Dondragmer was not exactly worried about his first officer and helmsmen, of course, since he couldn’t really worry. It would be fair to say that he was concerned, since he had done all he could about the missing crewmen, but having done it his attention had been turned elsewhere. He had two principal things on his mind. He would have liked information about soon the ice was likely to melt, compared with how soon another have given even more for a workable suggestion on how to get rid of the ice quickly and safely for himself. He had given both wishes to the human beings as well as to his own scientists, thought he had made it clear to the latter that he was not demanding a crash program; the search for ideas could be combined with, or even subordinated to, the basic research they were carrying on. Dondragmer was not exactly cold-blooded, but his sense of values included the notion that even his final act should be a useful one.
The human reaction to this remarkably objective and inhumanly calm reaction was mixed. The weathermen and planetologists took it for granted — most of them probably weren’t even aware of the Kwembly’s predicament, much less of the missing Mesklinites. Easy Hoffman, who had stayed on watch after bring Barlennan up to date as Aucoin had directed, was not surprised; if she had any emotional reaction so far it was one of respect for the captain’s ability to avoid panic in a personally dangerous situation.
Her son felt very differently about it. He had been released temporarily from duty in the aerology lab but McDevitt, who was a tactful and sympathetic person and had been aware of the friendship developing between the boy and Beetchermarlf. Benj had become a fixture in the communication room as a result.
He had watched quietly while arrangements were being made by Dondragmer to dispatch the helicopter and the ice-chipping crews. He had even been somewhat interested in the exchange between the human and Mesklinite scientists — McDevitt had been a little reluctant to risk more weather predictions, feeling that his professional reputation had taken jolts enough recently, but promised to do his best. When all these matters had been settled, however, and Dondragmer seemed willing to do nothing but lie on his bridge and wait on events, the boy grew uneasy. Patience, the closet human equivalent to the Mesklinite reaction now being displayed, was not yet one of the youngster’s strong points. For some minutes he shifted uneasily in his seat before the screens, waiting for something to happen, and finally could restrain himself no longer.
“If no one has any immediate material to send, is it all right for me to talk to Don and his scientists?” he asked.
Easy glanced at him, and then at the others. The men shrugged or otherwise gestured indifference, so she nodded. “Go ahead. I don’t know whether any of them are in a mood for casual chatter, but the worst they’ll do is tell you they aren’t.”
Benj didn’t waste time explaining that he was not going to indulge in chatter, casual or otherwise. He switched his microphone to Dondragmer’s bridge set and began to talk.
“Don, this is Benj Hoffman. You have nothing but a bunch of sailors chipping away at the ice at the Kwembly’s bow. There is a lot of energy in your power units, more than a planetful of Mesklinites could put out by muscle in a year. Have your scientists thought of using converter output to either run that test drill for moving ice, or in some sort of heater?
“Second, are your sailors just removing ice, or are they specifically trying to get down underneath to find Beetchermarlf and Takoorch? I know it’s important to get the Kwembly loose, but the same ice will have to be taken out sometime anyway. It seems to me there’s a good chance that some of the water under the ship hasn’t frozen yet, and that your two men are still alive in it. Are you tunneling, or just ditching?”
Some of the human listeners frowned slightly at the boy’s choice of words, but no one saw fit to interrupt or even comment. Most of those who heard glanced at Easy, and decided against saying anything which might be interpreted as criticism of her son. Some, as it happened, did not feel critical anyway; they had wanted to ask similar questions but had not quite liked to be heard at it.
As usual in the conversations between the station and Dhrawn, Benj had plenty of time while waiting for the answer to think of other things he might have asked or said, and better ways in which he might have put the things he did say. Most of the adults knew from experience what was going on in his mind at this point; some were amused, all were to some degree sympathetic, several made bets with themselves that he would not be able to resist the temptation to send a reworded version of his message before the answer came back. When Dondragmer’s response came from the speaker with Benj still silent no one actually cheered, but those who knew Easy best could read and understand the satisfaction in her expression. She had not dared to bet, even with herself.
“Hello, Benj. We’re doing all we can, both for the helmsmen and my first officer. I’m afraid there is no way to apply ship’s power to any of the tools. The converters produce electric current and also rotation torque fields to the truck motors, as I am sure you know, but none of our ordinary equipment can use this — just the helicopters, some of the research equipment in the laboratory, and the lights. Even if we could work out a way to apply the drive motors to digging, we can’t get at them; they’re all under the ice. You must remember, Benj, that we deliberately chose to remain as independent as possible of really complex equipment. Just about everything we have on the planet which we couldn’t make ourselves is directly concerned with your research project.” Ib Hoffman was not present to hear that sentence, which was unfortunate; later he spent a long time making sure of its exact wording from his son’s memory.
“I know that, but—” Benj fell silent; none of the words he wanted to say seemed to have ideas under them. The lights, he knew, could not be used has heaters; they were solid state electroluminescent devices, not arcs or resistance bulbs. They had, after all, been designed not only to last indefinitely but to operate in Dhrawn’s atmosphere, with its free oxygen and enormous pressure range, without killing the Mesklinites. If Beetchermarlf had realized this he might have wasted less time, though he might not have accomplished more. “Can’t you… can’t you just run the current from a converter through some heavy wires, and melt the ice with the heat? Or even run it straight through the water? There must be plenty of ammonia still — it would surely conduct.”
Again there was the pause, while Benj hunted for flaws in his own suggestions and the message flashed its way across emptiness.
“I’m not sure I know enough about that sort of physics, though I suppose Borndender and his men would,” Dondragmer replied doubtfully. “more to the point, I don’t know what we’d use for wires, and I don’t know what current would flow. I know that when the power units are connected to regular equipment, like lights or motors, there is automatic safety control; but I have no idea of how that works, or whether it would work on a simple, direct series circuit. If you’ll find out from your engineers what sort of risk we’d be running, I’ll be glad of the information, but I still don’t know what we’d use to carry the current. There just isn’t much metal in the Kwembly. Most of our maintenance supplies are things like rope and fabric and lumber. Certainly there’s nothing that is meant to carry heavy electrical current.
“You may be right about using the ice itself as a conductor, but do you think it would be a good idea with Beetchermarlf and Takoorch somewhere under it? I can see they wouldn’t be right in the circuit, but I’m still a little uncertain that they’d be safe. There, again, one of you people could probably help out. If you can — if we can get enough detailed information from you to plan something really promising — I’ll be glad to try it. Until that happens, I can only say we’re doing all we can. I’m as concerned about the Kwembly, and Kervenser, and Beetchermarlf, and Takoorch as you can possibly be.”