Devil Crystals of Arret

  Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  The tip sprayed a web around his body.]

  Devil Crystals of Arret

  _By Hal K. Wells_

  Facing a six-hour deadline of death, young Larry raids a hostile world of rat-men and tinkling Devil Crystals.

  Benjamin Marlowe and his young assistant, Larry Powell, opened thedoor of the Marlowe laboratory, then stopped aghast at the sightwhich greeted their startled eyes.

  There on the central floor-plate directly in the focus of the bigatomic projector stood the slender figure of Joan Marlowe, oldBenjamin Marlowe's niece and Larry Powell's fiancee.

  The girl had apparently only been awaiting their return to thelaboratory for around her gray laboratory smock was already fastenedone of their Silver Belts, and a cord was already in place runningfrom her wrist to the main switch of the projection mechanism.

  Joan's clear blue eyes sparkled with the thrill of high adventure asshe swiftly raised a slender hand in a gesture of warning to the twomen.

  "Don't try to stop me," she warned quietly. "I can jerk the switchand be in Arret, before you've taken two steps. I'm going to Arret,anyway. I was only waiting for you to return to the laboratory soI'd be sure of having you here to bring me back to Earth againbefore I have time to get into any serious trouble over there."

  "But, Joan," Benjamin Marlowe protested, "this is sheer madness! Noone can possibly guess what terrible conditions you may confront inArret. We've never dared to send a human being across the atomicbarrier yet!"

  "We've sent all kinds of animals across, though," Joan retortedcalmly, "and as long as we recalled them within the twelve-hourlimit they always came back alive and unhurt. There's no reason whya human being should not be able to make the round trip just assafely. Ever since our Silver Belts first came back with the weirdplant and mineral fragments which proved that there really is such aplace as Arret, I've been wild to see with my own eyes theincredible things that must exist there."

  Joan waved her hand in gay farewell. "Good-by, Uncle Ben and Larry!I know that you'll drag me back just as quickly as you can possiblydash over to the recall switch, but I'll at least have had a fewprecious seconds of sightseeing as Earth's first human visitor toArret!"

  * * * * *

  Larry Powell was already sprinting for the mechanism as Joan jerkedthe cord that ran to the switch, but he was barely half-way acrossthe intervening space when the big atomic projector flared forth ina brilliant gush of roseate flame.

  For a fraction of a second Joan's slender figure was outlined in thevery heart of the ruddy glow, then vanished completely. There wasleft only a short length of the switch cord to indicate that thegirl had ever stood there.

  Powell reached the mechanism and shut off the projector's flame,then turned swiftly to the control-panel of the recall mechanism. Ashe closed the switch on this panel, three banks of tubes set intriangular form around the floor-plate upon which Joan had stoodglowed a brilliant and blinding green.

  Shielding his eyes from the glare with an upraised forearm, Powellbegan stepping a rheostat up to more and more power. In his anxiety,he increased the power far too quickly. There was a sudden gush ofblue-white flame from the heart of the mechanism, together with thehissing crackle of fusing metal. The green light in the tubespromptly died.

  Benjamin Marlowe was bending over the apparatus almost instantly. Amoment later he raised a face that had suddenly gone white. Therewas terror in his eyes as he turned to his assistant.

  "The entire second series of coils is burned out, Larry!" he gaspedin consternation. "Joan is marooned over there in Arret--marooned inthat grim unknown land as completely beyond our reach as though shewere upon one of the moons of Mars!"

  For a long moment the two men gazed at each other withhorror-stricken faces, dazed and shaken. Then they quickly drewthemselves together again and set about the herculean task of makingthe necessary repairs to the damaged mechanism in time to rescueJoan before the twelve-hour limit should doom the girl to foreverremain an exile in that land of alien mystery beyond the atomicbarrier.

  * * * * *

  Their previous experiments with animals had proved that no livingcreature from Earth could be brought back after it had been in Arretover twelve hours. After that time the change in the atomsconstituting living tissues apparently became permanently Arretian,for the Silver Belts returned without any trace of their originalwearers.

  The necessary repairs to the damaged coils were of such an exactingand intricate nature that any great speed was impossible. Hourspassed while the two men bent to their work with grim concentration.Neither of them dared think too much of what nameless dangers mightbe confronting Joan during those weary hours. Their actual knowledgeof Arret was so pitiably slight.

  Some months ago, while they were experimenting upon apparatus forreversing the electrical charges of an atom's electrons and protons,they had first stumbled upon the incredible fact that such a placeas Arret really existed. They found that it was another worldoccupying the same position in space as Earth, with the fundamentaldifference in the two interwoven planes of existence lying in theelectrical make-up of the atoms that constituted matter in eachplane.

  On Earth all atoms are composed of small heavy protons that arealways positive in charge, and larger lighter electrons that arealways negative. In Arret the protons were negative, and theelectrons positive. The result was two worlds occupying the samespace at the same time, yet with matter so essentially andcompletely different that each world was intangible to the other.They had named the unseen world Arret, the reverse of Terra.

  Finding it impossible to work directly upon most forms of matter,the experimenters had finally evolved a silver alloy that served asa medium both for sending objects into Arret and then bringingthem back to Earth. By focussing the flame of the projectionapparatus upon a Silver Belt of this alloy, the electrical chargesof the Belt's atoms were reversed, automatically causing the Belt tovanish from Earth and materialize in Arret. At the same time theatoms of any object within the Belt's immediate radius weresimilarly transformed, and that object was taken into Arret with theBelt.

  The recall mechanism functioned by broadcasting a power wave thatagain reversed the atomic charge of the Belt and its containedobject back to that of Earth. At the same time the recall waveexerted an attractive force that drew the atoms back to a centralpoint in the laboratory, where they were re-materialized upon thesame floor-plate from which they had originally been sent.

  * * * * *

  The twelve-hour time limit was half up when Benjamin Marlowe andLarry Powell finally straightened up wearily from their work overthe recall mechanism, their repairs completed. It had been oneo'clock in the afternoon when Joan Marlowe vanished from Earth inthe roseate flare of the projector. It was now nearly seven o'clock.

  With nerves tense from anxiety, the two men crossed over to thecontrol-panel of the recall apparatus. This time they donned gogglesof dark glass to shield their eyes from the blinding green glare.Marlowe threw the main switch, and the banked tubes came to life ina flood of vivid emerald light.

  Marlowe began stepping the rheostat up gradually to more power,advancing it with cautious slowness to avoid any chance of arepetition of the previous accident. The green radiance streamingfrom the tubes in every direction began to throb with an electricforce that the two men could feel pulsing through their own bodies.

  T
here was a click as the rheostat struck the last notch. The greenradiance was now a searing flame that half-blinded them even throughthe thick dark glass of their protective goggles, while the vibrantforce of the green rays was sweeping through their bodies with atingling shock that nearly took their breath away.

  Tensely the two men stared at the metal floor-plate in the center ofthe area bounded by the flaming green tubes. Just over the plate thegreen radiance seemed to be thickening and swirling oddly. Theswirling eddy became a small dense cloud of darker green light. Thenabruptly, like the fade-in on a moving picture screen, from thecloud over the plate the misty outlines of an object swiftly clearedand solidified into a bizarre something at whose unfamiliar aspectboth Marlowe and Powell gasped in amazement.

  Marlowe snapped the switch off, and the green radiance vanished.Stripping the dark goggles from their eyes, the two men hurried overfor a closer view of the thing that rested quiescent and