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Systems Architecting
Systems Architecting
Methods and Examples

Authored by Howard Eisner

CRC Press
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© 2020 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-­f ree paper
International Standard Book Number-­13 978-0-367-34592-1 (Paperback)
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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Eisner, Howard, 1935– author.
Title: Systems architecting : methods and examples / by Howard Eisner.
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book
provides a new approach to systems architecting, not previously
available. The book provides a compact innovative procedure for
architecting any type of system. “Systems Architecting: Methods and
Examples” describes a method of system architecting that is believed to
be a substantial improvement over “methods” previously covered in other
systems architecting books. With the book’s relatively straightforward
approach, it shows how to architect systems in a way that both
developers and clients/customers can readily understand. It uses one of
the essential principles suggested by Rechtin and Maier, namely,
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. Systems engineers, as well as students
taking systems engineering courses will find this book of interest”–
Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019023659 (print) | LCCN 2019023660 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367345921 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367347666 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780429327810 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Systems engineering. | System design.
Classification: LCC TA168 .E3873 2019 (print) | LCC TA168 (ebook) |
DDC 620/.0042--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023659
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 Dedication
This book is dedicated, first, to Eberhardt Rechtin, who pioneered
the investigation of architecting systems with his book on “Systems
Architecting” and his unique way of exploring and thinking about
architecting. Second, a dedication is deserved by Andy Sage, who
contributed mightily to the overall field of systems engineering,
which contains as a subset the matter of systems architecting.
Moving to a more personal level, I dedicate the book to my hundreds
(possibly thousands) of Master’s and Doctoral students during
my 24 years of teaching at The George Washington University.
A very large percentage of them were subject to the architecting
methods devised by the author and described herein, and appeared
to happily follow the suggestions and procedures set forth.
Even more personal dedications are offered to my wife, June
Linowitz, who knows how to “architect art,” in very creative
ways. Further dedications are suggested for my children
Oren David Eisner and Susan Rachel Eisner Lee, and their
children Ben, Gabriel, Jacob, Rebecca, and Zachary.
Contents
Foreword������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix
Preface����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
Author Biography����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii
Other Books by the Author���������������������������������������������������������������������������xv

Chapter 1 Background���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1

Chapter 2 Purpose and Features����������������������������������������������������������������� 7

Chapter 3 What is an Architecture?��������������������������������������������������������� 13

Chapter 4 Evaluation of Alternatives������������������������������������������������������ 19

Chapter 5 Architecting a House��������������������������������������������������������������� 25

Chapter 6 Architecting an Automobile��������������������������������������������������� 31

Chapter 7 Commentary: A Preferred Architecture������������������������������ 37

Chapter 8 Descriptions, Views, and Tradeoffs�������������������������������������� 43

Chapter 9 DoDAF and Other Frameworks��������������������������������������������� 49

Chapter 10 Software�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55

Chapter 11 Cost Estimation������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61

Chapter 12 Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 67

Appendix A Group Architecting�������������������������������������������������������������� 73

Appendix B Functional Decomposition�������������������������������������������������� 77
Appendix C Special Topics������������������������������������������������������������������������ 81

Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 89

vii
Foreword
Systems architecting is a quite important part of a set of activities known as
systems engineering. The International Council on Systems Engineering
(INCOSE) has several definitions of systems engineering, one of which
is [1]: “Systems engineering is an iterative process of top-­down synthesis,
development, and operation of a real-­world system that satisfies, in a near
optimal manner, the full range of requirements for the system”. The set of
elements of systems engineering might well be considered from the list
below [2]:

1. Needs/Goals/Objectives 16. Integrated Logistics Support

2. Mission Engineering 17. Reliability, Maintainability
3. Requirements Analysis/ and Availability (RMA)
Allocation 18. Integration
4. Functional Analysis/ 19. Verification and Validation
Decomposition 20. Test and Evaluation
5. Architecture Design/ 21. Quality Assurance and
Synthesis Management
6. Alternatives Analysis/ 22. Configuration Management
Evaluation 23. Specialty Engineering
7. Technical Performance 24. Preplanned Product
Measurement Improvement
8. Life-­Cycle Costing 25. Training
9. Risk Analysis 26. Production and Deployment
10. Concurrent Engineering 27. Operations and
11. Specification Development Maintenance
12. Hardware/Software/ 28. Operations Evaluation
Human Development 29. System Disposal
13. Interface Control 30. Systems Engineering
14. Computer Tool Management
Evaluation and Utilization
15. Technical Data
Management and
Documentation

ix
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xForeword

Although this is a long and formidable list, the architecture design and
synthesis stands out as particularly critical since it establishes the basic
structure of the system. It is that element that this book addresses.

References
1. “Systems Engineering Handbook,” INCOSE, Version 3.2.1, January 2011.
2. Eisner, H., Essentials of Project and Systems Engineering Management, 3rd
Edition, John Wiley, 2008.
Preface

A System’s Basic Structure is its

Architecture, and its Architecture
is its Essential Framework
This book might be considered a follow-­on to two breakthrough books
and a massive investment by the government. The two books are Rechtin’s
Systems Architecting, published by Prentice-­ Hall in 1991, and Rechtin
and Maier’s The Art of Systems Architecting, published by the CRC Press
in 1997. The massive investment was undertaken by the Department of
Defense (DOD) when they discovered the need for a system architec-
ture and set out to define an architectural framework, starting with the
C3ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance,
and Reconnaissance) domain and community. These books and the DoD
investment have proven to be extremely valuable, and very important in
terms of the overall field of system architecting. As suggested, they repre-
sent points of departure for this treatise, which moves forward, but per-
haps in a slightly different direction.
There are huge numbers of information technology (IT) systems
deployed in the industrial, defense, and academic sectors, each of which
needs to be designed, developed, and operated. A key element of the
design phase is called preliminary design or system architecting. Each
and every system needs an architecture, placing this system element in a
critical position. These systems also can be recognized by their functional
decomposition, which has the following components:

1. Input
2. Output
3. Processing
4. Storage, and
5. Security.

xi
xiiPreface

Each of these systems has various sub-­components that need to be chosen

for each and every implementation.
Back in 1995, the DoD formally recognized that it needed a common
approach to architecting these systems within its purview. This led to
the so-­called DoD Architectural Framework (DoDAF ) approach, which
has been strong and constant since then and over the years. This was a
wise step despite the fact (according to this author) that the DoDAF has a
few wrinkles that need to be noted and accounted for. This book presents
a method of architecting that can be considered complementary to the
DoDAF approach and also one that provides an alternative basis in logic.
The four-­step architecting process defined here is considered to be
another move forward in the complex domain of systems architecting.
The author hopes that it will be used and tested by the community in the
years to come.
Howard Eisner
Bethesda, Maryland
Author Biography
Howard Eisner spent 30 years in industry and 24 years in academia. In the
former, he was a working engineer, manager, executive (at ORI, Inc. and
the Atlantic Research Corporation), and president of two high-­tech com-
panies (Intercon Systems and the Atlantic Research Services Company).
In academia, he was a professor of engineering management and a dis-
tinguished research professor in the engineering school at The George
Washington University (GWU). At GWU, he taught courses in systems
engineering, technical enterprises, project management, modulation and
noise, and information theory.
He has written nine books that relate to engineering, systems, and
management. He has also given lectures, tutorials, and presentations to
professional societies (such as INCOSE – International Council on Systems
Engineering), government agencies, and the Osher Lifelong Learning
Institute (OLLI).
In 1994, he was given the outstanding achievement award from the
GWU Engineering Alumni.
Dr. Eisner is a life fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers) and a fellow of INCOSE and the New York Academy
of Sciences. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, and
Omega Rho, various honor/research societies. He received a Bachelor’s
degree (BEE) from the City College of New York (1957), an MS degree in
electrical engineering from Columbia University (1958), and a Doctor of
Science (DSc) degree from the GWU (1966).
Since 2013, he has served as professor emeritus of engineering man-
agement and a distinguished research professor at the GWU. As such, he
has continued to explore advanced topics in engineering, systems, and
management.

xiii
Other Books by the Author
Computer-­Aided Systems Engineering

Reengineering Yourself and Your Company

Managing Complex Systems – Thinking Outside the Box

Essentials of Project and Systems Engineering Management

Systems Engineering – Building Successful Systems

Topics in Systems

Thinking – A Guide to Systems Engineering Problem-­Solving

xv
chapter one

Background
The basic structure of a system is, by definition, its architecture. In this
book, we describe a procedure for architecting a system. This procedure
can be applied rapidly, is definitive, unambiguous, and critical to the pro-
cess of preliminary system design.
For purposes of this treatise, there are two types of architects and
two corresponding types of architecting processes. The first is the rel-
atively widespread field pertaining to the architecting of buildings of
various types. In this field we will see the prominent names and cre-
ations of the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, I. M. Pei, and
Mies van der Rohe. This type of architecting is distinctly not what this
book is about.
The subject of this book is the other type of architecting, that which
pertains to building systems. A short list of types of these systems includes:

• Defense systems
• Health systems
• Information systems
• Transportation systems
• Security systems
• Communication systems
• Human resource systems, and
• Space systems.

The body of knowledge that relates to the design, construction, and opera-
tion of such systems is generally recognized as systems engineering. This
field has some 30 elements [1 – Chapter 7], one of which is system archi-
tecting. Some practitioners equate system architecting with preliminary
design, and we accept this notion as the focus of this book which answers
the question – what is the specific and recommended process by which
one architects a system?

The Department of Defense (DoD)

Since the DoD is “in the business” of building many of the types of sys-
tems cited above, it makes sense to take a look at what the DoD has done
by way of developing methods and procedures whereby one architects

1
2 Systems Architecting

these systems. Surely there is a single system architecting approach,

established by the DoD, that would apply to all types of systems.
Back in the 1990s, the DoD started to work on this issue, within the
C3ISR (command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance) community [2]. The evolved approach became
the DoDAF, the DoD Architectural Framework. The centerpiece of this
approach was the notion that there are three critical views of systems that
must be considered, i.e.,

• The operational view

• The systems view, and
• The technical view.

These views were defined (approximately) as:

• The operational view addressed how the system would perform in

an operational setting and environment.
• The systems view considered systems and interconnections to sup-
port warfighting functions.
• The technical view dealt with sets of rules with respect to the
arrangement and interactions between system elements.

As the structure of DoDAF expanded with time, the DoD basically

required those working on systems architecting to consider many more
essential views such as those articulated below.1

AV – 1: Overview and Summary Information

AV – 2: Integrated Dictionary
OV – 1: High-­Level Operational Graphic Concept
OV – 2: Operational Node Connectivity Description
OV – 3: Operational Information Exchange Matrix
SV – 1: System Interface Description
TV – 1: Technical Architecture Profile

This made a lot of sense, in principle, and was in consonance with our
tendency to “drill down,” once we have found a top-­level structure that
we find satisfactory to our needs. Since the three basic views remained
mostly unchallenged in their contribution to an architectural framework,
the more one defines and drills down from there, the better. Or so it seems.
There are several unanswered questions and areas of concern with
respect to the DoDAF approach. These are addressed mostly in Chapter 9
which is devoted to a more-­in-depth consideration of DoDAF. For now, we
will consider it a very important building block in the system architecting
process, as formulated by the DoD.
Chapter one: Background3

Eberhardt Rechtin
A prominent position in the field of system architecting was established
by the master engineer, Eberhardt Rechtin. Indeed, he wrote what this
author would consider to be the seminal work in the field [3]. Here are
some of the important points he made in his book:

• There are basically four approaches to the process of architecting,

namely normative, rational, argumentative, and heuristic.
• Heuristics are very important in terms of designing and building
new systems. One of the most important is the KISS (keep it simple,
stupid) approach, and Rechtin includes a whole Appendix on his list
of heuristics.
• “[T]he greatest architectures are the product of a single mind.”
• It is important, also, to focus especially on boundaries and interfaces.
• It’s also necessary to place extreme requirements under constant
challenge.
• “The essence of architecting is structuring, simplification, compro-
mise and balance.”
• Prototyping plays an important role in designing and building the
best possible system.

