"Well, Ben, we've always claimed that we'd tried everything. But they didn't try the electric light until Edison got the idea, and the airplane was a new science when they went to work on it. Young man," said Simpkins, to Peter Wright, "you are a young man with a bright mind for legal intricacies. It usually makes little difference so long as the mind is capable of handling the intricacies, just what the mind was specialized in. You are a fresh mind and we've all seen fresh minds enter and lick a problem that stuck the original men for months. You think you can lick it?"
"I don't know. It just seems to me that there must be some way."
"Don't forget," said Ben, "that this is not much different from a regular problem. In construction, I mean. We have accidents where a man is hit by a flying grab hook that is not in any way temporal treated. Common accidents. The real problem, Peter, is to stop accidents. Not to try to avert them after they have happened."
"But this one—"
"So far as the temporal treatment goes, is—or has happened."
"Could you temporal treat the stuff so the mislinks pass through first?"
"Sure," laughed Ben. "Not practical. They have no forewarning then. They just go where the tools will go when used. We can't tell when one of the men will try to grind a mislink chisel. As it is, we can clear the area where the tools have been."
"Just remember that this is fact: For a one-hour mislink, we treat the tools for one hour. They are then ready for use for one hour. At the end of that time, the mislinks start to follow, and follow for one hour, at which time the temporal difference decreases on a fourth power curve, and the mislink catches up with the tool and falls back into place."
"Uh-huh. Well, I'm new at it, gentlemen, but it is my guess that this accident you anticipate need not happen."
"You forget," corrected Ben. "It's happened."