The Gostak and the DoshesBreuer, Miles J. (Miles John)
Science
The Gostak and the Doshes
Breuer, Miles J. (Miles John)
Fourth dimension -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
I cannot tell whether it was an hour or a dozen that I spent walking
frantically this way and that, trying to decide to go into this
building or another, and at the last moment backing out in a sweat of
hesitation. It seemed like a year, but was probably only a few minutes.
Then I noticed the people. They were mostly young people, of both
sexes. Students, of course. Obviously I was on a University campus.
Perfectly natural, normal young people, they were. If I were really
on the _t_ dimension, it certainly resembled the _z_ dimension very
closely.
Finally I came to a decision. I could stand this no longer. I selected
a solitary, quiet-looking man, and stopped him.
“Where am I?” I demanded.
He looked at me in astonishment. I waited for a reply, and he continued
to gaze at me speechlessly. Finally it occurred to me that he didn’t
understand English.
“Do you speak English?” I asked hopelessly.
“Of course!” he said vehemently. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Something’s wrong with something,” I exclaimed. “I haven’t any idea
where I am or how I got here.”
“Synthetic wine?” he asked sympathetically.
“Oh, hell! Think I’m a fool? Say, do you have a good man in
mathematical physics on the faculty? Take me to him.”
“Psychology, I should think,” he said, studying me. “Or psychiatry. But
I’m a law-student and know nothing of either.”
“Then make it mathematical physics, and I’ll be grateful to you.”
* * * * *
So I was conducted to the mathematical physicist. The student led
me into the very building which corresponded to Morton Hall, and
into an office the position of which quite corresponded to that of
Woleshensky’s office. However, the office was older and dustier; it
had a Victorian look about it, and was not as modern as Woleshensky’s
room. Professor Vibens was a rather small, bald-headed man, with a keen
looking face. As I thanked the law-student and started on my story,
he looked rather bored, as though wondering why I had picked on him
with my tale of wonder. Before I had gotten very far he straightened
up a little; and further along he pricked up another notch; and before
many minutes he was tense in his chair as he listened to me. When I
finished, his comment was terse, like that of a man accustomed to
thinking accurately and to the point.
“Obviously you come into this world from another set of coordinates.
As we are on the _z_ dimension, you must have come to us from the _t_
dimension----”
He disregarded my attempts to protest at this point.
“Your man Woleshensky has evidently developed the conception of
relativity further than we have, although Monpeters’ theory comes close
enough to it. Since I have no idea how to get you back, you must be my
guest. I shall enjoy hearing all about your world.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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