"And we can't have you bouncing around either, Dr. Chi Tung. Get that soup under wraps quick. How much time do you need?" came the captain's voice from his console angled over Bessie's head.
Clark's voice could be heard murmuring into his Earth-contact phone. "T minus two. Holding."
Less than two minutes later, Dr. Chi released the hold by announcing briefly, "Machine shop and physics department secure."
"T minus two and counting...."
"T minus one and counting...." Bessie continued officially. "Fifty, forty, thirty, twenty...."
The faint whine of high-speed centrifugal compressors could be heard through the ship.
"Ten...." The jets that had previously bubbled almost inaudibly took on the sound of a percolating coffee pot.
"... Four, three, two, one, mark."
The bubbling became a hiss that settled into a soft susurrus of background noise, as the jets forced air through the river of water in the circular tanks of the rim.
The water began to move. By reaction, the wheel took up a slow, circular motion in the opposite direction.