THE JAMESON SATELLITE By NEIL R. JONES _The mammoths of the ancient world have been wonderfully preserved in the ice of Siberia. The cold, only a few miles out in space, will be far more intense than in the polar regions and its power of preserving the dead body would most probably be correspondingly increased. When the hero-scientist of this story knew he must die, he conceived a brilliant idea for the preservation of his body, the result of which even exceeded his expectations. What, how, and why are cleverly told here. _ PROLOGUE _The Rocket Satellite_ In the depths of space, some twenty thousand miles from the earth, thebody of Professor Jameson within its rocket container cruised upon anendless journey, circling the gigantic sphere. The rocket was asatellite of the huge, revolving world around which it held to itsorbit. In the year 1958, Professor Jameson had sought for a plan wherebyhe might preserve his body indefinitely after his death. He had workedlong and hard upon the subject. Since the time of the Pharaohs, the human race had looked for a means bywhich the dead might be preserved against the ravages of time. Great hadbeen the art of the Egyptians in the embalming of their deceased, apractice which was later lost to humanity of the ensuing mechanical age, never to be rediscovered. But even the embalming of the Egyptians--soProfessor Jameson had argued--would be futile in the face of millions ofyears, the dissolution of the corpses being just as eventual asimmediate cremation following death. The professor had looked for a means by which the body could bepreserved perfectly forever. But eventually he had come to theconclusion that nothing on earth is unchangeable beyond a certain limitof time. Just as long as he sought an earthly means of preservation, hewas doomed to disappointment. All earthly elements are composed of atomswhich are forever breaking down and building up, but never destroyingthemselves. A match may be burned, but the atoms are still unchanged, having resolved themselves into smoke, carbon dioxide, ashes, andcertain basic elements. It was clear to the professor that he couldnever accomplish his purpose if he were to employ one system of atomicstructure, such as embalming fluid or other concoction, to preserveanother system of atomic structure, such as the human body, when allatomic structure is subject to universal change, no matter how slow. [Illustration: It glowed in a haze of light, the interior clearlyrevealed. ] He had then soliloquized upon the possibility of preserving the humanbody in its state of death until the end of all earthly time--to thatday when the earth would return to the sun from which it had sprung. Quite suddenly one day he had conceived the answer to the puzzlingproblem which obsessed his mind, leaving him awed with its wild, uncannypotentialities. He would have his body shot into space enclosed in a rocket to become asatellite of the earth as long as the earth continued to exist. Hereasoned logically. Any material substance, whether of organic orinorganic origin, cast into the depths of space would existindefinitely. He had visualized his dead body enclosed in a rocketflying off into the illimitable maw of space. He would remain in perfectpreservation, while on earth millions of generations of mankind wouldlive and die, their bodies to molder into the dust of the forgottenpast. He would exist in this unchanged manner until that day whenmankind, beneath a cooling sun, should fade out forever in the chill, thin atmosphere of a dying world. And still his body would remain intactand as perfect in its rocket container as on that day of the far-gonepast when it had left the earth to be hurled out on its career. What amagnificent idea! At first he had been assailed with doubts. Suppose his funeral rocketlanded upon some other planet or, drawn by the pull of the great sun, were thrown into the flaming folds of the incandescent sphere? Then therocket might continue on out of the solar system, plunging through theendless seas of space for millions of years, to finally enter the solarsystem of some far-off star, as meteors often enter ours. Suppose hisrocket crashed upon a planet, or the star itself, or became a captivesatellite of some celestial body? It had been at this juncture that the idea of his rocket becoming thesatellite of the earth had presented itself, and he had immediatelyincorporated it into his scheme. The professor had figured out theamount of radium necessary to carry the rocket far enough away from theearth so that it would not turn around and crash, and still be not sofar away but what the earth's gravitational attraction would keep itfrom leaving the vicinity of the earth and the solar system. Like themoon, it would forever revolve around the earth. He had chosen an orbit sixty-five thousand miles from the earth for hisrocket to follow. The only fears he had entertained concerned the hugemeteors which careened through space at tremendous rates of speed. Hehad overcome this obstacle, however, and had eliminated thepossibilities of a collision with these stellar juggernauts. In therocket were installed radium repulsion rays which swerved allapproaching meteors from the path of the rocket as they entered thevicinity of the space wanderer. The aged professor had prepared for every contingency, and had set downto rest from his labors, reveling in the stupendous, unparalleledresults he would obtain. Never would his body undergo decay; and neverwould his bones bleach to return to the dust of the earth from which allmen originally came and to which they must return. His body would remainmillions of years in a perfectly preserved state, untouched by the hoarypalm of such time as only geologists and astronomers can conceive. His efforts would surpass even the wildest dreams of H. Rider Haggard, who depicted the wondrous, embalming practices of the ancient nation ofKor in his immortal novel, "She, " wherein Holly, under the escort of theincomparable Ayesha, looked upon the magnificent, lifelike masterpiecesof embalming by the long-gone peoples of Kor. With the able assistance of a nephew, who carried out his instructionsand wishes following his