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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..215916b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51610 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51610) diff --git a/old/51610-h.zip b/old/51610-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 73da2ce..0000000 --- a/old/51610-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51610-h/51610-h.htm b/old/51610-h/51610-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 1b99e5e..0000000 --- a/old/51610-h/51610-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1314 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Solid Solution, by James Stamers. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Solid Solution, by James Stamers - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Solid Solution - -Author: James Stamers - -Release Date: March 31, 2016 [EBook #51610] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOLID SOLUTION *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="403" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>SOLID SOLUTION</h1> - -<p>By JAMES STAMERS</p> - -<p>Illustrated by GRAY</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Magazine April 1960.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>Brilliant? A genius? David Adam Smith had<br /> -the brains of fifty men—very literally!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Three students were expelled for bringing the bubble dancer into the -Desert Institute, Lee White, Burns Gilbert and John Thay. The Director -did not like any of them. He liked me, Morris. I was his stooge, his -squirming straight man. I was useful for his jokes.</p> - -<p>"We know calculus is a method of measuring uncircular curves, such as -beer barrels ... but I fear Morris has allowed that thought to absorb -him, hig, hig, hig, hig."</p> - -<p>That was one of Professor David Adam Smith's favorites. Or:</p> - -<p>"If you will visit me this afternoon, Morris, I will give you personal -tuition in astrophysics ... beginning with the more complicated parts -of the alphabet, hig, hig, hig."</p> - -<p>But he owned the Desert Institute. He was the only living authority on -geology, terrestrial or extraplanetary, and there was a waiting list of -students....</p> - -<p>On their last afternoon, I was sent with the disgraced three on a -specimen-collecting tour of the desert. It was my routine job but a -real disgrace to them. I often thought the only reason David Adam Smith -allowed me to stay on as a student, apart from offering him a target -for sneering at, was because of my muscles. I could handle the long -specimen trailer and heave boulders about more easily than the others.</p> - -<p>"Do not sneer at Morris, gentlemen. Science tells us brain size is -related to surface area. You should expect in Morris a potentially -great brain therefore ... if Morris were not devoted to obstructing -science, hig, hig, hig."</p> - -<p>The other three, Lee, Burns and John, were about six feet tall, slim, -dark haired and handsome. But we were collecting specimens, not running -for Miss Earth 2430. My extra seven inches in height extends more or -less proportionately in my reach and thickness of shoulder. Anyway, -they were depressed at being expelled, so I let them sit in the shade -of the trailer while I set up the specimen plates and power unit, -minima stand here, maxima stand there, controls on the sand beside them.</p> - -<p>"I don't expect you've done this elementary stuff for a couple of -years," I said. "So ... don't walk on the plates and don't touch the -dial or the red and blue buttons."</p> - -<p>"Hell, Morry, we know."</p> - -<p>"Okay, okay. Only it's more tricky than it looks."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The whole desert belonged to David Adam Smith, which showed his -political pull. Who else on Earth was allowed a whole <i>room</i> to -themselves, even—except maybe the Planetary Salvager, and the heads -of the Material Recovery subdivisions and top Government people like -that. But David Adam Smith had to have a complete desert. He ruled from -the Holiday Probable centers of Reno to the gambling computers of Las -Vegas, where the bubble dancer had come from.</p> - -<p>I put a single grain of sand on the minima plate and stood clear.</p> - -<p>"Press the blue button, Burns."</p> - -<p>Burns wasn't even listening.</p> - -<p>"Burns," I repeated.</p> - -<p>"Hell, Morry, who cares about these damned specimens? How would you -like to be expelled? No classification, no chance of a job, spend the -rest of your life in a compulsory Holiday Reservation."</p> - -<p>"How does he get away with it," muttered Lee, looking around at the -open desert and the bare hills on the skyline. "Tomorrow we'll be -back in a ten-to-a-room bachelor unit in the Nebraska suburbs, with -a fine view of continuous rooftops to the Gulf, the Atlantic and the -Great Lakes, and the nearest geological specimen at the bottom of the -community hydroponic tanks. And here he is—the only David Adam Smith, -the one original—with a desert of his own. It makes me sick."</p> - -<p>John Thay shook his head.</p> - -<p>"That's just emotional reaction, Lee. We were all busting ourselves to -be admitted, to be one of the select three hundred. Just because we're -being slung out doesn't mean the whole Desert Institute is no good. You -know perfectly well why he has the place reserved."</p> - -<p>"I know his excuse. I can just see him, flapping his cloak at the -Salvagers and croaking, 'I don't care what you want to do with the -ground, gentlemen. I must have open spaces to live in. Am I or am -I not the only leading scientist of importance who has retained -his sanity and continued to produce discoveries of unique value? -Where is Firnivale, Williams, Hutk, Marrpole, and so on and so on? -Lost. Missing. Probably in a sodden stupor in one of the South -American City-States. I tell you, science cannot produce anything in -laboratories. Science must have room to breathe!'"</p> - -<p>It was a stock student's speech.</p> - -<p>I waited for the other two to round it off.</p> - -<p>"And why, Professor Smith," said Burns imitating a heavy official -voice, "have you alone retained your faculties?"</p> - -<p>"Because, dear sir," Lee answered in David Adam Smith's thin voice, -"I never admit more than three hundred students to the Institute. And -because apparently I have the only mind capable of absorbing the weight -of modern knowledge without much strain."</p> - -<p>"You do not dislike yourself, Professor."</p> - -<p>"I give credit where it is due, dear sir." Lee stopped and continued in -his normal voice. "The trouble is, he <i>does</i> produce the stuff. He's -supposed to be a geologist, but there hasn't been an invention for the -last decade that he didn't master-mind."</p> - -<p>"Pity he can't think of some way of speeding up the emigration," John -said. "If only we could leave Earth!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I walked over and pressed the blue button myself.</p> - -<p>The grain of sand on the minima plate flicked out of our time-space and -reappeared on the maxima plate ten times larger. I picked it up and -carried it back to the minima plate, repeated the process and went on -until the grain of quartz was more than four feet long.</p> - -<p>"Why don't you do it in one jump instead of walking backwards and -forwards?" John Thay asked.</p> - -<p>"Can't," I said. "It's got to be a perfect model of the crystal lattice -of quartz. If you calibrate it for too big a jump in size it gets -distorted. No one knows why."</p> - -<p>"You don't tell us, Morry. Hell, the marvel is that it works at all."</p> - -<p>I threw the four-foot-long crystal over to John and he put it in the -trailer, after nearly losing it on the slight breeze. It is difficult -to disbelieve your eyes and remember that an overblown specimen has -very little more than its original weight. The grain of quartz was -merely expanded. Its molecular and nuclear structure stretched out -in a magnified volume of space. It was almost all holes, an open -arrangement of spaces between the force points of its matter; a direct -magnification of the original without any other change.</p> - -<p>We used these specimens in the Desert Institute because everyone -could see the details of the crystal lattice for themselves, instead -of having to use an electron microscope. It removed the practical -difficulties of the principle of indeterminacy, David Adam Smith said. -If light was too coarse to let him see the contents of a nucleus, he -was damned well going to bring the nucleus up to a size where he could -see it. And so he did, eventually, with this apparatus.