Dark Recess

By George O. Smith and John Betancourt

Clifford Maculay was the one man who could explain the curious shift in the universe, which was far more than the academic matter it seemed to be. But Maculay had been "cured", and was no longer interested....

There are two basic ways to treat personality difficulties. One: change the personality. Two: remove the psychic blocks which are at the root of the trouble. The first method may be simpler, in some cases, and may be accomplished without apparent harm. But what if an individual's worth to society is so entangled with his personality troubles that when you change the latter, the former disappears, too?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Apr 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667602967

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Table of Contents

DARK RECESS, by George O. Smith

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

DARK RECESS,

by George O. Smith

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2023 by Wildside Press LLC.

Originally published in Future, July 1951.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

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INTRODUCTION,

by John Betancourt

George Oliver Smith (1911–1981) was an American science fiction author. He should not be confused with the prolific George H. Smith, another American author who also published (among other things) a significant body of science fiction work.

Smith primarily wrote work set in space, including the novels Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957). However, he is remembered chiefly for two works: the Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in space, designed to relay messages between Earth and Venus, and the novel The Fourth R (also published as The Brain Machine), about an education device that creates a five-year-old super-boy, who must escape those who wish to capture him long enough to grow up an extract his revenge.

Most of the Venus Equilateral stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), a small press hardcover. In 1976, the complete series was assembled in The Complete Venus Equilateral. It’s an outstanding classic that holds up surprisingly well.

The title of The Fourth R is, of course, a play on the 3 Rs of education—reading, ’riting, and ’rithmatic—but what that fourth R is, I will leave you to discover.

Smith was most active as a writer in the Golden Age of the 1940s and 1950s, with his primary market in the 1940s being the top magazine in the field—John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction. Many authors make bad career moves, and Smith was no different—in 1949, editor Campbell’s first wife, Doña, left Campbell for Smith. Of course, that affected what had been an excellent author/editor working relationship. Smith did not appear again in Astounding until 1959, after a decade has passed. In the meantime, he published fiction in other magazines, like Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, and began writing books.

After 1960, Smith’s job began making more demands on his time, and his output dropped. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980 and remained a member of the literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov’s fictional group of mystery-solvers, the Black Widowers.

Dark Recess originally appeared in the July 1951 issue of the classic science fiction magazine Future.

CHAPTER 1

Clifford Maculay reacted instantly to the doctor’s question; he became half-angry, completely indignant.

Doctor Hanson smiled. You’re not angry at the question, he said quietly; you’re not even surprised that a man of seventy should ask such a question. What you are indignant about is that your mind denies such a need. Cliff, you’re trying to run your body with your brain.

Naturally. So what has my love life—?

You’ve got glands too, remarked Hanson. And some of them are damned important to mental balance.

Maculay sat forward on the chair, tense and alert. He was not accustomed to being browbeaten; Maculay gave the orders and other people jumped. Now that he was on the receiving end of the deal, he was preparing for the battle of wits. But Hanson had seen many such men in forty-odd years of medicine. Hanson did not see Maculay the Mind; he saw a man of thirty-eight, soft from lack of exercise, underweight from the constant burning away of nervous energy. He saw a fine physical machine being run into an early grave or a sanatorium, because the mind behind those sharp blue eyes was too damned ignorant to understand that it could not trade the worn-out body for a new model with white sidewall tires, automatic defroster, and long-playing record attachment.

Relax, said Hanson; I’m not going to argue with you.

Good. Now let’s get down to business.

Exactly what do you want?

Maculay pondered for a moment. Do you understand variable-matrix radiation mechanics?

Probably as little as you know synaptic pressure theory.

That’s the trouble. I can’t explain in detail what I want. I can only explain by analogy. Look, Doc, for eight years I’ve been experimenting with some mathematics along an entirely new field of theory. Indications are that gross matter can exceed the velocity of light under certain conditions; but in attempting to define these conditions by mathematical formulation I’ve hit a snag.

What manner of snag?

Cliff leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He was physically relaxed, now, but only Doctor Hanson could hazard a guess as to how much of this man’s metabolism went into the job of keeping that big brain in high gear.

"Physical matter cannot, of course, exceed the speed of light in universal space.