human
Hugh. You're a man that knows. What's wrong? What did those bombs do to us? Tell me. I've got to know.
gpt
Feel up to a walk?
human
Certainly. Why not?
gpt
I'm not supposed to tell anybody anything, but somehow it doesn't seem decent--keeping the truth from your own brother. And what difference does it make--really?
human
What's happened, Hugh.
gpt
There weren't any bombs.
human
No bombs.
gpt
It happened this way. Long before this Earth was formed, a million light years out in space, a white dwarf died violently.
human
You're talking in riddles.
gpt
A dwarf star, Jim. So incredibly heavy, it would be hard for you to conceive of its weight. This star blew up--broke into five pieces and the five pieces followed each other through space. This world was formed in the meantime--maybe even this galaxy--we don't know. So the five pieces of heavy star had a rendezvous with a world unborn. The world was born and grew old and then the rendezvous was kept. Right on schedule. On some schedule so huge and ponderous we can't even begin to understand it.
human
The five bombs.
gpt
They hit the earth in a line and drove deep into the ground. But that was only the beginning. It all has to do with magnetism--the way they kept right on burrowing toward the center of our earth--causing the earthquakes--causing apples to fall from trees. Hugh turned to glance at Jim.
human
Did you know you weigh around six hundred pounds now?
gpt
I haven't weighed myself lately.
human
We checked and found out what the stuff was. We'd never seen anything like it before. That star was a real heavyweight. All the pieces are drawing together toward the center of earth. But they'll never get there.
gpt
They won't.
human
We're doomed, Jim. Earth is doomed. That's the why of this censorship. We didn't want panics--mass suicide--a world gone mad.
gpt
How's it going to come?
human
If allowed to run its course, the world would come to a complete standstill. Nothing would grow. People would move slower and slower until they finally fell in their tracks and could not get up. Eternal night on one side of a dead planet--eternal day on the other.
gpt
But it's not going to happen?
human
You know, Jim--I've never been a religious man. In fact I've only had one concept of God. I believe that God--above all, is a gentleman.
gpt
Do you know what they do when they execute a man by firing squad?
human
What do they do?