</p> - -<p>I was one of the very few students ever allowed to touch the apparatus, -probably because he thought I was too dumb to do anything with it. -There were several sets but they never left the Institute. The world -was not ready for them, he said.</p> - -<p>There was quite a lot of stuff that David Adam Smith kept to himself in -the Institute. Not because the world was unready, but simply because he -didn't think he would get maximum applause at that particular time. He -only produced inventions at the right theatrical moment. David Adam -Smith was quite a ham.</p> - -<p>I was not supposed to tell anyone how this apparatus worked, but the -three of them sitting facing me in the shade were not going anywhere -after this. I didn't think it mattered. If you are not chosen at birth -for emigration within the System, and if you also fail at the Institute -or one of the dormitory-universities, you're just an extra unit of -overpopulation.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I thought I'd give them something to think about instead of brooding -over the bubble dancer and their expulsion.</p> - -<p>"Of course it works," I said. "It's only Einstein with a twist."</p> - -<p>The three of them laughed.</p> - -<p>"No, really. You know the clocks that go out on every stellar-reporter -and come back to the Institute with dope on the composition of this and -that place in the Galaxy? You were advanced students, you must have -sent them off every day, well, wasn't the clock always slow when it -returned?"</p> - -<p>"Against the dispatching room clock, of course it was," John agreed. -"And if there was enough spare material left on Earth to send people -apart from emigrants, a man would be younger than his twin when he -returned."</p> - -<p>"Well," I said, "that's what happens here, except that a specimen -goes out off a minima plate and comes back onto the maxima plate so -fast that the time component is negligible. All that happens is that -it gets moved outside the local space-time reference. It doesn't -exactly go anywhere, I suppose. But instead of consuming less time on -this shift out and in again, the time stays constant and it reappears -occupying more space. And there you are, with a magnified version of -the original."</p> - -<p>There was a silence.</p> - -<p>"Have you ever put anything living on the plate, Morry?"</p> - -<p>I blushed. John had a knack of uncovering safely hidden facts.</p> - -<p>"Well, I did make a small mistake once. A grasshopper got on the plate -when I wasn't looking. I was magnifying an alumino-silicate and a few -seconds after I got the specimen up to size, the grasshopper appeared -in the middle of it. I had to reverse the specimen back to get it out. -Meant picking the crystal off the plate fast, before the insect came -through, but I managed it."</p> - -<p>"Was it hurt?"</p> - -<p>"The grasshopper? No. A little stunned, maybe. But perfectly well."</p> - -<p>I went back to the plates and started another quartz grain. John, Lee -and Burns sat and gabbled to each other.</p> - -<p>"If the crystal lattice was expanded to start with...."</p> - -<p>"Relative to its size, the crystal would be full of breathing -holes...."</p> - -<p>"You could take in nutrient through a lattice as big as that. It would -be relatively porous...."</p> - -<p>"... molecular pressure...."</p> - -<p>"... shift that battery and move the galvanometer...."</p> - -<p>"... take out most of the instruments and fake up the records from the -previous trip...."</p> - -<p>"If we weren't being expelled this evening," said John.</p> - -<p>They looked at me.</p> - -<p>"Are you sure about the grasshopper, Morry?" Burns asked.</p> - -<p>I nodded.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I had no warning. I had just put a half-inch expanded grain on the -minima plate, when Lee White walked onto the maxima and Burns pressed -the red button.</p> - -<p>There was a flicker and White appeared, half an inch tall, in the -middle of the expanded quartz crystal on the minima plate. He was able -to move his arms. He seemed to be saying something that amused him. I -knocked Burns away from the controls, pressed the blue button, whisked -the empty crystal off the maxima plate as it came through and only just -got it out of the way before Lee White reappeared on the maxima plate, -his normal size again.</p> - -<p>"Well, it works," he said.</p> - -<p>"You crazy?" I yelled at him.</p> - -<p>"Just think," Burns said, sitting up and holding his jaw. "The number -of times we've watched this fella pressing his red and blue buttons, -and dismissed it as elementary stuff for beginners."</p> - -<p>They calmed me down and apologized for doing a thing like that. Hell, I -would have been expelled too if I had gone back to the Institute with -one of them missing. David Adam Smith had a very elaborate hearing aid, -but it never enabled him to hear excuses. Students only on Institute -property, no readmittance for expelled students—and certainly no -expelled students locked up in a lab specimen.</p> - -<p>I suppose they would have thought it funny to sit in a crystal and make -faces at David Adam Smith. They were wild, all three of them, and had -been since they were admitted. I had no desire to be expelled with them.</p> - -<p>"You're not going to be expelled, Morry. Not if you do as we ask."</p> - -<p>"And if you don't," Burns said, still rubbing his jaw, "we'll tell the -dear Director that you explained how his specimen collector works."</p> - -<p>"Then you'll be expelled with us, Morry."</p> - -<p>"He's going to get tired of having you around to laugh at one day, -Morry. Then you'll be out anyway."</p> - -<p>"No use appealing to him with the broad theme, I suppose?"</p> - -<p>I look at John Thay.</p> - -<p>"What broad theme?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"Do you know what you've got here, Morry? You have the only mass escape -route from Earth."</p> - -<p>"You're euphoricked!"</p> - -<p>"No, we're not. Do you know how many habitable planets we've listed? -Over three hundred and fifty. We've sent stellar-reporters out and back -every day and we know. They're listed back there at the Institute. We -can reach them on the hyperspace transmitter, you know that. The only -things that stop a mass emigration are David Adam Smith, the small -size of the transmitter and the impossibility of building enough ships -to carry everyone. The alloy supply only just covers the standard -emigration program. But a stellar-reporter comes back with the data, is -re-set and goes out again and comes back again. Don't you see, Morry?"</p> - -<p>"No," I said, "I don't."</p> - -<p>"Look. If you can use the same ship over and over again, the shortage -of alloys doesn't matter provided you can build the first ship."</p> - -<p>"Okay," I said, "but a stellar-reporter isn't a ship, unless you're a -two foot midget and...."</p> - -<p>I stopped.</p> - -<p>If Lee White could get in and out of a crystal safely—and he seemed -to be unchanged after having just done so—he could travel inside a -stellar-reporter with the other delicate mechanisms.</p> - -<p>I had never been promoted to those classes, but I knew the -stellar-reporters were baby rockets that gouged specimens from the -planets they were sent to, measured, recorded, and brought themselves -back on the same tracker path. When they were not burned up in stars, -that is.</p> - -<p>But if the three of them were willing to take that chance, I was not -going to get in the way.</p> - -<p>"I may not be as bright as you three," I said. "But even I can see you -may have something here. If you survive the journey. You don't need to -threaten me about telling you how this specimen collector works. I'll -help anyway."</p> - -<p>We prepared the specimens I set out to get, then experimented.</p> - -<p>I could not get used to seeing each of them inside an expanded grain of -sand, but the pore structure and the crystal lattice itself seemed to -leave them room to breathe. They could even move about, within small -limits.</p> - -<p>The crystal had to be expanded up to a reasonable size before it was -safe to be transmitted into it, for an unexpanded quartz crystal would -be immediate suffocation. The force vortices of the quartz nuclei, even -when expanded, seemed to have no effect on a living body. It was a -solid solution, as John said.