Beyond Rechtin’s work cited above, he later teamed with Mark Maier [4]
to continue ground-­breaking explorations of the field of architecting and
related matters. Here are three noteworthy quotes from that book:

“architecting is creating and building structures”

“the foundations of systems architecting are a systems approach, a

purpose orientation, a modeling methodology, ultraquality, certifi-
cation, and insight”

“one insight is worth a thousand analyses”

Author Information
Going back into the 1970s, this author worked on several large-­scale
systems in the fields of defense, space, and transportation. Preliminary
design, equated here approximately with system architecting, was a topic
of great interest. Indeed, moving some 40 years down the road to today’s
world, interest has increased as we try to build cost-­effective systems
within changing, and often confusing, system acquisition environments
and procedures.
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4 Systems Architecting

The essence of a recommended system architecting process has

evolved over the years and has been described, in some detail, in this
author’s book in 2008 [1]. This process has been tested hundreds of times
through the efforts of this author’s graduate students in systems engineer-
ing. Later chapters in this book provide further rationale and additional
detail that is appropriate to a definitive system architecting process.

Three Special Experiences

Nimbus
One of the systems worked on by the author, going back to the 1960s, was
the Nimbus meteorological satellite. This was a follow-­on to the TIROS
system, and was managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA.
Unlike TIROS, which was a “spinner,” Nimbus was a three-­axis stabilized
system that “looked” down at the Earth from about 450 nautical miles in
space. Although there were many lessons learned from participating in this
program, it was first noted that Nimbus had a variety of subsystems, such
as stabilization and control, structure, thermal control, communications
and data handling, and various measurement instruments that constituted
the payload. It was noted also that these subsystems approximately corre-
sponded to the “functions” to be carried out by the satellite system.

Mallard
Also in the 1960s, this author had a role on a communications system
known as Mallard. This was a tactical communications system that was
managed by an Army facility at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Mallard
was a quite sophisticated battlefield communications system and this
author was a sub-­contractor on the GT & E/IBM team. GT&E was the
prime contractor and took the lead in all systems engineering and archi-
tecting activities. Special attention was paid to the architecting approach.
First and foremost, the architecting team set forth a detailed “functional
decomposition” of the Mallard system. They then proceeded to design
each of the key elements of Mallard with respect to each of the decom-
posed functions. This very successful and sensible approach was not lost
on this author. It was clearly the right way to go.

Aviation Advisory Commission Design

Yet another important project for this author was serving as a consultant
to the Aviation Advisory Commission as they looked at the future of our
National Aviation System (NAS). The Commissioners and their Executive
Team designed alternative future systems, based upon a preliminary set
Chapter one: Background5

of functions for such systems. They then configured specific subsystems

and carried out an overall evaluation of these subsystems. It was a “modi-
fied and tailored” systems engineering approach and was groundbreak-
ing in its scope and method. These were the names of the alternatives that
were configured and evaluated [5]:

1. Extension of Current Operation

2. High-­Density Short-­Haul Supplement
3. Remote Transfer Airport Supplement
4. Local Terminal and Exchange-­port Supplement.

Here again, the approach was facilitated by a careful definition of func-

tions and how to instantiate these functions. This “functional” decompo-
sition idea was to become a cornerstone of how to do the part of systems
engineering known as system architecting.

A Bottom Line
With the special importance of functional analysis established as a key
element of systems architecting, we now set forth the critical top-­level
steps of this process, as follows:

1. Functional Decomposition
2. Design Approaches to Instantiate All Functions and Subfunctions
(Synthesis)
3. Evaluation of Alternatives (Analysis)
4. Selection of Preferred Alternative (Cost-­Effectiveness Assessment).

These then become the basic steps in architecting a system, and are dis-
cussed and illustrated in considerable detail in the remainder of this book.

Note
1. Excluding 18 Additional Supporting Views.

References
1. Eisner, H., Essentials of Project and Systems Engineering Management, 3rd
Edition, John Wiley, 2008.
2. C4ISR Architecture Framework, version 2.0 (1997), Washington, DC, DoD,
December 18.
3. Rechtin, E., Systems Architecting – Creating and Building Complex Systems,
Prentice-­Hall, 1991.
4. Rechtin, E. and Mark Maier, The Art of Systems Architecting, CRC Press, 1997.
5. Eisner, H., Computer-­Aided Systems Engineering, Prentice-­Hall, 1988, p. 241.
chapter two

Purpose and Features

The systems architecting process, described in later chapters, is intended to
be a fundamental skill area of the systems engineering team. Put another
way, systems architecting is a critical part of the overall systems engineer-
ing activity of the enterprise. It is also seen, in this book, as more-­or-less
the same as preliminary design for the system in question, although some
may argue that the two are quite different.

Purpose
As the systems engineering team begins the design and development of a
new system, an early activity is to formulate an architecture for that sys-
tem. Thus, one essential purpose of system architecting is to come up with
the preliminary design for that system. That design is broad and inclusive,
setting the stage for a deeper and more detailed process of synthesis for
the system.
In many cases, the design team is in a company that is competing
for government contracts. In that context, it is very important to be able
to architect a system as part of the proposal process. This often means
that it has to be carried out within a 30–60 day time period, and that it be
transparent, clear, technically compelling, and highly competitive. This
makes it possibly the most important part of the proposal process. It is
directly connected to winning a higher percentage of proposals which is
recognized as an important goal for the overall enterprise. Indeed, it may
be the difference between success and failure for that enterprise.

