That a planetoid of solid gold might exist in the Solar System is not beyond scientific possibility, insofar that our own Earth is basic nickel-iron, so might another world - of smaller size perhaps - be of basic god. Such a world is ZK/70, a planetoid in the region of the Asteroidal Belt. Why, when he discovered the golden planetoid, did not Professor Brailsford bring back with him enough of the precious metal or gold dust to make himself financial dictator of the Earth? Why? That is the question. Instead, he dies without explaining and leaves his space machine and the course to ZK/70 to his daughter, step-daughter and their respective partners. Out to ZK/70 travel the intrepid quartet, each one quite sure what will be one with unlimited gold once they have their hands on it...
Release date:
September 30, 2015
Publisher:
Gateway
Print pages:
128
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There was no sound in the lawyer’s big private office beyond the deep breathing of that legal gentleman himself. Anybody outside the office, not knowing the circumstances, would have found it impossible to realise that there were four other people present beside the lawyer himself—but they were so concentrated upon him that they might have been graven images. For this was a most vital moment—the reading of a very important last will and testament.
Professor Amos Brailsford had come to the sudden termination of his brilliant scientific career, and there were very few outside the closely knit scientific circle in which he had moved who knew how he had spent his time in the last few years. But what had been known was that he had been a man of considerable wealth, a great deal of brilliance, and the possessor of scientific equipment well beyond the range of existing inventions. Though what his actual preoccupation had been up to the time of his death was a mystery. Even to Nancy Brailsford, his daughter, who was now present in the office.
Nancy, a slim, matter-of-fact blonde of twenty-five, although she had lived in the same great house as her father, had very rarely seen him, especially during the last eighteen months. Beside her in the office there sat Isobelle Sutton, her step-sister, composed, dark-headed, waiting with introspective calm for the lawyer to commence the preliminaries.
At the opposite side of the desk were Alec Carter, a rising young constructional engineer and fiancé of Nancy; and next to him Clifford Ashton—tall, well-groomed, never for an instant allowing his emotions to find expression either upon his face or in his movements.
Then presently the lawyer looked up quickly and laid the will on the desk before him.
“I take it,” he said, glancing at Isobelle and Nancy in turn, “that neither of you two young ladies had much knowledge of what Professor Brailsford did with his time during the eighteen months leading up to his death?”
“No idea at all,” Nancy replied, whilst Isobelle contented herself with a negative shake of her dark head. “I hardly saw my father at all in the last two years, and he was not the kind of man who ever explained his movements. Most of the time he was either in the big laboratory which he had built on to the house, or else he was out of town altogether, or even abroad, upon scientific pursuits or lectures. When we did finally see him it was a fortnight ago …” Nancy’s voice broke a little, and she averted her face. “He seemed to be in reasonably good health, except for the fact that he appeared to be exceptionally tired and very much in need of a rest. He did not explain how he had been occupying himself, but from one or two hints that he allowed to drop to Isobelle and I, we gathered that he had been making a most important exploration somewhere. Only he never said where. And before there was any opportunity for him to explain himself he died suddenly of heart failure.”
The lawyer nodded slowly, a peculiarly rapid smile about his sunken mouth.
“It would surprise you two young ladies to know, and also you two gentlemen, that Professor Brailsford will go down in scientific history as being the first man to leave the Earth and return to it.”
Alec Carter gave a start and stared blankly. He was young, good-looking, clean-shaven, with the dark blue eyes of both a thinker and a doer.
“D’you mean to say that he actually conquered interplanetary space?”
“That is exactly what I mean,” the lawyer conceded.
“But this is incredible,” Nancy exclaimed. “If he accomplished such a marvellous thing, why in the world did he have to keep it to himself?”
“For the very obvious reason, Miss Brailsford, that there are avaricious men and women—in all quarters of the world—who would have put your father’s life in extreme jeopardy had they known what he did.”
“Just what did he know?” Clifford Ashton asked quietly, his dark eyes pinning the lawyer steadily.
The lawyer cleared his throat. “Perhaps it will be more to the point if I read you his will, omitting the legal preamble and coming straight to the point. I would ask you to give your most careful attention to this….”
