The Gods Themselves Part 30

Gottstein said, "I haven't got my Moon-legs quite yet, but this isn't anything compared to what it cost me to get my Earth-legs. Denison, you had better not dream of returning. You'll never make it."

"I have no intention of returning, Commissioner," said Denison.

"In a way, it's too bad. You could be emperor by acclamation. As for Hallam-"

Denison said, wistfully, "I would have liked to see his face, but that's a small ambition."

"Lamont, of course, is receiving the lion's share. He's on the spot."

"I don't mind that. He deserves a good deal.... Do you think Neville will really join us?"

"No question. He's on his way at this moment. ... Listen," Gottstein's voice dropped one conspiratorial note in pitch. "Before he comes, would you like a bar of chocolate?"

"What?".

"A bar of chocolate. With almonds. One. One. I have some." I have some."

Denison's face, from initial confusion, suddenly lit with comprehension." Real chocolate?" chocolate?"

"Yes."

"Certain-" His face hardened. "No, Commissioner."

"No?"

"No! If I taste real chocolate then, for the few minutes It's in my mouth, I'm going to miss Earth; I'm going to miss everything about it. I can't afford that. I don't want it. ... Don't even show it to me. Don't let me smell it or see it."

The Commissioner looked discomfited. "You're right." He made an obvious attempt to change the subject. "The excitement on Earth is overwhelming. Of course, we made a considerable effort to save Hallam's face. He'll continue to hold some position of importance, but he'll have little real say."

"He's getting more consideration than he gave others," said Denison, resignedly.

"It's not for his sake. You can't smash a personal image that has been built to a level of such importance; it would reflect on science itself. The good name of science is more important than Hallam either way."

"I disapprove of that in principle," said Denison, warmly. "Science must take what blows it deserves."

"A time and place for- There's Dr. Neville."

Gottstein composed his face. Denison s.h.i.+fted his' chair to face the entrance.

Barron Neville entered solemnly. Somehow there was less than ever of the Lunar delicacy about his figure. He greeted the two curtly, sat down, and crossed his legs. He was clearly waiting for Gottstein to speak first.

The Commissioner said, "I am glad to see you, Dr. Neville, Dr. Denison tells me that you refused to append your name to what I am sure will be a cla.s.sic paper on the cosmeg pump."

"No need to do so," said Neville. "What happens on Earth is of no interest to me."

"You are aware of the cosmeg pump experiments? Of its implications?"

"All of them. I know the situation as well as you two do."

"Then I will proceed without preliminaries. I have returned from Earth, Dr. Neville, and it is quite settled as to what will be the course of future procedure. Large cosmeg pump stations will be set up on three different places on the Lunar surface in such a way that one will always be in the night-shadow. Half the time, two win be. Those in the night-shadow will be constantly generating energy, most of which will simply radiate into s.p.a.ce. The purpose will be not so much to use the energy for practical purposes, as to counteract the changes in field intensities introduced by the Electron Pump."

Denison interrupted. "For some years, we will have to overbalance the Electron Pump to restore our section of the Universe to the point at which it was before the pump began operation."

Neville nodded. "Will Luna City have the use of any of it?"

"If necessary. We feel the Solar batteries will probably supply what you need, but there is no objection to supplementation."

"That is land of you," said Neville, not bothering to mask the sarcasm. "And who will build and run the cosmeg pump stations?"

"Lunar workers, we hope," said Gottstein.

"Lunar workers, you know," said Neville. "Earth workers would be too clumsy to work effectively on the Moon."

"We recognize that," said Gottstein, "We trust the men of the Moon will cooperate."

"And who will decide how much energy to generate, how much to apply for any local purpose, how much to radiate away? Who decides policy?"

Gottstein said, "The government would have to. It's a matter of planetary decision."

Neville said, "You see, then, it will be Moonmen who do the work; Earthmen who run the show."

Gottstein said, calmly, "No. All of us work who work best; all of us administer who can best weigh the total problem."

"I hear the words," said Neville, "but it boils down anyway to us working and you deciding. . . . No, Commissioner. The answer is no."

"You mean you won't build the cosmeg pump stations?"

"Well build them, Commissioner, but they'll be ours. Well decide how much energy to put out and what use to make of it."

"That would scarcely be efficient. You would have to deal constantly with the Earth government since the cosmeg pump energy will have to balance the Electron Pump energy."

"I dare say it will, more or less, but we have other things in mind. You might as well know now. Energy is not the only conserved phenomenon that becomes limitless once universes are crossed."

