The Gods Themselves Part 27

"That's superst.i.tion, Ben," said Selene, with a distant edge of exasperation. "The Sun has nothing to do with it. We were in the crater shadow anyway and it was just like night. Stars and all."

"Not quite," said Denison. "Anytime we looked northward, Selene, we could see that stretch of Sunlight glittering; I hated to look northward, yet the direction dragged at my eyes. Every time I looked at it I could feel the hard ultraviolet springing at my view plate."

"That's imagination. In the first place there's no ultraviolet to speak of in reflected light; in the second, your suit protects you against radiation."

"Not against heat. Not very much."

"But it's night now."

"Yes," said Denison with satisfaction, "and this I like." He looked about with a continuing wonder. Earth was in the sky, of course, in its accustomed place; a fat crescent, now, bellying to the southwestward. The constellation Orion was above it, a hunter rising up out of the brilliant curved chair of Earth. The horizon glittered in the dim crescent-Earth light.

"It's beautiful," he said. Then: "Selene, is the Pionizer showing anything?"

Selene, who was looking at the skies' with no comment, stepped toward the maze of equipment that, over the past three alternations of day and night, had been a.s.sembled there in the shadow of the crater.

"Not yet," she said, "but that's good news really. The field intensity is holding at just over fifty."

"Not low enough," said Denison.

Selene said, "It can be lowered further. I'm sure that all the parameters are suitable."

"The magnetic field, too?"

"I'm not sure about the magnetic field."

"If we strengthen that, the whole thing becomes unstable."

"It shouldn't. I know it shouldn't."

"Selene, I trust your intuition against everything but the facts. It does does get unstable. We've tried it." get unstable. We've tried it."

"I know, Ben. But not quite with this geometry. It's been holding to fifty-two a phenomenally long time. Surely, if we begin to hold it there for hours instead of minutes, we ought to be able to strengthen the magnetic field tenfold for a period of minutes instead of seconds. . . . Let's try."

"Not yet," said Denison.

Selene hesitated, then stepped back, turning away. She said, "You still don't miss Earth, do you, Ben?"

"No. It's rather odd, but I don't. I would have thought it inevitable that I miss blue sky, green earth, flowing water-all the cliche adjective-noun combinations peculiar to Earth. I miss none of them. I don't even dream about them."

Selene said, "This sort of thing does happen sometime. At least, there are Immies who say they experience no homesickness. They're in the minority, of course, and no one has ever been able to decide what this minority has in common. Guesses run all the way from serious emotional deficiency, no capacity to feel anything; to serious emotional excess, a fear to admit homesickness lest it lead to breakdown."

"In my case, I think it's plain enough. Life on Earth was not very enjoyable for two decades and more, while here I work at last in a field I have made my own: And I have your help. . . . More than that, Selene, I have your company."

"You are kind," said Selene, gravely, "to place company and help in the relationship you do. You don't seem to need much help. Do you pretend to seek it for the sake of my company?" ' - Denison laughed softly. Tin not sure which answer would flatter you more."

"Try the truth."

"The truth is not so easy to determine when I value each so much." He turned back to the Pionizer. "The field intensity still holds, Selene."

Selene's faceplate glinted in the Earthlight. She said, "Barren says that non-homesickness is natural and the sign of a healthy mind. He says that though the human body was adapted to Earth's surface and requires adjustment to the Moon, the human brain was not and does not. The human brain is so different, qualitatively, from all other brains that it can be considered a new phenomenon. It has had no time to be really fixed to Earth's surface and can, without adjustment, fit other environments. He says that enclosure in the caverns of the Moon may actually suit it best of all, for that is but a larger version of its enclosure in the cavern of the skull."

"Do you believe that?" asked Denison, amused.

"When Barron talks, he can make things sound very plausible."

