Trouble Times Two
By GEORGE O. SMITH
Illustrated by Raymond
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Astounding Science-Fiction December 1945.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Thomas Lionel Ph.D., M.M. bounded out of bed with a cheerful bit ofoff-tune song. He glanced at the calendar and then the clock and hegrinned because life was just too good to be true.
Everything was according to plan. He'd won his first battle. Up tonow it had been touch and go; at last he had established his rightto co-occupy the mind along with the engineer. No longer could theengineer claim that he was an expensive detriment. He had forcedthe engineer into agreeing that his offering, though not directlyproductive, was a causative factor in the development of success. Thento top it all, he retained enough technology to be a necessary item. Hemust be permitted to remain if only for a source of information.
The engineer's trap had been excellent. But the trap had turned andcaught the engineer. Those reams of data on the poltergeist effect hadbeen the basis for an entirely new science that only a real physicistcould appreciate—and no engineer could hope to thread his way throughthem without a research physicist's assistance.
He stood over the chessboard in the living room for a few minutes.The engineer was not making any great moves. Therefore the physicistthought that he might best consolidate his position. He castled to thequeen's side, burying his king behind a bulwark of defenses that woulddefy a master chess player to penetrate in less than ten or fifteenmoves.
During breakfast, he perused a thin volume of recent publication. Hedid not entirely agree with the theories presented; after all, the bookhad been written for the express purpose of getting reader's viewpointsand Thomas knew it. In fact, the book was not too interesting to Thomasbut he knew that the engineer would fume, fret, and howl at the ideaof having a well-thumbed volume of "Theory of Multi-Resonant WaveGuides" in the library.
Thomas wouldn't look at the engineer's volume, laying on the tableopposite. It was too un-physical. It was un-erudite. It was "BasicTheory in Micro-Wave Transmission" and the edges of the pages wereloaded with application formulas, diagrams, and working sketches.
He was near the end of breakfast when the glint of reflected sunshinearrowed through the window and caught his eye. He looked, and wonderedwho was landing on his lawn in a helicopter.
Then he did a double take.
"Helicopter" stemmed from Greek, the "helix" or screw plus the "opter"a machine. This contrivance did not. It was not operated with airscrews.
It looked like a three-wheeled coupé. It looked like the industrialdesigner's dream of the Plan For Tomorrow, excepting those threewheels. The Plan For Tomorrow should, by all rights, have four wheels.And, if the thing is going to fly, it should have some sort of overheadvanes, or wings, or engines, or jets, or even a skyhook. But there itwas, coming down as light as a feather to make a neat landing on theback lawn.
By the time the door was open, and the passenger stepped to the ground,Thomas was standing before the little sky car, looking somewhat dazedat the name:
POLTERGEIST
"Like a dream," said the driver of the sky car.
"It should," said Thomas, covering his ignorance with monosyllabicagreement.
"Handles well, too. I th