Songs of the Satyrs by Aaron J. French (ed)

Author:Aaron J. French (ed) [French, Aaron J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Anthology, Fiction
Publisher: Angelic Knight Press
Published: 2014-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

***

I had realized that there were no lenses in the instrument. It was simply a hollow tube of immense length that connected space with the ground. The audacity or stupidity of this design so bewildered me that I was forced to boil the kettle for a second session of tea.

As I dipped my umpteenth biscuit into the muddy brew in my delicate china cup, patterned with pictures of coal miners and other typical Welsh conceits, there occurred to me the suspicion that somebody had stolen the lenses, perhaps a disgruntled farmer in a valley below the mountain. After all, this was a region of crass superstition.

But that didn’t make too much sense. How could a simple farmer reach outer space to snatch the big lens from the far end of the telescope? It isn’t possible to escape Earth’s gravitational pull in a tractor. Much more likely that the lenses were never included in the first place, a probability that led me to conclude the observatory was a trick.

Or if not a trick, then a deliberate scam, a way of claiming government research funds and diverting them into private pockets. Bo Regardus as a master conman, an academic thief; the notion wasn’t wholly risible, but if this truly was the case, why send me here?

I drained my teacup and returned my face to the eyepiece; and my eye once again flew among the constellations.

“Ingenious!” I breathed softly, as understanding came.

There was no fraud involved at all. This telescope didn’t require lenses because it operated on a new principle.

The layers of air inside its length were at different densities, packed on top of each other like sheets of ultra-pure glass, so light from the universe was refracted through lenses made of air.

The arrangement worked superbly. It was wonderful.

“Frampton Livers,” I said to myself, “you have been given a chance to make cosmological history with this magnificent invention, so don’t spoil your prospects with a distrustful mind.”

I don’t enjoy berating myself but often it’s necessary.

As I continued to observe the multitude of stars and nebulae, an object as tiny and dim as a spider’s chin swam into my field of view; and though it should have been insignificant when compared with the glittering gems of the firmament, it compelled my attention. I frowned darkly, squinted at it, unglued myself from the eyepiece, wiped my sodden forehead with my sleeve, switched eyes and focused again.

The speck was still there and now it was bigger …

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