Galaxy.” This is, of course, a misnomer for
There was no mistake; the course was
upwards of fifty galaxies were noted in it. The
correctly laid out. But it called for driving at
title, however, clearly gives the idea of one
full speed on a course that curved more theory of its origin, which is that the sharply as the last fringe of stars were protuberance was a creature of life in some approached until at the last the course twisted
form which utilized solar systems after the
back upon itself and would return them, fashion of atoms. This theory is much seemingly, into the very universe from which
supported by the observed fact that
they sought to escape! Seven hundred years
photographic projections of its outline
were spent in completing the manoeuver and
repeated at intervals of a hundred years
at the end, they were apparently driving with
showed clearly that the mass was in
full power straight back toward a distant star.
movement. For two million years it was
It was days before they suspected and months
studied with the most intense interest and a
before they were certain of the amazing fact
series of miniature statues were projected and
that the faster they drove toward it, the farther
photographed upon moving-picture film, one
away it became! When it finally vanished as a
after the other, each in its proper attitude. It
far pin-prick of light, they searched with the
was found that when the film was viewed
telescopes and took sufficient observations to
rapidly, the result was progressive movement.
orient themselves, afterwards attempting to
correct the photographs for light curvature.
Let us be as explicit as we may: The shape of
For they had passed beyond the stars.
this mass was that of a rounded cylinder,
And now picture these intrepid ones,
bulged out roughly above the center line.
gazing on one hand out upon nothingness and
From this projected a streamer which tapered
on the other upon a far distant wall of dusty
almost to nothingness. The motion observed
light that was all that remained of Creation!
was, briefly, a wriggling of the streamer
This wall they imagined as a floor and across
(possibly a tentacle?) and a slow bending
it they sped for a hundred thousand years
forward of the main body.
searching for anything that might project
The next action of Bzonn upon
above it—that might possibly explain the establishing these facts was characteristic of great shift to the red that had been the cause of
the fearless and coldly scientific mind which
their adventure. And they found it. What they
drove him continuously throughout this extra-
found is, of course, still debatable. Ahead of
ordinary voyage. Straight down toward the
them there loomed up a wall of distant wriggling tip of the tentacle of star-matter he starlight at right angles to the great floor sped his ship Humnanity. The voyage lasted beneath their planet-ship. This they half a million years and as the last stars in the approached not too closely, but skirted it and
streamer came into view, it was noted that at
in the course of a million years completely
its point commenced the enormous vacancy in
circled the mass of star-matter. It rose about a
the universes—that conical emptiness
million light years in height and half that in
formerly occupied by countless stars that had
diameter. Photographs of its contour were first started them on their quest!
taken and by superimposing the outlines, a
Here was (and still is) matter for the
tiny model was created—a weird little thing
gravest minds to consider! Those who take the
that stood on their laboratory table. This opposite view from Bzonn point out that it is sculpture you have all seen copied in the inconceivable that this moving cluster of star
The Living Galaxy
7
groups could have held life. They argue by
more than two light years apart at the closest
analogy that even if stars and planets could be
and often as much as ten.
substituted for atoms to make a scale of
The task of destruction which he now
existence similar to our own, yet the number
set himself was simple—all that was
of stars involved was too few (relatively) to
necessary was to infect every tenth star he
have created anything more than a very passed with his newly invented “delayed”
primitive microscopic creature—much too vortex disease. There were by this time small to have fixed body parts such as several thousand humans upon the Humanity tentacles. They also, by mathematics, seek to
of the moment. These were now divided into
establish that there is so slight a resemblance
ten groups and each group established upon a
between atoms and solar systems as to suitable small planet as they passed among the preclude the very possibility. Such reasons
suns.
and arguments cannot be considered in an
Each new planet was excavated for
elementary treatise, but it must always be said
blast chambers of gigantic size and covered
that this occurred upon the edge of space—
with huge engines for creating and releasing
that light rays travel only a short distance
power. A hundred thousand years was spent in
outside of space (as was learned later and
making these preparations, and upon an
almost to their destruction) and that the rules
agreed day, the ten Humanities set off through
and properties of such an existence cannot be
the star-strewn space a hundred light-years
yet established. On the other hand, Bzonn
apart, and as each selected star was passed, it
undoubtedly leaped to conclusions. His next
was subjected to the terrific thrust of the
action can hardly be condoned upon a disease-producing vortex. The violence and scientific basis—for even if it averted fury of this operation must be seen to be destruction from a few billion or trillion believed. Photographic reproductions are humans, what is that? Humans can always be
available at all museums and you are
bred. And the phenomena he destroyed was
requested to view them before the next term.
one that, to date, has not since been observed
The ten planets shrank almost a tenth of their
and may conceivably never again occur.
weight at each blast—shrank in one second!
Ours is not to judge. Here to Bzonn
You may well believe what terrific
seemed a clear issue. He had found a gigantic
earthquakes and storms racked them at that
creature rooting dangerously with a tentacle
moment! The crew could not have lived upon
among the stars that housed the human race.
them and did not attempt to. They set
This he determined to stop if it lay in his
automatic controls an hour in advance and
power. It must be borne in mind that Bzonn
took themselves to small space-ships which
felt no doubt that the star-mass composed a
they guided to a few thousand miles distance
living intelligent creature. At the top of the
and there they waited until the shock had
rounded body must, he thought, lie some sort
passed before returning to their wrecked living
of brain and toward this he drove his mobile
quarters. In the two or three hundred years
planetoid. Right up to the “head” of the which had then to elapse before the next creature he came and into it, observing no
selected star approached, it was necessary to
difference between the stars which formed it
rebuild the machinery over the entire surface
and those back in the more orderly portions of
of each of the ten Humanities.
