The Time Annihilator by Edgar A, Manley and Walter Thode Read online

  Wonder Stories, November, 1930

  Wonder Stories

  2

  ARRY STENSON yawned as he conceptions. He was as practical a fellow as slumped into an overstaffed chair and

  ever battled words in the criminal courts of the

  L picked up a newspaper from the table city.

  of his library. His appearance startled me. His

  As for myself, I had been on newspapers in

  face was ashen and black smudges, that told of

  New York for ten years. This experience, I

  sleepless nights, were under his pale blue can truthfully assert, made me walk close to eyes.

  the ground, dubious of all things that could not

  Bert Clay turned from the library be defined by rule of thumb or hard logic.

  window and crossed the room toward Stenson.

  Larry Stenson, our golf and bridge

  “Are you going to have our little game of

  companion for five years, was of the same age

  bridge tonight, Larry?” he asked, lighting a

  as Clay and me, in the early thirties. He was

  cigarette.

  regarded as one of the outstanding young men

  “Not tonight, Bert, old man,” Stenson

  of the science department of Columbia

  replied, crumpling the newspaper impatiently

  University. There was nothing pedantic about

  and flinging the sheets into the fireplace: “Fact

  Stenson; ordinarily his light sense of humor

  is, I’m feeling, mighty rotten.”

  cheered the more gloomy Clay and myself.

  Clay glanced at me and his red-

  But tonight Stenson sat brooding in his

  thatched head moved almost imperceptibly.

  chair, puffing nervously on his cigarette. After

  His very thoughts seemed written on his an interminable silence he leaped to his feet freckled countenance. He was worried over

  and walked toward Clay, placing his hand on

  Stenson, fearing a nervous breakdown; almost

  the lawyer’s shoulder. His wide generous

  pitifully eager to lure the young scientist into a

  mouth twitched apologetically. “I hope I

  few hours’ relaxation at cards.

  haven’t seemed grouchy tonight, fellows,” he

  “Just one little game, Larry,” I muttered.

  pleaded.

  “Forget it, Larry,” I remarked. “Guess

  The atmosphere of the library seemed

  you’ve been trying to revolutionize science.”

  surcharged with dread, a spectral presence that

  Stenson smiled, rather bleakly.

  could not be confined by time nor space. I

  “What would you say if I told you I

  often thought of that presentiment, in the days

  had?” he queried.

  that followed, when time was annihilated,

  “Three cheers for our side!” chuckled

  when the domed-headed men of Pei stalked on

  Clay. “What have you solved now?”

  their mission of destruction.

  “The problem of time and space!”

  That night we three were on the

  “Lane, we’ve got a rising young

  threshold of the most devastating adventure

  Einstein in our midst,” said Clay, turning to

  that mortal ever faced. Stenson, indeed, had

  me. “See that he gets three columns on the

  already passed through the curtain of the front page.”

  future, crossing as casually into the future as

  “And how! Let us in on the big secret,

  one might walk from one room to another. We

  Larry!”

  were to learn of his time journey a little later,

  We were all on our feet now, laughing rather

  told in faltering words.

  foolishly, I fancy. Clay was slapping Stenson

  I suppose, recalling that night, that two

  on the back, as if to drive away the gloom that

  more prosaic men than Bert Clay and I were

  possessed the man.

  not to be found in New York City. Clay was a

  Stenson’s face, etched against the

  lawyer, cynically scornful of all fantastic light, shocked me. He seemed to have aged a

  The Time Annihilator

  3

  score of years since we had seen him the night

  flashing angrily.

  before.

  “Talking about me, eh? Listen, I know

  “Don’t slap his back like that, you

  you were. Cut it out. Think I’m batty, eh? I’ll

  chump!” I cried to Clay, angrily. Then to

  prove it. How would you both like a trip?”

  Stenson: “For the love of Mike, what ails you,

  “A trip?” I asked. “Where to—

  man?”

  Europe? I’m too broke!”

  “The machine—the machine I

  “No, not to Europe. The greatest trip

  invented,” he remarked. “Maybe you’ll say

  any man ever took. It got me—lack of sleep

  I’m crazy, Lane, but I projected myself and worry for weeks past. I’ve solved it. I’ve hundreds of years into the future this annihilated time and it don’t mean anything!

  morning!”

