"Maybe they aren't kitchen chemists. Maybe they are the real thing."
"Huh?" said Tex. "What do you mean, Matt?"
"Just what I said. We want 'go' juice for the Tart-maybe if we just had sense enough to ask the mother-of-many for it, we'd get it."
Oscar shook his head. "I wish you were right, Matt. Nobody has more respect for the Little People than I have, but there isn't a rocket fuel we can use that doesn't involve one or more liquefied gases. We might even make them understand what we needed but they wouldn't have the facilities for it."
"Why are you so sure?"
"Well, shucks, Matt, liquid oxygen-even liquid air-calls for high pressures and plenty of power, and high-pressure containers for the intermediate stages. The Little People make little use of power, they hardly use metal." |
"They don't use power, eh? How about those orange \ lights?" j
"Well, yes, but that can't involve much power."
"Can you make one? Do you know how they work?" "No, but-"
"What I'm trying to get at is that there may be more 1 ways of doing engineering than the big, muscley, noisy ways we've worked out. You've said yourself that we don't really ; know the natives, not even around the poles. Let’s’ at least ask!"