Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

---

Fire in the Sky track 08. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_fire_in_the_sky
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyrics:

Some plans came down to the engineer
With lines so fine and dimensions clear
Showing gears and levers and angles and bends
And inside-out widgets with chrome plated ends
For a gadget to leave any craftsman dismayed
And its heart was a part that just couldn't be made

Well, the engineer sighed as he studied those plans
And he read the demented designer's demands
Then he called in his techs and he said to his crew:
“This guy seems to think that there's jobs we can't do
And parts we can't build—so let's give him a thrill.
We'll build his machine and then send him the bill!

“Now his tungsten we'll carve with a laser or two;
We can hold it with magnets or vacuum or glue.
His tapers we'll trim by computer control,
Triangular bits will drill all his square holes.
We'll put it together and try to stay calm
Till we weld it all up with a small fission bomb.

“Now this micro-inch finish won't cost him too much,
So we'll plate it with platinum, seems a nice touch.
But the tricky bits here are these spheres within spheres,
The Klein bottle tanks, the irrational gears.
The left-handed blivets I'll buy off the shelf,
But I'd better sneak in and make this part myself.”

The designer came down and his jaw it did drop
At the thing sitting there on the floor of the shop
The engineer grinned and he pointed with pride
To the parts that were whirling and glowing inside
For there's no job too tough and there's no job too queer
For an MIT grad hyperspace engineer!