The first man to see the possibilities suggested by this announcement was the Professor of Physics. Although all the scientific discoveries had probably been made, a single great physical laboratory had been established in which experiments were conducted with a faint hope of something new being learned. The laboratory was placed near the southern end of a peninsula, the site of one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, known as Neeork, the ruins of which, buried ages before by an earthquake, were known to extend over many square miles. To the north now stood the city of Hattan, the mighty city of the world, whose well-paved streets, massive buildings, public institutions, and lofty towers extended a day’s journey to the north and west, whose wealth was fabulous, and whose sights every man in the world wanted to see at least once during his lifetime. Most of the investigations to which the laboratory was devoted had to be carried on where the temperature was the same from one year’s end to another. To bring about this result an immense vault hundreds of yards in extent had been excavated at a depth of more than a hundred feet under the ground. Here was stored what one might suppose to be every piece of apparatus that human ingenuity had invented for making physical researches, and every instrument that men could make use of.
Of course the Professor of Physics, like all the rest of the world, heard that a dark star was going to fall into the sun. His proceedings after this announcement would have excited curiosity had it not been that the thoughts of men were too much occupied with the celestial visitor to notice his doings. He proceeded to supplement his immense stock of physical apparatus by a kind of supplies never before known to form he outfit of a laboratory. These consisted of flour, fresh wheat, edibles of every kind, and a supply of the seeds of almost every plant known to Botany. The few people who noticed what he was doing gave the subject no attention, supposing that he was merely extending his experiments into the vegetable kingdom. Having got his supplies all stored away, he called his assistants around him.
“I have something to say to you, and the first condition I impose is that it must be kept an absolute secret. Those who are not willing to pledge themselves to secrecy will please retire.”