A headstrong, spoiled brat she may have been, but Sandra Drake was by no means unintelligent. After John McBride had cut off a tiny lathe-turning just in time to hand it to Pete, who seemed to need it at exactly that moment to fit into his instrument, Sandra said to McBride: "Is there any pattern to all this mess?" "If there weren't, we'd really be in a mess." He opened the chuck, advanced the rod a few inches, and started to turn the rod down to size again. "This," said Sandra in that infuriating voice, "is order, neatness, and efficiency?" "We like it," answered McBride, his eyes on the cross-feed vernier. "It may not look like a drawing room, but we know what we're doing." "Do you? Is this a sample of how the place looks every time the _Haywire Queen_ goes out to experiment?" "Undoubtedly." "Why couldn't it be neat and clean?" "Because we can't replace every tool back in the cabinet when we are ready to lay it down for a minute. Because it is far better to run cutting chips all over the floor and sweep 'em up once instead of running the broom every seven seconds after each chip. Because it is easier to work this way." "Well," said Sandra, unimpressed, "the _Haywire Queen_ seems deserving of her name." "There have been a lot of ticklish space problems fought out in her," replied McBride. "Just as we're fighting one now." "But where are your drawings? Where are your plans? Where are your calculations?" "Our drawings will be made by draftsmen when we make the thing work," answered McBride. "No sense in having a sheaf of drawings when we'll change the thing a dozen times before it is perfected. Our plans are step-by-step, and any result from one step may change our next step. Our calculations and mathematical deductions will be handled by brilliant mathematicians who can twist simple formulas around to fit the observed data by adding or subtracting abstract terms that fit the case." "Sounds slightly slipshod to me." McBride cut the part from the bar and handed it to Pete. "Enough?" he asked, and Pete nodded over his shoulder. "You can start on part two," he called. McBride replaced the bar with a larger one and started to work it into shape. "We don't need drawings," he said. "I know what Pete wants and how they should fit together and they're fairly simple parts. He knows what he wants and knows that I know also, so why should we make a lot of sketches for something trivial?" "It seems to me that this is far from trivial," said Sandra pettishly. "You're playing with the lives of us all." "Your life wasn't worth a peanut when you tried to run through the lens," said McBride. "Why quibble now?" "I lived through it," said Drake. "You'll live through this, perhaps," said McBride. "Besides, we're not too worried about our own lives. We're all willing to take a chance on them for Enid." "Yeah?" drawled Sandra sourly. "How about the rest of them? That's only speaking for yourself."