“Good,” agreed Hayes, “but we’ll pass on to another point for a moment. Do any of you remember the first atomic power plants of a hundred and seventy years ago and how they operated?”
“I believe,” muttered Levin, “that they used the classical uranium fission method for power. They bombarded uranium with slow neutrons and split it up into masurium, barium, gamma rays and more neutrons, thus establishing a cyclic process.”
“That’s right! Well, imagine that the stellar universe acted in ways-mind you, this is a metaphor, and not to be taken literally-like a body composed of uranium atoms, and imagine this stellar universe to be bombarded from without by objects which might act in some ways similar to the way neutrons act on an atomic scale.
“Such a super-neutron, hitting a sun, would cause that sun to explode into radiation and more super-neutrons. In other words, you would have a nova.” He looked around for disagreement.
“What justification have you for that idea?” demanded Levin.
“Two; one logical, and one observational. Logic first. Stars are essentially in matter-energy equilibrium, yet suddenly, with no observable change, either spectral or otherwise, they occasionally explode. An explosion indicates instability, but where? Not within the star, for it had been in equilibrium for millions of years. Not from a point within the universe, for novae occur in even concentration throughout the universe. Hence, by elimination, only from a point outside the universe.
“Secondly, observation. I came across one of these super-neutrons!”
Said Murfree indignantly: “I suppose you mean that gravitationless planet you came across?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what makes you think it’s a super-neutron? You can’t use your theory as proof, because you’re using the super-neutron itself to bolster the theory. We’re not allowed to argue in circles here.”
“I know that,” declared Hayes, stiffly. “I’ll resort to logic again. The world of atoms possesses a cohesive force in the electro-magnetic charge on electrons and protons. The world of stars possesses a cohesive force in gravity. The two forces are only alike in a very general manner. For instance, there are two kinds of electrical charges, positive and negative, but only one kind of gravity-and innumerable minor differences. Still, an analogy this far seems to me to be permissible. A neutron on an atomic scale is a mass without the atomic cohesive force-electric charge. A super-neutron on a stellar scale ought to be a mass without the stellar cohesive force-gravity. Therefore, if I find a body without gravity, it seems reasonable to assume it to be a super-neutron.”
“Do you consider that a rigorously scientific proof?” asked Sebastian sarcastically.
“No,” admitted Hayes, “but it is logical, conflicts with no scientific fact I know of, and works out to form a consistent explanation of novae. That should be enough for our purpose at present.”
Murfree was gazing hard at his fingernails, “And just where is this superneutron of yours heading?”
“I see you anticipate,” said Hayes, sombrely. “It was what I asked myself at the time. At 2:09Y2 today it hits the sun square, and eight minutes later, the radiation resulting from the explosion will sweep Earth to oblivion.”
“Why didn’t you report all this?” barked Sebastian.
“Where was the use? There was nothing to be done about it. We can’t handle astronomical masses. All the power available on Earth would not have sufficed to swerve that great body from its path. There was no escape within the Solar System itself, for Neptune and Pluto will turn gaseous along with the other planets, and interstellar travel is as yet impossible. Since man cannot exist independently in space, he is doomed.
“Why tell of all this? What would result after I had convinced them that the death warrant was signed? Suicides, crime waves, orgies, messiahs, evangelists, and everything bad and futile you could think of. And after all, is death by nova so bad? It is instantaneous and clean. At 2:17 you’re here. At 2:18 you are a mass of attenuated gas. It is so quick and easy a death, it is almost not death.”
There was a long silence after this. I felt uneasy. There are lies and lies, but this sounded like the real thing. Hayes didn’t have that little quirk of the lip or that little gleam in the eye which marks the triumph of putting over a good one. He was deadly, deadly serious. I could see the others felt the same. Levin was gulping at his wine, hand shaking.
Finally, Sebastian coughed loudly, “How long ago did you discover this super-neutron and where?”
“Fifteen years ago, a billion miles or better from the sun.”
“And all that time it has been approaching the sun?”
“Yes; at a constant speed of two miles per second.”
“Good, I’ve got you!” Sebastian almost laughed his relief. “Why haven’t the astronomers spotted it in all this while?”
“My God,” responded Hayes, impatiently, “it’s clear you aren’t an astronomer. Now, what fool would look to the Southern Celestial Pole for a planet, when they’re only found in the ecliptic?”
“But,“ pointed out Sebastian, “the region is studied just the same. It is photographed.”
