Part 24 (1/2)
The sound came again.
Somewhere a duck quacked.
MASTERS OF THE METROPOLIS.
By Randall Garret and Lin Carter
Well, you see, it was like this: Lin Carter and I were having a few drinks one night.
More than a few.
Several.
We were discussing Hugo Gernsback's cla.s.sic, Ralph 124C41+, the first novel written as science fiction, back in 1912. The term ”science fiction” had not been invented yet, and would not be until Hugo Gernsback himself invented it in the Thirties. (He had previously invented the word ”scientifiction,” but it didn't work out right. If you want to research this, see the several works of my friend, Sam Moskowitz, one of the outstanding historians of science fiction.) Anyway, Lin pointed out that the trouble with Ralph was that the folk of the future were always so amazed at what was going on about them, whereas we, in the mid-fifties, were not. Lin was right. We, today, take scientific miracles for granted. The man on the street does not gawp at flights to the moon or the fantastic things computers can do.
But-suppose he did!
CHAPTER I.
The Journey Begins
It was in the Eighth Month of the Year 1956 that Sam IM4 SF+ strode down the surging, crowded streets of Newark, one of the many cities of its kind in the State of New Jersey. He had just left his apartment in one of the vast, soaring pylons of the city. There. living in universal accord, hundreds of families dwelt side by side in the same great tower, one of many which loomed as many as forty stories above the street.
He paused to board a bus which stopped at regularly-s.p.a.ced intervals to take on new pa.s.sengers.
The bus, or Omnibus, was a streamlined, self-propelled public vehicle, powered by the exploding gases of distilled petroleum, ignited in a sealed cylinder by means of an electrical spark. The energy thus obtained was applied as torque to a long metal bar known as the ”drive-shaft,” which turned a set of gears in a complex apparatus known as the ”differential housing.” These gears, in turn, caused the rear wheels to revolve about their axes, thus propelling the vehicle forward smoothly at velocities as great as eighty miles every hour!
Dropping a coin into the receptacle by the driver's cubicle, and receiving a courteous welcome from the technician employed to pilot the machine, he took his seat inside the vehicle. Marveling anew at the luxurious comfort of the form-fitting seats, Sam IM4 SF+ gazed out of the window at the gorgeous spectacle of the city as it raced past.
Within a very few moments, the vehicle decelerated to a smooth stop before Pennsylvania Station, a mammoth terminal where the far-flung lines of public transportation converged.
Entering the great building, he paused to marvel anew at the inspiring architectural genius capable of erecting such an imposing monument to modern civilization-a building which would have struck with awe the simpler citizens of earlier times.
Threading his way through the crowds which thronged the vaulted interior of the terminal, he came to a turnstile, an artifact not unlike a rimless wheel, whose spokes revolved to allow his pa.s.sage. He placed a coin in the mechanism, and the marvelous machine-but one of the many mechanical marvels of the age-recorded his pa.s.sage on a small dial and automatically added the value of his coin to the total theretofore acc.u.mulated. All this, mind, without a single human hand at the controls!
Once past the turnstile, Sam IM4 SF+ followed the ingenious directional signs on the walls, which led him to a vast, artificially-lighted underground cavern. There he waited for his second conveyance to arrive.
Sam IM4 SF+, a typical citizen of his age, towered a full six feet above the ground. His handsomeface was crowned by a ma.s.sive, intellectual forehead. His hair was dark and smooth, neatly trimmed to follow the contours of his skull. He was clad in complex and attractive garments, according to the fas.h.i.+on of his century. His trousers were woven of a fabric synthetically formulated from a clever mixture of chemicals, as was his coat, for these favored people no longer depended upon herds of domesticated quadrupeds for their raiment. These garments were fastened, not by b.u.t.tons, but by an ingenious system of automatically interlocking metallic teeth known as a zipper.
Suspended from his ears, a frame of stiff wires supported a pair of polished lenses before his eyes, which served not only to protect those orbs from the rus.h.i.+ng winds that were a natural hazard of this Age of Speed, but also to implement his vision, lending it an almost telescopic power.
As he stood on the platform, his sensitive ears detected the distant roar of a subway train. Gazing down the dark tunnel by whose egress the platform stood, he observed the cyclopean glare of the artificial light affixed to the blunt nose of the onrus.h.i.+ng all-metallic projectile. The entire cavern reverberated to the roar of the vehicle as it emerged from the tunnel with a mighty rush of wind and braked smoothly to a dead stop before his very feet.
The marvel of modern transportation which was to bear him on his journey to the great Metropolis of New York had arrived!
CHAPTER II.
Aboard the Subway Train
The automatic door slid open, and our hero entered the car and was offered a seat by one of the courteous, uniformed crewmembers.
Pausing to marvel anew at this miracle of modern science, Sam IM4 SF+ turned to a fellow traveler and remarked conversationally: ”Ah, fellow citizen; is it not wonderful to reflect that the same Energy which propels us through the very bowels of the Earth is identical with the lightning that flames in stormy skies, far above these Stygiall depths? For thousands of years, the simple peasants of a ruder age looked upon the lightning bolt as the awesome weapon of angry G.o.ds; little did they surmise that their descendants would one day chain this Gargantuan power and harness it to serve their will!”
”How true!” remarked his companion. ”And could one of them now be with us as we speed through this fantastic system of tunnels, would he not be struck dumb with terror and think us G.o.ds?”
”Would he not, indeed,” smiled Sam, ”commonplace though it is to us.”
As they were speaking, the subway train sprang to life and plunged into the ebon mouth of another tunnel. In an instant, the vast, lighted cavern was lost to view, and the car was swallowed in the blackness of the tunnel, illuminated only by the colored lights set at intervals along the cavern walls as signals to the pilot.
The mighty engine thundered through the darkness like some mythical monster of a bygone age.
Sam, however, experienced no difficulty in observing his fellow pa.s.sengers, since the interior of the vehicle was brilliantly illuminated by ingenious artificial lighting. These light bulbs consisted of cleverly blown globes of gla.s.s which contained a delicate and intricate filament of tungsten wire. Upon the application of sufficient electrical current, the wire heated up to many hundreds of degrees, thus emitting a bright and pleasant light. Indeed, so great was the temperature at which they operated, the globes were filled with inert gas in order to prevent even the highly refractive tungsten from burning in the air!
Sam spent his time pleasantly by reading the various colorful and informative signs within the car.
These advertis.e.m.e.nts portrayed the many necessities and luxuries which all citizens of this age might acquire. Each told of its own product in glowing, descriptive terms. Here. a poster told of a harmless chemical mixture which, when applied to the skin, destroyed the unpleasant body odors with which earlier ages had been plagued; there, another card told of a confection which, when masticated, acted as a tooth-cleansing agent, thus serving as an aid to the buoyant health of the people of this era.
Within a few minutes, the vehicle had pa.s.sed beneath the rolling waters of the mighty Hudson River, and emerged from the darkness into another vast cavern, larger than, though similar to, the one in which our hero first boarded the conveyance. As the pa.s.sengers emerged in orderly rows from the subway train, Sam joined them and thus beheld the awe-inspiring vastness of Grand Central Station. Breathtaking was the panorama that greeted his dazzled orbs as he joined the motley throng that surged and eddied beneath the tremendous dome. A traveler from an earlier age would have been confused and lost in the orderly chaos of the great terminal.
Level upon level, tier upon tier, exit upon exit met the eye at every turn.