The Galaxy Primes by E. E. 'Doc' Smith

Author:E. E. 'Doc' Smith [Smith, E. E. 'Doc']
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780575122901
Google: Wx7MPsWINJcC
Amazon: B00GU2TS46
Barnesnoble: B00GU2TS46
Goodreads: 19146677
Publisher: Gateway
Published: 1959-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

'You've checked, of course,' Garlock said. 'Everything all right?'

'Absolutely. Even to Lola and her biologists. Everybody's full of joy and gratitude and stuff - as well as information. And we managed to pry ourselves loose without taking up you two trumpet-of-doom sleepers. So we're ready to jump again. I wonder where in hell well wind up this time.'

'I'm glad you said that, Jim,' Garlock said. 'It gives me the nerve to spring a thing on you that I've been mulling around in my mind ever since we landed here.'

'Nerve? You?' James asked incredulously. 'Pass the coffeepot around again, Brownie. If that character there said what I heard him say, thisll make your hair stand straight up on end.'

'On our jumps we've had altogether too much power and no control whatever. Consider three things. First, as you all know, I've been trying to figure out a generator that would give us intrinsic control, but I haven't got any farther with it then we did back on Tellus. Second, consider all the jumps we've made except this last one. Every time we've taken off, none of us has had his shield really up. You, Jim, were concentrating on the drive, and so were wide open to it. The rest of us were at least

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thinking about it, and so were more or less open to it. Not one of us has ever ordered it to take us to any definite place; in fact, I don't believe that any one of us has ever even suggested a destination.

Third, consider this last jump all by itself. It's the first time we've ever stayed in the same galaxy. It's the first time we've ever gone where we wanted to. And it's the first time - here's the crux - that any of us has been concentrating on any destination at the moment of firing the charge. Brownie was willing the Pleiades to this planet so hard that we could all taste it. The rest of us, if not really pushing to get here, were at least not opposed to the idea.'

'Are you saying the damn thing's alive'}'' James asked. 'No. I'm saying I don't believe in miracles. I don't believe in coincidence - that concept is as meaningless as that of paradox. I certainly do not believe that we hit this planet by chance against odds of almost infinity to one. So I've been looking for a reason. I found one. It goes against the grain - against everything I've ever believed - but, since it's the only possible explanation, it must be true. The only possible director of the Gun-ther Drive must be the mind.'

'Damn it, now you are saying that the thing's alive.' 'Far from it. It's Brownie who's alive. It was Brownie who got us here. Nothing else - repeat, nothing else - makes sense.' James pondered for a full minute. 'I wouldn't buy it except for one thing. If you, the hardest-boiled skeptic that ever went unhung, can feed yourself the whole bowl of such a mess as that, I can at least take a taste of it.

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