death, Professor Jameson was sent upon hispilgrimage into space within the rocket he himself had built. The nephewand heir kept the secret forever locked in his heart. * * * * * Generation after generation had passed upon its way. Gradually humanityhad come to die out, finally disappearing from the earth altogether. Mankind was later replaced by various other forms of life whichdominated the globe for their allotted spaces of time before they toobecame extinct. The years piled up on one another, running intomillions, and still the Jameson Satellite kept its lonely vigil aroundthe earth, gradually closing the distance between satellite and planet, yielding reluctantly to the latter's powerful attraction. Forty million years later, its orbit ranged some twenty thousand milesfrom the earth while the dead world edged ever nearer the cooling sunwhose dull, red ball covered a large expanse of the sky. Surroundingthe flaming sphere, many of the stars could be perceived through theearth's thin, rarefied atmosphere. As the earth cut in slowly andgradually toward the solar luminary, so was the moon revolving evernearer the earth, appearing like a great gem glowing in the twilightsky. The rocket containing the remains of Professor Jameson continued itsendless travel around the great ball of the earth whose rotation had nowceased entirely--one side forever facing the dying sun. There it pursuedits lonely way, a cosmic coffin, accompanied by its funeral cortege ofscintillating stars amid the deep silence of the eternal space whichenshrouded it. Solitary it remained, except for the occasional passingof a meteor flitting by at a remarkable speed on its aimless journeythrough the vacuum between the far-flung worlds. Would the satellite follow its orbit to the world's end, or would itssupply of radium soon exhaust itself after so many eons of time, converting the rocket into the prey of the first large meteor whichchanced that way? Would it some day return to the earth as its nearerapproach portended, and increase its acceleration in a long arc to crashupon the surface of the dead planet? And when the rocket terminated itscareer, would the body of Professor Jameson be found perfectly preservedor merely a crumbled mound of dust? CHAPTER I _40, 000, 000 Years After_ Entering within the boundaries of the solar system, a long, dark, pointed craft sped across the realms of space towards the tiny point oflight which marked the dull red ball of the dying sun which would someday lie cold and dark forever. Like a huge meteor it flashed into thesolar system from another chain of planets far out in the illimitableUniverse of stars and worlds, heading towards the great red sun at aninconceivable speed. Within the interior of the space traveler, queer creatures of metallabored at the controls of the space flyer which juggernauted on its waytowards the far-off solar luminary. Rapidly it crossed the orbits ofNeptune and Uranus and headed sunward. The bodies of these queercreatures were square blocks of a metal closely resembling steel, whilefor appendages, the metal cube was upheld by four jointed legs capableof movement. A set of six tentacles, all metal, like the rest of thebody, curved outward from the upper half of the cubic body. Surmountingit was a queer-shaped head rising to a peak in the center and equippedwith a circle of eyes all the way around the head. The creatures, withtheir mechanical eyes equipped with metal shutters, could see in alldirections. A single eye pointed directly upward, being situated in thespace of the peaked head, resting in a slight depression of the cranium. These were the Zoromes of the planet Zor which rotated on its way arounda star millions of light years distant from our solar system. TheZoromes, several hundred thousand years before, had reached a stage inscience, where they searched for immortality and eternal relief frombodily ills and various deficiencies of flesh and blood anatomy. Theyhad sought freedom from death, and had found it, but at the same timethey had destroyed the propensities for birth. And for several hundredthousand years there had been no births and few deaths in the history ofthe Zoromes. This strange race of people had built their own mechanical bodies, andby operation upon one another had removed their brains to the metalheads from which they directed the functions and movements of theirinorganic anatomies. There had been no deaths due to worn-out bodies. When one part of the mechanical men wore out, it was replaced by a newpart, and so the Zoromes continued living their immortal lives which sawfew casualties. It was true that, since the innovation of the machines, there had been a few accidents which had seen the destruction of themetal heads with their brains. These were irreparable. Such cases hadbeen few, however, and the population of Zor had decreased but little. The machine men of Zor had no use for atmosphere, and had it not beenfor the terrible coldness of space, could have just as well existed inthe ether void as upon some planet. Their metal bodies, especially theirmetal-encased brains, did require a certain amount of heat even thoughthey were able to exist comfortably in temperatures which wouldinstantly have frozen to death a flesh-and-blood creature. The most popular pastime among the machine men of Zor was theexploration of the Universe. This afforded them a never ending source ofinterest in the discovery of the variegated inhabitants and conditionsof the various planets on which they came to rest. Hundreds of spaceships were sent out in all directions, many of them being upon theirexpeditions for hundreds of years before they returned once more to thehome planet of far-off Zor. This particular space craft of the Zoromes had entered the solar systemwhose planets were gradually circling in closer to the dull red ball ofthe declining sun. Several of the machine men of the space craft's crew, which numbered some fifty individuals, were examining the variousplanets of this particular planetary system carefully through telescopespossessing immense power. These machine men had no names and were indexed according to letters andnumbers. They conversed by means of