There were two distinct gasps of the motor. Half of the guinea pig disappeared with the first gasp and the remaining half disappeared with the second.
Where the tube had been a second before, there was nothing now.
"He's on Proxima Centaur now," Trella said. "I managed to equip a laboratory there about two years ago. It was through that laboratory that Keeshwar learned of my experiments in translation. My men on Proxima will send back the guinea pig in a few minutes."
We sat down and waited. Trella explained the machine, although at the time the explanation was a little over my head. The actual translation was accomplished by the pushing of one motor and the pulling of another across an extra-dimensional space. Half of the object to be translated was hurled across space by the pushing of the first motor. The second motor, which operated automatically, began pulling the other half, including the first motor, after it as soon as it materialized at the end of the journey.
By means of radio signals the exact location of every explored planet had been determined. It was therefore only a matter of mathematical calculation to find the target. There was some risk, of course, if a mathematical error were made in computing the range but considering the risks involved in ordinary methods of interstellar flight everything was in favor of the translator.
"The whole secret of the invention lies in locating the proper Now in space-time," Trella explained.
"The proper Now?" I asked.
"Of course," she said, "the Now we experience on earth is not the same Now that exists simultaneously on Rihlon, the second planet of Proxima Centaur. We are dealing with space-time, Fred. Time is a dimension, it stretches like a line through space. If we connect the Now of the present with the Now of ten minutes ago, we have a straight line, just as we would have a straight line if we connected any two points in the universe. The Now of the present and the Now ten minutes ago on Rihlon also would be a straight line, but it would not be the same straight line."
"But it would be parallel!" I exclaimed, beginning to see her point.
"Oh, so you do know something about mathematics?"