Features
Some of the desired features of the architecting process can be described as:

1. Technically compelling and appealing

2. Includes a choice among alternatives
3. Able to be carried out within 30–60 days by existing personnel
4. Built upon the system’s functional decomposition
5. Based upon an unambiguous and definitive process
6. At an appropriate level of detail
7. Consistent with the “systems approach.”

7
8 Systems Architecting

The technical content, when looked at by several technical personnel,

should “ring true” and be appealing. These personnel should find it
simple and leaning toward elegance. We will also insist that the pro-
cess explicitly include the definition of several alternatives. Ultimately,
the preferred architecture will be selected from among these alterna-
tives. In the context of proposal writing, the entire architecture needs
to be formulated within a 30–60 day time period. In some cases, this time
period may need to be compressed. As suggested earlier in this treatise,
there are compelling reasons for the process to start with the functional
decomposition of the system. One needs to be careful to decompose at the
appropriate level of detail. Often, too many levels lead to poor results
and can represent a fatal error. The architecting process must be specific
enough so that its products represent the architecture itself. This means
that the steps of the process are unambiguous. The architecting proce-
dure, as suggested above, should not have too many levels of decompo-
sition. Two to three levels (at most) are recommended. Finally, the overall
process needs to follow the “systems approach.” The meaning of this
term is discussed below.

The Systems Approach

An excellent point of departure for examining the systems approach is the
definition provided by NASA [1], namely:

the systems approach is the application of a systematic, disciplined

engineering approach that is quantifiable, recursive, iterative and
repeatable for the development, operation and maintenance of sys-
tems integrated into a whole throughout the life cycle of a project or
program.

There are some 12 aspects to the systems approach, each of which is

defined and explored briefly in the following text [2].

1. Systematic and Repeatable Process. The process(es) employed in build-

ing systems needs to be systematic and repeatable, in distinction to
haphazard and invented on the spot. Even though we have many
brilliant engineers and scientists working on our systems, they
must still fit into a disciplined environment in order to make the
overall system and work force operate as an efficient team.
2. Interoperability and Harmonious Operation. The various parts of the
system (elements, components, subsystems) must interoperate
and exhibit harmonious behavior. They must be designed to do so
whether or not they are being built from scratch or are considered
“off-­the-shelf.”
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Within the
nebula
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
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Title: Within the nebula

Author: Edmond Hamilton

Illustrator: Edwin D. Mead

Release date: May 1, 2024 [eBook #73508]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Popular Fiction Publishing Co,

1929

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITHIN THE

NEBULA ***
 WITHIN the NEBULA

By EDMOND HAMILTON

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Weird Tales May 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Standing at the controls, beside me, the silent steersman raised his
hand for a moment to point forward through the pilot room's
transparent wall.
"Canopus at last," he said, and I nodded. Together, and in silence,
we gazed ahead.
Before and around us there stretched away the magnificent
panorama of interstellar space, familiar enough to our eyes but ever
new, a vast reach of deep black sky dotted thickly with the glittering
hosts of stars. The blood-red of Antares, the pale green of great
Sirius, the warm, golden light of Capella, they flamed in the
firmament about us like splendid jewels of light. And dead ahead
there shone the one orb that dwarfed and dimmed all the others, a
titanic radiant white sun whose blazing circle seemed to fill the
heavens before us, the mighty star of Canopus, vastest of all the
Galaxy's thronging suns.
For all that I had visited it many times before, it was with something
of awe that I contemplated the great white sun, as our ship flashed
on toward it. Its colossal blazing bulk, I knew, was greater far than
the whole of our own little solar system, millions of times larger than
our own familiar little star, infinitely the most glorious of all the
swarming suns. It seemed fitting, indeed, that at Canopus had been
located the seat of the great Council of Suns of which I was myself a
member, representing our own little solar system in that mighty
deliberative body whose members were drawn from every peopled
star.
In thoughtful silence I gazed toward the mighty sun ahead, and for a
time there was no sound in the bridgeroom except for the deep
humming of the ship's generators, whose propulsion-vibrations flung
us on through space. Then, against the dazzling glare of the gigantic
star ahead, there appeared a tiny black dot, expanding swiftly in size
as we raced on toward it. Around and beyond it other dots were
coming into view, also, changing as we flashed on to disks, to
globes, to huge and swarming planets that spun in vast orbits about
their mighty parent sun. And it was toward the largest and inmost of
these whirling worlds, the seat of the great Council, that our ship was
now slanting swiftly downward.
Beneath us I could see the great planet rapidly expanding and
broadening, until its tremendous coppery sphere filled all the
heavens below. By that time our velocity had slackened to less than
a light-speed, and even this speed decreased still further as we
entered the zone of traffic about the great planet. For a few moments
we dropped cautiously downward through the swarming masses of
interstellar ships which jammed the upper levels, and then had swept
past the busy traffic-boats into one of the great descension-lanes,
and were moving smoothly down toward the planet's surface.
Around us there swarmed all the myriads of inbound ships that filled
the descension-lane, drawn from every quarter of the Galaxy toward
Canopus, the center and capital of our universe. Long cargo-ships
from far Spica there were, laden with all the strange merchandise of
that sun's circling worlds; luxurious passenger-liners from Regulus
and Altair, filled with tourists eager for their first sight of great
Canopus; swift little boats from the thronging suns and worlds of the
great Hercules cluster; battered tramps which owned no sun as
home, but cruised eternally through the Galaxy, carrying chance
cargoes from star to star; and here and there among the swarms of
alien ships a human-manned craft from our own distant little solar
system. All these and a myriad others raced smoothly beside and
around us as we shot down toward the mighty world beneath.
Swiftly, though, the traffic about us branched away and thinned as
we dropped nearer to the planet's surface. Beneath the light of the
immense white sun above, its landscape lay clearly revealed, a far-
sweeping panorama of smoothly sloping plains and valleys, parklike
in its alternation of lawn and forest. Here and there on the surface of
this world sprawled its shining cities, over whose streets and towers
our cruiser sped as we flashed on. Then, far ahead, a single mighty
gleaming spire became visible against the distant horizon, growing
as we sped on toward it into a colossal tower all of two thousand feet
square at its base, and which aspired into the radiant sunlight for
fully ten thousand feet. On each side of it there branched away a
curving line of smaller buildings, huge enough in themselves but
dwarfed to toylike dimensions by the looming grandeur of the
stupendous tower. And it was down toward the smooth sward at the
tower's base that our ship was slanting now, for this was the seat of
the great Council of Suns itself.
Down we sped toward the mighty structure's base, down over the
great buildings on either side which housed the different
departments of the Galaxy's government, down until our ship had
come smoothly to rest on the ground a hundred feet from the tower
itself. Then the ship's hull-door was clanging open, and a moment
later I had stepped onto the ground outside and was striding across
the smooth sward toward the mighty tower. Through its high-arched
doorway I passed, and down the tremendous corridor inside toward
the huge doors at its end, which automatically slid smoothly sidewise
as I approached. The next moment I had passed through them and
stood in the Hall of the Council itself.
Involuntarily, as always, I paused on entering, so breath-taking was
the immensity of the place. A single vast circular room, with a
diameter of near two thousand feet, it covered almost all the mighty
tower's first floor. From the edge of the great circle the room's floor
sloped gently down toward its center, like a vast shallow bowl, and at
the center stood the small black platform of the Council Chief. Out
from that platform back clear to the great room's towering walls were
ranged the countless rows of seats, just filling now with the great
Council's thousands of members.
Beings there were among those thousands from every peopled sun
in all the Galaxy's hosts, drawn here like myself each to represent
his star in this great Council which ruled our universe. Creatures
there were utterly weird and alien in appearance, natives of the
whirling worlds of the Galaxy's farthest stars—creatures from
Aldebaran, turtle-men of the amphibian races of that star; fur-
covered and slow-moving beings from the planets of dying
Betelgeuse; great octopus-creatures from mighty Vega; invertebrate
insect-men from the races of Procyon; strange, dark-winged bat-folk
from the weird worlds of Deneb; these, and a thousand others, were
gathered in that vast assemblage, forms utterly different from each
other physically, but able to mix and understand each other on the
common plane of intelligence.