</p> - -<p>"The ideal," he added, "would be for us to coach Morry up to the -stellar-reporter class levels. But I think we had better start -meanwhile. No sense wasting time."</p> - -<p>"I think so, too," I said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Before we left the open desert, I unpacked the apparatus so they could -examine it. They thought they could make sets without much difficulty. -The apparatus was largely an electrically inhibited accelerator, they -said.</p> - -<p>I knew the desert quite well, including the areas where the Institute -radar boundary fogged out and where people could crawl in a few hundred -yards without being detected.</p> - -<p>"That's all we need," Burns said. "If we plant another set of plates -and power controls out there, and Morry keeps burying prepared crystals -in advance, he can meet us there, do the conversion and bring each of -us in in a half-inch crystal in his pocket."</p> - -<p>"Then what?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"Then you hand us over to little Dimples. She'll get us into the right -stellar-reporters together with a reduced set of plates and controls -so that we can reconvert on the planet. We can travel in the specimen -grabber. That will dump us out immediately the stellar-reporter lands."</p> - -<p>I knew little Dimples by sight. She was a plump redheaded student in -their class.</p> - -<p>"You can't all go," I said.</p> - -<p>"Why not?"</p> - -<p>"Because I can't leave the Institute grounds. Anyway, where are -you going to collect the other emigrants from, once you're out on a -habitable planet at the back end of the Galaxy?"</p> - -<p>"He's right."</p> - -<p>We talked it out as I drove the trailer back to the Institute. Two -of them would go immediately, each to a different planet on the -list. They would return to report and be sent out again on the -next stellar-reporter collecting data from that planet. Meanwhile, -the third would be expelled. He would spend his compulsory Holiday -selecting people for despatch. I would meet them at the boundary, -convert them and carry the crystals in, for Dimples to insert into the -stellar-reporters.</p> - -<p>They disappeared into the metallurgical labs as soon as I pulled up in -the main courtyard. The Director missed them by micromillimeters.</p> - -<p>David Adam Smith was a small man. With his cloak and large hearing aid -and long thin face, he always made me think of a grounded bird. He came -hopping over the tiles with short quick steps, peering at the specimens -and at me.</p> - -<p>"Go out again tomorrow," he snapped. "I want some copper chloride -specimens."</p> - -<p>"Would you like me to drive the bubble-dancer to transportation?" I -asked.</p> - -<p>"Who? Oh, that girl. No, Morris, I sent her away. You'll have to -confine yourself to the curriculum, I fear, hig, hig, hig."</p> - -<p>That was odd because I thought I was about the only person in the -Institute who could drive a land-vehicle. The roads outside were built -over and everyone used jets. But I wouldn't have put it past him to -have made the girl walk out of the desert, or to have sent her in his -own space-glass jet, depending on how he assessed her publicity value.</p> - -<p>I forgot about it while carting off the specimens.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dimples was pretty, a trifle Venusian in her plumpness but very -intelligent. We met by the fountain in one of the smaller courtyards. -John Thay, she told me, had volunteered to remain but I was to collect -the other two from the boundary.</p> - -<p>"They won't be too heavy will they, Morry?"</p> - -<p>"Three or four pounds. Living substance modifies in some way, or it may -be the effect of being in solid solution in an expanded lattice."</p> - -<p>"But you can take them down to half an inch?"</p> - -<p>"I hope so."</p> - -<p>We arranged to meet just before the afternoon session the next -day, so that Lee and Burns would be sent off in the afternoon -stellar-reporters with as little delay as possible.</p> - -<p>They were there at the boundary when I drove up the next day. Their -converter worked. They were embedded neatly in the quartz crystals. I -took them in, handed them to Dimples and that was that.</p> - -<p>Neither Burns nor his stellar-reporter returned.</p> - -<p>We never knew what happened. Some of the little rockets did fail. Not -many. But it was his misfortune to be in one that did not come back.</p> - -<p>Lee White did return safely, and was sent out again to his chosen -planet.</p> - -<p>We began to handle crystals regularly. John sent each emigrant with -a miniature converter and controls, which I reduced on the edge of -the desert and handed to Dimples, who inserted the crystal and the -miniature converter into the next stellar-reporter due for Lee's -planet. He was accumulating heaps of converters on his planet, but we -could not risk leaving an emigrant helpless in his crystal when the -stellar-reporter dumped it on the far planet. This way they rolled out -together on arrival.</p> - -<p>We must have sent out two hundred emigrants of all kinds, for John -was sending in a mixed selection to give the far planet every chance -of a successful settlement, when Dimples met me at the fountain and -cried—moistly—all over my arm.</p> - -<p>"Oh, Morry," she wept. "He's found out."</p> - -<p>"He," obviously, was David Adam Smith.</p> - -<p>"How do you know? What did he say?"</p> - -<p>"He hasn't said anything. But I saw one of the emigrants in his private -lab! I shouldn't have been there, and he didn't know I was. But I saw -him with one on his desk."</p> - -<p>"Sure about it?"</p> - -<p>"Absolutely certain. It looked like one of the men with a beard we sent -through about a month ago. Do you remember?"</p> - -<p>"But how did he get hold of him?"</p> - -<p>"I can't think. The stellar-reporters are going off all right. I -thought they were coming back empty. I've had to let the rest of my -class know, so that we could keep the records faked. We can't account -for two hundred stellar-reporters all to the same planet, Morry, so I -had to."</p> - -<p>I sent the next bunch of emigrants back with a message to John Thay. -He came the next afternoon and we met on the edge of the desert. I -explained what had happened.</p> - -<p>"Is Dimples certain?" he asked.</p> - -<p>"The man had a beard and was still in his crystal, the way we sent him -off."</p> - -<p>John shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p>"Well, Morry, it can't be helped. There's only one course now. We must -get hold of any crystals in the hands of David Adam Smith and send them -off again—unless you and Dimples and all of us want to end up in a -satellite penitentiary. I expect he's preparing a case against us now. -With his influence he can make it stick. No doubt about that."</p> - -<p>Illegal emigration, criminal use of the Institute property—oh, from -that angle there was enough to have us all put away in space all right. -I had no doubt that David Adam Smith would do it, too.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Now, his weakest point," John said, "is his vanity. That, as we know, -is immense. Who else would run an Institute for three hundred students -with himself as the sole Director? So, if we can arrange something to -keep him occupied for a day or two, we may be able to break up into -his private labs through the floor. I know for a fact the walls and -ceilings are studded with alarms. But we thought of booby-trapping him -when we were expelled, and the floor seemed the best way in."</p> - -<p>"And the diversion?"</p> - -<p>"You'd better take me in now in your pocket. I want to have a word with -Dimples' class."</p> - -<p>He stepped on the maxima plate. I converted him down, buried the plates -as usual and went back to the Institute.</p> - -<p>I gave the crystal to Dimples.</p> - -<p>"Meet me here in an hour," she said.</p> - -<p>An hour later, she was back.</p> - -<p>"Here, Morry. This is the power slicer from a shovel. There's one in -every stellar-reporter for cutting rock specimens. John says you can -come up from the cellar with that. Do you know what he means?"</p> - -<p>"Yes. What's he doing with you?"</p> - -<p>"You'll see. Just come to our class area tomorrow as if you're -delivering specimens. Put the crystal with John in it in your pocket -and go and report to the Director exactly what you found in our -area—apart from the crystal, of course. You are to release John from -that when you get to the cellar, immediately after David Adam Smith -goes hurrying out to see what happened to us."