Роберт Ричардсон - The Xi Effect

“O.K., O.K.,” said Arnold impatiently. “All the same, I still think it’s a whale of an error.”

“It’s a king size one, I’ll admit,” said Stoddard, relighting his pipe. “And now there’s something I wish you’d explain to me. After all that palaver this afternoon I still don’t understand how this so-called Xi effect ties in with our infrared observations.”

Arnold reached for the pencil and a pad of yellow scratch paper. “Assume that this line represents the boundary of our local universe or ‘clot’,” he said, drawing an irregular closed figure with a dot near the center. “According to Friedmann, occasionally some disturbance in the outer super-cosmos or Xi space becomes sufficiently violent to affect a particular clot. Now there are several things that can happen as a result, but by far the most probable is that the clot will begin to shrink, very slowly at first and then more rapidly. But for a long time nobody would be aware of the shrinkage because everything within the clot shrinks in proportion, with one exception. That exception is the wave length of electromagnetic radiation.

“Suppose the boundary has shrunk until it has an average radius of a thousand kilometers.” He drew a line from the central dot to a point on the boundary. “Obviously nothing can exist within the boundary bigger than the boundary itself. Therefore, this means that all electromagnetic radiation exceeding a thousand kilometers is eliminated. That accounts for the fadeout in radio transmission. As the boundary continues to shrink shorter wave lengths keep being cut out all the time.”

“I think I’m beginning to get it,” said Stoddard, studying the diagram. “We didn’t get any transmission beyond twenty thousand angstroms because there wasn’t any radiation to transmit.”

“That’s it! Our universe only had a diameter of twenty thousand angstroms. All radiation of longer wave length was cut out.”

“About one ten-thousandth of an inch,” said Stoddard, doing some fast mental arithmetic. He chuckled. “No wonder old Fosberg was worried!”

“You see the Xi effect does give a consistent explanation of all the phenomena,” said Arnold triumphantly. “In any case, we can’t be in doubt much longer.”

“How’s that?”

“Why because the universe will have shrunk so much the optical spectrum will be affected. The landscape will change color.”

“Well, maybe you’re right,” Stoddard agreed reluctantly, “but so far everything looks just the same to me as it always has.” Absently he began doodling a series of circles and squares across Arnold’s diagram. “What I wish,” he said with a yawn, “is that somebody would find a way to shorten the time from one pay day till the next.”

Arnold waved his arms in a helpless gesture and walked to the other end of the room. Stoddard sat motionless as if half asleep. Presently he took a brief case from one of the drawers and began exploring it§ contents. “Here’re those snapshots we took at the zoo the other day,” he said. “Haven’t had time to develop ’em yet.”

His partner eyed the rolls of film without interest. “My wife was asking about them at dinner. She wants to see that one where she’s feeding the eagle.”

“If you want to wait, I can develop ’em now.”

Arnold glanced at his wrist watch. “Sure, go ahead. It’s only eight-thirty.”

Stoddard turned off the overhead light plunging the little room into total darkness. Arnold could hear him searching for the switch that operated the safe-light, but when he snapped it on there was no result. He snapped it several times but still without result.

“Globe’s probably burnt out,” said Arnold.

Stoddard jerked the screen back revealing the light inside burning brightly. “Now what?” he muttered.

They stood staring at the light in puzzled silence. Suddenly Arnold leaned forward, his face tense in the white glare from the lamp.

“Stoddard.”

“Yeah?”

“Put the screen back over the lamp.”

His partner hesitated then obediently shoved the screen back in place until not a chink of white light was visible. Gradually as their eyes gained sensitivity in the dark the oblong shape of the safety screen became faintly visible.

But the screen was no longer ruby red. It was a dull colorless gray.

No scientific theory ever became accepted as fact so quickly as Friedmann’s theory of the Ni effect, but then no other theory before ever had such a convincing array of scientific evidence to support it. The change in the tint of the landscape that Arnold had foreseen eventually developed but for several weeks it was too slight to be readily obvious. The effect was the same as if everyone had gone color-blind to an effective wave length of about 6500A. It was disconcerting to find that your hedge of geraniums was black instead of scarlet, and the absence of stoplights was nearly disastrous. Some women became violently hysterical when they first beheld the inky fluid oozing from their veins. But after the novelty had worn off the public soon lost interest. They had lived through the invasion from Mars, the flying saucers, and other scientific gags, and doubtless in time this, too, would pass. Besides, how could you expect people to work up any enthusiasm over something when they weren’t even sure how to pronounce it?

But as orange and yellow followed red into the gray there came a change in the public attitude, a kind of half-credulous belief mingled with misgiving and dismay. Men still laughed and joked about the Xi effect over their old-fashioneds at the country club, but just when everybody was feeling happy and secure again someone was sure to spoil it all. “You know this thing may turn out to be more serious than we think,” he would say. “I’ve got a nephew teaches out at the university. Hasn’t got a dime but smart as the devil. Well, he told me confidentially it’s getting worse instead of better. No telling where it may end, in fact.”

Rather curiously, women had much more awareness of the Xi effect than men, for it struck at their most vulnerable point—their appearance. Golden hair could turn gray in a matter of weeks. A complexion drained of its warm flesh tints looked dead. Cosmetics were of no avail against it. For of what use was lipstick if it only turned, the lips from gray to black? Or of rouge if it left only deeper shadows on the cheeks? The radiant beauty of a short time past anxiously examining her face in her mirror at night might see an old woman staring back at her out of the glass. Deaths from sleeping pills became a commonplace.

Not until late in November, however, did the situation reach such a critical stage that government officials felt compelled to recognize the Xi effect as a definite world menace. Previously its encroachment had been dismissed by the ingenious process of studiously minimizing its existence. It was true that the papers printed the censored reports from scientific institutions but always under captions that were misleading and with the significant news buried near the bottom of the column. A few scientists who refused to be muzzled soon found themselves out of a job or called up before an investigating committee.

Eventually, however, the clamor became so loud that announcement was made of a series of mass meetings to lie held across the country in which all the facts insofar as they were known would be discussed without reservation. The first in the series was scheduled for the Los Angeles Coliseum for Monday, November 27th, with the great Dr. Friedmann as the feature speaker of the evening. Public sentiment changed almost overnight. The personal appearance of Friedmann alone did much to restore confidence. Fie was the fellow who had discovered this Xi effect, wasn’t he? Well, then, he could probably control it, too. Man had never met a problem that man was unable to solve.