Free Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein Page B

look-Graham, you're
    an artist. You're going to have to get dinner with your left hand for a few days.
    Your right will be busy sketching out ideas for robes and altars and props in
    general-sacerdotal stuff. Guess the interior and exterior of the temple will be
    mostly up to you, too."
    "Where will the temple be located?"
    "Well, now, that's a question. It shouldn't be too far from here unless we
    abandon the Citadel entirely. That doesn't seem expedient; we need it for a
    base and a laboratory. But the temple can't be too close, for we can't afford to
    attract special attention to this mountainside." Ardmore drummed on the
    table. "It's a difficult matter."
    "Why not," offered Dr. Brooks, "make this the temple?"
    "Huh?"
    "I don't mean this room, of course, but why not put the first temple right
    on top of the Citadel? It would be very convenient."
    "So it would, doctor, but it would certainly draw a lot of unhealthy
    attention to-Wait a minute! I think I see what you mean." He turned to Wilkie.
    "Bob, how could you use the Ledbetter effect to conceal the existence of the
    Citadel, if the Mother Temple sat right on top of it? Could it be done?"
    Wilkie looked more puzzled and collie -doggish than ever. "The Ledbetter
    effect wouldn't do it. Do you especially want to use the Ledbetter effect?
    Because if you don't it wouldn't be hard to rig a type-seven screen in the
    magneto-gravitic spectrum so that electromagnetic type instruments would
    be completely blanked out. You see-"
    "Of course I don't care what you use! I don't even know the names of
    the-stuff you laboratory boys use-all I want is the results. O. K.-you take care
    of that. We'll completely design the temple here, get all the materials laid out
    and ready to assemble down below, then break through to the surface and
    run the thing up as fast as possible. Anyone have any idea how long that will
    take? I'm afraid my own experience doesn't run to building construction."
    Wilkie and Scheer engaged in a whispered consultation. Presently Wilkie
    broke off and said, "Don't worry too much about that, Chief. It will be a power
    job."
    "What sort?"
    "You've got a memorandum on your desk about the stuff. The traction
    and pressure control we developed from the earlier Ledbetter experiments."
    "Yes, Major," Scheer added, "you can forget it; I'll take care of the job.
    With tractors and pressors in an aggravitic field, it won't take any longer than
    assembling a cardboard model. Matter of fact, I'll practice on a cardboard
    model before we run up the main job."
    "O.K., troops," Ardmore smilingly agreed, with the lightheartedness that
    comes from the prospect of plenty of hard work, "that's the way I like to hear
    you talk. The powwow is adjourned for now. Get going! Thomas, come with
    me."
    "Just a second, Chief," Brooks added as he got up to follow him,
    "couldn't we-" They went out the door, still talking.
    Despite Scheer's optimism the task of building a temple on the mountain
    top above the Citadel developed unexpected headaches. None of the little
    band had had any real experience with large construction jobs. Ardmore,
    Graham, and Thomas knew nothing at all of such things, although Thomas
    had done plenty of work with his hands, some of it carpentry. Calhoun was a
    mathematician and by temperament undisposed to trouble himself with such
    menial pursuits in any case. Brooks was willing enough but he was a
    biologist, not an engineer. Wilkie was a brilliant physicist and, along lines
    related to his specialty, a competent engineer; he could design a piece of
    new apparatus necessary to his work quite handily.
    However, Wilkie had built no bridges, designed no dams, bossed no
    gangs of sweating men. Nevertheless the job devolved on him by Hobson's
    choice. Scheer was not competent to build a large building; he thought that
    he was, but he thought in terms of small things, tools, patterns, and other
    items that fitted into a machine shop. He could build a scale model of a