“Surely! For all I know, the super-neutron has been photographed a hundred times-a thousand times if you like-though the Southern Pole is the most poorly watched region of the sky. But what’s to differentiate it from a star? With its low albedo, it never passed eleventh magnitude in brightness. After all, it’s hard enough to detect any planets in any case. Uranus was spotted many times before Herschel realized it was a planet. Pluto took years to find even when they were looking for it. Remember also that without gravity, it causes no planetary perturbations, and that the absence of these removes the most obvious indication of its presence.”
“But, “ insisted Sebastian, desperately, “as it approached the sun, its apparent size would increase and it would begin to show a perceptible disc through a telescope. Even if its reflected light were very faint, it would certainly obscure the stars behind it.”
“True,” admitted Hayes. “I will not say that a really thorough mapping of the Polar Region would not have uncovered it, but such mapping has been done long ago, and the present cursory searches for novae, special spectral types, and so on are by no means thorough. Then, as the super-neutron approaches the sun, it begins to appear only in the dawn and twilight-in evening and morning star fashion-so that observation becomes much more difficult. And so, as a matter of fact, it just has not been observed-and it is what should have been expected.”
Again a silence, and I became aware that my heart was pounding. Itwas two o’clock even, and we hadn’t been able to shake Hayes’ story. We had to prove it a lie fast, or r d die of sheer suspense. We were all of us watching the clock.
Levin took up the fight. “It’s an awfully queer coincidence that the super-neutron should be heading straight for the sun. What are the chances against it? Remember, that would be the same thing as reciting the chances against the truth of the story.”
I interposed, “That is an illegitimate objection, Mr. Levin. To cite improbability, however great, is not sufficient. Only outright impossibility or citation of inconsistency can serve to disqualify.”
But Hayes waved his hand, “It’s all right. Let me answer. Taking an individual super-neutron and an individual star, the chances of collision, head on, are all but infinitely small. However, statistically, if you shoot enough super-neutrons into the universe, then, given enough time, every star ought to be hit sooner or later. Space must be swarming with super-neutrons-say one every thousand cubic parsecs-so that in spite of the vast distances between the stars and the relative minuteness of the targets, twenty novae occur in our single Galaxy every year-that is, there are twenty collisions between superneutrons and stars annually.
“The situation is no different really from uranium being bombarded with ordinary neutrons. Only one neutron out of a hundred million may score a hit, but, given time, every nucleus is exploded eventually. If there is an outer-universe intelligence directing this bombardment-pure hypothesis, and not part of my argument, please-a year to us is probably an infinitesimal fraction of a second to them. The hits, to them, may be occurring at the rate of billions to their seconds. Energy is being developed, perhaps, to the point where the material this universe composes has become heated to the gaseous state-or whatever passes for the gaseous state there. The universe is expanding, you know-like a gas.”
“Still, for the very first super-neutron entering our system to head straight for the sun seems-” Levin ended in a weak stammer.
“Good Lord,” snapped Hayes, “who told you this was the first? Hundreds may have passed through the system in geologic times. One or two may have passed through in the last thousand years or so. How would we know? Even when one is headed straight for the sun, astronomers don’t find it. Perhaps this is the only one that’s passed through since the telescope was invented, and before then, of course. And never forget that, having no gravity, they can go right through the middle of the system, without affecting the planets. Only a hit on the sun registers, and then it’s too late.”
He looked at the clock, “2:o51 We ought to see it now against the sun.” He stood up and raised the window shade. The yellow sunlight streamed in and I moved away from the dusty shaft of light. My mouth was dry as desert sand. Murfree was mopping his brow, but beads of sweat stood out all along his cheeks and neck.
Hayes took out several slips of exposed film-negative and handed them out, “I came prepared, you see.” He held one up and squinted at the sun. “There it is,” he remarked placidly. “My calculations showed it would be in transit with respect to Earth at the time of collision. Rather convenient!”
I was looking at the sun, too, and felt my heart skip a beat. There, quite clear against the brightness of the sun, was a little, perfectly round, black spot.
“Why doesn’t it vaporize?” stammered Murfree. “It must be almost in the sun’s atmosphere.” I don’t think he was trying to disprove Hayes’ story. He had gone past that. He was honestly seeking information.
“I told you,” explained Hayes, “that it is transparent to almost all solar radiation. Only the radiation it absorbs can go into heat and that’s a very small percentage of all it receives. Besides, it isn’t ordinary matter. It’s probably much more refractory than anything on Earth, and the Solar surface is only at 6,000 degrees Centrigrade.”