space. Possibly, he reported, the stars were
By the time the second blast was shot,
more closely placed than might have been
it was possible to see in the telescopes the first
expected—no more than that. They were still
signs of the vortex disease in the first infected
Wonder Stories
8
suns they had left behind. When four blasts
planetoid. The facts were signaled to all our
had been delivered by each of the ten planet-
consorts and I delayed the command to return
ships, the distant stars were in violent on our course only long enough for Mechanics disruption. On they sped, delivering in all, six
Delta to finish a gyroscope on my own planet.
blasts apiece, and came out through the other
This delay was fatal, as you shall see.
side of the “Living Galaxy” and hastened
“All this time, it must be remembered,
away through the blackness beyond space, our planet-ships were speeding outward in the anxious to be well out of the way before that
blackness beyond space. Evidently, light
galaxy vanished in fiery vapor. On they waves cease to function entirely when space continued until, with the naked eye, they saw
completely ends. Also, evidently we had
nothing but a distant hint of grey, and the
reached about then an absolutely blank
telescopes showed only faint images of far
condition which, near or in space, only
stars. And as they proceeded to get clear of the
partially exists. Whatever the exact reason, the
danger zone, these faint images suddenly, fact is that, of a sudden, the other planets in inexplicably, and horrifyingly vanished!
the fleet grew faint and dim and quite casually
Bzonn vividly recalls this scene in the
vanished. One of them was less than a
following words: “Astronomy Gamma* first
thousand miles away! Radio signals were tried
reported it to me and I did not believe him. It
in vain. Our gyroscope was set in motion
was not an hour before that I had used the
finally and I changed course at once, hoping to
telescope myself. He went away and returned
come close enough to the nearest planet-ship
with Astronomy Alpha* himself and upon this
to get into communication. Possibly her
I went to investigate and found it was even as
commander had the same idea—I may never
I had been told. Through our most powerful
know—but I never saw him again.
electric telescope nothing—literally nothing—
“For a hundred thousand years, I
could be seen save for the other nine planets
searched through the black fog in the most
that formed our fleet. I signaled each of the
complete and utter fruitlessness. Finally,
nine in turn but not one reported any despairing of ever finding them, I gave the observation different from ours. The command for setting our course back to our command to apply rocket power to bring our
starting point. Of the other nine planets, eight
flight to a halt was a dangerous one—I dare
had not set up gyroscopes when the light
not give it. How could we tell that direction
failed and could only by the merest chance
might not be lost in the manoeuver? One thing
ever hope to return to our familiar star
I did know and only one—if our rockets were
universes. Physics Beta, of course, had a guide
kept shut off, our inertia would continue us in
for his return and him I expected to find later
a straight line. Possibly large gyroscopes on. As a matter of fact, he returned to human would hold direction and set us upon a return
civilization half a million years before I did.
course. I proceeded at once to try them.
“For centuries we peered despairingly
“By signal, I requested Physics Beta,
out at the desolate wastes that lie there so
who commanded one of the planetoids, to
emptily and blackly, searching for the first
distant hints that might indicate our approach
ships to check direction. In a tenth of a year,
to familiar space. We gave up hope a dozen
he had completed his apparatus and the test
times, fearing that the gyroscope compass had
was made. He found that the gyroscope failed, and a dozen times we kept grimly on, retained its direction in spite of all manner of
for what else was there for us to do? Then
maneuvers to which he subjected his came the glorious moment when, with the
The Living Galaxy
9
naked eye, we all of us could make out the far
such units? Can we reach these other islands
floor of light formed by all created matter and
in chaos steering through the lightless areas
toward it we rushed until the separate light-
with gyroscopes? Only time can tell.
points showed as stars in the telescopes. And
where we entered space, there was a great
AFTERWORD
rough lump of star-clusters projecting above
the level floor of stars and this we When the voice of the teacher ceases, you photographed as we passed over and, laying
look up, for the end of the chapter has been
silhouette upon silhouette, built up a tiny reached. You have been so excited by the replica of its outline in our laboratory. It had
substance of what has been read that you have
the appearance of a long, rounded body lying
lost your awe far this ancient man. Then his
on its side with a tentacle motionless on the
eyes sweep over the class and meet yours—
floor beside it.”
just for an instant—and pass on to the door as
he walks out of the room. And then a low
The remainder of Bzonn’s narrative is an babel of conversation breaks out among your argument in favor of his theory that he had
six-year-old contemporaries and there is a
slain a super-beast—a living galaxy of stars.
general movement toward the door. You,
He warmly defended his action and insisted
reader, barely notice the others. Your chin is
that a second beast doubtless exists on your hands and your elbows on your desk.
somewhere and can be studied. He has made
Your eyes stare through walls and pass
frequent expeditions to the edge of space in
&nb
sp; through space until, in imagination, you see
many directions but, so far, without success.
the warped and bulbous edge of space itself—
At present, he has been absent twenty million
see it as a fish sees the surface of water from
years and is feared lost. But space has been
beneath. How fine it would be, you think, to1
conquered by many other explorers and there
devote yourself forever to searching for the
remains almost no star not already in our
lost companions of Bzonn! But to do that one
catalogs and almost no planet without its must wait until one knows enough and ....
human settlement.
there is the book before you. You are one of
The next problem facing the human
those who cannot wait for the next day to
race is, is all this finite incurved group of star
bring what it will—you must peer into the
clusters we know as “space” merely one unit
next chapter, driven by curiosity. For long
in infinity? Do there lie imbedded in the dark
hours you sit there over the book and I would
nothingness beyond “space” incalculable other
give anything to know what you read there!