thought impulses, and were neithercapable of making a sound vocally nor of hearing one uttered. "Where shall we go?" queried one of the men at the controls questioninganother who stood by his side examining a chart on the wall. "They all appear to be dead worlds, 4R-3579, " replied the one addressed, "but the second planet from the sun appears to have an atmosphere whichmight sustain a few living creatures, and the third planet may alsoprove interesting for it has a satellite. We shall examine the innerplanets first of all, and explore the outer ones later if we decide itis worth the time. " "Too much trouble for nothing, " ventured 9G-721. "This system of planetsoffers us little but what we have seen many times before in our travels. The sun is so cooled that it cannot sustain the more common life on itsplanets, the type of life forms we usually find in our travels. Weshould have visited a planetary system with a brighter sun. " "You speak of common life, " remarked 25X-987. "What of the uncommonlife? Have we not found life existent on cold, dead planets with nosunlight and atmosphere at all?" "Yes, we have, " admitted 9G-721, "but such occasions are exceedinglyrare. " "The possibility exists, however, even in this case, " reminded 4R-3579, "and what if we do spend a bit of unprofitable time in this oneplanetary system--haven't we all an endless lifetime before us? Eternityis ours. " "We shall visit the second planet first of all, " directed 25X-987, whowas in charge of this particular expedition of the Zoromes, "and on theway there we shall cruise along near the third planet to see what we canof the surface. We may be able to tell whether or not it holds anythingof interest to us. If it does, after visiting the second planet, weshall then return to the third. The first world is not worth botheringwith. " * * * * * The space ship from Zor raced on in a direction which would take itseveral thousand miles above the earth and then on to the planet whichwe know as Venus. As the space ship rapidly neared the earth, itslackened its speed, so that the Zoromes might examine it closely withtheir glasses as the ship passed the third planet. Suddenly, one of the machine men ran excitedly into the room where25X-987 stood watching the topography of the world beneath him. "We have found something!" he exclaimed. "What?" "Another space ship!" "Where?" "But a short distance ahead of us on our course. Come into the foreportof the ship and you can pick it up with the glass. " "Which is the way it's going?" asked 25X-987. "It is behaving queerly, " replied the machine man of Zor. "It appears tobe in the act of circling the planet. " "Do you suppose that there really is life on that deadworld--intelligent beings like ourselves, and that this is one of theirspace craft?" "Perhaps it is another exploration craft like our own from some otherworld, " was the suggestion. "But not of ours, " said 25X-987. Together, the two Zoromes now hastened into the observation room of thespace ship where more of the machine men were excitedly examining themysterious space craft, their thought impulses flying thick and fastlike bodiless bullets. "It is very small!" "Its speed is slow!" "The craft can hold but few men, " observed one. "We do not yet know of what size the creatures are, " reminded another. "Perhaps there are thousands of them in that space craft out there. Theymay be of such a small size that it will be necessary to look twicebefore finding one of them. Such beings are not unknown. " "We shall soon overtake it and see. " "I wonder if they have seen us?" "Where do you suppose it came from?" "From the world beneath us, " was the suggestion. "Perhaps. " CHAPTER II _The Mysterious Space Craft_ The machine men made way for their leader, 25X-987, who regarded thespace craft ahead of them critically. "Have you tried communicating with it yet?" he asked. "There is no reply to any of our signals, " came the answer. "Come alongside of it then, " ordered their commander. "It is smallenough to be brought inside our carrying compartment, and we can seewith our penetration rays just what manner of creatures it holds. Theyare intelligent, that is certain, for their space ship does imply asmuch. " The space flyer of the Zoromes slowed up as it approached the mysteriouswanderer of the cosmic void which hovered in the vicinity of the dyingworld. "What a queer shape it has, " remarked 25X-987. "It is even smaller thanI had previously calculated. " A rare occurrence had taken place among the machine men of Zor. Theywere overcome by a great curiosity which they could not allow to remainunsatiated. Accustomed as they were to witnessing strange sights andstill stranger creatures, meeting up with weird adventures in variouscorners of the Universe, they had now become hardened to the usual runof experiences which they were in the habit of encountering. It took agreat deal to arouse their unperturbed attitudes. Something new, however, about this queer space craft had gripped their imaginations, and perhaps a subconscious influence asserted to their minds that herethey have come across an adventure radically unusual. "Come alongside it, " repeated 25X-987 to the operator as he returned tothe control room and gazed through the side of the space ship in thedirection of the smaller cosmic wanderer. "I'm trying to, " replied the machine man, "but it seems to jump away abit every time I get within a certain distance of it. Our ship seems tojump backward a bit too. " "Are they trying to elude us?" "I don't know. They should pick up more speed if that is their object. " "Perhaps they are now progressing at their maximum speed and cannotincrease their acceleration any more. " "Look!" exclaimed the operator. "Did you just see that? The thing hasjumped away from us again!" "Our ship moved also, " said 25X-987. "I saw a flash of light shoot fromthe side of the other craft as it jumped. " Another machine man now entered and spoke to the commander of the Zoromeexpedition. "They are using radium repellent rays to keep us from approaching, " heinformed. "Counteract it, " instructed 25X-987. The man left, and now the machine man at the controls of the craft triedagain