“Now,” Tania said, tapping the clipboard. “Two things; three things. Jacque and Gus, they’re tapping you for a breeding mission. Day after tomorrow, September second, 0536.”
“My poor overworked boy,” Carol whispered, humorlessly.
“Where will it be?” Gus asked.
“Sixty-one Cygni B. Fascinating place.”
“Indeed. We spent two months there, geoforming.”
She smiled. “I had a baby there last year.”
“I missed you by three years, then.”
Short silence while they nodded at each other. “The rest of us won’t be going out until next month. They did manage to fund another Groombridge expedition, a longer one. We’ll be there forty-seven days, starting October eleventh. With the mass spectrograph.”
“Starting geoformy?” Vivian asked.
“Probably not. The preliminary analysis is that Groombridge would be more trouble than it’s worth. What we’re to do, eventually, is set up a few buildings for a psychic research center. This mission is just to look for bridges. And isolate elements for an engineering team that’ll follow in a couple of weeks.
“They’ll have our work plans printed by the last week in September. Everybody except Jacque and Gus is on leave until the twenty-fifth.”
“How long is the breeding mission?” Jacque said.
“Twenty hours. Oh, here.” She tossed him a small plastic vial. “Take one every six hours, starting midnight tonight. And be a good boy.” She arched one eyebrow.
“Starting midnight,” Carol said.
Tania laughed. “Starting midnight. Don’t wear him out, though.
“Today the bridge slingshots back. They’re going to dissect it, starting nineteen hundred. Anybody who wants to watch is invited.”
Carol raised her hand. “Have they found out how Ch’ing died?”
“No. Depends on who you ask. Medical group says it has to have been the suit. Bioengineering says no. They’re still working on it.”
“That’s comforting,” Carol said.
Tania shrugged. “It’s happened before. I don’t know who to believe. Just hoping it wasn’t the suit.
“We’ll have a meeting on the twenty-fifth. Check your mailbox a few days before that; we’ll have some sort of preliminary research summary. The math committee and bio group have already published some findings, if you want to look them up.
“Otherwise, you’re free for a month. How many want to come to the dissection?” Everybody except Carol raised his hand; then she raised hers. “Fine, I’ll tell them. See you there.”
Jacque and Carol walked into town for an early supper. The Mexican restaurant wasn’t good, but it was better than the AED cafeteria.
“Why don’t we just skip the dissection?” Carol said after they’d ordered. “Spend a quiet evening at home.”
He laughed. “You act like I’m going off on some long journey.”
“Well, you are.”
“For less than a day.” He stirred the ice in his water glass. “Actually, I think you’re jealous.”
“I am not. Don’t be silly.”
“I don’t mean jealous of this particular woman. I mean the situation. That you have to stay in one place and make babies while I . . . flit around the galaxy like a horny butterfly.”
“I don’t brood on it.” He smiled at her pun. “Besides, it’s safer.”
“Do you know how long it’ll be before they…”
“Breed me? No. Tania says I ought to get at least two more regular jumps first. Then, if I follow her pattern, they’ll keep me pregnant for several years.”
“She had six?”
“Yes. But that’s unusual.” The waiter brought their plates: refried beans and some meatlike substance.
“If I were a girl I wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about it.”
“You get to meet lots of interesting men.” She tasted the food and then spooned hot sauce all over it. “What do you think of Gus?”
“He’s all right, I guess.”
She laughed. “The hell you say. If you could’ve seen you two sizing each other up. . .”
“Come on. I haven’t had two words with him.”
“Sure,” she said softly. “Did you hear what happened to him?”
“What?”
“We’re his third team. The first one, four people disappeared. Went out on a floater, and a little while later the super got four simultaneous death readings. Floater came back without a scratch on it.”
“That’s creepy enough. Find out what happened?”
“Never. No bodies, no suits, nothing. That was Seventy Ophiuchi A, about two years ago. The other was a geoformy accident, last year, Tau Ceti. Some kind of explosion killed half his team.”