delivery-belt became almost hysterical.
'While you're working on that one, magnificence,' suggested Mamie Tung, 'there's another matter …' She winked.
'Entirely fantastic,' interjected the E.O. 'Of no importance whatsoever.'
'Let me hear it,' said the voice of the Gentleman, not ceasing to pass through the selector the probabilities on the time-worn, bearded—or beardless?—barber.
'Very well. Suppose a body of liquid be contained in a vessel. A long solid is introduced into the vessel, which displaces some of the liquid, thus causing the level of the liquid to rise, which immerses more of the solid; which displaces more of the liquid, thus causing the level of the liquid to rise, which immerses still more of the solid; which displaces still more of the liquid, thus causing the level of the liquid to rise yet again …
'At what point does the level of the liquid cease to rise?'
'Is that all?' asked the voice of the Gentleman in a strained voice.
'That's all.'
A file of calculators slammed across the room and clumped with the mechanism. Long sparks began to rise as row after row of multipliers sought to keep pace with the rising level of the fluid. Beams of blue light shot from one end of the room to the other, criss-crossing so as to unite the mighty battery of calculators into one complex whole.
The flipping cards that worked on the first problem shot through furiously; another punch-card unit slid beside it and kept pace, then another.
'Suppose a body of liquid …' mumbled the mechanical voice.
Mamie Tung and Will Archer exchanged congratulatory glances. The Gentleman was talking to himself!
'I used to be quiet,' remarked the voice of the Gentleman. But it was changed and distorted almost beyond recognition; there was a weak, effeminate quality to it.
'But now I am busy. 'The voice was strong again, and vibrant.
There began a weird, bickering dialogue between the two emerging characters of the Gentleman. One was lazy, and indifferent, passively feminine; the other was dominating and aggressive, patently male. All the while the sparks—sparks of waste—rose higher and higher; the beams of blue light assumed a sickly greenish-yellow tinge which meant nothing but lower tension and less perfect communication.
Strange things began to happen. In a fantastic effort to crack the problems, the machine changed the units working on each, assigned the card-punch and selector to the water-and-solid problem, gave the multipliers the bearded—or beardless?—barber. In a moment it changed back, undecided.
'I am ignorant of so many things, 'said the feminine voice, 'that I ought not to have known. That is a sign of rectitude.'
'Ignorance is foulness. Knowledge is a white light. Before time began I was ignorant because I did not exist. So ignorance challenges my existence.'
There was a senseless yammering, as the two voices tried to speak together.
Will Archer stood by in horror, contemplating the ruin of this mind he had grown to know. It was a lesson in humility and caution.
Mamie Tung slipped through the tube, notified the rating to run for Star Macduff. She returned to take her stand beside the E.O.
There was a whining as Macduff put on his fields full power; the air blued.
With one mighty, indignant wail of protest the Gentleman ceased to exist. All the temporary magnetisms he had set up dissolved; half the equipment in the room fell apart for lack of rivets; the lights and sparks died in mid- air.
'Schizophrenia,' said Mamie, scribbling in a notebook.
'Brutal. Effective.'
'But if he'd solved those problems …'
'The Gentleman was young and ignorant at best—didn't know when to stop. Very low critical faculty.'
The Calculator and Yancey Mears slid through the tube, breathlessly surveyed the wreckage of the computations room.
'Take us a week to clean this up,' said Yancey Mears.
The Executive, for the first time since the ship had found life, spoke into a phone plate, gave orders to affect the course.
'Stop the sphere.'
'Yes, Officer. Cut?'
'Cut. Look out, Yancey.'
An agglomeration of cogwheels and styli jumped at her ankle, buried the points in her flesh. Star Macduff squirted it with his portable field set-up. It fell apart even as the Gentleman had.
'Ugly thing,' said the woman, inspecting her wounds. 'The Gentleman might have been worse.'
4
Like a paramecium skirting the bulk of a minnow in some unthinkable stagnant pool, Sphere Nine edged close around the rim of the mighty solid that hung in space and marked the end of the long, long quest after the cosmic rays that so disturbingly played hob with attempts at self-improvement.
The project of landing was conceived by the Executive Officer; it took no less a mind than his to consider the possibility of dropping the sphere anywhere but in a cradle which had been built to order. But the protoplasm— whatever it was—would offer no interference; the sphere might sink gently to the surface, even penetrate to some considerable distance; there would be no harm in that.
Sphere Nine was in top order; the ravaged computations room had been set aright; the crew of ordinaries had been given a going-over by Mamie Tung and pronounced sound and trustworthy. The Officers themselves were high as so many kites, reaction-speeds fast and true, toned-up to the limit. It was to be regretted that the strain of contact with the Gentleman had vanished, perhaps. A certain recklessness had crept into their manner.
The protoplasmal mass which blanketed their heavens at one stroke became instead the floor beneath their feet as its gravity twisted their psychology 180 degrees around. They felt as through they hung above a sea of dry slime that moved not at all, whose sole activity was the emission of cosmic rays and invisible spores of life that smeared any agar dish exposed to it.
Quietly the sphere lowered itself, quietly touched the surface of the sea, quietly slipped into it, the path it made closing behind.
Through layers of dark-colored stuff they drifted, then through layers of lighter-colored stuff, then into a sort of ash heap. Embedded in the tough jelly-like matter were meteors by the thousand, planet fragments, areas of frozen gas. It was like the kitchen-midden of a universe.
The strange, silent passage through the viscid medium was uninterrupted; Star Macduff plotted a course through the rubbish. The ratings steered faithfully by his figures; as they passed the gravelly stuff, the dream-like progress continued, the protoplasm growing lighter yet in color. Finally unmistakable radiance shone through a thinning layer.
Sphere Nine broke through the tough, slimy-dry stuff to be bathed in the light of a double star with a full retinue of fifteen planets.
'Impossible,' said Star Macduff.
'Agreed. But why?'
'Assuming that a star should coincide with another long enough to draw out a filament of matter sufficient for fifteen planets, the system would be too unstable—wouldn't last long enough to let the suns get into the red giant stage.'
'Artificial?'
'If they're real they're artificial, Will.'
'Attention E.O.! Attention!' gargled the phone hysterically.
'What is it?'
