that I haven’t taken all factors into account. He’ll say I’ve used inadequate controls.… What he’ll really be saying is that he wants the Electron Pump and won’t give it up.”
“You mean there’s no way out.”
“Of course there is, but not the direct way. Not Lamont’s way.”
“What’s that?”
“Lamont’s solution is to force abandonment of the Pump, but you can’t just move backward. You can’t push the chicken back into the egg, wine back into the grape, the boy back into the womb. If you want the baby to let go of your watch, you don’t just try to explain that he ought to do it—you offer him something he would rather have.”
“And what’s that?”
“Ah, that’s where I’m not so sure. I do have an idea, a simple idea—perhaps too simple to work—based on the quite obvious fact that the number two is ridiculous and can’t exist.”
There was a silence that lasted for a minute or so and then Selene, her voice as absorbed as his, said, “Let me guess your meaning.”
“I don’t know that I have any,” said Denison.
“Let me guess, anyway. It could make sense to suppose that our own Universe is the only one that can exist or does exist, because it is the only one we live in and directly experience. Once, however, evidence arises that there is a second Universe as well, the one we call the para-Universe, then it becomes absolutely ridiculous to suppose that there are two and only two Universes. If a second Universe can exist, then an infinite number can. Between one and the infinite in cases such as these, there are no sensible numbers. Not only two, but any finite number, is ridiculous and can’t exist.”
Denison said, “That’s exactly my reas—” And silence fell again.
Denison heaved himself into a sitting position and looked down on the suit-encased girl. He said, “I think we had better go back to town.”
She said, “I was just guessing.”
He said, “No, you weren’t. Whatever it was, it wasn’t just guessing.”
11
Barron Neville stared at her, quite speechless for a while. She looked calmly back at him. Her window panorama had been changed again. One of them now showed the Earth, a little more than half full.
Finally, he said, “Why?”
She said, “It was an accident, really, I saw the point and I was too enthusiastic not to speak. I should have told you days ago but I was afraid your reaction would be exactly what it is.”
“So he knows. You fool!”
She frowned. “What does he know? Only what he would have guessed sooner or later—that I’m not really a tourist guide—that I’m your Intuitionist. An Intuitionist who knows no mathematics, for heaven’s sake. So what if he knows that? What does it matter if I have intuition? How many times have you told me that my intuition has no value till it is backed by mathematical rigor and experimental observation? How many times have you told me that the most compelling intuition could be wrong? Well, then, what value will he place on mere Intuitionism?”
Neville grew white, but Selene couldn’t tell whether that was out of anger or apprehension. He said, “You’re different. Hasn’t your intuition always proved right? When you were sure of it?”
“Ah, but he doesn’t know that, does he?”
“He’ll guess it. He’ll see Gottstein.”
“What will he tell Gottstein? He still has no idea of what we’re really after.”
“Doesn’t he?”
“No.” She had stood up, walked away. Now she turned to him and shouted, “No! It’s cheap of you to imply that I would betray you and the rest. If you don’t accept my integrity then accept my common sense. There’s no point in telling them. What’s the use of it to them, or to us, if we’re all going to be destroyed?”
“Oh, please, Selene!” Neville waved his hand in disgust. “Not that.”
“No. You listen. He talked to me and described his work. You hide me like a secret weapon. You tell me that I’m more valuable than any instrument or any ordinary scientist. You play your games of conspiracy, insisting that everyone must continue to think me a tourist guide and nothing more so that my great talents will always be available to the Lunarites. To you. And what do you accomplish?”
“We have you, haven’t we? How long do you suppose you would have remained free, if they—”
“You keep saying things like that. But who’s been imprisoned? Who’s been stopped? Where is the evidence of the great conspiracy you see all around you? The Earthmen keep