McBride answered: "What's the matter?"
"Nothing. We're in! We had a bit of trouble getting the warp going at this end. The image-size of Sirius when projected by a lens as close as the fore element is larger in diameter than Sirius is according to the distances involved, you know, and getting the warp started across the face of the Telfan Lens was some going. But we're about to thicken the center and shorten the focal length of the aft element right now."
"O.K. No trouble, hey?"
"Excepting it is hot in the hind-end stations. The interstices that give the spill-overs from Lens One do a swell job of heating up the stations when it hits."
"Sirius is hot stuff."
"Look, Mac, how much energy will it take to ruin Soaky?"
"Well," grinned McBride, "Lothar's 'Handbook of Useless Facts' says that a globe of ice the size of Terra, if dropped into Sol, would melt and boil so quick it wouldn't go 'Psssst.' Is Carlson handy?"
"Here, Mac. On the hind surface in the flitter and it is hotter than the hinges of Hell."
"The one on Pluto?"
"No, the one in the real Nether Regions."