imagined futurepassed through RuUman’s audience. He
grinned.
“I don’t mean to frighten you,” he said. “We’ll get along.
But I don’t want any complacency either, and above all, I
won’t stand for any sloppiness in the preparations. It’s parti-
cularly important that we keep the outside installations intact
this time, because we’re going to need them before the end of
.the next Jovian yeara long time before that, if everything
continues to go well.”
The grin was suddenly quenched. “I don’t need to tell some
of you how important it is that we get that project completed
on schedule,” Rullman said, quietly. “We may not have much
time left before the Port cops decide to move in on usit
amazes me that they haven’t already done so, particularly
since we’re harboring a fugitive the cops troubled to chase
almost into our atmosphereand we can’t plan on their giv-
ing us any leeway.
“For those of you who know about the project only in out-
line, let me emphasize that there is a good deal more hanging
from it than immediately meets the eye. Man’s whole future
in space may be determined by how well we carry it off; we
can’t afford to be lickedneither by the Earth nor by the
weather. If we are, our whole long struggle for survival will
have been meaningless. I’m counting on everyone here to see
to it that that doesn’t happen.”
It was difficult to be sure of what Rullman was talking
about when he got onto the subject of the “project.” It had
something to do with the pantrope labs, that much was clear;
and it bad to do also with the colony’s original spaceship,