"I think it can be made equally plausible to claim that the comfort to be found in the caverns of the Moon is the result of the fulfillment of the return-to-the-womb fantasy. In fact," he added, thoughtfully, "considering the controlled temperature and pressure, the nature and digestibility of the food, I could make a good case for considering the Lunar colony-I beg your pardon, Selene-the Lunar city a deliberate reconstruction of the fetal environment."

Selene said, "I don't think Barren would agree with you for a minute."

"I'm sure he wouldn't," said Denison. He looked at the Earth-crescent, watching the distant cloud banks on edge. He fell into silence, absorbed in the view, and even though Selene moved back to the Pionizer, he remained in place. ' He watched Earth in its nest of stars and looked toward the serrated horizon where, every once in a while, it seemed to him he saw a puff of smoke where a small meteorite might be landing.

He had pointed out a similar phenomenon, with some concern, to Selene during the previous Lunar night. She had been unconcerned.

She said, "The Earth does shift slightly in the sky because of the Moon's libration and every once in a while a shaft of Earth-light tops a small rise and falls on a bit of soil beyond. It comes into view like a tiny puff of rising dust. It's common. We pay no attention."

Denison had said, "But it could be a meteorite sometimes. Don't meteorites ever strike?"

"Of course they do. You're probably hit by several every time you're out Your suit protects you."

"I don't mean micro-dust particles. I mean sizable meteorites that would really kick up the dust. Meteorites that could kill you."

"Well, they fall, too, but they are few and the Moon is large. No one has been hit yet."

And as Denison watched the sky and thought of that, he saw what, in the midst of his momentary preoccupation, he took to be a meteorite. Light streaking through the sky could, however, be a meteorite only on Earth with its atmosphere and not on the airless Moon.

The light in the sky was man-made and Denison had not yet sorted out his impressions when it became, quite clearly, a small rocket-vessel sinking rapidly to a landing beside him.

A single suited figure emerged, while a pilot remained within, barely seen as a dark splotch against the highlights.

Denison waited. The etiquette of the s.p.a.cesuit required the newcomer joining any group to announce himself first.

"Commissioner Gottstein here," the new voice said, "as you can probably tell from my wobble."

"Ben Denison here," said Denison.

"Yes. I thought as much."

"Have you come here looking for me?"

"Certainly."

"In a s.p.a.ce-skipper? You might-"

"I might," said Gottstein, "have used Outlet P-4, which is less than a thousand yards from here. Yes, indeed. But I wasn't looking only for you."

"Well, I won't ask for the meaning of what you say."

"There's no reason for me to be coy. Surely you have not expected me to be uninterested in the fact that you have been carrying on experiments on the Lunar surface."

"It's been no secret and anyone might be interested."

"Yet no one seems to know the details of the experiments. Except, of course, that in some way you are working on matters concerning the Electron Pump."

"It's a reasonable a.s.sumption."

"Is it? It seemed to me that experiments of such a nature, to have any value at all, would require a rather enormous setup. This is not of my own knowledge, you understand. I consulted those who would know. And, it is quite obvious, you are not working on such a setup. It occurred to me, therefore, that you might not be the proper focus of my interest. While my attention was drawn to you, others might be undertaking more important tasks."

"Why should I be used as distraction?"

"I don't know. If I knew, I would be less concerned."

"So I have been under observation."

Gottstein chuckled. "That, yes. Since you have arrived. But while you have been working here on the surface, we have observed this entire region for miles in every direction. Oddly enough, it would seem that you, Dr. Denison, and your companion, are the only ones on the Lunar surface for any but the most routine of purposes."

"Why is that odd?"

"Because it means that you really think you're doing something with your gimcrack contraption, whatever it is. I can't believe that you are incompetent, so I think it would be worth listening to you if you tell me what you are doing."

"I am experimenting in para-physics, Commissioner, precisely as rumor has it. To which I can add that so far my experiments have been only partly successful."

"Your companion is, I imagine, Selene Lindstrom L., a tourist guide."

"Yes."

"An unusual choice as an a.s.sistant."

"She is intelligent, eager, interested, and extremely attractive."

