The Legend of Miaree

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Ahxender has prepared some figures for us, my young friends. Perhaps they will be of interest even to those among you who, according to my informants, are having difficulty in electronic theory. Although I, being merely a literature teacher, have difficulty comprehending the theory of electricity—for the life of me I don't understand how something can move without anything moving—Alaxender sports the highest marks in his classes and he assures me that there is small chance of error in his figures.

The young man of Trojan has also written something regarding a new dimension, pertaining to what is called, in the text, Bertt's cold plastic hole in space; but such theories befuddle me even more than the proven ones, so we will confine ourselves to this. According to Alaxender, the soft metal used by Bertt could be nothing other than common copper. And much is known about that metal. For example, it is a fundamental law that an electron at rest, in copper, exerts a certain force on every other electron at rest, repelling its fellows in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between them. This force is measurable; it is 8.038 x 10 to the -26 pounds.

When I first read young Alaxender's explanation of Bertt's Engine, I asked him, 'If there is such immense force there, why isn't every piece of copper blasted apart by it?' He assures me—and I am pleased to learn it, having an aversion to being penetrated by frying particles of copper—that there is a counter force, represented by a proton. A proton exactly balances an electron, very exactly indeed. If the repulsion of the protons were not exactly balanced against that of the electrons, then we could have a release of some rather impressive forces.

More figures, my young friends: We have read, in translation, the value of the force generated by the mutual repulsion of electrons in two one-tenth-of-an-inch cubes of copper placed one inch from each other. That force was six hundred billion tons. I hesitate to attempt the simple multiplication of the force if the cubes of copper had been, say, one inch to a side, much less six inches or a foot.

Alaxender assures me that, given the correctness of the translation, the force used by Bertt to drive his star ships and to destroy the Delanians could have been none other than that of the electrons in copper, somehow released by neutralizing the balancing force of the protons.

I am not qualified to comment on this. Others have commented, endlessly, before us. I understand that vast amounts of money have been spent in an effort to duplicate Bertt's discovery without success. I do not know enough about either subject to venture an opinion (I refer not only to our research, but also to Alaxender's conclusion that it was electron force which pushed the star ships.) Frankly, I don't see any reason for us

to seek such power, the blink drive being as efficient as it is, and hydrogen power being as easily produced as it is.

About LaConius' conclusion that the Q.S.S. phenomenon is explained by the legend, I make no statement beyond saying that perhaps the computer translators erred in the rendering of the title of this small volume. Could it be The Story of Miaree? Could it be The Life of Miaree? Or do we accept what literature classes have accepted for years and continue to call this book The Legend of Miaree?

If it is legend, why were the vast research projects instituted in an effort to discover Bertt'spower?

Ah, but I express an opinion, after all.

There will be no class tomorrow. You may use this time to begin your final papers on the work, we have just completed. Now, shall we break five minutes early? My favorite table in the dining hall has been usurped, of late, by a certain chemistry teacher. Today, perhaps, I can take possession before she arrives.