  It’s like an accordion that can be folded or

  Clay stared at me incredulously over

  dragged out. There’s a unity to time that links

  Stenson’s shoulder and I know my face must

  the past, present and future. All our

  have revealed baffled amazement. I was conceptions of time will go by the board!”

  convinced Stenson was raving. “Larry, old

  There was something fascinating about

  man, sit down, please,” I begged. “You must

  the flow of words that leaped from his lips and

  have been under some tremendous strain. Tell

  I marveled at the rapid transformation in the

  us—”

  man. He was an enthusiast, so immersed in his

  “I have told you, you pair of blithering

  strange fetish that all else was forgotten. He

  fools! I can see by your silly face you think

  soared at a bound to the heights.

  I’ve lost my mind, Lane. I’ve been working on

  “Listen, Lane, and you too, Bert! Did

  this—for years. Secretly!”

  you ever stop to think that if one lived on a

  He sagged into his chair, burying his

  planet whirling about the giant sun

  face in his hands. Dry sobs shook his strong

  Betelgeuse, and could stare through a

  body and I winced and turned toward the

  telescope at events upon this little earth of

  windows. The lights of New York below ours, he would see the French Revolution gleamed like fireflies—mile after mile. I bit

  being enacted? Light waves sweep the

  my lower lip. There was something lashing in

  universe. When we stare into the sky at night

  hearing a man sob.

  we really see light that has been speeding for

  countless years across the ether toward us!”

  “I WENT—hundreds of years!” he babbled

  “We’re listening, Larry,” I remarked.
/>   brokenly. “Sights of horror everywhere! The

  “Go on.”

  world—gone!”

  “I have followed out this theory, but in

  Clay hurried toward me, leaving the

  another sphere of thought. Existence is like a

  crushed man alone.

  mirror that reflects everything. Perhaps I can

  “He ought to be sent to a hospital,” he

  explain my idea more clearly by recalling the

  muttered. “Poor ol’ Larry. I never thought—”

  old adage that ‘Coming events cast their

  “Shut up, he’ll hear you!”

  shadows before.’ The future is already in

  “What the dickens will we do?”

  existence. Time is a river that flows endlessly

  “He’s

  been

  overworked. I have noticed

  back and forth, sweeping the universe in its

  this coming on for weeks. I told him he tide!”

  needed sleep. The poor devil’s been cutting

  Stenson led us across the richly

  down on sleep until his nerves are shot. Don’t

  carpeted library toward his laboratory. He

  irritate him!”

  switched on a light and pointed with stubby

  Stenson walked toward us, his eyes

  forefinger at a group of electric generators in

  Wonder Stories

  4

  the corner. Coils of wires, repellent like cities merged crazily into each other in the slumbering reptiles, lay about the generators. I

  glass. I rubbed my eyes, feeling I was

  had never been in his laboratory before, bewitched.

  despite my friendship with him. There were

  “I guess I’m feeling the spell of the

  depths of secrecy about the man, I perceived,

  place, Larry. Say, what the devil—”

  that no one had ever really plumbed.

  “What you see are merely visual

  Another door turned and I whistled in

  survivals that have clung to the mirrors! Sort

  astonishment. In this room was the strangest

  of the same principle as retention of vision to

  looking box I had ever gazed upon. Mounted

  the retina of the eye when a light goes out.”

  on wheels, the walls were of glass, so were the

  “Now, you want to go to sleep and rest

  floor and ceiling. A faint light pierced this box

  up for a week straight, Larry,” counseled Clay

  of mystery and I shivered involuntarily. Even

  kindly.

  the phlegmatic Clay was impressed, I noted,

  “Can’t seem to knock off any rest. I

  as I glanced into his heavy face. The ashen

  just toss about in bed.”

  whiteness had departed from Stenson’s

  “I’ll go out to the drug store and get

  countenance and a healthy flush returned some dope that’ll knock you for a goal,” I almost miraculously.

  remarked. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  “An odd room, eh, fellows?” Stenson

  I hurried from the apartment and a

  asked as he led us into the box. “Couldn’t you

  minute later was speeding downward in the

  easily imagine anything happening here?”

  elevator, immersed in thought. I had known

  “A swell place for a murder, I’ll say!”

