[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
With good reason, Professor H. Klauson hesitated; his wife's arms wereholding him with a strangely insistent urgency and fear. He tried todisengage himself, but not with much enthusiasm. Although he had notadmitted it to anyone but the Presidium's psycho-medic staff, he wasafraid, too. Desperately and helplessly afraid.
"Howard, please." Her pale blue eyes were wide, staring into his withthat intimacy only someone loved completely and without compromiseever sees. "Don't go back to the Laboratories, Howard. Don't ever goback again."
He smiled, unsuccessfully. He had never been able to hide anything fromLin.
"But, dear, this is ridiculous. We're scientists! We're not frightenedby vague, intangible fears."
Her hands tightened on his shoulders. "We're scientists; so let usadmit the obvious. Something doesn't want you to ever complete yourresearch, Howard. We've worked together for ten years, and now you'reright on the verge of discovering the secret of life itself. And itmeans more to humanity than anything else in the history of mankind.But I'm afraid, Howard, and so are you. Whatever is against us stoppedyou before. Your mind almost broke. It will try again, and this timeyour mind may not recover."
He managed to push her from him, and immediately he felt lonelier,isolated. His faint laugh sounded foolishly insincere.
"Lin, for the love of science! You sound like a mystic. Any mind isliable to become unintegrated. You talk about invisible, intangibleforces. These things can only be in men's minds, dear. No mentality isimmune to disorientation."
She sobbed, her head swung back and forth hopelessly. A cloud of lovelyhair glinted liquidly in the shifting light from the harmonics glowingfrom the transparent walls of their apartment. He couldn't leave her inthis state.
"Lin, darling, listen to me. I can't abandon my life's work.Particularly something so profoundly important to humanity. One moreprojection, and my 'closed system' principle will be concluded. Afterthat, think of it, Lin! This is really the one thing mankind has beenseeking. All his other activities are only bypaths. With eternal lifepossible, mankind will have a real reason for struggling onward. Lin—"
"No, Howard," she was saying, brokenly. "There isn't an argument.To me, your mind is more important. Why did your mind black outjust before you could finish your last experiment? Why, the wholemagnificent psycho-medical staff at the Presidium couldn't find areason. All the charts show you to be amazingly normal. There issomething bigger than our science, Howard. It doesn't intend for you toever finish your research."
"A woman's intuition?" he said sardonically.
"Not a woman's," she corrected. "Ours. Because you feel it the same asI do."
A sick, vague fear came over him as he stood there nervously,remembering the gleaming, arched height of the biochemistry wards atWorld Science Presidium. That singularly awful instant just beforehe could finish his last experiment, when all his mental facultieshad crumbled. The microfilm protector had just commenced whirring.Then that final spiraling downward into desperate gray fear andunconsciousness.
There had to be a logical explanation so that whatever blockage stoodbetween him and the conclusion of his research could be torn down. Thesecret of the single cell had long been his. Whatever that three-dimmicrophoto film revealed, he and only he could turn th