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diff --git a/28645.txt b/28645.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0784dbd --- /dev/null +++ b/28645.txt @@ -0,0 +1,543 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost in the Future, by John Victor Peterson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lost in the Future + +Author: John Victor Peterson + +Release Date: April 30, 2009 [EBook #28645] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN THE FUTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _Did you ever wonder what might happen if mankind ever exceeded the + speed of light? Here is a profound story based on that thought--a + story which may well forecast one of the problems to be encountered + in space travel._ + + + lost + in + the + future + + _by ... John Victor Peterson_ + + + They had discovered a new planet--but its people + did not see them until after they had traveled on. + + +Albrecht and I went down in a shuttleship, leaving the stellatomic +orbited pole-to-pole two thousand miles above Alpha Centauri's second +planet. While we took an atmosphere-brushing approach which wouldn't +burn off the shuttle's skin, we went as swiftly as we could. + +A week before we had completed man's first trip through hyperspace. +We were now making the first landing on an inhabited planet of +another sun. All the preliminary investigations had been made via +electronspectroscopes and electrontelescopes from the stellatomic. + +We knew that the atmosphere was breathable and were reasonably certain +that the peoples of the world into whose atmosphere we were dropping +were at peace. We went unarmed, just the two of us; it might not be wise +to go in force. + +We were silent, and I know that Harry Albrecht was as perplexed as I was +over the fact that our all-wave receivers failed to pick up any signs of +radio communication whatever. We had assumed that we would pick up +signals of some type as soon as we had passed down through the +unfamiliar planet's ionosphere. + +The scattered arrangement of the towering cities appeared to call for +radio communications. The hundreds of atmosphere ships flashing along a +system of airways between the cities seemed to indicate the existence of +electronic navigational and landing aids. But perhaps the signals were +all tightly beamed; we would know when we came lower. + +We dropped down into the airway levels, and still our receivers failed +to pick up a signal of any sort--not even a whisper of static. And +strangely, our radarscopes failed to record even a blip from their +atmosphere ships! + +"I guess it's our equipment, Harry," I said. "It just doesn't seem to +function in this atmosphere. We'll have to put Edwards to work on it +when we go back upstairs." + +We spotted an airport on the outskirts of a large city. The runways were +laid out with the precision of Earth's finest. I put our ship's nose +eastward on a runway and took it down fast through a lull in the +atmosphere ship traffic. + +As we went down I saw tiny buildings spotted on the field which surely +housed electronic equipment, but our receivers remained silent. + +I taxied the shuttle up to an unloading ramp before the airport's +terminal building and I killed the drive. + +"Harry," I said, "if it weren't that their ships are so outlandishly +stubby and their buildings so outflung, we might well be on Earth!" + +"I agree, Captain. Strange, though, that they're not mobbing us. They +couldn't take this delta-winged job for one of their ships!" + +It _was_ strange. + +I looked up at the observation ramp's occupants--people who except for +their bizarre dress might well be of Earth--and saw no curiosity in the +eyes that sometimes swept across our position. + +"Be that as it may, Harry, we certainly should cause a stir in these +pressure suits. Let's go!" + +We walked up to a dour-looking individual at a counter at the ramp's +end. Clearing my throat, I said rather inanely, "Hello!"--but what +_does_ one say to an extrasolarian? + +I realized then that my voice seemed thunderous, that the only other +sounds came from a distance: the city's noise, the atmosphere ships' +engines on the horizon-- + + * * * * * + +The Centaurian ignored us. + +I looked at the atmosphere ships in the clear blue sky, at the +Centaurians on the ramp who appeared to be conversing--and there was no +sound from those planes, no sound from the people! + +"It's impossible," Harry said. "The atmosphere's nearly Earth-normal. It +should be--well, damn it, it _is_ as sound-conductive; _we're_ talking, +aren't we?" + +I looked up at the Centaurians again. They were looking excitedly +westward. Some turned to companions. Mouths opened and closed to form +words we could not hear. Wide eyes lowered, following something I could +not see. Sick inside, I turned to Albrecht and read confirmation in his +drawn, blanched face. + +"Captain," he said, "I suspected that we might find something like this +when we first came out of hyperspace and the big sleep. The recorders +showed we'd exceeded light-speed in normal space-time just after the +transition. Einstein theorized that time would not pass as swiftly to +those approaching light-speed. We could safely exceed that speed in +hyperspace but should never have done so in normal space-time. Beyond +light-speed time must conversely accelerate! + +"These people haven't seen _us_ yet. They certainly just observed our +landing. As we suspected, they probably do have speech and radio--but we +can't pick up either. We're seconds ahead of them in time and we can't +pick up from the past sounds of nearby origin or nearby signals radiated +at light-speed. They'll see and hear us soon, but we'll never receive an +answer from _them_! Our questions will come to them in their future but +we can never pick answers from their past!" + +"Let's go, Harry," I said quickly. + +"Where?" he asked. "Where can we ever go that will be an improvement +over this?" He was resigned. + +"Back into space," I said. "Back to circle this system at a +near-light-speed. The computers should be able to determine how long and +how slow we'll have to fly to cancel this out. If not, we are truly and +forever lost!" + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ January 1954. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost in the Future, by John Victor Peterson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST IN THE FUTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 28645.txt or 28645.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/4/28645/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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