The return to the rim was slower than had been the evacuation—but it was complete within twenty minutes of the decision to return the satellite to normal.
In the machine shop, Paul and Tombu, with Ishie and Mike, were gathering the materials they'd need for the odd construction—Paul singing to himself as he worked.
"I got in the shuttle, thought it went to the Base;
I'd learned my trade; there I'd take my place
Safely on Earth; but I found me in space—
I'd went where I wasn't going!"
"What's that song?" asked Ishie of the spaceman.
"Oh, that's just 'The Spaceman's Lament.' You make it up as you go along." His voice grew louder, taking the minor, wailing key at a volume the others could hear.
"I got on the wheel, thought I'd stay for the ride—
I'd found a funny suit in which to hide—
But I went through a closet—and I was outside!
I'd went where I wasn't going!"
Tombu and Mike joined happily in the chorus, bawling it out at the top of their lungs as they began the work that would make the big Confusor.
"Oh ... there's a sky-trail leading from here to there
And another yonder showing—
But when I get to the end of the run
It'll be where I wasn't going!"
Meanwhile, facsimile copies of the official drawings had been made for the other interested scientists aboard, and also sent by transfax to U.N. headquarters for distribution among Earth's top-level scientists.
They were innocent enough in concept, and sufficiently complex in design to require a great deal of study by these conservative individuals who would never risk a hasty guess as to the consequences of even so simple an action as sneezing at the wrong time.