Of these two, Quedrin Vornel had for many years been engaged in researches of the most abstruse and fundamental character upon the ultimate structure of matter. He had delved deeply into those which we know as matter, energy, and ether, and had studied exhaustively the phenomena characteristic of or associated with atomic, electronic, and photonic rearrangements. His son, while a scientist of no mean attainments in his own right, did not possess the phenomenally powerful and profoundly analytical mind that had made the elder Quedrin the outstanding scientific genius of his time. He was, however, a synchronizer _par excellence_, possessing to a unique degree the ability to develop things and processes of great utilitarian value from concepts and discoveries of a purely scientific and academic nature. The vibrations which we know as Hertzian waves had long been known and had long been employed in radio, both broadcast and tight-beam, in television, in beam-transmission of power, and in receiverless visirays and their blocking screens. When Quedrin the elder disrupted the atom, however, successfully and safely liberating and studying not only its stupendous energy but also an entire series of vibrations, rays, and particles theretofore unknown to science, Quedrin the younger began forthwith to turn the resulting products to the good of mankind. Intra-atomic energy soon drove every prime mover of Valeron and shorter and shorter waves were harnessed. In beams, fans, and broadcasts Quedrin Radnor combined and heterodyned them, making of them tools and instruments immeasurably superior in power, precision, and adaptability to anything that his world had ever before known. Due to the signal abilities of brilliant father and famous son, the laboratory in which they labored was connected by a private communication beam with the executive office of the Bardyle of Valeron. "Bardyle," freely translated, means "coördinator." He was neither king, emperor, nor president; and, while his authority was supreme, he was in no sense a dictator. A paradoxical statement this, but a true one; for the orders--or rather, requests and suggestions--of the Bardyle merely guided the activities of men and women who had neither government nor laws, as we understand the terms, but were working of their own volition for the good of all mankind. The Bardyle could not conceivably issue an order contrary to the common weal, nor would such an order have been obeyed. * * * * * Upon the wall of the laboratory the tuned buzzer of Bardyle's beam-communicator sounded its subdued call and Klynor Siblin, the scientist's capable assistant, took the call upon his desk instrument. A strong, youthful face appeared upon the screen. "Radnor is not here, Siblin?" The pictured visitor glanced about the room as he spoke.