An atom of lithium-7 plus an atom of hydrogen-1 yields two atoms of
helium-4 and plenty of energy. One gram of lithium hydride would give
nearly fifty-eight kilowatt-hours of energy in one blast. A pound of the
stuff would be the equivalent of nearly seven _tons_ of TNT.
In addition, it was a nice, clean bomb. Nothing but helium, radiation,
and heat. In the early nineteen fifties, such a bomb had been
constructed by surrounding the LiH with a fission bomb--the so-called
"implosion" technique. But all that heavy metal around the central
reaction created all kinds of radioactive residues which had a tendency
to scatter death for hundreds of miles around.
Now, suppose a man had a pair of tweezers small enough to pick up a
single molecule of lithium hydride and pinch the two nuclei together. Of
course, the idea is ridiculous--that is, the tweezer part is. But if the
pinch could be done in some other way....
Snookums had done it.
"Homemade atomic bombs in your back yard or basement lab," said Mike the
Angel.
Fitzhugh nodded emphatically. "Exactly. We can't let that technique out
until we've found a way to keep people from doing just that. The UN
Government has inspection techniques that prevent anyone from building
the conventional types of thermonuclear bombs, but not the pinch bomb."
Mike the Angel thought over what Dr. Fitzhugh had said. Then he said:
"That's not all of it. Antarctica is isolated enough to keep that
knowledge secret for a long time--at least until safeguards could be
set up. Why take Snookums off Earth?"
"Snookums himself is dangerous," Fitzhugh said. "He has a built-in
'urge' to experiment--to get data. We can keep him from making
experiments that we know will be dangerous by giving him the data, so
that the urge doesn't operate. But if he's on the track of something
totally new....
"Well, you can see what we're up against." He thoughtfully blew a cloud
of smoke. "We think he may be on the track of the total annihilation of
matter."
A dead silence hung in the air. The ultimate, the super-atomic bomb.
Theoretically, the idea had been approached only in the assumption of
contact between ordinary matter and anti-matter, with the two canceling
each other completely to give nothing but energy. Such a bomb would be
nearly fifty thousand times as powerful as the lithium-hydride pinch
bomb. That much energy, released in a few millimicroseconds, would make
the standard H-bomb look like a candle flame on a foggy night.
The LiH pinch bomb could be controlled. By using just a little of the
stuff, it would be possible to limit the destruction to a neighborhood,
or even a single block. A total-annihilation bomb would be much harder
to control. The total annihilation of a single atom of hydrogen would
yield over a thousandth of an erg, and matter just doesn't come in much
smaller packages than that.
"You see," said Fitzhugh, "we _had_ to get him off Earth."
"Either that or stop him from experimenting," Mike said. "And I assume
that wouldn't be good for Snookums."
"To frustrate Snookums would be to destroy all the work we have put into
him. His circuits would tend to exceed optimum randomity, and that would
mean, in human terms, that he would be insane--and therefore worthless.
As a machine, Snookums is worth eighteen billion dollars. The
information we have given him, plus the deductions and computations he
has made from that information, is worth...." He shrugged his shoulders.
"Who knows? How can a price be put on knowledge?"
12
The _William Branchell_--dubbed _Brainchild_--fled Earth at ultralight
velocity, while officers, crew, and technical advisers settled down to
routine. The only thing that disturbed that routine was one particularly
restless part of the ship's cargo.
Snookums was a snoop.
Cut off from the laboratories which had been provided for his special
work at Chilblains, he proceeded to interest himself in the affairs of
the human beings which surrounded him. Until his seventh year, he had
been confined to the company of only a small handful of human beings.
Even while the _William Branchell_ was being built, he hadn't been
allowed any more freedom than was absolutely necessary to keep him from
being frustrated.
Even so, he had developed an interest in humans. Now he was being
allowed full rein in his data-seeking circuits, and he chose to
investigate, not the physical sciences, but the study of Mankind. Since
the proper study of Mankind is Man, Snookums proceeded to study the
people on the ship.
Within three days the officers had evolved a method of
Snookums-evasion.
Lieutenant Commander Jakob von Liegnitz sat in the officers' wardroom of
the _Brainchild_ and shuffled a deck of cards with expert fingers.
He was a medium-sized man, five-eleven or so, with a barrel chest, broad
shoulders, a narrow waist, and lean hips. His light brown hair was worn
rather long, and its straight strands seemed to cling tightly to his
skull. His gray eyes had a perpetual half-squint that made him look
either sleepy or angry, depending on what the rest of his broad face was
doing.
He dealt himself out a board of Four Cards Up and had gone through about
half the pack when Mike the Angel came in with Lieutenant Keku.
"Hello, Jake," said Keku. "What's to do?"
"Get out two more decks," said Mike the Angel, "and we can all play
solitaire."
Von Liegnitz looked up sleepily. "I could probably think of duller
things, Mike, but not just immediately. How about bridge?"
"We'll need a fourth," said Keku. "How about Pete?"
Mike the Angel shook his head. "Black Bart is sleeping--taking his
beauty nap. So Pete has the duty. How about young Vaneski? He's not a
bad partner."
"He is out, too," said von Liegnitz. "He also is on duty."
Mike the Angel lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. "Something busted? Why
should the Maintenance Officer be on duty right now?"
"He is maintaining," said von Liegnitz with deliberate dignity, "peace
and order around here. He is now performing the duty of
Answerman-in-Chief. He's very good at it."