It was a long time later. Ackerman had written several thousand words on the subject, and was now peering through one of the ship windows at the laboratory through which the "time-space" ship was parked. Then, satisfied, he nodded. "Push here," he said cryptically.
"Huh?" asked Tansie.
"Part of my corrective work," he said. "So help me, I started this mess; I'm going to be the one that cleans it up."
He used the projector to drag a few odd items into the "time-space" from the "real world" laboratory.
"On the other side of that barrier," he told Tansie, "there are a couple of characters bootlegging a bit of private research."
"What are you going to do?"
"They are going to have themselves a high-grade atomic explosion."
"Won't that be dangerous? And how will it cause corrective measures?"
Les grinned with self-satisfaction. "This," he said waving his hands, "is the world of throttled research. Like all times of prohibition, there are people who will bootleg, whether it be liquor, dope, or knowledge. This explosion, however, will do two things to that world. They will understand that there are a lot of people doing the same thing—and will also know that this same thing might happen again and again, because no one has the faintest idea of what anybody else is doing! When the first chemist mixed gunpowder, he was able to warn other chemists not to mix more than so much—or else. But after this atomic blow-up, no one will be able to do any warning—and they'll not know what line of research these people were taking."
"Yes," said Tansie uncertainly.