The Three Petals

A high assembly hall of a spacecraft works in southern California on a spring afternoon, fluorescent lamps, on a steel stand a horizontal cylinder three metres long wrapped in crinkled silvery foil with dark tape strips, above it two polished spherical tanks on a tubular frame, beneath it a large grey box, at its front a heavy ring of bolts and rods with three guide petals angled outward, facing it on a wheeled cart a pale green ring with three petals, two pairs of hands in white cotton gloves bringing the rings together, a technician in a white coat seen from directly behind, face turned fully away, every surface plain and unmarked.