At that time he had still been pretending allegiance with his companions. Which did not alter the fact that there might be truth to his claim. The Earthmen, born of a contracted planet, might be a hundred, a thousand times smaller than the enemy whose homeland they were approaching. Appraising the size of Magog from this distance, Gary could not tell. Size is relative, and in this Great Outer Universe there was no commensurable object by which the spacefarers might judge their own stature.
But Dr. Kang disabused him of this thought the moment Gary ventured it.
"No, no my friend. You need entertain no fears on that account. Just as the Magogean, Borisu was similar in size to us on Earth, so on Magog will our height correspond to that of the natives."
"But if we come from a planet which has been dwindling for untold years—"
"That does not matter, my boy. You forget, we are now in the real or 'static' universe. Moreover we came here through a space warp, traveling with a speed which exceeds that of light. Elementary astrophysics will tell you that any object exceeding the speed of light attains infinite mass. Therefore we may safely assume that during our period of translation from the inner to the outer universe the Liberty and all of us aboard the ship expanded to a size comparable to this universe which now surrounds us."
"Expanded?" grunted Lark O'Day. "But I don't feel any different."
"Naturally not. For you are as perfectly attuned to this greater universe as you were formerly to our own contracted solar system."
"But," demurred Gary, "Anjers—I mean Borisu—himself said—"
Dr. Kang smiled quietly. "Borisu made several paradoxical remarks. He also showed an appalling lack of comprehension of the hypatomic drive. Moreover, on several occasions he failed rather pitifully to accomplish a mission he had every opportunity of achieving.
"All of which leads me to believe, my friend, that—his boasting to the contrary—he's not so brilliant a genius as he believes himself. Nor is his race so scientifically advanced as he considers it. In at least several respects we have already discovered their knowledge to be inferior to ours. Let us hope we can maintain our superiority, and bring about the end we desire."