As the machine warmed up, once again amplifying, the Joeness in the back alleys of his brain strengthened.
Slowly, then, the man in the electric wheel chair rolled out of the room, into the hall. Let somebody else sweep up the broken tube. To hell with it. To hell with everybody.
Jan Cornelius had never been farther from Earth than some comfortable Lunar resort. He felt much put upon that the Psionics Corporation should tap him for a thirteen-month exile. The fact that he knew as much about esprojectors and their cranky innards as any other man alive was no excuse. Why send anyone at all? Who cared?
Obviously the Federation Science Authority did. It had seemingly given those bearded hermits a blank check on the taxpayers account.
Thus did Cornelius grumble to himself, all the long hyperbolic path to Jupiter. Then the shifting accelerations of approach to its tiny inner satellite left him too wretched for further complaint. And when he finally, just prior to disembarkation, went up to the greenhouse for a look at Jupiter, he said not a word. Nobody does, the first time.
Arne Viken waited patiently while Cornelius stared. It still gets me too, he remembered. By the throat. Sometimes Im afraid to look.
At length Cornelius turned around. He had a faintly Jovian appearance himself, being a large man with an imposing girth. I had no idea, he whispered. I never thought … I had seen pictures, but.. .
Viken nodded. Sure, Dr. Cornelius. Pictures dont convey it.
Where they stood, they could see the dark broken rock of the sateffite, jumbled for a short way beyond the landing slip and then chopped off sheer. This moon was scarcely even a platform, it seemed, and cold constellations went streaming past it, around it. Jupiter lay across a fifth of that sky, softly ambrous, banded with colors, spotted with the shadows of planet-sized moons and with whirlwinds as broad as Earth. If there had been any gravity to speak of, Cornelius would have thought, instinctively, that the great planet was falling on him. As it was, he felt as if sucked upward, his hands were stifi sore where he had grabbed a rail to hold on.
You live here… all alone… with this? He spoke feebly.
Oh, well, there are some fifty of us all told, pretty congenial, said Viken. Its not so bad. You sign up for four-cycle hitchesfour ship arrivalsand believe it or not, Dr. Cornelius, this is my third enlistment.
The newcomer forbore to inquire more deeply. There was something not quite understandable about the men on Jupiter V. They were mostly bearded, though otherwise careful to remain neat; their low-gravity movements were somehow dreamlike to watch; they hoarded their conversation, as if to stretch it through the year and a month between ships. Their monkish existence had changed them or did they take what amounted to vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience because they had never felt quite at home on green Earth?
Thirteen months! Cornelius shuddered. It was going to be a long, cold wait, and the pay and bonuses accumulating for him were scant comfort now, four hundred and eighty million miles from the sun.
Wonderful place to do research, continued Viken. All the facilities, hand-picked colleagues, no distractionsand, of course… He jerked his thumb at the planet and turned to leave.
Cornelius followed, wallowing awkwardly. It is very interesti~hg, no doubt, he puffed. Fascinating. But really, Dr. Viken, to drag me way out here and make me spend a year-plus waiting for the next shipto do a job which may take me a few weeks…
Are you sure its that simple? asked Viken gently. His face swiveled around, and there was something in his eyes that silenced Cornelius. After all my time here, Ive yet to see any problem, however complicated, which when you looked at it the right way didnt become still more complicated.
They went through the ships air lock and the tube joining it to the station entrance. Nearly everything was underground. Rooms, laboratories, even halls, had a degree of luxuriousnesswhy, there was a fireplace with a real fire in the common room! God alone knew what that cost! Thinking of the huge chill emptiness where the king planet laired, and of his own years sentence, Cornelius decided that such luxuries were, in truth, biological necessities.