The Seesaw by A. E. van Vogt

Author:A. E. van Vogt [Vogt, A. E. van]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi Short Story
Publisher: Astounding Science Fiction
Published: 1941-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

McAllister cleared his throat, parted his lips to speak—then closed them as he realized that no words were even near his lips. Fascinated he watched the soldiers connecting what must have been invisible cables that led to the vast building in the background: foot-thick cables that told of the titanic power that was to be unleashed on the tiny weapon shop.

There was actually nothing to be said. The deadly reality out there overshadowed all conceivable sentences and phrases. Of all the people here, he was the most useless, his opinion the least worth while.

Oddly, he must have spoken aloud, but he did not realize that until the familiar voice of the girl’s lather came from one side of him. The older man said:

“You’re quite mistaken, McAllister. Of all the people here you are the most valuable. Through you, we discovered that the Isher were actually attacking us. Furthermore, our enemies do not know of your existence, therefore have not yet realized the full effect produced by the new blanketing energy they have used.

“You, accordingly, constitute the unknown factor—our only hope, for the time left to us is incredibly short. Unless we can make immediate use of the unknown quantity you represent, all is lost!”

The man looked older, McAllister thought; there were lines of strain in his lean, sallow face as he turned toward his daughter; and his voice, when he spoke, was edged with « harshness:

“Lystra, No. 7!”

As the girl’s fingers touched the seventh button, her father explained swiftly to McAllister:

“The guild supreme council is holding an immediate emergency session. We must choose the most likely method of attacking the problem, and concentrate individually and collectively on that method Regional conversations are already in progress, but only one important idea has been put forward as yet and … ah, gentlemen!”

He spoke past McAllister, who turned with a start, then froze.

Men were coming out of the solid wall, lightly, easily, as if it were a door, and they were stepping across a threshold. One, two, three— twelve.

They were grim-faced men, all except one who glanced at McAllister, started to walk past, then stopped with a half-amused smile.

“Don’t look so blank. How else do you think we could have survived these many years if we hadn’t been able to transmit material objects through space? The Isher police have always been only too eager to blockade our sources of supply. Incidentally, my name is Cadron—Peter Cadron!”

McAllister nodded in a perfunctory manner. He was no longer genuinely impressed by the new machines. Here were the end-products of the machine age; science and invention so stupendously advanced that men made scarcely a move that did not affect, or was affected by, a machine. He grew aware that a heavy-faced man near him was about to speak. The man began:

“We have gathered here because it is obvious that the source of the new energy is the great building just outside this shop—”

He motioned toward the wall where the mirror had been a few minutes previously, and the window through which McAllister had gazed at the monstrous structure in question.

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