Asteroid Wars - The Precipice Part 26

Pancho decided to change the subject slightly.

"So what've you decided to do about the long-duration test?" Pancho asked.

Dan shook his head. "I've spent the past four days pulling every wire I know."

"And?"

"Nothing so far. Zip. n.o.body's going to lift a finger to go against the IAA."

"So you'll have to do the test flight?"

Running a finger across his chin, Dan said reluctantly, "Looks that way."

"Then why are we takin' this ride?"

The shadow of a smile crossed Dan's face. He was thinking of the time, many years earlier, when he had briefly become a privateer, a pirate, hijacking uncrewed s.p.a.cecraft for their cargoes of ore. It had started as a desperation ploy, the only way a frustrated Dan Randolph could force open the s.p.a.ce markets that had been closed by monopolists. He had won his war against monopoly and opened the solar system to free compet.i.tion among individuals, corporations and governments. But at a price. His smile faded as he remembered the people who had died fighting that brief, unheralded war. He himself had come to within a whisker of being killed.

"So?" Pancho prodded, "Is this a joyride or what?"

Putting his thoughts of the past behind him, Dan replied, "I want to see the crew module for myself. And we're going to meet the planetary geologist that Zack Freiberg's picked out for us."

"The asteroid specialist?"

"Yep. He's aboard the ship now. Came up to Selene yesterday and went straight to the ship. He slept aboard last night."

Pancho huffed. "Eager beaver. College kid, I bet."

"He's got a mint-new degree from Zurich Polytech."

The flight controllers brought the jumper to a smooth rendezvous with Starpower 1. Starpower 1. While Dan and Pancho stood watching, the little transfer buggy linked its airlock adapter section to the hatch of the bigger vessel. They floated through the womb-like adapter to the fusion ship's airlock hatch. While Dan and Pancho stood watching, the little transfer buggy linked its airlock adapter section to the hatch of the bigger vessel. They floated through the womb-like adapter to the fusion ship's airlock hatch.

The airlock opened into the midsection of the crew module. To their left, Dan saw the accordion-fold doors of a half-dozen privacy compartments lining the pa.s.sageway. Further up were the galley, a wardroom with a table and six small but plush-looking chairs, and-past an open hatch-the bridge. To their right was the lavatory and a closed hatch that led to the equipment and storage bays.

Dan headed left, toward the galley and the bridge.

"Chairs?" Pancho asked, looking puzzled, as they pushed weightlessly past the wardroom, floating a few centimeters above the deck's carpeting.

"You'll be accelerating or decelerating most of the way," Dan pointed out. "You won't be spending much time in zero-g."

She nodded, looking disappointed with herself. "I knew that; it just didn't latch."

Dan understood how she felt. He'd seen the layout of the crew module hundreds of times, viewed three-d mockups and even walked through virtual reality simulations. But being in the real thing was different. He could smell the newness of the metal and fabric; he could reach his hand up and run his fingers along the plastic panels of the overhead. The bridge looked small, but shining and already humming with electrical power.

"Where's our college boy?" Pancho asked, looking around.

"That would be me, I suppose," said a reedy voice from behind them.

Turning, Dan saw a husky-looking young man gripping the edges of the open hatch with both hands. He was a shade shorter than Dan, but broad in the shoulders, with a thick barrel chest. The build of a wrestler. His face was broad, too: a heavy jaw with wide, thin lips and small, deepset eyes. His hair was cropped so close to his skull that Dan couldn't be sure of its true color. He wore a small glittering stone in his left ear-lobe, diamond or zircon or gla.s.s, Dan could not tell.

"I heard you enter. I was in the sensor bay, checking on the equipment," he said in a flat midwestern American accent, p.r.o.nounced so precisely that he had to have learned it in a foreign school.

"Oh," said Pancho.

"I am Lars Fuchs," he said, extending his hand to Dan. "You must be Mr. Randolph."

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Fuchs." Fuchs's hand engulfed his own. The young man's grip was strong, firm. "This is Pancho Lane," Dan went on. "She'll be our pilot on the flight."

Fuchs dipped his chin slightly. "Ms. Lane. And, sir, I am not Dr. Fuchs. Not yet."

"That's okay. Zack Freiberg recommends you highly."

"I am very grateful to Doctor Professor Freiberg. He has been very helpful to me."

"And my name is Dan. If you call me Mr. Randolph it'll make me feel like an old man."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to offend you, sir!" Fuchs said, genuinely alarmed.

"Just call me Dan."

"Yes, sir, of course. And you must call me Lars." Turning to Pancho, he added, "Both of you."

"That's a deal, Lars," said Pancho, sticking out her hand.

Fuchs took it gingerly, as if not quite sure what to do. "Pancho is a woman's name in America?"

She laughed. "It's this this woman's name, Lars old buddy." woman's name, Lars old buddy."

Smiling uneasily, Fuchs said, "Pancho," as if testing out the name.

"You handle weightlessness very well," Dan said. "From what Zack told me, this is your first time off-Earth."

Fuchs said. "Thank you, sir... Dan. I came up last night so I could adapt myself to microgravity before you arrived here."

Pancho smiled sympathetically. "Spent the night makin' love to the toilet, huh?"

Looking fl.u.s.tered, Fuchs said, "I did retch a few times, yes."

"Ever'body does, Lars," she said. "Nothin' to be ashamed of."

"I am not ashamed," he said, his chin rising a notch.

Dan moved between them. "Have you picked out which cabin you want for yourself? Since you were first aboard you get first pick."

