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Robot Dreams Isaac Asimov 238880K 2023-08-31

Police Sergeant Mankieas on the telephone and he wasn&039;t enjoying it His conversation was sounding like a one-sided view of a firecracker

He was saying, "That&039;s right! He came in here and said, &039;Put me in jail, because I want to kill myself&039; " I can&039;t help that Those were his exact words It sounds crazy to uy answers the description You askedit to you

" He has exactly that scar on his right cheek and he said his na-at-all

" Well, sure it&039;s a phony Nobody is named John Smith Not in a police station, anyway

" He&039;s in jail now

" Yes, Ian officer; assault and battery; malicious mischief That&039;s three counts

" I don&039;t care who he is

" All right I&039;ll hold on"

He looked up at Officer Brown and put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone It was a haether His blunt-featured face was ruddy and stea under a thatch of pale-yellow hair

He said, "Trouble! Nothing but trouble at a precinct station I&039;d rather be pounding a beat any day"

"Who&039;s on the phone?" asked Brown He had just coht Mankieould look better on a suburban beat, too

"Oak Ridge Long Distance A guy called Grant Head of so somebody else at seventy-five cents a rip on the phone and held hih this froht and then if you don&039;t like it, you can send souy doesn&039;t want a lawyer He claims he just wants to stay in jail and, brother, that&039;s all right with me

"Well, will you listen? He caht up to me, and said, &039;Officer, I want you to put me in jail because I want to kill myself&039; So I said, &039;Mister, I&039;m sorry you want to kill yourself Don&039;t do it, because if you do, you&039;ll regret it the rest of your life&039; " I a you what I said I&039;ot my own troubles here, if you knohat I ot to do here is to listen to cranks alk in and - " Give me a chance, will you?" I said, &039;I can&039;t put you in jail for wanting to kill yourself That&039;s no crime&039; And he said, &039;But I don&039;t want to die&039; So I said, &039;Look, bud, get out of here&039; I ht, and if he doesn&039;t want to, all right, but I don&039;t want hi on with it So he said to me &039;If I commit a crime, will you put ht and if soe and you can&039;t put up bail, ill Now beat it&039; So he picked up the inkwell on my desk and, before I could stop him, he turned it upside down on the open police blotter

" That&039;s right! Why do you think we have &039;malicious mischief tabbed on him? The ink ran down all over my pants

" Yes, assault and battery, too! I ca down to shake a little sense into him, and he kicked me in the shins and handedthis up You want to come down here and look at my face?

" He&039;ll be up in court one of these days About Thursday, et, unless the psychos say otherwise I think he belongs in the loony-bin myself

" Officially, he&039;s John Sive

" No, sir, he doesn&039;t get released without the proper legal steps

" OK, you do that, if you want to, bud! I just do ed the phone into its cradle, glowered at it, then picked it up and began dialing He said "Gianetti?" got the proper answer and began talking

"What&039;s the AEC? I&039;ve been talking to some Joe on the phone and he says - " No, I&039;, I&039;d put up a sign What&039;s the alphabet soup?"

He listened, said, "Thanks" in a sain

He had lost souy was the head of the Atoy Commission," he said to Brown "They ton"

Brown lounged to his feet, "Maybe the FBI, is after this John Suy Maybe he&039;s one of these here scientists" He felt ht to keep ato as General Groves was the only fella who knew about the atoh - "

"Ah, shut up," snarled Mankiewicz

Dr Oswald Grant kept his eyes fixed on the white line that h it were an enemy of his He always did He was tall and knobby with a withdrawn expression stamped on his face His knees crowded the wheel, and his knuckles whitened whenever he made a turn

Inspector Darrity sat beside his crossed so that the sole of his left shoe caainst the door It would leave a sandy mark when he took it away He tossed a nut-brown penknife frolea blade and scraped casually at his nails as they drove, but a sudden swerve had nearly cost hier and he desisted

He said, "What do you know about this Ralson?"

Dr Grant took his eyes from the road momentarily, then returned them He said, uneasily, "I&039;ve known him since he took his doctorate at Princeton He&039;s a very brilliant man"

"Yes? Brilliant, huh? Why is it that all you scientific men describe one another as &039;brilliant&039;? Aren&039;t there any mediocre ones?"

"Many I&039;m one of them But Ralson isn&039;t You ask anyone Ask Oppenheiordo"

"OK He was brilliant What about his private life?"

