"Pete, got the weather." the Third Officer announced. "Could be better."

The First Officer looked at the chart. "Wow!"

"Yeah, a monster Siberian low forming up. Gonna get bumpy a couple of days out. It's gonna be too big to dodge, too."

The First Officer whistled at the numbers. "Don't forget your 'scope patch, Jimmy."

"Right. How much deck cargo?"

"Just those boys over there." He pointed.

The other man grunted, then picked up a pair of binoculars from the holder. "Christ, they're chained together!"

"That's why we can't strike 'em below."

"Outstanding," the junior man observed.

"I already talked to the bosun about it. We'll have them tied down nice and tight."

"Good idea, Pete. If this storm builds like I expect, you'll be able to surf down there."

"Captain still on the beach?"

"Right, he's due back at fourteen hundred."

"Fueling complete. ChEng will have his diesels on line at seventeen hundred. Depart at sixteen-thirty?"

"That's right."

"Damn, a guy hardly has time to get laid anymore."

"I'll tell the captain about the weather forecast. It might make us late in Japan."

"Cap'n'll love that."

"Won't we all?"

"Hey, if it screws up our alongside time, maybe I can "

"You and me both, buddy." The First Officer grinned. Both men were single.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Fromm asked. He leaned down, staring at the metallic mass through the Lexan sheeting. The manipulator arm had detached the plutonium from the spindle and moved it for a visual inspection that wasn't really necessary, but the plutonium had to be moved for the next part of the finishing process anyway, and Fromm wanted to see the thing close up. He shone a small, powerful flashlight on the metal, but then switched it off. The reflection of the overhead lights was enough.

"It really is amazing," Ghosn said.

What they looked at might easily have been a piece of blown glass, so smooth it appeared. In fact it was far smoother than that. The uniformity of the outside surface was so exact that the greatest distorting effect came from gravity. Whatever imperfections there might have been were far too small to see with the naked eye, and were definitely below the design tolerances Fromm had established when he'd worked the hydrocodes on the minicomputer.

The outside of the folded cylinder was perfect, reflecting light like some sort of eccentric lens. As the arm rotated it around the long axis, the placement and size of the reflected ceiling lights did not move or waver. Even the German found that remarkable.

"I would never have believed we could do so well." Ghosn said.

Fromm nodded. "Such things were not possible until quite recently. The air-bearing-lathe technology is hardly fifteen years old, and the laser-control systems are newer still. The main commercial application is still for ultra-fine instruments like astronomical telescopes, very high-quality lenses, special centrifuge parts " The German stood. "Now, we must also polish the inside surfaces. Those we cannot visually inspect."

"Why do the outside first?"