</p> - -<p>She would not tell me any more than that.</p> - -<p>So when I found next morning that every stellar-reporter in the class -area was missing and that Dimples and her entire class had gone -with them, I did not have to act astonished. About a third of the -Institute—nearly a hundred students—were in that class, doing nothing -else but build a complete catalogue of the stars and their planetary -systems by means of the stellar-reporters. And the whole lot had gone!</p> - -<p>David Adam Smith did not believe me, either, until he saw for himself. -Then he sat down to work through the firing calibrators to find out -where the stellar-reporters had been sent. He waved me away.</p> - -<p>I went straight to the cellar beneath his private labs and reconverted -John. He stepped off the maxima plate swiftly before the crystal could -materialize him.</p> - -<p>"Hey," I said, "you've reversed it."</p> - -<p>"Naturally. It's a minor adjustment in the time-lag. Otherwise there -would always have to be a second person present before you could get -out of a crystal. We think that's what went wrong with poor Burns -Gilbert. But we'll never know, I'm afraid. Let's get on."</p> - -<p>We set the power cutter to work on the cellar ceiling.</p> - -<p>It was only designed to cut rock specimens small enough to be brought -back in the stellar-reporters that carried it, but after two hours we -had a hole right up into the private labs.</p> - -<p>I lifted John Thay and followed him up.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Dimples was right.</p> - -<p>There was a long row of crystals in a nutrient tank against one wall, -arranged so that it could not be seen into from the windows. About -fifty crystals were racked there and each had a six-inch figure in it. -I walked over to look at them with John.</p> - -<p>"These aren't the ones I sent!" John said.</p> - -<p>"They're not?"</p> - -<p>"Not one."</p> - -<p>We looked at the line in silence. I had gotten used to handling filled -crystals, but the sight of all these human beings, miniature and -watching us, making waving motions so for as they could within the -lattice of their crystals—this was unnerving.</p> - -<p>"No," John Thay repeated. "These are not ours. But that one there is -the bubble dancer we were expelled for bringing here!"</p> - -<p>I looked at the little figure, pink against the clear quartz.</p> - -<p>"Who are the others?" I asked.</p> - -<p>John Thay walked briskly down the line scooping them up.</p> - -<p>"Never mind that for a moment, Morry. Just help me collect every one of -these."</p> - -<p>I grabbed handfuls of crystals from the rack, stuffing them in my -pockets, until between us we had every one.</p> - -<p>John took a last look to check. Then we dropped through the hole in the -floor, down into the cellar.</p> - -<p>"I had an elaborate plan in mind," he said to me, as we hurried away. -"But this changes everything. Is the converter in your truck working?" -We shot out into the courtyard.</p> - -<p>"If you're in a hurry, John, why not use the one there in the cellar?"</p> - -<p>"Hell, you're right. This has shaken me so much I can hardly think. -Quickly, let's get these crystals reconverted."</p> - -<p>We turned and rushed back to the cellar we had just left.</p> - -<p>I grabbed the power controls, John fed the crystals onto the minima -plate, I pressed the button and fielded the staggering human being off -the maxima plate before the enlarged crystal came following through. -The crystals I kicked into the corner of the cellar.</p> - -<p>We did not talk, but concentrated on this rush conversion.</p> - -<p>When we had released the last man, there were fifty-three people in -the cellar, including John, myself and the bubble dancer, who for some -reason clung to me and kissed me.</p> - -<p>Most of the people were elderly men. Their clothes were tattered and -stained by nutrient solution. Some were threadbare. Many had been -wearing laboratory coats of ceramic fabric, which had chipped and -fallen away in patches.</p> - -<p>They must have been in the crystals for a long time.</p> - -<p>I watched John bend anxiously over a group of elderly men.</p> - -<p>"Doctor Firnivale. Professor Marrpole. Doctor Hutk. And Williams."</p> - -<p>The men we had just released nodded in turn.</p> - -<p>"You, Dr. Firnivale," John said. "Did you give the advanced geo-physics -lectures?"</p> - -<p>"Through that crook's hearing aid," said the tattered man on the cellar -floor. "Yes, I did. I could hear the questions and I told him the -answers. So did all these others here."</p> - -<p>"Professor Marrpole, I recognized you from a stereo-record you made on -magnetic differentiation on small planets. Is that how David Adam Smith -became the world authority when you disappeared?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," the man with the shaggy beard confirmed. "He caught me by asking -me to stand on a plate for a live recording."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>John turned to me.</p> - -<p>"We have here, Morry, a careful collection of the leading specialists -in the world. These people are the reason for David Adam Smith being -able to outthink any fifty men. These are the fifty men he built his -reputation with!"</p> - -<p>"I don't understand why you all helped him," I said.</p> - -<p>"Because he used to oscillate the crystals we were in, young man."</p> - -<p>"But now it's our turn!"</p> - -<p>"By heaven, wait until I meet that treacherous snake...."</p> - -<p>"I'm going to sue him for every credit he has!"</p> - -<p>"Who would care to join me in pulling him into small pieces surgically?"</p> - -<p>The babble in the cellar rose in volume and intensity. Under it all, -the bubble-dancer was whispering in my ear how grateful she was to -great big me, and how that foul old goat had kept her for amusement -just because she walked into his office to complain when he fired those -nice boys....</p> - -<p>"He had to, I suppose," I said. "If you saw all these people in -crystals."</p> - -<p>"Gentlemen, gentlemen," John roared. "Please!"</p> - -<p>There was silence.</p> - -<p>"Thank you. Which of you in fact thought of the stellar-reporters for -accumulating data on other parts of the Galaxy?"</p> - -<p>"I did," said a tall thin man by the door. "Higgins is my name."</p> - -<p>Even I had heard of the astrophysicist inventor.</p> - -<p>"Had it occurred to you that with these crystals and your -stellar-reporters man could expand through the Galaxy?"</p> - -<p>"No. But now that you raise the point, of course we could!"</p> - -<p>"My friend, Morris here, and I and some colleagues have been doing so -privately for some time...."</p> - -<p>John waited until the excited murmuring died away.</p> - -<p>"We thought David Adam Smith had discovered us. And that is really why -we broke into his office ... and found you all there. But I now think -he knows nothing about it. Subject to your agreement, I suggest we -should keep him in ignorance, lock him in a quartz crystal here and -continue the private migration without involving him."</p> - -<p>"Why not bring him to justice?" asked Higgins.</p> - -<p>"Because I doubt if the government would believe their eyes. You have -built David Adam Smith into a legend that would be difficult to break. -Also because they would certainly take the Institute from anyone else, -hold up the experiments and delay everything. And I have a lot of -friends out there in space trying to establish a planetary colony."</p> - -<p>Marrpole laughed.</p> - -<p>"Really," he said, "we have been providing all the brain power of this -Institute for so long, we may as well continue. Speaking for myself, -gentlemen, a few years free from any restraint whatever are exactly -what I now need. I am in favor."</p> - -<p>There was a general mutter of agreement.</p> - -<p>"Thank you," John said. "And now, if you will follow me, there are -excellent showers and a whole class of spare rooms."</p> - -<p>"You stay with me," I said to the bubble-dancer.</p> - -<p>I led her through the Institute to the classrooms where Director -David Adam Smith was still plotting the courses of the missing -stellar-reporters. They would be back soon, but he was never to know -that.</p> - -<p>I took him from behind and held him off the floor by his elbows, then -twisted him round in the air so that he could see us both.