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If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Critical difference - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: August 6, 2022 [eBook #68686] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL DIFFERENCE *** - - - - - - CRITICAL DIFFERENCE - - BY MURRAY LEINSTER - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Astounding Science Fiction, July 1956. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - I - - -Massy waked that morning when the only partly-opened port of his -sleeping-cabin closed of itself and the room-warmer began to whir. He -found himself burrowed deep under his covering, and when he got his -head out of it the already-bright room was bitterly cold and his breath -made a fog about him. - -He thought uneasily, _It's colder than yesterday!_ But a Colonial -Survey officer is not supposed to let himself seem disturbed, in -public, and the only way to follow that rule is to follow it in -private, too. So Massy composed his features, while gloom filled him. -When one has just received senior service rating and is on one's very -first independent survey of a new colonial installation, the unexpected -can be appalling. The unexpected was definitely here, on Lani III. - -He'd been a Survey Candidate on Khali II and Taret and Arepo I, -all of which were tropical, and a Junior Officer on Menes III and -Thotmes--one a semiarid planet and the other temperate-volcanic--and -he'd done an assistant job on Saril's solitary world, which was -nine-tenths water. But this first independent survey on his own was -another matter. Everything was wholly unfamiliar. An ice planet with a -minus point one habitability rating was upsetting in its peculiarities. -He knew what the books said about glacial-world conditions, but that -was all. - -The denseness of the fog his breath made seemed to grow less as the -room-warmer whirred and whirred. When by the thinness of the mist he -guessed the temperature to be not much under freezing, he climbed out -of his bunk and went to the port to look out. His cabin, of course, -was in one of the drone-hulls that had brought the colony's equipment -to Lani III. The other emptied hulls were precisely ranged in order -outside. They were duly connected by tubular galleries, and very -painstakingly leveled. They gave an impression of impassioned tidiness -among the upheaved, ice-coated mountains all about. - -He gazed down the long valley in which the colony lay. There were -monstrous slanting peaks on either side. They partly framed the morning -sun. Their sides were ice. The flanks of every mountain in view were -ice. The sky was pale. The sun had four sun-dogs placed geometrically -about it. It shone coldly upon this far-out world. Normal post-midnight -temperatures in this valley ranged around ten below zero--and this -was technically summer. But it was colder than ten below zero now. At -noon there were normally tiny trickling rills of surface-thaw running -down the sunlit sides of the mountains--but they froze again at night -and the frost replaced itself after sunset. And this was a sheltered -valley--warmer than most of the planet's surface. The sun had its -sun-dogs every day, on rising. There were nights when the brighter -planets had star-pups, too. - - * * * * * - -The phone-plate lighted and dimmed and lighted and dimmed. They -did themselves well on Lani III--but the parent world was in this -same solar system. That was rare. Massy stood before the plate and -it cleared. Herndon's face peered unhappily out of it. He was even -younger than Massy, and inclined to lean heavily on the supposedly vast -experience of a Senior Officer of the Colonial Survey. - -"Well?" said Massy--and suddenly felt very undignified in his -sleeping-garments. - -"We're picking up a beam from home," said Herndon anxiously, "but we -can't make it out." - -Because the third planet of the sun Lani was being colonized from -the second, inhabited world, communication with the colony's base -was possible. A tight beam could span a distance which was only -light-minutes across at conjunction, and not much over a light-hour -at opposition--as now. But the beam communication had been broken -for the past few weeks, and shouldn't be possible again for some -weeks more. The sun lay between. One couldn't expect normal -sound-and-picture transmission until the parent planet had moved past -the scrambler-fields of Lani. But something had come through. It would -be reasonable for it to be pretty well hashed when it arrived. - -"They aren't sending words or pictures," said Herndon uneasily. "The -beam is wabbly and we don't know what to make of it. It's a signal, all -right, and on the regular frequency. But there are all sorts of stray -noises, and still in the midst of it there's some sort of signal we -can't make out. It's like a whine, only it stutters. It's a broken-up -sound of one pitch." - -Massy rubbed his chin reflectively. He remembered a course in -information theory just before he'd graduated from the Service Academy. -Signals made by pulses, and pitch-changes and frequency-variations. -Information was what couldn't be predicted without information. And he -remembered with gratitude a seminar on the history of communication, -just before he'd gone out on his first field job as a Survey Candidate. - -"Hm-m-m," he said with a trace of self-consciousness. "Those -noises--the stuttering ones. Would they be, on the whole, of no more -than two different durations? Like--hm-m-m--_Bzz bzz bzzzzzz bzz_?" - -He felt that he lost dignity by making such ribald sounds. But -Herndon's face brightened. - -"That's it!" he said relievedly. "That's it! Only they're high-pitched -like--" His voice went falsetto. "_Bzz bzz bzz bzzzzz bzz bzz!_" - -It occurred to Massy that they sounded like two idiots. He said with -dignity: - -"Record everything you get, and I'll try to decode it." He added: -"Before there was voice communication there were signals by light -and sounds in groups of long and short units. They came in groups, -to stand for letters, and things were spelled out. Of course there -were larger groups which were words. Very crude system, but it worked -when there was great interference, as in the early days. If there's -some emergency, your home world might try to get through the sun's -scrambler-field that way." - -"Undoubtedly!" said Herndon, with even greater relief. "No question, -that's it!" - -He regarded Massy with great respect as he clicked off. His image -faded. The plate was clear. - - * * * * * - -_He thinks I'm wonderful_, thought Massy wryly. _Because I'm Colonial -Survey. But all I know is what's been taught me. It's bound to show up -sooner or later. Damn!_ - -He dressed. From time to time he looked out the port again. The -intolerable cold of Lani III had intensified, lately. There was some -idea that sunspots were somehow the cause. He couldn't make out -sunspots with the naked eye, but the sun did look pale, with its -accompanying sun-dogs. Massy was annoyed by them. They were the result -of microscopic ice-crystals suspended in the air. There was no dust on -this planet, but there was plenty of ice! It was in the air and on the -ground and even under it. To be sure, the drills for the foundation -of the great landing-grid had brought up cores of frozen humus along -with frozen clay, so there must have been a time when this world had -known clouds and seas and vegetation. But it was millions, maybe -hundreds of millions of years ago. Right now, though, it was only warm -enough to have an atmosphere and very slight and partial thawings in -direct sunlight, in sheltered spots, at midday. It couldn't support -life, because life is always dependent on other life, and there is a -temperature below which a natural ecological system can't maintain -itself. The past few weeks, the climate had been such that even -human-supplied life looked dubious. - -Massy slipped on his Colonial Survey uniform with its palm-tree -insignia. Nothing could be much more inappropriate than palm-tree -symbols on a planet with sixty feet of permafrost. Massy reflected -wryly, _The construction gang calls it a blast, instead of a tree, -because we blow up when they try to dodge specifications. But -specifications have to be met! You can't bet the lives of a colony or -even a ship's crew on half-built facilities!_ - -He marched down the corridor from his sleeping room, with the dignity -he painstakingly tried to maintain for the sake of the Colonial Survey. -It was a pretty lonely business, being dignified all the time. If -Herndon didn't look so respectful, it would have been pleasant to be -more friendly. But Herndon revered him. Even his sister Riki-- - -But Massy put her firmly out of his mind. He was on Lani III to check -and approve the colony installations. There was the giant landing-grid -for spaceships, which took power from the ionosphere to bring heavily -loaded space-vessels gently to the ground, and in between times took -power from the same source to supply the colony's needs. It also -lifted visiting spacecraft the necessary five planetary diameters out -when they took off again. There was power-storage in the remote event -of disaster to that giant device. There was a food-reserve and the -necessary resources for its indefinite stretching in case of need. That -usually meant hydroponic installations. There was a reason for the -colony, which would make it self-supporting--here a mine. All these -things had had to be finished and operable and inspected by a duly -qualified Colonial Survey officer before the colony could be licensed -for unlimited use. It was all very normal and official, but Massy was -the newest Senior Survey Officer on the list, and this was the first of -his independent operations. He felt inadequate, sometimes. - -He passed through the vestibule between this drone-hull and the next. -He went directly to Herndon's office. Herndon, like himself, was newly -endowed with authority. He was actually a mining-and-minerals man and -a youthful prodigy in that field, but when the director of the colony -was taken ill while a supply ship was aground, he went back to the home -planet and command devolved on Herndon. _I wonder_, thought Massy, _if -he feels as shaky as I do?