Master of Space and Time Read Free Page B

gave Harry a detailed account of my experiences of the daybefore. He was particularly interested in the fact that when he traveled back in time, he’d only looked two inches tall to me.
    â€œSo Fred Hoyle was right,” Harry exclaimed. “Everything is shrinking!”
    â€œNothing’s shrinking, Harry. I’m the same size every day.”
    â€œThat’s what you think . But your house shrinks, your car shrinks, your wife shrinks—everything in the universe is shrinking at the same rate. That’s why the distant galaxies keep seeming farther away. I’d always wondered how to test it. But now—”
    â€œTime travel!” I exclaimed. “I get it. If everything’s smaller now than it was yesterday, then if I jump back through time to yesterday, I’m much smaller than the people there.”
    â€œThat’s it, Fletch. That’s why the time-traveling Harry you saw yesterday was so small. He was from the future. And the other way would be the opposite.”
    â€œYou mean that if we could jump something a few days forward in time it would come out seeming huge?”
    â€œYeah.” Harry beamed at me for a second. We were having fun. “You say I called the machine a blunzer?”
    â€œThat’s right. A blunzer. You said we built it and it made you master of space and time.”
    â€œBlunzer . . . I like that. Did I say when we built it? Or how?”
    â€œWe build it tomorrow, and today we get the parts. You said that if I came to see you today, you’d know what to do. The very fact that youwere able to come back from the future means that the blunzer is going to work, right?”
    â€œWell, yes. The idea of controlling space and time does happen to be something I’ve been thinking about recently. The way I see it, it’s simply a matter of increasing the value of Planck’s constant by many orders of magnitude.”
    â€œThat’s what you’ve been working on?”
    â€œAfter a fashion.” Harry smiled lopsidedly and fell silent. I realized then that he’d been unable to work without me. It had been a shame to let Nancy come between us.
    â€œHave you done any experiments?”
    â€œNo, I didn’t have the energy. This is all so strange. First I have some ideas, then the ideas decide to become real. The blunzer sends me back in time to get you to help me build the blunzer. It’s a closed causal loop. But where did it come from?”
    â€œGod, maybe. Or another dimension. You’re telling me you actually know how to build the blunzer?”
    â€œI had a dream about it last night, as a matter of fact. I dreamed that you were explaining it to me. It was a very vivid dream.” Harry stared into space, thinking. “The materials are going to cost,” he said finally. “You only brought two thousand dollars?”
    â€œIt’s all I have. I work and work and the savings never grow. It’s horrible to have a real job, Harry, they treat me just like anyone else. I’m ready to gamble everything on you.”
    â€œWell, thanks, Fletch. I’m really touched. With you helping me, the blunzer might work. Planck’s constant, you know, it’s a measure of the effect that the observer has on the universe. If I cantemporarily increase the value of Planck’s constant in my body, then the world will look more and more like I want it to.”
    â€œHere’s the beer, boys.” Antie came shuffling back from her run.
    We each opened a can. I drank deep and sighed with pleasure. “Drinking beer in a back room on a rainy Saturday. This is the life, Harry, with no women around. Nancy and Serena—”
    â€œIt’s rough, huh? Well, living alone gets pretty old, too.”
    â€œDo you have any girl friends?”
    â€œThere’s one woman I’ve been seeing. She’s a student at the Scientific Mysticism Seminary here. Kind of plain, but very