Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
You put it in your pocket, gulping a little, and get back to the
corridor. You turn left and go past a big room in which models of
spaceships--from the original thing that looks like a V-2, and is
labeled first Lunar rocket, to a ten-foot globe, complete with
miniature manikins--are sailing about in some kind of orbits. Then
there is one labeled _Wep:nz_, filled with everything from a crossbow
to a tiny rod four inches long and half the thickness of a pencil,
marked _Fynal Hand Arm_. Beyond is the end of the corridor, and a big
place that bears a sign, _Mad:lz *v Atamic Pau:r Sorsez_.
* * * * *
By that time, you're almost convinced. And you've been doing a lot of
thinking about what you can do. The story I'm telling has been sinking
in, but you aren't completely willing to accept it.
You notice that the models are all mounted on tables and that they're a
lot smaller than you thought. They seem to be in chronological order,
and the latest one, marked _2147--Rincs Dyn*pat:_, is about the size
of a desk telephone. The earlier ones are larger, of course, clumsier,
but with variations, probably depending on the power output. A big sign
on the ceiling gives a lot of dope on atomic generators, explaining
that this is the first invention which leaped full blown into basically
final form.
You study it, but it mentions casually the inventor, without giving
his name. Either they don't know it, or they take it for granted that
everyone does, which seems more probable. They call attention to the
fact that they have the original model of the first atomic generator
built, complete with design drawings, original manuscript on operation,
and full patent application.
They state that it has all major refinements, operating on any fuel,
producing electricity at any desired voltage up to five million, any
chosen cyclic rate from direct current to one thousand megacycles,
and any amperage up to one thousand, its maximum power output being
fifty kilowatts, limited by the current-carrying capacity of the
outputs. They also mention that the operating principle is still being
investigated, and that only such refinements as better alloys and the
addition of magnetric and nucleatric current outlets have been added
since the original.
So you go to the end and look over the thing. It's simply a square box
with a huge plug on each side, and a set of vernier controls on top,
plus a little hole marked, in old-style spelling, _Drop BBs or wire
here_. Apparently that's the way it's fueled. It's about one foot on
each side.
"Nice," the guard says over your shoulder. "It finally wore out one of
the cathogrids and we had to replace that, but otherwise it's exactly
as the great inventor made it. And it still operates as well as ever.
Like to have me tell you about it?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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