_ - - * * * * * - -When he entered the office, Herndon sat listening to a literal hash -of noises coming out of a speaker on his desk. The cryptic signal had -been relayed to him, and a recorder stored it as it came. There were -cracklings and squeals and moaning sounds, and sputters and rumbles -and growls. But behind the façade of confusion there was a tiny, -interrupted, high-pitched noise. It was a monotone whining not to be -confused with the random sounds accompanying it. Sometimes it faded -almost to inaudibility, and sometimes it was sharp and clear. But it -was a distinctive sound in itself, and it was made up of short whines -and longer ones of two durations only. - -"I've put Riki at making a transcription of what we've got," said -Herndon with relief as he saw Massy. "She'll make short marks for the -short sounds, and long ones for the long. I've told her to try to -separate the groups. We've got a full half hour of it, already." - -Massy made an inspired guess. - -"I would expect it to be the same message repeated over and over," he -said. He added. "And I think it would be decoded by guessing at the -letters in two-letter and three-letter words, as clues to longer ones. -That's quicker than statistical analysis of frequency." - -Herndon instantly pressed buttons under his phone-plate. He relayed the -information to Riki, his sister, as if it were gospel. Massy remembered -guiltily that it wasn't gospel. It was simply a trick recalled from -his boyhood, when he was passionately interested in secret languages. -His interest had faded when he realized he had no secrets to record or -transmit. - -Herndon turned from the phone-plate. - -"Riki says she's already learned to recognize some groups," he -reported, "but thanks for the advice. Now what?" - -Massy sat down. He'd have liked some coffee, but he was being treated -with such respect that the role of demigod was almost forced on him. - -"It seems to me," he observed, "that the increased cold out here might -not be local. Sunspots--" - -Herndon jittered visibly. He silently handed over a sheet of paper -with observation-figures on top and a graph below them which related -the observations to each other. They were the daily, at-first-routine, -measurements of the solar constant from Lani III. The graph-line almost -ran off the paper at the bottom. - -"To look at this," he admitted, "you'd think the sun was going out. Of -course it can't be," he added hastily. "Not possibly! But there is an -extraordinary number of sunspots. Maybe they'll clear. But meanwhile -the amount of heat reaching us is dropping. As far as I know there's -no parallel to it. Night temperatures are thirty degrees lower than -they should be. Not only here, either, but at all the robot weather -stations that have been spotted around the planet. They average forty -below zero minimum, instead of ten. And--there is that terrific lot of -sunspots...." - -He looked hopefully at Massy. Massy frowned. Sunspots are things -about which nothing can be done. Yet the habitability of a borderline -planet, anyhow, can very well depend on them. An infinitesimal change -in sun heat can make a serious change in any planet's temperature. In -the books, the ancient mother planet Earth was said to have entered -glacial periods through a drop of only three degrees in the planet-wide -temperature, and to have been tropic almost to its poles from a rise of -only six. It had been guessed that glacial periods in the planet where -humanity began had been caused by coincidences of sunspot maxima. - -This planet was already glacial to its equator. There was a genuinely -abnormal number of sunspots on Lani, its sun. Sunspots could account -for worsening conditions here, perhaps. _That message from the inner -planet could be bad_, thought Massy, _if the solar constant drops and -stays down a while._ But aloud he said: - -"There couldn't be a really significant permanent change. Not quickly, -anyhow. Lani's a Sol-type star, and they aren't variables, though of -course any dynamic system like a sun will have cyclic modifications of -one sort or another. But they usually cancel out." - -He sounded encouraging, even to himself. But there was a stirring -behind him. Riki Herndon had come silently into her brother's office. -She looked pale. She put papers down on her brother's desk. - -"But," she said evenly, "while cycles sometimes cancel, sometimes they -enhance each other. They heterodyne. That's what's happening." - - * * * * * - -Massy scrambled to his feet, flushing. Herndon said sharply: - -"What? Where'd you get that stuff, Riki?" - -She nodded at the sheaf of papers she'd just laid down. - -"That's the news from home." She nodded again, to Massy. "You were -right. It was the same message, repeated over and over. And I decoded -it like children decode each other's secret messages. I did that to Ken -once. He was twelve, and I decoded his diary, and I remember how angry -he was that I'd found out he didn't have any secrets." - -She tried to smile. But Herndon wasn't listening. He read swiftly. -Massy saw that the under sheets were rows of dots and dashes, -painstakingly transcribed and then decoded. There were letters under -each group of marks. - -Herndon was very white when he'd finished. He handed the sheet to -Massy. Riki's handwriting was precise and clear. Massy read: - -"FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC VARIATIONS IN SUNSPOT ACTIVITY WITH PREVIOUS -UNOBSERVED LONG CYCLES APPARENTLY INCREASING THE EFFECT MAXIMUM -IS NOT YET REACHED AND IT IS EXPECTED THAT THIS PLANET WILL BECOME -UNINHABITABLE FOR A TIME ALREADY KILLING FROSTS HAVE DESTROYED CROPS -IN SUMMER HEMISPHERE IT IS IMPROBABLE THAT MORE THAN A SMALL PART OF -THE POPULATION CAN BE SHELTERED AND WARMED THROUGH DEVELOPING GLACIAL -CONDITIONS WHICH WILL REACH TO EQUATOR IN TWO HUNDRED DAYS THE COLD -CONDITIONS ARE COMPUTED TO LAST TWO THOUSAND DAYS BEFORE NORMAL SOLAR -CONSTANT RECURS THIS INFORMATION IS SENT YOU TO ADVISE IMMEDIATE -DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROPONIC FOOD SUPPLY AND OTHER PRECAUTIONS MESSAGE -ENDS FOR YOUR INFORMATION THE SOLAR CONSTANT IS DROPPING RAPIDLY DUE TO -COINCIDENCE OF CYCLIC--" - -Massy looked up. Herndon's face was ghastly. Massy said in some -grimness: - -"Kent IV's the nearest world your planet could hope to get help from. -A mail liner will make it in two months. Kent IV might be able to send -three ships--to get here in two months more. That's no good!" - -He felt sick. Human-inhabited planets are far apart. The average -distance of stars of all types--there is on an average between four -and five light-years of distance between suns. They are two months' -spaceship journey apart. And not all stars are sol-type or have -inhabited planets. Colonized worlds are like isolated islands in an -unimaginably vast ocean, and the ships that ply between them at thirty -light-speeds seem merely to creep. In ancient days on the mother planet -Earth, men sailed for months between ports, in their clumsy sailing -ships. There was no way to send messages faster than they could travel. -Nowadays there was little improvement. News of the Lani disaster -could not be transmitted. It had to be carried, as between stars, and -carriage was slow and response to news of disaster was no faster. - -The inner planet, Lani II, had twenty millions of inhabitants, as -against the three hundred people in the colony on Lani III. The outer -planet was already frozen, but there would be glaciation on the inner -world in two hundred days. Glaciation and human life are mutually -exclusive. Human beings can survive only so long as food and power hold -out, and shelter against really bitter cold cannot be improvised for -twenty million people! And, of course, there could be no outside help -on any adequate scale. News of the need for it would travel too slowly. -One other world might hear in two months, and send what aid it could -in four. But the next would not hear for four months, and could not -send help in less than eight. It would take five Earth-years to get a -thousand ships to Lani II--and a thousand ships could not rescue more -than one per cent of the population. But in five years there would not -be nearly so many people left alive. - - * * * * * - -Herndon licked his lips. There were three hundred people in the -already-frozen colony. They had food and power and shelter. They had -been considered splendidly daring to risk the conditions here. But -all their home world would presently be like this. And there was no -possibility of equipping everybody there as the colonists were equipped. - -"Our people," said Riki in a thin voice, "all of them.... Mother and -father and--the others. Our cousins. All our friends. Home is going to -be like ... like that!" - -She jerked her head toward a port which let in the frigid -colony-world's white daylight. Her face worked. - -Massy was aware of an extreme unhappiness on her account. For himself, -of course, the tragedy was less. He had no family. He had very few -friends. But he could see something that had not occurred to them as -yet. - -"Of course," he said, "it's not only their trouble. If the solar -constant is really dropping like that ... why things out here will be -pretty bad too. A lot worse than they are now. We'll have to get to -work to save ourselves!" - -Riki did not look at him. Herndon bit his lips. It was plain that their -own fate did not concern them immediately. But when one's home world -is doomed, one's personal safety seems a very trivial matter. - -There was silence save for the crackling, tumultuous noises that came -out of the speaker on Herndon's desk. In the midst of that confused -sound there was a wavering, whining, high-pitched note which swelled -and faded and grew distinct again. - -"We," said Massy without confidence, "are right now in the conditions -they'll face a good long time from now." - -Herndon said dully: - -"But we couldn't live here without supplies from home. Or even without -the equipment we brought. But they can't get supplies from anywhere, -and they can't make such equipment for everybody! They'll die!" He -swallowed, and there was a clicking noise in his throat. "They ... they -know it, too. So they ... warn us to try to save ourselves because ... -they can't help us any more." - -There are many reasons why a man can feel shame that he belongs to a -race which can do the things that some men do. But sometimes there are -reasons to be proud, as well. The home world of this colony was doomed, -but it sent a warning to the tiny group on the colony-world, to allow -them to try to save themselves. - -"I ... wish we were there to ... share what they have to face," said -Riki. Her voice sounded as if her throat hurt. "I ... don't want to -keep on living if ... everybody who ... ever cared about us is going to -die!" - -Massy felt lonely. He could understand that nobody would want to live -as the only human alive. Nobody would want to live as a member of the -only group of people left alive. And everybody thinks of his home -planet as all the world there is. _I don't think that way_, thought -Massy. _But maybe it's the way I'd feel about living if Riki were to -die._ It would be natural to want to share any danger or any disaster -she faced. Which he was. - -"L-look!" he said, stammering a little "You don't see! It isn't a case -of your living while they die! If your home world becomes like this, -what will this be like? We're farther from the sun! We're colder to -start with! Do you think we'll live through anything they can't take? -Food supplies or no, equipment or no, do you think we've got a chance? -Use your brains!" - -Herndon and Riki stared at him. And then some of the strained look left -Riki's face and body. Herndon blinked, and said slowly: - -"Why ... that's so! We were thought to be taking a terrific risk when -we came here. But it'll be as much worse here--Of course! We are in the -same fix they're in!" - -He straightened a little. Color actually came back into his face. Riki -managed to smile. And then Herndon said almost naturally: - -"That makes things look more sensible! We've got to fight for our -lives, too! And we've very little chance of saving them! What do we do -about it, Massy?" - - - - - II - - -The sun was halfway toward mid-sky, and still attended by its sun-dogs, -though they were fainter than at the horizon. The sky was darker. The -mountain peaks reached skyward, serene and utterly aloof from the -affairs of men. This was a frozen world, where there should be no -inhabitants. The city was a fleet of metal hulks, neatly arranged on -the valley floor, emptied of the material they had brought for the -building of the colony. At the upper end of the valley the landing-grid -stood. It was a gigantic skeleton of steel, rising from legs of -unequal length bedded in the hillsides, and reaching two thousand feet -toward the stars. Human figures, muffled almost past recognition, -moved about a catwalk three-quarters of the way up. There was a tiny -glittering below where they moved. They were, of course, men using -sonic ice-breakers to shatter the frost which formed on the framework -at night. Falling shards of crystal made a liquidlike flashing. The -landing-grid needed to be cleared every ten days or so. Left uncleared, -it would acquire an increasingly thick coating of ice. In time it could -collapse. But long before that time it would have ceased to operate, -and without its operation there could be no space travel. Rockets for -lifting spaceships were impossibly heavy, for practical use. But the -landing-grids could lift them out to the unstressed space where Lawlor -drives could work, and draw them to ground with cargoes they couldn't -possibly have carried if they'd needed rockets. - -Massy reached the base of the grid on foot. It was not far from the -village of drone-hulls. He was dwarfed by the ground-level upright -beams. He went through the cold-lock to the small control-house at the -grid's base. - -He nodded to the man on standby as he got painfully out of his muffling -garments. - -"Everything all right?" he asked. - -The standby operator shrugged. Massy was Colonial Survey. It was his -function to find fault, to expose inadequacies in the construction and -operation of colony facilities. _It's natural for me to be disliked by -men whose work I inspect_, thought Massy. _If I approve it doesn't mean -anything, and if I protest, it's bad._ He had always been lonely, but -it was a part of the job. - -"I think," he said painstakingly, "that there ought to be a change in -maximum no-drain voltage. I'd like to check it." - -The operator shrugged again. He pressed buttons under a phone-plate. - -"Shift to reserve power," he commanded, when a face appeared in the -plate. "Gotta check no-drain juice." - -"What for?" demanded the face in the plate. - -"You-know-who's got ideas," said the grid operator scornfully. "Maybe -we've been skimping something. Maybe there's some new specification we -didn't know about. Maybe anything! But shift to reserve power." - -The face in the screen grumbled. Massy swallowed. It was not a Survey -officer's privilege to maintain discipline. But there was no particular -virtue in discipline here and now. He watched the current-demand dial. -It stood a little above normal day-drain, which was understandable. The -outside temperature was down. There was more power needed to keep the -dwellings warm, and there was always a lot of power needed in the mine -the colony had been formed to exploit. The mine had to be warmed for -the men who worked to develop it. - -The demand-needle dropped abruptly, and hung steady, and dropped again -and again as additional parts of the colony's power-uses were switched -to reserve. The needle hit bottom. It stayed there. - -Massy had to walk around the standby man to get at the voltmeter. It -was built around standard, old-fashioned vacuum tubes--standard for -generations, now. Massy patiently hooked it up and warmed the tubes -and tested it. He pushed in the contact-plugs. He read the no-drain -voltage. He licked his lips and made a note. He reversed the leads, so -it would read backward. He took another reading. He drew in his breath -very quietly. - -"Now I want the power turned on in sections," he told the operator. -"The mine first, maybe. It doesn't matter. But I want to get -voltage-readings at different power take-offs." - -The operator looked pained. He spoke with unnecessary elaboration to -the face in the phone-plate, and grudgingly went through with the -process by which Massy measured the successive drops in voltage with -power drawn from the ionosphere. The current available from a layer of -ionized gas is, in effect, the current-flow through a conductor with -marked resistance. It is possible to infer a gas' ionization from the -current it yields. - - * * * * * - -The cold-lock door opened. Riki Herndon came in, panting a little. - -"There's another message from home," she said sharply. Her voice -seemed strained. "They picked up our answering-beam and are giving the -information you asked for." - -"I'll be along," said Massy. "I just got some information here." - -He got into his cold-garments again. He followed her out of the -control-hut. - -"The figures from home aren't good," said Riki evenly, when mountains -visibly rose on every hand around them. "Ken says they're much worse -than he thought. The rate of decline in the solar constant's worse than -we figured or could believe." - -"I see," said Massy, inadequately. - -"It's absurd!" said Riki fiercely. "It's monstrous! There've been -sunspots and sunspot cycles all along! I learned about them in school! -I learned myself about a four-year and a seven-year cycle, and that -there were others! They should have known! They should have calculated -in advance! Now they talk about sixty-year cycles coming in with a -hundred-and-thirty-year cycle to pile up with all the others--But -what's the use of scientists if they don't do their work right and -twenty million people die because of it?" - -Massy did not consider himself a scientist, but he winced. Riki raged -as they moved over the slippery ice. Her breath was an intermittent -cloud about her shoulders. There was white frost on the front of her -cold-garments. - -He held out his hand quickly as she slipped, once. - -"But they'll beat it!" said Riki in a sort of angry pride. "They're -starting to build more landing-grids, back home. Hundreds of them! -Not for ships to land by, but to draw power from the ionosphere! They -figure that one ship-size grid can keep nearly three square miles of -ground warm enough to live on! They'll roof over the streets of cities. -Then they'll plant food-crops in the streets and gardens, and do what -hydroponic growing they can. They are afraid they can't do it fast -enough to save everybody, but they'll try!" - -Massy clenched his hands inside their bulky mittens. - -"Well?" demanded Riki. "Won't that do the trick?" - -Massy said: "No." - -"Why not?" she demanded. - -"I just took readings on the grid, here. The voltage and the -conductivity of the layer we draw power from, both depend on -ionization. When the intensity of sunlight drops, the voltage drops and -the conductivity drops, too. It's harder for less power to flow to the -area the grid can tap--and the voltage-pressure is lower to drive it." - -"Don't say any more!" cried Riki. "Not another word!" - -Massy was silent. They went down the last small slope. They passed the -opening of the mine--the great drift which bored straight into the -mountain. They could look into it. They saw the twin rows of brilliant -roof-lights going toward the heart of the stony monster. - -They had almost reached the village when Riki said in a stifled voice: - -"How bad is it?" - -"Very," admitted Massy. "We have here the conditions the home planet -will have in two hundred days. Originally we could draw less than a -fifth the power they count on from a grid on Lani II." - -Riki ground her teeth. - -"Go on!" she said challengingly. - -"Ionization here is down ten per cent," said Massy. "That means the -voltage is down--somewhat more. A great deal more. And the resistance -of the layer is greater. Very much greater. When they need power most, -on the home planet, they won't draw more from a grid than we do now. It -won't be enough." - -They reached the village. There were steps to the cold-lock of -Herndon's office-hull. They were ice-free, because like the village -walkways they were warmed to keep frost from depositing on them. Massy -made a mental note. - -In the cold-lock, the warm air pouring in was almost stifling. Riki -said defiantly: - -"You might as well tell me now!" - -"We could draw one-fifth as much power, here, as the same sized grid -would yield on your home world," he said grimly. "We are drawing--call -it sixty per cent of normal. A shade over one-tenth of what they must -expect to draw when the real cold hits them. But their estimates are -nine times too high." He said heavily, "One grid won't warm three -square miles of city. About a third of one is closer. But--" - -"That won't be the worst!" said Riki in a choked voice. "Is that right? -How much good will a grid do?" - -Massy did not answer. - -The inner cold-lock door opened. Herndon sat at his desk, even paler -than before, listening to the hash of noises that came out of the -speaker. He tapped on the desktop, quite unconscious of the action. He -looked almost desperately at Massy. - -"Did she ... tell you?" he asked in a numb voice. "They hope to save -maybe half the population. All the children anyhow--" - -"They won't," said Riki bitterly. - -"Better go transcribe the new stuff that's come in," said her brother -dully. "We might as well know what it says." - -Riki went out of the office. Massy laboriously shed