The Man Who Lived Forever by R DeWitt & Anna Hunger

Author:R DeWitt & Anna Hunger [DeWitt, R & Hunger, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ace Double
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1956-01-20T17:39:09+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

THE MASTER opened the door of a small room in a comer of Laboratory I. In that tiny area, which seemed lost in the great laboratory, were the apparatus and files he used in what was to him his most important work—the creation of a machine through which he could communicate with the dead.

He was firmly convinced that at death human beings simply entered”a new type of existence which was, at first, similar to life on earth. He conceived of this new life as infinitely expanding. It was vaster and more interesting than the one type of life he had known. He also believed that the dead sometimes talked to the living; that they used the living as their method of communication.

Statesmen, rulers, prophets and teachers had used such a means of communication between existences. But for the Master it was impossible. Should he associate himself, even remotely, with anything that might appear unusual or religious, whispers would become more powerful than the long ago wars, and soon there would be no Master.

The only solution for him was to devise a machine through which he could talk with the dead in the lonely isolation of Laboratory I. He had constructed device after device, and always the result had been the same—failure. Hopelessness had dropped a shroud over the whole project. It had been a long time since he had entered the little room.

Ellora was dying. Even if this strange Everling had actually conquered the sickness, she would die eventually. Then she would be there and he would be here. Trapped. The only link between them would be memory—unless he could devise a machine.

It was vital, now. He must try again.

His last attempt had been an effort to modulate an isolated segment of visual radiation, a beam of lavender light. He concentrated on his notes and diagrams, seeking desperately for some clue.

The visaphone in the laboratory had a one-way visual circuit. There must be no chance of the outside world glimpsing the laboratory’s interior. The Master kept the sound circuit turned off, except when he-wished to speak to someone. Nothing and no one from outside could reach him unless he desired it.

It was this isolation and timelessness of Laboratory I that caused the Master so often to forget the routines which dominated the world outside. Now, when he glanced up to rest his eyes, he was startled to see that the time indicator showed it was long past the hour of the evening meal.

He rose, switching off the small, intense working light. Tomorrow he might solve the final problem. Or the day after. Or any day. Eventually he must succeed.

Suddenly, the stark isolation of the room closed in on him. She might die while he was here. Neither weird machines, which ,did not work, nor philosophy could save him. He must remember to tell her. He must.

He closed the door of the little room and left Laboratory I.

Finishing the last amber drops in his glass of Vintage 3085 —a good year for the white grapes—the Master glanced down the long table.

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