“Our second objective,” Fuchs was going on, “will be 32-114, a C-type, chondritic object. Chondritic asteroids contain carbon and hydrates—”
“Water,” said Pancho, getting up from the narrow table and heading for the food freezer.
“Yes, water, but not in the liquid form.”
“The water molecules are linked chemically to the other molecules in the rock,” Amanda said. “You have to apply heat or some other form of energy to get the water out.”
“But it’s water,” Dan said, watching Pancho as she pulled a foil-wrapped prepackaged meal from the freezer. “Selene needs water. So does anybody working in space.”
“You will do your work on water,” Amanda murmured. “‘An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ‘im that’s got it. ‘“
“What’s that?” Dan asked, puzzled.
She looked almost embarrassed. “Oh… Kipling. Rudyard Kipling.”
“ ‘Gunga Din’,” Fuchs added quickly. “A very fine poem.”
“By a white European male chauvinist,” Pancho quipped as she slid her meal into the microwave oven.
“How can you be hungry?” Amanda asked. “You had a full meal only a few hours ago.”
Pancho grinned at her. “I don’t have to watch my figure. I burn off the calories just like that.” She snapper her fingers.
“But those prepackaged meals,” Amanda said. “They’re so… prepackaged.”
“I like ’em,” said Pancho.
“Anyway,” Dan said, raising his voice slightly to cut off any disagreements, “those are the two rocks we’re going after. We’ll take some samples to solidify our claim and then head for the outer region of the Belt and find ourselves a metallic body.”
“I’ve been wondering,” Amanda said slowly, “about the legal status of any claims we make. If the IAA considers this flight to be illegal… I mean, if we’re deemed to be outlaws—”
“They could disallow our claims to the asteroids,” Dan finished for her. “I’ve thought about that.”
“And?”
A single, sharp, clear ping sounded from the open hatch to the bridge. Pancho sprinted from the microwave oven and ducked through the hatch.
She came back into the wardroom a moment later, her face taut. “Solar flare.”
Amanda got to her feet and pushed past Pancho, into the bridge. Fuchs looked concerned, almost alarmed.
Dan said, “I’ll check out the electron guns.”
“Might not hit us,” Pancho said. “The plasma cloud’s still too far away to know if it’ll reach us or not.”
“I’ll check out the electron guns anyway,” Dan said, getting up from his chair. “I’ve taken enough radiation to last me a lifetime. I don’t need any more.”
EARTHVIEW RESTAURANT
The instant Martin Humphries saw Kris Cardenas, he realized that she was suffering pangs of guilt. Big time. The scientist looked as if she hadn’t slept well recently; dark circles ringed her eyes, and her face looked bleak.
He rose from his chair as the maitre d’ escorted her to the table and smiled as the dark-clad man held Cardenas’s chair for her while she sat down. Cardenas was not smiling.
Gesturing with an outstretched arm, Humphries said, “The finest restaurant within four hundred million kilometers.”
It was an old joke in Selene. The Earthview was the only true restaurant on the Moon. The other two eateries were cafeterias. Ten years earlier, the Yamagata Corporation had opened a top-grade tourist hotel at Selene, complete with a five-star restaurant. But Yamagata was forced to shut down their restaurant as the greenhouse warming throttled the tourist trade down to a trickle. Now they sent their few guests to the Earthview.
At least Cardenas had dressed properly, Humphries saw. She wore a sleeveless forest-green sheath decorated tastefully with accents of gold jewelry. But she looked as if she were ready to attend a funeral, not an elegant dinner.
Without preamble, she leaned across the table so intently she almost touched heads with Humphries. “You’ve got to warn them,” she whispered urgently.
“There’s plenty of time for that,” he said easily. “Relax and enjoy your meal.”
In truth, the Earthview was a fine restaurant by any standard. The staff were mostly young, except for the stiffly formal maitre d’, who added an air of grave dignity to the establishment. Carved out of the lunar rock four levels below the surface, the restaurant lived up to its name by having broad, sweeping windowalls that displayed the view from the lunar surface. It was almost like looking through windows at the barren, gauntly beautiful floor of the great ringwalled plain of Alphonsus. The Earth was always in the dark sky, hanging there like a splendid glowing blue and white ornament, ever changing yet always present.