his cold-garments. -He said uncomfortably: - -"The rest of the colony doesn't know what's up yet. The operator at the -grid didn't, certainly. But they have to know." - -"We'll post the messages on the bulletin board," said Herndon -apathetically. "I wish I could keep it from them. It's not fun to live -with. I ... might as well not tell them just yet." - -"To the contrary," insisted Massy. "They've got to know right away! -You're going to issue orders and they'll need to understand how urgent -they are!" - -Herndon looked absolutely hopeless. - -"What's the good of doing anything?" When Massy frowned, he added as -if exhausted: "Seriously, is there any use? You're all right. A Survey -ship's due to take you away. It's not coming because they know there's -something wrong, but because your job should be finished about now. -But it can't do any good! It would be insane for it to land at home. -It couldn't carry away more than a few dozen refugees, and there are -twenty million people who're going to die. It might offer to take some -of us. But ... I don't think many of us would go. I wouldn't. I don't -think Riki would." - -"I don't see--" - -"What we've got right here," said Herndon, "is what they're going -to have back home. And worse. But there's no chance for us to keep -alive here! You are the one who pointed it out! I've been figuring, -and the way the solar-constant curve is going--I plotted it from the -figures they gave us--it couldn't possibly level out until the oxygen, -anyhow, is frozen out of the atmosphere here. We aren't equipped to -stand anything like that, and we can't get equipped. There couldn't -be equipment to let us stand it indefinitely! Anyhow the maximum cold -conditions will last two thousand days back home--six Earth-years. -And there'll be storage of cold in frozen oceans and piled-up -glaciers--It'll be twenty years before home will be back to normal -in temperature, and the same here. Is there any point in trying to -live--just barely to survive--for twenty years before there'll be a -habitable planet to go back to?" - -Massy said irritably: - -"Don't be a fool! Doesn't it occur to you that this planet is a perfect -experiment-station, two hundred days ahead of the home world, where -ways to beat the whole business can be tried? If we can beat it here, -they can beat it there!" - -Herndon said detachedly: - -"Can you name one thing to try here?" - -"Yes," snapped Massy. "I want the walk-heaters and the step-heaters -outside turned off. They use power to keep walkways clear of frost and -doorsteps not slippery. I want to save that heat!" - -Herndon said without interest: - -"And when you've saved it, what will you do with it?" - -"Put it underground to be used as needed!" Massy said angrily. "Store -it in the mine! I want to put every heating-device we can contrive -to work in the mine! To heat the rock! I want to draw every watt the -grid will yield and warm up the inside of the mountain while we can -draw power to do it with! I want the deepest part of the mine too hot -to enter! We'll lose a lot of heat, of course. It's not like storing -electric power! But we can store heat now, and the more we store the -more will be left when we need it!" - - * * * * * - -Herndon thought heavily. Presently he stirred slightly. - -"Do you know, that is an idea--" He looked up. "Back home there was a -shale-oil deposit up near the icecaps. It wasn't economical to mine it. -So they put heaters down in bore-holes and heated up the whole shale -deposit! Drill-holes let out the hot oil vapors to be condensed. They -got out every bit of oil without disturbing the shale! And then ... -why ... the shale stayed warm for years. Farmers bulldozed soil over -it and raised crops with glaciers all around them! That could be done -again. They could be storing up heat back home!" - -Then he drooped. - -"But they can't spare power to warm up the ground under cities. They -need all the power they've got to build roofs. And it takes time to -build grids." - -Massy snapped: - -"Yes, if they're building regulation ones! By the time they were -finished they'd be useless! The ionization here is dropping already. -But they don't need to build grids that will be useless later! They -can weave cables together on the ground and hang them in the air by -helicopters! They wouldn't hold up a landing ship for an instant, but -they'll draw power right away! They'll even power the helis that hold -them up! Of course they've defects! They'll have to come down in high -winds. They won't be dependable. But they can put heat in the ground -to come out under roofs, to grow food by, to save lives by. What's the -matter with them?" - -Herndon stirred again. His eyes ceased to be dull and lifeless. - -"I'll give the orders for turning off the sidewalks. And I'll send what -you just said back home. They ... should like it." - -He looked very respectfully at Massy. - -"I guess you know what I'm thinking right now," he said awkwardly. - -Massy flushed. It was not dignified for a Colonial Survey officer to -show off. He felt that Herndon was unduly impressed. But Herndon didn't -see that the device wouldn't solve anything. It would merely postpone -the effects of a disaster. It could not possibly prevent them. - -"It ought to be done," he said curtly. "There'll be other things to be -done, too." - -"When you tell them to me," said Herndon warmly, "they'll get done! -I'll have Riki put this into that pulse-code you explained to us and -she'll get it off right away!" - -He stood up. - -"I didn't explain the code to her!" insisted Massy. "She was already -translating it when you gave her my suggestion!" - -"All right," said Herndon. "I'll get this sent back at once!" - -He hurried out of the office. _This_, thought Massy irritably, _is how -reputations are made, I suppose. I'm getting one._ But his own reaction -was extremely inappropriate. If the people of Lani II did suspend -helicopter-supported grids of wire in the atmosphere, they could warm -masses of underground rock and stone and earth. They could establish -what were practically reservoirs of life-giving heat under their -cities. They could contrive that the warmth from below would rise only -as it was needed. But-- - - * * * * * - -Two hundred days to conditions corresponding to the colony-planet. -Then two thousand days of minimum-heat conditions. Then very, very -slow return to normal temperature, long after the sun was back to its -previous brilliance. They couldn't store enough heat for so long. It -couldn't be done. It was ironic that in the freezing of ice and the -making of glaciers the planet itself could store cold. - -And there would be monstrous storms and blizzards on Lani II as it -cooled. As cold conditions got worse the wire grids could be held aloft -for shorter and shorter periods, and each time they would pull down -less power than before. Their effectiveness would diminish even faster -than the need for effectiveness increased. - -Massy felt even deeper depression as he worked out the facts. His -proposal was essentially futile. It would be encouraging, and to a -very slight degree and for a certain short time it would palliate the -situation on the inner planet. But in the long run its effect would be -zero. - -He was embarrassed, too, that Herndon was so admiring. Herndon would -tell Riki that he was marvelous. She might--though cagily--be inclined -to agree. But he wasn't marvelous. This trick of a flier-supported -grid was not new. It had been used on Saril to supply power for giant -peristaltic pumps emptying a polder that had been formed inside a ring -of indifferently upraised islands. - -_All I know_, thought Massy bitterly, _is what somebody's showed me -or I've read in books. And nobody's showed or written how to handle a -thing like this!_ - -He went to Herndon's desk. Herndon had made a new graph on the -solar-constant observations forwarded from home. It was a strictly -typical curve of the results of coinciding cyclic changes. It was -the curve of a series of frequencies at the moment when they were all -precisely in phase. From this much one could extrapolate and compute-- - -Massy took a pencil, frowning unhappily. His fingers clumsily formed -equations and solved them. The result was just about as bad as it -could be. The change in brightness of the sun Lani would not be enough -to be observed on Kent IV--the nearest other inhabited world--when -the light reached there four years from now. Lani would never be -classed as a variable star, because the total change in light and heat -would be relatively minute. But the formula for computing planetary -temperatures is not simple. Among its factors are squares and cubes of -the variables. Worse, the heat radiated from a sun's photosphere varies -not as the square or cube, but as the fourth power of its absolute -temperature. A very small change in the sun's effective temperature, -producible by sunspots, could make an altogether disproportionate -difference in the warmth its worlds received. - -Massy's computations were not pure theory. The data came from Sol -itself, where alone in the galaxy there had been daily solar-constant -measurements for three hundred years. The rest of his deductions were -based ultimately on Earth observations, too. Most scientific data had -to refer back to Earth to get an adequate continuity. But there was no -possible doubt about the sunspot data, because Sol and Lani were of the -same type and nearly equal size. - -Using the figures on the present situation, Massy reluctantly arrived -at the fact that here, on this already-frozen world, the temperature -would drop until CO_{2}, froze out of the atmosphere. When that -happened, the temperature would plummet until there was no really -significant difference between it and that of empty space. It is carbon -dioxide which is responsible for the greenhouse effect, by which a -planet is in thermal equilibrium only at a temperature above its -surroundings--as a greenhouse in sunlight is warmer than the outside -air. - -The greenhouse effect would vanish soon on the colony-world. When it -vanished on the mother planet-- - -Massy found himself thinking, _If Riki won't leave when the Survey ship -comes, I'll resign from the Service. I'll have to if I'm to stay. And I -won't go unless she does._ - - - - - III - - -"If you want to come, it's all right," said Massy ungraciously. - -He waited while Riki slipped into the bulky cold-garments that were -needed out-of-doors in the daytime, and were doubly necessary at night. -There were heavy boots with inches-thick insulating soles, made in -one piece with the many-layered trousers. There was the air-puffed, -insulated over-tunic with its hood and