| Dimensions Gerry Knight |
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George McGregor, a meteorologist, was standing on the crest of a sandy dune. How he got there, in the middle of this vast plain, no one knows. Lying in the shallow below him, half covered with sand and coated with rust, lay a sphere, approximately eight feet in diameter. George, being a curious man, scrambled down the slope to it. Out of the side of this ball, as George would have described it, an immense egg beater protruded. Gaining the top of this object, he noticed a small trap door. Glancing around, he sighted a small black button, very smooth from wear. He pressed it an instantaneously the door slid back. George knelt there in awe for a moment, for below him was a laboratory, far more advanced than any other on earth. George lowered himself into the hole with ease. An idea flashed into his head; was this a time machine? He resolved not to touch any of the vast array of buttons, screens, charts and levers, but only to look. Being careless, though, he touched one tiny red button. An intense force drove him to the floor. He lay there for minutes, his head reeling. Nearly an hour later, when he regained his senses, he climbed slowly out of the hatch. Upon reaching the outer world George received the shock of his life. The barren sand was tinted a soft green and the light blue sky was now a blood red. He clambered up the dune, expecting to see miles upon miles of sand. But he didn't. George was staring out upon the most remarkable city he had ever seen. This city was not of the twentieth century but of far hence. It was cased entirely in a bubble of glass. Protruding out of this were funnels, also of glass, through which several rockets were plying. The entir e city consisted only of seven buildings, but each of these covered about a quarter of a square mile. Three towers rose into the crown of the sphere, each of them having what appeared to be a huge tracking station on its top. George was sure he had been thrust ahead in time so he set out for the city. Upon reaching the wall, he found a passage. He pushed the button beside the door and instantly a glass tube dropped over him. Men with strange suits and with helmets over their heads walked slowly up. He was freed momentarily but then a strange pair of handcuffs were placed over his wrists. He was led to a building called the Jerratezorum, known to George as a prison. He was led to a room where he stayed overnight. This room was like a hospital with clean, white sheets, books to read and a television fixed in the wall. The following morning he was taken to a large hall. He realized right away he was at a trial; his own. The prosecuting attorney soon revealed that he was being tried for sabotage. The trial soon ended, and the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. The magistrate gave the sentence; "I, Judge Maskew, ruler of Spectra, find you guilty of sabotage and spying, and hereby sentence you to life imprisonment on a lonely, primitive world. You will be born on March twenty-ninth, nineteen thirty-one on a small world far from our solar system. This planet shall be earth, I, Judge Maskew, have spoken. |