Grant waited "I wouldn&039;t know"

"You know him since Princeton Hownorth along the highway froton for two hours with scarcely a word between therip of the law on his coat collar

"He got his degree in &039;43"

"You&039;ve known hiht"

"And you don&039;t know about his private life?"

"A man&039;s life is his own, Inspector He wasn&039;t very sociable A great many of the men are like that They work under pressure and when they&039;re off the job, they&039;re not interested in continuing the lab acquaintanceships"

"Did he belong to any organizations that you know of?"

"No"

The inspector said, "Did he ever say anything to you that ht indicate he was disloyal?"

Grant shouted "No!" and there was silence for a while

Then Darrity said, "How important is Ralson in atomic research?"

Grant hunched over the wheel and said, "As irant you that no one is indispensable, but Ralson has always see mentality"

"What does that mean?"

"He isn&039;t ets that put someone else&039;s math into life There&039;s no one like hiain, Inspector, we&039;ve had a proble but blank ht into it and said, &039;Why don&039;t you try so-and-so?&039; Then he&039;d go away He wouldn&039;t even be interested enough to see if it worked But it always did Always! Maybe ould have got it ourselves eventually, but it ht have taken months of additional ti him either He just looks at you and says &039;It was obvious&039;, and walks away Of course, once he&039;s shown us how to do it, it is obvious"

The inspector let him have his say out When no more came, he said, "Would you say he was queer, mentally? Erratic, you know"

"When a person is a genius, you wouldn&039;t expect him to be normal, would you?"

"Maybe not But just how abnorenius?"

"He never talked, particularly Sometimes, he wouldn&039;t work"

"Stayed at ho instead?"

"No He caht; but he would just sit at his desk Soo on for weeks Wouldn&039;t answer you, or even look at you, when you spoke to hiether?"

"Before now, you mean? Never!"

"Did he ever claim he wanted to commit suicide? Ever say he wouldn&039;t feel safe except in jail?"

"No"

"You&039;re sure this John Smith is Ralson?"

"I&039;ht cheek that can&039;t be mistaken"

"OK That&039;s that, then I&039;ll speak to him and see what he sounds like"

The silence fell for good this ti line as Inspector Darrity tossed the penknife in low arcs from hand to hand

The warden listened to the call-box and looked up at his visitors "We can have hiardless"

"No," Dr Grant shook his head "Let&039;s go to him"

Darrity said, "Is that noruard trying to take him out of a prison cell?"

Grant said, "I can&039;t say"

The warden spread a calloused palm His thick nose twitched a little "We haven&039;t tried to do anything about hiton, but, frankly, he doesn&039;t belong here I&039;ll be glad to have him taken off my hands"

"We&039;ll see him in his cell," said Darrity

They went down the hard, barlined corridor E

Dr Grant felt his flesh crawl "Has he been kept here all the tiuard, pacing before them, stopped "This is the cell"

Darrity said, "Is that Dr Ralson?"

Dr Grant looked silently at the figure upon the cot Thedohen they first reached the cell, but now he had risen to one elbow and see to shrink into the wall His hair was sandy and thin, his figure slight, his eyes blank and china-blue On his right cheek there was a raised pink patch that tailed off like a tadpole

Dr Grant said, "That&039;s Ralson"

The guard opened the door and stepped inside, but Inspector Darrity sent hiesture Ralson watched the backwards His Adam&039;s apple bobbled as he sed

Darrity said quietly, "Dr Elwood Ralson?"

"What do you want?" The voice was a surprising baritone "Would you come with us, please? We have some questions ould like to ask you"

"No! Leave me alone!"

"Dr Ralson," said Grant, "I&039;ve been sent here to ask you to come back to work"

Ralson looked at the scientist and there was aother than fear in his eyes He said, "Hello, Grant" He got off his cot "Listen, I&039;ve been trying to have them put me into a padded cell Can&039;t you make them do that forI didn&039;t feel was necessary Help me I can&039;t stand the hard walls It ht the flat of his palray concrete behind his cot

Darrity looked thoughtful He brought out his penknife and unbent the Rea blade Carefully, he scraped at his thumbnail, and said, "Would you like to see a doctor?"

But Ralson didn&039;t answer that He followed the gleareet His breath becaed and harsh

He said, "Put that away!"

