"It was one of them, I don't recall which."
"No matter of importance," said Don. "I think I know what you mean. He hit the intake end—or tried to. The hammer was cut neatly and precisely off, and the energy of the blow was transmitted, somehow, to the wall."
"Through the wall," corrected Walt. "It cracked the plaster, but it went through so fast that it merely cracked it. The main blow succeeded in breaking the marble facade of the city hall."
"Um. Now bring us up to date. What have you in mind?"
"A tube which scans matter atom by atom, line by line, and plane by plane. The matter is removed, atom by atom, and transmitted to a sort of matter bank in the instrument."
"A what?"
"Matter bank," said Walt. "We can't transmit the stuff itself. That's out. We can't dissipate the atomic energy or whatever effect we might get. We can establish a balance locally by using the energy release to drive the restorer. According to some initial experiments, it can be done. We take something fairly complex and break it down. We use the energy of destruction to re-create the matter in a bank, or solid block of local stuff. Let it be a mass of stuff if it wants to, at any rate, the signal impulses from the breakdown will be transmitted, scanned, if you will, and transmitted to a receiver which reverses the process. It scans, and the matter bank is broken down and the object is rebuilt.
"I hope we can get free and unrestricted transmutation," offered Don. "You can't send a steel spring out and get one back made of copper."
"I get your point."
"The space lines will hate you," said Arden.