"And we don't have a chisel," Captain Al-Amin added. "We don't have any tools at all."
"Except," said Jayjay, "an electric hand drill and a quarter-inch bit."
"Well, sure," said Smith. "But what good will that do us?"
"If we rigged a belt between the drill's motor and the sleeve of the female socket, the sleeve would rotate as if it were on a lathe, wouldn't it?"
Smith blinked. "Sure. Yeah! Hey!" His face brightened. Then it looked sad again. "But what good would that do us?"
"You said that all we have between us and success is a fraction of an inch of metal. If we can remove that fraction of an inch, we're successful."
"But how can you put a thread into that socket?" Smith asked.
Jayjay beamed as though it were his birthday. "We don't have to put a thread in there. All we have to do is give the thread on the male plug room to move in. All we have to do is clear away that metal. So we'll use the drill motor to turn the sleeve as if it were on a lathe."
Smith still didn't look enthusiastic. "All right. We have a lathe. But what are we going to use for tools? What are we going to cut the metal with?"
Jayjay's smile became broader. "Carbon steel. What else?"