Fantastic Voyage - By Isaac Asimov Page 0,13

was done in every college in the land. Do you remember any of the objections?"

"I think so. If you're going to reduce size you can do it in one of two ways. You can push the individual atoms of an object closer together; or you can discard a certain proportion of the atoms altogether. To push the atoms together against the inter-atomic repulsive forces would take extraordinary pressures. The pressures at the center of Jupiter would be insufficient to compress a man to the size of a mouse. Am I right so far?"

"You are luminous as the day."

"And even if you managed it, the pressure would kill anything alive. Aside from that, an object reduced in size by pushing atoms together would retain all its original mass, and an object the size of a mouse with the mass of a man would be difficult to handle."

"Amazing, Mr. Grant. You must have amused your girlfriends for many hours with this romantic talk. And the other method?"

"The other method is to remove atoms in careful ratio so that the mass and size of an object decreases while the relationship of the parts remains constant. Only if you reduce a man to the size of a mouse you can keep only one atom out of maybe seventy thousand. If you do that to the brain, what is left is scarcely more complicated than the brain of a mouse in the first place. Besides, how do you re-expand the object, as the miniaturizing physicists claimed to be able to do? How do you get the atoms back and put them in their right places?"

"Quite so, Mr. Grant. But then how did some reputable physicists come to think that miniaturization was practical?"

"I don't know, doctor, but you don't hear of it any more."

"Partly because the colleges did such a careful job-under orders-of knocking it on the head. The technique went underground both here and on the Other Side. Literally. Here. Underground." It was almost with passion that Michaels tapped the desk before him. "And we must maintain special courses in miniaturization techniques for graduate physicists who can learn it nowhere else-except in analogous schools on the Other Side. Miniaturization is quite possible, but by neither method you have described. Have you ever seen a photograph enlarged, Mr. Grant? Or reduced to microfilm size?"

"Of course."

"Without theory, then, I tell you that the same process can be used on three-dimensional objects; even on a man. We are miniaturized, not as literal objects, but as images; as three-dimensional images manipulated from outside the universe of space-time."

Grant smiled. "Now, teacher, those are just words."

"Yes, but you don't want theory, do you? What physicists discovered ten years ago was the utilization of hyper-space; a space, that is, of more than the three ordinary spatial dimensions. The concept is beyond grasping; the mathematics are almost beyond grasp; but the funny part is that it can be done. Objects can be miniaturized. We nether get rid of atoms nor push them together. We reduce the size of the atoms, too; we reduce everything; and the mass decreases automatically. When we wish, we restore the size."

"You sound serious," said Grant. "Are you telling me that we can really reduce a man to the size of a mouse?"

"In principle we can reduce a man to the size of a bacterium, of a virus, of an atom. There is no theoretical limit to the amount of miniaturization. We can shrink an army with all its men and equipment to a size that will fit in a match-box. Ideally, we could then ship that match-box where it is needed and put the army into business after restoring it to full size. You see the significance?"

Grant said, "And the Other Side can do it, too, I take it?"

"We're certain they can. -But come, Grant, matters are progressing at full speed and our time is limited. Come with me."

It was "come with me" here and "come with me" there. Since Grant had awakened that morning, he had not been allowed to remain in one place for longer than fifteen minutes. It annoyed him and yet there seemed nothing he could do about it. Was it a deliberate attempt to keep him from having time enough to think? What were they preparing to spring on him?

He and Michaels were in the scooter now, Michaels handling it like a veteran.

"If both We and They have it, we neutralize each other," said Grant.

"Yes, but in addition," said Michaels, "it does neither