American Ultronic Science
:
The Airlords Of Han
Our own engineers, working in shielded laboratories far underground, had
established such control over the "de-atomized" electrons as to dissect
them in their turn into sub-electrons. Moreover, they had carried
through the study of this "order" to the point where they finally
"dissected" the sub-electron into its component ultrons, for the
fundamental laws underlying these successive orders are not radically
dissimilar
And as they progressed, they developed constructive as well
as destructive practice. Hence the great triumphs of ultron and
inertron, our two wonderful synthetic elements, built up from
super-balanced and sub-balanced ultronic whorls, through the
sub-electronic order into the atomic and molecular.
Hence also, come our relatively simple and beautifully efficient
ultrophones and ultroscopes, which in their phonic and visual operation
penetrate obstacles of material, electronic and sub-electronic nature
without let or hindrance, and with the consumption of but infinitesimal
power.
Static disturbance, I should explain, is negligible in the
sub-electronic order, and non-existent in the ultronic.
The pioneer expeditions of our engineers into the ultronic order, I am
told, necessitated the use of most elaborate, complicated and delicate
apparatus, as well as the expenditure of most costly power, but once
established there, all necessary power is developed very simply from
tiny batteries composed of thin plates of metultron and katultron.
These two substances, developed synthetically in much the same manner as
ordinary ultron, exhibit dual phenomena which for sake of illustration I
may compare with certain of the phenomena of radioactivity. As radium is
constantly giving off electronic emanations and changing its atomic
structure thereby, so katultron is constantly giving off ultronic
emanations, and so changing its sub-electronic form, while
metultron, its complement, is constantly attracting and absorbing
ultronic values, and so changing its sub-electronic nature in the
opposite direction. Thin plates of these two substances, when placed
properly in juxtaposition, with insulating plates of inertron between,
constitute a battery which generates an ultronic current.
* * * * *
And it is a curious parallel that just as there were many mysteries
connected with the nature of electricity in the Twentieth Century
(mysteries which, I might mention, never have been solved,
notwithstanding our penetration into the "sub-" orders) so there are
certain mysteries about the ultronic current. It will flow, for
instance, through an ultron wire, from the katultron to the
metultron plate, as electricity will flow through a copper wire. It
will short circuit between the two plates if the inertron insulation is
imperfect. When the insulation is perfect, however, and no ultron
metallic circuit is complete, the "current" (apparently the same that
would flow through the metallic circuit) is projected into space in an
absolutely straight line from the katultron plate, and received from
space by the metultron plate on the same line. This line is the
theoretical straight line passing through the mass-center of each plate.
The shapes and angles of the plates have nothing to do with it, except
that the perpendicular distance of the plate edges from the mass-center
line determines thickness of the beam of parallel current-rays.
Thus a simple battery may be used either as a sender or receiver of
current. Two batteries adjusted to the same center line become connected
in series just as if they were connected by ultron wires.
In actual practice, however, two types of batteries are used; both the
foco batteries and broadcast batteries.
Foco batteries are twin batteries, arranged to shoot a positive and a
negative beam in the same direction. When these beams are made
intermittent at light frequencies (though they are not light waves, nor
of the same order as light waves) and are brought together, or focussed,
at a given spot, the space in which they cross radiates alternating
ultronic current in every direction. This radiated ultralight acts
like true light so long as the crossing beams vibrate at light
frequencies, except in three respects: first, it is not visible to the
eye; second, its "color" is exclusively dependent on the frequency of
the foco beams, which determine the frequency of the alternating
radiation. Material surfaces, it would appear, reflect them all in equal
value, and the color of the resultant picture depends on the color of
the foco frequencies. By altering these, a reddish, yellowish or
bluish picture may be seen. In actual practice an orthochromatic mixture
of frequencies is used to give a black, gray and white picture. The
third difference is this: rays pulsating in line toward any ultron
object connected with the rear plates of the twin batteries through
rectifiers cannot be reflected by material objects, for it appears they
are subject to a kind of "pull" which draws them straight through
material objects, which in a sense are "magnetized" and while in this
state offer no resistance.
Ultron, when so connected with battery terminals, glows with true light
under the impact of ultralight, and if in the form of a lens or set of
lenses, may be made to deliver a picture in any telescopic degree
desired.
* * * * *
The essential parts of an ultroscope, then, are twin batteries with
focal control and frequency control; an ultron shield, battery connected
and adjustable, to intercept the direct rays from the "glow-spot,"
with an ordinary light-shield between it and the lens; and the lens
itself, battery connected and with more or less telescopic elaboration.
To look through a substance at an object, one has only to focus the
glow-spot beyond the substance but on the near side of the object and
slightly above it.
A complete apparatus may be "set" for "penetrative," "distance" and
"normal vision."
In the first, which one would use to look through the forest screen from
the air, or in examining the interior of a Han ship or any opaque
structure, the glow-spot is brought low, at only a tiny angle above
the vision line, and the shield, of course, must be very carefully
adjusted.
"Distance" setting would be used, for instance, in surveying a valley
beyond a hill or mountain; the glow-spot is thrown high to illuminate
the entire scene.
In the "normal" setting the foco rays are brought together close
overhead, and illuminate the scene just as a lamp of super brilliancy
would in the same position.
For phonic communication a spherical sending battery is a ball of
metultron, surrounded by an insulating shell of inertron, and this in
turn by a spherical shell of katultron, from which the current radiates
in every direction, tuning being accomplished by frequency of
intermissions, with audio-frequency modulation. The receiving battery
has a core pole of katultron and an outer shell of metultron. The
receiving battery, of course, picks up all frequencies, the undesired
ones being tuned out in detection.
Tuning, however, is only a convenience for privacy and elimination of
interference in ultrophonic communication. It is not involved as a
necessity, for untuned currents may be broadcast at voice-controlled
frequencies, directly and without any carrier wave.
To use plate batteries or single center-line batteries for phonic
communication would require absolutely accurate directional aligning of
sender and receiver, a very great practical difficulty, except when
sender and receiver are relatively close and mutually visible.
* * * * *
This, however, is the regular system used in the Inter-Gang network for
official communication. The senders and receivers used in this system
are set only with the greatest difficulty, and by the aid of the finest
laboratory apparatus, but once set, they are permanently locked in
position at the stations, and barring earthquakes or insecure
foundations, need no subsequent adjustment. Accuracy of alignment
permits beam paths no thicker than the old lead pencils I used to use in
the Twentieth Century.
The non-interference of such communication lines, and the difficulty of
cutting in on them from any point except immediately adjacent to the
sender or receiver, is strikingly apparent when it is realized that
every square inch of an imaginary plane bisecting the unlocated beam
would have to be explored with a receiving battery in order to locate
the beam itself.
A practical compromise between the spherical or universal broadcast
senders and receivers on the one hand, and the single line batteries on
the other, is the multi-facet battery. Another, and more practical
device particularly for distance work, is the window-spherical. It is
merely an ordinary spherical battery with a shielding shell with an
opening of any desired size, from which a directionally controlled beam
may be emitted in different forms, usually that simply of an expanding
cone, with an angle of expansion sufficient to cover the desired
territory at the desired point of reception.