Ivan Yefremov - Andromeda (A Space-Age Tale)

Mven Mass jumped up and leaned on the table with both hands so hard that the joints cracked.

Transmission periods of millions of years, covering tens of thousands of human generations and which actually amount to that “never” that is killing to scientific thought, could disappear at the wave of a magic wand — Renn Bose’s discovery and their joint experiment!

Inconceivably distant points of the Universe would be within reach!

Astronomers in ancient days believed the galaxies to be moving apart. The light that reached terrestrial telescopes from distant stellar islands had been changed, light oscillations had lengthened, turning to red waves. This reddening of the light was taken as evidence that the galaxies were receding from the observer. People in the past were accustomed to a direct, one-sided conception of phenomena and they created the theory of a Universe that was moving apart or exploding, not realizing that they saw only one side of the magnificent process of destruction and creation. It was this one aspect — dispersion and destruction, that is, the transition of energy to a lower level in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics — that was conceivable to us and was recorded by instruments constructed to sharpen our senses. The other aspect — accumulation, concentration and creation — was outside man’s concepts because life acquired its strength from energy diffused by the stars, the suns, and our conception of the surrounding Universe took shape on the basis of this. Man’s mighty brain, however, penetrated even into the hidden processes of the creation of worlds and of our Universe. But in those distant times it still seemed that the greater the distance to a galaxy the greater the speed of its motion away from the terrestrial observer. As man penetrated farther into outer space he found galaxies with velocities close to that of light. The end of the visible Universe was the point where galaxies seemed to have reached that velocity although actually no light from them could have reached us and we should not have seen them….

We now know why the light from these galaxies is red. As is usually the case in science there proved to be more than one cause — it is not only due to their recession from us. The only light that reaches us from distant stellar islands is that radiated by their brightest centres. These huge masses of matter are encircled by annular electromagnetic fields that strongly affect light rays, not only by their intensity but also on account of the area they cover; they gradually slow down the light waves until they become longer red waves. In very ancient times astronomers knew that light from very dense stars turns red, the spectral lines shifting towards the red end, so that the star seems to be receding like, for example, the second component of Sirius, the white dwarf Sirius B. The farther away the galaxy, the more centralized is the radiation that reaches us and the stronger the concentration at the red end of the spectrum.

During a very long journey through space light waves, on the other hand, are “shaken up” and the light quanta lose part of their energy. This phenomenon has now been studied — the red waves may also be fatigued “old” waves of ordinary light. Even light waves that penetrate everywhere “grow old” from their journey over tremendous distances. What hope had man of overcoming such distances unless he attack gravitation itself by means of its opposite, following Renn Bose’s calculations?

His anxiety was fading away! He was doing the right thing by carrying out the unprecedented experiment!

Mven Mass, as usual, went out on the observatory veran-dah and began walking swiftly up and down. The distant galaxies still shone in his tired eyes, galaxies that sent waves of red light to Earth like signals calling for help, like appeals to the all-conquering thought of man. Mven Mass laughed softly and confidently. These red rays would become as familiar to man as those at the Fete of the Flaming Bowls that had wrapped Chara Nandi’s body in the red light of life — Chara, who had appeared to him unexpectedly as the copper daughter of Epsilon Tucanae, the girl of his impossible dreams.

And he would direct Renn Bose’s vector precisely at Epsilon Tucanae, not merely in the hope of seeing that wonderful world, but also in honour of her, of its terrestrial representative!

Third Cycle School No. 410 was situated in Southern Ireland. Broad fields, vineyards and oak groves ran down the slopes of the green hills to the very sea. Veda Kong and Evda Nahl arrived when the children were still in class; they walked along a corridor running round class- rooms on the perimeter of a circular building. The day was dull with a drizzle of rain so that all classes were being held indoors instead of out in the open as was more usual.

Veda Kong felt like a schoolgirl again as she crept up to listen at the entrances to the classrooms which, as in the majority of schools, were without doors and shut off by overlapping projecting walls. Evda Nahl joined in the game and the two women peeped into class after class in an attempt to find Evda’s daughter and remain unnoticed themselves.

In the first classroom they saw a drawing in blue chalk covering the whole length of one wall: it showed a vector that was encircled by a spiral unfolding along it. Two sections of the spiral were encircled by transverse ellipses in which a system of rectangular coordinates was inscribed.

“Bipolar mathematics [21] Bipolar Mathematics — mathematics based on dialectic logic, with opposite analyses and solutions (imaginary). !” exclaimed Veda in mock horror.

“This is something more than that! Wait a minute!” said Evda.

“Now that we know something about the shadow functions of the cochlear [22] Cochlear Calculus — a division of bipolar mathematics dealing with progressive spiral movement (imaginary). , or spiral progressive movement, that occurs along the vector,” — the elderly teacher with deep-set, blazing eyes, thickened one of the lines with his chalk — ’’we are close to understanding the repagular calculus. The name of the calculus comes from the ancient Latin word ‘repagulum,’ a barrier or obstacle, and it is the transition from one quality to another, seen in a two-sided aspect.” The teacher pointed to an extensive ellipse across the spiral. “In other words, it is the mathematical analysis of mutually transitional phenomena….”

Veda Kong disappeared behind the outjutting wall, pulling her companion after her.

“That’s something new! It’s from that branch of mathematics Renn Bose was talking to us about down on the seashore.”

“The school always gives its pupils the newest of everything and discards whatever is outworn. If new generations repeat old conceptions how can we expect to ensure rapid progress? As it is, a terrible amount of time elapses before a child takes its place in the relay race of knowledge. It takes dozens of years for a child to become fully educated and ready to undertake gigantic tasks. This pulsation of the generations, where you take one step forward and nine-tenths backward — backward while the next shift in the relay is learning — is that most difficult of all biological laws for man, the law of death and renascence. Much of what we learned in mathematics, physics and biology is already out of date. Your history is different, it grows old more slowly because it is very old itself.”

They glanced into another room. The schoolmistress, standing with her back to them, and the interested children, did not notice them. The attentive faces of the pupils — they were young men and women seventeen years of age, in the higher classes of the Third Cycle School — and their burning cheeks told how thrilled they were with the lesson.