The Unorthodox Engineers

‘Think about it. Ours is a problem of method. Cutting’s too slow, and blasting’s ineffective. But suppose I gave you a tool that’ll not only cut nickel iron without effort, but will also consume the detritus? Suppose this tool needs no external power supply, and the tool wear is so low that it even finishes up marginally larger than it started. And all for no transport costs. Couldn’t you do the job with that?’

‘Yes—but—,’ spluttered Jacko, and then realization dawned. ‘You’ve lost your mind!’

‘Our cutting tool’s right down there, Jacko. And for a bonus we get an eternally spinning workpiece to go with it. No lathe required. All we need to arrange is the traverse mechanism. With the black hole we can cut a toroidal cavity right around Negrav’s equator, and they can build a hundred observatories inside there if they like.’

‘Fritz,’ said Jacko, ‘this time you’ve surpassed even your own idiot genius. But there’s one tiny point you’ve overlooked. You can’t pick up a black hole and use it as a tool. You can’t hold it. You can’t even approach it. It’ll utterly absorb anything you can fling at it.’

‘All that’s accepted,’ said Van Noon. ‘But when you’ve a job to do and there’s no conceivable way to do it, there’s only one approach left open to you. You have to exercise some good old human ingenuity.’

The work-vessel took them back to the STA base on New Australia. This was the nearest point on the Rim where Fritz could find anything like the computer capacity he needed. He would have preferred to have gone back to Chronos, but was unwilling to waste the time whilst his enthusiasm was still at fever pitch. Once they had become convinced that Van Noon was intent on going through with the scheme, his team, too, had become infected with his eagerness, and their deliberations had considerably refined and improved Fritz’s initial ideas.

The STA technicians on New Australia listened to Van Noon’s proposals with critical alarm, and sent a message by subspace radio to Terra for confirmation that the project could proceed. In the meantime, Fritz got on with his computations.

The message which came back from Terra read :

’If van Noon wants to stick out his fool neck on a scheme like that, don’t stop him. We might get lucky!

Belling, Commanding engineering reserve.’

Van Noon could almost picture the gleam in the colonel’s eye as he penned the message. Nevertheless, he received all the help he needed from the STA staff on New Australia. With his precious calculations complete, and sufficient supplies for the job, he returned with his team to the keep-station around Negrav to begin the careful observations on which the success of the operation would depend. It was fairly obvious that the rest of the ship’s crew regarded the project as insane. There were moments when Van Noon was not too sure himself. Nevertheless, the future of unorthodox engineering was riding on his back, and having declared his intention, he was unable to retract.

Above all else, timing was critical. The accurate gauging of Negrav’s rotation was aided considerably by a huge dyespot which Jacko managed to produce on the surface. This was achieved in the course of a hair-raising approach to the asteroid in a scudder which was carefully manoeuvred while the dye was sprayed from pressurized canisters. With the spot in place, the rotational speed of Negrav was determined with an accuracy previously unobtainable, and Van Noon’s calculations were complete.

By far the hardest part of the operation was to give the order to proceed. Not only were the dangers considerable, but the timing needed to be immaculate and the positional accuracies held within very small limits. Additionally, there were still a few unknowns which added not only to the hazards but also to the virtual certainty of unorthodox engineering becoming a standard joke throughout the Service if things went wrong.

Having rehearsed and re-rehearsed his team, Van Noon finally reached the critical point, and gave the fateful order. Once the first scudder had left the ship and headed towards the surface, there was no turning back. It was only when he had passed this point that he began to appreciate the immensity of the forces with which he played.

Once started, there was no leisure for further thought. Jacko Hine went down with the first scudder and attached his package as specified. The second scudder was on its way before he returned. The third and most critical package, Van Noon took down himself.

There being no natural features on the surface of Negrav, he could only judge his position from the radioed instructions from observers on the ship and the relative movement of Jacko’s dye marker. This made easy sense during the long space descent but when the orb of the asteroid began to dominate the sky he lost orientation. In sudden panic he had the scudder halted until he could recalculate his bearings. It was this hesitation that probably saved his life.

As he directed the scudder to continue the descent, a sudden warning was issued by the observers on the work vessel. ‘Look out below! You’re off course and running right into the path of the black hole.’

The pilot reacted before Fritz had time to formulate his instruction. Veering crazily away in a tight arc, the little spacecraft struggled to escape from the gravitational well of the black hole which was overtaking it from the rear. Unless they could build up to escape velocity they were liable to be dragged irrevocably down into this hole to end all holes.

For a short time it looked as though they might escape completely. Then the full power of the scudder’s tiny motors became insufficient to move them any farther against the intense gravitational attraction which now arrested and began to drag them back towards the surface. There was nothing the occupants could do except sit helpless as they were seized as if by a giant hand and thrown back on to the asteroid.

The touchdown, when it came, was unexpectedly mild. Fortunately their descent had been delayed by the scudder’s motors just long enough for the black hole to have sped on its uncaring way. The friction of the craft against the asteroid’s surface was sufficient to prevent them being drawn in the black hole’s wake. Almost immediately the gravitational spasm was over, and Negrav’s own negative gravity spun them crazily back into space.

Dazed and shaken, Van Noon checked his equipment, whilst the scudder pilot tested his craft. Miraculously there had been very little damage. The scudder, though dented, was still spaceworthy even though much of its instrumentation had failed. Van Noon’s precious package, which had been the reason for the descent, likewise appeared to have suffered no permanent harm.

His timing, however, had been completely destroyed. This was a factor beyond recovery. Because of the orbiting black hole, the packages which had already been placed on Negrav had only a limited life expectancy. If his own package was not now put in place, the existing ones would all be destroyed before any new calculations could be made.

Van Noon shrugged his shoulders and took a chance. He placed the package with its magnet pack on the nearest part of the surface, knowing that its position was far from being where he had originally intended. The results would be in the lap of the gods, but it was either this or make the long haul back to New Australia for a fresh set of supplies. Then tired and disconcerted, he ordered the scudder back to the ship.

Compared to this first trip, the rest of the journeys to Negrav seemed uneventful. No less than seven other trips followed some achieving the desired accuracy, others varying. There was no time left, however, to make any corrections. Fritz had to suffer the errors and hope against hope that some overseeing deity would bring the project through. Otherwise he shuddered to think of the final results.

Then came the final phase. One after another in controlled sequence great explosions flared upon the surface of Negrav; appearing as little more than pinpoints of light to the distant observers, yet in reality being ample charges of super-high explosive. The timing was accurate according to the original schedule, but because of misplacement of several of the charges, the net effect would be anything but optimum. There followed a long period of waiting, after which the remaining charges were fired.

As Van Noon read the final collation of results, his heart sank like a stone. He had arranged to check the orbital velocity of Negrav so that it fell into a lower orbit around the black hole. In effect this meant that for a number of rotations the black hole would actually orbit inside the surface of Negrav. Then he had planned to correct Negrav’s velocity so that the black hole would return to the surface leaving a toroidal cavity inside the asteroid’s equator. Probably due to misplacement of the charges, the scheme had gone disastrously wrong. The black hole had remained inside Negrav…

Stupefied, he read the figures, but they no longer registered in his brain. Instead he saw the asteroid of Negrav being progressively eaten from inside by a small black hole so voracious that it could consume its entire