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162 pages

English

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Take off for an intergalactic adventure with swashbuckling entrepreneur Marc "Blackie" DuQuesne. In Skylark Three, the second volume in Edward E. Smith's popular Skylark series, DuQuesne is coming into his own as a powerful businessman and decides to explore outer space in search of the wisdom of other inhabitants of the universe.

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Science fiction

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Publié par	The Floating Press
Date de parution	01 septembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781775454939
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0134€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

SKYLARK THREE
* * *
E. E. SMITH
HANS WALDEMAR WESSOLOWSKI

*
Skylark Three First published in 1928 ISBN 978-1-77545-493-9 © 2011 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Author's Note Chapter I - Duquesne Goes Traveling Chapter II - Dunark Visits Earth Chapter III - Skylark Two Sets Out Chapter IV - The Zone of Force is Tested Chapter V - First Blood Chapter VI - The Peace Conference Chapter VII - Duquesne's Voyage Chapter VIII - The Porpoise-Men of Dasor Chapter IX - The Welcome to Norlamin Chapter X - Norlaminian Science Chapter XI - Into a Sun Chapter XII - Flying Visits—Via Projection Chapter XIII - The Declaration of War Chapter XIV - Interstellar Extermination Chapter XV - The Extra-Galactic Duel Epilogue Endnotes
Author's Note
*
To all profound thinkers in the realms of Science who may chance to readSKYLARK THREE, greetings:
I have taken certain liberties with several more or less commonlyaccepted theories, but I assure you that those theories have not beenviolated altogether in ignorance. Some of them I myself believe sound,others I consider unsound, still others are out of my line, so that I amnot well enough informed upon their basic mathematical foundations tohave come to any definite conclusion, one way or the other. Whether ornot I consider any theory sound, I did not hesitate to disregard it, ifits literal application would have interfered with the logicaldevelopment of the story. In "The Skylark of Space" Mrs. Garby and Idecided, after some discussion, to allow two mathematicalimpossibilities to stand. One of these immediately became the target ofcritics from Maine to California and, while no astronomer has as yetcalled attention to the other, I would not be surprised to hear aboutit, even at this late date.
While I do not wish it understood that I regard any of the majorfeatures of this story as likely to become facts in the nearfuture—indeed, it has been my aim to portray the highly improbable—itis my belief that there is no mathematical or scientific impossibilityto be found in "Skylark Three."
In fact, even though I have repeatedly violated theories in which Imyself believe, I have in every case taken great pains to make certainthat the most rigid mathematical analysis of which I am capable hasfailed to show that I have violated any known and proven scientificfact. By "fact" I do not mean the kind of reasoning, based uponassumptions later shown to be fallacious, by which it was "proved" thatthe transatlantic cable and the airplane were scientifically impossible.I refer to definitely known phenomena which no possible futuredevelopment can change—I refer to mathematical proofs whose fundamentalequations and operations involve no assumptions and contain nosecond-degree uncertainties.
Please bear in mind that we KNOW very little. It has been widelybelieved that the velocity of light is the limiting velocity, and manyof our leading authorities hold this view—but it cannot be proved, andis by no means universally held. In this connection, it would appearthat J. J. Thompson, in "Beyond the Electron" shows, to his ownsatisfaction at least, that velocities vastly greater than that of lightare not only possible, but necessary to any comprehensive investigationinto the nature of the electron.
We do not know the nature of light. Neither the undulatory theory northe quantum theory are adequate to explain all observed phenomena, andthey seem to be mutually exclusive, since it would seem clear bydefinition that no one thing can be at the same time continuous anddiscontinuous. We know nothing of the ether—we do not even know whetheror not it exists, save as a concept of our own extremely limitedintelligence. We are in total ignorance of the ultimate structure ofmatter, and of the arrangement and significance of those largeraggregations of matter, the galaxies. We do not know nor understand, norcan we define, even such fundamental necessities as time and space.
Why prate of "the impossible"?
Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D.
Chapter I - Duquesne Goes Traveling
*
In the innermost private office of Steel, Brookings and DuQuesne staredat each other across the massive desk. DuQuesne's voice was cold, hisblack brows were drawn together.
