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Tesseract, v. 2, issue 4, April 1937
Page 10
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10 tesseract phantom of the night. Out thru neighboring planetary orbits I scudded. Behind, the sun receded swiftly. It was well on its way to becoming no more and no less than a star. My instruments soon showed that I was approaching the speed of light. The crucial test was approaching. Would I find myself, when attempting to surpass that speed, butting my head against a skyscraper? Has the velocity of light any significance? Anxiously, I awaited developments. Not only was there no halt in the smooth acceleration but the Doppler effect was absent. I could still see. perhaps light was only relative, perhaps I was seeing by something other than visible light, waves changed by my speed to conform to the visual spectrum. Who knows? Then began a monotonous period. Stretching for trillions of miles before me was a deserted interstellar waste. Unconciously, I stepped up the acceleration as high as my body would comfortably allow. For a while, there was nothing but a bland changelessness. Then the stars to one side seemed to shift imperceptably. My speed was becoming great enough to be noticed[?] against a stellar background of tremendous dimensions. Truly I felt insignificant! Soon the stars ahead were rushing towards me with incalculable swiftness. Thousands of stars sped past. Just as I was beginning to fear that I was traveling too fast for safety in the star-sprinkled sky, emptiness burst upon me. There is no way to describe it. One minute I was maneuvering to escape swarms of suns and the next I was alone in space. Behind me was a diminishing galaxy, the star-cluster of which Earth was a tiny, lost speck. Ahead was a vast, empty void. Away in the distance I could make out other galaxies, undoubtedly similar to the one I had just quitted. But they were so far distant that the space I had already covered was rendered microscopic by comparison. For hours I had been exceeding the speed of light.... and going faster every second....I was sleepy. A little sleep couldn't hurt.... I must have wakened several hours later. The spiral star swarms had assumed[?] a new aspect. No longer were they distant, they were imminent, looming. My very speed made them appear closer together than they really were. As I fled onward, ever faster, the very galaxies became hazards. I must dodge them as I had dodged the stars hours ago. No longer could I discern separate suns in the galazies[?], each star-swarm became solid in appearance. I soon almost believed that they were solid. A curious, but highly troubling thought occured to me. When I was still in the solar system the sun, planets, meteors, and satellites had seemed large and important. Then, as I flew upward and outward, nothing smaller than a star had impinged upon my path. Still faster I went, and even the stars seemed to lose importance. They fused and formed galazies. And these galaxies were the new units. Soon the galaxies would run together and resolve into something else, something grander. It was the law of things. I waited tense, to see what the next event in this cosmic drama would be. Suddenly the space around me became empty once more. Glancing back, I saw groups of galazies, dwindling as a single object. Inconcievable distances ahead, I saw great, misty forms having as their base myriad galaxies. Suddenly a bell above me rang stridently. It was the "hands off" signal. I knew what it meant. I had used up almost half of my supply of lead fuel. An automatic pilot would now take the controls. The ship would turn and follow the path I had blazed back to Earth. Altho I didn't even know which direction home lay, this machineof mine would find it without delay. I lay back and slept. As I fled madly upon my epoch-making voyage thru the stars, time moved out from under me. What seemed minutes to me were, in reality, years. As I write this I am an outcast from my own world. Everything I know and loved is buried under the dusty of centuries. Time has moved on without me, and I realize how unimportant I am. Spread out before me is a brilliant, but bewildering panorama of engineering skill. I see giant buildings, of ethereal beauty, bridges of inconceivable extent, gardens that are sheer paradise. I see Earth as poets have dreamed of it from time immemorial. I see people of surpassing beauty, without a care. But all this leaves me cold. I have soon
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10 tesseract phantom of the night. Out thru neighboring planetary orbits I scudded. Behind, the sun receded swiftly. It was well on its way to becoming no more and no less than a star. My instruments soon showed that I was approaching the speed of light. The crucial test was approaching. Would I find myself, when attempting to surpass that speed, butting my head against a skyscraper? Has the velocity of light any significance? Anxiously, I awaited developments. Not only was there no halt in the smooth acceleration but the Doppler effect was absent. I could still see. perhaps light was only relative, perhaps I was seeing by something other than visible light, waves changed by my speed to conform to the visual spectrum. Who knows? Then began a monotonous period. Stretching for trillions of miles before me was a deserted interstellar waste. Unconciously, I stepped up the acceleration as high as my body would comfortably allow. For a while, there was nothing but a bland changelessness. Then the stars to one side seemed to shift imperceptably. My speed was becoming great enough to be noticed[?] against a stellar background of tremendous dimensions. Truly I felt insignificant! Soon the stars ahead were rushing towards me with incalculable swiftness. Thousands of stars sped past. Just as I was beginning to fear that I was traveling too fast for safety in the star-sprinkled sky, emptiness burst upon me. There is no way to describe it. One minute I was maneuvering to escape swarms of suns and the next I was alone in space. Behind me was a diminishing galaxy, the star-cluster of which Earth was a tiny, lost speck. Ahead was a vast, empty void. Away in the distance I could make out other galaxies, undoubtedly similar to the one I had just quitted. But they were so far distant that the space I had already covered was rendered microscopic by comparison. For hours I had been exceeding the speed of light.... and going faster every second....I was sleepy. A little sleep couldn't hurt.... I must have wakened several hours later. The spiral star swarms had assumed[?] a new aspect. No longer were they distant, they were imminent, looming. My very speed made them appear closer together than they really were. As I fled onward, ever faster, the very galaxies became hazards. I must dodge them as I had dodged the stars hours ago. No longer could I discern separate suns in the galazies[?], each star-swarm became solid in appearance. I soon almost believed that they were solid. A curious, but highly troubling thought occured to me. When I was still in the solar system the sun, planets, meteors, and satellites had seemed large and important. Then, as I flew upward and outward, nothing smaller than a star had impinged upon my path. Still faster I went, and even the stars seemed to lose importance. They fused and formed galazies. And these galaxies were the new units. Soon the galaxies would run together and resolve into something else, something grander. It was the law of things. I waited tense, to see what the next event in this cosmic drama would be. Suddenly the space around me became empty once more. Glancing back, I saw groups of galazies, dwindling as a single object. Inconcievable distances ahead, I saw great, misty forms having as their base myriad galaxies. Suddenly a bell above me rang stridently. It was the "hands off" signal. I knew what it meant. I had used up almost half of my supply of lead fuel. An automatic pilot would now take the controls. The ship would turn and follow the path I had blazed back to Earth. Altho I didn't even know which direction home lay, this machineof mine would find it without delay. I lay back and slept. As I fled madly upon my epoch-making voyage thru the stars, time moved out from under me. What seemed minutes to me were, in reality, years. As I write this I am an outcast from my own world. Everything I know and loved is buried under the dusty of centuries. Time has moved on without me, and I realize how unimportant I am. Spread out before me is a brilliant, but bewildering panorama of engineering skill. I see giant buildings, of ethereal beauty, bridges of inconceivable extent, gardens that are sheer paradise. I see Earth as poets have dreamed of it from time immemorial. I see people of surpassing beauty, without a care. But all this leaves me cold. I have soon
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