Leo Frankowski

power.
They really ought to have some form of auxiliary power for getting in and out
of harbors and for moving when becalmed.”
    “So I’ll make
the oars and you make the muscles for when we run out of wind. Anything else? You
want maybe
the decks should be orange and the sails pink?”
    “They’ll have to
stay green for photosynthesis.” Copernick ignored the jibe. “But as
to size, you’ve made these four fifty-, one hundred-, one hundred twenty-five, and one hundred
fifty feet long, which is fine, but we also ought to build some in the
thousand-foot range.”
    “So who’d want an ocean liner when he
could sail his own yacht?” Guibedo
said.
    “Not ocean
liners. Troop ships.”
    “Are you on that
again, Heiny?”
    “I’ve never been
off it. We are heading into a period with too many unknowns. The only thing I’m
sure of is that revolutions
are never easy. When you act with inadequate information, you inevitably make
mistakes. Better to err on the side of security. If we end up with more
military power than we need, we have wasted time and energy. If we have too little, we have wasted our lives and the lives of everyone we care about.”
    “Okay. We call
them troop ships now and ocean liners later.” Guibedo was getting worried about his nephew. Paranoia?
    “Now about this
dirigible. I really like it, but it’s going to require something pretty novel
to power it. Wings that size are out of the question, and oars would be far too inefficient.”
    “Well, this is
just a first cut to see if the thing really will fly. No motive power and it can’t make
seeds. On the next one I
think maybe I can grow a big propeller. It grows
rigid to its bearings until it’s full size, then it breaks loose. I give you a crank between two
bearings, and you make muscles to it like the cylinders in a radial
engine. Once it’s going, the propeller eats bearing grease that the dirigible
makes to stay alive. I figure I can make it
good for seventy-five rpm.”
    “You really figure you can make an
organic wheel?” Copernick looked
surprised. “If it’s possible, why doesn’t
the wheel occur in nature?”
    “It does. You got to read Berg’s
thing on bacteria fla gella. The little
beggars move by spinning a propeller that’s
turned by an ion motor,” Guibedo said.
    “Berg, huh. I’ll
look it up. So why doesn’t it occur in higher animals?”
    “Because there are no intermediary
steps possible be tween a foot and a wheel,
Heiny. Natural life forms had to
evolve by small design increments. Nature can’t do a radical design like a committee can’t do original
thinking.”
    “Fascinating!”
Copernick said, going over the readouts. “The musculature you describe is
absurdly simple, of course. I should have thought of this myself, before I did
the TRACs.”
    “You leave those TRACs alone. For
land travel, wheels are more efficient, but
feet are more versatile. And feet don’t get stuck in the mud,” Guibedo
said. “I came over here on Reo,
one of your trucks. He’s got a real
smooth ride. You did a nice job on those leg joints, Heiny.”
    “Thank you. I’m
proud of them myself. But for strictly tunnel traveling, a wheeled animal would be great.”
    “Do it once we
have enough tunnels. You had lunch yet?”
    “No, thinking
about it. Let’s go upstairs.”
    No part of the CCU
was permitted in a biolab, so Copernick stopped at the CCU’s I/O unit in the hallway. “CCU. Copernick
here.”
    “Yes, my
lord.”
    “I want you to
buy at least ten square miles of land with at least two miles of ocean frontage,
as close to here as possible. Have the mole dig a tunnel out to it. Set the earliest possible
closing dates, and keep me posted.”
    “Yes, my
lord.”
    Guibedo said,
“That’s a handy guy you got there.”
    “I’d be lost
without him.”
    The girls had eaten
earlier and were working with the TRACs, so Guibedo and Copernick ate alone,
served by Ohura,
one of the Copernicks’ two fauns. Ohura was a black version of Liebchen, identical
except for surface details.
    “You know, I
think this is the first time we’ve eaten alone together in a year,”
Guibedo said as he began his second mug of beer.
    “It’s strange to
be without the girls, but I’m glad they’re taking an interest in their
work.”
    “How come you
make Mona work so hard? Couldn’t Dirk or one of his buddies do it?”
    “They could.
LDUs are almost as intelligent as Mona, and they’re a good deal more consistent. But
Mona