Takeoff. Part 24

The sound came again.

Somewhere a duck quacked.

MASTERS OF THE METROPOLIS.

By Randall Garret and Lin Carter

Well, you see, it was like this: Lin Carter and I were having a few drinks one night.

More than a few.

Several.

We were discussing Hugo Gernsback's cla.s.sic, Ralph 124C41+, the first novel written as science fiction, back in 1912. The term "science fiction" had not been invented yet, and would not be until Hugo Gernsback himself invented it in the Thirties. (He had previously invented the word "scientifiction," but it didn't work out right. If you want to research this, see the several works of my friend, Sam Moskowitz, one of the outstanding historians of science fiction.) Anyway, Lin pointed out that the trouble with Ralph was that the folk of the future were always so amazed at what was going on about them, whereas we, in the mid-fifties, were not. Lin was right. We, today, take scientific miracles for granted. The man on the street does not gawp at flights to the moon or the fantastic things computers can do.

But-suppose he did!

CHAPTER I.

The Journey Begins

It was in the Eighth Month of the Year 1956 that Sam IM4 SF+ strode down the surging, crowded streets of Newark, one of the many cities of its kind in the State of New Jersey. He had just left his apartment in one of the vast, soaring pylons of the city. There. living in universal accord, hundreds of families dwelt side by side in the same great tower, one of many which loomed as many as forty stories above the street.

He paused to board a bus which stopped at regularly-s.p.a.ced intervals to take on new pa.s.sengers.

The bus, or Omnibus, was a streamlined, self-propelled public vehicle, powered by the exploding gases of distilled petroleum, ignited in a sealed cylinder by means of an electrical spark. The energy thus obtained was applied as torque to a long metal bar known as the "drive-shaft," which turned a set of gears in a complex apparatus known as the "differential housing." These gears, in turn, caused the rear wheels to revolve about their axes, thus propelling the vehicle forward smoothly at velocities as great as eighty miles every hour!

Dropping a coin into the receptacle by the driver's cubicle, and receiving a courteous welcome from the technician employed to pilot the machine, he took his seat inside the vehicle. Marveling anew at the luxurious comfort of the form-fitting seats, Sam IM4 SF+ gazed out of the window at the gorgeous spectacle of the city as it raced past.

Within a very few moments, the vehicle decelerated to a smooth stop before Pennsylvania Station, a mammoth terminal where the far-flung lines of public transportation converged.

Entering the great building, he paused to marvel anew at the inspiring architectural genius capable of erecting such an imposing monument to modern civilization-a building which would have struck with awe the simpler citizens of earlier times.

Threading his way through the crowds which thronged the vaulted interior of the terminal, he came to a turnstile, an artifact not unlike a rimless wheel, whose spokes revolved to allow his pa.s.sage. He placed a coin in the mechanism, and the marvelous machine-but one of the many mechanical marvels of the age-recorded his pa.s.sage on a small dial and automatically added the value of his coin to the total theretofore acc.u.mulated. All this, mind, without a single human hand at the controls!

Once past the turnstile, Sam IM4 SF+ followed the ingenious directional signs on the walls, which led him to a vast, artificially-lighted underground cavern. There he waited for his second conveyance to arrive.

Sam IM4 SF+, a typical citizen of his age, towered a full six feet above the ground. His handsomeface was crowned by a ma.s.sive, intellectual forehead. His hair was dark and smooth, neatly trimmed to follow the contours of his skull. He was clad in complex and attractive garments, according to the fashion of his century. His trousers were woven of a fabric synthetically formulated from a clever mixture of chemicals, as was his coat, for these favored people no longer depended upon herds of domesticated quadrupeds for their raiment. These garments were fastened, not by b.u.t.tons, but by an ingenious system of automatically interlocking metallic teeth known as a zipper.

Suspended from his ears, a frame of stiff wires supported a pair of polished lenses before his eyes, which served not only to protect those orbs from the rushing winds that were a natural hazard of this Age of Speed, but also to implement his vision, lending it an almost telescopic power.

As he stood on the platform, his sensitive ears detected the distant roar of a subway train. Gazing down the dark tunnel by whose egress the platform stood, he observed the cyclopean glare of the artificial light affixed to the blunt nose of the onrushing all-metallic projectile. The entire cavern reverberated to the roar of the vehicle as it emerged from the tunnel with a mighty rush of wind and braked smoothly to a dead stop before his very feet.

The marvel of modern transportation which was to bear him on his journey to the great Metropolis of New York had arrived!

