THE PUSH OF A FINGER
—or a careless word, for that matter,
can wreck the entire universe. Think
not? Well, if it happened this way—
By Alfred Bester
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Astounding Science-Fiction May 1942.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
I think it's about time someone got all those stories together andburned them. You know the kind I mean—X, the mad scientist, wants tochange the world; Y, the ruthless dictator, wants to rule the world; Z,the alien planet, wants to destroy the world.
Let me tell you a different kind of story. It's about a whole worldthat wanted to rule one man—about a planet of people who hunted downa single individual in an effort to change his life, yes, and evendestroy him, if it had to be. It's a story about one man against theentire Earth, but with the positions reversed.
They've got a place in Manhattan City that isn't very well known. Notknown, I mean, in the sense that the cell-nucleus wasn't known untilscientists began to get the general idea. This was an undiscoveredcell-nucleus, and still is, I imagine. It's the pivot of our Universe.Anything that shakes the world comes out of it; and, strangely enough,any shake that does come out of it is intended to prevent worseupheavals.
Don't ask questions now. I'll explain as I go along.
The reason the average man doesn't know about this particular nucleusis that he'd probably go off his nut if he did. Our officials makepretty sure it's kept secret, and although some nosy-bodies wouldscream to high heaven if they found out something was being kept fromthe public, anyone with sense will admit it's for the best.
It's a square white building about ten stories high and it looks likean abandoned hospital. Around nine o'clock in the morning you can see acouple of dozen ordinary looking citizens arriving, and at the end ofthe workday some of them leave. But there's a considerable number thatstay overtime and work until dawn or until the next couple of dawns.They're cautious about keeping windows covered so that high-mindedcitizens won't see the light and run to the controller's office yawpingabout overtime and breaking down Stability. Also they happen to havepermission.
Yeah, it's real big-time stuff. These fellas are so important, andtheir work is so important they've got permission to break the oneunbreakable law. They can work overtime. In fact as far as they'reconcerned they can do any damned thing they please, Stability or noStability—because it so happens they're the babies that maintainStability. How? Take it easy. We've got plenty of time—and I'll tellyou.
It's called the Prog Building and it's one of the regular newspaperbeats, just like the police courts used to be a couple of hundredyears ago. Every paper sends a reporter down there at three o'clock.The reporters hang around and bull for a while and then some brass hatinterviews them and talks policy and economics and about how the worldis doing and how it's going to do. Usually it's dull stuff but everyonce in a while something really big comes out, like the time theydecided to drain the Mediterranean. They—
What?
You never heard of that? Say, who is this guy anyway? Are you kidding?From the Moon, hey, all your life? Never been to the home planet?Never heard about what goes on? A real cosmic hick. Baby, you canroll me in a rug. I thought your kind died out before I was born.O.K., you go ahead and ask questions w