Within another moment I had passed down the broad aisle and had
slipped into my own seat, and now I saw that on the black platform at
the room's center there stood silent the Council Chief. A strange
enough figure he made, for he was of the races of Canopus, natives
of this giant star-system, a great, unhuman head with no body and
with but a single staring eye, carrying himself on tiny, pipe-stem
limbs. Silently he stood there, contemplating the gathering members.
Within another minute all had taken their seats, and then a sudden
hush swept over them as the Council Chief stepped forward and
began to speak, in the tongue that has become universal throughout
the Galaxy, his strange, high voice carried to every end of the vast
room by the great amplifiers which make every whisper in it clearly
heard.
"Members of the Council," he said, "I have called this meeting, have
summoned you here to Canopus, each from his native star, because
I have to place before you a matter of the utmost importance. I have
summoned you here because there has risen to face us the most
vital problem that has yet confronted us in our government of the
Galaxy—the greatest and most terrible danger, in fact, that has ever
threatened our universe!
"Other dangers, other problems, have faced us in the past, and all
these we have overcome, by massing all our knowledge and
science, have ruled with more and more power over the inanimate
matter of our universe, our Galaxy. We have saved planets and their
peoples from extinction, by shifting them from dying old suns to
flaming new ones. We have succeeded in breaking up and
annihilating some of the great comets whose headlong flights were
carrying destruction across the Galaxy. We have even dared to
change the course of suns, to prevent collisions between them that
would have annihilated their circling worlds. It might seem, indeed,
that we, the massed peoples of the Galaxy, have risen to such power
that all things in it are subject to our will, obedient to our commands.
But we have not. One thing alone in the Galaxy remains beyond our
power to change or alter, one thing beside which all our power and
our science are as nothing. And that is the nebula.
"A nebula is the vastest thing in all our universe, and the most
mysterious. A gigantic mass of glowing gas that stretches across
countless billions of miles of space, its mighty bulk flames in the
heavens like a universe of fire. Beside its vast dimensions all the
suns of the Galaxy are but as sparks beside a great, consuming
blaze. Here and there in our Galaxy lie these mighty mysteries,
these flaming nebulæ, and mightiest of all is that one which we call
the Orion Nebula, that gigantic globe of flaming gas which measures
light-years in diameter, burning in giant splendor at the Galaxy's
heart. We know that the great nebula is growing slowly smaller, that
through the eons it contracts to form new blazing stars, but what its
constitution may be, what mysteries it may hide, has never been
known, since it would be annihilation for any ship to approach too
near to its fiery splendor, and all our interstellar traffic has detoured
always far around its flaming mass. Because of that inaccessibility
no large attention has ever been paid to the great nebula, nor would
there be now, had not something been discovered but now by our
scientists regarding it which seems to herald the end of our universe.
"As I have said, this nebula, this gigantic globe of flaming gas, lies
practically motionless in space at the heart of our Galaxy. A few
weeks ago, however, it was discovered by our astronomers that the
great flaming sphere of the nebula had begun slowly to revolve, to
spin, and that as the days went by it was spinning faster and faster.
Through the weeks since then our astronomers have watched it
closely, and ever faster it has spun, until now it is revolving at a
terrific rate, a rate that is still steadily increasing. And that
accelerating spin of the huge nebula must result, inevitably, in the
doom of our universe.
"For our scientists have calculated that within two more weeks the
nebula's rate of spin will have become so great that it will no longer
be able to hold together, that it will disintegrate, break up, its gigantic
masses of incandescent gases flying off in all directions like the
pieces of a bursting fly-wheel. And those colossal clouds of flaming
gas, flying out through our Galaxy, our universe, will inevitably sweep
over and destroy countless thousands of our suns and worlds,
annihilating the worlds like midgets in candle-flame, changing the
suns into nebulous masses of flaming gas like themselves, smashing
gigantically through and across the Galaxy and destroying the
gravitational balance of its whirling suns and worlds until in a great
chaos of crashing stars and planets our universe ends as a vast,
cosmic wreck, our organizations and our civilizations gone forever!"
The Council Chief paused for a moment, and in that moment there
was silence over all the great hall, a silence unnatural, terrible,
unbroken by any slightest sound. I saw the members about me
leaning forward, gazing tensely toward the Council Chief, and when
he spoke again his words seemed to come to us through that
strained silence as though from some remoteness of distance.
"Terrible as this peril is," he was saying, "we must face it. Flight is
impossible, for where could we flee? We have but one chance to
save ourselves, our universe, and that is to halt the spinning of the
great nebula before the few days left us have passed, before this
cosmic cataclysm takes place. Some extraordinary force or forces
have set the great nebula to spinning thus, and if we could venture
out to the nebula, discover the nature of those forces, we might be
able to counteract them, to stop the nebula's spin and save our suns
and worlds.
"It is impossible, of course, for any of our ordinary interstellar ships to
attempt this, since any that approached the great nebula would
perish instantly in its flaming heat. It chances, however, that some of
our scientists here have been working for months on the problem of
devising new heat-resistant materials, materials capable of resisting
temperatures which would destroy other substances. They have
worked on the principle that heat-resistance is a matter of atomic
structure. Steel, for instance, resists heat and fire better than wood
because its atomic structure, the arrangement of its atoms, is more
stable, less easily broken up. And following this principle they have
devised a new metallic compound or alloy whose atomic structure is
infinitely more stable than that of any material known to us
previously, and which is able to resist temperatures of thousands of
degrees.
"Of this heat-resistant material an interstellar cruiser was
constructed, a cruiser which could venture into regions of heat where
other ships would perish instantly. It had been the intention to use
this cruiser to explore solar coronas, but at my order it has been
brought here to the Council Hall, equipped for action. For it is my
intention to use this cruiser to venture out close to the great nebula's
flaming fires, which it alone can do, and make a last effort to
discover and counteract whatever force or forces there are causing
the accelerating spin of the nebula that means doom to us. The
cruiser itself is not a large one, and with its present equipment can
hold but three for this trip, three on whom must rest all the chances
for escape of our universe. And these three I intend to choose now
from among you, three whose past careers and interstellar
