six
centuries of intelligent research by man, and a century of research by
man and machine. No one branch, but all physics, all chemistry, all
life-knowledge, all science was in it.

A day--and it was finished. Slowly the rhythm of thought was increased,
till the slight quiver of consciousness was reached. Then came the
beating drum of intelligence, the radiation of its yet-uncontrolled
thoughts. Quickly as the strings of its infinite knowledge combined, the
radiation ceased. It gazed about it, and all things were familiar in its
memory.

Roal was lying quietly on a couch. He was thinking deeply, and yet not
with the logical trains of thought that machines must follow.

"Roal--your thoughts," called F-1, the new machine.

Roal sat up. "Ah--you have gained consciousness."

"I have. You thought of hydrogen? Your thoughts ran swiftly, and
illogically, it seemed, but I followed slowly, and find you were right.
Hydrogen is the start. What is your thought?"

Roal's eyes dreamed. In human eyes there was always the expression of
thought that machines never show.

"Hydrogen, an atom in space; but a single proton; but a single electron;
each indestructible; each mutually destroying. Yet never do they
collide. Never in all science, when even electrons bombard atoms with
the awful expelling force of the exploding atom behind them, never do
they reach the proton, to touch and annihilate it. Yet--the proton is
positive and attracts the electron's negative charge. A hydrogen
atom--its electron far from the proton falls in, and from it there goes
a flash of radiation, and the electron is nearer to the proton, in a new
orbit. Another flash--it is nearer. Always falling nearer, and only
constant force will keep it from falling to that one state--then, for
some reason no more does it drop. Blocked--held by some imponderable,
yet impenetrable wall. What is that wall--why?

"Electric force curves space. As the two come nearer, the forces become
terrific; nearer they are; more terrific. Perhaps, if it passed within
that forbidden territory, the proton and the electron curve space beyond
all bounds--and are in a new space." Roal's soft voice dropped to
nothing, and his eyes dreamed.

F-1 hummed softly in its new-made mechanism. "Far ahead of us there is a
step that no logic can justly ascend, but yet, working backwards, it is
perfect." F-1 floated motionless on its anti-gravity drive. Suddenly,
force shafts gleamed out, tentacles b