Wonder Stories, September, 1934
Wonder Stories
2
The Living Galaxy
by Laurence Manning
FOREWORD
bare green tinted walls, and gaze at the young
face of the lecturer with awe, for his eyes are
the most astonishingly intelligent things you
It is impossible for me, as author, to write this
have ever seen and they stare out from the
story so that it is complete in itself; I must ask
youthful head with all the contrast and force
you, as reader, to lend a hand to the work.
of a scream coming out of the dark night. His
This is what must be done: Close your eyes
name is History Zeta Nine and you have been
and picture to yourself a classroom of children
told by one of your playmates that he is more
about six years of age. You are one of these
than 100,000,000 years old. You did not
children. You have a book open in front of
believe it until he entered the room. Now you
you and, as you read it, a lecturer says the
rather wonder if he can be as young as that!
words of it out loud, so that the subject matter
All through the reading, your eyes wander
is impressed through ear as well as eye. The
from the page every few minutes to steal a
date is very far in the future—more than glance at this ancient man—just a glance, for 500,000,000 years, and the sun, Earth, Mars,
you dread lest those burning eyes might meet
Venus, and other ancient things have long
yours.
since died and become as forgotten and
Now, if you are ready, we will
legendary as the Garden of Eden. You, at the
commence the history lesson:
age of six, have played with strange toys—
toys that would puzzle a skilled engineer As human beings, history must start for us today. You look forward to a whole century of
upon a planet circling a small sun that has
study, research, sport, amusement, and long since died. This sun was not located in philosophy. This first century is your our present universe, but very far away from childhood and it will end when you go to the
here in a large cluster of stars known by
great hospital to be operated upon and made
courtesy as the “First Universe.” In the Chart
bodily young once more. After that you are
of Space it is known as Nebula X23G79 and is
grown up and set about doing your work in the
medium sized, slightly smaller than the one in
world—in whatever world you please, as a
which our sun and planets happen to be
matter of fact, for there are billions of planets
located. It will be the object of this first
to choose from. You expect to live in this way
introduction to history to paint a brief picture
forever, except for the risk of accidents. There
of the progress of the race through space and
is no hurry about learning or doing anything—
to give some hints as to its final limits and
but at six you are curious and ill-informed and
their possible nature. When you have
this is the very first time you have been given
understood this general picture, we shall be in
any insight into the history of the human race,
a position to go into more detail, but this is
its habitations and its physical limits.
reserved for future lessons.
So you look around the room, with its
The planet on which the race first
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developed was called “Earth” and it possessed
difficulties. One planet called “Mercury” was
so near the sun of that system that it called for
to human existence without any artificial aids.
cooling and not until millions of years later
In all of Space, counting millions upon was this perfected. The ability to reduce the millions of Universes, such a condition has
heat of a body in isolated space is nowadays a
been noted only seventy-two times so that it
mere technical commonplace—yet it involves
may be considered extra-ordinary. Eight other
transforming heat into energy and energy into
planets circled the same sun and two of these
matter.
called “Mars” and “Venus” (all ancient
We have, then, a human race existing
heavenly bodies were named instead of on the planets of one star. The life of a man numbered) were colonized with great lasted little more than one century. For this difficulty. This would have been the total reason, exploration of other stars came slowly, distribution of humanity but for three pre-for a whole lifetime was used up in the mere
historic inventions that occurred among the
trip. Had it not been for the third great
ancients who inhabited the “Earth” planet. Let
invention, the human race might still have
us examine these.
lived and died in one tiny corner of one
First came the release of atomic power,
universe. This invention was the rejuvenating
the first freeing of humanity from the operation which we all undergo every hundred necessity of using its man-power. The early
years today. It came slowly and was not
engines and motors were, presumably, crude
perfected without accident and many deaths.
