The Gods Themselves by Isaac AsimovIn 2070, Frederick Hallam, an undeserving and rather stupid radiochemist, discovered that the Tungsten metal left on his desk wasn't Tungsten metal. He accuses a colleague of tampering with the metal, and when the colleague protests his innocence, Hallam takes it to be be tested. The technician says that its plutonium 168, nonradioactive. But there is no such thing, and Hallam knows it. So he tests it himself, and confirms that it is plutonium 168, but he finds it to be radioactive. And every time he tests it, Hallam finds it to be more radioactive. More tungsten is layed out, and it is also swapped for plutonium 168. After a short while, a message is received on iron showing how to build a mechanism to make the trade of plutonium 186-now called Hallam's metal, and Tungsten. It was speculated that the metal comes from a parallel universe, where the attraction between protons and neutrons might be weaker.
Now it is thirty years later. Pete Lamont is studying the history of Hallam's metal, and in an interview with Hallam, he accidentally sets Hallam off by suggesting that the transfer of materials was really set up by the men of the parallel-universe, and that Hallam himself didn't deserve all of the credit for his discovery. Hallam puts Lamont on his black list and Lamont, in his anger, begins to work out that Hallam's pump may not be such a good thing. He finds that the exchange going on between the two universes is likely to heat the solar system to the point where the sun would become a super-nova, and all of Earth's life forms would die within a period of five minutes, without any warning.
He attempts without success to get the earth to pay attention to his warnings, but without concrete proof or Hallam's backing, nobody will listen to him. So Lamont enlists the aid of a linguist, and they set out to communicate to the paramen that there is danger in the transfer of materials. Somebody does respond to their warning, but only to say that they are right to fear, and he cannot stop on his side. The inscription from the other universe asks the humans to please stop on their side; as we know, they can't do it.
Switch your focus now, go to the para-universe. There we watch in alternating chapters, a triad of beings whose food is energy. Their emotions and interactions are much less urgent. The reader can relax now, little details won't come back to bite him. We watch Dua, Odeen, and Tritt, whose triad is the most unusual in anyone's memory. Dua is a the rebel, a mid-ling both smart enough to figure out that the new food will destroy the beings in the other place, and empathetic enough to care. Tritt is the parent, who will do anything to have his children. And Odeen is a brilliant left, who is only trying not to make waves. The Hard Ones are watching this trio with much interest, and so will we.
And now we go back to our own universe, a few more years into the future. Benjamin Allan Denison, the hapless colleague whom Hallam had suspected of messing with his Tungsten so many years earlier. Denison is moving to the moon, where he hopes to escape Hallam's blacklist. On the moon, Denison becomes caught in a power struggle between those from Earth and the citizens of the moon. In the process, he learns a lot, including how to solve stop the sun from blowing up, balance power on the moon, and win the woman who has led him to his discoveries.
Happy reading and musing.