to close with the mysterious wanderer of the space betweenplanets. The effort was successful, and this time there was no glow ofrepulsion rays from the side of the long metal cylinder. They now entered the compartment where various objects were transferredfrom out the depths of space to the interplanetary craft. Then patientlythey waited for the rest of the machine men to open the side of theirspace ship and bring in the queer, elongated cylinder. "Put it under the penetration ray!" ordered 25X-987. "Then we shall seewhat it contains!" The entire group of Zoromes were assembled about the long cylinder, whose low nickel-plated sides shone brilliantly. With interest theyregarded the fifteen-foot object which tapered a bit towards its base. The nose was pointed like a bullet. Eight cylindrical protuberances wereaffixed to the base while the four sides were equipped with fins such asare seen on aerial bombs to guide them in a direct, unswerving linethrough the atmosphere. At the base of the strange craft there projecteda lever, while in one side was a door which, apparently opened outward. One of the machine men reached forward to open it but was halted by theadmonition of the commander. "Do not open it up yet!" he warned. "We are not aware of what itcontains!" Guided by the hand of one of the machine men, a series of lights shonedown upon the cylinder. It became enveloped in a haze of light whichrendered the metal sides of the mysterious space craft dim andindistinct while the interior of the cylinder was as clearly revealed asif there had been no covering. The machine men, expecting to see atleast several, perhaps many, strange creatures moving about within themetal cylinder, stared aghast at the sight they beheld. There was butone creature, and he was lying perfectly still, either in a state ofsuspended animation or else of death. He was about twice the height ofthe mechanical men of Zor. For a long time they gazed at him in asilence of thought, and then their leader instructed them. "Take him out of the container. " The penetration rays were turned off, and two of the machine men steppedeagerly forward and opened the door. One of them peered within at therecumbent body of the weird-looking individual with the four appendages. The creature lay up against a luxuriously upholstered interior, a strapaffixed to his chin while four more straps held both the upper and lowerappendages securely to the insides of the cylinder. The machine manreleased these, and with the help of his comrade removed the body of thecreature from the cosmic coffin in which they had found it. "He is dead!" pronounced one of the machine men after a long and carefulexamination of the corpse. "He has been like this for a long time. " "There are strange thought impressions left upon his mind, " remarkedanother. One of the machine men, whose metal body was of a different shade thanthat of his companions, stepped forward, his cubic body bent over thatof the strange, cold creature who was garbed in fantastic accoutrements. He examined the dead organism a moment, and then he turned to hiscompanions. "Would you like to hear his story?" he asked. "Yes!" came the concerted reply. "You shall, then, " was the ultimatum. "Bring him into my laboratory. Ishall remove his brain and stimulate the cells into activity once more. We shall give him life again, transplanting his brain into the head ofone of our machines. " With these words he directed two of the Zoromes to carry the corpse intothe laboratory. As the space ship cruised about in the vicinity of this third planetwhich 25X-987 had decided to visit on finding the metal cylinder withits queer inhabitant, 8B-52, the experimenter, worked unceasingly in hislaboratory to revive the long-dead brain cells to action once more. Finally, after consummating his desires and having his efforts crownedwith success, he placed the brain within the head of a machine. Thebrain was brought to consciousness. The creature's body was discardedafter the all-important brain had been removed. CHAPTER III _Recalled to Life_ As Professor Jameson came to, he became aware of a strange feeling. Hewas sick. The doctors had not expected him to live; they had franklytold him so--but he had cared little in view of the long, happy yearsstretched out behind him. Perhaps he was not to die yet. He wondered howlong he had slept. How strange he felt--as if he had no body. Whycouldn't he open his eyes? He tried very hard. A mist swam before him. His eyes had been open all the time but he had not seen before. That wasqueer, he ruminated. All was silent about his bedside. Had all thedoctors and nurses left him to sleep--or to die? Devil take that mist which now swam before him, obscuring everything inline of vision. He would call his nephew. Vainly he attempted to shoutthe word "Douglas, " but to no avail. Where was his mouth? It seemed asif he had none. Was it all delirium? The strange silence--perhaps he hadlost his sense of hearing along with his ability to speak--and he couldsee nothing distinctly. The mist had transferred itself into a confusedjumble of indistinct objects, some of which moved about before him. He was now conscious of some impulse in his mind which kept questioninghim as to how he felt. He was conscious of other strange ideas whichseemed to be impressed upon his brain, but this one thought concerninghis indisposition clamored insistently over the lesser ideas. It evenseemed just as if someone was addressing him, and impulsively heattempted to utter a sound and tell them how queer he felt. It seemed asif speech had been taken from him. He could not talk, no matter how hardhe tried. It was no use. Strange to say, however, the impulse within hismind appeared to be satisfied with the effort, and it now put anotherquestion to him. Where was he from? What a strange question--when he wasat home. He told them as much. Had he always lived there? Why, yes, ofcourse. The aged professor was now becoming more astute as to his condition. Atfirst it was only a mild, passive wonderment at his helplessness and thestrange thoughts which raced through his mind. Now he attempted toarouse himself from the lethargy. Quite suddenly