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"Not right now." She did not bother to ask for other ideas which seemed
promising, reasonable, or even slightly relevant; that was common sense even
Status would take for granted. She went back to the basic problem.
"Status, how do the chemistries of the pools we've actually touched with
ships, labs, or armor compare so far with each other and with any others you
have on file?"
"All are alike in being essentially gels with apparently mono-vinyl alcohol as
the dispersing agent. I
have no basic data which" would have let us predict that this compound would
be so stable even at
Titan's temperature. The most up-to-date bonding information I have suggests
that the activation energy for its conversion to water and acetylene should be
low enough to make the reaction explosively rapid even here. We are of course
in a temperature range where tunneling strongly affects reaction-rate
calculations, but so far no combination of Arrhenius formulas and tunneling
theory seems to match any observations. Commander Goodall was investigating
this point."
"I suppose," Yakama interjected, "that this will all he very useful if
humanity survives and we have nothing to do but unravel the mysteries of the
universe. It complicates the human survival problem, though, if this project
of ours is really part of it."
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Even Belvew chuckled at the complaint, and Maria briefly but uselessly pitied
the computer, which presumably could not enjoy learning. Status went on as
though there had been no interruption. "Subject to conflicting orders, I
strongly advise moving the sample now under study in the mausoleum outside for
safety, though the condition and behavior of those still in the commander's
quarters at normal life temperature suggest that trouble is not likely. I
advise also that the same precaution be taken with these, Commander. They are
at a far higher temperature than the mausoleum."
That brought silence. Status was not supposed to have an imagination; any
foresight it showed should be a very straightforward extrapolation indeed.
Therefore it should suggest only very probable events.
Everyone who had ever heard of nitrogen triiodide monoammate suddenly
remembered about it.
The work, however, went on, even among the knowledgeable. They belonged, after
all, to a species whose members are highly skilled in convincing themselves
that if something they don't want hasn't happened yet, it probably won't. Even
Maria rejected the hint.
Ginger looked a little uneasily at the remains of
Oceanus as she slid past, but didn't allow the memory of
Belvew's landing misfortune to distract her seriously. Loading from the
factory was straightforward but needed care. She had to get close enough for
the dispensers to reach the jet, but not too close. Also, wings could not be
allowed to damage themselves against ground objects; and getting into a
position which could not be escaped without exposing the factory to rocket
exhaust would be highly embarrassing.
The factory could of course be replanted, probably even with an improved
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model, but if the wasted time meant that the staff would all be dead before
its job was done, this would still be a net loss. Ginger did not take
seriously any of the half-lives for the group which had been calculated en
route to Saturn or even the later ones.
She nudged the aircraft slowly into position, wincing slightly as the tank
gauges forced themselves on her consciousness, and signaled the factory to
start loading. A tube promptly reached out from the main structure, passed
over and along
Theia's right wing, and approached the fuselage. She relaxed slightly as the
proper hatch opened to accept it, and her instruments showed that cans were
settling into the proper magazines. She felt even better as these filled and
labs began to come aboard.
She was almost completely happy when the tube withdrew and left her free to
fire up once more.
Almost, not totally, because the fuel gauges were still looking at her the
nice economical landing had been followed by much taxiing. Also, it had
crossed her mind during the recent conversation that no one had thought to
replenish from the orbiting station the heavy-metal stocks which had been yolk
to the factory's original egg, and which must be getting low by now. Since
nothing could be done about it this trip, she filed a reminder with Status and
resumed maneuvering.
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There were a few boulders of fallen ice from the eastern cliff to be avoided
during departure. She felt quite proud of managing this without sending
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