_Hey, boss; whatta
we gonna do?_ He patted them on the shoulders.
"Take it easy." He hoped his tone would convey nonurgency.
"We'll find something for you to do."
He wasn't particularly happy about most of what was coming off.
Giving these Svants tools was fine, but it was more important to
give them technologies. The people on the ship hadn't thought of
that. These wheels, now; machined steel hubs, steel rims, tubular
steel spokes, drop-forged and machined axles. The Svants wouldn't
be able to copy them in a thousand years. Well, in a hundred, if
somebody showed them where and how to mine iron and how to smelt
and work it. And how to build a steam engine.
He went over and pulled a hoe out of one of the bundles. Blades
stamped out with a power press, welded to tubular steel handles.
Well, wood for hoe handles was hard to come by on a spaceship, even
a battle cruiser almost half a mile in diameter; he had to admit
that. And they were about two thousand per cent more efficient than
the bronze scrapers the Svants used. That wasn't the idea, though.
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