CHAPTER II.

Aboard the Subway Train

The automatic door slid open, and our hero entered the car and was offered a seat by one of the courteous, uniformed crewmembers.

Pausing to marvel anew at this miracle of modern science, Sam IM4 SF+ turned to a fellow traveler and remarked conversationally: "Ah, fellow citizen; is it not wonderful to reflect that the same Energy which propels us through the very bowels of the Earth is identical with the lightning that flames in stormy skies, far above these Stygiall depths? For thousands of years, the simple peasants of a ruder age looked upon the lightning bolt as the awesome weapon of angry G.o.ds; little did they surmise that their descendants would one day chain this Gargantuan power and harness it to serve their will!"

"How true!" remarked his companion. "And could one of them now be with us as we speed through this fantastic system of tunnels, would he not be struck dumb with terror and think us G.o.ds?"

"Would he not, indeed," smiled Sam, "commonplace though it is to us."

As they were speaking, the subway train sprang to life and plunged into the ebon mouth of another tunnel. In an instant, the vast, lighted cavern was lost to view, and the car was swallowed in the blackness of the tunnel, illuminated only by the colored lights set at intervals along the cavern walls as signals to the pilot.

The mighty engine thundered through the darkness like some mythical monster of a bygone age.

Sam, however, experienced no difficulty in observing his fellow pa.s.sengers, since the interior of the vehicle was brilliantly illuminated by ingenious artificial lighting. These light bulbs consisted of cleverly blown globes of gla.s.s which contained a delicate and intricate filament of tungsten wire. Upon the application of sufficient electrical current, the wire heated up to many hundreds of degrees, thus emitting a bright and pleasant light. Indeed, so great was the temperature at which they operated, the globes were filled with inert gas in order to prevent even the highly refractive tungsten from burning in the air!

Sam spent his time pleasantly by reading the various colorful and informative signs within the car.

These advertis.e.m.e.nts portrayed the many necessities and luxuries which all citizens of this age might acquire. Each told of its own product in glowing, descriptive terms. Here. a poster told of a harmless chemical mixture which, when applied to the skin, destroyed the unpleasant body odors with which earlier ages had been plagued; there, another card told of a confection which, when masticated, acted as a tooth-cleansing agent, thus serving as an aid to the buoyant health of the people of this era.

Within a few minutes, the vehicle had pa.s.sed beneath the rolling waters of the mighty Hudson River, and emerged from the darkness into another vast cavern, larger than, though similar to, the one in which our hero first boarded the conveyance. As the pa.s.sengers emerged in orderly rows from the subway train, Sam joined them and thus beheld the awe-inspiring vastness of Grand Central Station. Breathtaking was the panorama that greeted his dazzled orbs as he joined the motley throng that surged and eddied beneath the tremendous dome. A traveler from an earlier age would have been confused and lost in the orderly chaos of the great terminal.

Level upon level, tier upon tier, exit upon exit met the eye at every turn.

But Sam IM4 SF+ was no stranger here; indeed, he gave scarcely a glance to the confusion through which he made his way. In a very few moments, he left the building to gaze in awe at the fantastic sight of the great Metropolis of New York, the hugest city ever constructed-vast, even on the mammoth scale of other cities of this advanced age.

CHAPTER III.

Through the Vast Metropolis

All about him soared the incredible towers, spires, pylons, monuments, buildings, palaces, temples, cathedrals, domes, and other breath-taking constructions of the Metropolis. Through its broad streets moved the traffic of the great city. Row on row of metallic projectiles called automobiles pa.s.sed smoothly, silently, and swiftly through the streets. Powered by the same "internal combustion 'engine"

that powered the Omnibus, they were marvels of mechanical genius. So common were they to the favored children of this Mechanical Age that the gayly-costumed pa.s.sersby scarcely gave them a glance, even when crossing the streets through which the autos ran.

Sam lifted his n.o.bly-sculptured head and gazed enthralled at the towers that rose, rank upon serried rank, as far as the eye could see. Their smooth, regular sides of artificial stone literally blazed with hundreds of illuminated windows. Their lofty tops seemed to touch the very sky itself-for which reason, let me remark in pa.s.sing, the inhabitants called them Sky-Sc.r.a.pers.

"Ah, madam," exclaimed Sam to a lovely young woman, who, curiously attired in the daring fashions of the age, stood near him, also gazing in awe at the spectacle, '"how much vaster is our great Metropolis even that storied Nineveh, or Tyre, or mighty Babylon with its famed hanging gardens, or Carthage of yore!"

