Short Fiction Poul Anderson (reading a book .TXT) 📖

or you can know where to look it up. I prefer the latter.” After a moment: “Naturally, this combination decreases the total volume of gas; so the pump has to pull in more hydrogen from outside to satisfy its barystat, and more nitrogen is welling from below all the time. We’ve been operating quite an efficient little ammonia factory down there, though it should reach equilibrium as to pressure and yield pretty soon.

“The Haber process catalyst, incidentally, is spongy iron with certain promoters⁠—potassium and aluminum oxides are excellent ones. In other words, it so happened that the Hill is a natural Haber catalyst, which is why we’ve had this trouble.”

“And I suppose the reaction is endothermic and absorbs heat?” asked Catherine.

“No⁠ ⁠… as a matter of fact, it’s exothermic, which is why the pile is actually a little hotter than usual, and that in spite of having to warm up all that outside air. But ammonia does have a considerably higher specific heat than hydrogen. So, while the gas in our pipes has the same caloric content, it has a lower temperature.”

“Ummm⁠—” Vesey rubbed his chin. “And the radiation?”

“Nitrogen plus neutrons gives carbon-14, a beta emitter.”

“All right,” said Catherine. “Now tell us how to repair the situation.”

Her tone was light⁠—after all, the answer was obvious⁠—but it didn’t escape Gilchrist that she had asked him to speak. Or was he thinking wishfully?

“We turn off the pile, empty the pipes, and go into the room in spacesuits,” he said. “Probably the simplest thing would be to drill an outlet for the nitrogen vein and drop a thermite bomb down there⁠ ⁠… that should flush it out in a hurry. Or maybe we can lay an impermeable floor. In any event, it shouldn’t take more than a few days, which the batteries will see us through. Then we can go back to operation as usual.”

Vesey nodded. “I’ll put Jahangir on it right away.” He stood up and extended his hand. “As for you, Dr. Gilchrist, you’ve saved all our lives and⁠—”

“Shucks.” His cheeks felt hot. “It was my own neck too.”

Before his self-confidence could evaporate, he turned to Catherine. “Since we can’t get back to work for a few days, how about going down to the bar for a drink? I believe it’ll soon be functioning again. And, uh, there’ll doubtless be a dance to celebrate later⁠—”

“I didn’t know you could dance,” she said.

“I can’t,” he blurted.

They went out together. It is not merely inorganic reactions which require a catalyst.

What Shall It Profit?

“The chickens got out of the coop and flew away three hundred years ago,” said Barwell. “Now they’re coming home to roost.”

He hiccuped. His finger wobbled to the dial and clicked off another whisky. The machine pondered the matter and flashed an apologetic sign: Please deposit your money.

“Oh, damn,” said Barwell. “I’m broke.”

Radek shrugged and gave the slot a two-credit piece. It slid the whisky out on a tray with his change. He stuck the coins in his pouch and took another careful sip of beer.

Barwell grabbed the whisky glass like a drowning man. He would drown, thought Radek, if he sloshed much more into his stomach.

There was an Asian whine to the music drifting past the curtains into the booth. Radek could hear the talk and laughter well enough to catch their raucous overtones. Somebody swore as dice rattled wrong for him. Somebody else shouted coarse good wishes as his friend took a hostess upstairs.

He wondered why vice was always so cheerless when you went into a place and paid for it.

“I am going to get drunk tonight,” announced Barwell. “I am going to get so high in the stony sky you’ll need radar to find me. Then I shall raise the red flag of revolution.”

“And tomorrow?” asked Radek quietly.

Barwell grimaced. “Don’t ask me about tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be among the great leisure class⁠—to hell with euphemisms⁠—the unemployed. Nothing I can do that some goddam machine can’t do quicker and better. So a benevolent state will feed me and clothe me and house me and give me a little spending money to have fun on. This is known as citizen’s credit. They used to call it a dole. Tomorrow I shall have to be more systematic about the revolution⁠—join the League or something.”

“The trouble with you,” Radek needled him, “is that you can’t adapt. Technology has made the labor of most people, except the first-rank creative genius, unnecessary. This leaves the majority with a void of years to fill somehow⁠—a sense of uprootedness and lost self-respect⁠—which is rather horrible. And in any case, they don’t like to think in scientific terms⁠ ⁠… it doesn’t come natural to the average man.”

Barwell gave him a bleary stare out of a flushed, sagging face. “I s’pose you’re one of the geniuses,” he said. “You got work.”

“I’m adaptable,” said Radek. He was a slim youngish man with dark hair and sharp features. “I’m not greatly gifted, but I found a niche for myself. Newsman. I do legwork for a major commentator. Between times, I’m writing a book⁠—my own analysis of contemporary historical trends. It won’t be anything startling, but it may help a few people think more clearly and adjust themselves.”

“And so you like this rotten Solar Union?” Barwell’s tone became aggressive.

“Not everything about it no. So there is a wave of antiscientific reaction, all over Earth. Science is being made the scapegoat for all our troubles. But like it or not, you fellows will have to accept the fact that there are too many people and too few resources for us to survive without technology.”

“Some technology, sure,” admitted Barwell. He took a ferocious swig from his glass. “Not this hell-born stuff we’ve been monkeying around with. I tell you, the chickens have finally come home to roost.”

Radek was intrigued by the archaic expression. Barwell was no moron: he’d been a correlative clerk at the Institute for several years, not a position for fools. He had read, actually read books, and thought