Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
I understood the basic principle of this that he was explaining--that
now when this electronic current which he had captured and controlled
was applied to our physical body, the vibration rate of every smallest
and most minute particle of our physical being was altered. There is so
little in the vast scale of natural phenomena of which our human senses
are cognisant! Our eyes see the colors of the spectrum, from red to
violet. But a vast invisible world of color lies below the red of the
rainbow! Physicists call it the infra-red. And beyond the violet,
another realm--the ultra-violet. With sound it is the same. Our audible
range of sound is very small. There are sounds with too slow a vibratory
rate for us to hear, and others too rapid. The differing vibratory rate
from most tenuous gas to most substantial solid is all that we can
perceive in this physical world of ours. Yet of the whole, it is so very
little! This other realm to which we were now going lay in the higher,
more rapid vibratory scale. To us, by comparison, a more tenuous world,
a shadow realm.
I listened to Derek's words, but my mind was on the practicality of what
lay ahead. An explorer, standing upon his ship, may watch his men
bending the sails, raising the anchor, but his mind flings out to the
journey's end....
* * * * *
We were soon ready. Derek wore his jaunty uniform, I wore my ordinary
business suit. A magnetic field would be about us, so that in the
transition anything in fairly close contact with our bodies was affected
by the current.
Derek said, "I will go first, Charlie."
"But, Derek--" A fear, greater than the trembling I had felt before,
leaped at me. Left here alone, with no one on whom to depend!
He spoke with careful casualness, but his eyes were burning me. "Just
sit there, and watch. When I am gone, turn on the current as I showed
you and come after me. I'll wait for you."
"Where?" I stammered.
He smiled faintly. "Here. Right here. I'm not going away! Not going to
move. I'll be here on the couch waiting for you."
Terrifying words! He had lowered the couch, bending out its short legs
until the frame of it rested on the board floor. He drew a chair up
before it and seated me. He sat down on the couch.
He said, "Oh, one other thing. Just before you start, put out the light.
We can't tell how long it will be before we return."
Terrifying words!
His right hand was on his left wrist where the tiny switch was placed.
He smiled again. "Good luck to us, Charlie!"
Good luck to us! The open road, the unknown!
I sat there staring. He was partly in shadow. The room was very silent.
Derek lay propped up on one elbow. His hand threw the tiny switch.
There was a breathless moment. Derek's face was set and white, but no
whiter than my own, I was sure. His eyes were fixed on me. I saw him
suddenly quiver and twitch a little.
I murmured, "Derek--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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