Ships to the Stars by Fritz Leiber

Author:Fritz Leiber [Leiber, Fritz]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781434404886
Google: YNqiio16VkAC
Amazon: 1434404889
Barnesnoble: 1434404889
Goodreads: 297406
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1964-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

“Moonlight?” the professor suggested quickly. “No. These dreams occur just as often when the local sky is heavily clouded as when it’s clear. I don’t think light or any other part of the electromagnetic spectrum is responsible. I think it’s an entirely different order of waves.”

The professor frowned. “Surely you’re not suggesting something like thought-waves? You know, doctor, even if there is such a thing as telepathy or extrasensory perception, the chances are it takes place instantaneously, altogether outside the world of space and time. The notion of thought-waves similar to those of light and sound is primitive.”

“I don’t know,” the doctor said. “Galileo thought that light moved instantaneously too, but it turned out that it was just too fast for him to measure. The same might be true of thought-waves—that they go so much faster than light that they seem to move instantaneously. But only seem—another century mayTefine techniques for measuring their speed.”

“But Einstein—” The professor shrugged. “In any case the notion of telepathy is completely hypothetical.”

“I don’t know,” the doctor repeated. “While you were calling the nurse, Janet quieted and I took the opportunity to ask her what she thought was causing her dreams. She said, ‘I think my dreams are broadcast to my mind from a station on the moon.’ Prof. McNellis, that is by no means the first time a patient with moon-horror has made that suggestion to me.”

The professor bowed his head, massaging his brow as if it were beginning to ache. “I guess I don’t know either,” he muttered.

The doctor’s eyes brightened. “But perhaps you do,” he said softly. He leaned forward. “Professor McNellis,” he continued, “what is it that’s really happening on the moon? What is it that you Project people have been observing on the moon’s surface that you won’t reveal to outsiders, not even to me? What is it that Tom Kimbro may be glimpsing now?”

The professor didn’t look up, but his hand stopped massaging his forehead.

“Professor McNellis, I know you’ve been observing something strange on the moon. I got unmistakable hints of it from one of my Project patients, but even in his condition he let himself be gagged by security regulations. What is it? You don’t suppose I came way out here only to treat Janet, do you?”

For several seconds neither man moved or spoke. It was a contest of wills. Then the professor looked up shiftily.

“For centuries some astronomers, usually the less dependable ones, have been observing all sorts of ‘strange’ things on the moon,” he began evasively. “One hundred and fifty years ago Gruithuisen reported seeing a fortress near the crater Schroeter. One hundred years ago Zentmayer saw mountain-size objects marching or moving across the moon during an eclipse. Bright spots have been seen, black spots, spots like giant bats—Charles Fort’s books of newspaper-science are crammed with examples! Really, Dr. Snowden, strange things seen on the moon are an old, many-times-exploded story.5‘ His voice had grown loud and assertive, but he did not meet the doctor’s eyes.

“Professor

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