THE PEOPLE OF THE COMET
my own gravitation. Had I so wished, I could have flown upside down. This was the great advantage of atomic energy. When once released into the ether, the ship was, so far as gravitation was concerned, entirely its own master.
" 'I was two minutes passing through the zone of atmospheric friction. Then I struck the ether; the atomic engines giving out the strange hum that is peculiar when they are generating their own propulsion. Unless struk by an oncoming meteor, I was now in a region of comparative safety. I ventured a look down at the Earth.
“ 'What I beheld was a red sea of color—the Earth bathed in the crimson light. Above, spread the weird unhallowed glow of the comet. Even the moon was red. It was a strange, foreboding sight.
“ 'I turned to the examination of the engines and the chemical machines. Then I returned to the controls and spent the time watching the glow above me and speculating upon the movement of the speed clock.
“ 'In the open ether the speed of the ship was terrific. There was scarcely a limit to its maximum. I amused myself for a while by increasing and diminishing the velocity and testing by the speed clock. But I did not do it more than a dozen times. The whole voyage had been calculated to a fraction. After the first few tests I set the ship into the speed that it was to maintain throughout the voyage. After that there was nothing to do but watch and wait and spend the long hours thinking.
“ 'At last the clock said morning. When 1 looked down I was surprised, almost shocked, at the comet-lit glow that lay below me. I had never been up high enough before to get a good view of the Earth’s disk. There it lay like a round red ball basking in the comet’s glow. It was clouded and streaked about the torrid, burning regions, but clear and definite about the poles. I could make out the continent of Sansar; and I could judge, almost to a dot, the location of the capital city.
“ 'I the left was the moon, smaller, and at that distance looking for all the world like a child of the major planet. On the right I had the sun, and before me, a few degrees to the left, the oncoming comet. I reflected that with such companions I was not entirely alone; and I was elated when I thought that, of them all, I alone was free to follow my own volition. After I had satisfied myself, I had my first lunch, set the chemical machines to work to purify the air and made my first inroad upon the store of oxygen. Then I returned to my seat by the controls.
“ 'Nothing happened until about three o'clock. The speed clock ticked onward and the chart upon which moved the tabulated dots of the ether ship and the comet showed the terrific speed at which I was traveling. There was no sound; and there was no discomfort; though it was five hundred degrees below zero outside I was just as comfortable as though I were in Sansar. I began to doze. The ship sailed along without vibration. I was almost asleep when it happened, and I do not know to this day just what it was.
“ 'The silence was broken by a roar like that of distant cannon, a set of explosions, followed by a grinding, grating, phenomena. Then silence. When I looked out in my awakened senses I could see nothing; neither was there aught behind me. Whether it was a bank of small meteor particles, or some knot of unknown force traveling through the ether, I do not know. But thereafter I kept awake.
“ 'It was not so easy as it may seem. The hum of the atomic engines was mouotonous: and though the voyage was the strangest ever undertaken by man, I found it difficult to hold to alert consciousness. But I did, mostly by keeping my mind active; and giving free rein to imagination.
“ 'I had enough for that. With the comet approaching I had plenty to keep me busy. What would it be like? And what would be my fate? I realized that I was taking a trip in defiance of all logical calculation. Suppose the atomic engines should refuse to function? Would I go falling through space forever? What would be my fate?
“ 'By the thirtieth hour the Earth had dimmed to a large star, and the moon had grown to be her twin sister. On the other hand the whole Universe seemed to be turning to comet. The coma was now as big as a wagon wheel, a vast ball of winding, whirling, crimson. I could feel its motion, and even at this distance I could sense its terror. The whole Universe was seeping red and trailing in omnipotent beauty. There was pulsation to its light, and vibration; it was like a great, monstrous, living thing, red, vast, inconceivable. Never was there such beauty of light, nor man in such a position!
“ 'And still I held on, watching, waiting through the long lonely hours. Surely nothing but the wildest dream and perversion of destiny could have brought me to such a climax! Everything had melted into one sea of crimson ; there was nothing but red light and glory ; in the center of which loomed the vast sun of the oncoming comet. What an inconceivable thing is the Universe! This incredible body coming at the speed of multiplied whirlwinds had been traveling for millions of years without ever touching the sides. Whence had it come? Where was it going?
“ 'The last hours were terrible. The light grew so intense that it was like looking into the sun. The coma had grown until it filled half the sky; red, whirling, pulsing, a vast whirlwind of fiery flame, a rolling sea of omnipotence. Though there was no sound within the ether ship, I could sense an undercurrent of terrific explosions. Perhaps it was my reason combating my imagination; it was almost impossible, in the face of such a moment, to retain a hold on clear thinking.
“ 'And still I held on, swinging to the left so that [ would just miss the rim of the comet. It was my intention to let it get just so close, and then to turn and travel in the same direction until it had passed me. I would approach the comet in the same manner as a man boarding a moving yehicle—by parallel motion. And 1 intended to get just as close as possible.
“ 'I had the chart of the voyage by my side, un electric board crossed by lines indicating millious of miles, with a red light showing the path and the position of the comet and a green one indicating the course of the ether ship. When the green light had crossed into the last square I intended to reverse the ether ship and await the sequence. By this time I had lost all hold of visual calculation. There was nothing before me but one vast sea of crimson flame.
“ 'In the last moments I laid any plans against emergency. I knew that there would be unseen dangers, and I calculated carefully. There was the possibility of the atomic engines going to pieces and tho consequent danger to the ether ship. In such a case I would employ electrical propulsion. I knew nothing of a comet and I was by no means certain that what was a law upon the Earth would continue so when under cometary influence. If atomic force should fail I would fall back upon electrical propulsion and vice versa. By means of electrical discharge I proposed to test out the poles of the comet (if it had such), and so, in ease of mishap, guide the course of the ship. Thus, if I found the negative pole I could, by the discharge of a negative current repel the ship away from the comet. Or I could do it the other way about by the discharge of positive electricity. I could discover where the poles lay by the mere
