“Yes, I will.” Helmuth took the seat before the board.
“Good. With you, I have to be grateful for small victories.
Good trick, Bob.”
“Good trick, Charity.”
iv
Instead of sleepingfor now he knew that he was really afraidhe sat up in the reading chair in his cabin. The illu-minated microfilm pages of a book flipped by across the surface of the wall opposite him, timed precisely to the reading rate most comfortable for him, and he had several weeks’
worry-conserved alcohol and smoke rations for ready con-sumption.
But Helmuth let his mix go flat, and did not notice the book, which had turned itself on, at the page where he had abandoned it last, when he had fitted himself into the chair.
Instead, he listened to the radio.
“There was always a great deal of ham radio activity in the Jovian system. The conditions were good for it, since there was plenty of power available, few impeding atmosphere layers, and those thin, no Heaviside layers, and few official and no commercial channels with which the hams could interfere.
And there were plenty of people scattered about the satellites who needed the sound of a voice.
“… anybody know whether the senators are coming here?
Doc Barth put in a report a while back on a fossil plant he found here, at least he thinks it was a plant. Maybe they’d like a look at it.”
“They’re supposed to hit the Bridge team next.” A strong voice, and the impression of a strong transmitter wavering in and out; that would be Sweeney, on Ganymede. “Sorry to throw the wet blanket, boys, but I don’t think the senators are interested in our rock-balls for their own lumpy selves. We could only hold them here three days.”