41.      Casualties

Bill supervises a successful test of a new asteroid mover technology at Epsilon Eridani that uses spaced SURGE drives to redirect an iceberg without physical contact, demonstrating precise control over the asteroid's trajectory.

Bill and Garfield conduct a field trial of an improved asteroid mover design intended to alter the approach vector of an iceberg. The new system employs multiple saucer-shaped drive segments positioned evenly around the asteroid's center of gravity, each with its own SURGE drive, plus an overarching SURGE field affecting the entire mass. After passing all tests, the live trial proceeds flawlessly, with the iceberg's path adjusted to skim Ragnarök's atmosphere as planned. Once shutdown is confirmed and drift is ruled out after sixty seconds, the drive segments disengage and link together for retrieval. The repositioned iceberg will eventually be converted to ice cubes via explosions, with the resulting rain distributing water across Ragnarök over weeks. Bill reflects on a previous failure—a missed iceberg impact that left a large crater now filling with water, which he has named Bullseye, serving as a permanent reminder of the stakes involved in their terraforming work.