"Dodo?" laughed McBride. "That was a mythical critter that went around dead, I think. It was so dead, even when alive, that when it really died, it was really dead." "You'd better stick to alphatrons," laughed Hammond. "Speaking of the equipment, have you tried to get a replacement on Pluto?" "Nothing didding. About our only chance is to haywire something together. But remember, we still have to make a landing, somewhere, and that means a safety factor is somewhat to be desired." "Not at all. If we can take off safely, we're in!" "Explain. As I was taught in school, anyone can fly a spaceship, but it takes a pilot to land one." "Sure, but remember you'll be stopping off at the Lens. We've got replacements there that will enable you to make space repairs and go on from there in safety." "Didn't think of that. Well, here's the mess!" McBride needed no close inspection to see that the alphatron was definitely defunct. A foul smell, faint, ephemerally pungent, permeated the room. It was the smell of burned synthetic coil dope and field-winding varnish which has been described as smelling something like a frying toupee. "Not only dead," was his cryptic remark, "but dead and sutteed!" "Fricasseed," corrected Hammond. "Anything we can do?" "Is the winding intact?" "We thought of that, too. Nope. Electrical inspection indicates that the winding is melted together in several places. You couldn't unwind the coil, let alone rewind it with fresh insulation. We've got a couple of gallons of insulation handy, if you get a good idea." "Not yet. But look, Hammond, have you tried the magnetogravitic spectrum yet?" "No. That was our next program." "I'd have tried that first," mused McBride. "Knowing that the drive depends upon the action of a cupralum bar under high magnetic density plus an electrogravitic warp, I should think that the close relationship between the magnetic and electronic phenomena would lead you to try the mag-grav first." "I didn't want to start at the top," said Hammond dryly. "In spite of the fact that Dr. Ellson claimed to have discovered a region in the mag-grav spectrum that produced a faint success." "Well, what I'm thinking is that we can rip up the E-grav generator and use the field coil for the alphatron. It'll carry electrons as well as it carries alphons, you know." "Better," said Hammond. "But what do we use for an E-grav?" "First we'll hunt up through the spectrum of the magnetogravitic spectrum. If that doesn't work, we can add the warp produced by your mech-grav, run from the lifeship's little alphatron. Right?" "It's an idea. Seems to me that I've heard somewhere that the combined warps of magneto- and mechanogravitic produces some vectors in the electrogravitic spectrum."