Darrity paused "Put what away?"

"The knife Don&039;t hold it in front ofat it"

Darrity said, "Why not?" He held it out "Anything wrong with it? It&039;s a good knife"

Ralson lunged Darrity stepped back and his left hand cah in the air "What&039;s the matter, Ralson? What are you after?"

Grant cried a protest but Darrity waved him away

Darrity said, "What do you want, Ralson?"

Ralson tried to reach upward, and bent under the other&039;s appalling grip He gasped, "Give me the knife"

"Why, Ralson? What do you want to do with it?"

"Please I&039;ve got to - " He was pleading "I&039;ve got to stop living"

"You want to die?"

"No But I must"

Darrity shoved Ralson flailed backward and tumbled into his cot, so that it squeaked noisily Slowly, Darrity bent the blade of his penknife into its sheath and put it away Ralson covered his face His shoulders were shaking but otherwise he did notfrom the corridor, as the other prisoners reacted to the noise issuing fro, "Quiet!" as he went

Darrity looked up "It&039;s all right, guard"

He iping his hands upon a large white handkerchief "I think we&039;ll get a doctor for him"

Dr Gottfried Blaustein was small and dark and spoke with a trace of an Austrian accent He needed only a soatee to be the layman&039;s caricature of a psychiatrist But he was clean-shaven, and very carefully dressed He watched Grant closely, assessing hi in certain observations and deductions He did this automatically, noith everyone he ive reat talent, perhaps even genius You tell me he has always been uncomfortable with people; that he has never fitted in with his laboratory environreatest of success Is there another environment to which he has fitted himself?"

"I don&039;t understand"

"It is not given to all of us to be so fortunate as to find a congenial type of company at the place or in the field where we find it necessary toan instru some club In other words, one creates a new type of society, when not working, in which one can feel htest connection hat one&039;s ordinary occupation is It is an escape, and not necessarily an unhealthy one" He smiled and added, "Myself, I collect stamps I am an active member of the American Society of Philatelists"

Grant shook his head "I don&039;t knohat he did outside working hours I doubt that he did anything like what you&039;ve mentioned"

"Um-m-m Well, that would be sad Relaxation and enjoyment are wherever you find them; but you must find them somewhere, no?"

"Have you spoken to Dr Ralson, yet?"

"About his proble to?"

"Oh, yes But he has been here only a week One hly excited state when he first came here It was almost a delirium Let him rest and become accustomed to the new environment I will question hiet him back to work?"

Blaustein smiled "How should I know? I don&039;t even knohat his sickness is"

"Couldn&039;t you at least get rid of the worst of it; this suicidal obsession of his, and take care of the rest of the cure while he&039;s at work?"

"Perhaps I couldn&039;t even venture an opinion so far without several interviews"

"How long do you suppose it will all take?"

"In these ht his hands together in a sharp slap "Do what seems best then But this is more important than you know"

"Perhaps But you may be able to help et me certain information which may be classified as top secret?"

"What kind of information?"

"I would like to know the suicide rate, since 1945, a nuclear scientists Also, how o into other types of scientific work, or to leave science altogether"

"Is this in connection with Ralson?"

"Don&039;t you think it ht be an occupational disease, this terrible unhappiness of his?"

"Well - a good many have left their jobs, naturally"

"Why naturally, Dr Grant?"

"You must kno it is, Dr Blaustein, The atreat pressure and red tape You ith the government; you ith military men You can&039;t talk about your work; you have to be careful what you say Naturally, if you get a chance at a job in a university, where you can fix your own hours, do your oork, write papers that don&039;t have to be submitted to the AEC, attend conventions that aren&039;t held behind locked doors, you take it"

"And abandon your field of specialty forever"

"There are always non-military applications Of course, there was one man who did leave for another reason He told hts He said he&039;d hear one hundred thousand screahts out The last I heard of him he was a clerk in a haberdashery"

"And do you ever hear a few screams yourself?"

Grant nodded "It isn&039;t a nice feeling to know that even a little of the responsibility of atoht be your own"

"How did Ralson feel?"

"He never spoke of anything like that"

"In other words, if he felt it, he never even had the safety-valve effect of letting off steauess he hadn&039;t"

"Yet nuclear research must be done, no?"