experience make them best fitted for this hazardous and all-
important trip."
He paused again, and over the massed members there swept now a
whisper of excitement, a low babel of a thousand unlike voices that
stilled suddenly as the Council Chief again spoke, his high, clear
voice sounding across the great room like a whip-crack.
"Sar Than of Arcturus!"
As he called the name a single figure rose from among the members
to my left, a bulbous body supported above the ground by four
powerful thick tentacles of muscle which served both as arms and
legs, while set upon the body was the round, neckless head, with its
two quick, intelligent eyes and narrow mouth. A moment the
Arcturian paused on rising, then stepped out into the aisle and down
toward the central platform. And now the voice of the Council Chief
cut again across the rising clamor of the members.
"Jor Dahat of Capella!"
Before me now another figure rose, one of the strange plant-men of
Capella, of the people who had evolved to intelligence and power
from the lower plant-races there; his body an upright cylinder of
smooth, fibrous flesh, supported by two short, thick legs and with a
pair of powerful upper arms, above which was the conical head
whose two green-pupiled eyes and close-set ears and mouth
completed the figure. In a moment he too had strode down toward
the platform, and then, over the tumultuous shouts of those in the
great hall, which had risen now to a steady roar of voices, there
came the clear voice of the Council Chief, with the third name.
"Ker Kal of Sun-828!"
For a moment I sat silent, my brain whirling, the words of the Council
Chief drumming in my ears, and then heard the excited voices of the
members about me, felt myself stumbling to my feet and down the
aisle in turn toward the platform. Beating in my dazed ears now was
the tremendous shouting clamor of all the gathered members, and
beneath that surging thunder of thousands of voices I sensed but
dimly the things about me, the Arcturian and Capellan beside me,
the figure of the Council Chief on the platform beyond them. Then I
saw the latter raise a slender arm, felt the uproar about me swiftly
diminishing, until complete silence reigned once more. And then the
Council Chief was speaking again, this time to us.
"Sar Than, Jor Dahat and Ker Kal," he addressed us, "you three are
chosen to go where only three can go, to approach the nebula and
make a final effort to discover and counteract whatever force or
forces there are causing this cataclysm that threatens us. Your
cruiser is ready and you will start at once, and to you I have no
orders to give, no instructions, no advice. My only word to you is this:
If you fail in this mission, where failure seems all but inevitable,
indeed, our Galaxy meets its doom, the countless trillions of our
races their deaths, the civilizations we have built up in millions of
years annihilation. But if you succeed, if you find what forces have
caused the spinning of the mighty nebula and are able to halt that
spin, then your names shall not die while any in the Galaxy live. For
then you will have done what never before was done or dreamed of,
will have stayed with your hands a colossal cosmic wreck, will have
saved a universe itself from death!"
 2
As the door of the little pilot room clicked open behind me I half
turned from my position at the controls, to see my two companions
enter. And as the Arcturian and Capellan stepped over to my side I
nodded toward the broad fore-window.
"Two more hours and we'll be there," I said.
Side by side we three gazed ahead. About us once more there
stretched the utter blackness of the great void, ablaze with its
jeweled suns. Far behind shone the brilliant white star that was
Canopus, and to our right the great twin suns of Castor and Pollux,
and above and beyond them the yellow spark that was the sun of my
own little solar system. On each side and behind us hung the
splendid starry canopy, but ahead it was blotted out by a single vast
circle of glowing light that filled the heavens before us, titanic,
immeasurable, the mighty nebula that was our goal.
For more than ten days we had watched the vast globe of flaming
gas largening across the heavens as we raced on toward it, in the
heat-resistant cruiser that had been furnished us by the Council.
Days they were in which our generators had hummed always at their
highest power, propelling our craft forward through space with the
swiftness of thought, almost—long, changeless days in which the
alternate watches in the pilot room and the occasional inspection of
the throbbing generators had formed our only occupations.
On and on and on we had flashed, past sun after sun, star system
after star system. Many times we had swerved from our course as
our meteorometers warned us of vast meteor swarms ahead, and
more than once we had veered to avoid some thundering dark star
which our charts showed near us, but always the prow of our craft
had swung back toward the great nebula. Ever onward toward it we
had raced, day after day, watching its glowing sphere widen across
the heavens, until now at last we were drawing within sight of our
journey's end, and were flashing over the last few billions of miles
that separated us from our goal.
And now, as we drew thus nearer toward the nebula's fiery mass, we
saw it for the first time in all its true grandeur. A vast sphere of
glowing light, of incandescent gases, it flamed before us like some
inconceivably titanic sun, reaching from horizon to horizon, stunning
in its very magnitude. Up and outward from the great fiery globe
there soared vast tongues of flaming gas, mighty prominences of
incalculable length, leaping out from the gigantic spinning sphere.
For the sphere, the nebula, was spinning. We saw that, now, and
could mark the turning of its vast surface by the position of those
leaping tongues, and though that turning seemed slow to our eyes
by reason of the nebula's very vastness, we knew that in reality it
was whirling at a terrific rate.
For a long time there was silence in the little pilot room while we
three gazed ahead, the glowing light from the vast nebula before us
beating in through the broad window and illuminating all about us in
its glare. At last Sar Than, beside me, spoke.
"One sees now why no interstellar ship has ever dared to approach
the nebula," he said, his eyes on the colossal sea of flame before us.
I nodded at the Arcturian's comment. "Only our own ship would dare
to come as close as we are now," I told him. "The temperature
outside is hundreds of degrees, now." And I pointed toward a dial
that recorded the outside heat.
"But how near can we go to it?" asked Jor Dahat. "How much heat
can our cruiser stand?"
"Some thousands of degrees," I said, answering the plant-man's last
question first. "We can venture within a few thousand miles of the
nebula's surface without danger, I think. But if we were to go farther,
if we were to plunge into its fires, even our ship could not resist the
tremendous heat there for long, and would perish in a few minutes.
We will be able, though, to skim above the surface without danger."
"You plan to do that, to search above the nebula's surface for the
forces that have set it spinning?" asked the Capellan, and I nodded.
"Yes. There may be great ether-currents of some kind there which
are responsible for this spin, or perhaps other forces of which we
know nothing. If we can only find what is causing it, there will be at
least a chance——" And I was silent, gazing thoughtfully toward the
far-flung raging fires ahead.