mittens which were a part of -the sleeves. - -"Nobody goes outside at night," she said when they stood together in -the cold-lock. - -"I do," he told her. "I want to find out something." - -The outer door opened and he stepped out. He held his arm for her, -because the steps and walkway were no longer heated. Now they were -covered with a filmy layer of something which was not frost, but a -faint, faint bloom of powder. It was the equivalent of dust, but it was -microscopic snow-crystals frozen out of the air by the unbearable chill -of night. - -There was no moon, of course, yet the ice-clad mountains glowed -faintly. The drone-hulls arranged in such an orderly fashion were dark -against the frosted ground. There was silence: stillness: the feeling -of ancient quietude. No wind stirred anywhere. Nothing moved. Nothing -lived. The soundlessness was enough to crack the eardrums. - -Massy threw back his head and gazed at the sky for a very long time. -Nothing. He looked down at Riki. - -"Look at the sky," he commanded. - -She raised her eyes. She had been watching him. But as she gazed -upward she almost cried out. The sky was filled with stars in -innumerable variety. But the brighter ones were as stars had never -been seen before. Just as the sun in daylight had been accompanied -by its sun-dogs--pale phantoms of itself ranged about it--so the -brighter distant suns now shone from the center of rings of their own -images. They no longer had the look of random placing. Those which -were most distinct were patterns in themselves, and one's eyes strove -instinctively to grasp the greater pattern in which such seeming -artifacts must belong. - -"Oh ... beautiful!" cried Riki softly, yet almost afraid. - -"Look!" he insisted. "Keep looking!" - -She continued to gaze, moving her eyes about hopefully. It was such a -sight as no one could have imagined. Every tint and every color; every -possible degree of brightness appeared. And there were groups of stars -of the same brilliance which almost made triangles, but not quite. -There were rose-tinted stars which almost formed an arc, but did not. -And there were arrays which were almost lines and nearly formed squares -and polygons, but never actually achieved them. - -"It's ... beautiful!" said Riki breathlessly. "But what must I look -for?" - -"Look for what isn't there," he ordered. - - * * * * * - -She looked, and the stars were unwinking, but that was not -extraordinary. They filled all the firmament, without the least space -in which some tiny sparkle of light was not to be found. But that was -not remarkable, either. Then there was a vague flickering grayish glow -somewhere indefinite. It vanished. Then she realized. - -"There's no aurora!" she exclaimed. - -"That's it," said Massy. "There've always been auroras here. But -no longer. We may be responsible. I wish I thought it wise to turn -everything back to reserve power for a while. We could find out. But we -can't afford it. There was just the faintest possible gray flickering -just now. But there ought to be armies of light marching across the -sky. The aurora here--it was never missing! But it's gone now." - -"I ... looked at it when we first landed," admitted Riki. "It was -unbelievable! But it was terribly cold, out of shelter. And it happened -every night, so I said to myself I'd look tomorrow, and then tomorrow -again. So it got so I never looked at all." - -Massy kept his eyes where the faint gray flickering had been. And -once one realized, it was astonishing that the former nightly play of -ghostly colors should be absent. - -"The aurora," he said dourly, "happens in the very upper limits of the -air ... fifty ... seventy ... ninety miles up, when God-knows-what -emitted particles from the sun come streaking in, drawn by the -planet's magnetic field. The aurora's a phenomenon of ions. We tap the -ionosphere a long way down from where it plays, but I'm wondering if we -stopped it." - -"We?" said Riki, shocked. "We--humans?" - -"We tap the ions of their charges," he said somberly, "that the -sunlight made by day. We're pulling in all the power we can. I wonder -if we've drained the aurora of its energy, too." - -Riki was silent. Massy gazed, still searching. But he shook his head. - -"It could be," he said in a carefully detached voice. "We didn't draw -much power by comparison with the amount that came. But the ionization -is an ultraviolet effect. Atmospheric gases don't ionize too easily. -After all, if the solar constant dropped a very little, it might mean a -terrific drop in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum--and that's what -makes ions of oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and such. The ion-drop -could easily be fifty times as great as the drop in the solar constant. -And we're drawing power from the little that's left." - -Riki stood very still. The cold was horrible. Had there been a wind, it -could not have been endured for an instant. But the air was motionless. -Yet its coldness was so great that the inside of one's nostrils ached, -and the inside of one's chest was aware of chill. Even through the -cold-garments there was the feeling as of ice without. - -"I'm beginning," said Massy, "to suspect that I'm a fool. Or maybe I'm -an optimist. It might be the same thing. I could have guessed that -the power we could draw would drop faster than our need for power -increased. If we've drained the aurora of its light, we're scraping -the bottom of the barrel. And it's a shallower barrel than one would -suspect." - -There was stillness again. Riki stood mousy-quiet. _When she realizes -what this means_, thought Massy grimly, _she won't admire me so much. -Her brother's built me up. But I've been a fool, figuring out excuses -to hope. She'll see it._ - -"I think," said Riki quietly, "that you're telling me that after all we -can't store up heat to live on, down in the mine." - -"We can't," agreed Massy grimly. "Not much, nor long. Not enough to -matter." - -"So we won't live as long as Ken expects?" - -"Not nearly as long," said Massy evenly. "He's hoping we can find out -things to be useful back on Lani II. But we'll lose the power we can -get from our grid long before even their new grids are useless. We'll -have to start using our reserve power a lot sooner. It'll be gone--and -us with it--before they're really in straits for living-heat." - -Riki's teeth began to chatter. - -"This sounds like I'm scared," she said angrily, "but I'm not! I'm just -freezing! If you want to know, I'd a lot rather have it the way you -say! I won't have to grieve over anybody, and they'll be too busy to -grieve for me! Let's go inside while it's still warm!" - -He helped her back into the cold-lock, and the outer door closed. She -was shivering uncontrollably when the warmth came pouring in. - -They went into Herndon's office. He came in as Riki was peeling off the -top part of her cold-garments. She still shivered. He glanced at her -and said to Massy: - -"There's been a call from the grid-control shack. It looks like there's -something wrong, but they can't find anything. The grid is set for -maximum power-collection, but it's bringing in only fifty thousand -kilowatts!" - -"We're on our way back to savagery," said Massy, with an attempt at -irony. - -It was true. A man can produce two hundred and fifty watts from his -muscles for a reasonable length of time. When he has no more power, he -is a savage. When he gains a kilowatt of energy from the muscles of a -horse, he is a barbarian--but the new power cannot be directed wholly -as he wills. When he can apply it to a plow he has high barbarian -culture, and when he adds still more he begins to be civilized. Steam -power put as much as four kilowatts to work for every human being in -the first industrialized countries, and in the mid-twentieth century -there was sixty kilowatts per person in the more advanced nations. -Nowadays, of course, a modern culture assumed five hundred as a -minimum. But there was less than half that in the colony on Lani II. -And its environment made its own demands. - -"There can't be any more," said Riki, trying to control her shivering. -"We're even using the aurora and there isn't any more power. It's -running out. We'll go even before the people at home, Ken." - -Herndon's features looked very pinched. - -"But we can't! We mustn't!" He turned to Massy. "We do them good, back -home! There was panic. Our report about cable-grids has put heart in -people. They're setting to work--magnificently! So we're some use! They -know we're worse off than they are, and as long as we hold on they'll -be encouraged! We've got to keep going somehow!" - -Riki breathed deeply until her shivering stopped. Then she said calmly: - -"Haven't you noticed, Ken, that Mr. Massy has the viewpoint of his -profession? His business is finding things wrong with things. He was -deposited in our midst to detect defects in what we did and do. He has -the habit of looking for the worst. But I think he can turn the habit -to good use. He did turn up the idea of cable-grids." - -"Which," said Massy, "turns out to be no good at all. They'd be some -good if they weren't needed, really. But the conditions that make them -necessary make them useless!" - -Riki shook her head. - -"They are useful!" she said firmly. "They're keeping people at home -from despairing. Now, though, you've got to think of something else. -If you think of enough things, one will do good the way you want--more -than making people feel better." - -"What does it matter how people feel?" he demanded bitterly. "What -difference do feelings make? Facts are facts! One can't change facts!" - -Riki said with no less firmness: - -"We humans are the only creatures in the universe who don't do anything -else! Every other creature accepts facts. It lives where it is born, -and it feeds on the food that is there for it, and it dies when the -facts of nature require it to. We humans don't. Especially we women! -We won't let men do it, either! When we don't like facts--mostly about -ourselves--we change them. But important facts we disapprove of--we ask -men to change for us. And they do!" - -She faced Massy. Rather incredibly, she grinned at him. - -"Will you please change the facts that look so annoying just now, -please? Please?" Then she elaborately pantomimed an over-feminine -girl's look of wide-eyed admiration. "You're so big and strong! I just -know you can do it--for me!" - -She abruptly dropped the pretense and moved toward the door. She -half-turned then, and said detachedly: - -"But about half of that is true." - - * * * * * - -The door slid shut behind her. Massy thought bitterly, _Her brother -admires me. She probably thinks I really can do something!