"Might work, but I sort of hate to take finely-cut chances like that," said Caldwell. "We'll try it!"
The last report was in, and all stations were ready and operating on test power. McBride spoke into the broadcast communicator, so that the superintendents of all stations could hear him simultaneously.
"Rear element, fore stations, set up primary warp."
Generators whined up the musical scale in the twelve stations that circled the junction between the fore and aft elements. Slowly and ponderously, the stations began to fall into a true plane, and as they began to align, the electro-gravitic generators began to work more efficiently.
Before the warp had started to form, McBride called: "Rear element, rear stations, set up secondary warp!"
The rearmost twelve began to fling their power across the circle, and the space between the two regular polygons began to take lenticular shape. As it formed, it thickened, and the massiveness of the space between the warps set the stations more firmly in place. They oscillated gently back and forth, in a damped cycle and would be moving in gentler and smaller excursions for days before they came to total rest.
"Fore ring, set up magneto-gravitic warp!"
The heavy alphatrons began to fill the space between the fore stations with alpha particles. Circling in ever-decreasing spirals, the particles set up a super-powerful magnetic field parallel to the axis of the lens. As they reached the center of the lens, the alpha particles lost velocity and with their lost speed, they also lost their effect. They died out, and to all effects, disappeared.
The space between the electro-gravitic warp and the magneto-gravitic warp decreased as the fore warp thickened, and then with a sickening swell on the part of the stations themselves, the center of the fore warp touched the center of the aft warp.