons and neutrons and things—nothing here, either.”

The form became DuQuesne’s. “Ah, a freer type, but blind, dull, stupid; another nothing. As Martin Crane; the same. As Peggy, still the same, as was of course to be expected. Since you are all nothings in essence, of a race so low in the scale that it will be millions of years before it will rise even above death and death’s clumsy attendant necessity, sex, it is of course necessary for me to make of you nothings in fact; to dematerialize you.”

In Seaton’s form the being stared at Seaton, who felt his senses reel under the impact of an awful, if insubstantial, blow. Seaton fought back with all his mind and remained standing.

“What’s this?” the stranger exclaimed in surprise. “This is the first time in millions of cycles that mere matter, which is only a manifestation of mind, has refused to obey a mind of power. There’s something screwy somewhere.” He switched to Crane’s shape.

“Ah, I am not a perfect reproduction—there is some subtle difference. The external form is the same; the internal structure likewise. The molecules of substance are arranged properly, as are the atoms in the molecules. The electrons, neutrons, protons, positrons, neutrinos, mesons… nothing amiss on that level. On the third level…”

“Let’s go!” Seaton exclaimed, drawing Dorothy backward and reaching for the airlock switch. “This dematerialization stuff may be pie for him, but believe me, it’s none of my dish.”

“No, no!” the stranger remonstrated, “You really must stay and be dematerialized—alive or dead.”

He drew his pistol. Being in Crane’s form, he drew slowly, as Crane did; and Seaton’s Mark I shell struck him before the pistol cleared his pocket. The pseudo-body was votalized; but, just to make sure, Crane fired a Mark V into the ground through the last open chink of the closing lock.

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