The Big Eye (16 page)

"At any rate, David, whatever the innermost conviction of each man,
it is only the fool who does not at least admit the mystery of creation --
who thinks that everything just 'happened' somehow."

 

 

Dr. Dawson paused, looked steadily at David. "Forgive me, my boy,
for all this preamble. But it is very pertinent to what I have to
say." He measured his words. "In the past few months, David, I have
seen a miracle. I have witnessed the hand of God suddenly appear in
the universe."

 

 

"The hand of God?" echoed David stupidly.

 

 

The Old Man nodded. He reached forward on his desk, picked up a batch
of enlarged photographs.

 

 

"Look at these."

 

 

David stared at the top photograph. So this was the project Dr. Dawson
had been working on so feverishly through the Big Eye. This was why,
at the Old Man's urgent request, Ellender, Perez, Varanov, and the others
had come running to Palomar from all over the world. They were concerned
with the sky, after all, and not with earth-bound matters.

 

 

He studied the photograph eagerly. It was that of a familiar
constellation, and his practiced eye picked out at first glance what
seemed to be a normal astronomical pattern. His mind clicked over like
a comptometer, identifying the various members in the group.

 

 

Then suddenly something j arred his vision.

 

 

It was a tiny patch of light where no light should have been.

 

 

Dr. Dawson hadn't even labeled it.

 

 

David tried to place the intruder, tried to identify it. But it was
foreign to him; he had never seen it before. He shuflBied through the
other photographs. There it was, again and again, the annoying and
insistent extra patch of light, hanging on like a bright little leech.
It changed its position as the dates of the observations changed, but
it was there every time, sharp and clear.

 

 

It was all the more mysterious because Dr. Dawson had neglected to give
it a name.

 

 

David stared at the photograph again, and his mind leaped to the
possibility of asteroids or a new comet, but as quickly aban -- « doned
the idea as he shufifled through the other photographs.

 

 

David looked up at the Old Man, bewildered.

 

 

"I don't understand it, sir. It's something I don't recognize --

 

 

something that doesn't belong " He caught his breath as he saw

 

 

the expression on the Old Man's face. "You mean it's something brand
new -- something we've never seen before?"

 

 

The Old Man nodded. "You and I are among the first to see it, David, with
the help of the 200-inch telescope. But in the not-too-distant future it
will be visible not only to other astronomers with smaller telescopes,
but finally to the naked eye of the whole world. It was only by sheer
accident, by the most remote chance, that I stumbled on it first, late
in September, while doing some routine observations."

 

 

"But what is it, sir," asked David, "that extra point of light?"

 

 

"A new planet," answered the Old Man quietly.

 

 

"A neiv planet?"

 

 

"Yes, David. A strange new intruder into our solar system. Not an ordinary
planet in the conventional sense, for it doesn't revolve around our sun
at all. But a planet in size and mass and every other detail."

 

 

Dr. Dawson paused a moment as David kept his eyes glued to the tiny
patch of silver. Then he continued:

 

 

"As you know, the last planet discovered was Pluto, back in 1930, at
the Lowell Observatory. At the time of its discovery, before it was
officially named Pluto, it was designated as Planet
X
.

 

 

"Therefore, I shall name this newcomer -- Planet
Y
."

 

 

Planet
Y
!

 

 

David was staggered. He stared at the Old Man stupidly. For a moment he
could not believe what he had heard. No wonder the greatest astronomers
alive had dropped whatever they were working on and answered the Old
Man's summons! .

 

 

This was one of those dream discoveries, the greatest triumph of the Big
Eye, an astronomical miracle. He thought dazedly of what would happen in
the observatories of the world when the news came out officially. That
is, if the world was still around.

 

 

They'd go crazy, he thought, crazy!

 

 

So this was the answer! This was what the Old Man was talking about -- the
hand of God. This was it, this extra patch of light. There it was,
planted on those photographs, sharp and clear.

 

 

For as long as men could remember there had been only nine planets
revolving around the sun.

 

 

And now -- now there were ten.

 

 

Now, as the Old Man had put it, there was a strange new intruder in the
sky, a kind of heavenly stepchild, a celestial Johnny-come-lately.

 

 

Planet
Y
.

 

 

"It's a massive body, as planets go," the Old Man was saying. "Much
bigger than the earth. And it's traveling through space with fantastic
velocity, far greater than that of the earth. It made the orbit difficult
to calculate. In fact, two years ago it would have been impossible,
before Morrissey built us his analogue computer."

 

 

Dr. Dawson's voice leveled off into a monotone, as though he were
delivering a lecture before a science forum. "Although we can now see it
and trace its orbit, we don't know where this wildcat planet came from,
and we never will. The origin of Planet
Y
, David, does not fit into any
of the present cosmogonies. If we accept the Weizsacker hypothesis as
correct for the formation of our own solar system, we must reluctantly
conclude that there are exceptions to it as a rule. For Planet
Y
must have been born in the fiery explosion of a supernova."

 

 

David nodded. "I would agree, sir. It seems to me only the expanding
wave front of a bursting sun could have given it the initial velocity
necessary to bring it toward our system at its present speed."

 

 

As he spoke he reflected on what a triumph this would be for the Old
Man. To discover a new planet was tremendous enough, but to add to it a
major contribution to the theory of planetogenesis was enough to shatter
the calm in every observatory in the world.

 

 

"At any rate, David," the Old Man went on, "Planet
Y
was born. It
was hurled off into space, traveling like a fantastic juggernaut,
drifting through space for thousands or millions of years --

 

 

Then at last it came into the gravitational field of a star, was caught
and held. It is plunging toward that star now."