Denison interrupted. "There are a number of conservation laws. We realize that."

"I'm glad you do," said Neville, turning a hostile glare in his direction. "They include those of linear momentum and angular momentum. As long as any object responds to the gravitational field in which it is immersed, and to that only, it is in free fall and can retain its ma.s.s. In order to move in any other way than free fall, it must accelerate in a non-gravitational way and for that to happen, part of itself must undergo an opposite change."

"As in a rockets.h.i.+p," said Denison, "which must eject ma.s.s in one direction in order that the rest might accelerate in the opposite direction."

"I'm sure you understand, Dr. Denison," said Neville, "but I explain for the Commissioner's sake. The loss of ma.s.s can be minimized if its velocity is increased enormously, since momentum is equal to ma.s.s multiplied by velocity. Nevertheless, however great the velocity, some ma.s.s must be thrown away. If the ma.s.s which must be accelerated is enormous in the first place, then the ma.s.s which must be discarded is also enormous. If the Moon, for instance-"

"The Moon!" Moon!" said Gottstein, explosively. said Gottstein, explosively.

"Yes, the Moon," said Neville, calmly. "If the Moon were to be driven out of its...o...b..t and sent out of the Solar system, the conservation of momentum would make it a colossal undertaking, and probably a thoroughly impractical one. If, however, momentum could be transferred to the cosmeg in another Universe, the Moon could accelerate at any convenient rate without loss of ma.s.s at all. It would be like poling a barge upstream, to give you a picture I obtained from some Earth-book I once read."

"But why? I mean why should you want to move the Moon?"

"I should think that would be obvious. Why do we need the suffocating presence of the Earth? We have the energy we need; we have a comfortable world through which we have room to expand for the next few centuries, at least Why not go our own way? In any case, we will. I have come to tell you that you cannot stop us and to urge you to make no attempt to interfere. We shall transfer momentum and we shall pull out. We of the Moon know precisely how to go about building cosmeg pump stations. We will use what energy we need for ourselves and produce excess in order to neutralize the changes your own power stations are producing."

Denison said, sardonically, "It sounds kind of you to produce excess for our sake, but it isn't for our sake, of course. If our Electron Pumps explode the Sun, that will happen long before you can move out of even the inner Solar system and you will vaporize wherever you are."

"Perhaps," said Neville, "but in any case we will will produce an excess, so that won't happen." produce an excess, so that won't happen."

"But you can't do that," said Gottstein, excitedly. "You can't move out. If you get out too far, the cosmeg pump will no longer neutralize the Electron Pump, eh, Denison?"

Denison shrugged. "Once they are as far off as Saturn, more or less, there may be trouble, if I may trust a mental calculation I have just made. It will, however, be man-years before they recede to such a distance and by that time, we will surely have constructed s.p.a.ce stations in what was once the orbit of the Moon and place cosmeg pumps on them. Actually, we don't need the Moon. It can leave-except that it won't."

Neville smiled briefly. "What makes you think we won't? We can't be stopped. There is no way Earthmen can impose their will on us."

"You won't leave, because there's no sense to doing so. Why drag the entire Moon away? To build up respectable accelerations will take years where the Moon-ma.s.s is concerned. You'll creep. Build stars.h.i.+ps instead; miles-long s.h.i.+ps that are cosmeg-powered and have independent ecologies. With a cosmeg momentum-drive, you can then do wonders. If it takes twenty years to build the s.h.i.+ps, they will nevertheless accelerate at a rate that will enable them to overtake the Moon's place within a year even if the Moon starts accelerating today. The s.h.i.+ps will be able to change course in a tiny fraction of the time the Moon will."

"And the unbalanced cosmeg pumps? What will that do to the Universe?"

"The energy required by a s.h.i.+p, or even by a number, will be far less than that required by a planet and will be distributed throughout large sections of the Universe. It will be millions of years before any significant change takes place. That is well worth the maneuverability you gain. The Moon will move so slowly it might as well be left in s.p.a.ce."

Neville said, scornfully, "We're in no hurry to get anywhere-except away from Earth."

Denison said, "There are advantages in having Earth as a neighbor. You have the influx of the Immigrants. You have cultural intercourse. You have a planetary world of two billion people just over the horizon. Do you want to give all that up?"

"Gladly."

"Is that true of the people of the Moon generally? Or just of you? There's something intense about you, Neville. You won't go out on the surface. Other Lunarites do. They don't like it particularly, but they do. The interior of the Moon isn't their womb, as it is in your case. It isn't their prison, as it is yours. There is a neurotic factor in you that is absent in most Lunarities, or at least considerably weaker. If you take the Moon away from Earth, you make it into a prison for all. It will become a one-world prison from which no man-and not you only-can emerge, not even to the extent of seeing another inhabited world in the sky. Perhaps that is what you want."