"I&039;ll say"

"What would you do, Dr Grant, if you felt you had to do soed "I don&039;t know"

"Some people kill themselves"

"You mean that&039;s what has Ralson down"

"I don&039;t know I do not knoill speak to Dr Ralson this evening I can pro, of course, but I will let you knohatever I can"

Grant rose "Thanks, Doctor I&039;ll try to get the information you want"

Elwood Ralson&039;s appearance had improved in the week he had been at Dr Blaustein&039;s sanatoriuone out of him He was tieless and beltless His shoes ithout laces

Blaustein said, "How do you feel, Dr Ralson?"

"Rested"

"You have been treated well?"

"No complaints, Doctor"

Blaustein&039;s hand fumbled for the letter-opener hich it was his habit to play duringIt had been put away, of course, with anything else possessing a sharp edge There was nothing on his desk, now, but papers

He said, "Sit down, Dr Ralson How do your syress?"

"You mean, do I have what you would call a suicidal ihts, I think But it&039;s alithyou can do to help"

"Perhaps you are right There are often things I cannot help But I would like to know as much as I can about you You are an important man - "

Ralson snorted

"You do not consider that to be so?" asked Blaustein

"No, I don&039;t There are no important men, any more than there are important individual bacteria"

"I don&039;t understand"

"I don&039;t expect you to"

"And yet it seems to ht It would certainly be of the greatest interest to have you tell ht"

For the first time, Ralson smiled It was not a pleasant s to watch you, Doctor You go about your business so conscientiously You must listen to me, mustn&039;t you, with just that air of phony interest and unctuous sys and still be sure of an audience, can&039;t I?"

"Don&039;t you think ranted that it is professional, too?"

"No, I don&039;t"

"Why not?"

"I&039; it"

"Would you rather return to your room?"

"If you don&039;t mind No!" His voice had suddenly suffused with fury as he stood up, then alain "Why shouldn&039;t I use you? I don&039;t like to talk to people They&039;re stupid They don&039;t see things They stare at the obvious for hours and itto them If I spoke to them, they wouldn&039;t understand; they&039;d lose patience; they&039;d laugh Whereas you must listen It&039;s your job You can&039;t interrupt to tell h you lad to listen to whatever you would like to tell me"

Ralson drew a deep breath "I&039;ve known so for a year now, that very few people know Maybe it&039;s so no live person knows Do you know that huenerations in a city containing thirty thousand free enius of the first rank arose to supply a nation of millions for a century under ordinary circu to the Athens of Pericles

"There are other exaland of Elizabeth, the Spain of the Cordovan E the Israelites of the Eighth and Seventh centuries before Christ Do you knohat I mean?"

Blaustein nodded "I see that history is a subject that interests you"

"Why not? I suppose there&039;s nothing that says I must restrict myself to nuclear cross-sections and waveat all Please proceed"

"At first, I thought I could learna specialist I had some conferences with a professional historian A waste of time!"

"What was his name; this professional historian?"

"Does it matter?"

"Perhaps not, if you would rather consider it confidential What did he tell you?"

"He said I rong; that history only appeared to go in spasreat civilizations of Egypt and Su, but upon the basis of a long-developing sub-civilization that was already sophisticated in its arts He said that Periclean Athens built upon a pre-Periclean Athens of lower accoe of Pericles could not have been

"I asked as there not a post-Periclean Athens of higher accomplishue and by a long ith Sparta I asked about other cultural spurts and each time it was a war that ended it, or, in some cases, even accompanied it He was like all the rest The truth was there; he had only to bend and pick it up; but he didn&039;t"

Ralson stared at the floor, and said in a tired voice, "They come to me in the laboratory so to get rid of the such-and-such effect that is ruining all our measurements, Ralson?&039; They show ra at you Why don&039;t you do so-and-so? A child could tell you that&039; Then I walk away because I can&039;t endure the slow puzzling of their stupid faces Later, they coure it out?&039; I can&039;t explain to the that water is wet And I couldn&039;t explain to the historian And I can&039;t explain to you It&039;s a waste of tio back to your room?"

"Yes"

Blaustein sat and wondered for many minutes after Ralson had been escorted out of his office His fingers found their way autoht drawer of his desk and lifted out the letter-opener He twiddled it in his fingers

Finally, he lifted the telephone and dialed the unlisted nuiven

He said, "This is Blaustein There is a professional historian as consulted by Dr Ralson soo I don&039;t know his name I don&039;t even know if he was connected with a university If you could find him, I would like to see hihtfully at Blaustein and brushed his hand through his iron-gray hair He said, "They came to me and I said that I had indeed met this man However, I have had very little connection with him None, in fact, beyond a few conversations of a professional nature"

"How did he come to you?"

