"Plastic?" said Albrekt through his helmet radio. "I thought you were going to use lithium."
"We are," replied Carrel's voice. "We'll fasten some of these domes together to form an airtight sphere, then inflate it from the oxygen supply. It won't take much pressure, and we can recover the oxygen later with the ship's compressor.
"Before we recover the oxygen, we'll charge the plastic sphere electrically, so it'll stay rigid. Then we'll vaporize the lithium in the boiler and spray it over half the plastic sphere. We'll blacken the plastic and melt it with solar heat, returning it to the boiler by charging the boiler. I'm afraid we're going to ruin a few of the plastic domes, but that's not important now."
"Spray the lithium? Fifty tons of it?"
"Wait and see," Carrel said. "This will be a bigger shield than you expected."
Later, at mealtime, Carrel brought a worry to the surface of Albrekt's mind which the Flanjo agent had been trying to keep suppressed.
"That was a pretty rash business, jetting all the fuel," said Carrel. "What do we do if we're off orbit?"
"It seems to me I've mentioned before that some very good spacemen plotted this orbit," replied Albrekt.
"The best orbits sometimes require minor corrections, when they're this long," said Carrel.
"I couldn't make them, anyhow, and I certainly wouldn't trust any of you at the controls," said Albrekt. "Don't you think my superiors thought of that when they planned this?"