"There is a slight discrepancy between this cardioid and the calculated curve," said McBride. "Obviously, the cusp would be on a line between Telfu and Soaky, projected from the satellite through the planet to the far side. We orbited around the planet and were closer to Soaky on the side he was on—"
"Is that syllogistic reasoning?" asked Hammond. "Or sheer conjecture? How about shadow?"
"This is quite a wide effect."
"Any shading of Soaky's sphere of influence would tend to deepen the cusp like that. That cardioid is such a curve; there's no reason to doubt that Telfu would tend to shade the field."
"Larry. Can you calculate the field absorption of a standard model planet with the above figures?"
"The attenuation?"
"Yes."
"Sure. It'd help if I knew the chemical components, mass, physical constants, electrical properties, gravitic properties, and nuclear emanations. How close do you want it?"
"Plus or minus twenty percent."