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="354" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"Yes," I said. "She's out. And you're going in."</p> - -<p>He started to scream so I clipped him.</p> - -<p>Then I carried him out to his private labs. I made him unlock the -door and unset the alarms, dumped him on the maxima plate of his own -converter and shot him into a spare enlarged crystal he had on his -desk, after taking off his hearing aid. He didn't need it. It was only -an amplifier so that he could hear the advice of whoever was in there -at the time. I put him in and clipped the mike onto my shirt.</p> - -<p>"What are you doing?" asked the bubble-dancer.</p> - -<p>"Look," I said. "This fella could do it. And someone's got to take the -other lectures. And I'm never going to get to be a qualified professor -any other way."</p> - -<p>"But I thought they said he didn't know anything?" the bubble-dancer -asked.</p> - -<p>"He must remember some of it, or I'll oscillate him at a high -frequency."</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, I thought I'd practice laughing, "hig, hig, hig." But the -former Director did not seem to find it funny.</p> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Solid Solution, by James Stamers - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOLID SOLUTION *** - -***** This file should be named 51610-h.htm or 51610-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/6/1/51610/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Solid Solution - -Author: James Stamers - -Release Date: March 31, 2016 [EBook #51610] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOLID SOLUTION *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - SOLID SOLUTION - - By JAMES STAMERS - - Illustrated by GRAY - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Magazine April 1960. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Brilliant? A genius? David Adam Smith had - the brains of fifty men--very literally! - - -Three students were expelled for bringing the bubble dancer into the -Desert Institute, Lee White, Burns Gilbert and John Thay. The Director -did not like any of them. He liked me, Morris. I was his stooge, his -squirming straight man. I was useful for his jokes. - -"We know calculus is a method of measuring uncircular curves, such as -beer barrels ... but I fear Morris has allowed that thought to absorb -him, hig, hig, hig, hig." - -That was one of Professor David Adam Smith's favorites. Or: - -"If you will visit me this afternoon, Morris, I will give you personal -tuition in astrophysics ... beginning with the more complicated parts -of the alphabet, hig, hig, hig." - -But he owned the Desert Institute. He was the only living authority on -geology, terrestrial or extraplanetary, and there was a waiting list of -students.... - -On their last afternoon, I was sent with the disgraced three on a -specimen-collecting tour of the desert. It was my routine job but a -real disgrace to them. I often thought the only reason David Adam Smith -allowed me to stay on as a student, apart from offering him a target -for sneering at, was because of my muscles. I could handle the long -specimen trailer and heave boulders about more easily than the others. - -"Do not sneer at Morris, gentlemen. Science tells us brain size is -related to surface area. You should expect in Morris a potentially -great brain therefore ... if Morris were not devoted to obstructing -science, hig, hig, hig." - -The other three, Lee, Burns and John, were about six feet tall, slim, -dark haired and handsome. But we were collecting specimens, not running -for Miss Earth 2430. My extra seven inches in height extends more or -less proportionately in my reach and thickness of shoulder. Anyway, -they were depressed at being expelled, so I let them sit in the shade -of the trailer while I set up the specimen plates and power unit, -minima stand here, maxima stand there, controls on the sand beside them. - -"I don't expect you've done this elementary stuff for a couple of -years," I said. "So ... don't walk on the plates and don't touch the -dial or the red and blue buttons." - -"Hell, Morry, we know." - -"Okay, okay. Only it's more tricky than it looks." - - * * * * * - -The whole desert belonged to David Adam Smith, which showed his -political pull. Who else on Earth was allowed a whole _room_ to -themselves, even--except maybe the Planetary Salvager, and the heads -of the Material Recovery subdivisions and top Government people like -that. But David Adam Smith had to have a complete desert. He ruled from -the Holiday Probable centers of Reno to the gambling computers of Las -Vegas, where the bubble dancer had come from. - -I put a single grain of sand on the minima plate and stood clear. - -"Press the blue button, Burns." - -Burns wasn't even listening. - -"Burns," I repeated. - -"Hell, Morry, who cares about these damned specimens? How would you -like to be expelled? No classification, no chance of a job, spend the -rest of your life in a compulsory Holiday Reservation." - -"How does he get away with it," muttered Lee, looking around at the -open desert and the bare hills on the skyline. "Tomorrow we'll be -back in a ten-to-a-room bachelor unit in the Nebraska suburbs, with -a fine view of continuous rooftops to the Gulf, the Atlantic and the -Great Lakes, and the nearest geological specimen at the bottom of the -community hydroponic tanks. And here he is--the only David Adam Smith, -the one original--with a desert of his own. It makes me sick." - -John Thay shook his head. - -"That's just emotional reaction, Lee. We were all busting ourselves to -be admitted, to be one of the select three hundred. Just because we're -being slung out doesn't mean the whole Desert Institute is no good. You -know perfectly well why he has the place reserved." - -"I know his excuse. I can just see him, flapping his cloak at the -Salvagers and croaking, 'I don't care what you want to do with the -ground, gentlemen. I must have open spaces to live in. Am I or am -I not the only leading scientist of importance who has retained -his sanity and continued to produce discoveries of unique value? -Where is Firnivale, Williams, Hutk, Marrpole, and so on and so on? -Lost. Missing. Probably in a sodden stupor in one of the South -American City-States. I tell you, science cannot produce anything in -laboratories. Science must have room to breathe!'" - -It was a stock student's speech. - -I waited for the other two to round it off. - -"And why, Professor Smith," said Burns imitating a heavy official -voice, "have you alone retained your faculties?" - -"Because, dear sir," Lee answered in David Adam Smith's thin voice, -"I never admit more than three hundred students to the Institute. And -because apparently I have the only mind capable of absorbing the weight -of modern knowledge without much strain." - -"You do not dislike yourself, Professor." - -"I give credit where it is due, dear sir." Lee stopped and continued in -his normal voice. "The trouble is, he _does_ produce the stuff. He's -supposed to be a geologist, but there hasn't been an invention for the -last decade that he didn't master-mind." - -"Pity he can't think of some way of speeding up the emigration," John -said. "If only we could leave Earth!" - - * * * * * - -I walked over and pressed the blue button myself. - -The grain of sand on the minima plate flicked out of our time-space and -reappeared on the maxima plate ten times larger. I picked it up and -carried it back to the minima plate, repeated the process and went on -until the grain of quartz was more than four feet long. - -"Why don't you do it in one jump instead of walking backwards and -forwards?" John Thay asked. - -"Can't," I said. "It's got to be a perfect model of the crystal lattice -of quartz. If you calibrate it for too big a jump in size it gets -distorted. No one knows why." - -"You don't tell us, Morry. Hell, the marvel is that it works at all." - -I threw the four-foot-long crystal over to John and he put it in the -trailer, after nearly losing it on the slight breeze. It is difficult -to disbelieve your eyes and remember that an overblown specimen has -very little more than its original weight. The grain of quartz was -merely expanded. Its molecular and nuclear structure stretched out -in a magnified volume of space. It was almost all holes, an open -arrangement of spaces between the force points of its matter; a direct -magnification of the original without any other change. - -We used these specimens in the Desert Institute