his sight cleared, and what a surprise! He could see allthe way around him without moving his head! And he could look at theceiling of his room! His room? Was it his room! No-- It just couldn'tbe. Where was he? What were those queer machines before him? They movedon four legs. Six tentacles curled outward from their cubical bodies. One of the machines stood close before him. A tentacle shot out from theobject and rubbed his head. How strange it felt upon his brow. Instinctively he obeyed the impulse to shove the contraption of metalfrom him with his hands. His arms did not rise, instead six tentacles projected upward to forceback the machine. Professor Jameson gasped mentally in surprise as hegazed at the result of his urge to push the strange, unearthly lookingmachine-caricature from him. With trepidation he looked down at his ownbody to see where the tentacles had come from, and his surprise turnedto sheer fright and amazement. His body was like the moving machinewhich stood before him! Where was he? What ever had happened to him sosuddenly? Only a few moments ago he had been in his bed, with thedoctors and his nephew bending over him, expecting him to die. The lastwords he had remembered hearing was the cryptic announcement of one ofthe doctors. "He is going now. " But he hadn't died after all, apparently. A horrible thought struck him!Was this the life after death? Or was it an illusion of the mind? Hebecame aware that the machine in front of him was attempting tocommunicate something to him. How could it, thought the professor, whenhe had no mouth. The desire to communicate an idea to him became moreinsistent. The suggestion of the machine man's question was in his mind. Telepathy, thought he. The creature was asking about the place whence he had come. He didn'tknow; his mind was in such a turmoil of thoughts and conflicting ideas. He allowed himself to be led to a window where the machine with wavingtentacle pointed towards an object outside. It was a queer sensation tobe walking on the four metal legs. He looked from the window and he sawthat which caused him to nearly drop over, so astounded was he. The professor found himself gazing out from the boundless depths ofspace across the cosmic void to where a huge planet lay quiet. Now hewas sure it was an illusion which made his mind and sight behave soqueerly. He was troubled by a very strange dream. Carefully he examinedthe topography of the gigantic globe which rested off in the distance. At the same time he could see back of him the concourse of mechanicalcreatures crowding up behind him, and he was aware of a telepathicconversation which was being carried on behind him--or just before him. Which was it now? Eyes extended all the way around his head, while thereexisted no difference on any of the four sides of his cubed body. Hismechanical legs were capable of moving in any of four given directionswith perfect ease, he discovered. The planet was not the earth--of that he was sure. None of the familiarcontinents lay before his eyes. And then he saw the great dull red ballof the dying sun. That was not the sun of his earth. It had been a greatdeal more brilliant. "Did you come from that planet?" came the thought impulse from themechanism by his side. "No, " he returned. He then allowed the machine men--for he assumed that they were machinemen, and he reasoned that, somehow or other they had by some marveloustransformation made him over just as they were--to lead him through thecraft of which he now took notice for the first time. It was aninterplanetary flyer, or space ship, he firmly believed. 25X-987 now took him to the compartment which they had removed him tofrom the strange container they had found wandering in the vicinity ofthe nearby world. There they showed him the long cylinder. "It's my rocket satellite!" exclaimed Professor Jameson to himself, though in reality every one of the machine men received his thoughtsplainly. "What is it doing here?" "We found your dead body within it, " answered 25X-987. "Your brain wasremoved to the machine after having been stimulated into activity oncemore. Your carcass was thrown away. " Professor Jameson just stood dumfounded by the words of the machine man. "So I did die!" exclaimed the professor. "And my body was placed withinthe rocket to remain in everlasting preservation until the end of allearthly time! Success! I have now attained unrivaled success!" He then turned to the machine man. "How long have I been that way?" he asked excitedly. "How should we know?" replied the Zorome. "We picked up your rocket onlya short time ago, which, according to your computation, would be lessthan a day. This is our first visit to your planetary system and wechanced upon your rocket. So it is a satellite? We didn't watch it longenough to discover whether or not it was a satellite. At first wethought it to be another traveling space craft, but when it refused toanswer our signals we investigated. " "And so that was the earth at which I looked, " mused the professor. "Nowonder I didn't recognize it. The topography has changed so much. Howdifferent the sun appears--it must have been over a million years agowhen I died!" "Many millions, " corrected 25X-987. "Suns of such size as this one donot cool in so short a time as you suggest. " Professor Jameson, in spite of all his amazing computations before hisdeath, was staggered by the reality. "Who are you?" he suddenly asked. "We are the Zoromes from Zor, a planet of a sun far across theUniverse. " 25X-987 then went on to tell Professor Jameson something about how theZoromes had attained their high stage of development and had instantlyput a stop to all birth, evolution and death of their people, bybecoming machine men. CHAPTER IV _The Dying World_ "And now tell us of yourself, " said 25X-987, "and about your world. " Professor Jameson, noted in college as a lecturer of no mean ability andperfectly capable of relating intelligently to them the story of theearth's history, evolution and march of events following the birth ofcivilization up until the time when he died, began his story. The mentalspeech hampered him for a time, but he soon became accustomed to it soas to