_ It suddenly -occurred to him that she knew a Colonial Survey ship was due to stop -by here to pick him up. She believed he expected to be rescued, even -though the rest of the colony could not be, and most of it wouldn't -consent to leave their kindred when the death of mankind in this solar -system took place. He said awkwardly: - -"Fifty thousand kilowatts isn't enough to land a ship." - -Herndon frowned. Then he said: - -"Oh. You mean the Survey ship that's to pick you up can't land? But it -can go in orbit and put down a rocket landing-boat for you." - -Massy flushed. - -"I wasn't thinking of that. I'd something more in mind. I ... rather -like your sister. She's ... pretty wonderful. And there are some other -women here in the colony, too. About a dozen all told. As a matter of -self-respect I think we ought to get them away on the Survey ship. I -agree that they wouldn't consent to go. But if they had no choice--if -we could get them on board the grounded ship, and they suddenly found -themselves ... well ... kidnaped and outward-bound not by their own -fault.... They could be faced with the accomplished fact that they had -to go on living." - -Herndon said evenly: - -"That's been in the back of my mind for some time. Yes. I'm for that. -But if the Survey ship can't land--" - -"I believe I can land it regardless," said Massy doggedly. "I can find -out, anyhow. I'll need to try things. I'll need help ... work done. -But I want your promise that if I can get the ship to ground you'll -conspire with her skipper and arrange for them to go on living." - -Herndon looked at him. - -"Some new stuff--in a way," said Massy uncomfortably. "I'll have to -stay aground to work it. It's also part of the bargain that I shall. -And, of course, your sister can't know about it, or she can't be fooled -into living." - -Herndon's expression changed a little. - -"What'll you do? Of course it's a bargain." - -"I'll need some metals we haven't smelted so far," said Massy. -"Potassium if I can get it, sodium if I can't, and at worst I'll settle -for zinc. Cesium would be best, but we've found no traces of it." - -Herndon said thoughtfully: - -"No-o-o. I think I can get you sodium and potassium, from rocks. I'm -afraid no zinc. How much?" - -"Grams," said Massy. "Trivial quantities. And I'll need a miniature -landing-grid built. Very miniature." - -Herndon shrugged his shoulders. - -"It's over my head. But just to have work to do will be good for -everybody. We've been feeling more frustrated than any other humans in -history. I'll go round up the men who'll do the work. You talk to them." - - * * * * * - -The door closed behind him. Massy very deliberately got out of his -cold-clothing. He thought, _She'll rave when she finds her brother and -I have deceived her._ Then he thought of the other women. _If any of -them are married, we'll have to see if there's room for their husbands. -I'll have to dress up the idea. Make it look like reason for hope, or -the women would find out. But not many can go_-- - -He knew very closely how many extra passengers could be carried on a -Survey ship, even in such an emergency as this. Living quarters were -not luxurious, at best. Everything was cramped and skimped. Survey -ships were rugged, tiny vessels which performed their duties amid -tedium and discomfort and peril for all on board. But they could carry -away a very few unwilling refugees to Kent IV. - -He settled down at Herndon's desk to work out the thing to be done. - -It was not unreasonable. Tapping the ionosphere for power was something -like pumping water out of a pipe-well in sand. If the water-table -was high, there was pressure to force the water to the pipe, and one -could pump fast. If the water-table were low, water couldn't flow -fast enough. The pump would suck dry. In the ionosphere, the level -of ionization was at once like the pressure and the size of the -sand-grains. When the level was high, the flow was vast because the -sand-grains were large and the conductivity high. But as the level -lessened, so did the size of the sand-grains. There was less to draw, -and more resistance to its flow. - -But there had been one tiny flicker of auroral light over by the -horizon. There was still power aloft. If Massy could in a fashion prime -the pump: if he could increase the conductivity by increasing the ions -present around the place where their charges were drawn away--why--he -could increase the total flow. It would be like digging a brick-well -where a pipe-well had been. A brick-well draws water from all around -its circumference. - -So Massy computed carefully. It was ironic that he had to go to such -trouble simply because he didn't have test-rockets like the Survey uses -to get a picture of a planet's weather-pattern. They rise vertically -for fifty miles or so, trailing a thread of sodium-vapor behind them. -The trail is detectable for some time, and ground-instruments record -each displacement by winds blowing in different directions at different -speeds, one over the other. Such a rocket with its loading slightly -changed would do all Massy had in mind. But he didn't have one, so -something much more elaborate was called for. - -_She'll think I'm clever_, he reflected wryly, _but all I'm doing -is what I've been taught. I wouldn't have to work it out if I had a -rocket._ - -Still, there was some satisfaction in working out this job. A -landing-grid has to be not less than half a mile across and two -thousand feet high because its field has to reach out five planetary -diameters to handle ships that land and take off. To handle solid -objects it has to be accurate--though power can be drawn with an -improvisation. To thrust a sodium-vapor bomb anywhere from twenty to -fifty miles high--why--he'd need a grid only six feet wide and five -high. It could throw much higher, of course. It could hold, at that. -But doubling the size would make accuracy easier. - -He tripled the dimensions. There would be a grid eighteen feet across -and fifteen high. Tuned to the casing of a small bomb, it could hold it -steady at seven hundred and fifty thousand feet--far beyond necessity. -He began to make the detail drawings. - - * * * * * - -Herndon came back with half a dozen chosen colonists. They were young -men, technicians rather than scientists. Some of them were several -years younger than Massy. There were grim and stunned expressions on -some faces, but one tried to pretend nonchalance, and two seemed trying -to suppress fury at the monstrous occurrence that would destroy not -only their own lives, but everything they remembered on the planet -which was their home. They looked almost challengingly at Massy. - -He explained. He was going to put a cloud of metallic vapor up in the -ionosphere. Sodium if he had to, potassium if he could, zinc if he -must. Those metals were readily ionized by sunlight--much more readily -than atmospheric gases. In effect, he was going to supply a certain -area of the ionosphere with material to increase the efficiency of -sunshine in providing electric power. As a sideline, there would be -increased conductivity from the normal ionosphere. - -"Something like this was done centuries ago, back on Earth," he -explained carefully. "They used rockets, and made sodium-vapor clouds -as much as twenty and thirty miles long. Even nowadays the Survey uses -test-rockets with trails of sodium-vapor. It will work to some degree. -We'll find out how much." - -He felt Herndon's eyes upon him. They were almost dazedly respectful. -But one of the technicians said coldly: - -"How long will those clouds last?" - -"That high, three or four days," Massy told him. "They won't help much -at night, but they should step up power-intake while the sun shines on -them." - -A man in the back said crisply: - -"Hup!" The significance was, "Let's go!" Then somebody said feverishly, -"What do we do? Got working drawings? Who makes the bombs? Who does -what? Let's get at this!" - -Then there was confusion, and Herndon had vanished. Massy suspected -he'd gone to have Riki put this theory into dot-and-dash code for -beam-transmission back to Lani II. But there was no time to stop him. -These men wanted precise information, and it was half an hour before -the last of them had gone out with free-hand sketches, and had come -back for further explanation of a doubtful point, and other men had -come in hungrily to demand a share in the job. - -When he was alone again, Massy thought, _Maybe it's worth doing because -it'll get Riki on the Survey ship. But they think it means saving the -people back home!_ - -Which it didn't. Taking energy out of sunlight is taking energy out -of sunlight, no matter how you do it. Take it out as electric power, -and there's less heat left. Warm one place with electric power, and -everywhere else is a little colder. There's an equation. On this -colony-world it wouldn't matter, but on the home world it would. The -more there was trickery to gather heat, the more heat was needed. Again -it might postpone the death of twenty million people, but it would -never, never, never prevent it. - - * * * * * - -The door slid aside and Riki came in. She stammered a little. - -"I ... just coded what Ken told me to send back home. It will ... it -will do everything! It's wonderful! I ... wanted to tell you!" - -Massy writhed internally. It wasn't wonderful. - -"Consider," he said in a desperate attempt to take it lightly, -"consider that I've taken a bow." - -He tried to smile. It was not a success. And Riki suddenly drew a deep -breath and looked at him in a new fashion. - -"Ken's right," she said softly. "He says you can't get conceited. -You're not satisfied with yourself even now, are you?" She smiled, -rather gravely. Then she said, "But what I like is that you aren't -really smart. A woman can make you do things. I have!" - -He looked at her uneasily. She grinned. - -"I, even I, can at least pretend to myself that I help bring this -about! If I hadn't said please change the facts that are so annoying, -and if I hadn't said you were big and strong and clever--I'm going to -tell myself for the rest of my life that I helped make you do it!" - -Massy swallowed. - -"I'm afraid," he said miserably, "that it won't work again." - -She cocked her head on one side. - -"No?" - -He stared at her apprehensively. And then with a bewildering change of -emotional reaction, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears. She -stamped her foot. - -"You're ... horrible!" she cried. "Here I come in, and ... and if -you think you can get me kidnaped to safety ... without even telling -me that you 'rather like' me, like you told my brother, or that 'I'm -pretty wonderful'--If