But in the relayed signal that louder
instant had dropped four tones. Cochrane said crisply:
"Jones, what speed would that be?"
"_It'd take a slide-rule to figure it_," said Jones' voice, very calmly,
"_but it's faster than anything ever went before._"
Cochrane waited for the next beep. It did not come in ten seconds. It
was easily fifteen. Even he could figure out what that meant! A
signal-source that stretched ten seconds of interval at source to
fifteen at reception ...
The voice from the observatory wailed:
"_It's crazy! It can't be going like that!_"
They waited. Fifteen seconds more. Sixteen. Eighteen. Twenty. The beep
sounded. The spurt of sound had dropped a full octave. The
signal-rocket, traveling normally, might have attained a maximum
velocity of some two thousand feet per second. It was now moving at a
speed which was an appreciably large fraction of the speed of light.
Which was starkly impossible. It simply happened to be true.
They heard the signal once more. The observatory's multiple-receptor
receiver had been stepped up to maximum amplification. The signal was
distinct, but very faint indeed.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98