Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

around at the wreckage.

In spite of Superintendent King’s anxiety, Lentz refused to be hurried in

passing judgment on the situation. Consequently, when be did present himself at

King’s office, and announced that he was ready to report, King was pleasantly

surprised as well as relieved. “Well, I’m delighted,” he said. “Sit down, doctor,

sit down. Have a cigar. What do we do about it?”

But Lentz stuck to his perennial cigarette, and refused to be hurried. “I

must have some information first: how important,” he demanded, “is the power from

your plant?”

King understood the implication at once. “If you are thinking about shutting

down – the plant for more than a limited period, it can’t be done.”

“Why not? If the figures supplied me are correct, your power output is less

than thirteen percent of the total power used in the country.”

“Yes, that is true, but we also supply another thirteen percent second hand

through the plutonium we breed here-and you haven’t analyzed the items that make up

the balance. A lot of it is domestic power which householders get from sunscreens

located on their roofs. Another big slice is power for the moving roadways-that’s

sunpower again. The portion we provide here directly or indirectly is the main power

source for most of the heavy industries-steel, plastics, lithics, all kinds of

manufacturing and processing. You might as well cut the heart out of a man-”

“But the food industry isn’t basically dependent on you?” Lentz persisted.

“No … Food isn’t basically a power industry though we do supply a certain

percentage of the power used in processing. I see your point, and will go on,

concede that transportation, that is to say, distribution food, could get along

without us. But good heavens, Doctor, you can’t stop atomic power without causing

the biggest panic this country has ever seen. It’s the keystone our whole industrial

system.”

“The country has lived through panics before, and we got past the oil

shortage safely.”

“Yes because sunpower and atomic power had to take the place of oil. You

don’t realize what would mean, Doctor. It would be worse than a war; in system like

ours, one thing depends on another. If you cut off the heavy industries all at once,

everything else stops too.”

“Nevertheless, you had better dump the pile.” The uranium in the pile was

molten, its temperature bell greater than twenty-four hundred degrees centigrade.

The pile could be dumped into a group of small containers when it was desired to

shut it down. The mass into one container would be too small to maintain progressive

atomic disintegration.

Icing glanced involuntarily at the glass-enclosed relay mounted on his

office wall, by which he, as well as the engineer on duty, could dump the pile, if

need be. “But ~ couldn’t do that … or rather, if I did, the plant wouldn’t stay

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shut down. The directors would simply replace me with someone who would operate it.”

“You’re right, of course.” Lentz silently considered the situation for some

time, then said, “Superintendent, will you order a car to fly me back to Chicago?”

“You’re going, doctor?”

“Yes.” He took the cigarette holder from his face, and, for once, the smile

of Olympian detachment was gone completely. His entire manner was sober, even

tragic.

“Short of shutting down the plant, there is no solution to your problem-none

whatsoever!”

“I owe you a full explanation,” he continued, presently.

“You are confronted here with recurring instances of situational

psychoneurosis. Roughly, the symptoms manifest themselves as anxiety neurosis, or

some form of hysteria.

The partial amnesia of your secretary, Steinke, is a good example of the

latter. He might be cured with shock technique, but it would hardly be a kindness,

as he has achieved a stable adjustment which puts him beyond the reach of the strain

he could not stand.

“That other young fellow, Harper, whose blowup was the immediate cause of

you sending for me, is an anxiety case. When the cause of the anxiety was eliminated

from his matrix, he at once regained full sanity. But keep a close watch on his

friend, Erickson- “However, it is the cause, and prevention, of situational