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Page 170
grows stronger in our Universe, the sun may turn nova. And as the reaction weakens in the para-Universe, their small suns will have greater difficulty sustaining the fusion reaction and will cool down.
Bronowski gets a message from the para-Universe. It says: "F-E-E-R." Lamont tries to persuade the influential Senator Burt, head of the Committee on Technology and the Environment, to intervene, but Burt feels that he cannot succeed against Hallam. Lamont also fails with Professor Joshua Chen, who prefers the possibility of immortality implied by the cheap energy of the Pump. Then Bronowski gets another message:
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PUMP NOT STOP NOT STOP WE NOT STOP PUMP WE NOT HEAR DANGER NOT HEAR NOT HEAR YOU STOP PLEASE STOP YOU STOP SO WE STOP PLEASE YOU STOP DANGER DANGER DANGER STOP STOP YOU STOP PUMP.
Bronowski, however, sees the futility of trying to convince the world of the danger. He quotes Schiller and leaves Lamont alone, frustrated, and without hope.
Asimov uses a couple of narrative devices to involve the reader quickly in Part I. Rather than beginning with the discovery of plutonium-186 and working forward to the period thirty years later when Lamont's involvement begins, Asimov, true to Campbell's ancient advice, begins not even with Lamont's entry upon the scene but as Lamont's and Bronowski's efforts to communicate with the para-men are about to succeed. Actually, Bronowski has received the first message and is waiting to tell Lamont.
Asimov starts the novel, in fact, with a segment numbered "6." A note facing the contents page tells the reader that the book begins with section 6. "This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. . . ." Then the book picks up section 1, as Lamont learns how the discovery of plutonium-186 occurred. Subsequently, fragments of section 6 alternate with sections in numerical order up to the end of section 5, in which Lamont presents his theory to Hallam in a way he knows Hallam will not be willing to consider. Section 6 then concludes with the "F-E-E-R" message, and Part I continues to its conclusion in straightforward chronological (and numerical) sequence. Asimov had carried the method of The End of Eternity a step farther to a sharing of his flashback methods with the reader.
These devices would not be sufficient to sustain the narrative without the details Asimov supplied on the nature of scientific discovery and

 
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