Bergen, the Moon-man decided, was either a naturally voluble man or else was eager to drown him in words and get rid of him.
“The units,” said Bergen, “are arranged in a highly branched chain—three-dimensional actually. We have a map we can show you, if you’re interested. Most of the end units represent living-sleeping quarters. For privacy, you know. The working units tend to be corridors as well, which is one of the embarrassments of having to live down here.
“This is our library; part of it, anyway. Not big, but it’s got our records, too, on carefully indexed and computed microfilm, so that for its kind it’s not only the biggest in the world, but the best and the only. And we have a special computer to handle the references to meet our needs exactly. It collects, selects, coordinates, weighs, then gives us the gist.
“We have another library, too, book films and even some printed volumes. But that’s for amusement.”
A voice broke in on Bergen’s cheerful flow. “John? May I interrupt?”
Demerest started; the voice had come from behind him. Bergen said, “Annette! I was going to get you. This is Stephen Demerest of Luna City. Mr. Demerest, may I introduce my wife, Annette?”
Demerest had turned. He said stiffly, a little mechanically, “I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs. Bergen.” But he was staring at her waistline.
Annette Bergen seemed in her early thirties. Her brown hair was combed simply and she wore no makeup. Attractive, not beautiful, Demerest ‘noted vaguely. But his eyes kept returning to that waistline.
She shrugged a little. “Yes, I’m pregnant, Mr. Demerest. I’m due in about two months.”
“Pardon me,” Demerest muttered. “So rude of me. . . . I didn’t—” He faded off and felt as though the blow had been a physical one. He hadn’t expected women, though he didn’t know why. He knew there would have to be women in Ocean-Deep. And the ferry pilot had said Bergen’s wife was with him.
He stammered as he spoke. “How many women are there in Ocean-Deep, Mr. Bergen?”
“Nine at the moment,” said Bergen. “All wives. We look forward to a time when we can have the normal ratio of one to one, but we still need workers and researchers primarily, and unless women have important qualifications of some sort—”
“They all have important qualifications of some sort, dear,” said Mrs. Bergen. “You could keep the men for longer duty if—”
“My wife,” said Bergen, laughing, “is a convinced feminist but is not above using sex as an excuse to enforce equality. I keep telling her that that is the feminine way of doing it and not the feminist way, and she keeps saying—Well, that’s why she’s pregnant. You think it’s love, sex mania, yearning for motherhood? Nothing of the sort. She’s going to have a baby down here to make a philosophical point.”
Annette said coolly, “Why not? Either this is going to be home for humanity or it isn’t going to be. If it is, then we’re going to have babies here, that’s all. I want a baby born in Ocean-Deep. There are babies born in Luna City, aren’t there, Mr. Demerest?”
Demerest took a deep breath. “I was born in Luna City, Mrs. Bergen.”
“And well she knew it, “ muttered Bergen.
“And you are in your late twenties, I think?” she said.
“I am twenty-nine,” said Demerest.
“And well she knew that, too,” said Bergen with a short laugh. “You can bet she looked up all possible data on you when she heard you were coming.”
“That is quite beside the point,” said Annette. “The point is that for twenty-nine years at least children have been born in Luna City and no children have been born in Ocean-Deep.”
“Luna City, my dear,” said Bergen, “is longer-established. It is over half a century old; we are not yet twenty.”
“Twenty years is quite enough. It takes a baby nine months.”
Demerest interposed, “Are there any children in Ocean-Deep?”
“No,” said Bergen. “No. Someday, though.”
“In two months, anyway,” said Annette Bergen positively.
The tension grew inside Demerest and when they returned to the unit in which he had first met Bergen, he was glad to sit down and accept a cup of coffee.
“We’ll eat soon,” said Bergen matter-of-factly. “I hope you don’t mind sitting here meanwhile. As the prime unit, it isn’t used for much except, of course, for the reception of vessels, an item I don’t expect will interrupt us for a while. We can talk, if you wish.”
“I do wish,” said Demerest.
“I hope I’m welcome to join in,” said Annette.
Demerest looked at her doubtfully, but Bergen said to him, “You’ll have to agree. She’s fascinated by you and by Moon-men generally. She thinks they’re—uh—you’re a new breed, and I think that when she’s quite through being a Deep-woman she wants to be a Moon-woman.’
“I just want to get a word in edgewise, John, and when I get that in, I’d like to hear what Mr. Demerest has to say. What do you think of us, Mr. Demerest?”
Demerest said cautiously, “I’ve asked to come here, Mrs. Bergen, because I’m a safety engineer. Ocean- Deep has an enviable safety record—”
“Not one fatality in almost twenty years,” said Bergen cheerfully. “Only one death by accident in the C-shelf settlements and none in transit by either sub or ’scaphe. I wish I could say, though, that this was the result of wisdom and care on our part. We do our best, of course, but the breaks have been with us—”
“John,” said Annette, “I really wish you’d let Mr. Demerest speak.”
“As a safety engineer,” said Demerest, “I can’t afford to believe in luck and breaks. We cannot stop Moon- quakes or large meteroites out at Luna City, but we are designed to minimize the effects even of those. There are no excuses or there should be none for human failure. We have not avoided that on Luna City; our record recently has been”—his voice dropped—“bad. While humans are imperfect, as we all know, machinery should be designed to take that imperfection into account. We lost twenty men and women—”
“I know. Still, Luna City has a population of nearly one thousand, doesn’t it? Your survival isn’t in danger.”
“The people on Luna City number nine hundred and seventy-two, including myself, but our survival is in danger. We depend on Earth for essentials. That need not always be so; it wouldn’t be so right now if the Planetary Project Council could resist the temptation toward pygmy economies—”
“There, at least, Mr. Demerest,” said Bergen, “we see eye to eye. We are not self-supporting either, and we could be. What’s more, we can’t grow much beyond our present level unless nuclear ’scaphes are built. As long as we keep that buoyancy principle, we are limited. Transportation between Deep and Top is slow; slow for men; slower still for materiel and supplies. I’ve been pushing, Mr. Demerest, for—”
“Yes, and you’ll be getting it now, Mr. Bergen, won’t you?”
“I hope so, but what makes you so sure?”
“Mr. Bergen, let’s not play around. You know very well that Earth is committed to spending a fixed amount of money on expansion projects—on programs designed to expand the human habitat—and that it is not a terribly large amount. Earth’s population is not going to lavish resources in an effort to expand either outer space or inner space if it thinks this will cut into the comfort and convenience of Earth’s prime habitat, the land surface of the planet.”
Annette broke in. “You make it sound callous of Earthmen, Mr. Demerest, and that’s unfair. It’s only human, isn’t it, to want to be secure? Earth is overpopulated and it is only slowly reversing the havoc inflicted on the planet by the Mad Twentieth. Surely man’s original home must come first, ahead of either Luna City or Ocean-Deep. Heavens, Ocean-Deep is almost home to me, but I can’t want to see it flourish at the expense of Earth’s land.”
“It’s not an either-or, Mrs. Bergen,” said Demerest earnestly. “If the ocean and outer space are firmly, honestly, and intelligently exploited, it can only redound to Earth’s benefit. A small investment will be lost but a large one will redeem itself with profit.”
Bergen held up his hand. “Yes, I know. You don’t have to argue with me on that point. You’d be trying to convert the converted. Come, let’s eat. I tell you what. We’ll eat here. If you’ll stay with us overnight, or several days for that matter—you’re quite welcome—there will be ample time to meet everybody. Perhaps you’d rather take