use it easily, and he found it preferable to vocal speech after awhile. The Zoromes listened interestedly to the long account untilProfessor Jameson had finished. "My nephew, " concluded the professor, "evidently obeyed my instructionsand placed my body in the rocket I had built, shooting it out into spacewhere I became the satellite of the earth for these many millions ofyears. " "Do you really want to know how long you were dead before we found you?"asked 25X-987. "It would be interesting to find out. " "Yes, I should like very much to know, " replied the professor. "Our greatest mathematician, 459C-79, will tell it to you. " Themathematician stepped forward. Upon one side of his cube were manybuttons arranged in long columns and squares. "What is your unit of measuring?" he asked. "A mile. " "How many times more is a mile than is the length of your rocketsatellite?" "My rocket is fifteen feet long. A mile is five thousand two hundred andeighty feet. " The mathematician depressed a few buttons. "How far, or how many miles from the sun was your planet at that time?" "Ninety-three million miles, " was the reply. "And your world's satellite--which you call moon from yourplanet--earth?" "Two hundred and forty thousand miles. " "And your rocket?" "I figured it to go about sixty-five thousand miles from the earth. " "It was only twenty thousand miles from the earth when we picked it up, "said the mathematician, depressing a few more buttons. "The moon andsun are also much nearer your planet now. " * * * * * Professor Jameson gave way to a mental ejaculation of amazement. "Do you know how long you have cruised around the planet in your ownsatellite?" said the mathematician. "Since you began that journey, theplanet which you call the earth has revolved around the sun over fortymillion times. " "Forty--million--years!" exclaimed Professor Jameson haltingly. "Humanity must then have all perished from the earth long ago! I'm thelast man on earth!" "It is a dead world now, " interjected 25X-987. "Of course, " elucidated the mathematician, "those last few million yearsare much shorter than the ones in which you lived. The earth's orbit isof less diameter and its speed of revolution is greatly increased, dueto its proximity to the cooling sun. I should say that your year wassome four times as long as the time in which it now takes your oldplanet to circumnavigate the sun. "How many days were there in your year?" "Three hundred and sixty-five. " "The planet has now ceased rotating entirely. " "Seems queer that your rocket satellite should avoid the meteors solong, " observed 459C-79, the mathematician. "Automatic radium repulsion rays, " explained the professor. "The very rays which kept us from approaching your rocket, " stated25X-987, "until we neutralized them. " "You died and were shot out into space long before any life occurred onZor, " soliloquized one of the machine men. "Our people had not yet evenbeen born when yours had probably disappeared entirely from the face ofthe earth. " "Hearken to 72N-4783, " said 25X-987, "he is our philosopher, and he justloves to dwell on the past life of Zor when we were flesh and bloodcreatures with the threat of death hanging always over our heads. Atthat time, like the life you knew, we were born, we lived and died, allwithin a very short time, comparatively. " "Of course, time has come to mean nothing to us, especially when we areout in space, " observed 72N-4783. "We never keep track of it on ourexpeditions, though back in Zor such accounts are accurately kept. Bythe way, do you know how long we stood here while you recounted to usthe history of your planet? Our machine bodies never get tired, youknow. " * * * * * "Well, " ruminated Professor Jameson, giving a generous allowance oftime. "I should say about a half a day, although it seemed scarcely aslong as that. " "We listened to you for four days, " replied 72N-4783. Professor Jameson was really aghast. "Really, I hadn't meant to be such a bore, " he apologized. "That is nothing, " replied the other. "Your story was interesting, andif it had been twice as long, it would not have mattered, nor would ithave seemed any longer. Time is merely relative, and in space actualtime does not exist at all, any more than your forty million years'cessation of life seemed more than a few moments to you. We saw that itwas so when your first thought impressions reached us following yourrevival. " "Let us continue on to your planet earth, " then said 25X-987. "Perhapswe shall find more startling disclosures there. " As the space ship of the Zoromes approached the sphere from whichProfessor Jameson had been hurled in his rocket forty million yearsbefore, the professor was wondering how the earth would appear, and whatradical changes he would find. Already he knew that the geographicalconditions of the various continents were changed. He had seen as muchfrom the space ship. A short time later the earth was reached. The space travelers from Zor, as well as Professor Jameson, emerged from the cosmic flyer to walk uponthe surface of the planet. The earth had ceased rotating, leavingone-half its surface always toward the sun. This side of the earth washeated to a considerable degree, while its antipodes, turned always awayfrom the solar luminary, was a cold, frigid, desolate waste. The spacetravelers from Zor did not dare to advance very far into eitherhemisphere, but landed on the narrow, thousand-mile strip of territoryseparating the earth's frozen half from its sun-baked antipodes. As Professor Jameson emerged from the space ship with 25X-987, he staredin awe at the great transformation four hundred thousand centuries hadwrought. The earth's surface, its sky and the sun were all so changedand unearthly appearing. Off to the east the blood red ball of theslowly cooling sun rested upon the horizon, lighting up the eternal day. The earth's rotation had ceased entirely, and it hung motionless in thesky as it revolved around its solar parent, its orbit slowly but surelycutting in toward the great body of the sun. The two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, were now very close to the blood red orb whosescintillating, dazzling