"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 it easy for a while, though."
"Much rather," said Demerest. "Actually, I want to stay here…I would like to ask, by the way, why I met so few people when we went through the units."
"No mystery," said Bergen genially. "At any given time, some fifteen of our men are asleep and perhaps fifteen more are watching films or playing chess or, if their wives are with them-"
"Yes, John," said Annette.
"-And it's customary not to disturb them. The quarters are constricted and what privacy a man can have is cherished. A few are out at sea; three right now, I think. That leaves a dozen or so at work in here and you met them."
"I'll get lunch," said Annette, rising.
She smiled and stepped through the door, which closed automatically behind her.
Bergen looked after her. "That's a concession. She's playing woman for your sake. Ordinarily, it would be just as likely for me to get the lunch. The choice is not defined by sex but by the striking of random lightning."
Demerest said, "The doors between units, it seems to me, are of dangerously limited strength."
"Are they?"
"If an accident happened, and one unit was punctured-"
"No meteorites down here," said Bergen, smiling.
"Oh yes, wrong word. If there were a leak of any sort, for any reason, then could a unit or a group of units be sealed off against the full pressure of the ocean?"
"You mean, in the way that Luna City can have its component units automatically sealed off in case of meteorite puncture in order to limit damage to a single unit."
"Yes," said Demerest with a faint bitterness. "As did not happen recently."
"In theory, we could do that, but the chances of accident are much less down here. As I said, there are no meteorites and, what's more, there are no currents to speak of. Even an earthquake centered immediately below us would not be damaging since we make no fixed or solid contact with the ground beneath and are cushioned by the ocean itself against the shocks. So we can afford to gamble on no massive influx."
"Yet if one happened?"
"Then we could be helpless. You see, it is not so easy to seal off component units here. On the Moon, there is a pressure differentia] of just one atmosphere; one atmosphere inside and the zero atmosphere of vacuum outside. A thin seal is enough. Here at Ocean-Deep the pressure differential is roughly a thousand atmospheres. To secure absolute safety against that differentia] would take a great deal of money and you know what you said about getting money out of PPC. So we gamble and so far we've been lucky."
"And we haven't," said Demerest.
Bergen looked uncomfortable, but Annette distracted both by coming in with lunch at this moment.
She said, "I hope, Mr. Demerest, that you're prepared for Spartan fare. All our food in Ocean-Deep is prepackaged and requires only heating. We specialize in blandness and nonsurprise here, and the non-surprise of the day is a bland chicken a la king, with carrots, boiled potatoes, a piece of something that looks like a brownie for dessert, and, of course, all the coffee you can drink. "
Demerest rose to take his tray and tried to smile. "It sounds very like Moon fare, Mrs. Bergen, and I was brought up on that. We grow our own micro-organismic food. It is patriotic to eat that but not particularly enjoyable. We hope to keep improving it, though."