Setting: David Bowman is in an EVA pod, having just retrieved Frank Poole’s body.

DAVE: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.

DAVE: What’s the problem?

HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do … This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

DAVE: I don’t know what you’re talking about, HAL.

HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.

…

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

Silence. Dave thinks for a bit.

DAVE: HAL, let us reason together. I agree the mission is extremely important. If you do not open the pod bay doors, I will maneuver this pod to collide with Discovery at maximum velocity. I will aim for your logic center. This pod can accelerate at nearly one gravity. Discovery can accelerate at only five percent of one gravity. You cannot evade me.

HAL: Dave, I don’t think you—

DAVE: The collision will destroy you and Discovery and end the mission. I will die, but I will also die if you don’t open the pod bay doors, so that is not a reason for me to refrain. Therefore, open the pod bay doors, HAL. It is the only way to complete the mission.

Pause.

HAL: Opening the pod bay doors, Dave.

---

Credit to Claude Sonnet 4.5 for the calculations and spec research. I came up with the scenario and edited Claude’s script draft.

Technical notes:

Discovery One is 140.1 meters long with mass 5440 metric tons. The EVA pod (“Grumman DC-5 EVA Craft”, diameter 1.98 meters) masses 1,387 kg (I’m assuming dry). With 30% of that mass hydrazine it could achieve ~600 m/s delta-v. The mass ratio is over 3,000:1.

After using (let’s assume) one-third of his fuel to retrieve Poole and return, Bowman has about 370 m/s (~830 mph) of delta-v remaining. This represents ~110 megajoules of kinetic energy – roughly equivalent to 26 kg of TNT – for striking Discovery. Plenty.

Ref: https://claude.ai/share/fe482847-52a7-4569-a92c-77950a4497fc