Gottstein said, “Am I wrong, or isn’t that the situation that prevailed in our own Universe before the time of the big bang—one vast body containing all the universal mass.”
“Yes,” said Denison, “as a matter of fact, the antipara-Universe I am picturing consists of what some call a cosmic egg; or ‘cosmeg’ for short. A cosmeg-Universe is what we need if we are to probe for one-way leakage. The para-Universe we are now using with its tiny stars is virtually empty space. You can probe and probe and touch nothing.”
“The para-men reached us, however.”
“Yes, possibly by following magnetic fields. There is some reason to think that there are no planetary magnetic fields of significance in the para-Universe, which deprives us of the advantage they have. On the other hand, if we probe the cosmeg-Universe, we cannot fail. The cosmeg is, itself, the entire Universe, and wherever we probe we strike matter.”
“But how do you probe for it?”
Denison hesitated. “That is the part I find difficult to explain. Pions are the mediating particles of the strong nuclear interaction. The intensity of the interaction depends on the mass of the pions and that mass can, under certain specialized conditions, be altered. The Lunar physicists have developed an instrument they call the Pionizer, which can be made to do just such a thing. Once the pion’s mass is decreased, or increased for that matter, it is, effectively, part of another Universe; it becomes a gateway, a crossing point. If it is decreased sufficiently, it can be made part of a cosmeg-Universe and that’s what we want.”
Gottstein said, “And you can suck in matter from the—the—cosmeg-Universe?”
“That part is easy. Once the gateway forms, the influx is spontaneous. The matter enters with its own laws and is stable when it arrives. Gradually the laws of our own Universe soak in, the strong interaction grows stronger, and the matter fuses and begins to give off enormous energy.”
“But if it is super-dense, why doesn’t it just expand in a puff of smoke.”
“That, too, would yield energy, but that depends on the electromagnetic field and in this particular case the strong interaction takes precedence, because we control the electromagnetic field. It would take quite a time to explain that.”
“Well, then, the globe of light that I saw on the surface was cosmeg material fusing?”
“Yes, Commissioner.”
“And that energy can be harnessed for useful purposes?”
“Certainly. And in any quantity. What you saw was the arrival in our Universe of micromicrogram masses of cosmeg. There’s nothing, in theory, to prevent our bringing it over in ton-lots.”
“Well, then, this can be used to replace the Electron Pump.”
Denison shook his head. “No. The use of cosmeg energy also alters the properties of the Universes in question. The strong interaction gradually grows more intense in the cosmeg-Universe and less intense in ours as the laws of nature cross over. That means that the cosmeg slowly undergoes fusion at a greater rate and gradually warms up. Eventually—”
“Eventually,” said Gottstein, crossing his arms across his chest and narrowing his eyes, thoughtfully, “it explodes in a big bang.”
“That’s my feeling.”
“Do you suppose that’s what happened to our own Universe ten billion years ago?”
“Perhaps. Cosmogonists have wondered why the original cosmic egg exploded at some one point in time and not at another. One solution was to imagine an oscillating Universe in which the cosmic egg was formed and then at once exploded. The oscillating Universe has been eliminated as a possibility and the conclusion is that the cosmic egg had to exist for some long period of time and then went through a crisis of instability which arose for some unknown reason.”
“But which may have been the result of the tapping of its energy across the Universes.”
“Possibly, but not necessarily by some intelligence, Perhaps there are occasional spontaneous leaks.”
“And when the big bang takes place,” said Gottstein, “can we still extract energy from the cosmeg-Universe?”
“I’m not sure, but surely that is not an immediate worry. The leakage of our strong-interaction field into the cosmeg-Universe must very likely continue for millions of years before pushing it past the critical point. And there must be other cosmeg-Universes; an infinite number, perhaps.
“What about the change in our own Universe?”
“The strong interaction weakens. Slowly, very slowly, our Sun cools off.”
“Can we use cosmeg energy to make up for that?”
“That would not be necessary, Commissioner,” said Denison, earnestly. “While the strong interaction here in our Universe weakens as a result of the cosmeg pump, it strengthens through the action of the