"Shucks," he grinned. "Way way back they used microsecond pulses to range aircraft, and they got to the point where a microsecond of time could be accurately split into several million parts of its own. Besides, I made those instruments!"
"Q.E.D." said Edith Ward quietly. "But how are you going to develop a monopolar magnetic field without the magnetostrictive effect? The prime consideration is not the field, but the fact that aligning the planetary orbits means that two things tend to occupy the same place at the same time. That isn't—they tell me—possible."
"Too bad the reverse isn't true," he said.
"You mean the chance of something occupying two places at the same time?"
"Uh-huh."
"What then?"
"Then we could develop two monopolar fields of opposing polarity to inclose the twin-ship proposition. Then the atomic orbits would not be affected since they would receive the bipolar urge."
"Couldn't you change from one to the other very swiftly?"
"Not without passing through zero on the way. Every time we passed through zero we'd end up at sub-speed. The ship would really jack rabbit."
"Oh."