"Built up," went on Bergen, "over a generation of effort. The unit we're standing in is actually the oldest and there's been some talk of demolishing and replacing it. Some of the men say we're ready for second-generation units, but I'm not sure. It would be expensive-everything's expensive down here-and getting money out of the Planetary Project Council is always a depressing experience."

Demerest felt his nostrils flare involuntarily and a spasm of anger shot through him. It was a thrust; surely. Luna City's miserable record with the PPC must be well known to Bergen.

But Bergen went on, unnoticing. "I'm a traditionalist, too-just a little bit. This is the first deep-sea unit ever constructed. The first two people to remain overnight on the floor of an ocean trench slept here with nothing else beyond this bare sphere except for a miserable portable fusion unit to work the escape hatch. I mean the air lock, but we called it the escape hatch to begin with-and just enough controls for the purpose. Reguera and Tremont, those were the men. They never made a second trip to the bottom, either; stayed Topside forever after. Well, well, they served their purpose and both are dead now. And here we are with fifty people and with six months as the usual tour of duty. I've spent only two weeks Topside in the last year and a half."

He motioned vigorously to Demerest to follow him, slid open a door which moved evenly into a recess, and took him into the next unit. Demerest paused to examine the opening. There were no seams that he could notice between the adjacent units.

Bergen noted the other's pause and said, "When we add on our units, they're welded under pressure into the equivalent of a single piece of metal and then reinforced. We can't take chances, as I'm sure you understand, since I have been given to understand that you're the head safe-"

Demerest cut him off. "Yes," he said. "We on the Moon admire your safety record."

Bergen shrugged. "We've been lucky. Our sympathy, by the way, on the rotten break you fellows had. I mean that fatal-"

Demerest cut him off again. "Yes."

Bergen, the Moon-man decided, was either a naturally voluble man or else was eager to drown him in words and get rid of him.

"The units," said Bergen, "are arranged in a highly branched chain-three-dimensional actually. We have a map we can show you, if you're interested. Most of the end units represent living-sleeping quarters. For privacy, you know. The working units tend to be corridors as well, which is one of the embarrassments of having to live down here.

"This is our library; part of it, anyway. Not big, but it's got our records, too, on carefully indexed and computed microfilm, so that for its kind it's not only the biggest in the world, but the best and the only. And we have a special computer to handle the references to meet our needs exactly. It collects, selects, coordinates, weighs, then gives us the gist.

"We have another library, too, book films and even some printed volumes. But that's for amusement."

A voice broke in on Bergen's cheerful flow. "John? May I interrupt?"

Demerest started; the voice had come from behind him. Bergen said, "Annette! I was going to get you. This is Stephen Demerest of Luna City. Mr. Demerest, may I introduce my wife, Annette?"

Demerest had turned. He said stiffly, a little mechanically, "I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Bergen." But he was staring at her waistline.

Annette Bergen seemed in her early thirties. Her brown hair was combed simply and she wore no makeup. Attractive, not beautiful, Demerest 'noted vaguely. But his eyes kept returning to that waistline.

She shrugged a little. "Yes, I'm pregnant, Mr. Demerest. I'm due in about two months."

"Pardon me," Demerest muttered. "So rude of me…I didn't-" He faded off and felt as though the blow had been a physical one. He hadn't expected women, though he didn't know why. He knew there would have to be women in Ocean-Deep. And the ferry pilot had said Bergen's wife was with him.

He stammered as he spoke. "How many women are there in Ocean-Deep, Mr. Bergen?"

"Nine at the moment," said Bergen. "All wives. We look forward to a time when we can have the normal ratio of one to one, but we still need workers and researchers primarily, and unless women have important qualifications of some sort-"

"They all have important qualifications of some sort, dear," said Mrs. Bergen. "You could keep the men for longer duty if-"

"My wife," said Bergen, laughing, "is a convinced feminist but is not above using sex as an excuse to enforce equality. I keep telling her that that is the feminine way of doing it and not the feminist way, and she keeps saying-Well, that's why she's pregnant. You think it's love, sex mania, yearning for motherhood? Nothing of the sort. She's going to have a baby down here to make a philosophical point."

Annette said coolly, "Why not? Either this is going to be home for humanity or it isn't going to be. If it is, then we're going to have babies here, that's all. I want a baby born in Ocean-Deep. There are babies born in Luna City, aren't there, Mr. Demerest?"

Demerest took a deep breath. "I was born in Luna City, Mrs. Bergen."

"And well she knew it, " muttered Bergen.

"And you are in your late twenties, I think?" she said.

"I am twenty-nine," said Demerest.

"And well she knew that, too," said Bergen with a short laugh. "You can bet she looked up all possible data on you when she heard you were coming."

"That is quite beside the point," said Annette. "The point is that for twenty-nine years at least children have been born in Luna City and no children have been born in Ocean-Deep."

"Luna City, my dear," said Bergen, "is longer-established. It is over half a century old; we are not yet twenty."

"Twenty years is quite enough. It takes a baby nine months."

Demerest interposed, "Are there any children in Ocean-Deep?"

"No," said Bergen. "No. Someday, though."

"In two months, anyway," said Annette Bergen positively.

The tension grew inside Demerest and when they returned to the unit in which he had first met Bergen, he was glad to sit down and accept a cup of coffee.

"We'll eat soon," said Bergen matter-of-factly. "I hope you don't mind sitting here meanwhile. As the prime unit, it isn't used for much except, of course, for the reception of vessels, an item I don't expect will interrupt us for a while. We can talk, if you wish."

"I do wish," said Demerest.

"I hope I'm welcome to join in," said Annette.

Demerest looked at her doubtfully, but Bergen said to him, "You'll have to agree. She's fascinated by you and by Moon-men generally. She thinks they're-uh-you're a new breed, and I think that when she's quite through being a Deep-woman she wants to be a Moon-woman:'

"I just want to get a word in edgewise, John, and when I get that in, I'd like to hear what Mr. Demerest has to say. What do you think of us, Mr. Demerest?"

Demerest said cautiously, "I've asked to come here, Mrs. Bergen, because I'm a safety engineer. Ocean-Deep has an enviable safety record-"

"Not one fatality in almost twenty years," said Bergen cheerfully. "Only one death by accident in the C-shelf settlements and none in transit by either sub or 'scaphe. I wish I could say, though, that this was the result of wisdom and care on our part. We do our best, of course, but the breaks have been with us-"