Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves

“When would you be willing to prepare a paper to this effect if I guarantee speedy publication?”

“Can you guarantee that?”

“In a government-published pamphlet, if no other way.”

“I would prefer to try to neutralize the leak-instability before reporting.”

“Of course.”

“And I think it would be wise,” said Denison, “to arrange to have Dr. Peter Lament as co-author. He can make the mathematics rigorous; something I cannot do. Besides, it was through his work that I took the course I have followed. One more point, Commissioner—”

“Yes.”

“I would suggest that the Lunar physicists be involved. One of their number, Dr. Barren Neville, might well be a third author.”

“But why? Aren’t you introducing unnecessary complications now?”

“It was their Pionizer that made everything possible.”

“There can be appropriate mention of that.... But did Dr. Barren actually work on the project with you?”

“Not directly.”

“Then why involve him?”

Denison looked down and brushed his hand thoughtfully over the weave of his pants leg. He said, “It would be the diplomatic thing to do. We would need to set up the cosmeg pump on the Moon.”

“Why not on Earth?”

“In the first place, we need a vacuum. This is a one-way transfer and not a two-way as in the case of the Electron Pump, and the conditions necessary to make it practical are different in the two cases. The surface of the Moon has its vacuum ready-made in vast quantities; while to prepare one on Earth would involve an enormous effort.”

“Yet it could be done, couldn’t it?”

“Secondly,” said Denison, “if we have two vast energy sources from opposite directions with our own Universe between, there would be something like a short circuit if the two outlets were too close together. Separation by a quarter-million miles of vacuum, with the Electron Pump operating only on Earth and the cosmeg pump operating only on the Moon, would be ideal—in fact, necessary. And if we are to operate on the Moon, it would be wise, even decent, to take the sensibilities of the Lunar physicists into account. We ought to give them a share.”

Gottstein smiled. “Is this the advice of Miss Lindstrom?”

“I’m sure it would be, but the suggestion is reasonable enough to have occurred to me independently.”

Gottstein rose, stretched, and then jumped in place two or three times in the eerily slow fashion imposed by Lunar gravity. He flexed his knees each time. He sat down again and said, “Ever try that, Dr. Denison?”

Denison shook his head.

“It’s supposed to help the circulation in the lower extremities. I do it whenever I feel my legs may be going to sleep. I’ll be heading back for a short visit to Earth before long and I’m trying to keep from getting too used to Lunar gravity.... Shall we talk of Miss Lindstrom, Dr. Denison?”

Denison said in a quite changed tone, “What about her?”

“She is a tourist guide.”

“Yes. You said so earlier.”

“As I also said, she is an odd assistant for a physicist.”

“Actually, I’m an amateur physicist only, and I suppose she is an amateur assistant.”

Gottstein was no longer smiling. “Don’t play games, Doctor. I have taken the trouble to find out what I can about her. Her record is quite revealing, or would have been if it had occurred to anyone to look at it before this. I believe she is an Intuitionist.”

Denison said, “Many of us are. I have no doubt you are an Intuitionist yourself, after a fashion. I certainly know that I am, after a fashion.”

“There is a difference, Doctor. You are an accomplished scientist and I, I hope, am an accomplished administrator.... Yet while Miss Lindstrom is enough of an Intuitionist to be useful to you in advanced theoretical physics, she is, in actual fact, a tourist guide.”

Denison hesitated. “She has little formal training, Commissioner. Her Intuitionism is at an unusually high level but it is under little conscious control.”

“Is she the result of the one-time genetic engineering program?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were so, however.”

“Do you trust her?”

“In what way? She has helped me.”

“Do you know that she is the wife of Dr. Barron Neville?”

“There is an emotional connection; not a legal one, I believe.”

“None of the connections are what we would call legal here on the Moon. The same Neville you want to invite as third author of the paper you are to write?”

“Yes.”

“Is that merely a coincidence?”

“No. Neville was interested in my arrival and I believe he asked Selene to help me in my work.”

“Did she tell you this?”

“She said he was interested in me. That was natural enough, I suppose.”

“Does it occur to you, Dr. Denison, that she may be working in her own interests and in those of Dr. Neville?”

“In what way would their interests differ from ours? She has helped me without reservation.”

Gottstein shifted position and moved his shoulders as though he were going through muscle-pulling exercises. He said, “Dr. Neville must know that a woman so close to himself is an Intuitionist. Wouldn’t he use her? Why would she remain a tourist guide, if not to mask her abilities—for a purpose.”

“I understand Dr. Neville frequently reasons in this fashion. I find it difficult to suspect unnecessary conspiracies.”

“How do you know they are unnecessary.... When my space-skipper was hovering over the Moon’s surface just before the ball of radiation formed over your equipment, I was looking down at you. You were not at the Pionizer.”

Denison thought back. “No, I wasn’t I was looking at the stars; rather a tendency of mine on the surface.”

“What was Miss Lindstrom doing?”

“I didn’t see. She said she strengthened the magnetic field and the leak finally broke through.”

“Is it customary for her to manipulate the equipment without you?”

“No. But I can understand the impulse.”

“And would there have been some sort of an ejection?”

“I don’t understand you.”

“I’m not sure I understand myself. There was a dim sparkle in the Earthlight, as though something was flying through the air. I don’t know what.”

“I don’t either,” said Denison.

“You can’t think of anything that might naturally have to do with the experiment that—”

“No.”

“Then what was Miss Lindstrom doing?”

“I still don’t know.”

For a moment, the silence was heavy between them. Then the Commissioner said, “As I see it then, you will try to correct the leak-instability and will be thinking about the preparation of a paper. I will get matters into motion at the other end and on my shortly forthcoming visit to Earth will make arrangements to have the paper published and will alert the government.”

It was a clear dismissal. Denison rose and the Commissioner said easily, “And think about Dr. Neville and Miss Lindstrom.”

It was a heavier star of radiation, a fatter one, a brighter one. Denison could feel its warmth on his faceplate, and backed away. There was a distinct x-ray component in the radiation and though this shielding should take care of that there was no point in placing it under a strain.

“I guess we can’t question it,” he muttered. “The leak-point is stable.”

“I’m sure of it,” said Selene, flatly.

“Then let’s turn it off and go back to the city.”

They moved slowly and Denison felt oddly dispirited. There was no uncertainty any more; no excitement. From this point on, there was no chance of failure. The government was interested; more and more, it would be out of his own hands.