He scowled morosely. There might have been poorer machines built sometime, somewhere, he supposed—but if so he had never seen any!
But the improvised Berg ran, and kept on running. The planet became inertialess and remained that way. For hours, then, Thorndyke climbed over and around and through the Brobdingnagian fabrication, testing and checking the operation of every part. Finally he climbed down and reported to his waiting crew.
"QX, fellows, a nice job. A good job, in fact, considering—even though we all know that it isn't what any of us would call a good machine. Part of that meter jump, of course, is due to the fact that nothing about the heap is true or balanced, but most of it must be due to this cockeyed ether. Anyway, none of it is due to the usual causes—loose bars and faulty insulation. So my best guess is that she'll keep on doing her stuff while we do ours. One sure thing, she isn't going to fall apart, even under that ungodly knocking; and I don't think that she's going to shake herself off of the planet."
After Thorndyke's somewhat less than enthusiastic approval of his brain-child, the adventurers into that fantastic region attacked the second phase of their project. Two Patrol Bergenholms were landed and were installed. Their meters jumped, too, but the engineers were no longer worried about that. Those machines would run indefinitely; and a concerted sigh of relief arose when the improvised generator was shut down. Pits were dug. Atomic blasts and other engines were installed, as were many exceedingly complex instruments and mechanisms. A few tons of foreign matter on the planet's surface would now make no difference, but there was no relaxation of the extreme precautions against the transfer of any matter whatever from the planet to the spaceship.
When the job was done, but before the clean-up, Thorndyke called his crew into conference.
"Fellows, I know just what a beating you've been taking. We all feel as though we had been on a Delgonian clambake. Nevertheless, I've got to tell you something. Kinnison said that if we could get this one fixed up without too much trouble, it'd be a mighty good idea to have two of them. What do you say? Did we have too much trouble?"
He got exactly the reaction he had expected.
"Lead us to it!"
"Pick out the one you want!"