The Gods Themselves

"You are aware of the cosmeg pump experiments? Of its implications?"

"All of them. I know the situation as well as you two do."

"Then I will proceed without preliminaries. I have returned from Earth, Dr. Neville, and it is quite settled as to what will be the course of future procedure. Large cosmeg pump stations will be set up on three different places on the Lunar surface in such a way that one will always be in the night-shadow. Half the time, two win be. Those in the night-shadow will be constantly generating energy, most of which will simply radiate into space. The purpose will be not so much to use the energy for practical purposes, as to counteract the changes in field intensities introduced by the Electron Pump."

Denison interrupted. "For some years, we will have to overbalance the Electron Pump to restore our section of the Universe to the point at which it was before the pump began operation."

Neville nodded. "Will Luna City have the use of any of it?"

"If necessary. We feel the Solar batteries will probably supply what you need, but there is no objection to supplementation."

"That is land of you," said Neville, not bothering to mask the sarcasm. "And who will build and run the cosmeg pump stations?"

"Lunar workers, we hope," said Gottstein.

"Lunar workers, you know," said Neville. "Earth workers would be too clumsy to work effectively on the Moon."

"We recognize that," said Gottstein, "We trust the men of the Moon will cooperate."

"And who will decide how much energy to generate, how much to apply for any local purpose, how much to radiate away? Who decides policy?"

Gottstein said, "The government would have to. It's a matter of planetary decision."

Neville said, "You see, then, it will be Moonmen who do the work; Earthmen who run the show."

Gottstein said, calmly, "No. All of us work who work best; all of us administer who can best weigh the total problem."

"I hear the words," said Neville, "but it boils down anyway to us working and you deciding… No, Commissioner. Hie answer is no."

"You mean you won't build the cosmeg pump stations?"

"Well build them, Commissioner, but they'll be ours. Well decide how much energy to put out and what use to make of it."

"That would scarcely be efficient. You would have to deal constantly with the Earth government since the cosmeg pump energy will have to balance the Electron Pump energy."

"I dare say it will, more or less, but we have other things in mind. You might as well know now. Energy is not the only conserved phenomenon that becomes limitless once universes are crossed."

Denison interrupted. "There are a number of conservation laws. We realize that."

"I'm glad you do," said Neville, turning a hostile glare in his direction. "They include those of linear momentum and angular momentum. As long as any object responds to the gravitational field in which it is immersed, and to that only, it is in free fall and can retain its mass. In order to move in any other way than free fall, it must accelerate in a non-gravitational way and for that to happen, part of itself must undergo an opposite change."

"As in a rocketship," said Denison, "which must eject mass in one direction in order that the rest might accelerate in the opposite direction."

"I'm sure you understand, Dr. Denison," said Neville, "but I explain for the Commissioner's sake. The loss of mass can be minimized if its velocity is increased enormously, since momentum is equal to mass multiplied by velocity. Nevertheless, however great the velocity, some mass must be thrown away. If the mass which must be acceterated is enormous in the first place, then the mass which must be discarded is also enormous. If the Moon, for instance-"

"The Moon!" said Gottstein, explosively.

"Yes, the Moon," said Neville, calmly. "If the Moon were to be driven out of its orbit and sent out of the Solar system, the conservation of momentum would make it a colossal undertaking, and probably a thoroughly impractical one. If, however, momentum could be transferred to the cosmeg in another Universe, the Moon could accelerate at any convenient rate without loss of mass at all. It would be like poling a barge upstream, to give you a picture I obtained from some Earth-book I once read."

"But why? I mean why should you want to move the Moon?"

"I should think that would be obvious. Why do we need the suffocating presence of the Earth? We have the energy we need; we have a comfortable world through which we have room to expand for the next few centuries, at least Why not go our own way? In any case, we will. I have come to tell you that you cannot stop us and to urge you to make no attempt to interfere. We shall transfer momentum and we shall pull out. We of the Moon know precisely how to go about building cosmeg pump stations. We will use what energy we need for ourselves and produce excess in order to neutralize the changes your own power stations are producing."