The Unorthodox Engineers

feet, it should be a fairly effective working situation.’

‘All of which sounds very nice,’ said Fanning. ‘But I foresee a couple of practical snags. Like how do we get in deep enough quick enough to avoid being eaten by the black hole? And having got into the surface, how do we carve an observatory-sized cavity in what promises to be a very strong nickel-iron alloy?’

‘I admit it may be tough,’ said Van Noon.

‘Tough!’ Fanning was aghast. ‘Blasting won’t do much more than deform the surface, and oxy-acetylene cutting would take a lifetime—assuming you could get the supplies. So you’re largely back to processes like laser drills and the occasional hand file. At a rough guess, Colonel Belling was damned right when he said it couldn’t be done.’

‘I’ve told you all before,’ said Van Noon sternly. ‘Physical limitations aren’t absolutes. They’re a state of mind. They said iron ships wouldn’t float. They reached that conclusion because they hadn’t taken all the facts into account. From this distance I can’t see the answer to the Negrav problem either. But I’m sure as hell there is one: All we have to do is find it.’

Once they were orbit around Negrav subsequent observations did nothing to support Van Noon’s optimism. Negrav was a ball of solid nickel iron, and its surface was flawless and honed to a micro-finish which would have done credit to a precision ball-bearing. Because of its small size, the black hole remained invisible. Its relentless orbit around Negrav—or rather the orbit of the asteroid around it, which came to the same thing relatively speaking—had for some millions of years ceased to take more than microns of further material from the surface.

Now the black hole’s path hovered millimetres above the surface of Negrav and pursued a progressive rotation which effectively swept the entire sphere over a period of thirty-six hours. The position of the black hole was known with mathematical certainty at any time, but libration and other effects of the binary on the orbit of Negrav introduced an uncertainty factor. The black hole’s progress across the surface had to be described in terms of statistical paths rather than positional lines. In practice this meant that thirty-six hours was the longest period any point on the surface of Negrav could be guaranteed safe from the marauding black hole.

‘Which isn’t long enough,’ said Jacko Hine. ‘Working under space conditions and negative gravity, we wouldn’t have time to cut far enough into the surface to be any significant use. We’ve not only got to get into the hole, but around some considerable corner to prevent being drawn out by the black hole’s gravity.’

‘How far d’you estimate we could penetrate in thirty-six hours?’ asked Van Noon.

‘Judging by spectro-analysis of the surface material, we’d be hard-put to remove more than a cubic metre with the tools available. And once we get deeper, the work would slow considerably because we could only keep one man at the face.’

‘That’s not good enough,’ said Van Noon. ‘I’m going down to Negrav myself to study the problem from the surface.’

‘If it’s not a rude question, how do you intend to hold to the unbroken surface against negative gravity? Chewing gum?’

‘No, permanent magnets. Nickel iron of that structure ought to be highly magnetic. If the negative gravity’s only point seven I should get all the attraction I need from a fairly small magnet pack.’

‘It’ll be a right game if you end up orbiting the black hole as well!’

If he was being strictly honest, even Van Noon would have admitted his confidence had fled as the little scudder dropped him towards Negrav’s implacable surface. The nearer they approached, the more smooth and polished the asteroid’s surface appeared, until from twenty metres up he could see the perfect reflection of the scudder mirrored in the giant metal ball.

The first problem was to secure a contact with the surface. Whilst the power manoeuvrings of the scudder could keep station over a particular point on the asteroid, the problem of trying to attach an assembled magnet package to the surface was akin to trying to throw it twenty metres vertically above his head. It was not until he had experienced the situation that he began to appreciate the reasonings behind Jacko’s pessimism. What he had failed to accept subconsciously was that any work in negative gravity was akin to working on the ceiling, and that any drilling would have to take place in a “hands down, feet out” position, which was both unnerving and extremely tiring.

Jacko’s estimate of a cubic metre of material removed in thirty-six hours began to look wildly optimistic.

After a series of hair-raising manoeuvres by the scudder, the pilot managed to bring Van Noon within striking distance of the nickel-iron “ceiling”. After a few breathless moments, the magnet package stuck and the long cable trailed outwards with Fritz swinging uncertainly on the end of it. Thereafter he had to climb up the cable to reach his destination, which was no mean feat despite the lightweight flexibility of his spacesuit. This did not accord at all with his ideas on how a conquering hero, even an unorthodox one, should reach the planetary body of his choice.

Having secured himself on the cable, he then began to probe the surface above him. A small drill bit cleanly but slowly into the metal surface, though he was afraid to exert too much pressure lest he should lever away the magnets which held him there. He dutifully collected samples of the swarf which came away, tapped the hole, and screwed in a prepared eyebolt to which he attached a second line. More secure now, he brought up a large drill and drilled a hole sufficiently large for a second eyebolt to be inserted completely recessed below the surface.

This was the first permanent foothold secured on Negrav.

‘Getting any ideas, Fritz?’ Jacko’s voice came over the headphones.

‘It strikes me that with the small size of the black hole, the chances of any particular attachment to the surface being eaten in any one orbit are negligible. If we were to suspend a stand-off platform from the surface and attach it by more than an adequate number of cables, we could give ourselves a relatively safe work stage. Furthermore, it would be more comfortable than this fly on the ceiling approach.’

‘Do you want me to organize a platform?’ asked Jacko.

‘Not yet, because the chances of cutting our way in seem quite as remote as Jim Fanning predicted. There has to be an easier method. Before I leave, I want to see what the explosive charge will do. But I don’t really have much hopes unless the stuff is a lot more friable than it seems.’

‘Right. When you get those swarf samples back we’ll have some idea of the answers anyway.’

Van Noon attached his explosive package to his first eyebolt, carefully levered free his precious magnet pack, then dropped down the cable from the second eyebolt to make the precarious rendezvous with the scudder. When it had stood off to a safe distance, he fired the explosive charge remotely.

The flash was impressive because of the highly reflective surface, but the destructive effect was negligible. A further close pass in the scudder revealed only the barest depression in the solid metal surface. A slight element of plastic flow had taken place, producing an extremely shallow crater, but there was no evidence that any material had actually been removed.

Van Noon returned thoughtfully to the ship. On the face of it his exploratory trip to the surface of Negrav had been a failure. They had learnt nothing they did not already know, and the few straws at which he had clutched had disappeared like vapour in a vacuum. The problem of building an observatory on Negrav appeared as intractable as ever. As the hours wore on, however, he developed the curious quizzical look at the corners of his eyes which signalled he was far from being beaten.

He spent hours viewing the surface of Negrav with the ship’s video facilities, imagining he could see the small black hole as it sped hungrily across the surface. The optical detection of such a small object from this distance was an impossibility, and his patient perusal of the scene began to worry Jacko Hine.

What’s the score, Fritz?’

‘One up to Negrav. Our turn to play.’

‘Are we still in the game?’

‘Very much so. Negrav’s going to have its observatory, and we’re going to build it.’

‘Crazy like a fox!’ said Jacko.

‘Am I? You remember my theme at the symposium. The ability of the unorthodox engineer is to do the job with anything he can lay his hands on. Well, Negrav’s a classic set-piece—the problem and the answer bound together in a single cosmological package.’

‘You need to be joking!’