because everyone -could see the details of the crystal lattice for themselves, instead -of having to use an electron microscope. It removed the practical -difficulties of the principle of indeterminacy, David Adam Smith said. -If light was too coarse to let him see the contents of a nucleus, he -was damned well going to bring the nucleus up to a size where he could -see it. And so he did, eventually, with this apparatus. - -I was one of the very few students ever allowed to touch the apparatus, -probably because he thought I was too dumb to do anything with it. -There were several sets but they never left the Institute. The world -was not ready for them, he said. - -There was quite a lot of stuff that David Adam Smith kept to himself in -the Institute. Not because the world was unready, but simply because he -didn't think he would get maximum applause at that particular time. He -only produced inventions at the right theatrical moment. David Adam -Smith was quite a ham. - -I was not supposed to tell anyone how this apparatus worked, but the -three of them sitting facing me in the shade were not going anywhere -after this. I didn't think it mattered. If you are not chosen at birth -for emigration within the System, and if you also fail at the Institute -or one of the dormitory-universities, you're just an extra unit of -overpopulation. - - * * * * * - -I thought I'd give them something to think about instead of brooding -over the bubble dancer and their expulsion. - -"Of course it works," I said. "It's only Einstein with a twist." - -The three of them laughed. - -"No, really. You know the clocks that go out on every stellar-reporter -and come back to the Institute with dope on the composition of this and -that place in the Galaxy? You were advanced students, you must have -sent them off every day, well, wasn't the clock always slow when it -returned?" - -"Against the dispatching room clock, of course it was," John agreed. -"And if there was enough spare material left on Earth to send people -apart from emigrants, a man would be younger than his twin when he -returned." - -"Well," I said, "that's what happens here, except that a specimen -goes out off a minima plate and comes back onto the maxima plate so -fast that the time component is negligible. All that happens is that -it gets moved outside the local space-time reference. It doesn't -exactly go anywhere, I suppose. But instead of consuming less time on -this shift out and in again, the time stays constant and it reappears -occupying more space. And there you are, with a magnified version of -the original." - -There was a silence. - -"Have you ever put anything living on the plate, Morry?" - -I blushed. John had a knack of uncovering safely hidden facts. - -"Well, I did make a small mistake once. A grasshopper got on the plate -when I wasn't looking. I was magnifying an alumino-silicate and a few -seconds after I got the specimen up to size, the grasshopper appeared -in the middle of it. I had to reverse the specimen back to get it out. -Meant picking the crystal off the plate fast, before the insect came -through, but I managed it." - -"Was it hurt?" - -"The grasshopper? No. A little stunned, maybe. But perfectly well." - -I went back to the plates and started another quartz grain. John, Lee -and Burns sat and gabbled to each other. - -"If the crystal lattice was expanded to start with...." - -"Relative to its size, the crystal would be full of breathing -holes...." - -"You could take in nutrient through a lattice as big as that. It would -be relatively porous...." - -"... molecular pressure...." - -"... shift that battery and move the galvanometer...." - -"... take out most of the instruments and fake up the records from the -previous trip...." - -"If we weren't being expelled this evening," said John. - -They looked at me. - -"Are you sure about the grasshopper, Morry?" Burns asked. - -I nodded. - - * * * * * - -I had no warning. I had just put a half-inch expanded grain on the -minima plate, when Lee White walked onto the maxima and Burns pressed -the red button. - -There was a flicker and White appeared, half an inch tall, in the -middle of the expanded quartz crystal on the minima plate. He was able -to move his arms. He seemed to be saying something that amused him. I -knocked Burns away from the controls, pressed the blue button, whisked -the empty crystal off the maxima plate as it came through and only just -got it out of the way before Lee White reappeared on the maxima plate, -his normal size again. - -"Well, it works," he said. - -"You crazy?" I yelled at him. - -"Just think," Burns said, sitting up and holding his jaw. "The number -of times we've watched this fella pressing his red and blue buttons, -and dismissed it as elementary stuff for beginners." - -They calmed me down and apologized for doing a thing like that. Hell, I -would have been expelled too if I had gone back to the Institute with -one of them missing. David Adam Smith had a very elaborate hearing aid, -but it never enabled him to hear excuses. Students only on Institute -property, no readmittance for expelled students--and certainly no -expelled students locked up in a lab specimen. - -I suppose they would have thought it funny to sit in a crystal and make -faces at David Adam Smith. They were wild, all three of them, and had -been since they were admitted. I had no desire to be expelled with them. - -"You're not going to be expelled, Morry. Not if you do as we ask." - -"And if you don't," Burns said, still rubbing his jaw, "we'll tell the -dear Director that you explained how his specimen collector works." - -"Then you'll be expelled with us, Morry." - -"He's going to get tired of having you around to laugh at one day, -Morry. Then you'll be out anyway." - -"No use appealing to him with the broad theme, I suppose?" - -I look at John Thay. - -"What broad theme?" I asked. - -"Do you know what you've got here, Morry? You have the only mass escape -route from Earth." - -"You're euphoricked!" - -"No, we're not. Do you know how many habitable planets we've listed? -Over three hundred and fifty. We've sent stellar-reporters out and back -every day and we know. They're listed back there at the Institute. We -can reach them on the hyperspace transmitter, you know that. The only -things that stop a mass emigration are David Adam Smith, the small -size of the transmitter and the impossibility of building enough ships -to carry everyone. The alloy supply only just covers the standard -emigration program. But a stellar-reporter comes back with the data, is -re-set and goes out again and comes back again. Don't you see, Morry?" - -"No," I said, "I don't." - -"Look. If you can use the same ship over and over again, the shortage -of alloys doesn't matter provided you can build the first ship." - -"Okay," I said, "but a stellar-reporter isn't a ship, unless you're a -two foot midget and...." - -I stopped. - -If Lee White could get in and out of a crystal safely--and he seemed -to be unchanged after having just done so--he could travel inside a -stellar-reporter with the other delicate mechanisms. - -I had never been promoted to those classes, but I knew the -stellar-reporters were baby rockets that gouged specimens from the -planets they were sent to, measured, recorded, and brought themselves -back on the same tracker path. When they were not burned up in stars, -that is. - -But if the three of them were willing to take that chance, I was not -going to get in the way. - -"I may not be as bright as you three," I said. "But even I can see you -may have something here. If you survive the journey. You don't need to -threaten me about telling you how this specimen collector works. I'll -help anyway." - -We prepared the specimens I set out to get, then experimented. - -I could not get used to seeing each of them inside an expanded grain of -sand, but the pore structure and the crystal lattice itself seemed to -leave them room to breathe. They could even move about, within small -limits. - -The crystal had to be expanded up to a reasonable size before it was -safe to be transmitted into it, for an unexpanded quartz crystal would -be immediate suffocation. The force vortices of the quartz nuclei, even -when expanded, seemed to have no effect on a living body. It was a -solid solution, as John said. - -"The ideal," he added, "would be for us to coach Morry up to the -stellar-reporter class levels. But I think we had better start -meanwhile. No sense wasting time." - -"I think so, too," I