Page:Astounding Science Fiction (1950-01).djvu/20

 and an expectant hush fell over the assemblage.

After the usual preliminaries, to which no one paid the slightest attention, the chairman of the National Scientific Security Council finally got around to introducing the main speaker.

"In the brief span that this committee has been in existence, citizens from all parts of the southland have been besieging us with questions concerning this effect which has been uppermost in the thoughts of each and everyone of us during these last troubled days. Unfortunately, no funds were appropriated for the purpose of answering these questions. And yet as representatives of the people we felt in all sincerity that they could not and must not be ignored."

The burst of applause at this point forced him to halt briefly until quiet reigned again and he was able to gather himself together for another effort.

"In view of this situation, my colleagues and I, after due deliberation, have asked our distinguished speaker if in lieu of a formal address he would consent to answer a set of representative questions selected by the committee. To this request I am happy to say that our speaker has most willingly and graciously given his consent.

"And now without further ado, it is my great pleasure and privilege this evening to present to you a man whom I am sure needs no introduction from me, that renowned scientist and scholar, Dr. Karl Gustav Friedmann."

From the uproarious applause that greeted Friedmann as he stepped to the front of the platform, it might have been supposed that he had discovered another Santa Claus instead of an effect that was relentlessly extinguishing the light of the world. He shook hands with the chairman, bowed a few degrees in the general direction of the crowd, and then stood quietly waiting for the tumult to subside. The chairman nervously riffled through the cards in his hand, selected one, and peered at it through his bifocals.

"Our first qustionquestion [sic] is from a housewife in Long Beach," he announced. "She says, ‘My husband has lost his job as radio salesman on account of the Xi effect. How soon will it be over so he can go back to work again?'"

Friedmann's voice was as unemotional as if he were lecturing half a dozen sleepy students rather than a crowd of a hundred thousand that were hanging on his every word, "I think that question may be answered by reading a message from the National Bureau of Standards which was handed to me as I entered the coliseum here tonight. Here is the message: ‘Spectroscopic laboratory reports sudden marked acceleration Xi effect. Cutoff 5500 at 0000 GCT.' Now in plain language what does this mean? It means that at four o'clock this afternoon the extinction of radiation extended nearly to the 20