The Gods Themselves (30 page)

"It's perfectly sterile," said Selene, "and it goes into the general reservoir for treatment. It's saturated with sulfates, carbonates, and a few other items, however. You won't like the taste."

Denison rubbed his finger on his briefs.
” You
invented the Pionizer?"

"Not invented. I had the original concept. It took lots of development, mostly by Barren."

Denison shook his head. "You know, Selene, you're an amazing phenomenon. You should be under observation by the molecular biologists."

"Should I? That's not my idea of a thrill."

"About half a century ago, there came the climax to the big trend toward genetic engineering—"

"I know. It flopped and was thrown out of court. It's illegal now—that whole type of study—insofar as research can be made illegal. I know people who've done work on it just the same."

"I dare say. On Intuitionism?"

"No. I don't think so."

"Ah. But that's my point. At the height of the push for genetic engineering, there was this attempt to stimulate Intuitionism. Almost all the great scientists had intuitive ability, of course, and there was the feeling that this was the single great key to creativity. One could argue that superior capacity for intuition was the product of a particular gene combination and there were all sorts of speculations as to which gene combination that was."

"I suspect that there are many possible types that would satisfy."

"And I suspect that if you are consulting your intuition here, you are correct But there were also those who insisted that one gene, or one small related group of genes, was of particular importance to the combination so that you might speak of an Intuition Gene. . . , Then the whole thing collapsed."

"As I said."

"But before it collapsed," Denison went on, "there had been attempts to alter genes to increase the intensity of Intuitionism and there were those who insisted that some success had been achieved. The altered genes entered the gene pool, I'm positive, and if you happened to inherit— Were any of your grandparents involved in the program?"

"Not as far as I know," said Selene, "but I can't rule it out. One of them might have been, for all I can say. ... If you don't mind, I'm not going to investigate the matter. I don't want to know."

"Perhaps not. The whole field grew fearfully unpopular with the general public and anyone who can be considered the product of genetic engineering would not exactly be greeted gladly. . . . Intuitionism, they said, for instance, was inseparable from certain undesirable characteristics."

"Well, thank you."

"They said. To possess intuition is to inspire a certain envy and enmity in others. Even as gentle and saint-like an Intuitionist as Michael Faraday aroused the envy and hatred of Humphry Davy. Who's to say that it doesn't take a certain flaw in character t© be capable of arousing envy. And in your case—"

Selene said, "Surely, I don't rouse your envy and hatred?"

"I don't think so. What about Neville, though?"

Selene was silent.

Denison said, "By the time you got to Neville, you were well-known as an Intuitionist, I suppose."

"Not
well
known, I would say. Some physicists suspected it, I'm sure. However, they don't like to give up credit here any more than on Earth, and I suppose they convinced themselves, more or less, that whatever I had said to them was just a meaningless guess. But Barron knew, of course."

"I see." Denison paused.

Selene's lips twitched. "Somehow I get the feeling that you want to say: 'Oh,
that's
why he bothers with you.'"

"No, of course not, Selene. You're quite attractive enough to be desired for your own sake."

"I think so, too, but every little bit helps and Barron was bound to be interested in my Intuitionism. Why shouldn't he be? Only he insisted I keep my job as tourist guide. He said I was an important natural resource of the Moon and he didn't want Earth monopolizing me the way they monopolized the synchrotron."

"An odd thought. But perhaps it was that the fewer who knew of your Intuitionism, the fewer would suspect your contribution to what would otherwise be put to his sole credit."

"Now you sound like Barron himself!"

"Do I? And is it possible he gets rather annoyed with you when your Intuitionism is working particularly well."

Selene shrugged. "Barron is a suspicious man. We all have our faults."

"Is it wise to be alone with me, then?"

Selene said, sharply, "Now don't get hurt because I defend him. He doesn't really suspect the possibility of sexual misbehavior between us. You're from Earth. In fact, I might as well tell you he encourages our companionship. He thinks I can learn from you."

"And have you?" asked Denison, coldly.

"I have.... Yet though that may be
his
chief reason for encouraging our friendship, it isn't mine."

"What's yours?"

"As you well know," said Selene, "and as you want to hear me say, I enjoy your company. Otherwise, I could get what I want in considerably less time."

"All right, Selene. Friends?"

"Friends! Absolutely."

"What have you learned from me, then? May I know?"

"That would take awhile to explain. You know that the reason we can't set up a Pump Station anywhere we want to is that we can't locate the para-Universe, even though they can locate us. That might be because they are much more intelligent or much more technologically advanced than we are—"

"Not necessarily me same thing," muttered Denison.

"I know. That's why I put in the 'or.' But it might also be that we are neither particularly stupid nor particularly backward. It might be something as simple as the fact that they offer the harder target. If the strong nuclear interaction is stronger in the para-Universe, they'd be bound to have much smaller Suns and, very likely, much smaller planets. Their individual world would be harder to locate than ours would be.

"Or then again," she went on, "suppose it's the electromagnetic field they detect. The electromagnetic field of a planet is much larger than the planet itself and is much easier to locate. And that would mean that while they can detect the Earth, they can't detect the Moon, which has no electromagnetic field to speak of. That's why, perhaps, we've failed to set up a Pump Station on the Moon. And, if their small planets lack a significant electromagnetic field, we can't locate them."

