"Look, Walt. Quit hoping. If you get this thing running right, it'll put your name in history."
"After all," grinned Walt, "I've got to do something good enough to make up for that Channing Layer."
"Kingman is still fuming over the Channing Layer. Sometimes I feel sorry that I did it to him like that."
"Wasn't your fault, Don. You didn't hand him the thing knowing that the Channing Layer would inhibit the transmission of energy. It happened. We get power out of Sol—why shouldn't they? They would, except for the Channing Layer."
"Wonder what your idea will do."
"About the Channing Layer? Maybe your spaceline competition is not as good as it sounds."
"Well, they use the power-transmission tubes all over the face of the Solar System. I can't see any reason why they couldn't ship stuff from Sydney to Mojave and then space it out from there."
"What an itinerary! By Franks' matter transmitter to Mojave. Spacecraft to Luna. More matter transmission from Luna to Phobos. Then trans-shipped down to Lincoln Head, and by matter transmitter to Canalopsis. Whoosh!"
"Do we have time to go into the old yarn about the guy who listened in and got replicas?" asked Arden.
"That's a woman's mind for you," grinned Channing. "Always making things complicated. Arden, my lovely but devious-minded woman, let's wait until we have the spry beastie by the ears before we start to make rabbit pie."