Dandriksaid. "For centuries, there have been inaccuracies in mathematicaldescriptions of subnucleonic events, and this experiment was undertakenin the hope of eliminating these inaccuracies." He went into a lengthymathematical explanation.
"Yes, I understand that, professor. But just what was the actualexperiment, in terms of physical operations?"
* * * * *
Dandrik looked helpless for a moment. Faress, who had been choking backa laugh, interrupted:
"Your Majesty, we were using the big turbo-linear accelerator to projectfast micropositos down an evacuated tube one kilometer in length, andclocking them with light, the velocity of which has been establishedalmost absolutely. I will say that with respect to the light, there wereno observable inaccuracies at any time, and until the micropositos wereaccelerated to 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, they registered muchas expected. Beyond that velocity, however, the target for themicropositos began registering impacts before the source registeredemission, although the light target was still registering normally. Inotified Professor Dandrik about this, and----"
"You notified him. Wasn't he present at the time?"
"No, Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty, I am head of the physics department of the University. Ihave too much administrative work to waste time on the technical aspectsof experiments like this," Dandrik interjected.
"I understand. Professor Faress was actually performing the experiment.You told Professor Dandrik what had happened. What then?"
"Why, Your Majesty, he simply declared that the limit of accuracy hadbeen reached, and ordered the experiment dropped. He then reported thehighest reading before this anticipation effect was observed as thenewly established limit of accuracy in measuring the velocity ofaccelerated micropositos, and said nothing whatever in his report aboutthe anticipation effect."
"I read a summary of the report. Why, Professor Dandrik, did you omitmentioning this slightly unusual effect?"
"Why, because the whole thing was utterly preposterous, that's why!"Dandrik barked; and then hastily added, "Your Imperial Majesty." Heturned and glared at Faress; professors do not glare at galacticemperors. "Your Majesty, the limit of accuracy had been reached. Afterthat, it was only to be expected that the apparatus would give erraticreports."
"It might have been expected that the apparatus would stop registeringincreased velocity relative to the light-speed standard, or that itwould begin registering disproportionately," Faress said. "But, YourMajesty, I'll submit that it was not to be expected that it wouldregister impacts before emissions. And I'll add this. After registeringthis slight apparent jump into the future, there was no proportionateincrease in anticipation with further increase of acceleration. I wantedto find out why. But when Professor Dandrik saw what was happening, hebecame almost hysterical, and ordered the accelerator shut down asthough he were afraid it would blow up in his face."
* * * * *
"I think it has blown up in his face," Prince Travann said quietly."Professor, have you any theory, or supposition, or even any wild guess,as to how this anticipation effect occurs?"
"Yes, Your Highness. I suspect that the apparent anticipation is simplyan observational illusion, similar to the illusion of time-reversalexperienced when it was first observed, though not realized, thatpositrons sometimes exceeded light-speed."
"Why, that's what I've been saying all along!" Dandrik broke in. "Thewhole thing is an illusion, due----"
"To having reached the limit of observational accuracy; I understand,Professor Dandrik. Go on, Professor Faress."
"I think that beyond 16.067543333-1/3 times light-speed, themicropositos ceased to have any velocity at all, velocity being definedas rate of motion in four-dimensional space-time. I believe they movedthrough the three spatial dimensions without moving at all in thefourth, temporal, dimension. They made that kilometer from source totarget, literally, in nothing flat. Instantaneity."
That must have been the first time he had actually come out and said it.Dandrik jumped to his feet with a cry that was just short of being ashriek.
"He's crazy! Your Majesty, you mustn't ... that is, well, Imean--Please, Your Majesty, don't listen to him. He doesn't know whathe's saying. He's raving!"
"He knows perfectly well what he's saying, and it probably scares himmore than it does you. The difference is that he's willing to face itand you aren't."
The difference was that Faress was a scientist and Dandrik was a scienceteacher. To Faress, a new door had opened, the first new door in eighthundred years. To Dandrik, it threatened invalidation of everything hehad taught since the morning he had opened his first class. He could nolonger say to his pupils, "You are here to learn from me." He would haveto say, more humbly, "_We_ are here to learn from the Universe."
It had happened so many times before, too. The comfortable andestablished Universe had fitted all the known facts--and then new factshad been learned that wouldn't fit it. The third planet of the Solsystem had once been the center of the Universe, and then Terra, andSol, and even the galaxy, had been forced to abdicate centricity. Theatom had been indivisible--until somebody divided it. There had beenintangible substance that had permeated the Universe, because it hadbeen necessary for the transmission of light--until it was demonstratedto be unnecessary and nonexistent. And the speed of light had been theultimate velocity, once, and could be exceeded no more than the atomcould be divided. And light-speed had been constant, regardless ofdistance from source, and the Universe, to explain certain observedphenomena, had been believed to be expanding simultaneously in alldirections. And the things that had happened in psychology, whenpsi-phenomena had become too obvious to be shrugged away.
"And then, when Dr. Dandrik ordered you to drop this experiment, justwhen it was becoming interesting, you refused?"
"Your Majesty, I couldn't stop, not then. But Dr. Dandrik ordered theapparatus dismantled and scrapped, and I'm afraid I lost my head. Toldhim I'd punch his silly old face in, for one thing."
"You admit that?" Chancellor Khane cried.
"I think you showed admirable self-restraint in not doing it. Did youexplain to Chancellor Khane the importance of this experiment?"
"I tried to, Your Majesty, but he simply wouldn't listen."
"But, Your Majesty!" Khane expostulated. "Professor Dandrik is head ofthe department, and one of the foremost physicists of the Empire, andthis young man is only one of the junior assistant-professors. Isn'teven a full professor, and he got his degree from some school awayoff-planet. University of Brannerton on Gimli."
"Were you a pupil of Professor Vann Evaratt?" Prince Travann askedsharply.
"Why, yes, sir. I----"
"Ha, no wonder!" Dandrik crowed. "Your Majesty, that man's anout-and-out charlatan! He was kicked out of the University here tenyears ago, and I'm surprised he could even get on the faculty of aschool like Brannerton, on a planet like Gimli."
"Why, you stupid old fool!" Faress yelled at him. "You aren't enough ofa physicist to oil robots in Vann Evaratt's lab!"
"There, Your Majesty," Khane said. "You see how much respect forauthority this hooligan has!"
On Aditya, such would be unthinkable; on Aditya, everybody respectsauthority. Whether it's respectable or not.
Count Tammsan laughed, and he realized that he must have spoken aloud.Nobody else seemed to have gotten the joke.
"Well, how about the riot, now?" he asked. "Who started that?"
"Colonel Handrosan made an investigation on the spot," Prince Travannsaid. "May I suggest that we hear his report?"
"Yes indeed. Colonel?"
Handrosan rose and stood with his hands behind his back, looking fixedlyat the wall behind the desk.
"Your Majesty, the students of Professor Faress' advanced subnuclearphysics class, postgraduate students, all of them, were told ofProfessor Faress' dismissal by a faculty member who had taken over theclass this morning. They all got up and walked out in a body, andgathered
outdoors on the campus to discuss the matter. At the next classbreak, they were joined by other science students, and they went intothe stadium, where they were joined, half an hour later, by morestudents who had learned of the dismissal in the meantime. At no timewas the gathering disorderly. The stadium is covered by a viewscreenpickup which is fitted with a recording device; there is a completeaudio-visual of the whole thing, including the attack on them by thecampus police.
"This attack was ordered by Chancellor Khane, at about 1100; the chiefof the campus police was told to clear the stadium, and when he