Being immortal, the Bryd was a very wise and
resourceful Thing—but even so, the problem of
saving Dale Stevenson was a dilly. So much
had to be done in one-fourth of a second!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories May 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The Bryd was awakened with a rude jolt. It didn't even have time fora mental yawn. Something terrible was going on in Dale Stevenson'smind, and the turmoil there made the Bryd most uncomfortable. It shookoff the lethargy of its long sleep. It knew instinctively that DaleStevenson was about to get in trouble and make his mind unsuitable forthe Bryd's occupancy.
The Bryd sighed. These humans were so unstable, so impulsive. The Brydtook a look around.
They—Dale Stevenson and he—were not on Earth. They seemed to be inspace somewhere, 5,100 miles from Earth. Well, well, so men finallywere breaking the shackles of gravitation. The Bryd became a littlemore interested.
But Dale Stevenson was reaching for a button that would fire a rocketto position the mirror and burn a path across the biggest city inEurope. Hey! what was going on here, anyway?
The Bryd had about a quarter of a second to do a lot of research. Whatwas Dale Stevenson doing up here? What had he done with himself inthe twenty-four years since the Bryd had curled up in the boy's cozyfour-year-old mind and settled down for a long nap?
The Bryd could have stayed Dale's hand for a while, but the Bryd verymuch believed in minding its own business. It didn't like to interferewith humans; that was policy. So it decided to get busy. It had aquarter of a second to find out things and decide what, if anything, todo about them. Certainly it couldn't expect to stay comfortably in amind as upset as Dale Stevenson's ... so it got busy.
The first thing to do was get oriented. The Bryd took a quick lookaround. Dale Stevenson, doctor of physics, was in charge of thissun-station, which was a man-made island in space, some three milesin diameter. The rim of the island was composed mainly of a steelframework like the rim of a wheel, with little cabins at variousintervals to house a power plant, various controls, rocket berths,repair shops, and living quarters for the sun-station's crew.
The center area of the sun-station was a giant mirror, three milesacross, made up of thin sheets of metallic sodium fastened to askeleton of wire nets. The sodium was very light in weight, and beingin airless and heatless space, was inert. Also it was highly reflective.
The whole business was kept at a point approximately 5,100 miles fromEarth, where Earth's gravitational attraction approached neutrality andwhere the entire space-station could be maintained in a given positionor moved at will with a minimum expenditure of energy.
Technically the station was owned by Night Sun, Inc., along with nearlya hundred others around Earth, and this particular station, No. 18, wasunder contract to furnish illumination at night over Paris, France, bystaying out of Earth's shadow and reflecting sunlight on Paris duringthe night.
Management of such a station involved many mathematical factors indistance, triangulation with Paris, velocity and angulation, andcontrol of the curve of the mirror. Normally this was a paraboliccurve, but it was constantly varied with other factors to produce thedesired degree of illumination.
No. 18 was under the sole control of Dale Stevenson, who had beenpsych-tested and certified by the United Nations licensing board.
That made the Bryd feel a little better. It looked as if he had made ami