Denison said, "It's an attractive thought"

"Next, consider the inter-Universal exchange in properties that serves to weaken their strong nuclear interaction, cooling their Suns, while strengthening ours, heating and exploding our Suns. What might that imply? Suppose they can collect energy one-way without our help but only at ruinously low efficiencies. Under ordinary circumstances that would therefore be utterly impractical. They would need us to help direct concentrated energy in their direction by supplying tungsten-186 to them and accepting plutonium-186 in return. But suppose our Galactic arm implodes into a quasar. That would produce an energy concentration in the neighborhood of the Solar system enormously greater than now exists and one that might persist for over a million years.

"Once that quasar forms, even a ruinously low efficiency becomes sufficient. It wouldn't matter to them, therefore, whether we are destroyed or not. In fact, we might argue that it would be safer for them if we did explode. Until we do, we might end the Pump for any of a variety of reasons and they would be helpless to start it again. After the explosion, they are home free; no one could interfere. . . . And that's why people who say, 'If the Pump is dangerous, why don't those terribly clever para-men stop it?' don't know what they're talking about"

"Did Neville give you that argument?"

"Yes, he did."

"But the para-Sun would keep cooling down, wouldn't it?"

"What does that matter?" said Selene, impatiently. "With the Pump, they wouldn't be dependent on their Sun for anything."

Denison took a deep breath. "You can't possibly know this, Selene, but there was a rumor on Earth that Lament received a message from the para-men to the effect that the Pump was dangerous, but that they couldn't stop it. No one took it seriously, of course, but suppose it's true. Suppose Lamont did receive such a message. Might it be that some of the para-men were humanitarian enough to wish not-to destroy a world with cooperating intelligences upon it, and were prevented by the opposition of an oh-so-practical majority?"

Selene nodded. "I suppose that's possible.... All this I knew, or rather, intuited, before you came on the scene. But then you said that nothing between one and the infinite made any sense. Remember?"

"Of course."

"All right. The differences between our Universe and the para-Universe He so obviously in the strong nuclear interaction that so far it's all that's been studied. But there is more than one interaction; there are four. In addition to the strong nuclear, there is the electromagnetic, the weak nuclear, and the gravitational, with intensity ratios of 130:1:10-10:10-42. But if four, why not an infinite number, with all the others too weak to be detectable or to influence our Universe in any way,"

Denison said, "If an interaction is too weak to be detectable or to exert influence in any way, then by any operational definition, it doesn't exist."

"In
this
Universe," said Selene, with a snap. "Who knows what does or does not exist in the para-Universe? With an infinite number of possible interactions, each of which can vary infinitely in intensity compared to any one of them taken as standard, the number of different possible Universes that can exist is infinite."

"Possibly the infinity of the continuum; aleph-one, rather than aleph-null."

Selene frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It's not important. Go on."

Selene said, "Instead, then, of trying to work with the one para-Universe that has impinged itself on us and which may not suit our needs at all, why don't we instead try to work out which Universe, out of all the infinite possibilities, best suits us, and is most easily located. Let us
design
a Universe, for after all whatever we design must exist, and search for it."

Denison smiled. "Selene, I've thought of exactly the same thing. And while there's no law that states I can't be completely wrong, it's very unlikely that anyone as brilliant as myself can be completely wrong when anyone as brilliant as yourself comes to exactly the same conclusion independently.... Do you know what?"

"What?" asked Selene.

"I'm beginning to like your damned Moon food. Or getting used to it, anyway. Let's go back home and eat, and then we can start working out our plans. . . . And you know what else?"

"What?"

"As long as we'll be working together, how about one kiss—as experimentalist to intuitionist."

Selene considered. She said, "We've both of us kissed and been kissed a good many times, I suppose. How about doing it as man to woman?"

"I think I can manage that. But what do I do so as not to be clumsy about it? What are the Moon-rules for kissing?"

"Follow instinct," said Selene, casually.

Carefully, Denison placed his arms behind his back and leaned toward Selene. Then, after a while, he placed his arms behind her back.

13

"And then I actually kissed him back," said Selene, thoughtfully.

"Oh, did you?" said Barren Neville, harshly. "Well, that's valor beyond the call of duty."

"I don't know. It wasn't that bad. In fact," (and she smiled) "he was rather touching about it. He was afraid he would be clumsy and began by putting his arms behind his back so that he wouldn't crush me, I suppose."

"Spare me the details."

"Why, what the hell do you care?" she fired up, suddenly. "You're Mister Platonic, aren't you?"

"Do you want it differently? Now?"

"You needn't perform to order."

"But
you
had better. When do you expect to give us what we need?"

"As soon as I can," she said, tonelessly.

"Without his knowing?"

"He's interested only in energy."

"And in saving the world," mocked Neville. "And in being a hero. And in showing everybody. And in kissing you."

"He admits to all that. What do you admit to?"

"Impatience," said Neville, angrily. "Lots of impatience."

14

"I am glad," said Denison, deliberately, "that the daytime is over." He held out his right arm and stared at it, encased in its protective layers. "The Lunar Sun is one thing I can't get used to and don't want to get used to. Even this suit seems a natural thing to me in comparison."

"What's wrong with the Sun?" asked Selene.

"Don't tell "me you like it, Selene!"

"No, of course not. I hate it. But then I never see it You're an— You're used to the Sun."

"Not the way it is here on the Moon. It shines out of a black sky here. It dazzles
the
stars away, instead of muffling them. It is hot, hard, and dangerous. It is an enemy, and while it's in the sky, I can't help but feel that none of our attempts at reducing field intensity will succeed."

"That's superstition, 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.