said. - - * * * * * - -Before we left the open desert, I unpacked the apparatus so they could -examine it. They thought they could make sets without much difficulty. -The apparatus was largely an electrically inhibited accelerator, they -said. - -I knew the desert quite well, including the areas where the Institute -radar boundary fogged out and where people could crawl in a few hundred -yards without being detected. - -"That's all we need," Burns said. "If we plant another set of plates -and power controls out there, and Morry keeps burying prepared crystals -in advance, he can meet us there, do the conversion and bring each of -us in in a half-inch crystal in his pocket." - -"Then what?" I asked. - -"Then you hand us over to little Dimples. She'll get us into the right -stellar-reporters together with a reduced set of plates and controls -so that we can reconvert on the planet. We can travel in the specimen -grabber. That will dump us out immediately the stellar-reporter lands." - -I knew little Dimples by sight. She was a plump redheaded student in -their class. - -"You can't all go," I said. - -"Why not?" - -"Because I can't leave the Institute grounds. Anyway, where are -you going to collect the other emigrants from, once you're out on a -habitable planet at the back end of the Galaxy?" - -"He's right." - -We talked it out as I drove the trailer back to the Institute. Two -of them would go immediately, each to a different planet on the -list. They would return to report and be sent out again on the -next stellar-reporter collecting data from that planet. Meanwhile, -the third would be expelled. He would spend his compulsory Holiday -selecting people for despatch. I would meet them at the boundary, -convert them and carry the crystals in, for Dimples to insert into the -stellar-reporters. - -They disappeared into the metallurgical labs as soon as I pulled up in -the main courtyard. The Director missed them by micromillimeters. - -David Adam Smith was a small man. With his cloak and large hearing aid -and long thin face, he always made me think of a grounded bird. He came -hopping over the tiles with short quick steps, peering at the specimens -and at me. - -"Go out again tomorrow," he snapped. "I want some copper chloride -specimens." - -"Would you like me to drive the bubble-dancer to transportation?" I -asked. - -"Who? Oh, that girl. No, Morris, I sent her away. You'll have to -confine yourself to the curriculum, I fear, hig, hig, hig." - -That was odd because I thought I was about the only person in the -Institute who could drive a land-vehicle. The roads outside were built -over and everyone used jets. But I wouldn't have put it past him to -have made the girl walk out of the desert, or to have sent her in his -own space-glass jet, depending on how he assessed her publicity value. - -I forgot about it while carting off the specimens. - - * * * * * - -Dimples was pretty, a trifle Venusian in her plumpness but very -intelligent. We met by the fountain in one of the smaller courtyards. -John Thay, she told me, had volunteered to remain but I was to collect -the other two from the boundary. - -"They won't be too heavy will they, Morry?" - -"Three or four pounds. Living substance modifies in some way, or it may -be the effect of being in solid solution in an expanded lattice." - -"But you can take them down to half an inch?" - -"I hope so." - -We arranged to meet just before the afternoon session the next -day, so that Lee and Burns would be sent off in the afternoon -stellar-reporters with as little delay as possible. - -They were there at the boundary when I drove up the next day. Their -converter worked. They were embedded neatly in the quartz crystals. I -took them in, handed them to Dimples and that was that. - -Neither Burns nor his stellar-reporter returned. - -We never knew what happened. Some of the little rockets did fail. Not -many. But it was his misfortune to be in one that did not come back. - -Lee White did return safely, and was sent out again to his chosen -planet. - -We began to handle crystals regularly. John sent each emigrant with -a miniature converter and controls, which I reduced on the edge of -the desert and handed to Dimples, who inserted the crystal and the -miniature converter into the next stellar-reporter due for Lee's -planet. He was accumulating heaps of converters on his planet, but we -could not risk leaving an emigrant helpless in his crystal when the -stellar-reporter dumped it on the far planet. This way they rolled out -together on arrival. - -We must have sent out two hundred emigrants of all kinds, for John -was sending in a mixed selection to give the far planet every chance -of a successful settlement, when Dimples met me at the fountain and -cried--moistly--all over my arm. - -"Oh, Morry," she wept. "He's found out." - -"He," obviously, was David Adam Smith. - -"How do you know? What did he say?" - -"He hasn't said anything. But I saw one of the emigrants in his private -lab! I shouldn't have been there, and he didn't know I was. But I saw -him with one on his desk." - -"Sure about it?" - -"Absolutely certain. It looked like one of the men with a beard we sent -through about a month ago. Do you remember?" - -"But how did he get hold of him?" - -"I can't think. The stellar-reporters are going off all right. I -thought they were coming back empty. I've had to let the rest of my -class know, so that we could keep the records faked. We can't account -for two hundred stellar-reporters all to the same planet, Morry, so I -had to." - -I sent the next bunch of emigrants back with a message to John Thay. -He came the next afternoon and we met on the edge of the desert. I -explained what had happened. - -"Is Dimples certain?" he asked. - -"The man had a beard and was still in his crystal, the way we sent him -off." - -John shrugged his shoulders. - -"Well, Morry, it can't be helped. There's only one course now. We must -get hold of any crystals in the hands of David Adam Smith and send them -off again--unless you and Dimples and all of us want to end up in a -satellite penitentiary. I expect he's preparing a case against us now. -With his influence he can make it stick. No doubt about that." - -Illegal emigration, criminal use of the Institute property--oh, from -that angle there was enough to have us all put away in space all right. -I had no doubt that David Adam Smith would do it, too. - - * * * * * - -"Now, his weakest point," John said, "is his vanity. That, as we know, -is immense. Who else would run an Institute for three hundred students -with himself as the sole Director? So, if we can arrange something to -keep him occupied for a day or two, we may be able to break up into -his private labs through the floor. I know for a fact the walls and -ceilings are studded with alarms. But we thought of booby-trapping him -when we were expelled, and the floor seemed the best way in." - -"And the diversion?" - -"You'd better take me in now in your pocket. I want to have a word with -Dimples' class." - -He stepped on the maxima plate. I converted him down, buried the plates -as usual and went back to the Institute. - -I gave the crystal to Dimples. - -"Meet me here in an hour," she said. - -An hour later, she was back. - -"Here, Morry. This is the power slicer from a shovel. There's one in -every stellar-reporter for cutting rock specimens. John says you can -come up from the cellar with that. Do you know what he means?" - -"Yes. What's he doing with you?" - -"You'll see. Just come to our class area tomorrow as if you're -delivering specimens. Put the crystal with John in it in your pocket -and go and report to the Director exactly what you found in our -area--apart from the crystal, of course. You are to release John from -that when you get to the cellar, immediately after David Adam Smith -goes hurrying out to see what happened to us." - -She would not tell me any more than that. - -So when I found next morning that every stellar-reporter in the class -area was missing and that Dimples and her entire class had gone -with them, I did not have to act astonished. About a third of the -Institute--nearly a hundred students--were in that class, doing nothing -else but build a complete catalogue of the stars and their planetary -systems by means of the stellar-reporters. And the whole lot had gone! - -David Adam Smith did not believe me, either, until he saw for himself. -Then he sat down to work through the firing calibrators to find out -where the stellar-reporters had been sent. He waved