"Truly, good sir," she responded modestly. '"And is it not wonderful that we are here to see it all?

Ah, would not some proud Caesar or Attila of old have given all his treasures for such a privilege?"

Before them, in multicolored grandeur, blazed hundreds of vast advertising displays, each shining with a light that dazzled the eye of the beholder. These sign-lights were ingeniously wrought tubes of gla.s.s of no greater diameter than a common lead-pencil, but many feet in length. The tubes were curved to form the various letters and symbols which made up the great illuminated signs, and were filled with various gases under low pressure. When electrical energy of tremendous voltage was applied to electrodes at the ends of the tubes, the gas within glowed brilliantly with colored light, just as the atmosphere glows when a bolt of lightning pa.s.ses through it during a thunderstorm. By filling these tubes with diverse gases, all the hues of the rainbow could be duplicated.

Sam IM4 SF+ turned his admiring gaze from the breathtaking displays and started to cross the street. By a clever contrivance of flashing signal-lamps, the flow of mechanical traffic was periodically halted, to thus allow unmounted citizens to pa.s.s from one side to the other in complete safety. Sam strode across the street as the traffic halted in strict obedience to the signal-lamps. Once on the other side, he started off through the byways of the city. On either side stretched mercantile establishments of divers sorts, selling luxuries and commodities undreamed of by earlier peoples. He strode past a theater of the age which, instead of living actors, displayed amazing dramas recorded on strips of celluloid and projected by beams of light on tremendous white surfaces within the darkened theater. Ingeniously recorded voices and sounds, cleverly synchronized to the movement of the figures on the screen, made them seem lifelike.

"Ah, the wonders of modern science!" Sam marveled anew.

CHAPTER IV.

The Threat of the Mind Masters

Not even the varied panorama of the Metropolis could keep Sam IM4 SF+ from thinking of his mission to the city. He had constantly kept a sharp look-out, watching those who might betray too much interest in his person, being careful that no one was following him.

For Sam IM4 SF+ knew that danger was afoot in New-York; a secret group known as the Mind Masters was plotting to take over the Government, using super-scientific devices, about which Sam could only conjecture. There was no proof, unfortunately, with which our h.e.l.lo could have gone to the rulers of this enlightened country and denounced the scoundrels for the criminals they were. Only Sam IM4 SF + knew of the existence of this evil band-Sam, and a few loyal cohorts that he had gathered to combat the menace.

For Sam, like few others across the world, had a Sixth Sense, which enabled him to detect certain emotional responses which were, to others, non-existent.

Thus, Sam proceeded carefully to his destination, for he knew full well that if he were discovered, death would be his reward.

Little did he know that. in a secret room, many miles away, the Mind Masters were, at that very moment, plotting his destruction. Twelve men in black hoods were seated about a table. Eleven of them were listening to the twelfth speak.

"Even now," he said, in a voice that reeked with evil, "our agents are following IM4 SF+, clad in invisibility suits. Fear not, my friends, we shall destroy that prying Sixth Sense of his. When our agents close in at last, they will use the hyper-decerebralizer ray. The fool has no chance!"

To Be Continued

WILL THE CABAL DESTROY SAM'S WONDER SENSE?.

WHAT OF COUNTESS TAMARA AND THE HIDDEN LEGION?.

WILL DR. DOOM PERFECT HIS ROCKETSHIP IN TIME TO ESCAPE?.

CAN DALE ARDENT SURVIVE THE MIND-FREEZING MACHINE?.

READ THE SECOND PART OF THIS AMAZING SERIAL AND SEE!.

Both Lin and I apologize for the fact that these questions have no answers. However, dear reader, if you come up with answers of your own, rest a.s.sured that we would be glad to see them. Those questions have been bothering us, too.

MUSTANG.

By Randall Garrett

I believe the term "horse opera" is, like "soap opera," somewhat older than "s.p.a.ce opera,"

which is logical. Ned Buntline {Edward Zane Carroll Judson) was writing at the same time as Jules Verne, but in those days, as today, more people understood horses than understood s.p.a.ce.

But which is more important? If all the horses were to vanish suddenly tonight, the human race would muddle through somehow, but if s.p.a.ce were to vanish, where would we be?

Personally I like horses, and I like Zane Grey. Now if you just add a touch of the strange and come up with the Old Switcheroo-

Beautiful? h.e.l.l yes, she was beautiful!

You ever see one of them golden palominos? Beautiful, right? Well, this mustang was that golden color all over-almost a blonde, you might say.