"Oh?" said Smith. "And where do we get these tools, Mr. Kelvin? From the circumambient ether?"
"Not at all," said Jayjay. "Did you ever chip flint?"
"What?"
"Never mind. All we have to do is use that quarter-inch bit."
Smith still looked confused. "I don't get it. A bit that big won't fit in."
"We simply crack a piece off that hard carbon steel," Jayjay said. "We can make a lathe tool that will fit into the small space between the inner and outer tubes. The fractured edge will be sharp enough to take out the excess metal. The male plug can move in, and we'll have contact."
"Well, I'll be—" Smith used another French word.
Captain Atef Al-Amin cast his eyes upwards. "Creatio ex nihilo," he said softly.
When the Interplanetary Police ship took the five men and the cargo from the wreck of the Persephone, the major in command of the ship, who knew that he had rescued the great J. J. Kelvin, asked him: "Mr. Kelvin, what do you plan to do when you return to Ceres City?"