  Larry Stenson too long, and had too great an

  snorted Clay.

  admiration for his intelligence, to doubt that

  “I’ll say it would be an ideal place for

  he had made an astounding discovery.

  a murder,” responded Larry Stenson. “There

  Possibly he had stumbled on a widened

  would be no corpus delicti to worry about.

  television that could project the beholder

  Once in this chamber, with the time about the world. I was convinced, however, annihilation machine grinding through the that he was entirely wrong about projection centuries, no detective on earth could solve

  into the future. Nearly a week without sleep—

  the problem!”

  one could hardly call his few off minutes of

  “You seemed on edge just a few rest such—had played queer pranks with moments ago, Larry,” I said. “Now you seem

  Stenson. I was sure of it.

  cheery as blazes. How come?”

  I bought a sleeping potion at the drug

  “Nerves gave out on me from lack of

  store on the corner and pushed my way

  rest, Lane. You’ve felt that way yourself, through the throngs on Madison avenue. It felt haven’t you? I guess that silly sobbing I’ve

  good to be alive that warm, Summer night in

  done cleared the atmosphere for me!”

  the year 1945. I thought of the marvels

  “What a little hermitage you’ve got

  through which I had lived. Only two months

  here!” exclaimed Clay peering into the before I had crossed the Atlantic on an air seemingly endless expanse of mirrors. As my

  liner in 18 hours. The human voice spanned

  eyes grew accustomed to the peculiar light I

  the world now instantaneously. It was a world

  followed Clay’s staring eyes.

  at peace, a joyous, prosperous globe.

  Again I was back in the apartment.

  THERE was something weirdly unreal about

  “Where’s the patient, Bert?” I demanded

  the chamber. I seemed to look into illimitable

  laughingly. “Where’s that sick scientist of

  distances. Indistinct forms of creatures and

  ours who just needs a few real hours sleep?”

  The Time Annihilator

  5

  “Gone! Great Scott—he’s gone!”

  voice and I tried to break down the door with

  “Quit spoofing me, Bert. Try that on

  a chair. I heard Larry shout out.”

  your silly juries. Where is he?”

  “What did he say?”

  I stared at Bert Clay apprehensively.

  “He cried, ‘Bert, for God’s sake

  His jaw sagged and he tried vainly to light a

  don’t!’ His voice seemed a million miles

  cigarette. His hand trembled so violently the

  away!”

  match went out. He uttered an oath and flung

  “And

  then?”

  the cigarette on the floor. I seized his arm

  “The buzzing of the batteries stopped.

  violently.

  The door opened as easy as pie under my

  “Where’s Larry gone to?”

  hand. I stared into the box—then I entered.

  Clay stared at me foolishly, his gray

  ‘Larry!’ I yelled. But there was no answer.”

  eyes wavering. “Damned if I can figure it

  “Holy Smoke! Where was he?”

  out!” he said brokenly. “I left him in that

  “Gone! I told you when you came in

  accursed glass box for a few moments. He

  he was gone!”

  slammed the door. I got a glass of water and

  then returned. There was a buzzing sound

  from inside and I know he must have turned

  CHAPTER II

  the switch. I fought like a madman to open the

  Plunged Into Time!

  door, but I couldn’t budge it! I heard voices

  inside! A bedlam of voices. I was crazy with

  fear, old man, and I want you to know I’m not

  I suppose my face must have appeared

  a coward!”

  extremely stupid. Certainly Clay
’s sagging

  “Voices?”

  lips would have aroused gales of laughter

  “Yes, speaking in strange languages.

  under ordinary circumstances. But neither of

  Laughing, hyena voices. They sounded us felt in a mood to laugh. Horror clutched our inhuman. Then I thought I heard a voice rising

  hearts. The curtain of time had parted,

  higher than the rest. Sounded strangely like a

  swallowing Larry Stenson in the vague mist of

  Chink’s voice!”

  eternity.

  “Well, where did they come from?

  “Let’s both look at that damned

  There was no one else in the apartment after I

  contrivance, Bert,” I cried. “This is

  left.”

  unbelievable. How could he have vanished

  “No, they were in that accursed like that?”

  cabinet. The buzzing sound kept up. For a

  “I don’t know, old man—but he did.”

  while I thought of smashing the batteries in

  Clay nodded bleakly and rubbed his

  the corner of the other room—the outer part of

  chin in agitation. “He was such a prince of a

  the laboratory.”

  fellow,” he muttered. “Could he have gone

  “Damned good thing you didn’t or through the walls?”

  you’d have probably marooned him

  We were at the open door of the time

  somewhere about the year 2,500!”

  chamber now, staring into the half dark recess

  I marveled that I could have spoken so

  like frightened children. The laboratory lights

  about the unwritten future—or was it really

  outside illuminated a sector of this strange