and dangerous but the result of the invention
In principle, it is simple—being the familiar
was, nevertheless, to enable power to be used
law of biology that hybridizing renews the
to the limit of the raw material available in the
youth of two aged parent races. The difficulty
planets. It rendered trips from one planet to
lay in its practice, for to hybridize the
another possible on a practical scale, instead
thousands of different cell types in the human
of being gigantic adventures that could be
body called for skill and technique then
afforded only once a century.
unknown. The result, historically, was to
Second, arising out of the first, was
permit the long trips of exploration and
atomic synthesis. This was observed as a colonization which in a few million years phenomenon in the exhaust tubes of atomic
spread mankind over the planets of the “First
rocket motors and it was found that the Universe” and, subsequently, throughout all product could be controlled if the exhausts
the universes and galaxies in space.
were surrounded by heavy induction magnets
Of late, this steady, peaceful expansion
turned on and off with very high frequency.
has slowed down. The reason is that few new
The “Earth” was now freed of its last need for
planets remain. In every direction we have
labor. Food, metals, fabrics could be produced
sp
read to the very edge of matter and have
at will by atomic power using any handy raw
come to a stop. For “space” as we know it is
material—rock and water being, of course,
finite and its “curvature” that ancient men so
most common.
brilliantly argued has been actually found and
Now the “Earth” was deserted by studied by us. As the very outermost planets thousands of explorers who settled down on
grow more thickly populated and as further
the five remaining planets of the original solar
studies and observations are reported, we
system. These were not habitable without shall, perhaps, know more than now. What artificial air and heat, but the two great actually constitutes this end of matter is still a inventions mentioned above had solved all
mystery. The action of light and electricity is
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4
warped and bent there and so far, the only data
metal. From the center, great rocket tubes
available is due to the work of Bzonn, the
chief actor in this lesson. His trip beyond
and the entire planet was in a few centuries
space occupied a period of fifteen million made into a rocket ship. A mile below the years and since one of the results was to
surface they made themselves living quarters
prevent the destruction of the human race and were ready to start. The voyage they before it had spread outside of the stars of the
planned was, in those days, incredible. So
“First Universe,” he may be called the most
much fuel would be needed that only a ship of
important character in history.
planetary dimensions could have contained it
Just at the time when the human race
and it would have been absurd to construct
was engrossed in possibilities of new such a vehicle. The whole planet was set exploration in distant galaxies and universes,
under motion by earth-shaking blasts from the
with thousands of huge rocket-ships under great rocket chamber and the voyage construction, astronomers reported in alarm a
commenced. Its purpose was no less than to
violent “shift to the red” in one area of the
explore the edge of space and investigate the
sky. As all of you have had toy spectroscopes,
force that was driving the stars apart. Consider
you know what this means. Over an area ten
this at a time when the longest flight had been
degrees of arc across, the star background
less than a thousand years! After the fashion
seemed to be flying apart at terrific speed—
of those days of naming everything, the
hundreds of times faster than anything ever
planet-ship was named the Humanity.
observed. As the centuries passed, it was seen
that a void was being created where once stars
These twelve immortals and their leader,
had been. A great black empty area thrust its
Bzonn, had wasted no time upon preparations.
way down toward the First Universe which
As soon as the blast chambers had been
then contained all the human race. It was like
excavated by atomic motors in the core of the
a vast cone, point down, and in it there Humanity, they set off. For what remained to appeared to be nothing—absolutely nothing.
be done there would be ample time during the
Beyond it the blank space extended to infinity
voyage. After continuous firing for thirty
and not even the most powerful telescopes
hours, they were traveling at the speed of
showed any trace of distant stars.