"Hey," Pancho griped, "I've been aboard this buggy before, you know. So has Amanda."

"The privacy compartments are all exactly alike," Fuchs said. "It doesn't matter which one I get."

"I'll take the last one on the left," Dan said, peering down the pa.s.sageway that ran the length of the module. "It's closest to the lav."

"You?" Pancho looked surprised. "Since when are you comin' on the mission?"

"Since about four days ago," Dan said. "That's when I made up my mind... about a lot of things."

PELICAN BAR.

"So here's my plan," Dan said, with a a grin. He and Pancho were hunched over one of the postage-stamp-sized tables in the farthest corner of the Pelican bar, away from the buzzing conversations and bursts of laughter from the crowd standing at the bar itself. Their heads were almost touching, leaning together like a pair of conspirators. grin. He and Pancho were hunched over one of the postage-stamp-sized tables in the farthest corner of the Pelican bar, away from the buzzing conversations and bursts of laughter from the crowd standing at the bar itself. Their heads were almost touching, leaning together like a pair of conspirators.

Which they were. Inwardly, Dan marveled at how good he felt. Free. Happy, almost. The double-d.a.m.ned bureaucrats have tried to tie me up in knots. Humphries is behind it all, playing along with the IAA and those New Morality bigots. Those uptight psalm-singers don't want us to reach the asteroids. They like the Earth just the way it is: miserable, hungry, desperate for the kind of order and control that the New Morality offers. This greenhouse warming is a blessing for them, the wrath of G.o.d smiting the unbelievers. Anything we do to try to help alleviate it, they see as a threat to their power.

Vaguely, Dan recalled from his childhood history lessons something about a group called the n.a.z.is, back in the twentieth century. They came to power because there was an economic depression and people needed jobs and food. If he remembered his history lessons correctly.

So the New Morality has its tentacles into the IAA now, Dan thought. And the GEC too, I'll bet. And Humphries is playing them all like a symphony orchestra, using them to stymie me long enough so he can grab Astro from me.

Well, it's not going to be that easy, partner. "What's so funny?" Pancho asked, looking puzzled. "Funny?"

"You say, 'Here's my plan, ' and then you start grinnin' like a cat in a canary's cage."

Dan took a sip of his brandy and dry, then said, "Pancho, I've always said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going-to where the going's easier."

"I've heard that one before."

"So I'm going with you."

"You?"

"Yep."

"To the Belt."

"You need a flight engineer. I know the ship's systems as well as anybody."

"Lordy-lord," Pancho muttered.

"I'm still a qualified astronaut. I'm going with you."

"But not until we do the uncrewed test flight," she said, reaching for her beer.

Leaning across the table even closer to her, Dan said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, "Screw the test flight. We're going to the Belt. You, Amanda, Fuchs and me."

Pancho nearly choked on her mouthful of beer. She sputtered, coughed, then finally asked, "What're you drinkin', boss?"

Happy as a pirate on the open sea, Dan said, "We'll let 'em think we're doing exactly what they've told us to do, except that the four of us will happen to be aboard the bird when she breaks...o...b..t."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. We'll calculate a new flight plan once we're underway. Instead of accelerating at one-sixth g, g, as we've planned, we'll goose her up to one-third as we've planned, we'll goose her up to one-third g g and cut the flight time by more than half." and cut the flight time by more than half."

Pancho looked unconvinced. "You better bring an astrogator aboard."

"Nope." Pointing a finger at her, Dan said, "You're it, kid. You and Amanda. I'm not bringing anybody into this that we don't absolutely need."

"I'm not so sure about this," Pancho said warily.

"Don't go chicken on me, kid," Dan said. "You two have been studying this point-and-shoot technique for a lot of weeks. If you can't do it, I've been wasting money on you."

"I can do it," Pancho said immediately.

"Okay, then."

"I'd just feel better if you had a real expert on board."

"No experts. n.o.body else except the four of us. I don't want anybody tipped off about this. And that includes Humphries."

Pancho waved a hand nonchalantly. "He hasn't said a word to me since we moved Sis."

"I don't think he knows were we stashed her," Dan said, reaching for his drink.

"He knows about ever'thing."

"Not this flight," Dan said firmly. "n.o.body "n.o.body is going to know about this. Understand me? Don't even tell Amanda or Fuchs. This is just between you and me, kid." is going to know about this. Understand me? Don't even tell Amanda or Fuchs. This is just between you and me, kid."

"And the flight controllers," Pancho muttered.

"What?"

"How're you goin' to get the flight controllers to go along with this? You can't just waltz aboard the Starpower Starpower and light her up without them knowin' it. h.e.l.l's bells, Dan, you won't even be able to hop up to the ship if they don't let you have a jumper and give you clearance for takeoff." and light her up without them knowin' it. h.e.l.l's bells, Dan, you won't even be able to hop up to the ship if they don't let you have a jumper and give you clearance for takeoff."

Sipping at his brandy-laced ginger beer, Dan admitted, "That's a problem I haven't worked out yet."

"It's a toughie."

"Yep, it is," Dan said, unable to suppress a grin.

Pancho shook her head disapprovingly. "You're enjoying enjoying this." this."

"Why not?" Dan replied. "The world's going to h.e.l.l in a handbasket, the New Morality is taking over the government, Humphries is trying to screw me out of my own company-what could be more fun than hijacking my own s.p.a.cecraft and riding it out to the Belt?"

"That's weird," Pancho murmured.

Dan saw that his gla.s.s was empty. He pressed the b.u.t.ton set into the table's edge to summon one of the squat little robots trundling through the crowd.