brilliance had been lost in its cooling process. Soon, the two nearer planets would succumb to the great pull of thesolar luminary and return to the flaming folds, from which they had beenhurled out as gaseous bodies in the dim, age-old past, when theircareers had just begun. The atmosphere was nearly gone, so rarefied had it become, and throughit Professor Jameson could view with amazing clarity without discomfortto his eyes the bloated body of the dying sun. It appeared many timesthe size he had seen it at the time of his death, on account of itsrelative nearness. The earth had advanced a great deal closer to thegreat star around which it swung. The sky towards the west was pitch black except for the iridescenttwinkle of the fiery stars which studded that section of the heavens. Ashe watched, a faint glow suffused the western sky, gradually growingbrighter, the full moon majestically lifted itself above the horizon, casting its pale, ethereal radiance upon the dying world beneath. It wasincreased to many times the size Professor Jameson had ever seen itduring his natural lifetime. The earth's greater attraction was drawingupon the moon just as the sun was pulling the earth ever nearer itself. This cheerless landscape confronting the professor represented the stateof existence to which the earth had come. It was a magnificent spread ofloneliness which bore no witness to the fact that it had seen theteeming of life in better ages long ago. The weird, yet beautiful scene, spread in a melancholy panorama before his eyes, drove his thoughts intogloomy abstraction with its dismal, depressing influence. Its funereal, oppressive aspect smote him suddenly with the chill of a terribleloneliness. 25X-987 aroused Professor Jameson from his lethargic reverie. "Let uswalk around and see what we can find. I can understand how you feel inregard to the past. It is quite a shock--but it must happen to allworlds sooner or later--even to Zor. When that time comes, the Zoromeswill find a new planet on which to live. If you travel with us, you willbecome accustomed to the sight of seeing dead, lifeless worlds as wellas new and beautiful ones pulsating with life and energy. Of course, this world being your own, holds a peculiar sentimental value to you, but it is really one planet among billions. " Professor Jameson was silent. "I wonder whether or not there are any ruins here to be found?" queried25X-987. "I don't believe so, " replied the professor. "I remember hearing aneminent scientist of my day state that, given fifty thousand years, every structure and other creation of man would be obliterated entirelyfrom off the earth's surface. " "And he was right, " endorsed the machine man of Zor. "Time is a greateffacer. " For a long time the machine men wandered over the dreary surface of theearth, and then 25X-987 suggested a change of territory to explore. Inthe space ship, they moved around the earth to the other side, stillkeeping to the belt of shadowland which completely encircled the globelike some gigantic ring. Where they now landed arose a series of coneswith hollow peaks. "Volcanoes!" exclaimed the professor. "Extinct ones, " added the machine man. Leaving the space ship, the fifty or more machine men, including alsoProfessor Jameson, were soon exploring the curiously shaped peaks. Theprofessor, in his wanderings had strayed away from the rest, and nowadvanced into one of the cup-like depressions of the peak, out of sightof his companions, the Zoromes. CHAPTER V _Eternity or Death_ He was well in the center of the cavity when the soft ground beneath himgave way suddenly and he catapulted below into the darkness. Through theStygian gloom he fell in what seemed to be an endless drop. He finallycrashed upon something hard. The thin crust of the volcano's mouth hadbroken through, precipitating him into the deep, hollow interior. It must have been a long ways to fall--or so it had seemed. Why was henot knocked senseless or killed? Then he felt himself over with threetentacles. His metal legs were four broken, twisted masses of metal, while the lower half of his cubic body was jammed out of shape andsplit. He could not move, and half of his six tentacles were paralyzed. How would he ever get out of there? he wondered. The machine men of Zormight never find him. What would happen to him, then? He would remain inthis deathless, monotonous state forever in the black hole of thevolcano's interior unable to move. What a horrible thought! He could notstarve to death; eating was unknown among the Zoromes, the machinesrequiring no food. He could not even commit suicide. The only way forhim to die would be to smash the strong metal head, and in his presentimmovable condition, this was impossible. It suddenly occurred to him to radiate thoughts for help. Would theZoromes receive his messages? He wondered how far the telepathicmessages would carry. He concentrated the powers of his mind upon thecall for help, and repeatedly stated his position and plight. He thenleft his mind clear to receive the thought answers of the Zoromes. Hereceived none. Again he tried. Still he received no welcoming answer. Professor Jameson became dejected. * * * * * It was hopeless. The telepathic messages had not reached the machine menof Zor. They were too far away, just as one person may be out of earshotof another's voice. He was doomed to a terrible fate of existence! Itwere better that his rocket had never been found. He wished that theZoromes had destroyed him instead of bringing him back to life--back tothis! His thoughts were suddenly broken in upon. "We're coming!" "Don't give up hope!" If the professor's machine body had been equipped with a heart, it wouldhave sung for joy at these welcome thought impressions. A short timelater there appeared in the ragged break of the volcano's mouth, wherehe had fallen through, the metal head of one of the machine men. "We shall have you out of there soon, " he said. * * * * * The professor never knew how they managed it for he lost consciousnessunder some strange ray of light they projected down upon him in hisprison. When he came to consciousness once more, it was to find himselfinside the space