"And willing to work with an Earthman?"

"And quite willing to work with an Immigrant who will be a Lunar citizen as soon as he qualifies for that status."

Selene was approaching now. Her voice rang in their ears. "Good day, Commissioner. I would have liked not to overhear, and intrude on a private conversation, but, in a s.p.a.cesuit, overhearing is inevitable anywhere within the horizon."

Gottstein turned. "h.e.l.lo, Miss Lindstrom. I did not expect to talk in secrecy. Are you interested in para-physics?"

"Oh, yes."

"You are not disheartened by the failures of the experiment."

"They are not entirely failures," she said. "They are less a failure than Dr. Denison thinks at present."

"What?" Denison turned sharply on his heel, nearly overbalancing himself and sending out a spurt of dust.

All three were facing the Pionizer now, and above it, just about five feet above it, light shone like a fat star. , Selene said, "I raised the intensity of the magnetic field, and the nuclear field remained stable in being-then eased further and further and-"

"Leaked!" Denison said. "d.a.m.n it. I didn't see it happen."

Selene said, "I'm sorry, Ben. First you were lost in your own thoughts, then the Commissioner arrived, and I couldn't resist the chance of trying on my own."

Gottstein said, "But just what is it that I see there?"

Denison said, "Energy being spontaneously given off by matter leaking from another Universe into ours."

And even as he said that the light blinked out and many yards away, a farther, dimmer star came into simultaneous being.

Denison lunged toward the Pionizer, but Selene, all Lunar grace, propelled herself across the surface more efficiently and was there first. She killed the field structure and the distant star went out.

She said, "The leak-point isn't stable, you see."

"Not on a small scale," said Denison, "but considering that a shift of a light-year is as theoretically possible as a shift of a hundred yards, one of a hundred yards only is miraculous stability."

"Not miraculous enough," said Selene, flatly.

Gottstein interrupted. "Let me guess what you're talking about You mean that the matter can leak through here, or there, or anywhere in our Universe-at random."

"Not quite at random, Commissioner," said Denison. "The probability of leakage drops with distance from the Pionizer, and rather sharply I should say. The sharpness depends on a variety of factors and I think we've tightened the situation remarkably. Even so, a flip of a few hundred yards is quite probable and, as a matter of fact, you saw it happen."

"And it might have shifted to somewhere within the city or within our own helmets, perhaps."

Denison said, impatiently, "No, no. The leak, at least by the techniques we use, is heavily dependent on the density of matter already present in this Universe. The chances are virtually nil that the leak-position would shift from a place of essential vacuum to one where an atmosphere even a hundredth as dense as that within the city or within our helmets would exist. It would be impractical to expect to arrange the leak anywhere but into a vacuum in the first place, which is why we had to make the attempt up here on the surface."

"Then this is not like the Electron Pump?"

"Not at all," said Denison. "In the Electron Pump there is a two-way transfer of matter, here a one-way leak. Nor are the Universes involved the same."

Gottstein said, "I wonder if you would have dinner with me this evening, Dr. Denison?"

Denison hesitated. "Myself only?"

Gottstein attempted a bow in the direction of Selene but could accomplish only a grotesque parody of it in his s.p.a.cesuit. "I would be charmed to have Miss Lindstrom's company on another occasion, but on this one I must speak with you alone, Dr. Denison."

"Oh, go ahead," said Selene, crisply, as Denison still hesitated. "I have a heavy schedule tomorrow anyway and you'll need time to worry about the leak-point instability."

Denison said, uncertainly, "Well, then--Selene, will you let me know when your next free day is?"

"I always do, don't I? And we'll be in touch before then anyway.... Why don't you two go on? I'll take care of the equipment."

15.

Barren Neville shifted from foot to foot in the fashion made necessary by the restricted quarters and by the Moon's gravity. In a larger room under a world's stronger pull, he would have walked hastily up and back. Here, he tilted from side to side, in a repet.i.tive back-and-forth glide.