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Fantasia, v. 1, issue 1, January 1941
Page 8
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FANTASIA 8 nervous. Barton supports himself by leaning heavily on the rostrum. "The world...the plutocratic world must learn...the world must recognize our preeminence...We are the Chosen Race...We are destined to conquer and civilize all of the...Our invincible --- " John Barton blurs. His outlines grow hazy. He bulges in places. A single choking, cry rings out. John Barton is sharing space with another John Barton. Head within head, body within body, arms within arms, legs within legs. The composite becomes redly wet. There is a ripping of bright blue cloth, a snap of shiny buttons. Sound, booming and disorganized, fills the insane hall. "It would seem," the Scientist tells the Young Man, "that the first materialization -- in order of removal from the actual reversal -- occurred, literally, instantaneously. Barton and Barton occupied the identical position in time and space and after all, that seems to justify itself, because if Barton were thrown back into time, his life-track would have to terminate at the point of the reversal..." John Barton awakes. It is dark. Around him is the dense hush of a forest. Wind whispers in the tall, thick trees, and small insect sounds disturb the night. He attempts to move, but his body screams. Something is broken. He tries to think...Yes, he was speaking. A uniform...He painfully moves a hand to feel his chest...Buttons...But now...What was it, a dream? What was this? Somewhere a twig cracks. Barton looks into a moonlit clearing. Something...a man, with a bright blue uniform and mad eyes...crawling... "But how far back in time did you send him --- or them?" the Young Man asks. "Infinity, if that means anything." says the Scientist. "An infinite number of points on the rheostat; and infinite force; and for Barton, an infinite journey in infinite numbers..." John Barton splashes despairingly in a restless, lashing sea whose surface is dotted with thousands of bright blue uniforms and occupants... "The whole idea, of course, is highly illogical," observes the Young Man. "I agree with you. But you seem to overlook the fact that by reason of my success, logic is rendered fallacious..." John Barton lives for an instant before his body is consumed by raging torrents of lava that flow in mile-high tides. A million John Bartons die in heat and fuming gas while an incandescent moon glares at the steaming, quivering earth... "You see, the connotations of Barton's reversal invalidate all laws --- because if Barton is hurled back to infinity, in infinite number, he precedes in existence all else..." John Bartons by the billion puff to extinction in the maw of a bloated, catastrophic sun that has yet to give birth to planets... "Do you mean," The Young Man's face is suddenly white. "That you have --- that you have the answer to the question: 'What exploded the Primal Atom?'?" John Bartons, infinite in number, occupy infinite space, in an infinitely empty infinity... "I mean," replies the Scientist "that I have the answer to the question: 'What was the Primal Atom?'!" THE END
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FANTASIA 8 nervous. Barton supports himself by leaning heavily on the rostrum. "The world...the plutocratic world must learn...the world must recognize our preeminence...We are the Chosen Race...We are destined to conquer and civilize all of the...Our invincible --- " John Barton blurs. His outlines grow hazy. He bulges in places. A single choking, cry rings out. John Barton is sharing space with another John Barton. Head within head, body within body, arms within arms, legs within legs. The composite becomes redly wet. There is a ripping of bright blue cloth, a snap of shiny buttons. Sound, booming and disorganized, fills the insane hall. "It would seem," the Scientist tells the Young Man, "that the first materialization -- in order of removal from the actual reversal -- occurred, literally, instantaneously. Barton and Barton occupied the identical position in time and space and after all, that seems to justify itself, because if Barton were thrown back into time, his life-track would have to terminate at the point of the reversal..." John Barton awakes. It is dark. Around him is the dense hush of a forest. Wind whispers in the tall, thick trees, and small insect sounds disturb the night. He attempts to move, but his body screams. Something is broken. He tries to think...Yes, he was speaking. A uniform...He painfully moves a hand to feel his chest...Buttons...But now...What was it, a dream? What was this? Somewhere a twig cracks. Barton looks into a moonlit clearing. Something...a man, with a bright blue uniform and mad eyes...crawling... "But how far back in time did you send him --- or them?" the Young Man asks. "Infinity, if that means anything." says the Scientist. "An infinite number of points on the rheostat; and infinite force; and for Barton, an infinite journey in infinite numbers..." John Barton splashes despairingly in a restless, lashing sea whose surface is dotted with thousands of bright blue uniforms and occupants... "The whole idea, of course, is highly illogical," observes the Young Man. "I agree with you. But you seem to overlook the fact that by reason of my success, logic is rendered fallacious..." John Barton lives for an instant before his body is consumed by raging torrents of lava that flow in mile-high tides. A million John Bartons die in heat and fuming gas while an incandescent moon glares at the steaming, quivering earth... "You see, the connotations of Barton's reversal invalidate all laws --- because if Barton is hurled back to infinity, in infinite number, he precedes in existence all else..." John Bartons by the billion puff to extinction in the maw of a bloated, catastrophic sun that has yet to give birth to planets... "Do you mean," The Young Man's face is suddenly white. "That you have --- that you have the answer to the question: 'What exploded the Primal Atom?'?" John Bartons, infinite in number, occupy infinite space, in an infinitely empty infinity... "I mean," replies the Scientist "that I have the answer to the question: 'What was the Primal Atom?'!" THE END
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