He helped her back into the cold-lock, and the outer door closed. She was shivering uncontrollably when the warmth came pouring in.
They went into Herndon's office. He came in as Riki was peeling off the top part of her cold-garments. She still shivered. He glanced at her and said to Bordman:
"There's been a call from the grid-control shack. It looks like there's something wrong, but they can't find anything. The grid is set for maximum power-collection, but it's bringing in only fifty thousand kilowatts!"
"We're on our way back to savagery," said Bordman, with an attempt at irony.
It was true. A man can produce two hundred fifty watts from his muscles for a reasonable length of time. When he has no more power, he is a savage. When he gains a kilowatt of energy from the muscles of a horse, he is a barbarian, but the new power cannot be directed wholly as he wills. When he can apply it to a plow he has high barbarian culture, and when he adds still more he begins to be civilized. Steam-power put as much as four kilowatts to work for every human being in the first industrialized countries, and in the mid-twentieth century there was sixty kilowatts per person in the more advanced nations. Nowadays, of course, a modern culture assumed five hundred as a minimum. But there was less than half that in the colony on Lani II. And its environment made its own demands.
"There can't be any more," said Riki, trying to control her shivering. "We're even using the aurora and there isn't any more power. It's running out. We'll go even before the people at home, Ken."
Herndon's features looked pinched.
"But we can't! We mustn't!" He turned to Bordman. "We do them good, back home! There was panic. Our report about cable-grids has put heart in people. They're setting to work magnificently! So we're some use. They know we're worse off than they are, and as long as we hold on they'll be encouraged. We've got to keep going somehow!"
Riki breathed deeply until her shivering stopped. Then she said:
"Haven't you noticed, Ken, that Mr. Bordman has the view-point of his profession? His business is finding things wrong. He was deposited in our midst to detect defects in what we did and do. He has the habit of looking for the worst. But I think he can turn the habit to good use. He did turn up the idea of cable-grids."