“ ‘I wish it to be known to my daughter Nancy Brailsford and my step-daughter, Isobelle Sutton, together with Clifford Ashton and Alexander Carter that I, Amos Brailsford, am the only man on this planet Earth who has ventured into outer space, not for what might be called the somewhat conventional purpose of visiting the Moon or Mars or Venus, but to visit a planetoid which I have named ZK/70. This planetoid is invisible telescopically from the surface of the Earth and follows a somewhat erratic orbit between Mars, the outermost of the inner planets, and Jupiter the innermost of the outer planets. ZK/70 is a small, twilit planetoid belonging I believe, to the great Asteroidial belt which exists between Mars and Jupiter. I discovered its presence and approximate dimensions purely by the process of mathematics, for I noticed certain perturbations in different quarters of the asteroids which could only be explained by the gravity of a fairly large body. Thus it was by mathematical computation that I determined the approximate position of ZK/70 and arrived at the conclusion that it must be a world of something like fifteen hundred miles in diameter, and because of its smallness, and its distance from the sun, together with the fact that its surface has very little light reflecting quality it had escaped astronomical observation. Certainly one or two astronomers in the past have reported the presence of such a body, but have never been sufficiently confident about it to be able to state its location precisely. Added to this discovery there came shortly afterwards the perfecting of a space projectile, probably the first guided machine in scientific history. I claim no particular credit for this since I created the space projectile upon the various ideas of experts before me, all of which experts had missed some vital point which I, purely by the process of scientific inference, was able to supply. The result was that I built the first atomic power space machine. To have advertised the fact at this point would not have been prudent, since it seemed to me to be a much better plan to test the machine first. What more natural then that I decided to set out for ZK/70?
“ ‘To reach ZK/70 took me nearly three weeks moving at very high velocity. I do not propose to explain all the technical details of the landing and my subsequent exploration, but I will say this; planetoid ZK/70 has a breathable air, about the same density as Earth, and more or less in the same composition, and it also has a sub-tropical temperature, not by reason of its proximity to the sun, but by reason of extreme internal volcanic warmth which has not yet died away. Indeed as far as heat from the sun was concerned I found it practically negligible, since planetoid ZK/70 is so far away from the sun that daylight on this tiny little world is little better than full moonlight on Earth. This also means that the stars shine perpetually both by night and by day. Night on planetoid ZK/70 is a rather grim business, since there is nothing but a multitude of stars to light this strange little world, and one has the feeling of being on the rim of Eternity. Day is little better, the sun merely appearing as an extra brilliant star amongst the inconceivable myriads of stars dusted over the eternally cloudless sky.
“ ‘But to come now to the essentially vital points—ZK/70 is a planetoid of gold! What first appeared to me to be desert of endless sand I discovered afterwards to be nothing more than gold dust. This fact is by no means difficult to understand for that an entire world made of gold can exist is entirely as logical as there being a planet with a core made up entirely of nickel iron, as in the case of our own Earth. My analysis showed that ZK/70 has a core of molten gold, whilst the upper stratifications are made up of solid gold rocks. The upper surface, therefore, has been eroded down into dust, as in the case of our earth where the soil is comprised of eroded rocks, but in the case of ZK/70 the eroded gold rocks have of course become gold dust. Therefore planetoid ZK/70 is a world of inconceivable wealth cloaked in endless deserts of priceless yellow dust.
“ ‘To my daughter, Nancy, I bequeath this space projectile and all that it contains together with the formulae and specifications belonging thereto. Whilst I am aware that my daughter is not scientific enough to understand the workings of the machine I feel that her fiancé Alexander Carter will readily grasp the details and method of controlling the machine through space. In my laboratory in the steel drawer marked ZK/70 will be found all the necessary cosmic charts for reaching this planetoid. I leave it to my daughter Nancy and her fiancé, Alexander Carter, to decide whether or not they will avail themselves of the possibilities of this space projectile to visit this planetoid as I did. I also leave it open for my step-daughter, Isobelle Sutton, to accompany my daughter and Alexander Carter on their journey; nor have I any objection should Clifford Ashton, the fiancé of my step-daughter, wish to be present on the voyage. Beyond this particular statement all my bequeathments, my financial resources and the residue of my estate at the time of my death I bequeath to my daughter Nancy with certain disposals to my step-daughter as underlined hereunder….’ ”
The lawyer looked up and studied the four faces. At this particular moment the two girls were looking at their respective fiancés, then they turned to the lawyer as he coughed primly.
“There,” he said, “you have the details. If you have any particular question to ask I will do my best to answer it.”
“I have one question anyway,” Nancy exclaimed. “Father here talks of a journey into space to this mysterious planetoid, ZK/70, and then refers to the fact that it is made of solid gold. If that be so, and it is entirely covered with gold dust, why in the world did he not bring some gold dust back with him?”
The lawyer shrugged. “I am a legal man, Miss Brailsford, and not a scientist. I cannot explain why your father took the particular action that he did, or why after visiting a planet fabulously wealthy beyond the dream of avarice, he did not avail himself of the colossal opportunity that he had in his hands.”
Alec Carter gave a sharp glance. “Are we sure that he didn’t bring back any gold dust?”
“Well I never saw any,” Nancy told him. “And I’m quite sure I didn’t,” Isobelle added. “It surely would have been mentioned if he had.”
“You may take it from me,” the lawyer said quietly, “that Professor Brailsford did not bring back any gold dust with him. I handled . . .
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