The Untouchable

In Short

When General George Garvers receives a mysterious visitor who steps directly through his office wall, he is introduced to a revolutionary invention created by the late physicist Dr. Hymann Duvall. The machine projects a field that allows matter to pass through solid objects while reflecting all light, heat, and radiation. However, when the visitor casually tosses the device onto the desk, it knocks its own switch into the "on" position. Bound by its own forcefield, the box rests in plain sight on the desk—entirely untouchable, untestable, and impossible to turn off.

The Story

General George Garvers sits in his secure military office, struggling to comprehend a strange sensation of being watched, when a man steps directly out of the solid wall. Unharmed and unbothered, the intruder introduces himself as Henry Busch, a novelist and librettist who has come to fulfill the final wish of his late friend, Dr. Hymann Duvall. Duvall, a brilliant but reclusive nuclear physicist, had discovered a new branch of physics involving subnuclear particles he called "lems." Before dying suddenly of a heart attack, Duvall constructed a small portable device capable of generating a "polarization field" that alters subatomic alignment, allowing the user to pass effortlessly through ordinary matter while staying supported by the earth's gravity.

Busch demonstrates the astonishing device to Garvers by strolling casually through the furniture and solid structures of the room. He explains the basic conceptual framework Duvall shared with him, though Busch himself possesses no formal scientific background and Duvall left no written notes behind due to an intense personal fear of documenting unverified theories. Recognized as a massive national security breakthrough, the machine seems poised to render soldiers immune to physical barriers, bullets, and radiation.

However, the triumph instantly collapses into an absurdity. Upon finishing his demonstration, Busch carelessly tosses the small black box onto Garvers’s desk. The device skids into a paperweight, causing its toggle switch to flip back into the "on" position. The forcefield immediately reactivates, rendering both the desk and the machine completely phase-shifted from normal matter.

Desperate for a solution, Garvers summons his friend, a thoughtful scientist named Max, to examine the dilemma. Max tries to grasp the box, only for his hand to slip through it as if sweeping through thin air. Garvers explains that the military has interrogated Busch under truth serums and hypnosis, verifying that the writer truly knows nothing more about the machine's construction. Furthermore, every attempt to study or influence the device has failed: X-rays, magnetic fields, extreme temperatures, and nuclear particles are either reflected or ignored entirely by the field. Because the machine draws no extra power once its field is established, it will never run down on its own. The men are left staring at a world-changing tool that sits permanently in front of them, entirely immune to analysis until it is turned off, and entirely impossible to turn off until it is analyzed. Max can only compare their tragic, absurd predicament to the ancient Greek myth of King Tantalus, who was condemned to spend eternity reaching for food and water that forever remained just out of his grasp.

How It Unfolds

The impossible intruder General Garvers experiences a paranoid feeling of being watched inside his high-security office shortly before a stranger steps straight through the solid wall. The visitor introduces himself as Henry Busch, bearing an extraordinary invention created by his recently deceased friend, Dr. Hymann Duvall.

A demonstration of ghostlike power Busch explains that Duvall discovered subnuclear "lems" and created a device that polarizes matter, allowing a person to walk unharmed through walls and solid objects. To prove his claim, Busch activates the small black box and casually strolls through the furniture inside the general's office.

The careless accident After showing off the miraculous invention, Busch carelessly tosses the box onto Garvers's desk, where it strikes a paperweight and toggles its switch back to the "on" position. The device instantly envelops itself and the desk in the active field, locking both out of normal physical interaction.

An unsolvable scientific paradox Garvers brings in his friend Max to help solve the crisis, but Max finds his hands passing through the desk and box like air. Garvers reveals that all tests, radiation bombardments, and interrogations have proved futile, leaving the untouchable machine in a permanent state of unreachable frustration.

The People

• General George Garvers wants to secure and utilize a ground-breaking military technology for national defense, but he is stymied by a simple, careless accident. Faced with an impossible situation in his own locked office, he shifts from authoritative security officer to a baffled, frustrated observer seeking outside intellectual help.
• Max wants to analyze the scientific anomaly presented to him by his friend and find a logical way to deactivate the machine. Although curious and sharp-minded, he ends up humbled by the paradox, ultimately offering only philosophical sympathy rather than a technical solution.
• Henry Busch wants to honor the memory of his deceased friend by delivering a revolutionary invention to the government. Lacking any technical background, his casual carelessness inadvertently locks the machine in an untouchable state, transforming him from a helpful messenger into the unwitting catalyst of a permanent stalemate.
• Dr. Hymann Duvall wanted to explore unorthodox subatomic physics in private without the pressure of publishing unverified notes. Though deceased before the story begins, his intense secrecy and reliance on total recall leave humanity with an unstudied marvel that no one else can operate or decipher.

In Its Own Voice

"He identified himself as a Henry Busch and explained that he was acting in behalf of a good friend of his, the late Dr. Hymann Duvall."

General Garvers explains to Max how an unknown visitor managed to walk directly through his office walls.

"He tried to pick the box up, but his hand slid effortlessly through it as if it were so much air."

Max attempts to grasp the small black device resting on the desk, only to find it completely intangible.

"And we can't even wait for it to run down."

Garvers despairs over the fact that the established field requires no additional energy to maintain itself indefinitely.

What It's Really About

At its core, the story explores the frustrating limits of human knowledge when confronted with absolute technological paradoxes. It presents an ironic commentary on human carelessness and the fragile nature of scientific discovery: a breakthrough that could alter human existence is rendered utterly useless by a trivial physical slip. By pairing a brilliant, secretive scientist who left no written notes with a non-technical artist who cannot explain the mechanics, the narrative highlights how easily irreplaceable knowledge can vanish. Ultimately, the plot serves as a modern retelling of the Tantalus myth, warning that having extraordinary power directly within our sight does not guarantee we will ever be allowed to grasp or control it.

Why Read It Today

This concise science fiction tale appeals to readers who enjoy clever, single-premise logic puzzles and classic "locked-room" paradoxes. It moves with a brisk, conversational pace, unfolding almost entirely as an engaging dialogue between two old friends in a single room. Rather than relying on grand action sequences or sprawling space warfare, the narrative generates its tension from a clean, intellectual dilemma that feels delightfully absurd yet mathematically airtight.

The story is brief and highly accessible, avoiding overly dense prose or dated jargon while offering an entertaining snapshot of mid-century speculative fiction. Its minor difficulties lie in its reliance on classic mid-20th-century sci-fi tropes—such as the trope of the lone, eccentric genius working in complete isolation—and a reliance on light pseudo-scientific exposition regarding "lems" and "polarization fields." However, these speculative details are introduced swiftly and with a light touch. Readers who appreciate crisp, philosophical irony will delight in the sheer irony of a super-weapon defeated not by enemy intervention, but by a paperweight.