It was like a
kite and a string and the kite's tail. The string was the Dabney field,
and the directions we were heading was the kite's tail."
Cochrane nodded. It occurred to him that Jones was very much unlike
Dabney. Jones had discovered the Dabney field, but having sold the
fame-rights to it, he now apparently thought "Dabney Field" was the
proper technical term for his own discovery, even in his own mind.
"Back on the moon," Jones went on zestfully, "I wasn't sure that a field
once established would hold in atmosphere. I hoped that with enough
power I could keep it, but I wasn't sure--"
"This doesn't mean much to me, Jones," said Cochrane. "What does it add
up to?"
"Why--the field held down into atmosphere. And we were out of the
primary field as far as the tail of the ship was concerned. But this
time we landed, I'd hooked in some ready-installed circuits. There was a
second Dabney field from the stern of the ship to the bow. There was the
main one, going out to those balloons and then back to Earth. But there
was--and is--a second one only enclosing the ship. It's a sort of
bubble. We can still trail a field behind us, and anybody can follow in
any sort of ship that's put into it.
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