Islands of Space | Page 5

abandoned her rivers as trade routes; they
had been covered solidly by steel decks which were used as public
landing fields and ground car routes. Around them loomed titanic
structures of glistening colored tile. The sunlight reflected brilliantly
from them, and the contrasting colors of the buildings seemed to blend
together into a great, multicolored painting.
The darting planes, the traffic of commerce down between the great
buildings, and the pleasure cars above, combined to give a series of
changing, darting shadows that wove a flickering pattern over the city.
The long lines of ships coming in from Chicago, London, Buenos Aires
and San Francisco, and the constant flow from across the Pole--from
Russia, India, and China, were like mighty black serpents that wound
their way into the city.

Morey cut into a Northbound traffic level, moved into the high-speed
lane, and eased in on the accelerator. He held to the traffic pattern for
two hundred and fifty miles, until he was well past Boston, then he
turned at the first break and fired the ship toward their goal in Vermont.
Less than forty-five minutes since they had left New York, Morey was
dropping the car toward the little mountain lake that offered them a
place for seclusion. Gently, he let the ship glide smoothly into the shed
where the first molecular motion ship had been built. Arcot jumped out,
saying:
"We're here--unload and get going. I think a swim and some sleep is in
order before we start work on this ship. We can begin tomorrow." He
looked approvingly at the clear blue water of the little lake.
Wade climbed out and pushed Arcot to one side. "All right, out of the
way, then, little one, and let a man get going." He headed for the house
with the briefcases.
Arcot was six feet two and weighed close to two hundred, but Wade
was another two inches taller and weighed a good fifty pounds more.
His arms and chest were built on the same general plan as those of a
gorilla. He had good reason to call Arcot little.
Morey, though still taller, was not as heavily formed, and weighed only
a few pounds more than Arcot, while Fuller was a bit smaller than
Arcot.
Due to several factors, the size of the average human being had been
steadily increasing for several centuries. Only Wade would have been
considered a "big" man by the average person, for the average man was
over six feet tall.
They relaxed most of the afternoon, swimming and indulging in a few
wrestling matches. At wrestling, Wade consistently proved himself not
only built like a gorilla but muscled like one; but Arcot proved that
skill was not without merit several times, for he had found that if he
could make the match last more than two minutes, Wade's huge

muscles would find an insufficient oxygen supply and tire quickly.
That evening, after dinner, Morey engaged Wade in a fierce battle of
chess, with Fuller as an interested spectator. Arcot, too, was watching,
but he was saying nothing.
After several minutes of uneventful play, Morey stopped suddenly and
glared at the board. "Now why'd I make that move? I intended to move
my queen over there to check your king on the red diagonal."
"Yeah," replied Wade gloomily, "that's what I wanted you to do. I had a
sure checkmate in three moves."
Arcot smiled quietly.
They continued play for several moves, then it was Wade who
remarked that something seemed to be influencing his play.
"I had intended to trade queens. I'm glad I didn't, though; I think this
leaves me in a better position."
"It sure does," agreed Morey. "I was due to clean up on the queen trade.
You surprised me, too; you usually go in for trades. I'm afraid my
position is hopeless now."
It was. In the next ten moves, Wade spotted the weak points in every
attack Morey made; the attack crumbled disastrously and white was
forced to resign, his king in a hopeless position.
Wade rubbed his chin. "You know, Morey, I seemed to know exactly
why you made every move, and I saw every possibility involved."
"Yeah--so I noticed," said Morey with a grin.
"Come on, Morey, let's try a game," said Fuller, sliding into the chair
Wade had vacated.
Although ordinarily equally matched with Fuller, Morey again went
down to disastrous defeat in an amazingly short time. It almost seemed

as if Fuller could anticipate every move.
"Brother, am I off form today," he said, rising from the table. "Come on,
Arcot--let's see you try Wade."
Arcot sat down, and although he had never played chess as extensively
as the others, he proceeded to clean Wade out lock, stock, and barrel.
"Now what's come over you?" asked Morey in