"I want independence; a free world; a world untouched by the outside."

"You can build s.h.i.+ps, any number. You can move outward at near-light velocities without difficulty, once you transfer momentum to the cosmeg. You can explore the entire Universe in a single lifetime. Wouldn't you like to get on such a s.h.i.+p?"

"No," said Neville, with clear distaste.

"Wouldn't you? Or is it couldn't? Is it that you must take the Moon with you wherever you go Why must all the others accept your need?"

"Because that's the way it's going to be," said Neville.

Denison's voice remained level but his cheeks reddened. "Who gave you the right to say that? There are many citizens of Luna City who may not feel as you do."

"That is none of your concern."

"That is precisely precisely my concern. I am an Immigrant who will qualify for citizens.h.i.+p soon. I do not wish to have my choice made for me by someone who cannot emerge on the surface and who wants his personal prison made into a prison for all. I have left Earth forever, but only to come to the Moon, only to remain a quarter-million miles from the home-planet. I have not contracted to be taken forever away for an unlimited distance," my concern. I am an Immigrant who will qualify for citizens.h.i.+p soon. I do not wish to have my choice made for me by someone who cannot emerge on the surface and who wants his personal prison made into a prison for all. I have left Earth forever, but only to come to the Moon, only to remain a quarter-million miles from the home-planet. I have not contracted to be taken forever away for an unlimited distance,"

"Then return to Earth," said Neville, indifferently. "There is still time."

"And what of the other citizens of Luna? The other Immigrants?"

"The decision is made."

"It is not made.... Selene!"

Selene entered, her face solemn, her eyes a little defiant.

Neville's legs uncrossed. Both shoes came down flat upon the ground.

Neville said, "How long have you been waiting in the next room, Selene?"

"Since before you arrived, Barron," she said.

Neville looked from Selene to Denison and back again. "You two-" he began, finger pointing from one to the other and back.

"I don't know what you mean by you two,'" said Selene, "but Ben found out about the momentum quite a while ago."

"It wasn't Selene's fault," said Denison. "The Commissioner spotted something flying at a time when no one could possibly have known he would be observing. It seemed to me that Selene might be testing something I was not thinking of and transfer of momentum eventually occurred to me. After that-"

"Well, then, you knew," said Neville. "It doesn't matter."

"It does, Barron," said Selene. "I talked about it with Ben. I found that I didn't always have to accept what you said. Perhaps I can't ever go to Earth. Perhaps I don't even want to. But I found I liked it in the sky where I could see it if I wanted to, I didn't want an empty sky. Then I talked to others of the Group. Not everybody wants to leave. Most people would rather build the s.h.i.+ps and let those go who wish to go while allowing those to remain behind who wish to remain."

Neville's breath was coming hard. "You talked talked about it. Who gave you the right to-" about it. Who gave you the right to-"

"I took took the right, Barron. Besides, it doesn't matter any more. You'll be outvoted." the right, Barron. Besides, it doesn't matter any more. You'll be outvoted."

"Because of-" Neville rose to his feet and took a menacing step toward Denison.

The Commissioner said, "Please don't get emotional, Dr. Neville. You may be of Luna, but I don't think you can man-handle both of us."

"All three," said Selene, "and I'm of Luna, too. I did it, Barron; not they."

Then Denison said, "Look, Neville- For all Earth cares, the Moon can go. Earth can build its s.p.a.ce stations. It's the citizens of Luna City who care. Selene cares and I care and the rest You are not being debarred from s.p.a.ce, from escape, from freedom. In twenty years at the outside, all who want to go will go, including you if you can bring yourself to leave the womb. And those who want to stay will stay."

Slowly, Neville seated himself again. There was the look of defeat on his face.

19.

In Selene's apartment, every window now had a view of the Earth. She said, "The vote did go against him, you know, Ben. Quite heavily."

"I doubt that he'll give up, though. If there's friction with Earth during the building of the stations, public opinion on the Moon may swing back."

"There needn't be friction."

"No, there needn't. In any case, there are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pa.s.s. We've pa.s.sed this one safely, I think, and we'll be sorry about the others as they come and as they can be foreseen. Once the stars.h.i.+ps are built, the tension will surely subside considerably."

"We'll live to see that, I'm sure."

"You will, Selene." will, Selene."