"He wrote me a letter; why me, rather than someone else, I do not know A series of articles written by myself had appeared in one of the semi-learned journals of semi-popular appeal about that time It may have attracted his attention"

"I see With what general topic were the articles concerned?"

"They were a consideration of the validity of the cyclic approach to history That is, whether one can really say that a particular civilization ous to those involving individuals"

"I have read Toynbee, Dr Milton"

"Well, then, you knohat I mean"

Blaustein said, "And when Dr Ralson consulted you, was it with reference to this cyclic approach to history?"

"U-m-m-m In a way, I suppose Of course, the man is not an historian and some of his notions about cultural trends are rather dramatic and what shall I say tabloidish Pardon me, Doctor, if I ask a question which may be improper Is Dr Ralson one of your patients?"

"Dr Ralson is not well and is in my care This, and all else we say here, is confidential, of course"

"Quite I understand that However, your answer explains soed on the irrational He was alorried, it seemed to me, about the connection bethat he called &039;cultural spurts&039; and calamities of one sort or another Now such connections have been noted frequently The tireatest vitality reat national insecurity The Netherlands is a good case in point Her great artists, states to the early Seventeenth Century at the tireatest European power of the time, Spain When at the point of destruction at ho an empire in the Far East and had secured footholds on the northern coast of South America, the southern tip of Africa, and the Hudson Valley of North Aland to a standstill And then, once her political safety was assured, she declined

"Well, as I say, that is not unusual Groups, like individuals, will rise to strange heights in answer to a challenge, and vegetate in the absence of a challenge Where Dr Ralson left the paths of sanity, however, was in insisting that such a view a cause and effect He declared that it was not tier that stimulated &039;cultural spurts&039;, but rather vice versa He clairoup of men snowed too much vitality and ability, a war became necessary to destroy the possibility of their further development"

"I see," said Blaustein

"I rather laughed at him, I am afraid It may be that that hy he did not keep the last appointment we made Just toward the end of that last conference he asked inable, whether I did not think it queer that such an improbable species as man was doence There I laughed aloud Perhaps I should not have, poor fellow"

"It was a natural reaction," said Blaustein, "but I must take no more of your time You have been most helpful"

They shook hands, and Thaddeus Milton took his leave

"Well," said Darrity, "there are your figures on the recent suicides a scientific personnel Get any deductions out of it?"

"I should be asking you that," said Blaustein, gently "The FBI, hly"

"You can bet the national debt on that They are suicides There&039;s noon it in another departe, social status, economic class into consideration"

"What about British scientists?"

"Just about the same"

"And the Soviet Union?"

"Who can tell?" The investigator leaned forward "Doc, you don&039;t think the Soviets have some sort of ray that can make people want to commit suicide, do you? It&039;s sort of suspicious that men in atomic research are the only ones affected"

"Is it? Perhaps not Nuclear physicists may have peculiar strains ih study"

"You h?" asked Darrity, warily

Blausteintoo popular Everybody talks of complexes and neuroses and psychoses and couilt coht&039;s sleep If I could talk to each one of the "

"You&039;re talking to Ralson"

"Yes, I&039;uilt coround out of which it would not surprise me if he obtained a morbid concern with death When he elve he saw his mother die under the wheels of an automobile His father died slowly of cancer Yet the effect of those experiences on his present troubles is not clear"

Darrity picked up his hat "Well, I wish you&039;d get a er than the H-Boer than that, but it is"

Ralson insisted on standing "I had a bad night last night, Doctor"

"I hope," said Blaustein, "these conferences are not disturbing you"

"Well, ain It ine it feels being part of a bacterial culture, Doctor?"

"I had never thought of that To a bacterium, it probably feels quite normal"

Ralson did not hear He said, slowly, "A culture in which intelligence is being studied We study all sorts of things as far as their genetic relationships are concerned We take fruit flies and cross red eyes and white eyes to see what happens We don&039;t care anything about red eyes and white eyes, but we try to gather froenetic principles You see what I mean?"

