Master's in English. He has written two novels and three collections of poems under various pen names. At the time of Duvall's death, he was working on the libretto of an opera. He has had no technical training, unless you want to count a year of high school general science. So he wasn't too much help in explaining how Duvall's instrument works.

"And, just to make matters more juicy, Duvall kept no notes. He had total recall and a childlike fear of putting anything into writing that had not been experimentally verified."

"And this machine, how is it supposed to work?"

Garvers got up and began to pace. "According to Busch, Duvall devised the instrument after stumbling into an entirely new branch of physics.

"This device of Duvall's is a special case of a new theory of matter and energy. Matter is made up of subnuclear particles--electrons, protons and the like. However, Duvall said that these particles are in turn made up of much smaller particles grouped together in aggregate clouds. The size ratio of these particles to protons is somewhat like the ratio of an individual proton to a large star. They seem to be composed of tiny clots of energy from a fantastically complex energy system, in which electromagnetism is but a small part. Each energy-segment is represented by a different facet of each particle, and the arrangement of the individual particles to each other determines what super-particle they will form, such as an electron. Duvall called these sub-particles 'lems'."

Busch says he was told that a field of a special nature could be generated so as to make the individual lems in the particles of matter rotate in a special way that would introduce a 'polarization field', as Duvall called it. This field seems to be connected somehow with gravity, but Busch wasn't told how.

"The upshot is that matter in the _initial_ presence of the field is affected so that it is able to pass through ordinary matter--"

"Hold on," interrupted Max. "If a device can do that, then the user would immediately fall towards the center of the Earth.""Just _you_ hold on. You didn't let me finish. A single plane of atoms,
at the base of the treated object is the point of contact. It remains
partially unaffected because it is closest to the 'gravetostatic field
center', which I guess is the Earth's center of attraction. This plane
of 'semi-treated' atoms can be forced through an object, if it is moved
horizontally, but its 'untreated' aspect prevents the 

 Prev. P 3/6 next