"It had struck something," Clark declared. "Struck it hard and fast. Seams were opened, the structural plates were bent, the whole thing was twisted out of kilter. Even if you could start the engines, the ship would never handle. Even with the tubes O.K., you couldn't set a course. Give it any drive and it would simply corkscrew."
Anderson cleared his throat. "What would have happened to Sutton if he'd been in it when it struck?"
"He would have died," said Clark.
"You are positive of that?"
"No question of it. Even a miracle wouldn't have saved him. We thought of that same thing, so we worked it out. We rigged up a diagram and we used the most conservative force factors to show theoretic effects…"
Adams interrupted. "But he must have been in the ship."
Clark shook his head stubbornly. "If he was, he died. Our diagram shows he didn't have a chance. If one force didn't kill him, a dozen others would."
"Sutton came back," Adams pointed out.
The two stared at one another, half angrily.
Anderson broke the silence. "Had he tried to fix it up?"