He talked in a rapid undertone to the older scientist as they made their way through the streets.
Hubble’s reaction was the same as Kenniston’s had been when the thing had been first broached to him. He recoiled from it.
“Good God, Ken! It’s mad—dangerous…”
But as he heard more, his alarm changed to grave attention, and then keenest interest.
“Yet it does sound logical, by every principle of our own physical science.” He looked at Jon Arnol. “If I could only talk clearly to him!”
“It wouldn’t do any good,” said Kenniston grimly. “That’s the awful part of it. His science is a million years beyond us.”
Hubble turned to Gorr Holl. He had worked beside the big furry Capellan. He knew and trusted his ability as an atomic technician. Haltingly, he asked, “Will Arnol’s process work?”
Gorr Holl answered simply, “I believe in it enough to risk my life helping to try it.”
Kenniston translated that. And Hubble seemed reassured. “It still seems a great gamble, Ken. But—I think it’s worth it.”
Soon Kenniston had mounted the steps of the building that was City Hall, and stood by the microphone. Before him were the gathered thousands of Middletowners—a kaleidoscope of eager faces, excited, waiting.
This was the moment he had dreaded—the moment he had thought he could not endure. And it was harder even than he had dreamed, to say the words he must say.
There was no use being gentle about it. He told them almost brutally,
“The decision is against us. They say we have to go.” He listened to the roar that broke out then, the angry cry of a people driven beyond their patience.
Mayor Garris voiced the passionate reaction of all Middletown.
“We won’t leave Earth! And if they want to push it to a fight, they can!”
Kenniston raised his hands, begging for quiet.
“Wait!” he shouted into the microphone. “Listen! You may not have to go, and you may not have to fight. There’s one chance…”
He told them, as simply and carefully as he could, of Jon Arnol’s great proposed experiment.
“Earth would be warm again—perhaps not quite as warm as before, but warm enough so that you could live here comfortably for all time to come.”
There was a long silence. He knew that the concept was too enormous for them to grasp at once. But they were trying to grasp it, trying to equate it with some familiar thing. The planetary scale of it, their minds could not hold onto. They struggled for a personal significance they could understand.
Finally John Borzak stepped forward, a rawboned, grizzled man who had spent a lifetime in the mills.
“Does it mean, Mr. Kenniston, that we could go back then to Middletown?”
He answered, “Yes.”
A cheer went up that shook the very walls of the buildings. “Back to Middletown! Did you hear that? We could go back to Middletown!”
Kenniston was touched beyond measure. To them, the shocking of a planet back to life meant primarily one thing—the ability to return to the drab little city beyond the hills, the city that was still home.
He motioned to them again for silence.
“I have to warn you. This experiment has never been tried on a world like Earth. It’s possible that it may fail. If it does, the surface of the Earth may be wrecked by quakes.”
That gave them pause. Kenniston saw the shadow of fear cross their faces, saw how they turned to one another and talked, and shook their heads, and looked anxiously back and forth.
Finally a voice cried, “What do you and Doctor Hubble think? You’re scientists. What’s your advice?”
Kenniston hesitated. Then he said slowly, “If I were alone on Earth, I would try it. But I cannot advise you. You must make your own decision.”
Hubble said into the microphone, “We can’t advise you, because we don’t know ourselves. We are dealing here with the science of this future age, which is far beyond us. We can only take what their scientists tell us on faith.
“They say that the theory is entirely workable. We have warned you of the possibility of failure. It’s up to you to decide how great the risk is, and how much you are willing to gamble.”
Kenniston turned and spoke to Mayor Garris. “Tell them to think it over carefully. Then call for a vote—those in favor of trying it to go to one side of the plaza, those against it to the other.” Aside, to Hubble, he said, “They should have months to decide a thing like this, instead of minutes!”
Hubble said, “It may be just as well. They won’t torture themselves with too much waiting and thinking.”
Mayor Garris talked to the crowd. There was a deepening, seething turmoil in the plaza then as people tried to reach others, to gather opinions from each other on what they ought to do. Scraps of heated conversations reached Kenniston’s ears:
“These guys from outside have done pretty well so far, getting this city going again. They know what they’re doing!”
“I don’t know. Suppose it does bring on terrible quakes?”
“Listen, these people know their stuff! They’d have to, to live out there in the stars the way they do!”
“Yeah. And I’d rather sit through an earthquake than go kiting off to the Milky Way!”
At last Mayor Garris asked, “Are you ready for the vote?”
They were, as ready as they would ever be.
Kenniston watched, his heart pounding. And beside him, Jon Arnol watched also. Kenniston had explained the procedure to him. He knew what Arnol must be going through as he waited while his life’s work was weighed in the balance.
For a time, the motion of the crowd was only a chaotic churning. Then, gradually, the separating motion came clear.
Those for the experiment, to the right side of the plaza…
Those against it, to the left…
The channel between the two factions widened. And Kenniston saw that on the left were a scant two hundred people.
The vote was carried. The experiment was approved.
Kenniston’s knees felt weak. He saw Arnol’s face, moved almost to tears with relief and joy. He himself was conscious of a wild excitement—and yet, even now, he could not stifle all his fear. They were committed, now, he and Arnol and the rest. For life or death, they were committed.
He spoke again into the microphone. “We must do this thing as soon as we can. We have very little time before ships of the Federation will arrive to stop us.
“You will please, all of you prepare to leave the city at a moment’s notice. As a precaution, no one is to remain under the dome when the energy bomb is detonated.
“Those of you who voted against the experiment will be given a chance to leave Earth before it takes place. The starcruiser can take only part of you, so it is suggested that you draw lots for space aboard her.”
He swung around to the Mayor. “Will you take over now? Start the work of organizing the departure—we’ll need every minute we’ve got!”
Hubble said, “I think we’d better let Jon Arnol see the shaft.” Arnol’s technical crew came in from the ship. They studied the great heat shaft, with Gorr Holl and Magro and Arnol himself, while Kenniston and Hubble stood by and watched.
Arnol finally said, “It’ll do. It goes right down to the core. But the similar shafts in the other domed cities here—they’ll have to be exploded and sealed, first.”
Kenniston was startled. He hadn’t though of that “But that’ll take time—”
“No, not so long. A few of my men can whip around to them in the cruiser and do it quickly. Of course I brought Earth maps—and there are only half a dozen of the domed cities.”
Kenniston asked him. “How long will it take to get things ready here?”
Arnol said, “If we perform a miracle, we can be ready by noon tomorrow.”
Kenniston nodded. “I’ll do my damnedest to help you, and so will everybody here. Just let me have ten
