"Not the law, Jim, just the force."
"Now he gets technical about it. You started out a couple of months ago to detect driver radiation, and ended up by inventing a beam that draws power out of the sun. Think you'll ever find the driver radiation?"
"Probably."
"Yeah," drawled Arden. "And I'll bet a hat that when they do, they won't have any use for it. I've seen 'em work before."
"Incidentally," asked Christine, "you mentioned the Anopheles, and I think that is the first ship I've ever heard of that hasn't a feminine name. How come?"
"The mosquito that does the damage is the female," grinned Jim. "The Mojave spaceyards owns a sort of tender craft. It has a couple of big cranes on the top and a whole assortment of girders near the bottom. It looks like, and is also called: The Praying Mantis. Those are also female; at least the ones that aren't afraid of their shadow are."
Channing said suddenly: "Walt, have you tried the propagation-time of the solar beam on the Anopheles?"
"No. How would we go about doing that?"
"By leaving the controls set for 1-G, and then starting the ship by swapping the tube energizing voltages from test power to operating power."
"Should that tell us?"