The Gods Themselves

Denison said, sardonically, "It sounds kind of you to produce excess for our sake, but it isn't for our sake, of course. If our Electron Pumps explode the Sun, that will happen long before you can move out of even the inner Solar system and you will vaporize wherever you are."

"Perhaps," said Neville, "but in any case we will produce an excess, so that won't happen."

"But you can't do that," said Gottstein, excitedly. "You can't move out. If you get out too far, the cosmeg pump will no longer neutralize the Electron Pump, eh, Denison?"

Denison shrugged. "Once they are as far off as Saturn, more or less, there may be trouble, if I may trust a mental calculation I have just made. It will, however, be many years before they recede to such a distance and by that time, we will surely have constructed space stations in what was once the orbit of the Moon and place cosmeg pumps on them. Actually, we don't need the Moon. It can leave-except that it won't."

Neville smiled briefly. "What makes you think we won't? We can't be stopped. There is no way Earthmen can impose their will on us."

"You won't leave, because there's no sense to doing so. Why drag the entire Moon away? To build up respectable accelerations will take years where the Moon-mass is concerned. You'll creep. Build starships instead; miles-long ships that are cosmeg-powered and have independent ecologies. With a cosmeg momentum-drive, you can then do wonders. If it takes twenty years to build the ships, they will nevertheless accelerate at a rate that will enable them to overtake the Moon's place within a year even if the Moon starts accelerating today. The ships will be able to change course in a tiny fraction of the time the Moon will."

"And the unbalanced cosmeg pumps? What will that do to the Universe?"

"The energy required by a ship, or even by a number, will be far less than that required by a planet and will be distributed throughout large sections of the Universe. It will be millions of years before any significant change takes place. That is well worth the maneuverability you gain. The Moon will move so slowly it might as well be left in space."

Neville said, scornfully, "We're in no hurry to get anywhere-except away from Earth."

Denison said, "There are advantages in having Earth as a neighbor. You have the influx of the Immigrants. You have cultural intercourse. You have a planetary world of two billion people just over the horizon. Do you want to give all that up?"

"Gladly."

"Is that true of the people of the Moon generally? Or just of you? There's something intense about you, Neville. You won't go out on the surface. Other Lunarites do. They don't like it particularly, but they do. The interior of the Moon isn't their womb, as it is in your case. It isn't their prison, as it is yours. There is a neurotic factor in you that is absent in most Lunarities, or at least considerably weaker. If you take the Moon away from Earth, you make it into a prison for all. It will become a one-world prison from which no man-and not you only-can emerge, not even to the extent of seeing another inhabited world in the sky. Perhaps that is what you want."

"I want independence; a free world; a world untouched by the outside."

"You can build ships, any number. You can move outward at near-light velocities without difficulty, once you transfer momentum to the cosmeg. You can explore the entire Universe in a single lifetime. Wouldn't you like to get on such a ship?"

"No," said Neville, with clear distaste.

"Wouldn't you? Or is it couldn't? Is it that you must take the Moon with you wherever you go Why must all the others accept your need?"

"Because that's the way it's going to be," said Neville.

Denison's voice remained level but his cheeks reddened. "Who gave you the right to say that? There are many citizens of Luna City who may not feel as you do."

"That is none of your concern."

"That is precisely my concern. I am an Immigrant who will qualify for citizenship soon. I do not wish to have my choice made for me by someone who cannot emerge on the surface and who wants his personal prison made into a prison for all. I have left Earth forever, but only to come to the Moon, only to remain a quarter-million miles from the home-planet. I have not contracted to be taken forever away for an unlimited distance,"

"Then return to Earth," said Neville, indifferently. "There is still time."

"And what of the other citizens of Luna? The other Immigrants?"

"The decision is made."

"It is not made… Selene!"

Selene entered, her face solemn, her eyes a little defiant.

Neville's legs uncrossed. Both shoes came down flat upon the ground.

Neville said, "How long have you been waiting in the next room, Selene?"

"Since before you arrived, Barron," she said.

Neville looked from Selene to Denison and back again. "You two-" he began, finger pointing from one to the other and back.

"I don't know what you mean by you two,'" said Selene, "but Ben found out about the momentum quite a while ago."