you think." - -He was stunned, that she knew. She stamped her foot again. - -"For Heaven's sake!" she wailed. "Do I have to _ask_ you to kiss me?" - - - - - IV - - -During the last night of preparation, Massy sat by a thermometer -registering the outside temperature. He hovered over it as one might -over a sick child. He watched it and sweated, though the inside -temperature of the drone-hull was lowered to save power. There was -nothing he could actually do. At midnight the thermometer said it -was seventy degrees below zero Fahrenheit. At halfway to dawn it was -eighty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The hour before dawn it was -eighty-five degrees below zero. Then he sweated profusely. The meaning -of the slowed descent was that carbon dioxide was being frozen out of -the upper layers of the atmosphere. The frozen particles were drifting -slowly downward, and as they reached lower and faintly warmer levels -they returned to the state of gas. But there was a level, above the -CO_{2}, where the temperature was plummeting. - -The height to which carbon dioxide existed was dropping--slowly, but -inexorably. And above the carbon-dioxide level there was no bottom -limit to the temperature. The greenhouse effect was due to CO_{2}. -Where it wasn't, the cold of space moved down. If at ground-level the -thermometer read ever so slightly lower than one hundred and nine below -zero--why--everything was finished. Without the greenhouse effect, the -night-side of the planet would lose its remaining heat with a rush. -Even the day-side, once cold enough, would lose heat to emptiness as -fast as it came from the sun. Minus one hundred and nine point three -was the critical reading. If it went down to that, it would plunge to a -hundred and fifty--two hundred degrees below zero! And it would never -come up again. - -There would be rain at nightfall--a rain of oxygen frozen to a -liquid and splashing on the ground. Human life would be quite simply -impossible, in any shelter and under any conditions. Even spacesuits -would not protect against an atmosphere sucking heat from it at that -rate. A spacesuit can be heated against the loss of temperature due to -radiation in a vacuum. It could not be heated against nitrogen which -would chill it irresistibly by contact. - -But, as Massy sweated over it, the thermometer steadied at minus -eighty-five degrees. When the dawn came, it rose to seventy. By -mid-morning, the temperature in bright sunshine was no lower than -sixty-five degrees below zero. - -But there was no bounce left in Massy when Herndon came for him. - -"Your phone-plate's been flashing," said Herndon, "and you didn't -answer. Must have had your back to it. Riki's over in the mine, -watching them get things ready. She was worried that she couldn't call -you. Asked me to find out what was the trouble." - -Massy said heavily: - -"Has she got something to heat the air she breathes?" - -"Naturally," said Herndon. He added curiously, "What's the matter?" - -"We almost took our licking," Massy told him. "I'm afraid for tonight, -and tomorrow night, too. If the CO_{2} freezes--" - -"We'll have power!" Herndon insisted. "We'll build ice tunnels and ice -domes. We'll build a city under ice, if we have to. But we'll have -power. We'll be all right!" - -"I doubt it very much," said Massy. "I wish you hadn't told Riki of the -bargain to get her away from here when the Survey ship comes!" - -Herndon grinned. - -"Is the little grid ready?" asked Massy. - -"Everything's set," said Herndon exuberantly. "It's in the mine-tunnel -with radiant heaters playing on it. The bombs are ready. We made enough -to last for months, while we were at it. No use taking chances!" - -Massy looked at him queerly. Then he said: - -"We might as well go out and try the thing, then." - - * * * * * - -But he was very tired. He was not elated. _Riki can't be gotten away_, -he thought wearily, _and I'm not going to go because it isn't quite -fitting to go and leave her. They'll all be rejoicing presently, but -nothing's settled._ Then he thought with exquisite irony, _She thinks -I was inspired to genius by her, when I haven't done a thing I wasn't -taught or didn't get out of books!_ - -He put on the cold-garments as they were now modified for the -increased frigidity. Nobody could breathe air at minus sixty-five -degrees without getting his lungs frost-bitten. So there was now a -plastic mask to cover one's face, and the air one breathed outdoors was -heated as it came through a wire-gauze snout. But still it was not wise -to stay out of shelter for too long a time. - -Massy went out-of-doors. He stepped out of the cold-lock and gazed -about him. The sun seemed markedly paler, and now it had lost its -sun-dogs again. Ice crystals no longer floated in the almost congealed -air. The sky was dark. It was almost purple, and it seemed to Massy -that he could detect faint flecks of light in it. They would be stars, -shining in the daytime. - -There seemed to be no one about at all, only the white coldness of the -mountains. But there was a movement at the mine-drift, and something -came out of it. Four men appeared, muffled up like Massy himself. They -rolled the eighteen-foot grid out of the mine-mouth, moving it on those -inflated bags which are so much better than rollers for rough terrain. -They looked absurdly like bears with steaming noses, in their masks and -clothing. They had some sort of powered pusher with them, and they got -the metal cage to the very top of a singularly rounded stone upcrop -which rose in the center of the valley. - -"We picked that spot," said Herndon's muffled voice through the chill, -"because by shifting the grid's position it can be aimed, and be on a -solid base. Right?" - -"Quite all right," said Massy. "We'll go work it." - -He moved heavily across the valley, in which nothing moved except -the padded figures of the four technicians. Their wire-gauze -breathing-masks seemed to emit smoke. They waved to him in greeting. - -_I'm popular again_, he thought drearily, _but it doesn't matter. -Getting the Survey ship to ground won't help now, since Riki's -forewarned. And this trick won't solve anything permanently on the home -planet. It'll just postpone things._ - -He had a very peculiar ache inside. A Survey officer is naturally -lonely. Massy had been lonely before he even entered the Service. He -hadn't had a feeling of belonging anywhere, or with anyone, and no -planet was really his home. Now he could believe that he belonged -with someone. But there was the slight matter of a drop in the solar -constant of an unimportant sol-type sun, and nothing could come of it. - -Even when Riki--muffled like the rest--waved to him from the mouth of -the tunnel, his spirits did not lift. The thing he wanted was to look -forward to years and years of being with Riki. He wanted, in fact, to -look forward to forever. And there might not be a tomorrow. - -"I had the control board rolled out here," she called breathlessly -through her mask. "It's cold, but you can watch!" - -It wouldn't be much to watch. If everything went all right, some -dial-needles would kick over violently, and their readings would go up -and up. But they wouldn't be readings of temperature. Presently the -big grid would report increased power from the sky. But tonight the -temperature would drop a little farther. Tomorrow night it would drop -farther still. When it reached one hundred and nine point three degrees -below zero at ground-level--why it would keep on falling indefinitely. -Then it wouldn't matter how much power could be drawn from the sky. The -colony would die. - - * * * * * - -One of the figures that looked like a bear now went out of the -mine-mouth, trudging toward the grid. It carried a muffled, -well-wrapped object in its arms. It stooped and crept between the -spokes of the grid. It put the object on the stone. Massy traced cables -with his eyes. From the grid to the control board. From the board back -to the reserve-power storage cells, deep in the mountain. - -"The grid's tuned to the bomb," said Riki breathlessly, close beside -him. "I checked that myself!" - -The bearlike figure out in the valley jerked at the bomb. There was a -small rising cloud of grayish vapor. It continued. The figure climbed -hastily out of the grid. When the man was clear, Massy threw a switch. - -There was a very tiny whining sound, and the wrapped, ridiculously -smoking object leaped upward. It seemed to fall toward the sky. There -was no more of drama than that. An object the size of a basketball -fell upward, swiftly, until it disappeared. That was all. - -Massy sat quite still, watching the control-board dials. Presently he -corrected this, and shifted that. He did not want the bomb to have too -high an upward velocity. At a hundred thousand feet it would find very -little air to stop the rise of the vapor it was to release. - -The field-focus dial reached its indication of one hundred thousand -feet. Massy reversed the lift-switch. He counted and then switched the -power off. The small, thin whine ended. - -He threw the power-intake switch, which could have been on all the -time. The power-yield needle stirred. The minute grid was drawing -power like its vaster counterpart. But its field was infinitesimal by -comparison. It drew power as a soda straw might draw water from wet -sand. - -Then the intake-needle kicked. It swung sharply, and wavered, and then -began a steady, even, climbing movement across the markings on the -dial-face. Riki was not watching that. - -"They see something!" she panted. "Look at them!" - -The four men who had trundled the smaller grid to its place, now stared -upward. They flung out their arms. One of them jumped up and down. They -leaped. They practically danced. - -"Let's go see," said Massy. - -He went out of the tunnel with Riki. They gazed upward. And directly -overhead, where the sky was darkest blue and where it had seemed that -stars shone through the daylight--there was a cloud. It seemed to -Massy, very quaintly, that it was no bigger than a man's hand. But it -grew. Its edges were yellow--saffron-yellow. It expanded and spread. -Presently it began to thin. As it thinned, it began to shine. It was -luminous. And the luminosity had a strange, familiar quality. - -Somebody came panting down the tunnel, from inside the mountain. - -"The grid--" he panted. "The big grid! It's ... pumping power! Big -power! BIG power!" - -He went pounding back, to gaze raptuously at the new position of a thin -black needle on a large white dial, and to make incoherent noises of -rejoicing as it moved very, very slowly toward higher and ever higher -readings. - -But Massy looked puzzledly at the