me away. - -I went straight to the cellar beneath his private labs and reconverted -John. He stepped off the maxima plate swiftly before the crystal could -materialize him. - -"Hey," I said, "you've reversed it." - -"Naturally. It's a minor adjustment in the time-lag. Otherwise there -would always have to be a second person present before you could get -out of a crystal. We think that's what went wrong with poor Burns -Gilbert. But we'll never know, I'm afraid. Let's get on." - -We set the power cutter to work on the cellar ceiling. - -It was only designed to cut rock specimens small enough to be brought -back in the stellar-reporters that carried it, but after two hours we -had a hole right up into the private labs. - -I lifted John Thay and followed him up. - - * * * * * - -Dimples was right. - -There was a long row of crystals in a nutrient tank against one wall, -arranged so that it could not be seen into from the windows. About -fifty crystals were racked there and each had a six-inch figure in it. -I walked over to look at them with John. - -"These aren't the ones I sent!" John said. - -"They're not?" - -"Not one." - -We looked at the line in silence. I had gotten used to handling filled -crystals, but the sight of all these human beings, miniature and -watching us, making waving motions so for as they could within the -lattice of their crystals--this was unnerving. - -"No," John Thay repeated. "These are not ours. But that one there is -the bubble dancer we were expelled for bringing here!" - -I looked at the little figure, pink against the clear quartz. - -"Who are the others?" I asked. - -John Thay walked briskly down the line scooping them up. - -"Never mind that for a moment, Morry. Just help me collect every one of -these." - -I grabbed handfuls of crystals from the rack, stuffing them in my -pockets, until between us we had every one. - -John took a last look to check. Then we dropped through the hole in the -floor, down into the cellar. - -"I had an elaborate plan in mind," he said to me, as we hurried away. -"But this changes everything. Is the converter in your truck working?" -We shot out into the courtyard. - -"If you're in a hurry, John, why not use the one there in the cellar?" - -"Hell, you're right. This has shaken me so much I can hardly think. -Quickly, let's get these crystals reconverted." - -We turned and rushed back to the cellar we had just left. - -I grabbed the power controls, John fed the crystals onto the minima -plate, I pressed the button and fielded the staggering human being off -the maxima plate before the enlarged crystal came following through. -The crystals I kicked into the corner of the cellar. - -We did not talk, but concentrated on this rush conversion. - -When we had released the last man, there were fifty-three people in -the cellar, including John, myself and the bubble dancer, who for some -reason clung to me and kissed me. - -Most of the people were elderly men. Their clothes were tattered and -stained by nutrient solution. Some were threadbare. Many had been -wearing laboratory coats of ceramic fabric, which had chipped and -fallen away in patches. - -They must have been in the crystals for a long time. - -I watched John bend anxiously over a group of elderly men. - -"Doctor Firnivale. Professor Marrpole. Doctor Hutk. And Williams." - -The men we had just released nodded in turn. - -"You, Dr. Firnivale," John said. "Did you give the advanced geo-physics -lectures?" - -"Through that crook's hearing aid," said the tattered man on the cellar -floor. "Yes, I did. I could hear the questions and I told him the -answers. So did all these others here." - -"Professor Marrpole, I recognized you from a stereo-record you made on -magnetic differentiation on small planets. Is that how David Adam Smith -became the world authority when you disappeared?" - -"Yes," the man with the shaggy beard confirmed. "He caught me by asking -me to stand on a plate for a live recording." - - * * * * * - -John turned to me. - -"We have here, Morry, a careful collection of the leading specialists -in the world. These people are the reason for David Adam Smith being -able to outthink any fifty men. These are the fifty men he built his -reputation with!" - -"I don't understand why you all helped him," I said. - -"Because he used to oscillate the crystals we were in, young man." - -"But now it's our turn!" - -"By heaven, wait until I meet that treacherous snake...." - -"I'm going to sue him for every credit he has!" - -"Who would care to join me in pulling him into small pieces surgically?" - -The babble in the cellar rose in volume and intensity. Under it all, -the bubble-dancer was whispering in my ear how grateful she was to -great big me, and how that foul old goat had kept her for amusement -just because she walked into his office to complain when he fired those -nice boys.... - -"He had to, I suppose," I said. "If you saw all these people in -crystals." - -"Gentlemen, gentlemen," John roared. "Please!" - -There was silence. - -"Thank you. Which of you in fact thought of the stellar-reporters for -accumulating data on other parts of the Galaxy?" - -"I did," said a tall thin man by the door. "Higgins is my name." - -Even I had heard of the astrophysicist inventor. - -"Had it occurred to you that with these crystals and your -stellar-reporters man could expand through the Galaxy?" - -"No. But now that you raise the point, of course we could!" - -"My friend, Morris here, and I and some colleagues have been doing so -privately for some time...." - -John waited until the excited murmuring died away. - -"We thought David Adam Smith had discovered us. And that is really why -we broke into his office ... and found you all there. But I now think -he knows nothing about it. Subject to your agreement, I suggest we -should keep him in ignorance, lock him in a quartz crystal here and -continue the private migration without involving him." - -"Why not bring him to justice?" asked Higgins. - -"Because I doubt if the government would believe their eyes. You have -built David Adam Smith into a legend that would be difficult to break. -Also because they would certainly take the Institute from anyone else, -hold up the experiments and delay everything. And I have a lot of -friends out there in space trying to establish a planetary colony." - -Marrpole laughed. - -"Really," he said, "we have been providing all the brain power of this -Institute for so long, we may as well continue. Speaking for myself, -gentlemen, a few years free from any restraint whatever are exactly -what I now need. I am in favor." - -There was a general mutter of agreement. - -"Thank you," John said. "And now, if you will follow me, there are -excellent showers and a whole class of spare rooms." - -"You stay with me," I said to the bubble-dancer. - -I led her through the Institute to the classrooms where Director -David Adam Smith was still plotting the courses of the missing -stellar-reporters. They would be back soon, but he was never to know -that. - -I took him from behind and held him off the floor by his elbows, then -twisted him round in the air so that he could see us both. - -"Yes," I said. "She's out. And you're going in." - -He started to scream so I clipped him. - -Then I carried him out to his private labs. I made him unlock the -door and unset the alarms, dumped him on the maxima plate of his own -converter and shot him into a spare enlarged crystal he had on his -desk, after taking off his hearing aid. He didn't need it. It was only -an amplifier so that he could hear the advice of whoever was in there -at the time. I put him in and clipped the mike onto my shirt. - -"What are you doing?" asked the bubble-dancer. - -"Look," I said. "This fella could do it. And someone's got to take the -other lectures. And I'm never going to get to be a qualified professor -any other way." - -"But I thought they said he didn't know anything?" the bubble-dancer -asked. - -"He must remember some of it, or I'll oscillate him at a high -frequency." - -Meanwhile, I thought I'd practice laughing, "hig, hig, hig." But the -former Director did not seem to find it funny. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Solid Solution, by James Stamers - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOLID SOLUTION *** - -***** This file should be named 51610.txt or 51610.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/6/1/51610/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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