cutting off any chance of further explanation. Hallam did not fail that expectation. He sprang out of his chair, which fell over. He kicked the chair away and took the two steps that separated him from Lamont.
Warily, Lamont pushed his own chair hastily backward and stood up.
“You idiot,” shouted Hallam, almost stammering in his anger. “Don’t you suppose everyone at the station understands about the equalization of natural law. Are you wasting my time telling me something I knew when you were learning to read? Get out of here, and any time you want to offer me your resignation, consider it accepted.”
Lamont left, having obtained exactly what he wanted, and yet he felt himself to be furious over Hallam’s treatment of him.
6 (concluded)
“Anyway,” said Lamont, “it clears the gound. I’ve tried to tell him. He wouldn’t listen. So I take the next step.”
“And what is that?” said Bronowski.
“I’m going to see Senator Burt.”
“You mean the head of the Committee on Technology and the Environment?”
“The same. You’ve heard of him, then.”
“Who hasn’t. But where’s the point, Pete. What have you got that would interest him? It’s not the translation. Pete, I’m asking you once again. What have you got on your mind?”
“I can’t explain. You don’t know para-theory.”
“Does Senator Burt?”
“More than you, I think.”
Bronowski pointed his finger. “Pete, let’s not kid around. Maybe I know things you don’t. We can’t work together if we work against each other. Either I’m a member of this little two-man corporation or I’m not. You tell me what’s on your mind, and I’ll tell you something in exchange. Otherwise, let’s stop this altogether.”
Lamont shrugged. “All right. If you want it, I’ll give it to you. Now that I’ve got it past Hallam, maybe it’s just as well. The point is that the Electron Pump is transferring natural law. In the para-Universe, the strong interaction is a hundred times stronger than it is here, which means that nuclear fission is much more likely here than there, and nuclear fusion is much more likely there than here. If the Electron Pump keeps on long enough, there will be a final equilibrium in which the strong nuclear interaction will be equally strong in both Universes, and be at a figure about ten times what it is here now and one-tenth what it is there now.”
“Didn’t anyone know this?”
“Oh, sure, everyone knew it. It was obvious almost from the start. Even Hallam can see it. That’s what got the bastard so excited. I started telling him this in detail as though I didn’t think he had ever heard it before and he blew up.”
“But what’s the point then? Is there danger in the interaction becoming intermediate.”
“Of course. What do you think?”
“I don’t think anything. When will it become intermediate?”
“At the present rate, 1030 years or so.”
“How long is that?”
“Long enough for a trillion trillion Universes like this one to be born, live, grow old, and die, one after the other.”
“Oh blazes, Pete. What odds does it make then?”
“Because to reach that figure,” said Lamont, slowly and carefully, “which is the official one, certain assumptions were made which I think were wrong. And if certain other assumptions are made, which I think are right, we’re in trouble now.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Suppose the Earth turned into a whiff of gas in a period of about five minutes. Would you consider that trouble?”
“Because of the Pumping?”
“Because of the Pumping!”
“And how about the world of the para-men? Would they be in danger, too?”
“I’m sure of it. A different danger, but danger.”
Bronowski stood up and began pacing. He wore his brown hair thick and long in what had once been called a Buster Brown. Now he was clutching at it. He said, “If the para-men are more intelligent than we are, would they be running the Pump? Surely they would know it was dangerous, before we did.”
“I’ve thought of that,” said Lamont. “What I guess is that they’ve started Pumping for the first time and they, like us, got the process started for the apparent good it would bring and worried about consequences later.”
“But you say you know the consequences now. Would they be slower than you were?”
“It depends on if and when they look for those consequences. The Pump is too attractive to try to spoil. I wouldn’t have looked myself if I hadn’t—But what’s on your mind, Mike?”
Bronowski stopped his pacing, looked full at Lamont, and said, “I think we’ve got something.”
Lamont looked at him wildly, then leaped forward to seize the