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He was plainly unable to understand in any fashion the principle of the magnetronic drive. Baird was tempted to try to explain, because there was surely no secret about a ship drive, but he could imagine no diagrams or gestures which would convey the theory of what happened in cobalt-steel when it was magnetized beyond one hundred thousand Gauss' flux-density.
There were more of those inadequate noises as rockets went out every tube on the starboard side emptied itself in a series of savage grunts and the Niccola's magnetronic drive roared at full flux density. The two ships were less than a mile apart when the Niccola let go her full double broadside of missiles. And then it seemed that the Plumie ship was doomed.
There was no evidence of interplanetary travel rockets would be more than obvious, and a magnetronic drive had a highly characteristic radiation-pattern so the real purpose of the Niccola's voyage would not be accomplished here. She wouldn't find out where Plumies came from.
"Sir," said Baird, his voice still shaken, "they don't use a magnetronic drive. I once saw a picture of the drive they use, in a stereo on the history of space travel. The principle's very old. We've practically forgotten it. It's a Dirac pusher-drive, sir. Among us humans, it came right after rockets. The planets of Sol were first reached by ships using Dirac pushers. But " He paused.
And it would hit the Niccola amidships with no possible result but destruction for both vessels. The Niccola's skipper bellowed orders, as if shouting would somehow give them more effect. The magnetronic drive roared. He'd demanded a miracle of it, and he almost got one. The drive strained its thrust-members. It hopelessly overloaded its coils.
And without that theory one simply couldn't explain a magnetronic drive. They left the engine room. They visited the rocket batteries. The generator room was burned out, like the drive, by the inconceivable lightning bolt which had passed between the ships on contact. The Plumie was again puzzled.
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