sky, as if he did not quite believe -his eyes. The cloud now expanded very slowly, but still it grew. And it -was not regular in shape. The bomb had not shattered quite evenly, and -the vapor had poured out more on one side than the other. There was a -narrow, arching arm of brightness-- - -"It looks," said Riki breathlessly, "like a comet!" - -And then Massy froze in every muscle. He stared at the cloud he had -made aloft, and his hands clenched in their mittens, and he swallowed -convulsively behind his cold-mask. - -"Th-that's it," he said in a very queer voice indeed. "It's ... very -much like a comet. I'm glad you said that! We can make something even -more like a comet. We ... we can use all the bombs we've made, right -away, to make it. And we've got to hurry so it won't get any colder -tonight!" - -Which, of course, sounded like insanity. Riki looked apprehensively at -him. But Massy had just thought of something. And nobody had taught it -to him and he hadn't gotten it out of books. But he'd seen a comet. - -The new idea was so promising that he regarded it with anguished unease -for fear it would not hold up. It was an idea that really ought to -change the facts resulting naturally from a lowered solar constant in a -sol-type star. - - * * * * * - -Half the colony set to work to make more bombs when the effect of the -second bomb showed up. They were not very efficient, at first, because -they tended to want to stop work and dance, from time to time. But they -worked with an impassioned enthusiasm. They made more bomb-casings, and -they prepared more sodium and potassium metal and more fuses, and more -insulation to wrap around the bombs to protect them from the cold of -airless space. - -Because these were to go out to airlessness. The miniature grid could -lift and hold a bomb steady in its field-focus at seven hundred and -fifty thousand feet. But if a bomb was accelerated all the way out to -that point, and the field was then snapped off--Why, it wasn't held -anywhere. It kept on going with its attained velocity. And it burst -when its fuse decided that it should, whereupon immediately a mass of -sodium and potassium vapor, mixed with the fumes of high explosive, -flung itself madly in all directions, out between the stars. Absolute -vacuum tore the compressed gasified metals apart. The separate atoms, -white-hot from the explosion, went swirling through sunlit space. The -sunlight was dimmed a trifle, to be sure. But individual atoms of the -lighter alkaline-earth metals have marked photo-electric properties. In -sunshine these gas-molecules ionized, and therefore spread more widely, -and did not coalesce into even microscopic droplets. - -They formed, in fact, a cloud in space. An ionized cloud, in which no -particle was too large to be responsive to the pressure of light. The -cloud acted like the gases of a comet's tail. It was a comet's tail, -though there was no comet. And it was an extraordinary comet's tail -because it is said that you can put a comet's tail in your hat, at -normal atmospheric pressure. But this could not have been put in a hat. -Even before it turned to gas, it was the size of a basketball. And, in -space, it glowed. - -It glowed with the brightness of the sunshine on it, which was light -that would normally have gone away through the interstellar dark. And -it filled one corner of the sky. Within one hour it was a comet's tail -ten thousand miles long, which visibly brightened the daytime heavens. -And it was only the first of such reflecting clouds. - -The next bomb set for space exploded in a different quarter, because -Massy'd had the miniature grid wrestled around the upcrop to point in a -new and somewhat more carefully chosen line. The third bomb spattered -brilliance in a different section still. And the brilliance lasted. - -Massy flung his first bombs recklessly, because there could be more. -But he was desperately anxious to hang as many comet tails as possible -around the colony-planet before nightfall. He didn't want it to get any -colder. - -And it didn't. In fact, there wasn't exactly any real nightfall on Lani -III that night. - -The planet turned on its axis, to be sure. But around it, quite close -by, there hung gigantic streamers of shining gas. At their beginning, -those streamers bore a certain resemblance to the furry wild-animal -tails that little boys like to have hanging down from hunting-caps. -Only they shone. And as they developed they merged, so that there -was an enormous shining curtain about Lani III. There were draperies -of metal-mist to capture sunlight that should have been wasted, and -to diffuse very much of it to Lani II. At midnight there was only -one spot in all the night-sky where there was really darkness. That -was directly overhead--directly outward from the planet from the -sun. Gigantic shining streamers formed a wall, a tube, of comet-tail -material, yet many times more dense and therefore brighter--which -shielded the colony-world against the dark and cold, and threw upon it -a brilliant, warming brightness. - - * * * * * - -Riki maintained stoutly that she could feel the warmth from the sky, -but that was improbable. But certainly heat did come from somewhere. -The thermometer did not fall at all, that night. It rose. It was up to -fifty below zero at dawn. During the day--they sent out twenty more -bombs that second day--it was up to twenty degrees below zero. By the -day after, there was highly competent computation from the home planet, -and the concrete results of abstruse speculation, and the third day's -bombs were placed with optimum spacing for heating purposes. - -And by dawn of the fourth day the air was a balmy five degrees below -zero, and the day after that there was a small running stream in the -valley at midday. - -There was talk of stocking the stream with fish, on the morning the -Survey ship came in. The great landing-grid gave out a deep-toned, -vibrant, humming note, like the deepest possible note of the biggest -organ that could be imagined. A speck appeared very, very high up in a -pale-blue sky with trimmings of golden gas-clouds. The Survey ship came -down and down and settled as a shining silver object in the very center -of the gigantic red-painted landing-grid. - -Later, her skipper came to find Massy. He was in Herndon's office. The -skipper struggled to keep sheer blankness out of his expression. - -"What ... what the hell?" he demanded querulously of Massy. "This -is the damnest sight in the whole galaxy, and they tell me you're -responsible! There've been ringed planets before, and there've been -comets and who-knows what! But shining gas pipes aimed at the sun, half -a million miles across.... What the? There are two of them! Both the -occupied planets!" - -Herndon explained with a bland succinctness why the curtains hung in -space. There was a drop in the solar constant-- - -The skipper exploded. He wanted facts! Details! Something to report! -And dammit, he wanted to know! - -Massy was automatically on the defensive when the skipper shot his -questions to him. A Senior Colonial Survey officer is not revered by -the Survey ship-service officers. Men like Massy can be a nuisance to a -hard-working ship's officer. They have to be carried to unlikely places -for their work of checking over colonial installations. They have to be -put down on hard-to-get-at colonies, and they have to be called for, -sometimes, at times and places which are inconvenient. So a man in -Massy's position is likely to feel unpopular. - -"I'd just finished the survey here," he said defensively, "when a cycle -of sunspot cycles matured. All the sunspot periods got in phase, and -the solar constant dropped. So I naturally offered what help I could to -meet the situation." - -The skipper regarded him incredulously. - -"But ... it couldn't be done!" he said blankly. "They told me how -you did it, but ... it couldn't be done! Do you realize that these -vapor-curtains will make fifty borderline worlds fit for use? Half a -pound of sodium-vapor a week!" He gestured helplessly. "They tell me -the amount of heat reaching the surface here has been upped by fifteen -per cent! D'you realize what _that_ means?" - -"I haven't been worrying about it," admitted Massy. "There was a local -situation and something had to be done. I ... er ... remembered things, -and Riki suggested something I mightn't have thought of, and it's -worked out like this." Then he said abruptly: "I'm not leaving. I'll -get you to take my resignation back. I ... I think I'm going to settle -here. It'll be a long time before we get really temperate-climate -conditions here, but we can warm up a valley like this for -cultivation, and ... well ... it's going to be a rather satisfying -job. It's a brand-new planet with a brand-new ecological system to be -established----" - -The skipper of the Survey ship sat down hard. Then the sliding door of -Herndon's office opened and Riki came in. The skipper stood up again. -Massy rather awkwardly made the introduction. Riki smiled. - -"I'm telling him," said Massy, "that I'm resigning from the Service to -settle down here." - -Riki nodded. She put her hand in proprietary fashion on Massy's arm. -The Survey skipper cleared his throat. - -"I'm not going to take it," he said doggedly. "There've got to be -detailed reports on how this business works. Dammit, if vapor-clouds in -space can be used to keep a planet warm, they can be used to shade a -planet, too! If you resign, somebody else will have to come out here to -make observations and work out the details of the trick! Nobody could -be gotten here in less than a year! You need to stay here to build up -a report--and you ought to be available for consultation when this -thing's to be done somewhere else! I'll report that I insisted as a -Survey emergency--" - -Riki said confidently: - -"Oh, that's all right! He'll do that! Of course! Won't you?" - -Massy nodded dumbly. He thought, _I've been lonely all my life. I've -never belonged anywhere. But nobody could possibly belong anywhere -as thoroughly as I'll belong here when it's warm and green and even -the grass on the ground is partly my doing. But Riki'll like for me -still to be in the Service. Women like to see their husbands wearing -uniforms._ - -Aloud he said: - -"Of course. It ... really needs to be done. Of course, you realize that -there's nothing really remarkable about it. Everything I've done has -been what I was taught, or read in books." - -"Hush!" said Riki. "You're wonderful!" - - - THE END - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRITICAL DIFFERENCE *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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