"Get this, Brookings, and get it straight. I'm shoving off at twelveo'clock tonight. My advice to you is to lay off Richard Seaton,absolutely. Don't do a thing. Nothing, hold everything. Keep onholding it until I get back, no matter how long that may be," DuQuesneshot out in an icy tone.
"I am very much surprised at your change of front, Doctor. You are thelast man I would have expected to be scared off after one engagement."
"Don't be any more of a fool than you have to, Brookings. There's a lotof difference between scared and knowing when you are simply wastingeffort. As you remember, I tried to abduct Mrs. Seaton by picking heroff with an attractor from a space-ship. I would have bet that nothingcould have stopped me. Well, when they located me—probably with anautomatic Osnomian ray-detector—and heated me red-hot while I was stillbetter than two hundred miles up, I knew then and there that they had usstopped; that there was nothing we could do except go back to my plan,abandon the abduction idea, and eventually kill them all. Since my planwould take time, you objected to it, and sent an airplane to drop afive-hundred-pound bomb on them. Airplane, bomb, and all simplyvanished. It didn't explode, you remember, just flashed into light anddisappeared, with scarcely any noise. Then you pulled several more ofyour fool ideas, such as long-range bombardment, and so on. None ofthem worked. Still you've got the nerve to think that you can get themwith ordinary gunmen! I've drawn you diagrams and shown youfigures—I've told you in great detail and in one-syllable words exactlywhat we're up against. Now I tell you again that they've gotsomething . If you had the brains of a pinhead, you would know thatanything I can't do with a space-ship can't be done by a mob of ordinarygangsters. I'm telling you, Brookings, that you can't do it. My way isabsolutely the only way that will work."
"But five years, Doctor!"
"I may be back in six months. But on a trip of this kind anything canhappen, so I am planning on being gone five years. Even that may not beenough—I am carrying supplies for ten years, and that box of mine inthe vault is not to be opened until ten years from today."
"But surely we shall be able to remove the obstructions ourselves in afew weeks. We always have."
"Oh, quit kidding yourself, Brookings! This is no time for idiocy! Youstand just as much chance of killing Seaton—"
"Please, Doctor, please don't talk like that!"
"Still squeamish, eh? Your pussyfooting always did give me an acutepain. I'm for direct action, word and deed, first, last, and all thetime. I repeat, you have exactly as much chance of killing RichardSeaton as a blind kitten has."
"How do you arrive at that conclusion, Doctor? You seem very fond ofbelittling our abilities. Personally, I think that we shall be able toattain our objectives within a few weeks—certainly long before you canpossibly return from such an extended trip as you have in mind. Andsince you are so fond of frankness, I will say that I think that Seatonhas you buffaloed, as you call it. Nine-tenths of these wonderfulOsnomian things, I am assured by competent authorities, arescientifically impossible, and I think that the other one-tenth existsonly in your own imagination. Seaton was lucky in that the airplane bombwas defective and exploded prematurely; and your space-ship got hotbecause of your injudicious speed through the atmosphere. We shall haveeverything settled by the time you get back."
"If you have, I'll make you a present of the controlling interest inSteel and buy myself a chair in some home for feeble-minded old women.Your ignorance and unwillingness to believe any new idea do not changethe facts in any particular. Even before they went to Osnome, Seaton washard to get, as you found out. On that trip he learned so much new stuffthat it is now impossible to kill him by any ordinary means. You shouldrealize that fact when he kills every gangster you send against him. Atall events be very, very careful not to kill his wife in any of yourattacks, even by accident, until after you have killed him."
"Such an event would be regrettable, certainly, in that it would removeall possibility of the abduction."
"It would remove more than that. Remember the explosion in ourlaboratory, that blew an entire mountain into impalpable dust? Draw inyour mind a nice, vivid picture of one ten times the size in each of ourplants and in this building. I know that you are fool enough to go aheadwith your own ideas, in spite of everything I've said; and, since I donot yet actually control Steel, I can't forbid you to, officially. Butyou should know that I know what I'm talking about, and I say again thatyou're going to make an utter fool of yourself; just because you won'tbelieve anything possible, that hasn't been done every day for a hundredyears. I wish that I could make you understand that Seaton and Cranehave got something that we haven't—but for the good of our plants, andincidentally for your own, please remember one thing, anyway; for if youforget it, we won't have a plant left and you personally will be blowninto a fine red mist. Whatever you start, kill Seaton first, and beabsolute