100,000 miles a second. The bulk of their ship
As the years passed, it was seen that
had been reduced by one quarter, in spite of
the cone’s point would at its present rate touch
the well-known efficiency of atomic power.
the First Universe in a few more millions of
For two hundred years they tore through the
years. Yet what action could be taken? Most
First Universe at this speed, often averting
scientists were resigned to the role of mere
collisions by furious application of rocket
observers. Not so Bzonn!
power at the last second. During this time, the
He gathered together a dozen tiny planet-ship had been converted into the scientists—twelve men and women whose most enormous power-plant known to names are now unknown. They settled upon
mankind. Its surface was gleaming with a
an uninhabited planetoid circling a small silver tracery of beams and girders housing sun—a tiny planet not quite one hundred miles
every known appliance for the use of power in
in diameter—and busied themselves in secret
attack and defense. It is said that a tenth of the
preparations. Atomic motors of huge size were
weight of the Humanity could be converted
constructed and the entire core of the planet
into energy in one second—a greater
scooped out and its stone transformed into
outpouring of force than possessed by many of
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5
our stars. When the grey stretches of inter-
hundred and seventy times in the last three
galactic space were reached, a course was set
million years of the voyage. Twice during this
to avoid all stars and the pace was speeded up
period, the Humanity was deserted for a new
to 150,000 miles a second, relative to its planet and fresh and improved machines and starting speed, in its orbit which was, of equipment were set up, the name and purpose course, unknown in the absolute. Four million
in each case being transferred to the new
years were to elapse in this monotonous planet-ship, and the old one left with the journey and, there being four females among
current quota of colonists in the quickly
the dozen scientists, a few hundred new deserted universe that then held them.
humans were bred and educated during the
All dimensions, no matter how gigantic have a
first two or three centuries and the Humanity
definite end and the time came at last when,
turned into a research laboratory in physics
search as they might, no light of any sort
and related subjects. Several important could be seen beyond the edges of the last inventions were given to the human race as a
universe they had visited. Always before,
result, which you will learn about later in
though it might be a million years to the next
more technical courses. The only one I shall
star, the sky had shown dusty gray with distant
mention is the theory of gravitation diseases—
pin-points. This sky now showed blankly
that inexplicable effect upon stars and planets
black—dead black—the unseeable darkness
of Bzonn’s “delayed” or static vortex. We
where light simply does not exist in any form,
now know that this effect on a minute scale is
color, hue, or strength. They had arrived at the
responsible for our atomic power. When end of Matter and, by theory, also at the end applied to a sun, the result, after a delay of a
of space itself. But of this latter point they
century or two, is sudden expansion and were not yet certain, for though they saw this deterioration until nothing remains but a vast
blank area, they had not yet reached it. At full
cloud of bright gas. Since suns are rarely
speed they proceeded in its direction guided
found outside of thickly starred systems, the
by the near stars. But before they passed these,
net result is that several dozen suns are fresh stars swung into view from the left or the destroyed before the reaction is complete. The
right and seemed to move into the space
sending apparatus is extremely complicated
ahead. This, Bzonn decided, must be caused
and the power required to set up such a vortex
by the curvature of space which seemed to be
is enormous.
greatly magnified at its edges. To overcome
It must not be thought that the this deceptive effect was impossible by opportunity for charting the galaxies was physical means, for light waves and even neglected. A small mountain of photographs
motion itself were all equally distorted. A
was prepared during the four million years.
thousand years were spent in study and a
Progress was made in every phase of art and
corrective curve drawn painstakingly from
science. It is regrettable that the colonization
empiric tests. For its solution it was necessary
idea was not thought of until a million years
to solve the problem of three forces—three
had elapsed. This consisted of breeding a inpinging curves, each of three dimensions, hundred humans and thoroughly educating and this tedious mathematical task had to them, stopping the Humanity in her course,
await the breeding and educating of a
entering a galaxy and finding a planet, and
thousand new humans and the construction of
then leaving the hundred colonists on it to
countless elaborate calculating machines.
multiply and explore their new universe. This
When at length it was finished and a course
was done, Bzonn reports, more than one could be set, it seemed so startling and
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disastrous in its implications that the work
museums under the title of “The Living
must needs be gone over again painstakingly.