Now, as our ship raced on toward that mighty ocean of flaming gas,
the pointer on the outside-heat dial was creeping steadily forward,
though the ship's interior was but slightly warmer, due to the super-
insulation of its walls. We were passing into a region of heat, we
knew, that would have destroyed any ship but our own, and that
thought held us silent as our humming craft raced on. And now the
sky before us, a single vast expanse of glowing flame, was creeping
downward across our vision as the cruiser's bow swung up. Minutes
more, and the whole vast flaming nebula lay stretched beneath us,
instead of before us, and then we were dropping smoothly down
toward it.
Down we fell, my hand on the control lever gradually decreasing our
speed, now moving at a single light-speed, now at half of that, and
still slower and slower, until at last our craft hung motionless a scant
thousand miles above the nebula's flaming surface, a tiny atom in
size compared to the colossal universe of fire above which it
hovered. For from horizon to horizon beneath us, now, stretched the
nebula, in terrible grandeur. Its flaming sea, we saw, was traversed
by great waves and currents, currents that met here and there in
gigantic fiery maelstroms, while far across its surface we saw, now
and then, great leaping prominences or geysers of flaming gas, that
towered for an instant to immense heights and then rushed back
down into the fiery sea beneath. To us, riding above that burning
ocean, it seemed at that moment that in all the universe was only
flame and gas, so brain-numbing was the fiery nebula's magnitude.
Hanging there in our little cruiser we stared down at it, the awe we
felt reflected in each other's eyes. I saw now by the dial that the
temperature about us was truly terrific, over a thousand degrees,
and what it might be in the raging fires below I could not guess. But
nowhere was there any sign of what might have set the great nebula
to spinning, for our instruments recorded no ether-disturbances
around the surface, nor any other phenomena which might give us a
clue. And, looking down, I think that we all felt, indeed, that nothing
was in reality capable of affecting in any way this awesome nebula,
the vastest thing in all our universe.
At last I turned to the others. "There's nothing here," I said. "Nothing
to show what's caused the nebula's spinning. We must go on, across
its surface——"
With the words I reached forward toward the control levers, then
abruptly whirled around as there came a sudden cry from Sar Than,
at the window.
"Look!" cried the Arcturian, pointing down through the window, his
eyes starting. "Below us—look!"
I gazed down, then felt the blood drive from my heart at what I saw.
For directly beneath us one of the vast prominences of flaming gas
was suddenly shooting up from the nebula's surface, straight toward
us, a gigantic tongue of fire beside which our ship was but as a
midge beside a great blaze. I shouted, sprang to the controls, but
even as I laid hands on the levers there was a tremendous rush of
blinding flame all about our ship, and then we three had been flung
violently into a corner of the pilot room and the cruiser was being
whirled blindly about with lightning speed by the vast current of
flaming gas that had gripped it.
All about us was the thunderous roaring of the fires that held us, and
now as we sprawled helpless on the room's floor I sensed that our
ship was falling, plunging down with the downward-sinking geyser of
flame that held it. Struggling to gain my feet, while the pilot room
spun dizzily about me, I glimpsed through the shifting fires outside
the window the nebula's flaming surface, just below us, a raging sea
of fiery gas toward which we were dropping plummetlike. Then, as a
fresh gyration of the plunging ship flung me once more to the floor, I
heard the thundering roar about us suddenly intensified, terrible
beyond expression, while now through the window was visible only a
single solid mass of blinding flame, and while our cruiser at the same
moment rocked and whirled crazily beneath the impetus of a dozen
different forces. And as understanding of what had happened
flashed across my brain I cried out hoarsely to my two companions.
"The nebula!" I cried. "That current that held us has sucked us down
into the nebula itself!"
All about us now was only one tremendous sheet of fire, whose heat
was rapidly penetrating through even our heat-resistant walls and
windows. Swiftly the air in the little pilot room was becoming hot,
suffocating, and already the walls were burning to the touch. The
ship, I knew, could not stand such heat for many minutes more, yet
every moment was taking us farther into the nebula's fiery depths,
whirling us wildly on with velocity inconceivable. Born by its mighty
interior currents we were sweeping on and on into that universe of
flame, its vast fires roaring about us like the thunder of doom,
deafening, awful, a cosmic, bellowing clamor that was like the mighty
shouting of a universe made vocal.
On and on it roared, about us, and on and on we whirled into the
depths of those mighty fires, toward our doom. The air had become
stifling, unbreathable, and the walls were beginning to glow dully.
Now, with a last effort, I dragged myself from support to support until
I had clutched the control levers, opening them to the last notch. Yet
though the generators beneath hummed with highest power it was
as though they were silent, for in the grip of the nebula's giant fire-
currents the cruiser plunged madly on. And as its whirling catapulted
me again to the room's corner, where my two companions clung, I
felt my lungs scorching with each panting breath, felt my senses
leaving me.
Then, through the unconsciousness that was creeping upon me, I
heard a grating wrench from somewhere in the cruiser's walls, a loud
and ominous cracking, and knew that under the terrific fires around
us those walls were already warping, giving way. Another wrenching
crack came, and another, sounding loud in my ears above the
thunderous roar of the flames about us. In a moment the walls would
give completely, and in the rushing fires of the nebula about us we
would meet the end. In a moment——
But what was that? The thunderous clamor about us had suddenly
dwindled, ceased, and at the same moment our ship had righted
itself, was humming serenely on. Slowly I raised my head, then
stared in utter astonishment. The fires outside the windows, the
terrific sea of flame about us, had vanished, and we were again
flashing on through open space. And now Jor Dahat beside me had
seen also, and was rising to his feet.
"We're out of the nebula!" he cried. "That current must have taken us
back up to the surface—back out into space again——"
He was at the window now, gazing eagerly out, while I struggled up
in turn. And as I did so I saw awe falling upon his face as he gazed,
and heard from him a whispered exclamation of utter astonishment.
Then I, too, was on my feet, with Sar Than, and we were at the
window beside him, staring forth in turn.

