 Why is the distorter drive so dangerous?
"It was only decided yesterday, back on Earth, that I would be the one to make the trip here. What I meant was that I expected someone from Earth to break through our blockade and come here. "If you wanted someone from Earth to come here to see you, why did you put the cordon around Earth? And why did you drop a planet-buster in the Pacific Ocean, and tell us that it was triggered to go off if we tried to use the distorter drive? When you showed up in the spaceways, it was decreed that you had to be stopped at once. There was even serious discussion of destroying Earth out of hand, while it is still possible.
 The distorter drive has a seventy-three percent chance of destroying everything around it for thousands of miles.
 The distorter drive has a seventy-three percent chance of destroying everything around it for thousands of miles.  The distorter drive has not been thoroughly tested.  The distorter drive is powered by a nuclear reactor.  The distorter drive is radioactive.