"Absolutely. Not even an iron nail in my shoes."
"What is it, then? You look worried. Want something expensive?"
"You hit the thumb, admiral, right on the nail. The trouble is not only that it's expensive; I'm afraid that probably we'll never have any use for it."
"Better build it, anyway. Then if you want it you'll have it, and if you don't want it we can always use it for something. What is it?"
"A nutcracker. There are a lot of cold planets around, aren't there, that aren't good for anything?"
"Thousands of them—perhaps millions."
"The Medonians put Bergenholms on their planet and flew it from Lundmark's Nebula to here in a few weeks. Why wouldn't it be a sound idea to have the planetographers pick out a couple of useless worlds which, at some points in their orbits, have diametrically opposite velocities, to within a degree or two?"
"You've got something there, my boy. It shall be done, and at once. A thing like that is very much worth having, just for its own sake, if we never have any use for it. Anything else?"
"Not a thing in the universe. Clear ether, chief!"
"Light landings, Kinnison!" and gracefully, effortlessly, the dead-black sliver of semi-precious metal lifted herself away from Earth.