My first impression was of vast space, a colossal reach of space that

stretched far away before us, and into which our ship was racing on.
And then I saw, with sudden awe and wonder, that this vast space
was not the unlimited, unbounded space we were accustomed to,
but was limited, was bounded, bounded by a colossal sheet of
flowing flame that hemmed it in in all directions. Above and below
and before and behind us stretched this mighty wall of flame, a
gigantic shell of fire that enclosed within itself the vast space in
which our cruiser raced, a space large enough to hold within it a
dozen solar systems like my own. Stunned, we gazed out into that
mighty flame-bounded space, and then I flung out a hand toward it in
sudden comprehension.
"We're inside the nebula!" I cried. "It's hollow! This vast open space
lies at its heart, and those currents carried us down into it!"
For I saw now that this was the explanation. Unsuspected by any in
the Galaxy the mighty nebula was hollow, its gigantic globe of
flaming gas holding at its heart this mighty empty space, a space
mighty in extent to our eyes, but small compared to the thickness of
the great shell of fire that enclosed it. And down through that fire,
that vast ocean of flame, the currents of the nebula had brought us,
from its outer surface, down into this great space at its heart of which
none had ever dreamed, and into which we had been the first in all
the Galaxy to penetrate.
While we gazed across it, stunned, our cruiser was racing on into
this vast hollow, away from the wall of flame behind us from which
we had just emerged. And now, as we flashed on, Sar Than cried out
too, and pointed ahead. There, standing out black against the
encircling walls of fire in the distance, was a small round spot, a spot
that was growing to a black globe as we hurtled on toward it, a globe
that hung motionless at the center of this mighty space, here at the
nebula's heart. We were racing straight into the great cavity toward
it, and now there came a low exclamation from Jor Dahat, beside
me, as his eyes took in the great globe ahead.
"A planet!" he whispered. "A planet here—within the nebula!"
My own eyes were fixed upon it, and slowly I nodded, but made no
other answer as we flashed on toward the object of our attention, the
black sphere ahead. And now as we swept on we saw that it was a
sphere of truly titanic dimensions, larger by far than any of the
Galaxy's countless worlds, and that as it hung there, at the nebula's
heart, it was slowly revolving, spinning, as fast or faster than the
nebula itself. Black and mighty it hung there, while all around it,
millions of miles from it, there flamed the nebula's encircling fires. On
and on we raced toward it, and for all those minutes of flashing flight
none of us spoke, and there was no sound in the pilot room but the
throbbing drone of the generators below. I think that we all felt
instinctively that in the grim, colossal globe ahead lay the answer to
what we had come to solve, and as we hurtled on toward it we
watched it broadening before us in tense silence.
Larger and larger it was becoming, larger until its great black circle
filled half the heavens before us. By then I had decreased our speed
to a fraction of its former figure, and as we swept in toward the giant
world I lessened it still further. Slowly, ever more slowly we moved,
and now were circling above the great black planet, were beginning