On The Beach

He mollified her, accustomed to the charge of being a heartless father. They spent the next hour playing with their baby on the grass in the warm sun, encouraging it to crawl about the lawn. Finally Mary took it indoors to bathe it and give it its supper, while Peter went on sawing up the logs.

He met his captain next morning in the Navy Department, and together they were shown into the office of the First Naval Member, who had a captain from the Operations Division with him. He greeted them cordially, and made them sit down. "Well now," he said. "You've had a look at the draft operation order that we sent you down?"

"I made a very careful study of it, sir," said the captain.

"What's your general reaction?"

"Minefields," Dwight said. "Some of the objectives that you name would almost certainly be mined." The admiral nodded. "We have full information on Pearl Harbor and on the approaches to Seattle. We have nothing on any of the others."

They discussed the order in some detail for a time. Finally the admiral leaned back in his chair. "Well, that gives me the general picture. That's what I wanted." He paused. "Now, you'd better know what this is all about.

"Wishful thinking," he observed. "There's a school of thought among the scientists, a section of them, who consider that this atmospheric radioactivity may be dissipating-decreasing in intensity, fairly quickly. The general argument is that the precipitation during this last winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the rain and snow, may have washed the air, so to speak." The American nodded. "According to that theory, the radioactive elements in the atmosphere will be falling to the ground, or to the sea, more quickly than we had anticipated. In that case the ground masses of the Northern Hemisphere would continue to be uninhabitable for many centuries, but the transfer of radioactivity to us would be progressively decreased. In that case life-human life-might continue to go on down here, or at any rate in Antarctica. Professor Jorgensen holds that view very strongly."

He paused. "Well, that's the bare bones of the theory. Most of the scientists disagree, and think that Jorgensen is optimistic. Because of the majority opinion nothing has been said about this on the wireless broadcasting, and we've been spared the press. It's no good raising people's hopes without foundation. But clearly, it's a matter that must be investigated."

"I see that, sir," Dwight said. "It's very important. That's really the main object of this cruise?"

The admiral nodded. "That's right. If Jorgensen is correct, as you go north from the equator the atmospheric radioactivity should be steady for a time and then begin to decrease. I don't say at once, but at some point a decrease should be evident. That's why we want you to go as far north in the Pacific as you can, to Kodiak and to Dutch Harbor. If Jorgensen is right, there should be much less radioactivity up there. It might even be near normal. In that case, you might be able to go out on deck." He paused. "On shore, of course, ground radioactivity would still be intense. But out at sea, life might be possible."

Peter asked, "Is there any experimental support for this yet, sir?"

The admiral shook his head. "Not much. The Air Force sent out a machine the other day. Did you hear about that?"

"No, sir."

"Well, they sent out a Victor bomber with a full load of fuel. It flew from Perth due north and got as far as the China Sea, about latitude thirty north, somewhere south of Shanghai, before it had to turn back. That's not far enough for the scientists, but it was as far as the machine could go. The evidence they got was inconclusive. Atmospheric radioactivity was still increasing, but towards the northern end of the flight it was increasing slowly." He smiled. "I understand the back-room boys are still arguing about it. Jorgensen, of course, claims it as his victory. He says there'll be a positive reduction by the time you get to latitude fifty or sixty."

"Sixty," the captain said. "We can make that close inshore in the Gulf of Alaska. The only thing up there is that we'd have to watch the ice."

They discussed the technicalities of the operation again for a time. It was decided that protective clothing should be carried in the submarine to permit one or two men to go on deck in moderate conditions and that decontamination sprays should be arranged in one of the escape chambers. An inflatable rubber dinghy would be carried in the superstructure, and the new directional aerial would be mounted on the after periscope.

Finally the admiral said, "Well, that clears the decks so far as we are concerned. I think the next step is that I call a conference with C.S.I.R.O. and anybody else who may be concerned. I'll arrange that for next week. In the meantime, Commander, you might see the Third Naval Member or one of his officers about this dockyard work. I'd like to see you get away by the end of next month."