Edmond Hamilton 
Transuranic 

It was Andersen’s odd talk that marked the beginning of it for us. Of course, that wasn’t the real beginning. I suppose you might say it really started when Becquerel first puzzled over his fogged photographic plates. But to us, Andersen’s premonitions were the start. We called him the ’;Melancholy Dane.’ But that was just a joke, though his tall, cadaverous appearance fitted it. He wasn’t really a gloomy sort, and was a firstclass nuclear chemist. That was why he surprised us with what he said at dinner that night. ’;I have a feeling that what we are doing here is against the cosmic scheme, ’ he said in his slow English.