On the huge screen a wide cluster of stars, narrowing towards the ends, gleamed with a distant silver light. The profound darkness of space drowned the edges of the screen. The same blackness filled the gaps between the smaller spiral branches with their ragged tips. A pale glow spread over a ring of spherical clusters, the oldest stellar systems in our universe. Flat stellar fields alternated with clouds and strips of black condensed matter. The photograph had been taken from an awkward angle, the Galaxy was taken diagonally and from above so that the central core was a scarcely visible burning convex mass in the centre of a thin lentil-shaped cluster. Obviously if we wanted to get a complete picture of our Galaxy we should have to ask more distant galaxies that were situated at a higher galactic latitude. Not once since the inception ot the Great Circle had any of the galaxies shown signs of intelligent life.
The people of Earth watched the screen intently. For the first time man could look at his stellar Universe from the side and from a terrific distance in space.
It seemed to Chara that the entire planet was holding its breath as it looked at its Galaxy in millions of screens on all six continents and on all the oceans wherever islands of human life and labour were scattered.
“That is the end of the news received by our observatories and not previously broadcast in the world news circuit,” announced the Secretary in a calm voice. “We will now go over to projects submitted for general discussion.
“Juta Gay’s proposal to create an atmosphere for Mars suitable for human respiration by means of the extraction of the light gases from deep-lying rocks deserves attention as it is supported by sound calculations. The air so produced will be sufficient for breathing and for the heat insulation of our settlements which will then be able to come out of their glass houses. Many years ago, after oceans of oil and mountains of hard carbohydrates were discovered on Venus, automatic installations had been set working there to create an artificial atmosphere under a gigantic dome of transparent plastic. These installations enabled man to plant vegetation and build factories to provide tremendous quantities of everything organic chemistry could produce.
“We usually announce new proposals ourselves,” continued Mir Ohm, “but today you will hear an almost finished piece of research. Its author, Eva Djann, will give you material that will require most careful thought.”
The Secretary laid aside a metal sheet and smiled in a friendly way. At the end of the row of seats nearest to the rostrum Mven Mass appeared; in his dark-red costume he looked at once gloomy, solemn and calm. As a sign of respect for the assembly he raised his folded hands above his head and then sat down.
Mir Ohm left the rostrum to make way for a young woman with short, golden hair and green eyes that had a look of permanent surprise in them. Grom Orme, the President of the Council, stood beside her.
Eva Djann began speaking in a suppressed voice and was so shy that she seemed afraid to make the slightest movement. She started from the well-known fact that southern vegetation is distinguished by its blue foliage. This is a colour that is typical of ancient forms of vegetable life on Earth. An investigation of plant life on other planets had shown that blue foliage belongs to an atmosphere that is either more transparent than that of Earth or to one that is subjected to greater ultra-violet radiation from its luminary than Earth is from the Sun. It had long been known, she said, that the Sun, whose red radiation is stable, shows great instability at the blue and ultraviolet end of the spectrum. About two million years earlier there had been a sharp change in the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation that had continued over a lengthy period. It was then that the blue foliage appeared, the birds and beasts of the open spaces acquired black protective covering and birds that nested in the open began laying blade eggs.
At this time Earth’s axis lost its stability owing to changes in the electromagnetic regime of the solar system. For a long time astronomers had based their calculations on the mechanics of gravitation alone and had paid no attention to electromagnetic equilibrium which is much more changeable than gravitation.
There had long been in existence schemes for the transfer of seas into depressions on the continents in order to bring about a shift of Earth’s axis. If this problem be approached from the standpoint of the electromagnetic forces of the system and not as a problem in elementary mechanics it would be more easily and cheaply achievable. It would be remembered, she continued, that in the early days of space travel the creation of artificial gravitation had required such a tremendous expenditure of power that it had been practically impossible. Since the discovery of meson forces, however, our spaceships had been equipped with simple and reliable artificial gravity installations. And Renn Bose’s experiment had indicated a way of by-passing gravitation.
Eva Djann stopped. A group of six people, the heroes of the Pluto Expedition, seated in the centre of the hall, applauded her by extending their folded hands. The young woman’s cheeks flushed for a moment before the screen lit up with the phantom contours of stereometric drawings.
“I realize that the problem is one that can be developed on a wider scale and that we can then think of changing the orbits of planets and bringing Pluto nearer to the Sun. But so far I have in mind only the shifting of the planet’s axis of rotation to improve climatic conditions on the continental hemisphere. Renn Bose’s experiment showed the possibility of the inversion of the gravitational field in its second aspect, that is, in the aspect of the electromagnetic field, with subsequent vectoral polarization in these directions,” she pointed to geometric figures on the screen that had become elongated and were rotating, “Earth’s axis of rotation would lose its stability and the planet could be turned in the desired direction for the better illumination of the continents.”
Rows of parameters that had been computed by machines beforehand now appeared on the long glass under the screen and everybody who could understand them saw that Eva Djann’s project was, at any rate, not without sound foundation.
Eva Djann stopped the movement of the drawings and symbols and, her head bowed, left the rostrum. Her audience exchanged glances and whispered amongst themselves. The young commander of the Pluto Expedition, exchanging a scarcely perceptible glance with Grom Orme, mounted the rostrum.
“There is no doubt that Renn Bose’s experiment will have a trigger action and set off a chain of important discoveries. It seems to me to be leading us to distant vistas of science that were formerly unattainable. It was the same way with the quantum theory — the first approach to an understanding of the repagulum or mutual transition with the subsequent discovery of the antiparticle and the antifield. Then came the repagular calculus that scored a victory over the principle of indefiniteness proposed by the ancient mathematician Geisenberg. And, lastly, Renn Bose made the next step, the analysis of the space-field system, leading to an understanding of antigravitation and antispace, or, by the repagulum law, to zero space. All the formerly unaccepted theories have, in the long run, become the foundations of science!
“In the name of the Pluto exploration group I propose transmitting the problem over the universal information network for general discussion. The inclination of Earth’s axis would reduce the expenditure of energy for the warming of the polar regions, would smooth out the polar fronts and increase the planet’s water supply.”
“Is the question now being submitted to the vote clear to everybody?” asked Grom Orme.