He was already beginning to think of ways of checking his hypothesis. If, using a Schneider-deKalb, he were to draw energy at the highest rate he could manage, would he affect the local potential? Would it establish an entropy gradient? Could he reverse the process by finding a way to pump power into the Other World? Could he establish different levels at different points and thereby check for degeneration towards level, maximum entropy? Did the speed of nerve impulse propagation furnish a clue to the c of the Other Space? Could such a clue be combined with the entropy and potential investigations to give a mathematical picture of the Other Space, in terms of its constants and its age? He set about it. His untrammeled, wild speculations had produced some definite good: he'd tied down at least one line of attack on that Other Space; he'd devised a working principle for his blind man's telescope mechanism. Whatever the truth ofthe thing was, it was more than a truth; it was a complete series of new truths. It was the very complexity of that series of new truths - the truths, the characteristic laws, that were inherent properties of the Other Space, plus the new truth laws resultant from the interaction of the characteristics of the Other Space with Normal Space. No wonder Rambeau had said anything could happen! Almost anything could, in all probability, by a proper application and combination of the three sets of laws: the laws of Our Space, the laws of Other Space, and the coordinate laws of Both Spaces
But before theoreticians could begin work, new data were most desperately needed. Waldo was no theoretician, a fact he admitted left-handedly in thinking of theory as unpractical and unnecessary, time waste for him as a consulting engineer. Let the smooth apes work it out
But the consulting engineer had to find out onething: would the Schneider- deKalbs continue to function uninterruptedly as guaranteed? If not, what must be done to assure continuous function? The most difficult and the most interesting aspect of the investigation had to do with the neurological system in relation to Other Space. Neither electromagnetic instruments nor neural surgery was refined enough to do accurate work on the levels he wished to investigate
But he had waldoes
The smallest waldoes he had used up to this time were approximately half an inch across their palms - with micro-scanners to match, of course. They were much too gross for his purpose. He wished to manipulate living nerve tissue, examine its insulation and its performance in situ
He used the tiny waldoes to create tinier ones
The last stage was tiny metal blossoms hardly an eighth of an inch across. The helices in their stems, or forearms, which served them as pseudo muscles, could hardly be seen by the naked eye - but then, he used scanners
His final team of waldoes used for nerve and brain surgery varied in succeeding stages from mechanical hands nearly lifesize down to these fairy digits which could manipulate things much too small for the eye to see. They were mounted in bank to work in the same locus. Waldo controlled them all from the same primaries; he could switch from one size to another without removing his gauntlets.
The same change in circuits which brought another size of waldoes under control automatically accomplished the change in sweep of scanning to increase or decrease the magnification so that Waldo always saw before him in his stereo receiver a ‘life-size' image of his other hands
Each level of waldoes had its own surgical instruments, its own electrical equipment
Such surgery had never been seen before, but Waldo gave that aspect little thought; no one had told him that such surgery was unheard-of
He established, to his own satisfaction, the mechanism whereby short- wave radiation had produced a deterioration in human physical performance. The synapses between dendrites acted as if they were points of leakage. Nerve impulses would sometimes fail to make the jump, would leak off - to where? To Other Space, he was sure. Such leakage seemed to establish a preferred path, a canalization, whereby the condition of the victim became steadily worse. Motor action was not lost entirely, as both paths were still available, but efficiency was lost. It reminded him of a metallic electrical circuit with a partial ground
An unfortunate cat, which had become dead undergoing the experimentation, had supplied him with much of his data. The kitten had been born and raised free from exposure to power radiation. He subjected it to heavy exposure and saw it acquire a myasthenia nearly as complete as his own - while studying in minute detail what actually went on in its nerve tissues. He felt quite sentimental about it when it died
Yet, if Gramps Schneider were right, human beings need not be damaged by radiation. If they had the wit to look at it with the proper orientation, the radiation would not affect them; they might even draw power out of the Other World
That was what Grarnps Schneider had told him to do
That was what Gramps Schneider had told him to do! Gramps Schneider had told him he need not be weak! That he could be strong-Strong! STRONG! He had never thought of it. Schneider's friendly ministrations to him, his ] advice about overcoming the weakness, he had ignored, had thrown off as inconsequential. His own weakness, his own peculiarity which made him different from the smooth apes, he had regarded as a basic, implicit fact. He had accepted it as established when he was a small child, a final unquestioned factor
Naturally he had paid no attention to Schneider's words in so far as they referred to him
To be strong! To stand alone - to walk, to run! Why, he ... he could, he could go down to Earth surface without fear. He wouldn't mind the field. They said they didn't mind it; they even carried things - great, heavy things. Everybody did. They threw things
He made a sudden convulsive movement in his primary waldoes, quite unlike his normal, beautifully economical rhythm. The secondaries were oversize, as he was making a new setup. The guys tore loose, a brace plate banged against the wall. Baldur was snoozing nearby; he pricked up his ears, looked around, then turned his face to Waldo, questioning him
Waldo glared at him and the dog whined. ‘Shut up!
The dog quieted and apologized with his eyes
Automatically he looked over the damage - not much, but he would have to fix it. Strength. Why, if he were strong, he could do anything - anything! No 6 extension waldoes and some new guys- Strong! Absent-mindedly he shifted to the No 6 waldoes
Strength! He could even meet women - be stronger than they were! He could swim. He could ride. He could fly a ship - run, jump. He could handle things with his bare hands. He could even learn to dance! Strong! He would have muscles! He could break things
He could- He could- He switched to the great waldoes with hands the size of a man's body. Strong - they were strong! With one giant waldo he hauled from the stock pile a quarter-inch steel plate, held it up, and shook it. A booming rumble. He shook it again. Strong
He took it in both waldoes, bent it double. The metal buckled unevenly. Convulsively he crumpled it like wastepaper between the two huge palms. The grinding racket raised hackles on Baldur; he himself had not been aware of it. He relaxed for a moment, gasping. There was sweat on his forehead; blood throbbed in his ears. But he was not spent; he wanted something heavier~ stronger. Cutting to the adjoining storeroom he selected an L-beam twelve feet long, shoved it through to where the giant hands could reach it, and cut back to them