ivilization,
compact, on this ship! You've got life instead of starvation! Look at
this. I make a water pump to irrigate your fields!"

* * * * *

Before their eyes he turned out an irrigation pump on an automatic
shaper. He showed them that the shaper went on, by itself, making other
pumps without further instructions than the by-hand control of the tools
that formed the first.

The mechanics stirred uneasily. They had watched without comprehension.
Now they listened without enthusiasm. Their eyes were like those of
children who watch marvels without comprehension.

He made a sledge whose runners slid on air between themselves and
whatever object would otherwise have touched them. It was practically
frictionless. He made a machine to make nails--utterly simple. He made a
power hammer which hummed and pushed nails into any object that needed
to be nailed. He made--

He stopped abruptly, and sat down with his head in his hands. The people
of the fleet faced so overwhelming a catastrophe that they could not see
into it. They could only experience it. As their leader would have been
unable to answer questions about the fleet's predicament before he'd
poured out the tale in the form it had taken in his mind, now these
mechanics were unable to see ahead. They were paralyzed by the
completeness of the disaster before them. They could live until the
supplies of the fleet gave out. They could not grow fresh supplies
without jungle-breaking machinery. They had to have jungle-breaking
machinery. They could not imagine wanting anything less than
jungle-breaking machinery--

Hoddan raised his head. The mechanics looked dully at him.

"You men do maintenance?" he asked. "You repair things when they wear
out on the ships? Have you run out of some materials you need for
repairs?"

After a long time a tired-looking man said slowly:

"On the ship I come from, we're having trouble. Our hydroponic garden
keeps the air fresh, o'course. But the water-circulation pipes are gone.
Rusted through. We haven't got any pipe to fix them with. We have to
keep the water moving with buckets."

Hoddan got up. He looked about him. He hadn't brought hydroponic-garden
pipe supplies! And there was no raw material. He took a pair of power
snips and cut away a section of cargo space wall-lining. He cut it into
strips. He asked the diameter of the pipe. Before their eyes he made
pipe--spirally wound around a mandril