 

 

"And that star," said David, "is the sun."

 

 

"Yes."

 

 

"It's a great discovery, sir." David's voice shook a little. "No wonder
you called those men to Palomar. It'll create a sensation."

 

 

Yet as David spoke he wondered, even so, even in the face of this
tremendous new phenomenon, why had the Old Man ordered him back in such
a hurry?

 

 

"As you say, David," continued Dr. Dawson, "this new intruder into our
solar system will create a sensation. But it is more than just a new
planet. The consequences of its appearance are staggering beyond the
limits of human imagination and there is no doubt it will profoundly
change the pattern of human life. If this new planet is anything it is
the hand of God."

 

 

There he goes again, thought David. The hand of God.

 

 

The Old Man seemed obsessed with the idea. Dr. Dawson was a scientist,
through and through, and yet what he was saying now was curiously
unscientific. Of course, David said to himself, it was a miracle,
but you could figure it on a cause-and-effect basis. A fragment from a
distant star coming within the sun's gravitational field and swinging
in an orbit around it.

 

 

It was the longest long shot possible, but theoretically it could happen.

 

 

In fact, it had happened.

 

 

But that wasn't all, apparently. There was more that the Old Man was
getting ready to say. David could see it in his face, read it in his
over-bright eyes.

 

 

There was something else coming. Something big.

 

 

But what?

 

 

What could top a discovery like this? The Old Man had said something
about the planet's changing the way men lived. It struck like a jagged
fragment in David's mind. Where did that belong in all this?

 

 

"David," said the Old Man, "everything I have discussed up to now has
been a kind of preamble, by way of preparation for what I have to tell
you now. A minute ago I asked you if you believed in God, and I said I
had a reason for the question. If your belief is sincere, if your faith
is deep-rooted, then it will give you strength to meet the revelation
I am about to make to you, and even help you gain some comfort from
it." Dr. Dawson hesitated a moment. "Now, David, I must ask you to
prepare for a shock -- a very great shock."

 

 

David sat rigid in his chair, fascinated, watching the Old Man. His
collar suddenly seemed to be unnaturally tight, and he felt the goose
flesh rise on his body. For a moment neither of them spoke.

 

 

Finally the Old Man picked up a chart from his desk.

 

 

"This chart illustrates the future orbit of the new planet, David. I've
been plotting it for days, but I got my first result about an hour after
you left for New York on Wednesday."

 

 

David looked down at the chart.

 

 

Then suddenly it swam before his eyes as the full implication of what he
saw smashed into his brain. The sweat broke out in a cold ooze on his
forehead, his mouth went dry, a cruel hand seemed to be curling itself
around his throat, stifling his breath.

 

 

It was right there before his eyes. The awful and incredible denouement
to the Old Man's discovery.

 

 

Planet
Y
was headed for an elliptical orbit around the sun. But
its orbit intersected that of the earth, and the chart showed both bodies
reaching the intersection point simultaneously.

 

 

Long before the geometric point of intersection, Planet
Y
would
come close enough to exert a tremendous gravitational pull upon the earth,
send it flying out of its orbit and toward Planet
Y
itself. And
that would mean -- planetary collision.

 

 

The end of the world!

 

 

It was right there, right there in neat circles on that crisp piece of
graph paper. Dr. Dawson had indicated the point where the clash would
come. He had marked it with a tiny "x." X marks the spot, thought David
foolishly; x marks the spot where the accident would occur.

 

 

Like a man in a dream, he put his finger on the point.

 

 

The Old Man nodded. "The point of final gravitational attraction,
David. The cosmic collision point."

 

 

It was impossible, of course. In the infinite sweep of space, the earth
was merely a speck of dust. So was this new planet, this Planet
Y
.
Every law of chance was against it. A billion billion billion to one.

 

 

But there it was, right there in the diagram. There were the orbits of
Planet
Y
and the earth.

 

 

And there was the point of collision. And nothing, nobody could stop it.

 

 

The end of the world.

 

 

The end of the world! The end of tne world! It beat through David Hughes's
head like an awful refrain.

 

 

It was fantastic. It was something you toyed with in your imagination,
or read about in those weird fiction stories. Soothsayers from the
beginning of time had been predicting it, religious fanatics had seen
it in their visions, and every year some crackpot predicted the exact
day and hour of the catastrophe.

 

 

But people just laughed or shrugged and went about their business. The
newspapers sent a photographer to take pictures of the cranks and their
followers, usually kneeling and praying on some mountaintop as the
appointed hour drew near.

 

 

But the hour came and went, and the earth kept right on rotating on its
axis, and the photographers got their pictures. And the crackpot and
his followers finally gave up and sheepishly went home.

 

 

And the next year there was always a new prophet and a new flock, a new
day and a new hour. And a new picture in the press for the people to
smile at the next day.

 

 

But this new prophet was not a crank. He was the man sitting at the desk,
the man watching him with compassion in his eyes. He was Dr. Charles
Dawson, a man of science, who placed no reliance in visions or dreams.

 

 

"At first I couldn't believe what I saw," the Old Man was saying. "I
went over my calculations again and again. And invariably I always came
to the same result -- the same staggering result.

 

 

"It was then that I called the men from the other observatories -- the
only men in the world who knew the necessary mathematics for this
problem -- the best research astronomers in the world. I wanted them to
check my calculations. I didn't dare trust myself.