ship. "If you had fallen and had smashed your head, it would have been allover with you, " were the first thought impulses which greeted him. "Asit is, however, we can fix you up first rate. " "Why didn't you answer the first time I called to you?" asked theprofessor. "Didn't you hear me?" "We heard you, and we answered, but you didn't hear us. You see, yourbrain is different than ours, and though you can send thought waves asfar as we can you cannot receive them from such a great distance. " "I'm wrecked, " said the professor, gazing at his twisted limbs, paralyzed tentacles and jammed body. "We shall repair you, " came the reply. "It is your good fortune thatyour head was not crushed. " "What are you going to do with me?" queried the professor. "Will youremove my brains to another machine?" "No, it isn't necessary. We shall merely remove your head and place itupon another machine body. " The Zoromes immediately set to work upon the task, and soon hadProfessor Jameson's metal head removed from the machine which he hadwrecked in his fall down the crater. All during the painless operation, the professor kept up a series of thought exchanges in conversation withthe Zoromes, and it seemed but a short time before his head surmounted anew machine and he was ready for further exploration. In the course ofhis operation, the space ship had moved to a new position, and now asthey emerged 25X-987 kept company with Professor Jameson. "I must keep an eye on you, " he said. "You will be getting into moretrouble before you get accustomed to the metal bodies. " But Professor Jameson was doing a great deal of thinking. Doubtlessly, these strange machine men who had picked up his rocket in the depths ofspace and had brought him back to life, were expecting him to travelwith them and become adopted into the ranks of the Zoromes. Did he wantto go with them? He couldn't decide. He had forgotten that the machinemen could read his innermost thoughts. "You wish to remain here alone upon the earth?" asked 25X-987. "It isyour privilege if you really want it so. " "I don't know, " replied Professor Jameson truthfully. * * * * * He gazed at the dust around his feet. It had probably been thecomposition of men, and had changed from time to time into various otheratomic structures--of other queer forms of life which had succeededmankind. It was the law of the atom which never died. And now he hadwithin his power perpetual existence. He could be immortal if he wished!It would be an immortality of never-ending adventures in the vast, endless Universe among the galaxy of stars and planets. A great loneliness seized him. Would he be happy among these machine menof another far-off world--among these Zoromes? They were kindly andsolicitous of his welfare. What better fate could he expect? Still, alonging for his own kind arose in him--the call of humanity. It wasirresistible. What could he do? Was it not in vain? Humanity had longsince disappeared from the earth--millions of years ago. He wonderedwhat lay beyond the pales of death--the real death, where the bodydecomposed and wasted away to return to the dust of the earth and assumenew atomic structures. He had begun to wonder whether or not he had been dead all these fortymillions of years--suppose he had been merely in a state of suspendedanimation. He had remembered a scientist of his day, who had claimedthat the body does not die at the point of official death. According tothe claims of this man, the cells of the body did not die at the momentat which respiration, heart beats and the blood circulation ceased, butit existed in the semblance of life for several days afterward, especially in the cells of the bones, which died last of all. Perhaps when he had been sent out into space in his rocket right afterhis death, the action of the cosmic void was to halt his slow death ofthe cells in his body, and hold him in suspended animation during theensuing millions of years. Suppose he should really die--destroying hisown brain? What lay beyond real death? Would it be a better plane ofexistence than the Zoromes could offer him? Would he rediscoverhumanity, or had they long since arisen to higher planes of existence orreincarnation? Did time exist beyond the mysterious portals of death? Ifnot, then it was possible for him to join the souls of the human race. Had he really been dead all this time? If so, he knew what to expect incase he really destroyed his own brain. Oblivion! Again the intense feeling of loneliness surged over him and held himwithin its melancholy grasp. Desperately, he decided to find the nearestcliff and jump from it--head-first! Humanity called; no man lived tocompanion him. His four metal limbs carried him swiftly to the summit ofa nearby precipice. Why not gamble on the hereafter? 25X-987, understanding his trend of thought, did not attempt to restrain him. Instead, the machine man of Zor waited patiently. As Professor Jameson stood there meditating upon the jump which wouldhurl him now into a new plane of existence--or into oblivion, thethought transference of 25X-987 reached him. It was laden with thewisdom born of many planets and thousands of centuries' experience. "Why jump?" asked the machine man. "The dying world holds yourimagination within a morbid clutch. It is all a matter of mentalcondition. Free your mind of this fascinating influence and come with usto visit other worlds, many of them are both beautiful and new. You willthen feel a great difference. "Will you come?" The professor considered for a moment as he resisted the impulse to diveoff the declivity to the enticing rocks far below. An inspiration seizedhim. Backing away from the edge of the cliff, he joined 25X-987 oncemore. "I shall come, " he stated. He would become an immortal after all and join the Zoromes in theirnever-ending adventures from world to world. They hastened to the spaceship to escape the depressing, dreary influence of the dying world, which had nearly driven Professor Jameson to take the fatal leap tooblivion. THE END Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April 1956 and was first published in _Amazing Stories_ July 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.