"Certainly"

"Even in humans, we can follow various physical characteristics There are the Hapsburg lips, and the hemophilia that started with Queen Victoria and cropped up in her descendants a the Spanish and Russian royal families We can even follow feeble-mindedness in the Jukeses and Kallikakas You learn about it in high-school biology But you can&039;t breed hu It would take centuries to draw conclusions It&039;s a pity we don&039;t have a special race of men that reproduce at weekly intervals, eh?"

He waited for an answer, but Blaustein only smiled

Ralson said, "Only that&039;s exactly ould be for another group of beings whose life span ht be thousands of years To theh We would be short-lived creatures and they could study the genetics of such things as ence, and so on Not that those things would interest them as such, any more than the white eyes of the fruit fly interest us as white eyes"

"This is a very interesting notion," said Blaustein

"It is not simply a notion It is true To me, it is obvious, and I don&039;t care how it seems to you Look around you Look at the planet, Earth What kind of a ridiculous animal are we to be lords of the world after the dinosaurs had failed? Sure, we&039;re intelligent, but what&039;s intelligence? We think it is important because we have it If the Tyrannosaurus could have picked out the one quality that he thought would ensure species doth And he would er than we&039;re likely to

"Intelligence in itself isn&039;t much as far as survival values are concerned The elephant makes out very poorly indeed when coent The dog does well, under ainst whoroup The se ones have always been re their own The baboons do the best and that is because of their canines, not their brains"

A light film of perspiration covered Ralson&039;s forehead "And one can see that man has been tailored, s that study us Generally, the prier, which is a fairly general rule in ani as any of the other great apes; considerably longer even than the gorilla that outweighs hih we&039;ve been carefully bred to live a little longer so that our life cycle th"

He ju his fists above his head "A thousand years are but as yesterday - "

Blaustein punched a button hastily

For a ainst the white-coated orderly who entered, and then he allowed himself to be led away

Blaustein looked after him, shook his head, and picked up the telephone

He got Darrity "Inspector, youtime"

He listened and shook his head "I know I don&039;t ency"

The voice in the receiver was tinny and harsh "Doctor, you areit I&039;ll send Dr Grant to you He&039;ll explain the situation to you"

Dr Grant asked how Ralson was, then asked someistfully if he could see hiently

Grant said, "I&039;ve been directed to explain the current situation in atomic research to you"

"So that I will understand, no?"

"I hope so It&039;s a measure of desperation I&039;ll have to remind you - "

"Not to breathe a word of it Yes, I know This insecurity on the part of you people is a very bad sys cannot be hidden"

"You live with secrecy It&039;s contagious"

"Exactly What is the current secret?"

"There is or, at least, there ainst the atomic bomb"

"And that is a secret? It would be better if it were shouted to all the people of the world instantly"

"For heaven&039;s sake, no Listen to me, Dr Blaustein It&039;s only on paper so far It&039;s at the E equal e, almost It may not be practical It would be bad to raise hopes ould have to disappoint On the other hand, if it were known that we alht be a desire to start and win a war before the defense were completely developed"

"That I don&039;t believe But, nevertheless, I distract you What is the nature of this defense, or have you told o as far as I like; as far as is necessary to convince you we have to have Ralson - and fast!"

"Well, then tell me, and I too, will know secrets I&039;ll feel like a member of the Cabinet"

"You&039;ll know more than e So far, military advances have been made fairly equally in both offensive and defensive weapons Once before there see of all warfare in the direction of the offense, and that ith the invention of gunpowder But the defense caught up The medieval man-in-armor-on-horse became the modern man-in-tank-on-treads, and the stone castle beca, you see, except that everything has been boosted several orders of ood You make it clear But with the atoo past concrete and steel for protection"

"Right Only we can&039;t just make thicker and thicker walls We&039;ve run out of h So we ether If the atoy itself; a force field"

"And what," asked Blaustein, gently, "is a force field?"

"I wish I could tell you Right now, it&039;s an equation on paper Energy can be so channeled as to create a wall of matterless inertia, theoretically In practice, we don&039;t kno to do it"

"It would be a wall you could not go through, is that it? Even for atoms?"

"Even for atoth would be the ay we could pour into it It could even theoretically be a of is a screen that would be in per practically no energy It could then be triggered to e froh to be an atomic war head All this is theoretically possible"

"And why must you have Ralson?"