"Right."
"That means that the ship was not exceeding the velocity of light when it went up!"
"Yes, but—?"
"Then on the instantaneous recorders there must be a complete record of what every instrument should have been reading but did not due to the mechanical inertia of these meters! Right?"
"But suppose—"
"Look, Edith. The theory of the drive is based upon the development of a monopolar magnetic field that incloses space in upon itself like a blister, twisted off from the skin of a toy balloon. Now that field would collapse if the fission started, because the fission is initiated as you claim by magnetostrictive alignment of the planetary orbits of the field-electrons in the atoms. Obviously the magnetostrictive effect is more pronounced near to the center of the monopolar generator. Ergo that would go first, dropping the speed of the ship to below the velocity of light by a considerable amount. Then as the fission continued, spreading outward, the various instruments would go blooey—but not until they'd had ... did you say thirteen microseconds after initiation the major fission took place?"
"Yes."
"Give it twelve microseconds to drop the ship below the speed of light and I have still one full microsecond for recordings!"
Edith Ward looked up in admiration. "And you'll bet your life on what your instruments can see in one millionth of a second?"